By Alexis Lomax
NABJ Monitor
A college student’s completion of a college capstone course has also turned into her first published book currently selling on Amazon.
“We, people” is the first book written by Amaris I. Manning, a recent alum of Neumann University in Aston, Pennsylvania, who majored in communications and digital media and minored in criminal justice and political science.
Manning had been working on the book since high school, which is the setting for the storyline that chronicles the life of a teenage girl in her sophomore year and the new people who enter her life after her best friend moves away.
So where does one get the time and energy to publish a book while juggling work and school? Manning credits the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave her some free time. While others sat at home binge watching Netflix, Manning used the time to her advantage and finished what she had started.
The free time also gave her space to think and create elements that she had planned to farm out.
“The pandemic not only helped with getting the work done, but it also helped me explore with what I could do with the work,” she said. She dove deeper into her artwork instead of paying someone else to create it.
It has always been a dream of Manning’s to be a published author, especially a “successful author,” she said. Since she was a child, writing was both Manning’s voice and her area of comfort.
“I didn’t know how to use my voice, and I found comfort in writing,” she said.
With her first book out and selling on Amazon, Manning has already begun drafting her second book “Depend on Me.” Manning describes her second book not as a sequel to the first but one that follows the events of ‘We, People.”
“There’s a different perspective from it,” she said.
To find out more about Amaris I. Manning, her books, and artwork, visit her website here.
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