Author Bio
Gabriel Pope is a young African writer. He is the Author of With Love From Santa which peaked at #14 Bestseller for Teen and Young Adult category while it was Free. He spends his writing time on creating short stories since school engulfs all the other space. He tries out pretty much every genre and his major project is a collection that should be up by summer. Meanwhile, there's always a story to tell every month for him.
Let's just keep our fingers crossed... ;)
On a Bigger screen...
Away from all the professionalism. Hey there,
Well, to begin with, my name’s Ugochukwu Nwankwere and No! Don’t try pronouncing it, you’d only end up hurting your tongue so just call me Gabriel Pope (easy right?!).
I’m African, full breed Nigerian to be precise and I’ve spent all my life there. Having to grow up dealing with loads of children sure has been an adventure (one most adults are scared of), especially when I’m the first of 5 children and umpteen grandchildren. I grew up in an environment which was a bit tilted at being a slum and somehow, someway, the streets of Lagos have played a vital part of my life.
I once heard ‘Writers are born, not made’ and it got me wondering [again] so I tried connecting the dots from my past 18 years on Earth-starting from the fact that Mom was into theater arts. I began exploring my imaginations with ‘tiny green army men’ which were my cast for hundreds of plays I directed. It later got on to keeping late nights trying to clone action figures with a pencil and I was only about 6 then. Times changed and I found myself exchanging storybooks with my neighbor, I remember reading Born without a silver spoon, Clutches of widowhood and Mother’s choice( I was only 12 when I tried converting this prose to a play) and yeah, King Solomon's Mines which really got into my head.
My wanting to try out with the pen started after reading Harlequin’s Stories of Courage by Susan Wiggs, Sharon Sala and Emilie Richards (it was dad’s idea to get us reading that summer and it seemed like punishment to me). A while after that, I found myself finishing my first story, The Single Parent at 15.
I published my first story in December 2014, With Love From Santa which peaked at #14 on bestseller list for Teen and Young Adult category and #48 on Holiday category on Amazon. My zest for writing only got stronger by the time I discovered E.J. Runyon, Tony Spencer and pretty much the whole members of The Writer’s Chest on Facebook
When I’m not writing or doing my sciences, I’m either snuggled at the corner of my bed gaming Champ Man on my phone or collecting books on Wattpad or I’m surfing the web randomly reading about new and old writers and their journey to success and if I’m doing none of this, I’m definitely Sleeping.
And oh I forgot to add, I’m a ‘terrific’ chef...