Wanjeri Gakuru was one of two winners of the Vignette Writing Contest announced on November 15, 2010. You can read her piece, A Moment with Magic.
 
Wanjeri is a print journalist by profession currently working with UP Magazine -a very cool, very funky Kenyan publication-who also moonlights as a poet and short fiction writer. It is her hope to one day take on writing short fiction and maybe full-length novels on a full-time basis but in the meantime she goes about accumulating the knowledge of the world in order to tell her…your…our stories.
 
“I love words. I always have. Over and above the many avenues of expression I have had at my disposal, nothing has come close to the liberty I feel whenever I write. Through out my life words have been my friend and companion and I hope my love affair never ends…”
 
Visit her blog at [http://wanjeri.wamathai.com]

David Dvorkin

David Dvorkin had been known to me through my writer friend Leonore Dvorkin (David’s wife), though without any direct correspondence of mine with David for a long time. But his life-long passion for writing and his enviable commitment to writing and publishing has been on my mind, a source of inspiration and encouragement for a long time. As David’s writing page tells, he connected with the artistic spirit when he was a toddler. But it was many years later, after he was married to Leonore, that David took up regular writing. Today, David is the author of several books – mostly novels – stories, and essays.
 
 
Here’s my very first e-interview with David, who is now turning to e-publishing instead of the more traditional form of publishing through literary agents.

Ernest: Hello, David, it’s a pleasure to be speaking to you. How long have you been publishing and what have you written about mostly?

David: My first short story publication was in the early 1970s, and my first novel came out in the mid-70s, so it’s getting close to 40 years now. I’ve sold very few short stories. Most of my publication, and most of my writing effort, has been in the area of novels – generally science fiction, horror, and mysteries. The science fiction includes three Star Trek novels, my only experience with work-for-hire fiction. I also published a non-fiction book about solar energy about 30 years ago. I don’t plan to do any more book-length non-fiction, although I do enjoy posting small essays about various topics on my Web site and my blog.

Like most authors, my favorite novel is the one I’m working on now. But if I try to put that irrational attachment aside, my favorite among my novels, and the one that was the most important to me emotionally, was Business Secrets from the Stars. It’s a comic novel that satirizes the publishing industry, writers, American politics, and the corporate world. In it, I created a protagonist who possessed many of the personality traits I dislike most in myself, but magnified enormously for comic effect. I had a wonderful time writing the book, and by the end of it I had managed to overcome many of the inner demons that my protagonist has surrendered to. It’s an entertaining novel that provided effective, free therapy to the author.

Ernest: You turned to e-publishing finally and feel happy with it. What are the main charms of e-publishing?

David: For e-publishing generally, there’s the speed of getting the book out and its availability to anyone with a computer or e-book reader and an Internet connection. It bypasses the monopoly that distributors and Barnes & Noble exercise over bookstore availability in the US. There’s also the book’s lifetime. In theory, an e-book should never be out of print or out of stock.

But I’d like to emphasize that what I’ve turned to is e-book self-publishing. In so doing, I’ve also bypassed the roadblock of traditional publishing houses, who think they’re the gatekeepers of literature when they’re really the gate blockers, limiting what the reading public even gets to see to a narrow, blandly written, highly commercial slice of the true literary spectrum. By imposing their requirements on how commercial fiction must be written and packaged, they have stifled the change and growth and creative energy that characterized fiction throughout most of its history. I’m writing now with an artistic freedom that I didn’t allow myself before. It’s wonderfully liberating.

Ernest: Do you feel that self-publishing e-books is empowering authors against the editorial processes involved in traditional publishing?

David: Very much so! Publishers impose their own narrow rules and preferences upon their authors. This is limiting and stifling, and it’s not even based on anything. For example, it’s widely accepted in the publishing industry that commercial fiction, and especially genre fiction, should avoid multiple points of view. The story should be told through the eyes of one point-of-view protagonist, and the point of view must never switch characters within a scene. Tell that to Anthony Trollope, one of the greatest and most important and influential novelists in the history of the English language. Modern editors would slaughter his prose and reduce it to bland, tasteless gruel.

Publishers impose this nonsensical rule about point of view because they’re convinced that that’s what readers want. How do they know that’s true? They don’t. They assume the mantle of authority and assert it loudly.

To large publishers, books are commercial products. A successful book is one that sells very many copies. The prose, the packaging, and the marketing of a book are all integrated toward that goal. Any element that someone insists will interfere with achieving that goal is removed. The resulting bland, depersonalized product is then presented to the public by a bland, impersonal corporation.

But what about a writer who really can’t write? Doesn’t his work require editing by a publisher? I say, no. When I read a book, I want to know that it was really written by the author whose name is on it. I want the author’s personality to come through. Let him learn grammar, spelling, and punctuation on his own time. Even if he can’t master those basic elements of writing, let him go ahead and self-publish his e-books. Perhaps he’s still a great storyteller who will provide hours and escape and enjoyment to readers.

Ernest: And what are some of the main disadvantages associated with e-books?

David: Visibility is probably the main one. An e-book will never show up on a bookrack somewhere, to be picked up and possibly bought by a curious passing reader. Readers have to be looking for the book specifically on the various online bookselling sites. But that’s a general problem with books not written by famous authors and/or published by major publishers. Printed books from small publishers also don’t show up on bookracks, and readers have to look for them specifically, usually online. Getting the word out is very difficult for most of us, whether our books are e-books or printed.

The second main problem I can think of is resistance to the very idea of an e-book.

Some people can’t read for long on a computer screen for physical reasons, such as eye problems. The ability to change the size and color of the font, as well as the color and brightness of the screen’s background, should actually make reading on a screen easier for such people than reading printed material, where the appearance is fixed. But I don’t think that people with such problems are likely to try extended reading on a screen, no matter what they’re told about how customizable e-readers are to their needs.

There are also people who prefer the feel of a printed book and have a philosophical aversion to e-readers. Perhaps some of them will change their minds with time. There are still authors who refuse to write on a computer and insist on using a typewriter. The passage of time keeps reducing their numbers, and the same will surely apply to the percentage of people who reject the very idea of an e-book.

Ernest: How do you plan to market a self-published e-book? Is it exclusively online marketing?

David: Yes, all online. I’ve tried other types of advertising in the past, and it seemed to do no good.

I’m active in a number of online discussion forums, so I’ve posted about the new e-book there. After those postings, there have been a few sales. It’s impossible to know if the postings led to the sales, but I can say that the sales for this book have exceeded the sales for the old ones following the paid ads I used to try. I’ve also been looking for review sites or journals that review e-books, and I plan to contact those. I would welcome any suggestions.

I’m assuming that word of mouth is even more important for e-books than for printed ones, precisely because readers won’t come across e-books while browsing the racks.

Ernest: E-books generally sell for less than print versions. Do you see it as a weakness of e-publishing industry?

David: No, I see it as the arrogance, or perhaps just the overblown costs, of the traditional print industry. Barnes & Noble pays the publisher only half the cover price for a book it carries in its stores. All bookstores can return just the covers of unsold paperbacks for a full refund from the publisher. Publishers are minor arms of major conglomerates that require hefty quarterly profits from each pawn in the corporate empire. Huge advances are paid to a few superstar authors. Editors aren’t paid much, but top executives at publishing companies are as obscenely overpaid as top executives everywhere else. That’s the overblown cost side. As for arrogance, major publishers know that no small competitors will get space on the racks at Barnes & Noble’s superstores or on the racks at supermarkets. So they can push up the cover price of a mass market book to absurd levels.

E-publishing bypasses all of that. Big publishers are still trying to charge absurd prices for the e-book editions of their print bestsellers, but I hope that the availability of cheaper (and, of course, better written) self-published e-book alternatives will undermine them in time. That fight is still underway, with overfed major publishers on one side and with readers and Amazon on the other.

Ernest: Okay, do you think we can be as proud as e-book authors as when we imagine ourselves authors of traditional print books?

David: Certainly. After all, it’s the content that counts, not the format.

But at the risk of being hyperbolic, I’ll go beyond that.

This is more than a change in method of presentation, or an increase in the convenience of reading a book. I think we’re seeing a transformation comparable to papyrus replacing cuneiform clay tablets, and paper replacing papyrus, and print replacing laboriously handwritten copies, and the advent of the cheap pocket book. Each of these advances had a powerful effect on civilization. The e-book revolution makes every book of which even a single copy exists available to people of every class and location. It also makes publication available to millions of people who could never have published their writing before. Those of us who publish our work in e-book format are at the forefront of a profound revolution. That’s something to be proud of!

Ernest: Please tell a little about your next book.

David: It’s titled Chains and it’s essentially a mainstream novel. It’s set in the present and the near future. There are some futuristic, science-fictional elements, but the focus is on a small group of characters and their relationships and problems with each other and the world. The science fiction is in the background and affects the characters without their paying much attention to it.

This is a change for me. In the past, I’ve written more traditional science fiction and horror, in the sense that the science-fictional or horror elements of the story were always in the forefront of the plot and of the characters’ thoughts. I’m enjoying this more mainstream approach to the story.

I don’t want to say more except that I’m happily breaking the rules of the publishing industry. For example, there are multiple points of view in many of the scenes, and the reader finds himself jumping from the mind of one character to that of another. I think that improves the story, and I think that the fact that it does shows just how wrong the traditional publishing industry is in its view of how a novel should be written and just how artistically superior the new e-book self-publishing venue is.

Ernest: Thank you, David, for your time and sharing your thoughts on e-publishing!

Ernest Dempsey is the pen name of Karim Khan. Dempsey is the author of a humor book, The Biting Age. He conducts interviews, and he also writes articles, professional book reviews, essays, and poetry. Currently, Dempsey is working on his second book. Find out more about Ernest Dempsey at his website.

Frankline Sunday

My name is Frankline Sunday. I am currently a fourth year student of Mass Communicationand Media Technology at Maseno University. I am also a correspondent for the Business Dailya publication of the Nation Media Group. Besides writing for journalism, I also like creativewriting mainly short stories and poems. I am also an enthusiast of new media and do some bitof blogging at www.chroniomas.blogspot.com during my free time.

Eberekpe Whyte Anthony Ogho is a Nigerian. The Burning Bush by Eberekpe Whyte was winning story of KC 9 & 10

Eberekpe Whyte

He was born in the late April of 1970. He studied Nautical Science in his native country and went further to study Journalism & Newswriting at the London School of Journalism. Besides being a motivational speaker, he is also the author of such works as; ABULE OJE, EVWRI EL-RUSTIC, BLACK BRITAIN, THE INK; MY PEN, SONGS OF HEARTS, BAPY Ps, SACRED and NUMBER TENSE DAWNING STRICT. See more of Eberekpe at www.eberekpewhyte.com

Alex Mutua

Alex Mutua is the author of the Kenyan Conversations Story of the Week  Illicit.

He is 26 years old, and a former student at Nairobi Aviation College. He is currently on an extended internship and training at the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA). He is also a regular contributor in daily papers especially Kenya Today and The Standard. Alex Mutua is interested in writing fiction, poems, plays, commentaries, and feature articles. Alex also writes in Swahili. He loves reading, from magazines to critic books and novels. At the moment he is working on his first novel.

Clifton Anthony Gashagua

Clifton Gashagua is 4th year biomedical student. ‘I spend my time in the laboratory writing poems and prose on notebooks. Every time I start on a story I imagine it as a poem so I often end up writing poems! I know I’ll end up as a microbiologist. I water the flowers at home thrice a day. I cannot wait till they bloom.’ Read his winning story – A Freshly Ground Professor.

In “Bought and Sold,” Benjamin Zephaniah asks, “What happened to the verse of fire”? “Smart big awards and prize money,” he warns, are “killing off black poetry.” Poets who seek commercial approval risk losing their ability to find what Zephaniah terms “de magic poem,” a poem that “can ease our sorrows” and celebrate “our tomorrows.” A poet of the heart and of the head, Benjamin Zephaniah writes and performs socially engaged poetry, a poetry that makes audiences laugh and cry, feel and care, think and plan, engage the world in its possibilities and its obstacles.

Poet, novelist and playwright Benjamin Zephaniah was born on 15 April 1958. He grew up in Jamaica and the Handsworth district of Birmingham, England, leaving school at 14. He moved to London in 1979 and published his first poetry collection, Pen Rhythm, in 1980.

Meet and Talk to Benjamin Zephaniah at the Storymoja Hay Festival 2010

He holds an honorary doctorate in Arts and Humanities from the University of North London (1998), was made a Doctor of Letters by the University of Central England (1999), and a Doctor of the University by the University of Staffordshire (2002). He has recently been awarded further honorary doctorates by London South Bank University, the University of Exeter and the University of Westminster.

Zephaniah’s writing includes  -  The Dread Affair: Collected Poems (1985) which contained a number of poems attacking the British legal system, Poetry for children – Turkeys (1994) and Funky Chickens (1996), Rasta Time in Palestine (1990), an account of a visit to the Palestinian occupied territories, contained poetry and travelogue, and novels for teens  - Face (1999), described by the author as a story of ‘facial discrimination’; Refugee Boy (2001), the story of a young boy, Alem, fleeing the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea; Gangsta Rap (2004); and Teacher’s Dead (2007).

In addition to his published writing, Benjamin Zephaniah has produced numerous music recordings, including Us and Dem (1990) and Belly of de Beast (1996), and has also appeared as an actor in several television and film productions, including appearing as Moses in the film Farendg (1990). His first television play Dread Poets Society, was first screened by the BBC in 1991. His play Hurricane Dub was one of the winners of the BBC Young Playwrights Festival Award in 1998, and his stage plays have been performed at the Riverside Studios in London, at the Hay-on-Wye Literature Festival and on television. His radio play Listen to Your Parents, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2000, won the Commission for Racial Equality Race in the Media Radio Drama Award and has been adapted for the stage, first performed by Roundabout, Nottingham Playhouse’s Theatre in Education Company, in September 2002.

Watch Benjamin Zephaniah – What’s Up on Youtube

Prizes and awards that Zephaniah has won

1988   BBC Young Playwrights Festival Award Hurricane Dub

2001   Commission for Racial Equality Race in the Media Radio Drama Award Listen to Your Parents

2002   Portsmouth Book Award (Longer Novel category) Refugee Boy

2005   British Book Awards Decibel Writer of the Year (shortlist)

2006   Manchester Book Award (shortlist)   Gangsta Rap

You will have a chance to meet and talk with Benjamin Zephaniah at the Storymoja Hay Festival 2010.

Find out more about Zephaniah at his website

Or Read about books by Benjamin Zephaniah at encompassculture.com – the British Council’s book database and global online book club Buy books by Benjamin Zephaniah at Amazon.co.uk

Mwangi Ichungwa  follows in Naomi Kamau and Clifford Oluoch’s footsteps with his winning Contemporary Nairobi story The Classifieds and excels! Congratulations Mwangi!

Mwangi Ichung’wa writes for the sheer love of it. End of story.

Mwangi Ichungwa

Hook up with his other Stories:

1. They Look like Diamonds.

2. Oh well…

3. The Art of Death.

4. The Meet.

5. Spilt Milk.

6. High Treason.

7. I am Dust.