Artscene Oakville Beaver · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2006 34 ASHLEA WESSEL / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER NEW AUTHOR: Oakville's Zanita DiSalle is seen here with her newly-published children's book, Sofia's Pink Balloon.A graduate of the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business, DiSalle wrote the book while taking a few years off to be a stay-at-home mom. Corporate banker pens children's book By Krissie Rutherford OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF After earning her MBA from the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business, Zanita DiSalle went the typical route of many business graduates. The Oakville resident started working a well-paid job in corporate banking in downtown Toronto. Then, she wrote a children's book not so typical for a woman from the corporate world. "Everyone was saying, `You're an MBA and you're writing? What's going on here?'" said DiSalle, smiling. "But I'd always wanted to write a children's book." Sofia's Pink Balloon a 100 per cent Canadian publication is hot of the presses and will be hitting the shelves of selected Chapters' book stores across the country later this month. Published by Amethyst House Publishing Inc., it's DiSalle's latest achievement and the first of what she and the publisher hope becomes a `Sofia series.' Now available at amazon.ca and in a few stores in the United States, it took DiSalle nearly a year to get the story published. "I would say I sent it to 86 publishers and got 86 rejections," she said. "I kept tweaking it as I got rejection letters. It was difficult, because it's really my heart. This book is really special to me." Not only is it her first book, it also features her children, Sofia, five, and Christopher, seven, in the main roles. Close to giving up, DiSalle was listening to CBC radio one day and heard that Ernest Hemingway was rejected 74 times before a publisher accepted his first work. "I figured, if Hemingway was rejected that many times I should keep trying," she said. "I decided to send it to one more publisher." Number 87 was the charm. DiSalle describes the book, which features the illustrations of Nadine Dennis, as "a classic." "I had just read Jane Austen," she said. "I didn't want Sofia to say things like `How cool.' I wanted her to say, `How lovely, how nice.'" The story is centered around Sofia and her dream of finding a pink balloon at a fair. The balloon man is all out of pink, but gives her a blue balloon and tells her it's magical and can transform. "It's about a little girl with a dream, and she tries everything she can to make that dream come true," said DiSalle. "Kids have all these beautiful dreams, but as we become adults, I think you sometimes lose sight of that." The book also explores partnership and working together to make dreams come true, which is what Sofia and Christopher accomplish. "It's a sweet, simple story, hopefully with a really strong message," said Disalle. The book also features multiculturalism, with many races represented by various children at the fair. "No one culture is dominant," she said. "I think that's what's so beautiful about Oakville, and about Canada." DiSalle wrote the book while living in Boston for a handful of years after her husband, Robert, was transferred there to teach at MIT. Her children were one and three at the time, so DiSalle was a stay-at-home mom who wrote during her free time. "I was able to explore myself outside the business world, and it was wonderful," she said, adding she's also been published in The Globe and Mail and Canadian Living. "If I did it over, I think I might have done a degree in English literature." When she moved back to Oakville following her husband's seven-year term at MIT, DiSalle thought she'd continue to be a stayat-home mom, but found herself, she says, "missing the corporate world." Now, she's a senior account manager at Royal Bank, and when she has the time, a writer. "It's a passion of mine," she said. "If my book can really make a difference in one child's life, that would really be it for me. That's why I decided to write." Sofia's Pink Balloon has already sold more than 600 copies, and Royal Bank also donated 100 copies to a women's shelter. Zanita DiSalle is having a book signing Saturday, Nov. 25 from 11 a.m. 3 p.m. at Chapters, 310 North Service Rd. W. She will be hosting `story times' at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. The signing is being held in conjunction with the store's 10-year anniversary celebrations.