20 Questions Interview
with Tameko Barnette

Author & Poet, Inner Healing Coach

1. What's your name?

Tameko Barnette.

2. Where are you from?

Roanoke, Virginia.

3. Who are you today?

Today, I am a woman on a journey of self-discovery and healing.

4. What do you do? (Elevator speech)

I am a published author and poet, Reiki Master Teacher, and inner healing coach.

5. What's your story (how did you get here)?

I started being creative (writing, reading, drawing, music) when I was very young, around 7 or 8 years old. Creativity was my saving grace on many levels then, and it is now. I wrote my first poem when I was in 6th grade about world peace. It was even my first publication in the 6th grade graduation program. I decided to pursue writing as a career in 1993. I received my first acceptance letter for a poem in 1996. I kept on writing, submitting, and publishing ever since.

6. Why is creativity important to you?

Creativity is important to me because it is healing and fun. Creativity is a positive energy that can help you express yourself in a way you may not be able to otherwise.

7. When/how did you realize you had a creative dream or calling to fulfill?

Wow, I realized I had a creative dream to fulfill when I was around twelve years old, but I didn't know which route I would take back then. It wasn't until I was in my early twenties that I decided to pursue creativity as a career, which is a dream come true.

8. How did you embrace it?

I had some resistance at first. In my early twenties, there were no authors getting six and seven figure deals. There was no Def Poetry on HBO and Broadway. So, I did not think a creative career would be lucrative unless it was music. Yet, I decided to push past my fears and go for it anyway.

9. How did that feel?

It felt great to push past my fears and do what I could take make my dream come to life. It felt liberating actually.

10. Where has your journey taken you?

Wow, my journey has taken me so many places. It has taken through great moments of self-evaluation and personal growth. It has taken through great moments of receiving letters and e-mails from readers who enjoy what I have written. It has taken me through great moments of doubts, worries, and fears about many things. It has been an amazing ride so far.

11. What challenges have you faced?

One of the challenges I've faced is staying motivated to continue on this path. When you are reaching for a fulfilling career as a writer or an artist, eventually, you'd like to be compensated. So, you have to find reasons to stick with it other than the money. It truly has to be a passion.

The other challenges have been finding creative ways to get paid as a writer or an artist. So, I've found that my creativity has to be used with the actual creative process as well as the business process.

12. What worked for you?

What has worked for me is perseverance and taking breaks when necessary. I'm not the sit down every single day and write type of writer. I do work with my "muse."

Finding new ways to be creative has worked for me. Surrounding myself with creative people helps tremendously. Staying connected through networking sites has helped a great deal too. Remembering why I'm so passionate about writing in the first place helped as well.

13. What didn't work for you?

Procrastination doesn't work for me. The fear of success doesn't work either. Another thing that didn't work was continuing to send my work to places that don't pay. When you're first starting out that's great, but eventually you have to start sending your work to publishers who are willing to pay you royalties.

14. What three tips can you share with those starting on a similar path?

Be passionate your craft. Practice, practice, practice. Embrace success as your natural way of being.

15. What are you working on now?

I'm working on some promotional videos for my new book coming soon and a collection of poetic monologues.

16. What's coming up for you in the next year?

Within the next few months, my self-help book, Light in You Unlimited will be released, so I'll be promoting that book and working on another creative project.

17. What else do you desire/dream to do?

I dream of doing my own one-woman show and writing my first novel.

18. How will you make that happen?

By figuring out what steps I have to take and begin to take them.

19. What question do you want to answer that's not on this list?

There's no other question I want to answer that's not on here.

20. What's your Web site or blog address?

None.

Updated 1/15/13