About the Author
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bethel Bates, born Bethel Sheppard, discovered the wonderful world of writing at the early age of ten.  It was at that age that she would write her first poem entitled "My Dreams".  At age twelve she composed her first song,  "Party At The Disco", that she, along with her two sisters performed.  At age thirteen, she composed "The Game Is Over", for which she was offered her first contract by The Scotton Music Corporation.
Bethel credits music Songwriter Pioneers, and Authors such as Tina Turner, Abbey Lincoln, Terry McMillan, Nikki Giovani, Mayo Angelou, Sheila M. Goss, and the great African American Poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, "We Wear The Mask", for their unpremeditated, extemporized, and unchallenged form of originality and ingenuity.  Her love for writing began to take shape as a young adult when she realized that writing was more to her than just  a hobby, it was her passion.
Married at age nineteen to a longtime boyfriend, she left Philadelphia and relocated for a short period, as her husband was enlisted in the United States Army.  After four children and an unsuccessful marriage, a new and improved Bethel was awakened and reborn as she began writing like she'd never written before.
With many college credits in psychology, criminal justice, and philosophy, and no real major education in the fields of music or writing; a self taught Bethel Bates went on to write such scripts as "Short Cutz" and "Use What You Got" for the youth in her community.  Bethel has always had a burden for the youth and has spent countless hours volunteering with the youth in her community promoting non-violence.
In 2007 she founded "The Garden Of Eden Productions", a non-profit organization that seeks to recruit the youth from the streets of Philadelphia into a program that offers the stage as a vehicle of expression that encourages the youth to redirect their misplaced energy in the form of theatrics as they dance, act, and sing in their own productions, while learning to write, produce, and direct their own works.
In December 2009 she published her first book, "Hot Buttered Biscuits And Jam" The Memoirs Of Seven, where a down trodden woman analyzes, love, friendship, faith, forgiveness, and the long time destructive relationship she has with her husband of seventeen years and how it mirrors the relationships of the women who have proceeded her in her family.  She struggles with the idea of leaving the unhealthy relationship and its alternative as it relates to the number seven. 
Bethel affiliates herself with organizations such as: Black Womens Playwright Group of Washington DC and Black Writers Guild of Maryland. In addition, she's gone on to form "Conduit To New Beginnings", a non-profit organization whose humantarianism goals are to make life a little less burdensome for those who have experienced hardships and  tradgedy by nominating one family at a time to receive financial assistance or gift(s) in various forms from CTNB.  Monies are achieved through major fundraising events.