The Author 2 Author Podcast

Interview with Author Kerisha Went.

Kerisha Went is a 32-year-old Barbadian, born and raised. She is a certified cosmetologist and a recently published author. Her book Breakthrough: Defying all odds was published in October 2020.
Since publishing her book, she received positive feedback from those who would have read it and was also encouraged to continue writing.
Through her fictional characters, Kerisha’s books bring an awareness of what persons face in society and are used as a tool of advocacy for the voiceless.
Since 15 years old at the Springer Memorial School, she has been writing, and it was there her passion for writing began.
In Kerisha's spare time, she enjoys watching sunsets, documentaries, writing and having one-woman karaoke sessions. Kerisha wants to become a best seller one day, but more importantly, she wants her books to be a source of inspiration and healing for all.
Book description. Sariya-Marie Greene was dealt a “bad hand” from the time she came into the world. Growing up she experienced hard times but nothing could have prepared her for the series of events that followed one confession. She found herself thrown into what felt like a never-ending tailspin of a bad storm. Would she make it out and defy the odds or would she succumb to the evils of life and give up right on the edge of her breakthrough?

Interview with Author Makonnen Sankofa.

Makonnen Sankofa is a 2x best-selling author, journalist, public speaker, and Founder of The Black Books Webinar. His debut book The Rise of Rastafari gives a broad overview of the history of Rastafari. Makonnen's book also tackles some of the misconceptions people have about Rastafari and highlights the core principles behind this black liberation theology which has taken the world by storm.
 
Makonnen founded the Black Books Webinar monthly events in May 2020. The event is also hosted by Makonnen. Each month Makonnen invites different authors of African heritage to come on his online webinar and speak about their books. The webinars showcase the wide-variety of books written by black authors ranging from children’s books, history, relationships, culture, health, poetry, real-life stories. Towards the end of the webinar, there is a question and answers session where the audience can interact with the authors.
 
Makonnen spent 6 months in the Gambia in 2019. His second book Life in Gambia: The Smiling Coast of Africa is about Makonnen’s experience of living in Gambia. During his time there, Makonnen delivered lectures in schools about his book The Rise of Rastafari. He also worked with Juliet Ryan on the popular YouTube channel called Blaxit, which reached 20,000 subscribers in the first 3 months of launching.
 
Makonnen will be relocating to Africa again in the near future. Next time, he will be moving to Zambia where he plans to do more lectures and public talks to raise awareness of his book The Rise of Rast in Zambia.

Interview with Author Tonia Daley-Campbell

Tonia Daley-Campbell is an actress, writer/director producer and casting director. As a mother of 4 and a foster carer, she’s not shy of hard work.  
Tonia owns her own drama school ACTS and is also the young children's agent at Red Talent Management. Tonia is committed to supporting hidden talent and has cast many short films, theatre projects and the TV Pilot Lucid The Dreamwalker. Tonia's directing has been seen at the National Theatre London with play's "Take Away" by Jackie Kay and Terra Earth by Nell Leyshon. 
Tonia is the writer/director of "Dr King The Aftermath", which was featured on BBC news. She is a published author of  "39 steps to 40", and her writing also features in self help book, Confidence Confidential. Tonia managed to win x2  writing awards, She won both the audience and the judges award for her funny romantic short play Truth, at the Enter Stage Write competion with panel members from BBC, Channel 4, writers Guild, and ITV. Tonia is now currently developing Truth into a TV drama. 
More Recently Tonia wrote, directed and starred in her short film "Not My Son" (link below) https://youtu.be/zNjuXpHCLMI which was her direct response to #blacklivesmatter and before the corona virus pandemic she was in a national theatre tour of Gazebo Theatre's play Wanted. Tonia is a director of TV, Film and Theatre production company Themis Creative limited with Business partner and friend Oraine Johnson. Tonia is well known for her infectious laugh and crazy dancing.

Interview with Author KLS Fuerte.

KLS Fuerte loves life, love, music,  people, teaching and writing! She wrote “ Never Saw You Coming”,  a true romantic thriller. The sequel, “Now, live with that!” is released soon. Born in Guadeloupe, educated in Paris at The Sorbonne Nouvelle, and a qualified teacher from Oxford University, KLS is currently a senior leader in school.
 

Interview with Author Danielle Harvey.

Danielle Harvey is a mother, published author, mentor, motivational
speaker and qualified ‘Teacher of English,’ with a passion for
creative writing.  She has worked in many roles within the education
setting and won ‘Mentor of the year award’ in 2008 for her
contributions to inner city schools in Wolverhampton.
Danielle has completed a Combined BA Hons in English with Education
Studies through Newman University. She completed her PGDipEd in
Secondary English (QTS) through the University of Birmingham and
pursued her interest in teaching by completing her MA in Teaching
Studies.
She was inspired to write her first ever children’s book as a mother
with two daughters and felt a strong desire to help raise discussions
around the importance of black families, race and inequality.

Interview with Author Aurea Reis.

About the Author Aurea Wanuza Marques Reis, is the author full name. Friends and family address her as ‘Wanuza’, but professionally she prefers to be addressed as ‘Aurea.’ In the book healing Letters you can notice both names being used. The author was born in Luanda (Angola) and permanently moved to Portugal in 1992 when she was eleven years old, due to the Civil War. Since 1997, she has not gone back to Angola. Therefore, there is not much she remember from her birth country. She embraces both countries as her backgrounds. One saw her born and the other saw her grow up; together they built and shaped her personality The author is now 39 years old and moved to UK in 2008 when recession hit Portugal hard. She is a single mother of a 10-year-old boy. Aurea as graduated by the University College Birmingham in Tourism Business Management. She worked in the area for 6 years until she was made redundant due to COVID-19. Currently, the author is pursuing a career as a Care Worker because while writing this book she discovered she wanted to do something more meaningful and rewarding. By healing her inner child, the author discovered her Caring side, and it is enjoying pursuing that path. Her hobbies are writing, Travelling, fitness, quiet time alone, and spending quality time with her close friends and family. Aurea has two previous publications by Mo2vate Magazine, which granted her a badge (for a year) as contributing Article Writer of the magazine. She also collaborated in a book called ‘I am Flying without Wings’ to be published on Women’s Day 2021. Her name Aurea comes from the old Latin ‘Aurum’ and it means something made of gold, golden, that shines.
 

Interview with Author and Senior Executive Alison Browne-Ellis

Pamela R Haynes interviews Alison Browne-Ellis author of the book Life Lessons. Alison Browne-Ellis is a Corporate Executive with over 23 years of expertise.  Despite extremely humble beginnings, Alison has broken many glass ceilings leading to career success.  "LIFE LESSONS A Purpose Driven Leadership Journey" is testament that it really does not matter where you start and to what is possible when dreams and aspirations are married with hard work, determination, consistency and strong faith. 

Interview with Author Sharon Fevrier

Author Sharon Fevrier talks about her book Blossom Tree and working as a special needs coordinator.
Sharon Fevrier a mother, works in SEN and is the author of Blossom Tree was inspired to create this fictitious romantic thriller. This book is relatable and inspirational for many women facing challenges with their health and relationships. Sharon wanted to raise awareness of Sickle Cell Disease, visual impairment and domestic abuse.

Interview with Author and business mogul Chantel Hall-Reid, author of Imani‘s Diary.

Pamela R Haynes award winning author of Loving The Brothers interviews self published authors from around the world. In this episode meet author Chantel Hall-Reid.Chantel Hall-Reid is an author, mother, educator, and a mentor.
As a graduate of Birmingham City University, she earned a BA (Hons)
degree in Primary Education and is a lover of all things English
&Education.
Since graduating Chantel has taught in a range of educational settings.
Chantel has more than ten years of teaching & mentoring experience and
in 2018 decided to use her passion and expertise to form her own English
tuition business, it was also during this year that Chantel set up
another business offering support to educational establishments in a bid
to increase their students learning experience.
Chantel is a Co-founder and Director of Sister2Sister C.I.C, a social
enterprise supporting young females through empowerment and confidence
building programmes. With all these projects under her belt, it’s clear
to see that she’s not afraid of hard work and has a passion for young
people. This further confirms why Sister2Sister made the finals of the
Great British Entrepreneur Award 2020, for the entrepreneurial spirit
award category. When it comes to supporting young people, this is where
Chantel truly feels at ease.
Chantel has just finished writing her first book “Imani’s Diary” which
she hopes will be the first of many. Chantel’s inspirations include just
about everything; books she read, 90s music which she still adores! and
her love of travel. But mostly; her inspiration for this novel came from
life experiences, her teaching days, working with young girls as well as
social observations.
Publishing a book has been a lifelong goal for Chantel and she’s
tremendously proud with the publication of her first novel. Chantel
hopes to inspire anyone whose thinking of writing a book, to just get
started.
INSPIRATION
Inspiration for Imani's Diary came from Chantel's passion to support
young females. In her business Sister2Sister, Chantel mentors BAME
females between the ages of 13-21. Many of the experiences she mentors
young teens on are highlighted through Imani's Diary. The book reflects
typical situations and scenarios that teenage girls go through. Imani is
just a regular girl growing up with her family in the 90s. On the
surface, Imani seems to enjoy her teenage years, but she longs for
acceptance, commitment, and security.
Even though she uncovers fake friendships, family secrets and
relationship blunders, she also experiences some teenage highs; late
night parties, sleepovers and holding down a boyfriend; or two! Imani’s
diary is a quirky, funny, and heartfelt snapshot of trials and
tribulations, captured with brutal honesty.
The book is great for parents to perhaps get insight into what their
teen daughters may be getting up to and how to support them, it is also
useful for women who grew up in the 90s in the sense that they can
reflect on some of the experiences they went through, and perhaps start
to unpick them and realise that others too shared those experiences.
Music, food, and travel have all shaped the book; as well as Imani's
witty one liners that bring humour, Chantel opted for a light-hearted
tone to the book. Chantel has chosen this tone to reflect how easy it is
for teens to hide behind cheekiness to mask the real pain and
frustration they may be feeling, something she has observed first-hand
through delivering her Empowerment Programmes to girls in inner city
schools.
Its's also a humorous, 90's nostalgic throwback, the main themes in the
book are in and around teens growth and experiences. At the time of
writing current affairs such as the Pandemic, Black lives Matter, George
Floyd and the death of Breana Taylor were prevalent in the media,
Chantel wanted to write something more light-hearted and humorous.
Competition closes at 5pm GMT on Friday.

Interview with Author and Poet Pauline Hanson Gilman

Pamela R Haynes award winning author of Loving The Brothers interviews Self Published Authors from the UK and beyond.Pauline Gilman nee Hanson is the author of 'The Tapestry of My Life.' She is the mother of three fine young men and the grandmother to one grandson. Her parents are from the Windrush era to whom she greatly admired. Her love of writing stems from her childhood years at primary school. As a cancer survivor, Pauline wrote' The Tapestry of My Life.' She says "Our voices were not made to be stifled and quietened down. They were made to be heard. Let us not to be afraid of the dark to come into the light, let our dreams become reality, break our shackles, let us all rise like the phoenix from the ashes." 
'The Tapestry of My Life' is about awareness of emotions in all aspects of our lives and learning how to find and explore our coping mechanisms. Moreover, not to be too afraid to discover our different ranges of inner moods.
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