Young author publishes new book

Three books in two years. This was achieved by young Rhonda Berment, originally of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, who has always dreamt of becoming a writer.
Ecstatic about her third publication, Berment said: “There are so many stories to tell in so little time and with limited resources. But, as the years went by, and the world changed, technology has made it much easier for writers to self-publish and share their writing with the world.”
Berment, now 46, started many books, mostly romantic novels, but never finished them. In 2014 she was working at an office job in South Florida and looked at the paper clips in the bowls in front of her and realised that they were separated by large and small. She saw a story in this and her imagination took care of the rest.
The result was her first title – Pete the Paper Clip. Many of her peers have wondered how she saw a story in a bowl of paper clips. I wonder the same. Her imagination takes her to places that regular man would never think to venture into. She sees stories in everything, which works to her advantage.
Berment attended and graduated from Holy Name Convent in Port-of-Spain, then in later years, went on to receive a Certificate of Child Psychology from the University of the West Indies. She is a mother of three, with her youngest having Autism Spectrum Disorder. This diagnosis also drives her to subtly include acts of kindness and acceptance in all her books.
She migrated to New York in 1988 with her mother and sister, and subsequently returned to Trinidad for three years before going back to the US to finally settle in South Florida.
Files of stories Berment had written sat in her computer for almost a year, until she was laid off from her job in August of 2015. Instead of sitting at home and feeling depressed about her recent loss of employment, she put her energies into getting her first book illustrated and published.
From there, she gained momentum and wrote her second title – Gustav the Chicken – in September of the same year. She took inspiration from a simple encounter during a Carnival visit, when her Uncle talked about an actual chicken named Gustav.
Berment’s third title, recently published this month – Big Billy and his Bubble Friends – is just a fun-filled story about a car wash. The title came from a funny statement her oldest son made many years ago while they were going through a car wash.
This young, ambitious author credits her love of writing and creating stories to her former English teacher Ms Howard and her late grandmother Edna Berment — both outstanding educators and mentors, she said.
So what does Berment do for fun beside writing and working in sales administration at a software company? She said: “My hobbies are spending time with family and, on occasion, doing costume design and production for Miami Carnival, plus going to local festivals in South Florida.”
Her ultimate goal is to write a book that will be adapted to a screenplay. We definitely look forward to that in the future.
All Berment’s books are available on Amazon.com.