Raising Your Kids Without Losing your Cool – Shantelle Bisson author Q & A

Mom friends and writer folk! You will want to read this Raising Your Kids Without Losing your Cool – Shantelle Bisson author Q & A. I devoured this book in one sitting and could not put it down.

My recommendation: Raising Your Kids Without Losing your Cool by Shantelle Bisson should be a gift for every expectant mother!

Who is Shantelle Bisson?

• Canadian
• Mom
• Parenting Expert
• Author

I wanted to review Shantelle’s book because:

1. authors have to support authors
2. Moms have to support other moms

What inspired you to write Raising your Kids Without Losing Your Cool?

Why I was inspired to write my book, Raising Your Kids Without Losing Your Cool (available at Amazon and other major booksellers) , is multi-layered.  If I’m being completely honest I’m deeply proud of the way my three girls turned out, they’re now thirty one, twenty nine and twenty three.  I love them madly, they’re my three favourite people; and I think that every parent wants to be able to say that they raised kids into adults that they not only love, because I mean we have to don’t we?  But then to be able to say that they also raised them to be people that they genuinely love spending time with; that needs an entirely separate set of tools, which I put in this book. 

I also wrote it because from the outside looking in it seemed like parents, particularly moms are now under this tremendous pressure to be “perfect parents” like the ones they’re seeing all over Instagram.  I wrote it so parents could feel cool, and okay with their parenting fails, and for those days when they really feel like they’re getting it all wrong to encourage them with the fact that your kids can, and will still turn out okay! 

Not to get down and out over the small stuff, but to be consistent on the bigger issues of raising your kids, I had more days of focusing on the little things than I can count, and my daughters turned out fine! I wanted to impart this truth, wisdom, advice, or whatever you want to call to the next generation of parents.

What does your typical writing day look like? (do you block off time or write when you are inspired? snack while you write? write skeleton outline or just free write?)

Well my typical day is anything but typical; because I have my three girls, who even though they are adults still need their momma, and since we’re very close I do something with or for one or all three of them daily.  Plus my husband, who is an actor, has a company for his career that I run and manage, and I own a marina in Northern Ontario with ten staff members. I don’t get a lot of time to write during our busy season, which is May to November.  But when I’m “off” and not in the day in and day out operations of Shantilly’s Place I turn to writing, and when I do it’s always the same. 

I wake, I meditate, workout, handle some business (since companies never fully sleep, even in their off seasons)and then write from 1-6pm.  I’m lucky that I write quickly; I put down 1000 words an hour, so on a good day I can get a solid 5000 in.  With non-fiction they don’t want them much larger than 60,000 words, so when I’m focused it’s not uncommon for me to get an entire book done in two, sometimes three weeks. 

We have a lake house, and a house in California and I find that sitting outside in nature really allows me to get a great flow going with my writing, and keeps me inspired.  I’m the sort of writer who thrives writing stream of consciousness, I had started a daily blog, four, or was it five years ago to practice my ability to write on the fly with few errors and need for editing.  I loathe structure or rules, so this sort of writing suits my spirit and allows me to write authentically and without pressure.

What is your publishing story? (how long did it take between pitching to getting your contract to getting published…)

My parenting book is not the first book I wrote or pitched.  It’s actually my FOURTH.  I started my journey to becoming a published author in 2007 with a non-fiction book of love notes for my daughters, after that I turned my attention to a fiction novel, called Black Picket Fence which is still sitting in my editing folder.  (My goal is to get her complete within the next two years; when life slows down a bit and my marina no longer needs massive renovations prior to opening every season.)

After Black Picket Fence came Raising Your Kids Without Losing Your Cool, which initially was passed on, they asked me to write a different non-fiction book, which I did, in three weeks, but the acquisitions editor who had asked for that book was no longer with the publishing house, and the woman who had taken over his role shared that she would have preferred if my book was actually a parenting book…I resubmitted Raising Your Kids Without Losing Your Cool, and the rest is publishing history!!!

What’s next on deck for you as an author?

I am currently writing up the obvious follow up to my how to parent kids book with; Parenting Your Teen Without Losing Your Cool!  I hope to have it acquired and out on the shelves by the same time next year, April 2021.  I have six books in the series to write, so my dream would be to get one out every year, and also get my fiction book to see the light of day also!

Learn more about Shantelle Bisson over on her website and I recommend you follow Shantelle on Instagram and on Twitter.