Today, I’m very proud of our one plant vine growing like a champ.
We got grapevine cuttings from a friend I have spent the last two months babying these two last cuttings into growing into strong plants. One has agreed to bring out leaves, but the other cutting remains dormant. I thought nothing was happening with the dormant one but when I checked it a few days ago, it has roots. So, we’re in the waiting period with that one.
Meanwhile, we might end up with a one plant vineyard, and it’s oddly exciting. I can’t wait to see what happens next. Yes, the little leaves on the one plant have me imagining grapes growing on a vine, maybe making wine out of them. hahaha. Here’s to hope!
Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.
But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems
The sequel to Dread Nation is a journey of revenge and salvation across a divided America.
After the fall of Summerland, Jane McKeene hoped her life would get simpler: Get out of town, stay alive, and head west to California to find her mother.
But nothing is easy when you’re a girl trained in putting down the restless dead, and a devastating loss on the road to a protected village called Nicodermus has Jane questioning everything she thought she knew about surviving in 1880’s America.
What’s more, this safe haven is not what it appears – as Jane discovers when she sees familiar faces from Summerland amid this new society. Caught between mysteries and lies, the undead, and her own inner demons, Jane soon finds herself on a dark path of blood and violence that threatens to consume her.
But she won’t be in it alone.
Katherine Deveraux never expected to be allied with Jane McKeene. But after the hell she has endured, she knows friends are hard to come by – and that Jane needs her, too, whether Jane wants to admit it or not.
Watching Jane’s back, however, is more than she bargained for, and when they both reach a breaking point, it’s up to Katherine to keep hope alive – even as she begins to fear that there is no happily-ever-after for girls like her.
Deathless Divide, Goodreads.com
Book Review
Dread Nation came first and it is super amazing. I enjoyed discovering Jane McKeene because she is feisty, strong-willed and kicks ass. She is a fierce black girl lead. Nothing can keep her down. She lives her life how she wants it, despite her circumstances. Book One (Dread Nation) is badass.
It made me want to read Deathless Divide, and continue with Jane. Book Two is absolutely darker than the first book. Which is a strange perspective considering the background of zombies and settlements where Jane is faced with segregation and fighting for equal rights for resources found in book one. The zombies continue in book two, and the settlement where Jane ends up with her friends is a bit more civilized, to a point.
However, in Book Two Jane deals with grief and the part she plays in the death of a man she cared about. She loses people close to her, and the ensuing grief plunges her into a very dark period of her life. The added bonus is that Book Two includes Katherine Deveraux’s POV. Katherine is Jane’s best friend, and the one person capable of pulling Jane back from the dark side. We get to meet a host of new characters as they all fight to survive the world-ending zombie pandemic. Katherine helps pull Jane back when she is all but lost in a quest that could threaten her life.
In all, Dread Nation and Deathless Divide represent strong-willed black women willing to fight for their friends and family in order to survive a harsh and brutal world.
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
Book Review
This is not a fast read. It took me a bit of time to get through the first three chapters. They are full of world building, which is necessary, but felt very tedious. I found myself stopping and coming back again hoping to reach an easier part. Once I was over this, it was easy to sink in to the world of the Stillness.
The characters are extraordinary. The development of each one is thorough and compelling. From Essun’s devastating loss which she carries through the book, and at each point defines her actions. To Syen and Alabaster who are part of an organization working to tame their very nature. These characters face incredible horrifying scenes. They survive in a world in which they are oppressed for being different and extraordinary.
The Fifth Season is not a one day read. It needs time because there is so much to unpack. Once I give it the time it needs, I loved the resilience weaved into among the characters.
A fresh new start for the year 2022. I’m excited for new projects, and a new creative cycle. Here is what is on the writing desk this year:
Zev’s Afrotheria – This is a story I’ve worked on off and on for the last few months. I’ll post it more often on this blog , look out for the chapters.
Zev Mablevi’s younger sister goes missing after a vicious attack on their home by ghost wraiths. To find her, he needs the power of the Guardian Guild. Zev gives up on his dreams to join the prestigious Tech Class and enters the Guardian Guild. He works hard to join the most elite force in the guild on a quest to gain enough power to investigate his sister’s disappearance. He soon meets Dahlia, a progressive scientist who believes she has found a way to win against the wraiths for good. She needs a guardian who can take her to the top of the mountain where the ghost wraiths come from. She promises Zev to help him find his sister if he gets her to the mountain and back.
Kipepeo – I started this during the 2019 nanowrimo cycle. I always feel it needs more work, so I’ll polish it up and share it soon.
Henson lives in a two-room house in with his mother and four siblings. He wins a swimming competition in the local community center and wins a scholarship to Bayside College. An elite school in the Lavington Hillsides. There he meets Livia, the daughter of an affluent businessman. They fall in love, but when her parents discover their relationship, they threaten to withdraw his scholarship. Livia breaks Henson’s heart to protect him.
Ten years later, Henson works in a reputable accounting firm in Nairobi. He meets Livia, who is now managing her father’s business. She needs help to save her family’s business from creditors. Will Henson help her?
Jelani’s Empire – This is a tentative name for this story. In the books it is simply Ram & Amber. Hoping by the end of the year, it will be more than a shell.
Ram fights to recover his mother’s place in his family’s empire. This is a work in progress with no real blurb. I’m lost in development world with it.
So much to do and write, and January is already underway. ^_^ This is my list of work in progress. I hope yours is going well too.
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.
Book Review
Roy and Celestial are in love and married for a year and change. Their story starts out with a working marriage. Roy is happy with his wife and his greatest concern is how he can get his mother and wife to be friends. There are cracks in the tapestry. Celestial suspects Roy is not entirely faithful, and Roy is determined to prove her wrong. There is the problem of the in-laws who might or might not like Celestial. The serious pressure from both pair of parents to get a child. Roy and Celestial are living a relatively happy life until Roy is arrested and falsely accused of a crime he did not commit. Celestial becomes a wife to an incarcerated man. Roy becomes a husband locked away for a whopping twelve years. Their new dynamic strips them of dignity, long held expectations and dreams, and a challenge on commitment begins.
I enjoyed how real Roy and Celestial are portrayed in this book. Their relationship is far from perfect. They fight and make up. They even have a phrase to help them get back from the edge, to escape irrevocable damage. They might have worked out their differences with time. When they are forced apart…pulled asunder by the law of the land, their life changes.
Absence takes hold of them and a new path starts for Roy and Celestial.
An American Marriage explores relationships between parents and their children. Roy’s parents have a very strong impact on his life, and on Celestial. Celestial’s parents also play a role for Roy and what he believes his dreams to be. The most interesting relationships were between fathers and sons. Roy had two, and at a point this hidden truth results in a fight between him and Celestial. Much later, it plays a role in getting Roy through a difficult five years in prison.
At the heart of this story is a relationship between a man and his wife, and Celestial’s best friend, Andre. At one point Celestial Davenport thinks “…I never imagined myself to be the kind of woman who would find herself with both a husband and a fiancé…” Roy cannot accept this reality and does his best to fight for his rights as a husband when he gets out. After all he was innocent when he went to jail, he did the time and hoped his wife would still be where he left her when he got out.
Yet, Absence grew in five long years, life continued and did not stay still when Roy was inside. Celestial’s choice to have Andre as a fiancé is harsh on Roy. She comes off as disloyal, but maybe their relationship was already on shaky ground from the start. It would not have been strong enough to withstand five long years of absence. The true tragedy here is the catalyst of Roy’s incarceration. Without the false accusation, Roy and Celestial would have continued on, living their lives as they were.
Dead fathers. Critical mothers. Abusive marriages. Body insecurities. Young love. And always, expectations. Notes Under the Door is an anthology of seven African literary short stories that explores what it can mean to be a girl, a young woman, in a world that demands too much of women, and gives back too little. Set in urban Kenya, each story follows a girl or a woman grappling with the experience of being who they are – young, female, African, layered, complex, whole.
Book Review
Notes Under the Door & Other Stories is a collection of seven short stories. Each story is a glimpse into a deeply profound moment. A moment delving into the secret, complicated mind of Kenyan women at different stages of life. The experiences described in these moments are tangible and feel very real.
Chepchumba’s characters speak on diverse, sensitive issues such as, unexpected pregnancy, and how hard it can be to acclimate to the dramatic change of life a baby brings. She delves on relationships, and how hard they can be to maintain. A short story on domestic violence from the perspective of a young girl shows the impact it has on children. How domestic violence changes a child’s view of a parent.
Notes Under the Door gives this book its name. It is a story tackling grief, obligations, and abortion. Each one of these adding on to the damaging effects on a mother at the time of abortion, and years later, when life continues on.
In Spilling into the World, a character asks, ‘…why can’t you decide you’re beautiful?’. What a powerful question. Spilling into the World looks at body image in a world where mainstream stereotypes impact women’s views of their own beauty, and their self-confidence.
A heartbreaking story told from the perspective of a young girl whose father does not look at her, nor treat her as ‘his princess’, concludes the collection.
Overall, Notes Under the Door & Other Stories reads like tales told from a best friend’s perspective. Stories to make you feel, ‘Ah, I’m not alone in this. There are others like me.’ These stories depict women living experiences in our rapidly changing modern world. They are a conversation to continue, and normalize. I most enjoyed the realness of these short stories.
I want to pause and think of the good happenings in terms of this blog and my writing this year. So, this is my 2021 gratitude post.
It is two weeks until the New Year 2022. I haven’t posted much on the blog this 2021, but I have met incredibly amazing people this year because of this blog. I am truly grateful for the experiences that have come to me because of these amazing people.
From amazing books to read and review, to a publishing adventure I am incredibly excited to be a part of, and although I cannot talk about it, I am grateful for the inspiration I am gaining from the process.
This year I had the privilege to virtually meet Bako Pierre Aymard, a translator / Interpreter [English-Spanish-French], from La Salle University, Philadelphia, USA. He created a Spanish Translation of my book, I Dream of You. It was so exciting to receive the completed file, all my words in Spanish. I am incredibly grateful to him for the work he has done, and for choosing to translate my book. I will definitely work to put it out by the end of this year.
I got to virtually meet Nomaqhawe Ndlovu (Noma), who writes for Verve Romance. She wrote a very inspiring and informative article on Romance Novels and their role in African relationship expectations. I’m grateful she included me in her project, and that she featured my short contribution in the article. You can follow Noma on Twitter here.
I would also like to thank Firdaus H. Salim for featuring me in the Mt Kenya Times earlier in the year. She published my interview and featured Save My Heart on the ePaper. I was grateful for the opportunity to talk about my writing ideas and hopes and I thank her for featuring my book. Find the article below. Follow Mt Kenya Times on Instagram here.
Thank you, to all who find inspiration to create their own work, and to publish, after reading my blog. I am happy to know the information here is of use to you, and I hope to continue creating more useful content.
Most of all, I am grateful to all of you who read my blog.
Here is to looking forward to even more incredible happenings in the year 2022!
It was less than two years after three children lost their daddy to a car crash. The rawness of such a loss still fresh in their minds, the world seemed like a battlefield with every step. Strangers turned to friends, while friends they had known left, not able to withstand the sense of grief clouding around the three children and their little mother. It was a hard time for the small family of four.
Now, their home was a farm at the end of a stretch of land with a very muddy access road. On very rainy days, a lake of sorts would form in the middle of the access road. The mother of these three children would then have to find a way to get them across daily in order to get them to school. There were two pairs of shoes to be worn. Gumboots and rain coats to get through the massive swamp and school shoes to wear when the three children got to the bus stop. The family that owned the property closest to the main road was kind and allowed a small path at the driest part inside their own farm away from the access road. But even this little path would sometimes get hard to pass through.
In any case, the little family survived the best they could through the very rainy season and the massive swamp lake that formed in the middle of their access road.
One day, the neighbors who owned property opposite the little family’s farm opened a small gate on to their access road. They wanted a second exit they said. One that would allow them to have two gates. One gate on their main road on the other side of their property, and the little one on the muddy access road with the swamp in the middle.
The mother of the children had no problem with this development. In fact, she thought it would be a blessing. Perhaps the kids would have an easier time going to school now. They might use that small access to get to the drier road on the other side, and their path would be easier to school.
In the dry season, this little gate never came to play for the little family. Their access road was fine, and they went about their lives as usual.
Then the swamp in the middle of the road returned after a particularly rainy day. It was holiday time, and the three children did not need to go to school. However, their mother did want to send them to the shop, so she handed the three money and asked them to get a kilo of sugar from the shop. They had seen others using the small gate made by the neighbors to escape the swamp, so they thought, ‘Oh, we can also try this gate. It will be easier to escape mud and swampy water.’
They were nervous about it, after all this was a new route, but they thought they would try it and see if they could get to the other dry road. After all, the owners also use their access road in the dry season. All would surely be well.
They were wrong.
A panga is a Machette, very popular farming tool in Kenya
They barely made it to the opposite gate of the quiet property to the other road when a man came out swinging a panga from his house. The panga was sharp, his words sharper and he chased them as one would chase thieves. He screamed insults at them, and threatened to cut them to pieces, fear grew and the three children screamed running back home at the speed of light. They forgot why they had ventured outside their home and went to find their mother.
When the three children ran home, their little mother was in shock at their crying faces. She asked if they had been robbed off the money she gave for sugar, and tried to soothe them, wiping away their tears. In minutes, she discovered their story and a burning anger fueled her to confront this villainous man who would dare threaten to cut her children with a sharp panga.
When she got to his gate, she asked him why he would do this, and he threatened the little mother, telling her to shut up or he’ll kill her. This mother was not one to take insults quietly. She screamed for help and the neighbors came. As she was calling for help, this villainous man wrapped his hands around her neck and tried his best to rob her off breath.
It took three men to pull this villainous man off the little mother. Her voice was hoarse from the assault. Her neck damaged. The three children were in shock. Not less than two years ago, they had all buried their father after a car accident, now here was a man doing his best to turn them into orphans. Sinister yet, he was not sorry about it.
It became clear that a path to the dry road on the other side was not worth this hefty price of death.
In any case, the courts became involved. The villainous man was tried with attempted murder and the illegal path into the muddy access road was closed by a judge.
Life continued, as it often does.
Three little children grew up and in a blink twenty years passed.
Their little mother still struggles with neck problems, as a result of the assault on her neck. Some nights she has to sleep with a neck collar. The children often make sure it is new and available even when she travels. This was a price they paid for daring to think that all neighbors are made equal.
They all learned that the kindness of one family cannot be carried to the next family. Their access road still gets terrible in the rain, but they endure and find ways to pass through it without complaint. Muddy shoes are a much easier price to pay than death from murder by a villainous neighbor.
A few years ago, the villainous man’s family opened a path to the muddy access road again. They use it unstopped by the little mother and the three children. No pangas raised against them or hands wrapped around their throats in a grotesque picture of murderous intent. None of the villainous man’s family help fix the muddy road, after all they still have the other side to use during the rainy seasons. This lesson is that the nature of a family’s values remains and does not change.
Recently, the little mother was helping one of her daughters transplant a tree from their gate into their farm. She saw a woman pass their gate heading for the now illegal path at the end of their access road and said, “Ah, that’s that villainous man’s daughter. You should know her in case she comes to yell over electricity poles near their fence.”
Yes, the spectacle of a woman screaming over electricity poles has happened to the little mother, but that is a story for another day.
The little mother’s daughter spared the woman in question no glance. After all that woman’s daddy almost cost her a mother.
“It’s better not to know or interact with them,” the daughter said. “Nothing good can come from it.”
“True, ” the little mother said, touching her neck.
In the end, the little family lives on, but the question still remains, what makes people so unreasonable as to want to murder over a small moment?
Can you forgive someone who tries his best to choke you to death because you asked a question about your children, who tried to pass a path this person’s opened, that others have used unstopped, but your children had to face a machette on the first attempt? What would you do with this reality?
This is my birth month, so I always feel as though I’m full of excitement in October. The post today is about Haroun Risa’s Mombasa Raha. He sent me his book for a read and review. The content in this book is a lot on the heavy side. My soul felt sad reading the harrowing experiences his characters go through. I would call this an Awareness Book. The topic tackled is on human trafficking, sex tourism, and murder in a world hidden in plain sight. I give Haroun respect for daring to delve into this topic and making a book out of it.
Mombasa Raha, My Foot is available to purchase at The Nuria Store, Moi Avenue ( Next to Assanand’s Music Shop).
Mombasa Raha, My Foot
by Haroun Risa
Book Review
Mombasa Raha has an insightful collection of characters. Together they form a tapestry of life at its very worst and at its very best. The characters in Mombasa Raha experience great betrayals, suffer pain and unimaginable tragedies. The one thing they have in common is the knowledge that there is a hidden underworld found at the Coast of Kenya. This underworld is not kind, or safe, instead it is brutal and takes everything to survive an encounter.
At the center of Mombasa Raha is Ruth. Ruth consumes herself with an investigation of her estranged sister’s murder. Ruth tackles the realities of human trafficking and rape. She discovers what living through such experiences did to her sister. She delves into the hidden parts of her sister’s life to discover the devastating truth of her sister’s death.
This story is not easy, nor is it a story to read fast. It is a revelation into the harrowing experiences Kenyans fall into and how they fight to survive the cards dealt in search of Mombasa Raha.
This book was given to me by the author for a review. The book’s content is R18+ and above. There is mention of rape and human trafficking.
Stories and Book Talk 