W.O.T.G Blog.

Q: So, the question was how much of Detective Inspector Darko Dawson is me, or how much of me is in Darko. To clear something up from the very start, I don’t smoke marijuana, nor do I drink alcohol. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll tell you that I did try marijuana twice when I was in med school, and yes, I did inhale, and on both occasions I found it unpleasant. So that was the end of my involvement with weed, or “wee,” as it’s called in Ghana.
K: Why does Darko smoke wee?
Q: Apart from his liking it? I’m not sure that there’s a deeper reason than that. When the character was being created out of the primordial soup, so to speak, that was one of the foibles he took on. It could have been in my subconscious from childhood when I read a lot of Sherlock Holmes. As you probably know, Holmes had a morphine and cocaine addiction. However there was no way Darko would be a major “druggie” like that, and there was no way he would be an alcoholic either. I would detest that. Besides, the boozing detective has been done to death. It’s old and cliched.
K: Does Darko continue the marijuana habit in the second novel, CHILDREN OF THE STREET?
Q: Without giving too much away, let’s say he wrestles with it, and this time the smoking gets him into a bit of a pickle.
K: Okay, so marijuana is definitely something you don’t have in common with Darko. So let’s get to what you do have in common.
Q: He’s also a lot taller than I am, I might add. I don’t like being short (laughs). One area where Darko and I are in sync is we both have empathy for those who are suffering or deprived, along with a certain impatience with authority and protocol. You’ll see this in Darko in CHILDREN OF THE STREET.
K: The empathy for the suffering and deprived – does that come from your being a doctor?
Q: Maybe, but remember, some doctors have no empathy whatsoever. No, I’ve had that trait since I was a kid.
K: And the impatience with authority and protocol?
Q: I’m not sure what that’s about, but I’ll tell you I almost went bonkers as a teenager when I was in a British style boarding school where protocol and regimentation were everything, and likewise I would fare very poorly in the military where you can’t question rules and authority, no matter how senseless they are.
K: Say something about your father. You dedicated your first novel to him.
Q: My late father. He died a painful death from pancreatic cancer. He taught me – just by example, I think – how to write. I don’t mean putting sentences together. I’m talking about the dedication and doggedness one needs in order to write. Dad was a writer himself – among many other things – but of nonfiction. I always remember the sound of him pecking away at the typewriter keys very late at night. I admired that tenacity very much.
K: Do you write late into the night yourself?
Q: Only if I’m on deadline. Otherwise I’m not much of a nocturnal beast when it comes to writing. My creative brain works much better early in the morning.
K: When you start a new novel, do you power straight through to the end, or do you go back and forth to get it right before moving on?
Q: Power through, generally. Unless something comes up in the story that so radically alters it that I really have to go back to make the rest of the novel work.
K: Do you work from an outline?
Q: I didn’t before, but after WIFE OF THE GODS came out, my publishers asked me to show them a synopsis for the next novel as well as the first 30 pages or so. At the time, I had some of the pages but I sure didn’t have the synopsis. I worked on it for about a week, sweating bullets as I approached the end of the synopsis and still didn’t know who the murderer was. But that came to me like a flash, and then I got the job done. So CHILDREN OF THE STREET, which I like to call “COTS,” came to be written with the help of an outline. I must say it enabled me to write much faster.
K: Did it closely follow the outline?
Q: Only loosely, but deviation from the blueprint made it richer.
K: How long did it take you to finish the first draft?
Q: Three and a half months.
K: How long did WIFE OF THE GODS take?
Q: Depends where you start counting. If you start from the very inception, the very first time the kernel of the idea entered my mind, then it’s about ten years. If you count from when I completely reformatted the story at the urging of my agent and editor, then I would say two years.
K: Do you think knowing your main characters the second time around augmented the speed at which you wrote?
Q: Undoubtedly. I feel I understand Darko way more than before. I was very comfortable writing him the second time.
K: Some reviewers found his flashes of violent anger very objectionable.
Q: Right, which is fine, because that gives room for him to grow, doesn’t it? If I start out with him being Mr. Goody-two-shoes, it doesn’t give me much to work with. There are a couple things I dread as a writer. The first is that readers might skip pages because they find the story boring and want to get to a part where something actually happens, and my second fear is that my hero is so dull that he’s eclipsed by villains who are more interesting. Dullness is a nightmare characteristic for a hero. I once read a mystery by one of the most well-known and veteran mystery writers in the world whose character has been used for more than one TV series, and I came away from the book feeling the hero was so uninteresting. I didn’t want to meet the man. I want people to want to meet Darko. But he’s being disliked by some is okay. What I would say, though, is give him a chance. Don’t drop him. His story is just beginning.
K: Darko has an eye for attractive women. A lot of people want to know if he’ll cheat on his wife Christine in the second novel.
Q: And you think I’m going to tell?
K: No, but I thought I’d give it a try. It’s interesting that you gave Darko an untroubled married life – at least so far. A lot of detectives in fiction are single, divorced or have marital troubles.
Q: Yes, I suppose I could have gone one way or the other. Raymond Chandler is said to have said, “A really good detective never gets married.” I’m not sure about that. Seems a little arbitrary.
K: When you’re writing, do you find that the story taking you places you hadn’t even thought of in the planning stages?
Q: Oh, absolutely. That’s what makes it so thrilling. Things pop out of the blue. Sometimes I’m so excited about what’s going to happen next that I can barely pull myself away from my laptop.
K: You wake up early to write and then you go to work?
Q: Actually I wake up early, get to work about six-fifteen in the morning – I avoid traffic that way – and then I write at my workplace until eight when my shift starts.
K: That means you have to switch gears completely from a fictional world to a real one?
Q: Yes, and sometimes it’s tough to do.
K: If you were to not completely come out of that fictional world, might you end up paying less attention to your patients?
Q: Theoretically you might think so, but it has never happened. The on-off switch in my brain is pretty clear-cut. It’s like people who know several languages. They can switch on whichever language they’re going to speak and switch off the others.
K: When you get an idea for the story or the characters, do you jot it down?
Q: What for? If you have to jot down an idea for your plot, it must mean the idea is forgettable, and if it’s forgettable, you probably don’t want it in the story.
K: Sometimes it’s suggested that writers carry around three by five cards so they can write a plot idea down when it occurs to them.
Q: That’s comical. Throw the cards away is my suggestion. You need to train your mind not to depend on 3 x 5 cards.
K: What about making out a profile of your characters before you start writing about them – when and where they were born, what they like to eat, what their weaknesses are, and so on?
Q: It’s sometimes recommended in writing classes. In real life, though, when you meet someone new, you don’t know everything about him or her beforehand, do you? You discover stuff as you go along, which is in part what makes the experience more interesting. It’s a similar situation for me when I write. Quite frankly, I don’t want to know everything about my characters before I’ve written about them.
K: Do you have any advice for writers who are struggling to get published?
Q: I can’t pretend that it’s easy at the moment, considering how badly publishing has suffered at the hands of the economy, but it’s very, very important to not give up in your quest.
K: Do you think CHILDREN OF THE STREET is a better book than WIFE OF THE GODS?
Q: Yes, but the final judgement lies with the readers.
K: Do you read the reviews of your work?
Q: I do – admittedly somewhat with my heart in my mouth. But it’s important to read reviews and critiques because they provide feedback, and many of them have been very helpful to me, whether negative or positive. But I know you’re going to like COTS.
K: Thank you very much for the interview, Dr. Quartey.
Q: It’s my pleasure. Thank you for coming.

Tags: CHILDREN OF THE STREET, COTS, Darko Dawson mystery, Ghana, Raymond Chandler
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A few days ago on a mild summer afternoon, I paid a visit to Dr. Quartey (full name Jones-Quartey) to converse about books and writing. We sat on the front porch of his modest two-bedroom Pasadena bungalow overlooking the front yard, which has an avocado tree and drought-resistant plants.

KWEI: Thank you for seeing me at such short notice, by the way.
QUARTEY: No worries. My pleasure.
K: So do you find this neighborhood conducive for writing?
Q: Very much. It’s a quiet street and the house itself has just the right vibe.
K: Can you work in a location with background noise, like a cafe?
Q: Sometimes, but it has to be a place I’ve already become acquainted with and have come to like with people I enjoy. I have some friends who used to own a cafe in Pasadena called “Allure,” and I loved going there to write.
K: Why do you write?
Q: That’s one of those existential questions, like why does the earth spin counterclockwise. I just love writing.
K: Is it a kind of therapy for you?
Q: Interviewers ask that a lot of authors, who often answer that yes, writing is a form of therapy. I don’t think it’s even that deep or complicated for me. For whatever reason, I like to write and I’m driven to share my stories with readers. I’ve had that drive since I was eight or nine years old. When I eagerly wake up at five in the morning to work on a novel, I’m not thinking, “I’m about to have a great therapy session.”
K: You were writing at the age of eight or nine?
Q: Yes, I still have a couple of the novelettes and short stories that I wrote at that age.
K: Is that when you had decided you wanted to be a writer?
Q: It was one of my many ambitions, which ranged from being a teacher to becoming a ventriloquist.
K: You grew up in Ghana. Is there a market for ventriloquists in Ghana?
Q: Not that I know of. (Laughs.) Is there a market in the States?
K: Where exactly did you grow up in Ghana?
Q: For the most part outside of the capital, Accra, on the campus of the University of Ghana. My father, a Ghanaian, and my American mother were both university lecturers.
K: What was life like in that university environment?
Q: Wonderful in many ways, surrounded as we were by literacy and books. It was also comfortable and a hell of a lot easier than the lives of many. I’m saying that more with humility than with pride.
K: You’re not comfortable with that aspect of your life growing up?
Q: Privilege and deprivation are in stark contrast in most places, but in a developing country like Ghana, it’s even more so. It can be disquieting.
K: I think that comes out a lot in your mystery novel, WIFE OF THE GODS, doesn’t it? The contrast between privilege and deprivation, I mean.
Q: To some extent, yes, but even more so in the second novel in the Inspector Darko series, CHILDREN OF THE STREET, due out in July, 2011. There are characters in the story with almost nothing to live on, and then there are those with unbelievable amounts of money.
K: Aside from that, what is CHILDREN OF THE STREET about?
Q: At the heart of it, it’s about murder in the underbelly of Accra where street kids struggle not just to make a living, but to survive.
K: That’s a real situation in Accra, I’m assuming?
Q: Oh, yes. Not fictional at all. It’s a social crisis that no one seems to quite know how to handle. Like trying to swing an elephant around by tugging on its tail. Thousands of homeless children from other cities, rural areas, and from Accra itself, some of them second generation, in other words the offspring of street children.
K: What got you interested in the phenomenon of street kids?
Q: For me, it was hard not to. They are so much in evidence in Accra and elsewhere in Ghana, you’d have to close your eyes and plug your ears to ignore them. Which some people do, I suppose. In 2008 when I went to Ghana to research WIFE OF THE GODS, I saw teenagers everywhere pushing 4-wheeled carts around Accra picking up scraps of metal and other junk. They call them “truck-pushers.” That sparked my interest. For some reason, I have an endless fascination with this activity.

In fact, when I visited Ghana again in March 2011, I wanted to have a truck-pusher’s experience for a few hours, but I didn’t have enough time to organize it.
K: Did you meet other street kids who were not truck-pushers?
Q: Yes, with the help of some of the NGO’s like Catholic Action for Street Children and Street Academy, I was able to meet other kids who were in a younger age group than the pushers, who tend to be older teenagers or young men.
K: What were the kids like?
Q: They have a lot on their plates – you know, like making a living and surviving. But the ones I met were just – well, kids. Boisterous, funny, playful, serious – the whole range of personality types. I got the feeling some were depressed or listless too. Can you blame them?
K: And you went to where they all hang out?
Q: Some of the areas, yes. Including very late at night when Accra becomes eerily quiet and very dark in some locations.
K: Scary?
Q: I would say caution-raising – how’s that for a euphemism? Look, if you’re obviously from abroad and unfamiliar with where you’re going, you’re making yourself a target for the malicious elements roaming the streets. That’s just inviting the kind of trouble you don’t need. So when I explored nocturnal Accra, I went with a police detective whom I had met and befriended. It was good to have him at my side. At one point he headed off a guy who was approaching us with some aggressive questioning, like, “What are you doing here?” The sight of rows and rows of homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks and storefronts was really quite extraordinary. At the same time, I realized that a murderer stalking these people would have a field day – or would that be a field night – in these incredibly dark areas. Many people sleep in groups, but I noticed for example a solitary kid fast asleep in an isolated corner near one of the lorry parks. Now, that’s dangerous. In reality, murder is not the predominant crime in Accra, thank goodness, but in CHILDREN IN THE STREET, murder is what Darko Dawson must face and deal with, and this one is a tough case.
K: How much of Darko Dawson is you? Or how much of you is in Darko Dawson?
Q: Ah, good question. Before I answer that, let’s take a break. Would you like a glass of Malta Guinness, the drink favored by Inspector Darko Dawson?
K: You’re kidding. You really have some?
Q: Naturally. And chilled just right.
K: I’d love to try it.

NEXT: PART 2

Tags: Accra, CHILDREN OF THE STREET, Ghana, Kwei, Malta Guinness, Quartey, The drink favored by cult hero Inspector Darko Dawson, Wife of the Gods
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In July, Andrew Wylie, a top literary agent, caused quite some consternation in publishing circles when he announced that his new electronic book publishing venture, Odyssey Editions, via an exclusive arrangement with Amazon, was going to put out e-books of older works from authors he represents. Trouble is, the p-book (”paper-book,” old school) rights of those same works are owned by other ["conventional"] publishing houses. A for-instance scenario: Wylie represents author Ralph Ellison. Ellison’s p-books are published by Random House (RH) http://www.randomhouse.com/. Wylie announces, “I’m going to e-publish Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man through Amazon on their Kindle Reader.” RH is quite incensed by this, the sentiment being, “How you going to do publish Ellison’s book electronically when we have the publishing rights?” Wylie responds, in effect, “When you contracted Ellison, it was long before the electronic era. So you don’t own the e-publishing rights.”

Full disclosure: RH is my publishing house. Its response to Wylie was terse, and said in part that his move “establishes this Agency as our direct competitor.” They told him that henceforth he might as well forget about getting any of his clients published with RH. There followed a couple weeks of furious Internet debate. The questions included, who really does own the electronic publishing rights for old books, which are called back titles? These are often a good source of steady income for publishing houses. Some people thought Wylie was a little crazy, while others applauded him.

There are opinions on both sides, but the bottom line is that e-books have thrown a monkey wrench into the works of traditional publishing. Amazon is claiming, for instance, that it now sells more e-books than its hardcover titles. That makes it tough for publishing houses. The debate also spotlighted the fact that some authors (and their agents) feel they should get a higher percentage of e-book sales.

On Tuesday, August 24, Wylie and RH reached a truce and issued a statement that said in part, “We are pleased to announce that The Wylie Agency and Random House have resolved our differences over the disputed Random House titles which have been included in the Odyssey Editions e-book publishing program. These titles are being removed from that program and taken off-sale. We have agreed that Random House shall be the exclusive e-book publisher of these titles for those territories in which Random House U.S. controls their rights.”

Although that tussle has died down for now, obviously it’s not the end of the story. The future of the battle between e-books and p-books is murky, but although I like technology as much as the next guy, I feel we should not let the joy of reading on paper be replaced by the aloof medium of the cold electronic page. Secondly, let’s not forget the indie bookstores, whose owners really know and love books. If you love mysteries like WIFE OF THE GODS and the upcoming CHILDREN OF THE STREETS, please consider diving into your cozy neighborhood mystery bookshop instead of downloading the titles to an e-reader. The smell of new books, the tantalizing stand in the front of the store with its colorful array of books, why, there’s nothing like it. Kindle, Nook, Vook, iPad – none of them can replace so tactile an experience? And seriously, how do you get your Kindle book signed by the author? I suppose they’ll come up with that next.

Tags: Andrew Wylie, CHILDREN OF THE STREET, indie bookstores, Perils in Publishing, Random House, Wife of the Gods
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Not a reference to metamucil or anything like that. What I want to say is that I will make every effort, in my “spare time”, to regularly post a blog. It’s likely that I’ll do it on weekends. It might be on any subject, but will be mostly about writing. I don’t plan to send an email notification every time I publish a posting – God knows we all get way too many emails – but I will when I think the posting is significant, e.g. pub dates, book signings etc.

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THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE TERMITE HILL

Tags: THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST, THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE TERMITE HILL
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Trade Paperback WIFE OF THE GODS goes on sale today, August 3, 2010

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=wife+of+the+gods+by+kwei+quartey&sprefix=wife+of&ih=4_0_3_1_0_0_0_0_0_1.136_162&fsc=-1

Tags: Trade Paperback, Wife of the Gods
Posted in Latest News

Several readers, including those I’ve met at various book club discussions, have been curious about a beverage that Darko Dawson can’t get enough of in WOTG and the upcoming CHILDREN OF THE STREET (COTS). It’s a carbonated malt soft drink called Malta Guinness. Much like beer, it’s brewed from barley and hops. Its rich dark brown color is similar to stout, but Malta is very sweet with molasses overtones. If you generally don’t drink soda, you might find Malta too syrupy for your taste. It helps to drink it ice cold, preferably with nice stack of ice cubes, which balances out the intense sweetness. If you’re diabetic, Malta will shoot your blood sugar over the top in a New York minute. Although I’m not a soda drinker myself, I do enjoy swigging down Malta whenever I’m in Ghana, where the heat radically alters the drink preferences I have in the States. I find Malta’s unique taste quite alluring (others politely call it “acquired”) and like Darko, I don’t drink alcohol and find beer itself vile.

Malta is most popular in the Caribbean areas of the world and in Ghana, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon, as well as parts of Europe, especially Germany. Malta Guinness is brewed under license internationally. In Ghana, it looks like this:

There’s also a canned version – at many retail outlets in Ghana, you can’t buy the bottled version to take away. You have to drink on the premises, as the bottles are sent back to the company and not thrown away. Great conservation and recycling idea, IMO.

Malta Guinness is no longer the sole malt soft drink in Ghana. There are now several “copycats” (at least four), just as there are multiple different brands throughout the world. In the States, many specialty and Caribbean/African stores in large metropolitan areas carry the beverage. The description of Darko slurping down Malta in WIFE OF THE GODS spurned the following thread in a posting on Chowhound.com regarding where the drink can be found in Los Angeles. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/648477

Others have blogged about Malta, having discovered it: http://robrohan.com/2008/05/09/guinness-soft-drink/

Because of its fortification with B vitamins and its implied if not proven health benefits, some think of the drink has having therapeutic properties. Take for example this post from a health/HIV forum: http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Nutrition/Current/Q208920.html

Malta originated in Germany as Malzbier (”malt beer”), a malty dark beer whose fermentation was interrupted at approximately 2% alcohol by volume (ABV). According to a Wikipedia post, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta_(soft_drink), up to the 1950’s, Malzbier was considered a fortifying nutrition for nursing mothers, the elderly or the ill. In the 1960’s Malzbier’s original formulation was replaced with its modern form of water, glucose, syrup, malt extract and hops extract, and by German law these now must be called Maltztrunk, or “malt beverage,” since they are not fermented. Germans still use the old term though, as well as affectionate nicknames like Kinderbier (”children’s beer.”)

Anyway, raise your ice-frosted, Malta-filled glasses, and cheers!

Tags: CHILDREN OF THE STREET, COTS, Darko Dawson Drinks Malta, Ghana, Malta, Malta Guinness, Wife of the Gods
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I had a super book club meeting with Sisters with Books in Inglewood on June 27, 2010 – good food and wildly animated and often hilarious conversation. I learned even more about my characters than I knew before! I don’t need to tell you that women are exceptionally perceptive, but what’s even better is that they may perceive completely different aspects of the same person and his or her behavior, leading to very stimulating debate.

With my visit, Sisters with Books became unofficially known as Sisters with Spikes as I fell victim to something that has always been a nightmarish “what if that were to happen” question. Using my car’s GPS, I made a quick and sharp left turn into what I thought was the entry to the gated community where the book club meeting was taking place. Turns out it was the exit, and it was a second too late when I saw that sign do not back up, severe tire damage. Need I say more? I had always wondered what it would be like to roll over those spikes the wrong way. Now I knew. The sound of two punctured front tires was matched only by my heart plunging.

Well, it could have been worse: it could have been all four! Thanks to a speedy service by AAA and even more stunning speed by a nearby Pep Boy’s, I had two new front tires within not too long and was actually able to return to Sisters with Books, uh, Spikes for a fun discussion. This time I went in through the front gate.

Tags: Sisters with Books, Sisters with Spikes
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So while Ghana’s Black Stars were annihilating the USA soccer team on June 26 (okay, they didn’t quite annihilate them, but GO GHANA ALL THE WAY!) a couple days ago, I was at the annual Leimert Park Book Fair. Attendance was good, peaking between 3PM and 5PM

Authors signing, and a curious young reader

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The trade paperback (TPB) version of WIFE OF THE GODS goes on sale August 3, 2010 http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780812979367 ahead of its originally anticipated release date. It has a brand new jacket design, and a couple of small corrections and additions to the hardcover version. But wait, there’s more! It’s priced at only $15.00. Of course, ordering from Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Wife-Gods-Novel-Kwei-Quartey/dp/0812979362/ref=tmm_pap_title_0 decreases the price even further, but be kind to your local independent booksellers and give a thought to ordering it from them.

A TPB is exactly the same format as the hardcover version, and the pages are the same size. Only the jacket differs. So, around $10 off the hardcover price, the TPB is a great buy.

Christmas is coming up (can you believe it?), so even if you’ve read WIFE OF THE GODS, consider getting it as a stocking stuffer for a friend or family member. Summer reading at the beach is fun, but curling up in front of the fire with a good book on a winter’s night is positively delicious.

Tags: stocking stuffer, Wife of the Gods
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