It is an amazing thing for me, as an author, to read another writer’s book and think, “Wow! This is just so good.”
Am I jealous? Maybe a little. But the books I love most are so different from what I write. I simply could not write them.
One of these authors is Tomi Adeyemi, the author of the Legacy of Orïsha Series. Book 1: Children of Blood and Bone came out in 2018. Book 2: Children of Virtue and Vengeance just came out and I’m waiting, waiting, waiting one too patiently to have it in my hands.
Sigh.
An interview with Adeyemi has been posted here on Goodreads. There are some really interesting insights into how she approaches her writing.
What I found the most interesting is that in many ways the second book was easier for her to write. Why? Because in the first book she had to create the world of Orïsha. The world and culture may have been inspired by West Africa but it is a unique place that Adeyemi had to build from the ground up. This meant creating the physical world as well as the culture. Part of the physical world in this case is the world of magic.
Whenever you write fantasy, magic plays a tricky part. You can’t create a world where just anything goes. You have to know the nature and limits of the magic. You have to know the rules under which it operates. You have to decide what the costs are for using this magic. Adeyeymi did all of this in Children of Blood and Bone.
By the time she wrote Children of Virtue and Vengeance, she had spun the world. The rules were established. This eased some of the stress and allowed her to play.
For more on Adeyemi and her books, check out the interview. In the meantime, I’ll be sitting here waiting.
–SueBE