March 29, 201
People sometimes ask me this question: How did you arrive at this title for your book and why is it so long?
Writing my book was relatively easy for me. I completed the original draft in approximately two months and then revised it during the third month. The words came so freely. Naming the chapters was also not difficult. The titles seemed to be the right ones to describe the information in each chapter. However, I developed a complete mental block when it was time to name the book. Nothing I thought of seemed to fit what was in my mind or in my heart. The process to do this simply became too tedious and challenging for me to handle.
Thus, after brainstorming for a solution, I decided to call upon the assistance of my dear friends on Facebook. Many of them had shared the experiences with me in Egypt and now knew me fairly well. Thus, I created a contest in Facebook to name my title. After all, Facebook had enabled me to have my Egyptian adventure, so it seemed natural that my Facebook friends would be able to help me with this problem. They were brilliant and so creative. To help my friends, I posted the chapter titles on my Facebook wall and explained to them that the title needed to be personal about me but also include Egypt in some special way or connection. The deadline was set for midnight my time one week from the day I introduced and posted the contest. The participants were to send their suggestions to me via a personal Facebook message to me. Over one hundred suggested titles were submitted by thirty-three friends. The entries were so thoughtful, so creative, and overall extremely impressive. Now instead of no title ideas, I had too many great ones. The decision took several hours of thought and slow elimination until I narrowed it down to the top thirteen. I even requested the help of my husband Bill and my best American friend Tamie who is also an English teacher like me. Finally, I had two choices left, but alone they did not say what I wanted so as a last resort, I decided to use both of them. The first one (Because I Believed in Me) was obviously about me; the second (My Egyptian Fantasy Came True) was about Egypt. This is what I had wanted after all. At last I had the perfect title.Therefore, the title of the book becameBecause I Believed in Me (My Egyptian Fantasy Came True). One of my former students in Egypt Radwa Mokhtar knew that my favorite word is BELIEVE so she created the first part. I always believe I can do anything if I work hard enough. This is one of the many lessons I try to instill in my students, too. The second part of the title was named by Emo who was a dentist friend I had met while teaching in Cairo. He had shared some of my Egyptian adventures with me and knew that my fantasy to teach and live in Egypt had come true in such a remarkable and life changing manner.
I dedicated the book to these two winners. This was the prize for the winners. The photos and short biographies of each one of them appear at the beginning of my book. After much thought, I also decided to mention the next ten top eleven titles and participants. The effort to help me from these friends from Egypt, Morocco, Bangladesh, Germany, and the United States deserved special recognition as well. The remaining eighteen friends also received honorable mention.
Because of the amazing support of these people plus the many friends that are a part of my many memorable moments in Egypt and still such a big part of my life, I refer to this book as “OUR BOOK” whenever I talk about the book with them. They now do the same with me. Because I Believed in Me (My Egyptian Fantasy Came True) truly belongs to all of my Egyptian friends….not just me…and with this book I intend to help them and Egypt to be better understood by the rest of the world.
Randi D. Ward
March 29, 2013
