Royal Oak woman pens children’s book detailing joys of dock fishing

‘LAKE LIFE ADVENTURES’

Royal Oak’s Carla Ejaz, who recently published the children’s book “Lake Life Adventures: Dock Fishing,” holds her son, Senne Ejaz. PHOTOS COURTESY OF CARLA EJAZ

Sorayya Ejaz enjoys fishing and gives praise for her mother’s children’s book, “Lake Life Adventures: Dock Fishing.” PHOTOS COURTESY OF CARLA EJAZ

Image

By Mark E Lett

For MediaNews Group

Good things, it is said, come to those who wait.

When it comes to fishing, patience is a virtue.And when it comes to young children, the ability to be patient while waiting is a blessing.

It’s also something to be learned.

So goes the thinking of Royal Oak author Carla Ejaz in her debut book, “Lake Life Adventures: Dock Fishing.”

The pleasant children’s book advances her experience and thinking that fishing is a good way to get children hooked on the outdoors, trying new things and bringing patience to the dock in addition to a tackle box.

For Ejaz, the colorfully illustrated book draws upon her own childhood in Livonia and — like so many Metro Detroiters — enjoying summer getaways Up North.

In her case, that meant fishing by the hours at the family vacation home on Wiggins Lake, an off-the-beaten-path retreat six miles from downtown Gladwin (not to be confused with the larger Higgins Lake, further north).

It was on Wiggins Lake, Ejaz recalls, that she learned to bait a hook and cast for perch, sunfish, bluegill and the occasional pike. And, it was on the colorful, all-sports lake where she learned practice, patience and persistence are essential to success.

Her new book introduces a young girl, a buddy and a dog in the girl’s early days of fishing, including the joy of landing a fish.

“The little girl wakes up, checks the weather, grabs her pole and tackle box and sets out to catch her first fish,” said Ejaz, a Livonia native and 2006 graduate of Livonia Stephenson High School.

For the book — aimed at early readers and a target audience of 5 and younger — Ejaz pulls from fond memories and current experiences with her two children, Sorayya and Senne.“Patience sometimes is hard for children to understand,” said Ejaz, 36, part-owner of the Lasting Impressions marketing and promotions company in Canton. The 2010 graduate of Western Michigan University has a degree in exercise physiology.

Much of her writing time, Ejaz said, is at night, after her children have gone to bed.

In addition to fishing, Ejaz said, reading is a long-held passion.

“I love reading,” she said. “My sister said I always had my nose in a book.”

Her daughter’s approval of “mom’s” book has been validating, she said.

“She found the book and read it and loved it,” Ejaz said. “The thing is, she didn’t know that I wrote it. I think that’s really cool.”

Pegasus Publishing published the book and arranged the illustrations done by a Ukrainian artist, Ejaz said. The book is available for under $10 on Amazon and other book-sellers.

Ejaz said she intends other installments of “Lake Life Adventures.”