Author of  'The Power of Fate'

Dreams, Fantasies and Life...

November 30, 1980, I came to America with my mother, my two younger brothers and two younger sisters. The two elder sisters joined us only a year later. I was really very sick physically when I came to America. Few weeks later, after unbearable pains, I went to see the doctor and found out what was trying to kill me slowly.  It was discovered a few days earlier after physical and numerous tests that I had a tumor. It was decided by the doctors to perform a surgery to remove a tumor. I really didn't know what the tumor was, I  never understood the diagnosis. The doctors said if I do not undergo surgery, I would be dead and gone in short time. All I know now of the ordeal is that I have a big scar on my left side.  The sure death, had I stayed a little longer in Senegal was averted. God was kind and had other plans for her Gisele, to not only live but also to write.  

If it was not for America, I wouldn't have  been alive today. I wouldn't have had the chance of having a family, and no way be able to write and publish my first book. Fate would have it that I arrived in America in good time. I had come here with little knowledge of English,  that I learned in High School, back home in Senegal. Today, of course, I know what tumor means. I guess it was benign, given the fact that I am still alive after good twenty six years.

January 18, 1981, almost two months in this country, at the age of twenty one, I had the surgery to remove the tumor. I was hospitalized at Memorial hospital in Rhode Island  for three weeks. After I was discharged and sent home, a hospital van would come every morning to pick up and take me to the clinic for four hours and bring me back home around noon. Then, I really didn't understand what kind of  treatment I was being given. Today, when I am more enlightened,  I believe it must have been radiation therapy. I believe if I am in good health today,  I must sincerely thank God and the doctors in America who saved my life. During my hospitalization, I felt helpless, afraid, alone and  without any friends from back home. In Senegal in West Africa, I was a popular person with countless friends, the true friends. At  my hospital bed, I started thinking of my dear friends, the life and the times I had in Senegal. It was the second stage of my thought process that went into my writing!  

Suddenly, I found myself thinking, daydreaming and fantasizing about my first book, "The Power of Fate." For almost two months in America I never thought about the story. I guess the pain, the new life in a new country took over my mind long enough to get my health back. Because the story kept recurring in my mind, my daydreams, and fantasies got their own nutrition with recovery process. This dream of becoming a writer kept haunting me all along  dating  my future husband, Octavio. I was watching lot of movies and especially Hindi movies featuring Amitabh Bachchan! I remember, he was the first  one in India whom I had sent the first copy of my book, 'The Power of Fate'.

July 16, 1983 I got married with this dream still haunting me. Today, I have four grown sons, and a four year old grand daughter, Alyana Mariah Barbosa. I have a 23 years old son, Steve, Frederick, 21 years old, Patrick, 18 years old, and Kevin, 17 years old. 'The Power of Fate' still had never left my  mind, my daydreams and my fantasies and haunting me all along my journey.

I tried to write this book twice and put it away each time. This time I finished it. It took me eight months to write it secretly so that even my family did not know what I was doing until it was almost finished. I owe the success of the book To all those family members and friends with whom I have shared my dream: Thank you for believing that I could do it.

I have come to believe that there is a God and he has good reasons to help his loved ones. God gave me the courage to be able to write my first book which had been haunting me almost all my life! Perhaps today, is my turn to explore and enjoy that sweet dream long over due for nearly thirty years. All this time, I was just too afraid of writing, maybe  due to lack of self-esteem or confidence in my self. I thank God, Jesus and Blessed Mother for this great courage. When I am writing I can't stop myself. I just keep writing, and writing, and writing. When I am writing, I have a beautiful feeling of being at peace with my body and soul. My heart supports me and my mind awakens me to new ideas.

Since I finished writing my first book, I went right to my second book, "Love Hurts." I just finished  the second, and now I am on my third book, "Forgiven but not Forgotten." I have about twelve  different books to write after my third one. I have all the introductions written for each story and everything properly planned including the titles and the names of the characters. There is such a tremendous flow of thoughts that I sometimes feel why I had resisted myself from writing for all these years! Maybe everything has a time, that is the power of fate, my fortunes with nursing courses were not so successful. In fact, at several points of my time when at cross-roads between Nursing and Writing, I found that whenever I tried to work towards my degree I had severe headaches that would put me on the back gear, I took so many courses while training myself that some universities might just confer an honorary doctorate for all my efforts. Yet these headaches and migraines and feeling of tiredness would vanish soon after I took up to writing. It was amazing but true that one of my trainers gave me such horrible times that I finally had to decide that enough of this nursing business and chose to convert to full time writer. In the hindsight, I now realize that the turmoil and troubles that I had to undergo were sharpening me towards a different direction, a completely untapped potential to narrate stories  and a creative mind to write books.  

A yet another dream of my life has been to be able to help others. Now that slowly but steadily I have been able to complete the first part of my journey being successful with my writings, I am in a position to help the world through my writing. I feel everyone on this earth is a blessed child, some make use of their talents without external support yet some have to be told and directed towards their goal. I hope and pray God will open that door of good deeds to me and the world one day. I am looking forward to the new dawn, the new world order where true human values will flourish, that there will be harmony, peace and tranquility all around!

What will be my journey from here on?  I have faith in God ! I am convinced that my role is now well defined, that I have been successful towards my passion to write, I would be equally successful in my efforts to be a true human being. I would like to be someone like an Angel, who is committed to help the world in her own little ways!  

Recently, I have found a true friend in India, who is helpful with similar ideas about the good of the world! I call him a friend, angel,  hero and even a Coach! in addition to  Abhaya or Abhaya Sharma, that is his real name,  and he does not seem to  mind! continues to help me unabated! I came to know him quite accidentally, when I first sent him an email  enquiring whether  Amitabh Bachchan had received my first book that  I had sent to him! Abhaya has beautifully compiled our letters as  ‘Letters from Gisele Barbosa’.

To my readers:

Let us together discover the new world !  

Gisele G Barbosa

Author of the books  'The Power of Fate ' and  'Love Hurts’ . Working on ‘Forgiven but not Forgotten’ and Tales on some important  shrines like Lourdes- France, Fatima- Portugal and Guadeloupe- Mexico.