Its that time of the week again!  Welcome to another edition of Introduce Yourself, a new and exciting blog segment of The PBS Blog dedicated to introducing to you new and established authors and their books.

Today I’d like to extend a warm welcome to Hope Destiny. Welcome to The PBS Blog! Let’s get started.

What is your name and where are you from?

My name is Latisha. I write under Tisha as well as the pseudonym Hope Destiny. I live in Orlando, Florida.

The Sunshine state. I love it. Your pseudonym is beautiful. What made you decide on this name in particular?

I was airing out my dirty laundry to the world about what I did when I was younger that I shouldn’t have been doing. As well as the violations I endured and my feelings about my parents. I just didn’t want any family members to know it was me or read it so as I was writing it the name just came to me. I questioned it at first and tried to change it, but God already had planted that seed so it was no way around it or giving it up.

OK. Tell me, what would your perfect writing / reading room look like?

Quiet. No sound.

To the point, I like it lol.  I enjoy silence myself. I understand you are employed outside of writing? Tell us about your job.

I am a Controller at a telecommunications company.

Cool. What’s your favorite color?

Baby blue.

If you could shadow your favorite artist, who would it be?

Eminem.

OK OK, I see you. Cleaning out my closet was my jam back in the day, Lol. Seems like a lifetime ago. Speaking of music, what kind of music do you like?

Slow throwback R&B.

Yaass! Me too. You’ll love PBS Throwback Thursdays. Let’s talk about writing. When did you publish your first book? What was that like?

May 2014. It was exhilarating.

You Don’t Know My Story: I Don’t Look Like What I Been Through was published in May 2014. (You Still Don’t Know My Story, and Let Me Finish Telling You My Story was published after that and each about 6 months apart).

Part One chronicles my life from a child to the age of 18 years old with the subsequent books from the age of 18 and up. It was heartbreaking to write. I cried a lot. It was hard to recall memories that I had locked up in the attic of my memory to forget and to move on. Then I realized how that only caused the anger that shrouded my heart which in turn lead to failed relationships and failed marriages. I had a wall up. I didn’t love anyone. Not even my own children so it was sad. I gave them things in place of love sort of like I was given growing up. It was an endless vicious cycle that needed to be broken and I wanted…no, needed to break it.

AVAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON.

You Don’t Know My Story sounds like a gripping read. I like that cover too.  I’m gonna have to check you out as soon as I find the time to read all these books! Hope, how long have you been married?

Almost one year.

Awwue! Go ahead Newlywed Lol. (alright now fellas, you heard it here first, Hope is married, tee hee). Children?

Yes. One girl and two boys.

Total preciousness. What takes up too much of your time?

Life obstacles.

Can you explain that?

There is always something that keeps you from doing things that you want to do. I would love to write every day all day but I can’t. I have a job. No. I have a career. While my imagination runs wild with stories and ideas all day, I crunch numbers as it does. I am the main breadwinner in my entire family. So many responsibilities. My parents. My children. Nieces and nephews and etc always needing things and I have to be the one to give it. Granted…everyone (my siblings mainly) had the same opportunities that I had but no one wanted the responsibility of doing what it took to get it. I am the responsible one. Everyone depend on me so I can’t live in my fantasy writer world that calls me. I have to live in the now so what really takes up a lot of my time? The need and want to put others before my own needs and wants. Other people problems take up a lot of my time.

Yea, I can imagine that’s a huge responsibility and some serious stress. Praying for your strength. Speaking of life, what do you think of the world we live in?

Its hectic.

Hope has a lot of reads for you to explore! Visit her Author Amazon Page HERE
What’s the most difficult thing about being a writer? The most exciting thing?

The time to write. Finishing it.

As noted above….time is what I have so little of with a demanding career and family as I have so that is just it…so much to do…so little time….that is my mantra.

Once I do finish a novel, it is euphoric. I have completed a task (a most difficult one) that I had set out to do. It is always exciting to complete a difficult task with very little time.

Indeed. And speaking of finishing, why is writing important to you?

It gets me out of my head.

What does that mean?

I am always thinking about stories all day, everyday and scenes and such or an idea pops in my head and I always wrote poetry as a child to deal with a lot of anger and hurt of growing up with parents that were there but not there so writing became an outlet as it has now.

Thru all the hurt and pain I endured from a child and on, I learned that writing takes me places and gives me that release I yearn for. A release from pain and misery and I can make it continue or end.. in a story. In a story, it is a life I really control. The characters life is in my hands and they don’t have to be miserable like I was. It is wonderful.

Thank you for spending this time with us. I am sure you’ve given many new authors some Hope today!

---