Founder of Masobe Books and author of Aviara, Othuke Ominiabohs, believes that writers should write whatever truly interests them. However, ‘it would be exciting to see more romantic stories, thrillers, and daring, genre-bending works from Nigerian writers.’
First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing.
Our questions are italicized.
What books or kinds of books did you read growing up?
The books I read growing up changed at every stage of my development. However, my earliest memories of books were some hard cover children’s books with colourful pictures featuring characters like Jane, Jack and Jill and Peter and Paul as the characters. They were a sort of series. I think they were called Lady Bird book series. Then as I grew older, I delved into my sisters’ collection of romance novels which included Mills and Boon novels, Silhouette book series and a few others. In my early teenage years, I fell in love with adventure and magical realism in books like Arabian Nights where I encountered Aladdin, Alibaba and the Forty Thieves, The Thief of Baghdad and other magical stories. Then came my brief stint with African Literature: The African Writers series, The Drummer Boy, Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, The New Man, The Boy Slave, The Return of The Boy Slave, When a Child is Motherless, An African Child, The Bottled Leopard, the list is quite long. But I think the writer I would later become started to take form when I discovered James Hadley Chase. I loved the thrill and the suspense and how all of it was wrapped in magnificent prose. From there on it was thrillers of all kinds: Jeffery Archer, Sydney Sheldon, John Grisham, Frederick Forsythe, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Ian Flemming, Lee Child. I had a particular fondness for Robert Ludlum, and I would go on to study his works so I could someday become as good a writer as he was.
If your life at this moment was the chapter of a book, which book (fiction or non-fiction) would that be?
I’m not sure to be honest. All the books I’ve read in the last couple of years seem to be blending together in my head at this very moment and nothing quite captures my life as it stands right now. Maybe it is a sign that I should write this chapter of my life.
What’s the last thing you read and disagreed with?
The argument that Nigerian literature is dying. Nothing can be farther from the truth.
My experience with chronic kidney disease inspired Aviara. I lost both my kidneys sometime in 2014. It was one of the bleakest periods of my life. I had lots of questions but found no ready answers.
What’s the last thing you read that changed your mind about something?
That would be Umar Abubakar Sidi’s The Incredible Dreams of Garba Dakaskus. It is one of the weirdest books I have ever read, yet also one of the most brilliant and enchanting plots I have encountered. It has opened my mind to what is possible with language, structure, form and style.
What is your writing process: edit as you write or draft first, then edit?
I edit as I write. I read and rewrite the last two chapters preceding my last sentence, before I commence writing again. Rinse. Repeat. So, by the time I have a first draft it’s pretty clean and almost has no typos.
What was your process for writing your debut novel, Odufa?
This one was pretty straightforward. I wrote morning, afternoon, evening and night. Followed the same process I already described in your previous question and in three months I was done.
Odufa ‘chronicles the entire gamut of emotional experiences of a tumultuous affair of young lovers’. Looking back, what’s one thing you might revise/do differently if you were to write it again?
If I were to revise Odufa, I would make it a smaller book, perhaps a hundred pages less. I would eliminate some of its wordiness and ramp up the pacing, make it punchier instead. Besides this, I think it’s perfect.
Your other novel, Aviara, explores the complex balance between science and spirituality, fate and ancestry, within the labyrinth of one man’s unravelling reality. What inspired this story?
My experience with chronic kidney disease inspired Aviara. I lost both my kidneys sometime in 2014. It was one of the bleakest periods of my life. I had lots of questions but found no ready answers. Was I going to die? Why was I born, then? What was my purpose in life if I was to die at the cusp of my prime? Was I sick because of something from my family’s past or was this fate or something of my own doing? I was in a dark and endless tunnel. I decided then that if I survived, I would write a book inspired by the experience—some sort of light, a ray of hope for anyone else who found themselves in a similar place.
A reader who found a typo in one of my texts reached out in frustration and compared the art of writing to the precision of a surgery. He advised that writers should pursue the craft with the same dedication and precision with which a surgeon carried out a surgery.
How did your approach to writing change while working on A Conspiracy of Ravens?
A Conspiracy of Ravens is easily the most challenging novel I ever wrote and probably will ever write. It is funny how you read a book and, in a few hours, you are done. You have no idea the blood, sweat and tears that go into making everything fit, and make sense. ACOR, as I call the book, took me over seven years to finish. It was the first book I wrote, and it took all of me to make it work. The plot was so complicated, there were times I wrote myself into a deadlock and couldn’t find a way out. I struggled to fully understand the characters and their motivations and actions. I had to study the game of chess at some point to help me navigate the plot. I kept going because it is a story that needed to be told—the story of my Niger Delta people, of oil theft, militancy and war. Plus, I had read all these thrillers, and it was time to practice what I had learnt.
A Conspiracy of Ravens is a ‘tale of love and hate, patriots and traitors, and of heroes and villains.’ Which book/author had the most influence on your approach to writing it?
Robert Ludlum. I have read every novel written by this author. The novel that completely blew my mind and made me fall in love with his work was The Bourne series, especially the first three books of the series—The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum. The Scorpio Illusion is a close second. These books taught me how language could be woven and coaxed into shapes of suspense, intrigue, and action.
What is the most meaningful piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?
The best writing advice I got was from my father. He wasn’t exactly talking about writing at the time, but I have come to apply it to my work. While teaching me how to drive, he told me to always be in tune with my car, to feel its every creak and groan, to become one with it. My writing flows from and is a part of me. I work it, mould it, knead it, all the while listening to its every creak and groan, till we are in sync. Only when I achieve this harmony with my work do I step away from it with some satisfaction.
However, it is important I mention another piece of advice that changed my life. A random reader who found a typo in one of my texts reached out in frustration and compared the art of writing to the precision of a surgery, and how the littlest mistake in surgery could lead up to loss of life. He advised that writers should pursue the craft with the same dedication and precision with which a surgeon carried out a surgery. Writing for me was never the same again.
You are also the founder of Nigerian publishing house, Masobe Books. What makes a great story?
I determine a ‘great’ story from how it makes me feel. A great story should make you feel deeply, intensely: joy, pain, love, rage, anger, and happiness. Plus, there is an alchemy that happens, a boiling cauldron of all the right ingredients: a story/character(s) I care about, beautiful language that ferries the plot, the measured pace of the series of events, the conflict, the resolution. It is the coming together of every single element to pull me seamlessly into the page.
What trends in Nigerian literature are you currently most excited about?
A lot of Nigerians are writing. We see it in the submission pile, in the fathers that come to us requesting writing classes for their teenage children, in the increased queries for authors who want to go the self-publishing route. This also inadvertently means that the number of people reading books is growing.
What is your favourite book about books?
That would be Umar Abubakar Sidi’s The Incredible Dreams of Garba Dakaskus. It is a book about books. Everyone should check it out.
Is there a book you wish you had published?
Yes. The New Man by Femi Ademiluyi.
What is a new book that you think deserves more attention?
There is a long list off the top of my head. But if I must name just one book, I’ll pick Water Baby by Chioma Okereke. It’s a book about a nineteen-year-old girl from Makoko, the floating slum of Lagos who yearns for an existence where she can escape the future her father has planned for her. With opportunities scarce, she jumps at the chance to join a newly launched drone-mapping project aimed at broadening the visibility of her community. Then a video of her at work goes viral and she finds herself with options she could never have imagined—including the possibility of leaving her birthplace to represent Makoko on the world stage. But she begins to wonder if life beyond the lagoon will be everything she’s dreamed of, or if everything she has ever wanted has been in front of her all along?
And what has been the most surprising bestseller you’ve encountered?
Broken by Fatima Bala. It is one of the most exciting romance novels I have read.
What’s the best book (by an African author) you’ve read so far this year?
That would be Chigozie Obioma’s The Road to the Country. It is a sweeping, heart-racing, mystical novel about a university student in Lagos trying to save his brother and himself, amid the chaos of the Nigerian civil war.
Who are the Nigerian authors you’re most excited about today (and why?)
I am super excited about every author Masobe Books has published. In no order here are some of those names: Chigozie Obioma, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Ukamaka Olisakwe, Wole Talabi, Nana Sule, Onyi Nwabineli, Chukwuebuka Ibe, Umar Abubakar Sidi, Efua Traore, Olukorede Yishau, Tunde Leye, Miracle Emeka-Nkwor, TJ Benson, Olayinka Yaqub, Chimeka Garricks, Emmanuel Iduma, Oyin Olugbile.
These authors are redefining storytelling in Africa, pushing boundaries, blending genres, and showcasing timely and important themes. They have taken our stories to the world and because of them, Nigerians are falling in love with books and are reading again.
What is your favourite topic to write or read about these days?
I still love thrillers but these days I look forward to reading books with more adventure, more romance, more horror, or a blend of genres.
And what topic do you wish more authors were writing about these days?
Writers should write whatever truly interests them. However, it would be exciting to see more romantic stories, thrillers, and daring, genre-bending works from Nigerian writers.
A lot of Nigerians are writing. We see it in the submission pile, in the fathers that come to us requesting writing classes for their teenage children, in the increased queries for authors who want to go the self-publishing route.
What are you currently working on?
Same novel I’ve been working on for the last three years. I can’t talk about it just yet but it’s a blend of romance, literary fiction and a bit of fantasy.
Question from Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond: What did you have to let go of, or let in, to write your latest book offering?
For my last work, Aviara, I had to let in all the pain and fear from when I was sick. It was tough because to write the book, I had to relive my experiences. At some point, I even started having all the symptoms of kidney disease all over again: breathlessness, itching skin, and nausea. But I pushed through it all and birthed a beautiful book.
Bonus: Please suggest a question for a future author’s First Draft
Why should anyone care about your current work in progress?
Who should we interview next?
Kelechi Okafor. Okafor is the author of Edge of Here⎈
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