How an essay I wrote turned me into a writer – Finecountry

Bookshelf: You emerged winner of the 2016 ANA(Association of Nigerian Authors) Prose Fiction Prize for your novel, ‘Avenger of Blood.’ How did you receive the news? Franklin Finecountry: Considering the fact that the book, ‘Avenger of Blood’ was my first published work, I felt very elated. It was an honour to be considered first among […]

Bookshelf: You emerged winner of the 2016 ANA(Association of Nigerian Authors) Prose Fiction Prize for your novel, ‘Avenger of Blood.’ How did you receive the news?

Franklin Finecountry: Considering the fact that the book, ‘Avenger of Blood’ was my first published work, I felt very elated. It was an honour to be considered first among equals.

Bookshelf: ‘Avenger of Blood’ was published in 2014. Did you plan or try to get it into any contest since then? 

Finecountry: Yes, my original plan was to present the book for the NLNG literary awards for prose and fiction for 2016. However, I missed the entry date for submission.

Bookshelf: How did the idea for the story come to you?

Finecountry: I wanted to present a plausible reaction of an everyday ‘Joe’, whose normally expected response to an aggressive defilement/violation of his quiet life and home, would have been docility.

Bookshelf: You have a reverend as your central character, who has to choose to save Sharon, the woman he loves, or allow his position as a preacher take the upper hand. Is there a particular reason you chose a reverend?

Finecountry: Yes, I am a pastor. I wanted to tell a story from the angle of a pastor as a human, while presenting reasons people can react to situations outside the stereotype of ‘God dey’ or ‘God is in control’ response.

Bookshelf: What will you describe as your biggest challenge while researching for the novel?

Finecountry: Aside from the usual suspect, the power company, I had issues gaining access to online information on security matters, especially on weaponry.

Bookshelf: At this time in Nigeria, rape and kidnapping, aside terrorism, are some of the country’s biggest headaches. What did you set out to achieve with the narrative?

Finecountry: I wanted to emphasize the evil of cultism, building up from our university campuses and growing to take over our society and attempt to proffer a way out through right living with God.

Bookshelf: How long did it take you to write the book?

Finecountry: I wrote it within a space of 6 years, from 2006 to 2012.

Bookshelf: When and how did writing begin for you?

Finecountry: In my early days, I fell in love with comics and comic characters. That built my love for novels and books that told good, satiric and highly imaginative stories. This led me to read very wide, beginning with children’s books, like ‘Bedtime Stories’, books by Enid Blyton, and romance, detective, war, espionage, Western novels. This created and developed an in-built love for story-telling in me. Hence, writing which was a secret desire and seemed to be a logical follow-up, began for me during my days in the Government Comprehensive Secondary School, Port Harcourt, in the late seventies. We were given an assignment in my class to write a descriptive essay and I described an action sequence in line with the Nick Carter series which I was in love with at the time. This initially earned me a score of ‘zero’ from our English tutor, a Canadian, because he ‘did not believe’ I wrote it. He later reversed the score to 80 per cent, the highest score in the class, when I convinced him otherwise. This encouraged me to go beyond desiring and actually put the stories and imaginations in my head on paper. However, of all my write-ups, only ‘Avenger of Blood’ has been successfully published.

Bookshelf: What books will you say helped you develop as a writer?

Finecountry: The books which helped me develop as a writer were novels by authors like James Hardley Chase, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Frederick Forsythe and especially, Robert Ludlum, my all-time favourite.

Bookshelf: What are you working on at the moment?

Finecountry: Right now, I am toggling between the sequel of Avenger of Blood, and a totally new project on the challenge of autism. Thrillers have always been my favourites. So, yes, there are more on the way.