As a little girl, I participated in different church and school activities. As a young adult I was tasked to write a play on behalf of my dormitory, where our team won by the grace of God. I was named the student who actually “beat her teachers “in writing fictional play.
For close to 3 decades thereafter, I did not do any writing, maybe there was nothing to write about; until 2012 when I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, two reoccurrences; first one in 2017 where cancer had spread to the bones and lungs, second one in 2020 this was to the brain. Herein there was something to write about. My dear friends rested along the way, I experienced different emotional situations. With time, I accepted that my journey was about sharing the message of Hope, Happiness, Health, and Faith.
In March 2021 I was able to initiate the first cancer awareness talk in the village, as I continued to talk about my journey with individuals and at social gatherings be it hospitals, church, and events. My writing journey was activated when I realized that there is no way I would reach many, thus, I decided to put my journey on paper leading to the publishing of my first book called Unbowed- How God rescued me from different storms.”
Unbowed was written amidst a storm, At the beginning I engaged a “ghost writer “. because I could not use any device, at some point my mode of communication was use of voice notes/records. By the grace of God and His mercies upon my life, I did not relent. I well understood that the book was to help me in fulfilling God’s purposes according to scriptures: – Romans 8:28, Psalm 57:7. I feel at peace when I am serving others than myself more often as a volunteer.
I was blessed to meet Mrs. Maina through a friend Ms. Elizabeth who I met while undergoing chemotherapy treatment in 2020.Mrs. Maina was in the process of writing the book titled The Grand Love Story Book of All Time; the book won an award in 2021. She introduced me to Mr. James Karundu who I contacted in early 2020, however the writing journey commenced in late September 2021 by attending physical classes, the progress stalled in October 2021 due to treatment besides the compromised situation of my body, I was unable to walk properly, falling, unable to hold anything using my right hand meaning I could not write properly, eat, shower, dress myself. I could barely do anything. James improvised a way which activated the journey in late November by way of doing most of the discussions online and introducing Tabitha as our “ghost writer”. I am forever grateful to them.
The process stalled once again, when I had to go in for brain surgery in March 2022 and only begun in May 2022, whereby we learnt the art of doing voice recordings on WhatsApp to get the book out. I believe that this was strenuous on Tabitha’s end as well as mine too. I must admit that we could not understand each other at times, and this led to more frustrations; all I wanted was to see the book published. I kept wondering what if things go South?
We had the first draft and manuscript in between June and September 2022. I subjected the book for review by a different audience whereby I received very constructive feedback, leading to changing the books title from “LIVING THE UNEXPECTED LIFE” to UNBOWED- HOW GOD RESCUED ME FROM DIFFERENT STORMS”
James graciously introduced me to different publishers as from end of September 2022. I must admit that I was delicate emotionally at the time, this was as result of medication thus it took time to decide. Finally, The Holy Spirit led us to work with House of Wealth Publishers (HOW) who I believe were God sent. Upon sharing the manuscript with HOW, they shared first edited version. I realized that I had to re-write my story, filling in the gaps, the process was tedious and tiresome, considering that I was undergoing treatment and was just getting by, but I was much persuaded that we were to get the best story out of the book for our readers.
Unbowed was finally out on the 7th of March 2023. I received the first sample book in mid-February 2023, and the process stalled again as I was going for another surgery, but God is God, His work did not stop because of my absence House of Wealth Publishers continued with the process and here we are- THE UNBOWED -God BE ALL THE GLORY
Thank you CLC Kenya for giving us this opportunity.
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