EVERY now and then, some writers would experience what is known as a “writer’s block”, a sometimes frustrating condition that limits their ability to conjure creative thoughts for writing. But for Chevon Lim, this block only helped her to find more creativity and direct it elsewhere.

Just recently, Lim launched a collection of short stories called “Tales from Sugarcane Street”, which follows the adventures and life of five children growing up and was inspired by her own childhood days.

The short-stories, however, were not the first bit of creativity that the woman focused on. In fact, Chevon first began working on her novel, “Sugarcane Girl”.

“’Sugarcane Girl ‘has been five years in the making, [but] shortly after, I hit a serious case of writer’s block and the idea to put together the short stories came up.”

While Lim wraps up her debut novel, the short-stories offer some insight into the mind and workings of the writer while leaving readers lusting for more.

The short stories are written in the thriller and suspense genres, partially because they are reminiscent of the ghastly stories her grandmother used to tell her and her cousins and partially because of inspiration from renowned author Stephen King (and his book Danse Macabre). Also, Lim was never the romance-type reader or writer, and as she says, “Horror stories came naturally for me.”

Currently in the collection are five short stories: Mrs. Argyle (a story about the infamous Ole Higue); the Dutchman and the cashew tree; Lost girl; Witches’ lot and Shadow Man. There is also a prologue and an illustration to go with each story.

The collection may still be incomplete though, as related by Lim. This is due to the route she chose to take to publish her books.

Writing a book is one thing, but making a book is a completely different (and taxing) process. You see, when Chevon was finished writing her book, she did not have the fancy editors and proofreaders to help enhance the product of course- much less a publisher.

“I did not have the structural support network with other writers, editors and proofreaders,” Kim said sadly. Furthermore, she related that in Guyana, there might be support for writers but she doesn’t know about it.

Aside from that challenge, publishing now became the next challenge. Chevon shared that a U.S. publishing company took interest in her work and offered to publish it, but this was at too high a cost. With the determination to get her work out there though, Lim spent hours researching before discovering “self-publishing”.

Amazon Kindle publishing offers a medium for writer’s to publish their content on their site, effectively allowing an endless number of persons to see and buy the book. The company only takes a small portion of the money raised from online sales.

With this medium too, Lim can add more stories to the collection until she is able to publish the hard copies. “I like to think of a book as something that’s evolving,” the woman shared adding that once Amazon approves her book, she intends on “going live” or publishing it online in a few weeks.

After that, the next step is to print hard copies for sale in and across Guyana. The goal is to print 100 copies first and then market them since she first wants a tangible product to present.

“As part of my marketing plan,” she noted, “I want to do a road show- a book tour, where I take the book to different regions and schools.”

She has set up a blog (www.sugarcanegirl.wordpress.com) to engage with her readers and in the meantime allow persons to read snippets and see the illustrations. It has also been tapped to update on publishing data publishing.

But all of this must be done alongside Lim’s fulltime job and busy life.

Luckily for her, writing is never a bore or a bother. In fact, she stressed, “I’m my happiest when I’m writing.” Additionally, writing is an outlet and something she only wishes she can do full-time, but unfortunately that won’t get the bills paid, as she said.

“It’s a bit challenging because it takes my time and demands resources,” she said, but till now that has not dissuaded her. And it helps tremendously that she has huge support from her family and friends and more recently, support from other local writers.