Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a Kenyan writer born in 1973 in Siaya County, Nyanza Province. I developed hunger for reading materials as a young primary school boy always yawning for more until I settled on writing as my career of choice, creeping into my blood vessels and spreading throughout my body, hogging my dreams and life pursuits.
I joined The Writers Bureau, Manchester, England as a student in 2010 and got my writing voice amplified by my first published article, Dialogue Saves Kenya, published by a Canadian magazine, Pages of Stories in 2011, a story about the 2007 post election violence in Kenya.
My first book; The Grave Decade, was published by an American publishing firm-Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agencies-SBPRA. My second book, Guava Strokes, a memoir that explores corporal punishment in schools was published in 2014. In 2015, I wrote The Sunset Honeymoon, a literary fiction that focus on negative cultural practices that fuel the spread of HIV/Aids. In 2016, I wrote a fiction, Sugar Daddy, the story of Jairo or call him The Tu Man who by the influence of his fat wallet lures a school girl the age of his daughter into irresponsible sexual behaviour and dumps her after impregnating her. Sugar Daddy was followed by a children’s fiction, Kulukulu, the Bad Name, series that shares out how just a name can torment a pupil to an extent of killing her ambitions. My latest release is Birds of a Feather, Anjawo and the drama involved in her illicit trade that deals in liquor and drugs. The negative impact of the business to the surrounding community constitutes the theme of the book.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Birds of a Feather, written from a village setup was inspired by my own observation of the negative impact of illicit brew and drugs on youths who comprise the majority hence the target of dealers. Peer influence among the school going population and challenges that abject poverty exposes children to. The book explores governance, romance, culture, crime, stigmatisation, ethnicity, human rights and many other aspects of life.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Learned writers who crave urban life tend to shy away from village literature, stereotyped as a reserve for the primitive. But truth be told, literature is all about sharing the realities of life with the public. A bigger swathe of the world population occupy rural areas where traditional beliefs and cultural practices still control human life. Imposing a cover on the existing lifestyle is a big disappointment to whoever anointed me to serve the world as a writer.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I was influenced by great African writers who laid the foundation for African literature like Chinua Achebe and his books like Things Fall Apart, Elechi Amadi-The Concubine and others, Prof. Ngugi Wathiongo- The River Between and others, David Mailu- My Dear Bottle and others etc.
What are you working on now?
Editing a book, Frazer Academy by a 15 year old boy- Ethan Otieno.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Just discovered awesomegang.com as one of the best.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Only God created man into his own image, but man cannot create another man into his image. When writing, be yourself, with your own unique approach to issues. This will result into outstanding reading materials that give your audience what they’ve never met anywhere before. Snub authority figures in the world of writing trying to mould young writers into their own image.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
To know myself and act myself.
What are you reading now?
The River and The Source, by Margaret Ogolla.
What’s next for you as a writer?
To write Volume 3 of the children’s book; Kulukulu, the Bad Name.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Randy Love at Your Service, The Concubine by Elechi Amadi, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and My Dear Bottle by David Mailu.
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