March not only ushers in spring, the Lenten season and March Madness, it also heralds the opportunity to learn more about women and our contributions to the world as we celebrate Women’s History Month. This Women’s History Month, I want to take a slightly different position. I still plan to honor women in my posts this month, but my focus will be on six amazing women who I have had the pleasure of working with recently and who I am sure are creating history of their own. These women, along with yours truly, are contributors to an anthology which will be released this month. It is titled, “Voices from the Block: A Legacy of African-American Literature,” and it features poems, essays and short fiction, original works by these talented women. I will showcase one or two of these great writers weekly, and I hope the introductions will inspire you to seek more of their written work. I know I am inspired by them. They truly are women of history.

Prepare to meet:  Toyette Dowdell, Bennye Johnson, Ingrid Lawton, Sharron Pete, Breggett Rideau, and Faith Simone.

First up:  Faith Simone

When did you know you wanted to write?

Faith:  I knew I wanted to be a writer as a young girl of about 9 or 10 years old. I was always writing in my journal, as well as penning short stories and poems. I knew I wanted to be an author when I grew up, but I let fear of not having a steady career cause me to relegate writing to ‘just a hobby.’ Now, I’m heading full steam ahead in pursuit of a stellar writing career!

What was your first written work?

Faith: My first written work was a fourth grade English assignment. I wrote a novella involving a young girl dealing with her mother’s abandonment and her father’s subsequent re-entry into the world of dating. It was pretty deep subject matter for a nine year old. I still have the original!

The anthology “Voices from the Block: A Legacy of African-American Literature” is my first published work. I am proud to have contributed several poems and short stories focused primarily on women’s issues and relationships.

What is your inspiration for writing? Or, where do you get your ideas for your stories, poems, etc.

Faith: Love is my inspiration for writing. The love God has for us, the love we have for ourselves, the love between a man and a woman, a mother and child, siblings and friends, etc. Love is a beautiful thing! It’s complicated and rich. It’s multi-layered and inexplicable.  I get ideas for my short stories, poems and novels from everyday life. Inspiration can come to me while watching the news, overhearing a conversation, watching a movie, reading my Facebook newsfeed or staring at a cloud. Many times I get great ideas just by sitting quietly with my own thoughts.

What are you currently working on?

Faith: Currently, I’m working on getting my first full length women’s fiction book published. It’s a contemporary inspirational novel about a woman struggling to move forward after being hurt in a past relationship. Forgiving doesn’t always mean forgetting, and the question is will the main character be able to let go of her anger and walk into all that God has for her? I’m also writing my next novel and blogging away about publishing and other shenanigans on my blog, faithsimone.com.