Chikodili Emelumadu | Two Fatherless Boarding Schoolgirls Recently Become Enmeshed in Dealings with the Supernatural World

1--What is the title of your latest release?

DAZZLING. You should check out that cover. It’s magnificent. Many thanks to The Overlook Press!

2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?

Two fatherless boarding schoolgirls recently become enmeshed in dealings with the supernatural world, one as protector, the other as possible destroyer, putting them on a collision course with each other, as all around them, girls their age begin to vanish.

3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?

Oh this was the easiest bit. I went to boarding school in Nigeria at nine years old and was exposed to all sorts of people, routines, dialects, foods, punishments, coursework and chores. It was a huge change. I knew the setting would be perfect for a coming-of-age and the supernatural.

4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?

Yes. I will feed her and give her books and just generally leave her alone. She is carrying a lot on her shoulders at the moment, bless her.

5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?

Brave, empathetic, observant.

6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?

Persistence. If it wasn’t ready or it did not sit well with me, I had no qualms scrapping it and starting afresh.

7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?

A bit of both, but I am learning to leave it alone. Helps me write faster.

8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?

I don’t want to say. The spirits will tempt me in my dreams with my favourite foods and I will eat with them and then voila, I am dead.

9--Describe your writing space/office!

Couch. Right now, I am sitting in bed as both my offspring are downstairs. This bed thing is a new development that started three days ago. I reckon I will finish my next book in my bedroom.

10--Who is an author you admire?

Lesley Nneka Arimah. Not one word wasted in her work.

11--Is there a book that changed your life?

Not any one book, no, but in the case of Dazzling, the late, great Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike introduced me to the concept of leopard societies in Igboland. I was seven.

12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.

My pelvic floor is poorly equipped to handle good news, let’s put it that way!

13--What’s your favorite genre to read?

I don’t have one, but I don’t read a lot of crime or nonfiction. And I love comics/graphic novels (Saga, Bitch Planet, Clean Room, Sex Criminals).

14--What’s your favorite movie?

I don’t have one either. In a world of such artistic splendor, why choose just one?

15--What is your favorite season?

Spring, in which I was born, or, fall but *only* in New England. Shoutout to Cambridge, Mass.!

16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?

Alone. Doing nothing and reading and perhaps a snack.

17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?

Happy by Celina Baljet Basra, a deeply moving story of a cinephile young Indian boy who migrates to Italy through the mountains and how he copes with realizing his dreams.

Podcast would be ShxtsnGigs but it is very black British. Check it out though. Or The Double Shift, a very important pod about motherhood, childcare, and support of working women.

Film, cannot remember the name of this brilliant scandi horror, but for TV you I liked ‘Fall of The House of Usher’.

18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?

Don’t have one. I like everything, gimme it.

19--What do you do when you have free time?

Read or SLEEP. I’ve learnt to just flop wherever I am for ten or so minutes. It’s a skill the people in my family have and luckily, I’ve inherited it.

20--What can readers expect from you next?

I am working on Dazzling book two, working title Rosetta. As our protag Ozoemena looks for the meaning to the legacy she has been handed, we meet a whole host of characters. Only now someone seems to be killing - wait, I’ll need to clear with my agent how much I can say.

DAZZLING by Chikodili Emelumadu

Treasure and her mother lost everything when Treasure’s father died. Haggling for scraps in the market, Treasure meets a man who promises to change their fortunes, but his feet are hovering just a few inches above the ground. He’s a spirit, and he promises to bring Treasure’s beloved father back to life if she’ll do one terrible thing for him first.

Ozoemena has an itch in the middle of her back. It’s an itch that speaks to her patrilineal destiny, an honor never before bestowed upon a girl, to defend the land and protect its people by becoming a Leopard. Her father impressed upon her what an honor this was before he vanished, but it’s one she couldn’t want less—she has enough to worry about as she tries to fit in at a new boarding school.

But as the two girls reckon with their burgeoning wildness and the legacy of their missing fathers, Ozoemena’s fellow students start to vanish. Treasure’s obligations to the spirit escalate, and Ozoemena’s duty of protection as a Leopard grows. Soon the girls’ destinies and choices alike set them on a dangerous collision course. Ultimately, they must ask themselves: in a world that always says no to women, what must two young girls sacrifice to get what is theirs?

Fantasy [The Overlook Press, On Sale: December 5, 2023, e-Book, / ]