Jessica Williams says that she was surrounded by books from an early age.

The local author, who recently published her fifth children's book, titled 'You Can't Invite a Fish to a Dance Party', was on hand to read her new book to members of Swift Current city council on Monday night.

She credits the inclusion of reading into her upbringing with getting her into writing.

"Growing up, books were a constant part of my life. Reading and being read to. Enjoying storytime and the magic of books. I think that really lends itself to coming up with your own ideas."

Like many young writers, life intervened and she left writing for a number of years, moving as an adult from radio broadcasting to human resources, eventually landing in Swift Current working at the Chinook Regional Library.

Now with a young daughter herself, and passing on her love of books and reading to a new generation, she began writing again, this time with a change of audience.

"A couple of years ago when my daughter would have been about four. We have always been big into reading and sharing books here. So reading a lot of children's book stories with her and thinking of suddenly coming up with all of these other ideas. Having a small child was a constant source of inspiration and ideas for stories because the things that she says and the things that come up just in day to day life translate well into a story."

Her first book, 'Mama's Cloud', released in July of 2018, was named to Kirkus Reviews best indie books of the year. She followed it up with a french translation and then kept writing new books from there.

She says that her daughter is her first level of critique. If she is excited by a story and wants to hear it again, or if she asks if the story has been illustrated yet, Williams says she takes it as a good sign and knows that she is onto something.

Kids look at the world differently, and it can be a challenge to find a creative voice that appeals to them in stories. Williams says that having a small child in that age group is helpful in that regard.

Reading so many other children's books gives her a feel for how they're done, what's of interest, and different writing styles which she finds to be a good jumping-off point to find and create her own style.

But the challenge, in her mind, is in the length. With the industry standard for children's books being between five hundred to a thousand words, she has precious few of them to use to fully develop a story.

"You have to really make every word count there's no room for extra non-useful words. They have to all be there for a reason."

Despite that creative hurdle, she says it's definitely something that she enjoys and is hoping to take to a full-time profession. In the meantime she is adding more tools to her creative arsenal, branching out into illustrations, which she hopes will take up more of her time as well.