Black Christian Fiction Author Parade: Rhonda Bowen

Rhonda is one of the newer authors on this year’s parade. Although she hasn’t been writing long, only beginning her writing journey in 2008, she hasn’t wasted any time. After completing her first novel, some time in 2009, she was unsure what to do next, given that she lives in Canada and most of the commercial African American fiction with which she was familiar was published in the U.S.

But Rhonda is a resourceful and adventurous person. A public relations professional and event planner, she recently spent a year in Thailand teaching English as a second language to school children. Rhonda is definitely not the type of person to twiddle her thumbs for too long.

Instead, she sent her manuscript out and to her surprise, she got a call from her current publisher, Kensington Books. Shortly thereafter, her debut novel,Man Enough For Me, was released.

Jules Jackson is more or less satisfied with her life. Sure, her job as a Toronto based publicist can get pretty hectic, and her relationship with her mom is less than perfect. But her relationship with God is enough to get her through those minor patches. Yes, she is pretty content. That is until the night she meets Germaine Williams while promoting a client who is performing at Germaine’s lounge. Before she knows it, she is throwing caution to the wind, and falling hard for a man she has just met.

But Germaine isn’t all that he seems, and when Jules start asking questions, things start getting more complicated than she planned for.With everything in her life up in the air, she must decide whether she is willing to give up what is sure for something and someone that is more than she could ever ask for.

Man Enough For Me represented a fresh voice in the Christian fiction market, informed by Rhonda’s multicultural background–born in Jamaica, reared and living in Toronto, and having spent nearly a year in Asia.

This month, Rhonda’s second novel, One Way Or Another, was released. As in her first novel, Rhonda again writes about real Christian women in realistic situations. As to her inspiration, Rhonda says, “A couple years ago I was attending a youth event where a young man gave a testimony about how he walked away from God as a teenager, got involved in a lot of criminal activity, but eventually came back to Christ in his adolescent years. The story he told of the consequences to his actions not only while he was involved in illegal activity, but even after he came back to God inspired me to write.