Children of Blood and Bone is the much anticipated debut novel, written by Tomi Adeyemi. The book is set in the fictional world of Orïsha. Magic thrived there, until a ruthless king banned its practice. Zélie's mother was murdered because of fear of magic and fear of people with magical abilities. Zélie, her brother Tzain, and the rebel princess Amari, move to try and restore her people’s magic. Adeyemi, who is of Nigerian descent, drew from West African and Nigerian folk stories for inspiration in her world building. The themes of the novel also speak to the racism and violence black Americans face in our country today. Adeyemi describes the book as "Black Panther, with magic".
The book, and it's author, came into the spotlight after the announcement that Adeyemi, who is 24 years old, was paid a seven figure advance for the rights to it by FOX 2000, a full year before the book's release. This is, purportedly, the highest payment ever for a YA novel. This is the first installment of a planned trilogy.
Children of Blood and Bone was officially released today, however, fans who attended the launch party at Mysterious Galaxy bookstore got their hands on a copy last night. Everyone who pre-ordered the book also received a beautiful poster. Author Tomi Adeyemi was on hand to meet fans, answer questions, and sign the books and posters.
Adeyemi talked about the book, her writing process, and more, with author Cindy Pon prior to the book signing. During the panel, Adeyemi stated that Children of Blood and Bone is her second finished novel. The first novel was not published.
Adeyemi stated that she has been writing her whole life, but had a hard time finishing most of the stories once she started writing them. "I was so young when I started. I didn't understand what I was doing," she said. She shared that she is a plotter, outlining the story before writing it. When outlining, there may be blank spots where she later needs to fill in character names, etc., but main plot points are all there. "Outlining gives me about 70% of the story. After I outline it, then I write the draft, and fill things in as I go along."
Adeyemi said that she is a visual person, "I see a picture, and I can imagine a whole world, then I fill in all the rest." In the case of Children of Blood and Bone, Adeyemi said one of things that provided inspiration for the story was animated drawing of a black girl with really luminescent green hair, "I couldn’t get it out of my head. I started thinking, who is this girl, what does she do, what does her world look like? All these ideas came into my head, and I decided I’m going to run with it.”
Adeyemi and Pon talked about the value and importance of having main characters who come from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds. Adeyemi said, "When I look back on my earlier writing, all of my characters in my stories were either white or bi-racial. I had all of these fantasies and stories in my head, but I could not see myself as a player in them. Because I hadn't ever seen people like me in the stories I read, I thought only white people could be in books. I couldn't see myself in my own stories. That's f...'d up! You need to see a version of yourself represented in the world to know you have value."
Additional information here:
http://www.tomiadeyemi.com/
http://www.cindypon.com/Labels: Author Appearances
