The Full Story
Growing up in Cameroon, I began writing short stories in elementary school and dreamed of pursuing a career in creative writing. However, my dad believed artistic endeavors were mere hobbies and steered me toward a scientific field. His guidance bore fruits, for a few years later, a Bachelor of Science earned me a graduate scholarship to study in the United States.
Once upon a time, life in the lab as a postdoctoral researcher.
After a few years as a research scientist, I went to law school and then became an attorney.
Parenting Life Hack: use a stroller to carry a baby or books from the law library.
Throughout the peripeties of my professional and familial lives, writing and reading have remained steadfast pursuits. Like most writers with a daytime job and/or a family, I write in fits and starts, often without the luxury of awaiting a visit from “the muse.”
Joyful sight for a mama’s heart: Girlie #1 and Boy immersed in books.
Girlie #2 is not quite ready for reading.
My Writing
My thriller stories are far from autobiographical (thankfully!) but are infused with flavors from the seasons I’ve enjoyed so far as a wife, stay-at-home mom, homeschooling mom, working mom, scientist, attorney, and a first-generation American. I strive to create thrilling and suspenseful tales in which the protagonist’s family is itself a character. It is a wonderful challenge to explore the complexity of familial relationships—especially when they’re subjected to stressors with life and death stakes. Still, I aim to leave the reader with a note of hope about the human condition.
Work that I’ve authored has been published in the TriQuarterly and has been nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.
I have a manuscript under submission. The story features an ensemble cast and centers around a postpartum teenager who, having recently placed her baby up for adoption, is poised to rejoin a track of academic success. However, she’s accused of a double homicide and arrested. To prove her innocence and evade the murderer, she must resolve her identity crisis and reshape her understanding of familial bonds. Also prominent throughout the story are the point of view (POV) of the teenager’s mother, who grapples to untangle the mess is which her daughter is mired, and the POV of the baby’s prospective adoptive mother, who must decide to what lengths she will go to fulfill her dream of motherhood.