Mina Javaherbin

As a child

I was born in Tehran-Iran, and my childhood was a happy one full of stories. My beloved grandmother lived with us and she never disappointed us with her amazing stories. Another one, please, I used to beg her and she would kindly oblige – it would be her sixth or seventh story before I’d perhaps pass out from exhaustion at night. I remember riding my tricycle around our garden and entertaining myself with songs and stories I had made up. Once in a while I would stop to rescue an ant or a ladybird. I was five, and I told stories without being able to write them down yet. Later I wrote poems and stories and produced plays with the neighbourhood kids.

As an adult

I studied Architecture in Los Angeles California and worked in the field full time until I had my children. I can’t ever remember writing not being a part of my life, but I didn’t think it was anything special. I thought everyone wrote, everyone went to the grocery store, and everyone brushed their teeth. Later I realized that was not the case. Then I won an award here, an award there. I sent some poems to magazines and received cheques back in return! I was shocked, so I became more excited about writing for publication.

As an author

I’m a mom and I work too, so I write when I get the chance. Five minutes here, thirty minutes there and later an hour or two... my “office hours” are when the children are at school or everyone is sleep. I can suddenly focus and work and I attribute that ability to the practice of yoga, some meditation, but mostly necessity. Having said that, projects vary, poems and picture books need a different attention span than screenplays and novels. So until the day I sell that novel and hire help and quit doing anything else except for writing, I will take any time available.

Things you didn't know about Mina Javaherbin

1. I am a lefty, but I can write with my right hand too. When I was in third grade my left hand was broken and in a cast, but my teacher expected me to get my homework done, so I learned how to write with my right hand.
2. I have not baked a thing since last year when I was baking a cake and almost burned down my house! I think the recipe was tampered with. I may have done the tampering.
3. I think I would like to have dogs and cats and maybe a few elephants, three dolphins and two whales.
4. For now we have gophers, rattlesnakes, and owls frequenting our back yard as they please.
5. I would rather read than do anything else in the world.
6. Wait... I like eating and talking too!
7. I like doing annual bake sales for Halloween with my family and friends to raise money for UNICEF. I hope I’ll start baking again soon and put the you-know-what incident behind me.
8. My favourite colours are green and blue.
9. I love that if we look at our earth from space, green and blue are the colours of our planet. We truly have a beautiful planet.
10. I think global warming, hunger, poverty and war are things we need to take care of as humans, or we’ll be like dinosaurs.