Black British born, Jamaican author, Kande Summers, pens her first book entitled Going Home: Diary of a Teenage Alien. This book is written through the adolescent lens of the main character called Liz, who adopts a dystopian and explorative perspective of how an intergalactic war would impact life on earth.
Kande is the first, in a generation of her family to have written and published a book, which she has achieved at a very young age. As a reserved and curious child, she began reading at a very early age, while attending Oldfield Primary School in Maidenhead, England. At the age of 7, she immigrated with her parents to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where she attended English-speaking schools in the emirates of Abu Dhabi, where she began to develop a love of English literature and the various writing styles, especially poetry.
Influenced by her growing interest in writing, Kande’s first venture into writing began at the age of 10, by virtue of her effervescent younger brother, which inspired her to write a poem entitled ‘My Spirited Little Brother’.
Kande has had the good fortune of attending numerous book fairs, with her parents. Her path to writing success began in 2020 after she entered a writing competition, which she chose to write about her mum. Kande then became motivated by her unexpected win in the writing competition and began the writing process with the support of her parents.
Having tasted success, she embarked on a strategy of independent research, in the world of book publishing, eventually finding a suitable publishing company and inexpensive publishing platform. This is what enabled Kande, to publish her very first book, of which she produced the entire content, including all the illustrations.
Going Home: Diary of a Teenage Alien is now available to purchase on Amazon, in both Kindle and paperback format for those who still love the feel of a book in their hand as well as smell the paper.
The book was launched at the 39th staging of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) 2020. This is where Kande signed copies for readers who were able to get their hands on the book, which sold like hotcakes, due to her popularity at the book fair. SIBF is the largest book fair in the Middle East and Africa, as well as the 4th largest book fair in the world.
Kande has managed to secure and sign an undisclosed deal with Kotopia Publishing House of Egypt, to have the Arabic translation of the book published in the summer of 2021.
Apart from writing, Kande is also an accomplished artist and performer.
Buoyed by the success of Going Home: Diary of a Teenage Alien, the UAE resident is currently writing her second book and said that she hopes to inspire young people like herself to achieve the impossible that many people have not achieved but only dream of achieving in their lifetime.
To learn more about Kande’s work, please follow her on Instagram @royalkween.art and Twitter @ks_summers12