It took me over 6 months to publish my first book and when I saw Christiane Amanpour’s documentary about genocides which have been taking place and the current genocide going on in Darfur, I ask myself why such a cowardly behavior. I have learned that the reasons of genocides are racially, culturally and religiously based. These evil acts cannot be justified and the offenders need to know that they will be held accountable and justice will prevail. The same goes for dictators in Africa and other places around the world. They are selfish people who only think about their personal needs, instead of caring about their people. On paper, some of them are educated, but they still need to the Human Right School and get taught about it like first grade children. Abuse, torture and corruption are other central themes that I focus on in my book because if we ignore it, then we are setting ourselves up for failure.
Struggles for the book
I have struggled finding a publisher who would publish my book and there times were I did not find any relevance in publishing a book because I felt like I was not made to be a writer. When I found I-Proclaim, I was skeptic and their offers, but I was open minded and went for it. I struggled with my the documents of my book because they had to be a certain number of inches from top to bottom from left to right etc. I made a decision to make some changes with my files and I also had to make sure that my file met I-Proclaim standards and when I had a problem, I asked them for guidelines and I was open to get their help.
Looking back
Could I have done things differently? Of course there are many things which I could of done differently. I could of have a preface and and conclusion so that I could bring things into a perspective. Could I have placed poems perfectly in the middle of the page, yes I could of done it. Could I have been extra consistent with the grammar? Yes I could of done it, if I took extra time to keep checking the spelling at least 100 times. I have learned from my mistakes and I want my readers to know that I take these matters seriously.
A plan for more books
Yes I have published my second book, which is The Struggle for Power and the Fight for Survival Wich is also a book of poetry. I will publish a couple of non-fiction books this year.
Balthazar Rodrigue Nzomono-Balenda ( August 29, 1981), known as Rodrigue or Balthazar is a French-born Danish author and he is originally from the Republic of the Congo. Balthazar was born in Oullins, which is a suburb in Lyon, in France and his parents were diplomats in South Africa, before he and his family moved to Denmark. His parents, André & Rose Nzomono-Balenda were diplomats under the mandate of the former Congolese president, Pascal Lissouba. In 1997,there was civil war in the Congo As presidential elections scheduled for July 1997 approached, tensions between the Lissouba and Sassou camps mounted. On June 5, President Lissouba’s government forces surrounded Sassou’s compound in Brazzaville and Sassou ordered members of his private militia (known as “Cobras”) to resist. Thus began a four-month conflict that destroyed or damaged much of Brazzaville and caused tens of thousands of civilian deaths.
Balthazar has written two books, The Depth of My Soul and The Struggle of Power & The Fight for Survival. He is a multimedia designer and a student at the Nordic Multimedia Academy (NOMA). Balthazar identifies himself as a French – born Congolese because he is more connected with the Congo and France than Denmark. He speaks French, English, Lingala, Norwegian, Danish, partially German, Dutch and Afrikaans. Balthazar learns Chinese and Japanese in his spare time, he writes poems, he paints, he goes out and enjoys himself. Balthazar is also a member of the International Society of Poets, which runs poetry.com and he sometimes publishes poems at poetry.com. There will be more books from him this year.
You can visit his website at www.ganymedeweb.com.
The Story Behind the Book 