A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
"I had the opportunity to first hear the song Colour My World during my junior high days. 

Parazaider's solo was inspirational to me.  I remember intently listening to every rift, determined to decipher the code that would allow me to make such beautiful music.  After much practice, I finally learned to play the flute solo by ear."
                                     
                                                Shebaad 
 
University of Houston Alumna Publishes Next Great American Classic, the Little Red Book with African, Choctaw, and Creole Flavor!
Star Cocooned in Mediocrity by Shebaad
Paul Goodnight, Illustrator 
ISBN: 9781438977034 Hardback
ISBN: 9781438977041 Paperback











"Be ye in the world but not of it": A simply stated paradox at the source of looming religious confusion, Shebaad professes.

University of Houston graduate Shebaad comes out swinging with the publication of her first novel Star Cocooned in Mediocrity, which she acknowledges is an extremely religious text that parallels the upbringing of the narrator and her junior high school friend, a young girl reared in an oppressively religious household in the small Southeast Texas refinery town Port Arthur.

"My ultimate goal in creating the down-trodden character Estherqueenie was to hold up a mirror so that the holier-than-thou ultra-zealots can see how many of the extremist restrictions placed on young girls can result in their failure to develop any hint of self-esteem," Shebaad asserts when asked for her impetus in writing this text. "By presenting my audience Estherqueenie's foil through the somewhat feistier narrator Kim, whose family may well be deemed dysfunctional at times, I want my public to recognize that even the child reared in chaos but still shown love and appreciation has a much better chance at becoming a successful adult than would the child eclipsed from view."

"Why must they try to confine women to such small boxes?" Shebaad went on to playfully quip in her candid tongue-in-cheek style of humor, "Can’t females be staunch Christians, highly-active sorors, leaders in their communities/schools, and upwardly mobile managers on their jobs – all while being sexy as hell?”

Shebaad insists that this story was written as a tribute to those girls forced into piety -- the ones who must so often hear, "No you can't . . ." Despite the sometimes didactic nature of the text, the author somehow manages to keep her audience engaged with her skillfully-crafted mix of knee-slap humor combined with moments of tear-jerking sentimentality.

"Sadly, these girls are the ones who often reject religion completely once they
get older," the author says.

Shebaad was born in Galveston but grew up in Port Arthur, a Texas city that freely boasted We Oil the World!

“The safety of growing up in a small town is the greatest gift parents can offer children." She soon reflected on the positives and negatives of being in a place where everybody knew you. “Even if an adult didn’t recognize you, they would ask, “Girl, who your people?” Soon, they’d link me to my older siblings or my parents or grandparents.”

The negative was that the young Shebaad felt repressed in her small hometown and wanted to strike out for the bright lights of Houston.  Shebaad moved to Houston soon after graduating from Port Arthur Lincoln High School in 1983. During her 13 year tenure working night shift at the Houston Police Department, Shebaad earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Houston where she majored in Journalism and Radio-Televison; and minored in African American Studies. She returned to UH and earned her teaching certification in English. At the time of novel's release, Shebaad was in her seventh year of teaching high school English. It is because of her commitment to her students that the novel even began to form.

"Knowing that we'd typically have the sophomores write personal narratives as their first assignment, I decided to be proactive and write one of my own to use as a model for my students," Shebaad says. "The students were so receptive when I read the nine-page narrative aloud to them during that first week of school. I was surprisingly encouraged by their reactions to the text. Slowly throughout the school year, I expanded on the narrative . . . adding a little here and there until a novel actually began to take shape -- pulling from my Southeast Texas roots, SCIM took on a Creole-African-Choctaw flavoring all its own."

As justification of their actions, the author notes that some of the very people who try to validate female religious oppression refer to the bible patriarch Abraham; as well as the fact that Sarah, the feminine exemplar for the religious female, called him lord.

“Take Scripture all of the way!" Shebaad challenges. "News flash, even as an aged woman, Sarah was so drop-dead gorgeous that Abraham had to lie and say that he was her brother because he knew that some man would be willing to kill him just to get to Sarah!" the author asserts.

"Nevertheless, Abraham valued not only Sarah's beauty but also her wise counsel. After all, when Sarah put her foot down and demanded that Hagar and her son be sent away, her husband heeded her words, which are recorded in Genesis 21:10."

Shebaad insists that this is why it's such a contradiction that some small-minded men try to depreciate women so, insisting that they not be seen and definitely not be heard.

"Abraham never attempted to eclipse his wife's splendor; he let her beauty and intelligence shine! Why then do clumsy men try to trounce on their women? Follow Abraham's lead!"

Type of Cover
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Click on the Google link to read excerpts from Star Cocooned in Mediocrity!

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:    Click on Shebaad's pic!