Ask the Author: Kwei Quartey
Answered Questions (19)
Kwei Quartey
But actually, you’re presuming he’s dead, but he isn’t.
Kwei Quartey
I loved her too! She’s based on a real Cuban doctor I met at the Ghana Police morgue. She was just as vivacious in real life as in my novel. I didn’t have plans to bring her back, but one never knows! The book you mention should be very interesting, so I’ll look it up, thanks for the tip.
Kwei Quartey
Hello Paschal: the Inspector Darko and Emma Djan series have both been optioned for film. What has held things up is the pandemic making it very difficult to proceed. I wish I could tell you when, but things being what they are at the moment, it’s impossible to say.
Kwei Quartey
I go frequently to Ghana to research the topics in my novels. In 2016, when I arrived in Accra, the person with whom I had entrusted my SUV had disappeared into thin air--and so had my SUV! It took several days to discover he had sold it without my knowledge and absconded with the money.
Months of detective work (I hired a private investigator) followed to find out where the guy was. My PI cleverly went underground and got the thief's wife to talk. Then, coordinating with the police, a trap was set by contacting the crook and inviting him to a "job fair," where the police were waiting for him. It took some five months to capture him. He had crossed borders into the neighboring countries and had been on the run all that time.
Months of detective work (I hired a private investigator) followed to find out where the guy was. My PI cleverly went underground and got the thief's wife to talk. Then, coordinating with the police, a trap was set by contacting the crook and inviting him to a "job fair," where the police were waiting for him. It took some five months to capture him. He had crossed borders into the neighboring countries and had been on the run all that time.
Kwei Quartey
Hi Sage
Well, I'm glad you like Emma--so do I! She's taller than average for Ghana at least, around 5-9 to 5-10, and on the wiry side--remember she is a swimmer, which her late beloved dad taught her. Emma doesn't dislike food, she just forgets to eat sometimes! As a rule, she wears little or no makeup and is most comfortable in jeans. She wears her hair natural, sometimes in braids but she doesn't do the whole hair extension thing.
I have a couple of ideas for a standalone novel, I just need 48 hours in a day.
Well, I'm glad you like Emma--so do I! She's taller than average for Ghana at least, around 5-9 to 5-10, and on the wiry side--remember she is a swimmer, which her late beloved dad taught her. Emma doesn't dislike food, she just forgets to eat sometimes! As a rule, she wears little or no makeup and is most comfortable in jeans. She wears her hair natural, sometimes in braids but she doesn't do the whole hair extension thing.
I have a couple of ideas for a standalone novel, I just need 48 hours in a day.
Kwei Quartey
Hi, there! Yes, I fully plan to bring Darko back again! I had planned it t be my next novel, but my publisher said they would really like me to do a third Emma, which I'm working on now. Thank you for your interest.
Kwei Quartey
Don't worry, Lucinda; things may look bad, but they're going to be okay :)
Kwei Quartey
This answer contains spoilers…
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Kwei Quartey
Hi, Mary
Thanks for your interesting question. In all the years I have written about scenarios in Ghana that are close to the reality, I've never heard back from any party that might have been shown in poor light. The reason is that there isn't a prevalent novel-reading tradition in Ghana and indeed sub-Saharan Africa in general, and as such, the novel carries little if any stature as a conveyance of criticism. Newspapers, radio, and TV, certainly. Novels? No.
Indeed, I have even given my novels to police officials at Ghana's CID as gifts, and have never received any feedback, positive or negative. I'm pretty certain none of them have read any of them! On the one hand it's disappointing, but on the other, it means I can probably go on writing freely about issues without any obstructions from the police or other entities. Certainly, the name "Howard-Mills" in Death By His Grace is brazenly close to "Heward-Mills." Obviously, I'm giving him and ministers like him a provocative poke in the ribs.
The novel I'm writing now, introducing Mabel Safo, PI, is even more critical, going right up to the top. Talk about playing with fire.
Thanks for your interesting question. In all the years I have written about scenarios in Ghana that are close to the reality, I've never heard back from any party that might have been shown in poor light. The reason is that there isn't a prevalent novel-reading tradition in Ghana and indeed sub-Saharan Africa in general, and as such, the novel carries little if any stature as a conveyance of criticism. Newspapers, radio, and TV, certainly. Novels? No.
Indeed, I have even given my novels to police officials at Ghana's CID as gifts, and have never received any feedback, positive or negative. I'm pretty certain none of them have read any of them! On the one hand it's disappointing, but on the other, it means I can probably go on writing freely about issues without any obstructions from the police or other entities. Certainly, the name "Howard-Mills" in Death By His Grace is brazenly close to "Heward-Mills." Obviously, I'm giving him and ministers like him a provocative poke in the ribs.
The novel I'm writing now, introducing Mabel Safo, PI, is even more critical, going right up to the top. Talk about playing with fire.
Kwei Quartey
The cockroach that had crawled into her ear that night could not back out. So it pierced her eardrum and continued forward into her brain.
Kwei Quartey
Thanks, Blue! Yes, stated or unstated, consciously or unconsciously, many Ghanaians may harbor superstitious beliefs about infertility. Among the more educated, there may be less prevalence of that, but I haven't seen any studies of that. Might be interesting to run a poll in Ghana!
Kwei Quartey
I would like to visit Ashdown Forest in E. Sussex, England. This woodland inspired the Hundred Acre Wood of the Winnie the Pooh stories. I love woods, forests and streams. I would explore the forest and stand on the charming bridge over the trickling stream. I loved Winnie the Pooh as a child and I always have a vivd picture of his haunts. http://www.ashdownforest.org/home/ind...
Kwei Quartey
During the time everyone was going crazy about Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," I never read it, so I'm going to give it a try. Also, "The Considerate Killer"by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis
Kwei Quartey
I don't think I have it--at least, what I consider "block." The first 60 pages may be slow because I'm creating the setup and developing characters, but I don't ever feel like I can't proceed any further.
Kwei Quartey
For me, it's meeting my readers and hearing how my writing imparted the flavor of Ghana to them. Some readers who have been to Ghana before have told me how the scenes in my novels brought back wonderful memories to them--except the murder scenes, not those.
Kwei Quartey
Whatever ideas you have for your novel (I don't do any nonfiction work), write them down somewhere, whether as notes or as part of the actual manuscript. The ideas must come out of your head and onto the page, whether typed or handwritten. Then, keep writing until the end and avoid trying to perfect each section before moving on.
Kwei Quartey
I'm working on the 5th Darko novel, BY THE GRACE OF GOD. It's structured a little differently from the others. In it, Darko's wife's beloved cousin is butchered to death. Why? It's a murder in the midst of piety and religiosity. In 2012, Ghana was voted the most religious country in the world. We're referring to faith of the evangelical type, where some pastors make millions off their fervent followers. You can tell already how I feel about it. I have been slow with this novel, but crunch time is approaching fast. I must had in the first draft at the end of April.
Kwei Quartey
What I read. After I read a few pages from Henning Mankell or Walter Mosley, I feel I must write as well as they do. Beyond that, I don't know what drives me to keep writing. Sometimes a bad review gets me depressed, but after about 2 days I get out of the funk and take the review as a stimulus to simply try harder, and back to the manuscript I go.
Kwei Quartey
GOLD OF OUR FATHERS is my most recent novel. As you know, it's the 4th in the series set in Ghana and follows the life and career of Chief Inspector Darko Dawson. Via Google Alerts one day, I learned about a violent incident between some Chinese illegal gold miners and Ghanaians in the Ashanti Region. Then I began to read on how multiple tens of thousands of Chinese men (mostly men) had invaded Ghana looking for gold. That said STORY to me, and that's where I began research into it all.
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