Featured Interview With Abasiama Udom
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I live in southern Nigeria with my family and it is where I was born and raised. I enjoy loud arguments and football even when they say I should not because I am female and should speak quietly. I have a quiet romance with plantain, chocolate and goat meat pepper soup but no one really knows.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My mother was always scribbling love letters and notes at the back of her notebooks even while in church so I guess it just rubbed off on me. I did remakes and sequel to movies I liked and hated. It was a fun game to play with myself. At the time, writing made me feel like a big sister because my brother liked my stories.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Heather Graham is my best and overall influence. No one comes close to Heather for me. I enjoy James Patterson but Heather is a blend of beautiful and wild.
Pam Munoz Ryan does something beautiful with her easy to read works. I adore Anne Lamott and Elnathan John for their wit and humour.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Then Surrender was inspired by the facts of the Niger-Delta Emancipation movement in Nigeria around 2007 and the loss we witnessed.
As a writer I tried to imagine the pain of parents and family who had lost people in the midst of it all and how they still held on to life, faith and hope. Maybe I was selfish when I bean this project as I was thinking of how to free myself from the shadows of my past.
I kept rewriting that book because it is a little personal and had me remembering Port Harcourt. It took me a year to finish writing and a year to edit. My editor is to blame there *winks conspiratorially*
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