I grew up in a Christian home where I learned first and foremost to honor God, pray, and attend church regularly every Sunday morning. I was born in a family of three older sisters and three younger brothers, I being the middle boy or son. We had daily devotions which my dad facilitated for many years. I grew up enjoying reading the Bible and singing. I enjoyed Bible stories like David and Goliath, Elijah calling fire from heaven, and the Israelites crossing a big sea that God had divided.
However, there were those times when Dad sat down and shared with us some stories. It was story time for us. These were funny, short stories with good morals at the end. My dad kept me and my two younger brothers glued to his eyes, as he shared these stories with us. We giggled and laughed at some of these stories, especially when Dad made faces to imitate or mimic one of the characters in his stories. Some of the stories were scary too.
The times we traveled to our rural home with my parents, during school breaks and holidays, we looked forward to spending time with our grandparents, who were now elderly. We enjoyed playing with other kids who were born on the same homestead. We sometimes ran out with them to watch the cattle, goats, and sheep. However, playtime was our thing and sometimes we played for almost the whole day not paying attention to the cattle going into our neighbors’ farms to devour their crops.
In the evenings, our grandfather would light a fire in his small hut, we called it “Thome” in Kikamba, a place where the fathers sat with their children and grandchildren, and shared our history and stories about our culture. They also shared and told us some funny, short stories with their good morals.
It is from this background and upbringing that my passion for writing was birthed. I found myself, immediately after graduating from High school, just writing stories on my own which I never published. I ended up having a lot of notebooks with written manuscripts that I hoped one day I would publish into books. When I joined the working class back in the mid-eighties, in the City of Nairobi, my passion for writing and publishing books of my own was ignited.
However, this desire was never achieved for a while until I met a gentleman, a minister of the Gospel, Rev Wilson Mamboleo, from Redeemed Gospel Church. He had just published his first book on prayer titled, “Finding God on your knees.” I was fascinated when I read this book and wanted to find out from him how he had gotten around the process of publishing his first book. He gave me the guidelines, great ideas on writing, which included writing first the manuscript, sending it to a proof reader who would later correct it and make sure that the spelling and grammar was correct before sending it to the publisher. However, with all his good advice, I still did not publish my first book titled, “A disciple of Jesus Christ. What is the Cost?” I kept my hopes and dreams alive that one day it would happen.
Down through the years, I taught myself how to type using the new computers that had just arrived in Kenya towards part of the mid-late eighties. I was working with one of the major financial institutions in Nairobi and had firsthand experience of using computers in handling customer’s financial information and transactions. This was the beginning of my breakthrough in my writing journey. Once I learned the typing skills, I began to transfer everything I had written manually to my floppy disks, which were then used to capture data on computers.
Transitioning to the United States in the early part of the year 2002 opened new opportunities for writing and publishing for me. I ran into another man of God, Bishop Frank, who introduced me to a platform on Amazon, createspace.com, which allowed those who desired to start publishing their materials to do so without the hassle of dealing with individual companies that took years before they published your work. Bishop Frank had also published his first book on Amazon.com and I wanted to know from him how he did it. He shared with me the link and off I took off on my journey into the world of publishing. My publishing journey took approximately 25 years before I published my first book.
I published my first book on the Amazon self-publishing platform titled, “Deep Reflections”, on May 24, 2017. The book was a collection of inspirational poems. One of my two poems, “Life is Sweet” and “I Cry for Peace”, were selected and entered into the semi-finalist in the International Open Poetry Contest. The International Library of Poetry is an international Society based in Maryland, which normally identifies some of the greatest poets both in the USA and Internationally. These poems were selected for publication and as contest finalists, based on their uniqueness and artistic vision.
To date, I have published over 15 books using the Amazon platform which range from poetry, stories, inspirational, self-help, and spiritual.
My key desire in my writings is to encourage, inspire, and bring out the best in people.
I am a divorced single dad blessed with two sons and two stepdaughters, Jake Israel Mulinge (IT Computer Engineer), Garett Elisha Mulinge (Certified mechanic, Porsche Carrera), Bianca and Gianna (both in College in New York). They are all pursuing their dreams and careers in the USA.
Some of the few titles you can find on my platform on Amazon.com, Books by Gideon Mwololo:
1. Deep Reflections (2).
2. A Deeper relationship with God.
3. The Spirit of Excellence.
4. Attitude University: Will you graduate?
5. Creativity: The hidden DNA in you.
6. Funny short stories and their good morals (Volumes 1-4 series).
7. Treasures of Wisdom (Vol 1&2).
8. Being right, being faithful, who is right?
9. The Forgotten message.
10. The greatest is love.
11. Things we value the most in this life.
12. Creative Imaginative thinking.
13. My life, soccer, and my faith: An autobiography by Gideon Mwololo.
Thank you.
Rev Gideon Mulinge Mwololo
Author.
