Sheryl Azzam was tinkering with fiction for the first time.

Her intention was to write about reading disabilities, because her son was having some difficulties, but as Azzam worked to help a friend and their children escape domestic violence, that focus changed. 

“When we were experiencing what was happening in the family courts, [Sheryl] turned it into advocacy,” says Joseph Azzam, her widower. “She was also searching for a book for her friend’s children that explained what they were going through, but there was nothing available. These two aspects blended together and gave her a purpose to write about [family violence].”

Her advocacy for her friend connected Azzam to a group of women who were facing similar abusive situations, including coercive control. It was in meeting these women and hearing their stories that spurred her to highlight what people were unaware of: that a child’s own father or mother could use them as a weapon against their own happiness.

So, she began work on what would be her first and only novel, Red Flags and Butterflies, (DCB Young Readers, Oct. 18). The young adult novel follows Lexie – a swim team star, an incredible artist, and an exemplary student – whose emotionally abusive father controls her through coercion, which takes the form of gaslighting, using guilt to manipulate, and selfishness. His behaviours dismantle Lexie’s ability to have a healthy internal dialogue, trust her instincts, and see her own worth.

In her pursuit to make the novel a reality, Azzam took writing courses to learn how to develop characters, storylines, and drafts. She also attended a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) lunch for aspiring and published writers in 2017, where she met children’s author Marsha Skrypuch. The two hit it off immediately. The duo, both residents of Brantford, Ontario, would take long walks together. “I would take one of her dogs’ leashes – she had two dogs – and I would talk about what I was writing, and she would talk about what she was writing, and we would untangle each other’s knots,” Skrypuch says.

Azzam’s need to bring awareness to family violence coalesced with the devastating news of four-year-old Keira Kagan, who was found dead with her father at the bottom of a cliff outside of Toronto in 2020 in an act of murder-suicide. Jennifer Kagan-Viater, Kiera’s mother, went to court numerous times warning of the danger her ex-husband posed to their daughter, to no avail. Azzam was part of the group that advocated for Bill C-233, also known as Keira’s Law. The law, passed in 2023, requires judges to undergo education on intimate partner violence and coercive control.

A medical writer with a master’s in science, Azzam knew her way around scholarly journals. “She spoke with therapists that specialized in this area,” recalls Joseph. “She read the medical research and the psychiatric research, plowing through PubMed as well as reading the legal literature. Plus, we navigated the family court system in person with her friend.”

But in the fall of 2022, Azzam told Skrypuch she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and asked her friend if she knew of someone who could finish her manuscript. What she received from Skrypuch was a promise: that she would either find someone to finish it, or she would finish it herself.

Fortunately, Azzam responded to chemotherapy, which gave her another year with her husband and three children, as well as time to finish her novel – the book she had been looking for years earlier.

In December 2023, Skrypuch sent Barry Jowett – publisher of DCB Young Readers and editor of her first three books – Azzam’s manuscript, explaining that Azzam was dying. Jowett confesses he could have found himself in a difficult situation had he felt the manuscript wasn’t up to par. “When I read the manuscript, I was incredibly relieved, because I absolutely loved it,” Jowett recalls. “It was clearly a manuscript that, even if I didn’t know the circumstances, it would have been a no-brainer. I would have been offering a contract; I would have been willing to get in a bidding war for it.”

The book contract came through in January 2024, and Azzam held it in her hands. She died a few weeks later. Skrypuch, keeping her promise, completed the final edits, which amounted to minor tweaks to help clarify a few aspects of the story. These were run by Joseph and Azzam’s sister to ensure authenticity. The two were also involved throughout the publication process, from seeing page proofs to the cover art and the cover copy.

“She wanted people to be able to read the book and see whether something rang true to them about the relationships in their own lives,” Skrypuch says. “She always said, ‘If this book helps one person, it’s all been worth it.’”

Photo Credit: Joseph Azzam.