BILLINGS Billings City Council member Kendra Langford Shaw is turning the page on a new chapter as an author.Shaw, who represents Ward 1 on the Billings City Council, will release her debut novel, The Pillagers Guide to Arctic Pianos, on May 12 through Penguin Random House.Learn more about Shaw's debut novel in the video below: For Shaw, the release marks the end of a project more than a decade in the making.I have been secretly working on this novel for a decade," said Shaw. "Even while I've been on city council, this is what I've been doing."The book was recently featured in People magazine last summer and received a Kirkus Star, a prestigious designation awarded by Kirkus Reviews to books of exceptional merit. Shaw said the recognition has been surreal. It's really a dream come true. I've always wanted to publish a book," she said.Shaw began developing the story while earning her Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at the University of Michigan. What started as a short story eventually expanded into a full novel."By the time I got to my thesis, I'd written, I don't know, a series of like eight connected stories, and my thesis advisor was like, 'Kendra, this is actually a novel,'" recalled Shaw. "In the span of working on this book, I've had two kids, I've run twice for city council, this is year seven.The novel is set in an alternate version of the Alaskan Arctic and follows a family living in a remote territory where settlers once traveled with pianos as proof they could civilize the land, and many leave them behind as they push into an unforgiving landscape. Centuries later, preserved instruments abandoned by those homesteaders in the Arctic waters begin resurfacing as a family in the area discovers one, sparking an economic frenzy. One of their neighbors discovers this piano that's been preserved in the Arctic waters for centuries," said Shaw. "They bring it to shore, restore it, sell it to a museum, and it just kicks off this whole piano-hunting boom."The idea was inspired partly by Shaws upbringing in Alaska and Montana. Born in Ketchikan, Alaska, and raised in Sitka before moving to Montana, Shaw said both places shaped the books setting and themes.The setting is very much inspired by Southeast Alaska, she said.The novel also draws from her fathers work delivering instruments to remote Alaskan communities by plane while serving as a music teacher."The image in my head was, well, what would have happened if one of his planes had gone down, but there'd been thousands of them that had gone down? she said. While the premise is fiction, the novel delves into issues rooted in real history and contemporary challenges. Shaw said she drew inspiration from homesteading history in both Montana and Alaska, where travelers often abandoned belongings along difficult routes.She also wanted to examine resource-dependent economies, comparing the fictional piano boom to industries such as oil in Alaska and copper mining in Montana."They're not a renewable resource," said Shaw. "You're going to exhaust that resource at some point because they're not recreating themselves, which mimics like copper in Montana, oil."Environmental change also plays a central role in the story. As glaciers melt and waters rise throughout the fictional territory, communities are forced to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape. "This family has to contend with, how do you continue to make a life in a place that you love when it's changing so dramatically in such a short period of time?" she said.Questions about home, identity, and community are among the books central themes, which Shaw said also connect to her work in local government.Is home just your family? Is home a place? Is home your house? Everyone kind of defines it differently of, like, what that really means to them," said Shaw. "Interesting for me to think about in terms of when I'm writing about a fictional place of, how do they navigate the same kind of issues that we're navigating as a city?"Now, after 10 years of writing and revisions, Shaw said she is excited to share the story with readers in Billings and beyond. It feels crazy and exciting," she said. "I kind of never really thought it would go so big, so it's been really exciting to see.Shaw will hold a book launch reading and signing on Tuesday, May 12, at 6:30 p.m. at the Art House Cinema and Pub. It is free and open to the public. ...read more read less