AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: ALBRIN JUNIOR
How did your writing Journey begin?
I really can't say when my journey began, and this is because I've always loved writing, and by this I don’t mean fiction, I mean the act of writing itself. Back then in school, I would always ask people for their notes just to help them to write. But aside that, if I'm to be political, I'd say it began with loving the idea of telling stories at a very young age probably before the days of the show, ‘Tales by moonlight.’ My mum had a knack for telling us village stories and often would ask us to tell our own stories and then we’d begin to imagine heaven and earth, lion & tortoise (laughs). But to be fair, my writing journey began with writing poetry, after I had read a couple of Tupac Amaru Shakur poems. I was marveled by the intricacies of words, the imageries and the message he could pass in short lines. Shakespeare made me fall in love deeper and then I began to write poems (that’s why I often say poetry is and will always be my first love, even though I've not written one in more than a year). But I knew I got to an age and told myself I shouldn’t just be reading novels, I too can write mine. (I've always had a crazy and wild imagination). Then I wrote my first nonsense about nine times but knew it wasn’t right. Eventually I studied more and wrote more and having had the idea for Naked Coin some four five years prior, I decided to flesh it out and…well you can guess the rest.
What are your biggest inspirations for writing?
While it is tempting to say God is my biggest inspiration, that will be a cliché knowing that no matter what one does, God is always an inspiration. For me, I think what inspire me to write is the fact that I love the idea of writing in itself. Observing people, environment, culture etc. makes me feel the urge to want to tell a story, to pass a message as well as to entertain. For example, mid last year, someone showed me a page on Instagram about the famous Igbo landing which I had never heard of prior. Immediately, I knew I wanted to tell a story about that. I didn’t get to it until late last year when I had time on my hands. So for me, when I see or hear something interesting or not too often talked about, I want to tell it, especially when it has to do with history. I'm very interested in culture, tradition and history.
Which other writer out there have their career motivated you the most and why?
My answer might sound quite odd because I'd first have to mention the careers of dead prolific writers like Shakespeare, Tupac, Robert Frost, Chinua Achebe, Charles Dickson. For Chinua Achebe, I got interested when people said the texture of my writing reminds them of the works of Chinua Achebe. Before then I've never read any of his works, so I began to but couldn’t see the relationship in our writings (I guess it’s something others and not me can see). I read the works and life of Shakespeare. Then Chimamanda. That woman is a writer from another planet. I read some of her work and listen to her interviews and I'm always awed, she speaks like she’s writing. I must mention George Orwell. I read the works of these people and I'm motivated. My second novel is motivated by a poem of the same title by both Wole Soyinka and the late J. C. Clark.
Knowing what you know about writing life, what would you have done differently if you were to do it all over again?
There are a number of things I've learnt which I can’t mention now because I'd have to elaborate on them, but I think one key thing is try to build an audience before your work drops as this would help in marketing. But then again, no one can know it all, we learn and make mistakes every day.
Your book Naked Coin has so many literary acclaim and awards, how does it feel for your debut novel to have such success?
Well, it feels good especially for a debut. And this is largely because I wasn’t so ambitious about what I expected of the book, maybe it would have been a different case if I was. I only wanted to tell a story that I felt needed to be told, so when it was shortlisted for two international book awards, I was like, wow. I remember submitting for the Bookause Prize, I wasn’t optimistic neither was I pessimistic, I just submitted. When I got the mail of acceptance, I was really surprised, and when my name was called as the winner, I just sat down there wondering if it was really my name I heard. I was speechless & nervous on stage. I've had reviews from foreign & local authors that stunned me, I remember one historical fiction writer wrote to me; Albrin, you're a story teller. I felt good.
In a way, I may attribute me not taking what the novel has accomplished because I’m always more focused on enjoying the work than basking on glories. Some friends tell me I'm too modest and don’t announce myself a lot. In all, I love what my debut novel has accomplished and I know it would still accomplish more, in time.
You obviously have put so much hard work in writing & promoting the book, tell us about your experience.
Writing the book was tedious and fun, and I enjoyed every bit of it. As at the time, I was teaching part time in two places so I barely had time except at nights and weekends, but a big problem then was my laptop was a desktop, so I could only type when there was power which was at nights. I would wake with sluggish eyes but when I begin typing I'm again filled with energy. I never really counted them as pain because I enjoyed the act of writing to tell a story and so every adversity at the time just didn’t seem like one.
Before the book, I was never really a social media person, but at the wake of publishing the book, I did lots of SM publicity. I remember one time Adekunle Gold tweeted something about Chimamanda’s purple hibiscus and I retweeted it with a quote about my novel. He retweeted and asked for the link, and for that reason a number of other person showed interest and got a copy. I went for interviews, blogs and Wazobia Max, and the likes. I think publishing is somewhat easy, promoting is where the work lies.
Naked Coin seems like a story that can get a sequel, could that possibly happen?
(Smiling) Funny enough, I already gave it a prequel which wasn’t the plan from the onset, but it just kind of dropped on me and I did another historical fiction with the Iva Valley massacre as a prequel to it. Only, I wrote it as a short story and not a novel. As for a sequel, I have a story that might look like a sequel, I built it some years back but it’s not something I want to begin yet, and I'm still trying to find a concrete hold to link it as a sequel, if not I'd write that as a standalone. Maybe in the future, I could get an idea for a sequel, but till then.
What writing advice would you give young writers making their path into writing?
I've had a lot of writers or young writers ask how do they go about writing, some say they are lazy to write, some say they don’t think they are good enough to write what people would want to read. My advice has and will always be WRITE. Don’t stop writing for no reason, keep writing and just enjoy writing. If you keep worrying if your work is or will be good then you'll never write anything (ask any creative person, they themselves doubt their own works but still do it anyways). For those who say they don’t have the time, well, nobody has the time but we find time (I wrote 90% of Naked Coin at the middle of the nights). The world need what you have, so WRITE.
What’s your next work and when will it be ready?
That’s a question I was hoping I would avoid (Laughs). I think I must have mentioned it in a way earlier, but I don’t want to discuss it in full. Before I had the idea about this story, I had developed I think about two other stories but hadn’t began writing them, so when this idea came, I intended for it to be a novella because I didn’t have the time and energy to begin a novel. Guess what, when I began writing, I didn’t realize I had crossed the novella mark so I just turned it to a novel. It’s about a Yoruba phenomenon that have been an obsession to me since I read a poem of the same title by Wole Soyinka and J. P. Clark. I wrote the first draft 2019 and just locked it up. I only just got back to the second draft some months ago and I think I should finish in the coming weeks. After that I'd do a third draft and begin to think what next, because I want to be intentional about publishing this. And when I said it is an obsession, I've written about three to four poems about that title, a short film and a feature length. Though they are different storylines. It’s something a Soyinka among other western Nigerian elders would see and appreciate for I brought back a Yoruba phenomenon that ravaged their time.