WRITING JOURNEY OF BRENDA MOHAMMED
Trinidadian Author Brenda Mohammed was a successful bank manager at Republic Bank Limited [ formerly Barclays Bank D.C.O.] in Trinidad, where she was employed for 38 years.
Brenda started working at the bank in Trinidad
after graduating from St. Augustine Girls’ High school, at the age of sixteen
years. She pursued a Diploma in Banking at the Institute of Bankers in London
with subjects in English Language, Law Relating to Banking, Bookkeeping,
Elements of Banking, Economics, and Monetary Theory and Practice.
Because of Brenda’s love for service to
customers and her dedication to her job, she moved up the ranks rapidly, and
worked in several departments of the bank at several branches throughout the
island.
She gained several promotions to Supervisory and
Senior Supervisory level, but her first real step up the ladder, was when she
was promoted to the Manager’s Assistant to grant loans and overdrafts to
individuals and businesses.
She handled this position successfully, as a
result of which she was appointed by the Board of Directors of the Bank, as Branch
Manager of one of the bank’s branches.
She was further promoted to Area Credit
Manager, and then to Commercial Credit Manager, to handle financial proposals from
corporate businesses and individuals. Her judgement in assessing these
proposals were very accurate and her work was evident in the villages in which
she worked, as they changed into towns in a short time, and aided in the
development of the economy of Trinidad and Tobago.
She retired from the bank at the age of 55 and moved
into Insurance where she excelled as well.
Besides passing the State Licenses examination
for both Life and General Insurance, Brenda studied and obtained a Diploma in
Life Underwriting from the American College, USA. [LUTCF].
Because of her consistent volume of high sales,
she qualified for the Million Dollar Round Table, the Premier Association for
Financial Professionals, [MDRT] six times in a row, and attended MDRT
Conferences in various parts of America, with thousands of financial
professionals from all countries of the world.
Her writing journey began after her bout with
cancer which almost killed her. Miraculously, she survived after obtaining treatment
and surgery at the Sylvester Cancer Centre in the University of Miami hospital.
She wrote a book I AM CANCER FREE eight years
after her near-death experience, and it became a best seller. The book won an
award in Reader’s Favorite International in 2018 in the category Health and
Fitness.
She also wrote a memoir, My Life as a Banker,
about her experiences at the bank, and the expansion and changes the bank had
undergone, from manual to mechanization, and then to computerization.
Thereafter, she continued writing and has
published 56 books in multi-genres to date. Among her publications are eleven
anthologies and four magazines co-authored by members of the How to Write for
Success Literary Network that she founded.
Her genres include memoirs, science fiction,
romance, self-help, mystery, children’s books, psychological thrillers,
Christian books, poetry, magazines, and poetry anthologies.
Her superb writing skills won her several
literary awards in the USA, Peru, Kazakhstan, Seychelles, Nigeria, India,
Romania, Argentina, Ukraine, Morocco, Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia,
Barcelona, France, Switzerland, Italy, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Germany, Austria, Syria,
Portugal, Czech Republic, China, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Pakistan, Syria, Chile,
and the UK.
She was inducted into the Indie Author's Wall
of Fame in the USA. in January 2020.
Brenda made headlines in several newspapers in
Trinidad and around the world, even in Ethiopia, and Canada.
Many of her books received five-star reviews
from Reader’s Favorite International, and many attained the No 1 bestseller
ranking on release.
In November 2018, she won two awards from
Reader’s Favorite International for her science fiction book, ‘Zeeka
Chronicles’ in the category Young Adult Thriller, and her Memoir, ‘I am Cancer
Free’ in the category Health and Fitness. She flew from Trinidad to Miami to receive
these awards in a gala ceremony at the Regency Hotel.
In that same year, her book Zeeka Chronicles made
it to the Top Ten List in the Author Academy Global Awards, USA.
Three of her books won gold awards in Connection
EMagazine Readers’ Choice Awards - Zeeka Chronicles, [2019] Stories People
love, [2020] and How to Write for Success [2020].
In Sept 2021 Brenda’s mystery book, Barry
Holmes Mysteries, won her BEST WRITER - FANTASY Award in the Culture, Literature,
and Research Awards in India and in 2023 it won an award from The International
Chamber of Writers and Artists [CIESART].
An article about her self-help book, How to Write for Success, appeared in
the Sunday Ethiopian Herald on 16th February 2020. The article was written by
Alem Hailu, Deputy Editor in Chief and was titled, ‘How
to melt the world into words.’
Here are his opening words in the lengthy
article:
“Aside
from relating how the author-poet Brenda Mohammed in an exemplary manner
consummated her life journey full of hairpin turns and precipices, and with
success navigating the twists and turns of the arduous track of life, engaging
in different walks of life like insurance and banking, her book entitled HOW TO
WRITE FOR SUCCESS renders a handy comprehensive toolkit for writers, critics,
and editors.
As a
novelist, book reviewer, and editor myself, I wish I had this book by my
bedside for reference in my previous literary pursuits, for unlike other books,
I made recourse to, in a bid to fathom the literary devices, authors, as well
as book reviewers, are expected to well digest, HOW TO WRITE FOR SUCCESS
profits a wide array of writers if they, in good time, upload it in their
backpacks.
In
demonstrating the devices, presumably at the tip of her fingers, in a vivid and
lucid as well as friendly manner, no instructor comes close to Brenda Mohammed,
who was in the chalk and talk business earlier in her life, before she branched
off into literature.”
Brenda loves to share her knowledge and is a
voluntary instructor in Self-Publishing for the Facebook group – School of Arts
and Poetry. She has successfully encouraged many new and aspiring writers to
publish books.
She founded the Facebook group, How to Write
for Success Literary Network with a sub-forum for Book Reviews.
Brenda is an advocate for Peace and an advocate
against Domestic Violence and Suicide. Together with several international
bestselling co-authors from her Facebook groups, she has published seven No 1
best-selling anthologies for these causes: A Spark of Hope I, II and III, Break
the Silence I and II, and two groundbreaking anthologies – Peace Begins with
us, and Creating a better World.
President and Founder of Unión Hispanomundial
De Escritores, Peru, Carlos Hugo Garrido Chalen, appointed her as President of
UHE Trinidad and Tobago in 2019.
In May 2022, she was appointed President of
International Chamber of Writers and Artists Intercontinental [CIESART], for
the Trinidad and Tobago office, and is working on several humanitarian projects.
Brenda and her family have travelled
extensively throughout the world.
She has conducted book signings and hosted Book
Fairs in Trinidad and Tobago.
Her YouTube Channel for her Video Book Trailers, songs, and travel memories, https://youtube.com/c/BrendaMohammed, received numerous.
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