I entered the world kicking and screaming on August 1967 in Washington, DC. Only a few months old, my family moved from what was then known as Chocolate City to The City that Never Sleeps. We stayed in New York until my father finished law school and we moved to Baltimore, Maryland, which is where I grew up. I led a normal childhood in the northwest side of town (and no, it was nothing like Homicide or The Wire, which are romanticized depictions of Charm City! There are actually decent parts of the City where good law abiding citizens roam.) I prefered to stay inside creating stories as opposed to hanging outside playing with the other kids. Following high school, I went on to attend Fisk University for a year before transferring to Temple University because I had been just plain ole' homesick and needed to be within driving distance of my family. Besides loving Temple because it is Bill Cosby's alma mater, I fell in love with the fact that the college was in Philly with all that cultural vice going on. My ace boon coon Janine and I had too much fun exploring the City though I did make time for my studies too.
Now I had considered writing as a career option but felt at the time that it just wouldn't bring home the bacon. I was not interested in being a starving artist and my parents, who were footing the bill, encouraged me to find a stable job that would afford me a comfortable lifestyle. And so I looked around and finally settled on Criminal Justice because I had always been fascinated by criminal behaviors (uh read about Charles Manson and wondered what the heck made these people tick). I figured that I could be a big time lawyer like my dad.
Following graduation from Temple, I returned to Baltimore and made what I think was a very brave attempt to get into law school. Uh the problem was my mediocre LSAT scores which I took two times and all with the same results! So I had to resign myself to the fact that not everyone can be what they want to be regardless of what others say. Some people have talents in certain areas and legal logic was not my forte. I had to give up my dream of being Claire Huxtable.
I worked as a court clerk for a couple of years before deciding on Morgan State University for graduate studies. Two years later, I toted a Masters degree in hand and started working as an Urban Planner. Though I intially found the work fulfilling, I just could not stop thinking about writing. It had been my first true love since I had been an awkward eight-year old tike with Coke bottle glasses and protruding teeth. I had actually written some decent short stories. Ones that even my little sister still brags about. So I started taking it seriously, writing one or two novels that I submitted to publishers but were soundly rejected. After that I started questioning myself. I mean who ever said I had any talent anyway? What did I have to say that anyone would want to hear? I shoved both draft books deep in the back of my closet and decided to move on and live in reality.
I got a really good job, got married and bought a house, trying to live that American dream. But there was always something missing. After a few years, my marriage went sour and ended in a difficult divorce that almost took away my belief in love.
Fortunately for me God had other plans and after relocating to DC, I met my future husband, an Ethiopian prince in a Starbucks on Wisconsin Avenue a week before Valentine's Day 2005. It was love at first sight and after a whirlwind courtship, we got hitched and I was happier than I had been in years! I had even started writing again!
Eventually I accompanied my husband, Yidnkachew to his homeland of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We stayed for one year and it was a wild ride indeed! Talk about being grateful for being in the Motherland but being even more thankful for being an American! I saw so much beauty in the people but also extreme poverty and illness. Even so the people have a strong spirit and are determined to do better. Development was happening on every corner and there was a feeling of renewal in the air. It was contagious and I was inspired to be a full time writer. It worked for me and I loved rising early in the morning and being able to devote time to perfecting my craft. I wrote my butt off, churning out short stories, poetry and even two novels that I was quite proud of! Yeah, let's just say it was the beginning of my writing career and I felt that having suffered in my life, I was ready to tell a very good tale and put it out there for the world.
In late 2006, I returned home to the States and published my first book of poems Chocolate City Chronicles which is a tribute to the souls of black folks. I also finished the first novel in my Deadly Consequences Trilogy - Broken, which is being presented under my own publishing company, Chocolate Angel Publications. So I am ready for whatever God has just for me! I say bring it on, bring it on!
Peace and love always!
(And to my sorors in DST, much love!)