1.) Tell us a little about yourself.

I am a mom of 3 children, born and raised in NYC. I raised my children in Harlem where I lived for 20 yrs, then moved to Bergen County NJ in 2018. That year was a tough year for me; I lost my mom, got divorced, then relocated to another state into a new home. I also published my book that year. I couldn’t really appreciate my publishing debut because of all the things I was dealing with, but because my mom was so proud of me writing, I knew I had to push through and share my story with everyone. I currently work for the City of NY helping families with financial hardships. I also started my publishing company so that I can assist other writers through their journey and help them reach their publishing goals.

2.) Tell us the title of your book and what it’s about.

The title of my book is called HERBIE: Puppy Love with Big Dog Rules. In this book, Herbie’s mom begins to date a man after his dad’s untimely death. He loved his life with his mom and annoying little sister, anyone else just was in the way. Although he was focused on finding a girlfriend and having his first kiss, he couldn’t stop thinking how much he despised his mom moving on and allowing another man to grab her attention. This book shows the feelings of this one particular kid that dealt with his mom dating. A life-changing moment that happens often with families, but the conversation doesn’t always take place and children aren’t always heard or considered when new people come into their lives.


3.) What was the inspiration for this book?

The book was inspired by my own children. When they were growing up, I was very selective about their reading materials. Noticing most of the books consist of witches, warlocks, magic, demons, sex, and murder, I began to search for books that did not have any of these topics. Unfortunately, the pickings were very slim.  I also knew I couldn’t have been the only parent who felt that way, so I decided to finally put one of my many stories into a book. I wanted to make sure Black families were shown in a positive light, and remind people we didn’t all grow up living in the back slums with pimps, drug dealers, and gangs. We had great families with outstanding morals. I wanted families to talk about things such as dating and growing up without feeling ashamed of their changes. My mission was to get families to talk and allow their children to open up without feeling guilty of acting “grown”, which was something many children in my time were accused of, therefore making it hard to express themselves.