Blog Archives
Power Through Dubious Means
The Sacred Passage is the story of one man’s relentless pursuit of power, the questionable tactics he uses to achieve greatness, and the destruction he leaves in his wake. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
Post-colonial Africa has witnessed a trend of leaders aspiring to be among some of the longest-serving presidents hanging on to power through dubious means and some of the examples are: Bongo, Biya, Dos Santos, Nguema, Museveni, and Nguesso. The idea was born out of this trend.
What were some of the emotional and moral guidelines you followed when developing your characters?
In my local language, we say, ‘Chikomo shata divi rimwe ritambire pwere.’ So I made sure that there must always be room for some goodness in an evil character. While an evil character has been developed in the book, I always moderated it by bringing in some good elements in an attempt to pacify a reader and lessen emotions.
What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?
It is the expectation of having a hero, a villain. or a happy ending which I find as a common theme. This must be spiced up with an exciting storyline. Based on the readers’ expectations, the work of fiction is cut out for a writer and what remains is which storyline will excite a reader. Is it a love story, action-packed story, family feud. or war?
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
The next book will be available for publication review in about three months. It is about a dispossessed people fighting against the oppressor to regain what they lost. Countless lives are sacrificed as a war is waged to achieve their goal. The oppressor relentlessly fights back to maintain his oppressive position.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Website | Amazon
Friendships crumble as Runo sows seeds of discord, creating factions that tear each other apart while he remains untouchable. Those who dare challenge his authority are dealt with ruthlessly – used and discarded when their political utility expires. For those who still pose a threat, he employs the insidious honey trap to silence them forever.
In The Sacred Passage, Mwana waMusikavanhu unravels the intricate web of Runo’s sadistic reign, leaving readers in awe of the depths of his depravity. With every turn of the page, you’ll be drawn into a world of ruthless politics and relentless ambition, where no elimination trick is too foul in the pursuit of power.
Peace, Joy and Love: Christmas in Africa
Author and traveler Terry Lister brings back the true meaning of Christmas in Peace, Joy, And Love: Christmas In Africa. In this short page-turner, we go on a journey across Africa and discover the Christmas traditions of African countries. From folklore-based traditions to unique holiday cuisine, there is something to learn on every page. Throughout the book, we are reminded of the true Christmas spirit and how to reshape how we view and celebrate the holiday.
We often forget that Christmas is more than Black Friday shopping sprees, taking pictures at a mall, and opening lavish gifts on a random December morning. If I could sum up the impact of this book in one word, it would be “enlightening.” Lister lays bare the wholesome, unique, and sometimes overly simplistic traditions of many impoverished African communities in an honoring and respectful manner. He does not see these communities as lacking but rather admirable. That gives the reader a more positive perspective on a Holiday that has been taken over by global marketing giants. I appreciated the respect he showed to each African community in his writing.
Lister does a fantastic job at sharing facts in a simplistic but entertaining fashion. It felt easy to retain the information; I often let chapters simmer in my mind before moving on to the next. The photographs were a beautifully added touch. Although many were not high-quality in the traditional sense, they showcased rawness and the natural state of these festivities as if they were happening in real-time. It also added a feel of a travel diary to the overall writing and book that I thoroughly enjoyed – we went on the journey with Lister to discover these traditions.
My reading of Peace, Joy, And Love: Christmas In Africa left me feeling humbled, joyful, and ready to enter the season ahead with a new perspective. If you are looking to switch up your holiday reading from the traditional classic tales, I recommend diving into the Christmas spirit-filled pages of this book.
Pages: 90 | ASIN : B0BGQGC82G
COVID-19 AFRICA, HAITI, AND THE U. S. VIRGIN ISLANDS
The Covid-19 pandemic took the world by surprise. Nations were caught unaware and people scrambled to find ways to slow down the spread and stop the rapid loss of lives. There was a lot of misinformation, technical information mixed in with the truth. Scientists were busy studying and passing on information as quickly as they could to a world of people trying to grasp what was going on.
Dr. Hugues Fidel Batsielilit watched with the rest of us as the world crumbled from what seemed like a common flu. The only difference is that he watched with an expertise’s eye. He saw how the world reacted and the different measures countries took to protect their citizens. Dr. Batsielilt focused his interest on Africa, Haiti and the US Virgin Islands. His aim with this book is to analyze the response of both people and governments as well as the lull after the height. He also aims to make some projections, provide the reader with some idea of what the future might look like from an expert’s point of view.
The one thing you will note about this book is the detail with which this book is written. The author is direct and provides all the information to his readers. He makes sure that readers have the full story and the data to fully grasp what he is discussing. This combined with in-depth research leads to the revelation of interesting discoveries. Not all the discoveries he found were beneficial, he uncovered a lot of conspiracy theories and discusses those as well in order to debunk the myth for readers.
COVID-19 AFRICA, HAITI, AND THE U. S. VIRGIN ISLANDS by Dr. Hugues Fidele Batsielilit approaches the pandemic from a critical and scientific eye. As someone that has a medical and emergency management perspective the author has provided readers with information in a nonbiased and objective manner with a logical flow and clear explanations. These are important qualities in a book about a sensitive subject whose available information is either too technical or insufficient and designed for sensationalism. He has provided the reader with a simple explanation and analysis of the situation.
Pages: 251 | ASIN : B09JQ9QLSV
What Could Have Been
Before The Origin follows Amy who is hurled into a world of mystery and magic that is deeply rooted in ancient African folklore. What was the inspiration for the setup to this exciting story?
I have always wanted to write science fiction that is set in dystopian Africa. My tribe (the Hausa’s of Sub-Saharan Africa) is the biggest inspiration for the set up. Hundreds of years ago, before religion and colonization, they believed in spirits, they were partly nomadic in nature and had a whole lifestyle around that, unfortunately, it has been gradually erased and forgotten. My book just explores what could have been if a part of that was still alive.
Amy is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind her character development?
Due to her role in the story, Amy’s character development was a well thought out process. I feel like there is always a part of the author in the main character, and that is where her imposter syndrome comes in, but it was very important to have the reader experience the events of her first day at work through her eyes, which is why she is such a blank slate at the beginning of the story. Her relationship with other characters in the story is also a backdrop for the events in the next book.
I enjoyed the African folklore embedded in the story. What kind of research did you do on the topic to ensure it was accurate?
Thank you! I am always happy to hear that a reader particularly enjoyed the folklore aspect of Before the Origin because I completely made that up. Being African, I grew up listening to stories passed down from generations to generations very much like Xari in the story, but I never heard anything that explained different races or how the continents came to be. African folklore is always rich in the battle of good against evil, so I guess that is something I held on to.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am currently working on the sequel to Before the Origin which is grander in scale and characterization, book one was just a set up to our main characters’ journey as they find themselves in a battle against time and it will be available next year.
Author Links: Facebook | Website
Agent Amy Taff has moved through the world unnoticed until the recent disturbances in an otherwise perfect utopia require her expertise. Desperate to make her mark, Amy is hurled into a world of mystery and magic, deeply rooted in ancient African folklore. Discoveries that threaten her life and could not only change her reality but hold far-reaching implications for everyone on the face of a lone continent. Follow her into an epic tale that begins with accepting a new job at Scythe. Where it ends could swing the scales of balance toward life or death.
The Ambitious Pyramid Of Kush – Trailer
Resilience and Hope
Ted Neill Author Interview
Two Years of Wonder is a memoir detailing your journey towards recovery after an attempted suicide. Why was this an important book for you to write?
Initially writing the book was part of my healing process. Post hospitalization I didn’t have too many intentions of ever publishing it, just to complete it as a way to give a shape to what I had been through. But then as I began to share it with people who were curious about it they kept saying to me “this story has to reach a wider audience.” Then when the kids themselves told me they wanted their stories shared, I felt an obligation to finally get it out there.
Throughout this book you interweave stories of orphan children you helped in Nairobi. What were some themes you felt were important to capture in this book from their stories?
Resilience and hope. While the book contains some of the harrowing experiences of the kids which–I know–are painful for a lot of people to read, throughout even their worst experiences so many of these children demonstrate such a fierce determination to survive and even thrive. They do even to this day which is why I wanted proceeds from the book to go towards their further college educations so they can continue to have some of the same chances I had.
I found this book to be inspirational. What do you hope readers take away from your book?
I want to shine a light on the suffering of these children and how that is a stand in for the suffering all around us. As Dr. Helene Gayle says in the foreword, we don’t need to go to Kenya to find suffering an inequality our world today. A lot of us can just walk down the street. To that end, I hope it makes everyone a bit more compassionate, whether its for vulnerable children in Africa, at our southern border, or the addict/alcoholic on the street corner.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
My next book will be available later this summer. It is called REAPER MOON: RACE WAR IN THE POST APOCALYPSE. It is my attempt to take on the toxic nature of white supremacy and white nationalism which have become resurgent in the United States right now. Link to the preview page on my website is here: Reaper Moon — Tenebray Press.
Author Links: GoodReads | Instagram | Facebook | Website
![Two Years of Wonder: A Memoir by [Neill, Ted]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51VJktul49L.jpg)
September 25, 2012 Ted Neill picked up a knife to cut his wrists open and kill himself. Post hospitalization and treatment for major depressive disorder, he wrote Two Years of Wonder, a memoir based on his journey towards recovery. In it, he examines the experience that left him with such despair: living and working for two years at an orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS in Nairobi, Kenya.
Neill interweaves his story with the experiences of Oliver, Miriam, Ivy, Harmony, Tabitha, Sofie, Nea, and other children, exploring their own paths of trauma, survival, and resilience. In prose that is by turns poetic, confessional, and brutal, Neill with the children he comes alongside, strive to put the pieces of their fractured lives back together as they search for meaning and connection, each trying to reclaim their humanity and capacity to love in the face of inexplicable suffering and loss.
About the Author: In addition to his time living in Kenya, Ted Neill has worked for CARE and World Vision International in the fields of health, education, and child development. He has written for The Washington Post and published multiple novels. His share of proceeds from Two Years of Wonder are donated to the children featured in its pages as well as other Kenyan based organizations that support vulnerable children and youth.
Two Years of Wonder
Upon reading through the first page of Two Years of Wonder, it becomes immediately apparent that the story is one of trials and tribulation. The author, Ted Neill, begins his story conveying feelings of helplessness and despair and then backtracks, taking the reader through all the various difficult experiences that led him to the point of nearly killing himself. It is a long and complex collection of stories, each showing a different part of Neill’s experience as well as why the work he was doing was so important.
Neill starts his journey as a young man from a good university having a desire to do something more. Then, after getting some public aid experience under his belt, he ends up in The Rainbow Children’s Home in Kenya working with children suffering from the HIV/AIDS virus. The “long and complex collection of stories” are each focused on another child in their particular battle with the virus.
Neil spent approximately two years in Kenya working with the children from The Rainbow Children’s Home, and we observe through his methodical storytelling how he is changed through his shared experiences with these children. The result is a feeling of hopelessness and about clinical depression for the author. In part, Neil’s battle for mental health juxtaposed with the challenges facing the children he worked with is what makes this story so unforgettable. You cannot help but empathize with each and every character in the chapters of this book, including the storyteller himself.
Readers expecting a simple, straightforward approach to the narrative behind the story might be in for a little bit of a surprise. While the author does take an autobiographical approach to relaying is story at times, much of what we learn comes from the individual stories being told in parallel. Each piece of the story informs the greater message, and the more we understand about that greater message the more meaningful the smaller stories become. The writing feels genuine and heartfelt, making it easy to get pulled into Neill’s world.
This book easily deserves five out of five stars for its brutal honesty, impeccable storytelling, heart wrenching journey into the lives of so many sufferers, and for the author’s ability to make readers understand what the children in The Rainbow Children’s Home lived through between 2002 and 2004, in Kenya. It is no easy task to relay the extremes of the human experience while also showing the delicate nature of human interaction. Ted Neill’s work on “Two Years of Wonder” is certainly inspiring.
Pages: 282 | ASIN: B07JJQKZGF
Crimes of Rumba – Trailer
Crimes of Rumba is the hottest, epic combination of business, politics, music, and of course, crimes behind the predatory conduct culture that has glamorized the worst corporate malpractice in US cultural history. As a matter of law, order, and economy, the state administrations intolerance and crackdown on musicians dissent and opposition to the colonial music cash crops production is authoritarianism at best and without precedent in the worlds history of colonization and music. This legal truth and material facts-checkings operation is the blunt, exclusive disclosure of the sources and methods used for the cultivation and autocratic harvest of music cash crops in the Belgian Congo, which were economically engineered from and back to America for its consumption through misinformation, disinformation, deceit, and fraud. Not only is this the tale of the utmost scam that has been very fully funded to defraud the worlds collective memory of rumba, it is the hefty price that our humanity has dearly paid for without consent for Foniors crimes of rumba for decades. Silence has been complicity at worst from the people with knowledge of the case against rumba. Not only are the material facts and consumers rights violated and suppressed, along with musicians copyrights for decades, the morally repulsive glamorization of the fraud has brought creative freedom in the worlds music into disrepute. A lot of readers will discover Thierry Antha with the publication of Crimes of Rumba, Volume I of Congo Music. But this international journalist carried decades of excellence in covering the Congo and Haitis politics, business, and entertainment. His professional and personal ties with all the most famous Congolese musicians in advocacy, promotion, and production of their musical works have crowned him the best authority with respect to the Congo musics history. Contrary to all the spinning, posturing, and work of fiction for rumba, Thierry Anthas expertise and dedication to exposing the truth behind material facts and laws related to Congo music from the Belgian Congo to the Congo is second to none. Embark in this riveting literary journey to discover how Socit Gnrales authoritarian harvest of music cash crops has shattered and destroyed lives and careers for its economic gain in the Americas. Without censorship, Crimes of Rumba, Volume I of Congo Music exposes Foniors victims long overdue rebuttal, which is long way apart from the reality of its predatory conduct culture and its propaganda of rumbas fake-outs.
LITERARY TITAN 