Author, Rosalind Kilkenny-McLymont asserts that each genre has its unique science but all of them she says, require an authentic, provocative voice in order to attract and hold a reader’s attention.
In her riveting new novel, Middle Ground, the author skillfully holds true to these sentiments as she writes an arresting and irresistible fictional narrative, set in Africa and America.
Shayna, the protagonist sets out on an odyssey to solve the unexplained death of her mother, an American ambassador to Belgium who dies in a car accident while on assignment in Brussels.
With the support of her former college buddies, and a fiancé that allowed her to search for her life, which was fragmented at times, Shayna, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, was drawn into a net of intrigue, betrayal and lies. The trail unravels into a shocking discovery that Shayna was an adopted child, born to an African mother, and an American soldier.
The gripping tale ends with her father being investigated by the CIA for the murder of her adopted mother, Ambassador Janice McWright.
Middle Ground is a fast-paced, ppotential best-seller that takes readers along many twists and turns and towards a trilling conclusion, in this very ambitious work by the Guyanese-American author.
he author talks passionately about her love of writing, and the exciting experience she garnered while traveling in Africa and other parts of the world.
The author expressed how she typically begins her writing with deep reflection on a scenario or issue; making notes off the top of her head, and researching facts about the environment in which the story is to take place.
“I maintain my muse by reading certain works of fiction, listening to certain kinds of music, and by deliberately reconnecting to my internal energy source, said the author.
She is confident that a writer becomes public by virtue of their chosen métier, and needs the exposure for their work to attract readers.
“One may write in isolation, but once the writing is done, one must step into the public domain, she asserts.
McLymont concludes that she was born with the talent to write, but credits her composition teachers with nurturing this ability that flourished into journalism, a career path that she took after graduating from New York University, where she obtained a Master’s Degree.
This intellectual, and extraordinarily talented individual has contributed to the development of African women, through her entrepreneurship training sessions in collaboration with the United Nations development Gender Program. Women in Russia also benefitted from this program through the Alliance of Russian and American Women.
Also fluent in French and Spanish, Mclymont was instrumental in teaching her “mother tongue” to citizens of Uganda and The Democratic Republic of Congo. She is the past fellow of the European Community Visitors Program, and was named Women History Maker by the Caribbean- American Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
McLymont has received awards from the New York Association of black Journalists, the International Black Women’s Congress, the National Minority Business Council and the New York Regional Chapter of the National Association of Heal Services, and many ohers.
Currently the editor-in-chief of the New York-based Network Journal – a business magazine for Black professionals and entrepreneurs, McLymont clearly is a brilliant and talented writer.
Her work as an international trade reporter and as managing editor of the Journal of Commerce has earned her critical acclaim in the annual “Media Guide to America’s Top Fnancial Writers”, and a frequent appearance on CNNfn to comment on the impact of global events on U.S. trade.
In addition to serving as a guest lecturer in the New York University Graduate Program in Latin American and Caribbean studies, this brainiac has made contributions to the Journal of Commerce, World Trade, Business Standard and numerous others.
‘Africa: Strictly Business the Steady March to Prosperity is her first non-fiction work. She also has three novels in the works. The Contract will be on bookshelves this year, while two others, she said, are still being written.
With all of this outstanding work under her belt, McLymont, who has a “black belt” in T’ai Chi, still finds time to teach a Zumba Gold fitness class, in New York.
