Many writers will say they knew they wanted to write from the time they were quite young. This is not Harriet’s story. In high school, she loved to write and even won a couple of awards, but she became discouraged because her papers were always eaten up with red marks. She knows now that having learned to write in Nigeria, she had a lot of British writing habits which her teachers marked in red as incorrect. So, instead of majoring in English or Journalism, she studied nursing and may have never become a writer if challenges hadn’t come her way.

One particular challenge had Harriet longing to understand prayer better. She began a personal Bible study of prayer, journaling as she went. Four years later she had her first book, “Prayer: It’s Not About You” written but it was still unpublished. These four years of writing birthed a desire to write more. In 2009, she ventured to her first Christian writing conference where she took a class on freelancing—writing articles, devotions, short stories, and other short pieces to submit to publications. She went home and tried her hand at it and contracts began to roll in. As a little girl, her dad often took her fishing, something she loved to do. Freelance writing felt like fishing to her—she would cast a submission out to a publication and sometimes reel in a contract and some income. She loved it and happily did only this for a few years.

Then in 2016, a publisher asked Harriet if she had ever thought of writing books. Harriet confessed that she had a full manuscript about prayer written and sitting on her laptop. This manuscript had never been submitted anywhere but it had managed to garner a distinction when it was named a finalist in a national contest for unpublished manuscripts. That publisher asked Harriet to send her the award-winning manuscript and soon signed Harriet to a publishing contract.

That’s how it began. Today she writes all the time and absolutely loves it. She says she has finally figured out what she wants to be when she grows up—a writer!