Mona Shammakh, online author and media secretary of the Egyptian Democratic Party, participates in the 52nd Cairo International Book Fair with her book “La’any Emra’a” (Because I Am A Woman), and its book cover by illustrator Mahmoud Khattaby.
“This book is a collection of short stories, and given the space of an entire book, I had the opportunity to write with no caution or worry that it would be too long, I wrote with all the peace of mind a writer would want,” said Shammakh to “Trendify”, adding that she was glad she was able to add more details and elaborate on the events unfolding in the stories.
As for the theme and concept of the stories, they revolve around ‘the woman’. It discusses new concepts of a woman’s relationships with people and her perspective of society, “because I am a woman,” Shammakh added.
Shammakh explained that a writer does not have to have lived the experiences he/she writes about, but at least to have heard of it. One of the stories she wrote about was inspired by a sentence one of her friends had once said, “I think of how happy a friend of mine is with her husband and children whenever I’m feeling down or hopeless because of my own life,” and this inspired her to write a story that was not related to either of these two people, but with the meaning behind the sentence.
That story was titled “Taa’m Al-Beyout”, it discussed how a person could be on the lookout for other people’s lives and compare themselves to others, but later on realize that others may still have issues and obstacles that may even be bigger than their own.
“People usually don’t like to read a lot, and as I usually write online, I tend to keep my pieces to the point with the least amount of words that give the meaning intended. That results in my stories being short,” said Shammakh.
“I am thinking of writing a novel, it requires more details to be considered, from the main theme to the number of characters and their roles throughout the events of the story,” said Shammakh, adding that she still prefers writing short stories as they give the meaning intended in a simpler way that is similar to the concept of ‘tweeting’,” concluded Shammakh.