On The Home Stretch

I'm often asked how long it takes to write a book. "Ages," surprises most folk. After all, it is only a 28-page picture book.

Back in '07, I met Alejandra Coy at The Brighton Market, where I was selling my books. She was studying at UWI and was doing research on Anansi and asked if I could introduce her to authors writing Anansi stories. I agreed but came up empty when I asked around my circle of writer friends. So I invited Karen Van Sluytman, a colleague who had produced two DVDs featuring Anansi, and Peggy Zabriskie, a friend who had lived in Ghana and had a collection of old Anansi books, to meet Alejandra.

And thus the idea that I could write modern Anansi stories took root. For sometime I had been struggling to write a story around the myth that cocks crow only before dawn. Anansi was the key. For several months I worked on the story at the National Cultural Foundation's Writers' Clinic where the participants and facilitator, Nailah Imoja Folami, offered valuable critique. That year I entered it in NIFCA and received a Silver Award.

Eighteen months ago, Jehanne and I begun to work on the layout of this book. The picture book format could not work and so we settled on the idea of an illustrated story. There was still a challenge - the word count was a tad long. Could anything be cut? No. Eureka! The introduction of chapters. Jehanne finished her artwork about a month ago.

In the meantime Linda Deane, of Linda's Ink, agreed to edit. To gauge a European response to this story, I took it to Reading Writers (my UK writing circle) on manuscript critique night. Their response was positive and their suggestions for improvement helpful.

I'm now working on Linda's suggested edits and waiting for the allocation of an ISBN number from the Caricom Community Secretariat in Guyana.

I'll be in Barbados next month to co-ordinate the printing with Cole's Printery Ltd., to start visiting shops and to arrange some publicity. So, yes, I'm on the home stretch but there is still lots of work to cross the finish line.

I would like to thank Alejandra, Karen, Peggy, Nailah, Linda, the folks at the National Cultural Foundation, Reading Writers and Jehanne for their inspiration, support and help in making this happen.