At Last! The Blasphemers Gets a Turn

Annamaria on Monday

I thought about calling this post "Thank God," but since it is about a book called The Blasphemers, I thought I could be tempting fate by invoking the deity. This is especially chancy because I'm going to be bragging about that book.

 

There have been ways in which the book brought blessings to me, the greatest of which began when I was just starting to write the book.  I met Sarah Lesiamito and learned, in a superficial way, of her efforts to "keep girls in school." Lover of school that I have always been, I wanted to help if I could.  "What do the girls need?" was my question.  Once Sarah explained, I undertoook an effort to supply her girls with something they needed and did not have. It took a while to find the right supplier, and once I did, a year and half or so later, I wrote a blog about that project here.

Two years later, back in Kenya, I was carrying two copes of the just-released third in my Africa series to give to friends in Tanzania.  Then, having just arrived in Nairobi, I learned the true focus of Sarah's work, which-by chance-happened to coincide exactly with the background theme of the book I was toting in my luggage.  I gave one of the copies to Sarahy.

And thanks to our discussion that evening, we became sister warriors against those retrogressive practices; she the general and I the quartermaster.  We are now up to 49 girls who are safely studying, as regular followers of MIE know well from my time-to-time updates. Here is the latest.    

Little did I know, then, that the book you see above in Sarah's hands was an orphan.  As any author can tell you, before a book goes on sale, copies are sent out to publications and critics - copies called ARCs - Advance Review Copies.  This gives reviewers a chance to evaluate the book.  And if they say good things about it, to convince readers to order the book in advance of its publication date.  Publishers put a great deal of store by those "preorders."  It took me months to learn that The Blasphemers was, for all intents and purposes, invisible at birth because, by mistake, the ARCs were never distributed.

The book was traveling incognito.  the last thing any author would want.  Boohoo.

BUT not any more.  With the debut of the new edition last month and the anticipated arrival of its baby brother in a couple of weeks, The Blasphemers has gotten its first lovely review.  You can read the full review here.

Here are my favorite quips: "This mystery novel opens with vivid descriptions of the setting... II could not stop turning the pages...I found the ending of the novel to be multi-layered and heart pounding."

Fingers crossed that the launch of a Death on the Lord's Day, due out in ten days, will get such a nice reception, and a more timely one.

Vera and Tolliver Sound Off

Annamaria on Monday


Actually my title today probably should say "Sound On."  I have not had a BSP (Blatant Self-Promotion) post for well over a year.  Today, I am taking a raincheck on my Bouchercon hiatus opportunity in order to tell everyone this:

I am very proud to announce the publication of audio versions of Idol of Mombasa and The Blasphemers—Vera and Tolliver #s 2 and 3!

The audio for the first in my Africa series—Strange Gods—has been available for some time.  The voice artist who narrated Vera and Tolliver # 1 did such a marvelous job that I knew I wanted him to record the other books in the series.

You can find out more about Dennis here



Dennis Kleinman is a South African, living in LA, who has the right soul, the right voice, and ALL the right accents to do a superlative job of reading Vera and Tolliver. Audible chose him to narrate Strange Gods, and when I first heard his recording, I was stunned by the result. In Dennis’s voice, my own characters became even more real to me than they were in my imagination.  The Scots, the English, the tribal people all sound exactly right to me when Dennis reads their dialogue. He also puts just the right emotional ring to what they are saying.

Once the audio rights to Idol and Blasphemers reverted to me, Dennis went to work, doing his magic on characters that presented new challenges: Arab and Swahili voices, Midlands English, as well as tony British aristocrats.  The results are superb.

If you listen to books and are new to the series, you can start with the audio book for Strange Gods here:

And then,  I invite you to follow Vera and Tolliver from Nairobi and its environs to the costal Arab trading city of Mombasa and then to the Maasai region of Nakuru in the East African Highlands:

Idol of Mombasa Audible 


The Blasphemers Audible 

What next for Vera and Tolliver?

There is no fourth in the Vera and Tolliver series to brag about this year.  What that is so is a long story and definitely not a thriller.  Here is the expurgated version:

I completed the next in the African series—A Death on the Lord’s Day—some time ago. Complications of changing publishers has kept it under wraps. Readers have asked me for more of V&T, and I promise you more is on the way.

We used to use the word “glacial” to describe things that moved painfully slowly.  Now we are pained by how terribly fast glaciers are moving. I can safely say that moving at “publishing speed” wins my vote as the new metaphor for the most frustrating pace on the planet. Snails gallop by comparison. Tortoises are far less tortuous. Or torturous for that matter.

Photo: Annamaria, Serengeti 2006


I promise I will not give up.

A Death on the Lord's Day will be published soon.

Stay tuned.

https://www.annamariaalfieri.com

Samburu, a Cultural Paradox

Annamaria on Monday

The Samburu tribe have lived in the Rift Valley of Kenya since the 15th century.  It was around the time they arrived there that they split off from the Masaai--though the groups remain culturally quite similar and still share a language.  The Maasai went south.  The Samburu settled in the area north of Mount Kenya.  They are semi-nomadic, and pastoralist, raising cows, sheep, goats, and camels.  Their diet consists almost entirely of milk, cows' blood, and maize cooked into cornmeal mush.

They are monotheist and have clung to their old ways and beliefs, largely it seems because the culture allows very little leeway for change.  The tribe is a gerontocracy--ruled by elder men, who not only make the decisions, but who also have the power to communicate with their god, Nkai.  If elders feel disrespected, they can call upon Nkai to curse the offender.  The strength of the elders' hold on the people accounts for the changeless nature of the Samburu way of life.

Their pastoralist way of life and its enduring nature makes them a people causing very little harm to the earth that they occupy.  They live in harmony with their natural surroundings.  This is a very good and beautiful thing.  

I first learned of the Samburu a little over two years ago, when I met a Michael Lenaimado in, of all places, the Boathouse Cafe in Central Park.  Michael is Samburu, and as a boy of twelve he asked a visitor to Kenya, my life-long friend Fran Drew, to be his pen-pal.   Fran introduced me to Michael on his first visit to the US.  Since then, on my trip to Kenya earlier this year, I have had the privilege of learning more about his work and of meeting his wife.

Michael is a leader of the anti-poaching efforts in his tribal lands.  Eighty rangers, who protect elephants and rhinos, report to him.  He has also developed a way of engaging the tribal people in the anti-poaching effort.  He had come to the US to talk about this work--at a conservation conference in Denver.  Michael has organized Samburu villages to host conservation-minded visitors.  The villagers provide the hospitality.  The guests come with a sense of wonder about the animals and their habitat.   The tribe members earn money and learn how much people from around the world admire the environment in which they live.  The experience teaches the tribal people the value of what they have.  This is in direct opposition to what had been happening--that the poor tribal people took money (usually a pittance to the poachers, but a fortune to the local people) to turn a blind eye to the slaughter of the animals.

Also this past January, Michael brought his wife Sarah Lesiamito to visit with lucky me.  When Michael told her that my latest book--the Blasphemers--deals with female circumcision, she wanted to come to tell me about her efforts in that regard.

Every bit as much as Michael is a warrior against poaching and for conservation, Sarah is a warrior against the subjugation of girls and for their rights.  She traveled seven hours to come to talk about what she is doing and wants to do.  She is working to convince girls not to submit to circumcision and their mothers not to subject their daughters to it.  She is also taking in and sheltering young girls who have run away from the brutality of arranged marriages.  

The problem is a difficult one--especially in the face of the intractability of the old customs.  Regular readers of MIE may have seen my posts about the treatment of pastoralist girls.  Generally speaking, they are circumcised, and then  their fathers sell them into early marriage: the girls are usually between twelve and fourteen, the men who take them are three or four times their age, the price is usually in cows or goats.  Among the Samburu, there is the added practice known as "beading."  Beads and beadwork are an important part of the Samburu culture.  A gift of beads is a great honor.  Here is the Samburu bead regalia that Sarah presented to me when we met.  I was bowled over by it:

BUT... Beading, when warriors give the beads to young Samburu girls, has another, horrifying meaning.

In the pastoralist culture, men do not marry until they are past the warrior age: usually into their thirties.  While they are warriors, Samburu men make arrangements with the mothers and brothers of young girls.  They present the girls with beads, and--with their families' permission and support--begin sexual relations with the chosen girl.  One source I read said the child might be as young as five.  (This is as far into this tradition as I can bring myself to describe.  If you have the courage for it and want the facts, you can go here.)

Sarah is a Samburu woman with an education.  She is a teacher who holds an undergraduate degree in teaching and two Masters Degrees--one in Special Education and one in Leadership.  She told me she wanted to learn leadership because she wants to be able to teach girls to be leaders.

Last month, to aid her efforts, I had the enormous privilege of introducing her and Michael to Sister Mary Vertucci and the staff of the Emusoi Center in Arusha, Tanzania.  Mary and the women who work with her have been warriors for the rights of pastoralist girls for over twenty years.  Hopefully, their methods and encouragement will spur Sarah's efforts.

Sarah and Michael and Sister Mary and the staff of Emusoi.  

Sarah and some of the Emusoi girls.  

But let me take you back to New York City before I end this story.  Two weeks ago, I had a Samburu-related surprise, that turned into a shock.  In Bergdorf Goodman, the super-swanky department store on Fifth Avenue.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this on the elevator:

It says "featuring handcrafted beadwork by Samburu
women of Northern Kenya."

Since I needed to go through the handbag department on my way out , I decided to see what they were selling with Samburu beads.  Brace yourself.

    

Need a closer look at the price tag?  Yes!  It says $1680.  

The profits from these adorable little handbags are being shared with the Elephant Crisis Fund.  If you know anything about my attitudes, you know that I want to save the elephants. I do.  But I want to know, do the people who are using those beads to decorate luxury goods know anything about the plight of the girls in those pictures on their display?  Do they think those girls are at all as important as the elephants?  Or their profits?

My heart hurts. 

Vera & Tolliver 3: The Blasphemers

Annamaria on Monday

Tomorrow--February 6th--is the official launch date of the next in my Africa series.

In the third year of their story, Vera and Tolliver focus on Tolliver's withdrawal from the police force and on finding a site for their future home and farm.  Both goals are fraught with complications.  As they travel up country to look at land sites, they find themselves embroiled in two intertwined issues.  The Protectorate's Administration is in the process of moving thousands of Maasai off land they have occupied for at least a millennium.  Meanwhile, two missionaries are trying to prevent a Maasai ceremony involving female circumcision.  When the enkamuritani - the woman who performs the operation - is found murdered, the crime threatens to upset the peaceful resettlement of the tribe.  The local Assistant Superintendent of Police calls on Tolliver - who is still officially in service - to solve the crime.

Many if you already know that this series is based on the Ten Commandments, the third of which is "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."  The form of blasphemy that I chose to write about is one that relates very strongly to the times  in which we live: people using their religion as an excuse to commit crimes, sometimes atrocities in the name of God.  A photo I saw on Facebook inspired this point of view.  During the USA's national uproar over gay marriage, one of the my friends posted a picture of a storefront, I think it was in Alabama.  The shop's entire front window was covered with a huge sign that said, "JESUS HATES GAYS."  With seventeen years of Catholic school training, I know a great deal about what Jesus said and didn't say.  And I am certain that he never said, "I hate homosexuals."  In fact, I am also certain that Jesus never said he hated anyone.  His message was the antithesis of hate.  Those who believe that Jesus was the son of God should know that putting words in their Lord's mouth is blasphemy.

Each of the stories in this series involves the sin of the Commandment, but also another sin, one that I have the audacity to say should have its own Commandment.  In the previous book, Idol of Mombasa, the sin that needs a Commandment is slavery.  In The Blasphemers, it is the subjugation of women.

But do not fear, though many of my teachers and my own mother tried to get me to enter the convent, I am no preacher.  The story, the characters, and what they think and feel tell the tale.

Though tomorrow is the official release date for The Blasphemers, the party to launch it was held at the great Mysterious Bookshop in New York on January 9th.  This minor snafu happened because of technical issues that the delayed the general realease date.  Therefore, my stalwart friends who came to Mysterious for the launch had the opportunity to get a hardcover copy a month in advance of the general public.  The evening was a success d'esteem. The turnout was SRO, and the books sold out, with buyers to spare.

For the nosh, I brought a platter of three English Cheeses
and crackers, proving my claim to nerdhood.

The Blasphemers is dedicated to the memory of my brother.
His wife and granddaughter traveled from Knoxville,
Tennessee for the occasion.

And I had the great pleasure of sharing the date with Sujata, as she recounted here a few weeks ago.  I wish I had a picture of the two of us from that night that I might share.  I asked my friends to send theirs if that had one.  I received only a single shot.  In it, I look as if I'm contemplating suicide, and Sujata looks as if she's seen a cockroach.  I will spare us both the embarrassment of posting that picture here.

Me without the frown.

Sujata, with her publishing team, looking like
her beautiful self.

READ THIS BOOK!

We really had a good time together.  We presented with a conversation about the surprising ways in which our two stories mirror one another.  But since the shared themes are the oppression of women and the evils of empire, it's no surprise that that one photo of us did not come with big grins on our faces.

Here is photographic evidence of the real mood of the evening. 

And my happy crowd waiting for our pizzas afterwards.

It has become traditional on the launch of a book for us MIE authors to post the stops on a book tour.  I am not doing that here because I am postponing such a tour until the dangers of ice storms and concomitant travel miseries are over for this year.  I am instead taking myself to Africa, on a trip that has been a year in the planning.  On the day this blog goes up, by the time my friends on the East Coast are beginning their day, I will be heading for a train to Rome airport and a flight to Kenya via Doha.  At 00:30 on the release date New York time, I will be landing in Nairobi. After a week there, I am on to Tanzania to visit Sister Mary and the Maasai girls at Emusoi and to spend time at Lake Manyara Tree Lodge.  After which, it is on to Johannesburg via Dar es Salam.  I finish the month with a visit with Michael Sears and a fabulous opportunity to experience his Africa with him.

All of which will be a book tour of sorts.  Call it research.

I know.  It's a tough job.  But we writers are devoted to do whatever it takes for our art.

Depending on the vagaries of wifi availability, I promise to share it all with you, sooner or later.

African Series Cover Art, Deconstructed

Annamaria on Monday

I have been very fortunate with the cover designs of my books.  They have all been attractive and, especially as of late, inviting to perspective readers.  With one exception, they have been true to the story I was trying to tell--some more than others, but by and large, they all evoked the time and place.

One emblem appears on all of the African series' covers, and it is actually the correct standard for British East Africa:

 

The hardcover jacket design shows a scene of a Maasai cattle herder.  Though there is no such person in the story, the image is apt for two reasons.  It shows the intense beauty of the African wilderness, which (I hope) reads like a character in the story.  Even better, the tribesman is carrying an accurately pictured Maasai spear, the shape of which is a critical clue in the story.  Bravo designer David Baldeosingh Rotstein!

The paperback of the same story gives a different impression.  The wilderness is there, but the central female character is brought to the fore.  Lucky me, my current publisher--Felony and Mayhem--is run by Maggie Topkis, who spent a couple of decades as a mystery bookstore owner.  She knows what kinds of covers attract a browser's attention.  

The ensuing books in the series are treated with similar images.

 

The Idol of Mombasa opens with Vera and Tolliver aboard a ship, approaching Mombasa harbor.  Only one person saw the mistakes on this cover's arresting image.  The coastline in the background is not historic Mombasa, but historic Zanzibar.  And the sticker on Vera's suitcase is Queen Elizabeth II--who was not Queen until 1952.  But the story takes place forty years before that.  The person who saw these errors was Shel Arensen--the editor and publisher of Old Africa Magazine.  He--who knows the history of Kenya better than perhaps anyone--said, "As I was reading the story, I kept waiting for the characters to go to Zanzibar."   They didn't!  He gave the book lovely review despite that.

 

If you ask me, with the next cover, the designer--Anthony Wing Kosner--more than made up for those small departures from perfection.

That's a kudu on the luminous cover of The Blasphemers, and yes, Vera does go hunting and kudus show up a couple of times in the story. 

Annamaria's Events

Bouchercon

11-15 October

Toronto Ontario

Sheraton CentreToronto, Ontario
My Panel: Read the World
Thursday the 12th

AND Tah-dah...

Dagger Awards Gala Dinner
Thursday 26th October
Grange City Hotel
London

Where our own Leye Adenle and our fellow HOT Writer Ovidia Yu are short listed for the short story Dagger Award.  Hooray for Sunshine Noir!

A Mysterious Affair in PrincetonSat, November 4, 2017
1:00 PM – 5:00
Solley TheaterArts Council of Princeton
102 Witherspoon Street
Princeton, NJ 08540