Author Interview: Kwei Quartey and *Wife of the Gods*

I’m so pleased to welcome Kwei Quartey to “She is Too Fond of Books”!  Quartey’s debut novel, Wife of the Gods, is a murder mystery set in a rural village in Ghana, where long-held traditions often clash with modern practices. (author photo credit Steve Monez)

She is Too Fond of Books: Thank you for taking the time to talk with us today!  I know you’re busy with your medical practice, and, dare we hope, writing another novel?

Kwei Quartey: It’s my great pleasure. The medical practice does indeed vie for my time, but I’ve started a new novel and feeling very good about it.

SITFOB:  The tag on the cover of WIFE OF THE GODS says “An inspector Darko Dawson Mystery.”  Will we see him and his family in another novel?

KQ:  Yes – the new novel I’m working on is the second Darko Dawson mystery. Everyone wants me to write it, and so do I. There are so many aspects about Dawson that I want to explore, and about a million different possible scenarios of what could happen next.

SITFOB:  I’m sure I’m not the only reader who wonders about the fate of young Hosiah [Darko's son, who was born with a heart defect]; although he wasn’t a main character, he certainly shaped Darko’s character!

KQ: Dawson (notice I always call him Dawson: he and I have an agreement on that) fiercely loves his little boy – a love so profound it almost hurts sometimes – and so yes, his son is very important to him. Hosiah’s story will progress in this next novel. Maybe not be resolved completely, but it will progress.

SITFOB: Can we talk a bit about the cover?  I know that author’s often have little input into what cover image graces their book.  Did you have any direct influence on this, aside from the important reference to Adinkra signs on the cloth in the novel?

KQ:  The colorful pattern around the border of the book is from kente cloth, an icon of Ghanaian fabric design. Adinkra symbols are another type of design used in Ghana, and one reader had a good suggestion that maybe that could be incorporated into the paperback cover, since Adinkra features in the book. Regarding input into the cover image, Random House actually requested suggestions from me, and they presented three or four alternative designs to me. When they showed me the present one, it blew me away. It was much, much more than I had expected and is testament to the research skills and cultural sensitivity of the Random House team. I appreciate that very much.

SITFOB: There were several clear messages in WIFE OF THE GODS.  The character of Gladys, the murder victim, was frustrated by those who displayed what she termed “ignorance” in refusing to use condoms to stop the spread of AIDS, and in relying solely on traditional medicine, rather than accepting modern advances.  As an educated man, and a physician to boot, this might mirror some frustrations you feel – was Gladys’s mission a personal statement for you?

KQ: For me, such ignorance (worldwide, not just in Ghana) causes me more sadness than frustration. Gladys was fervent and intense, and probably too impatient and antagonistic. To win people over, you have to be able to understand them – kind of like taking a ride with them in the same vehicle while persuading them that another kind of car would be safer to drive.

SITFOB: I have a few questions that may seem “boilerplate,” but they’ll give us a peek behind the scenes into your writing process. Who would you say are your influences as a writer?

KQ:  The classic writers in the crime genre. For instance, as a boy, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes transfixed me. Agatha Christie as well, though less so. I also gobbled up the children’s mystery series by Enid Blyton, who is not that well known in the States, but who is still the most translated children’s writer worldwide. I had, and still do, a penchant for British crime novels. The police force in Ghana, where Wife of the Gods is set, is organized along the same lines as the British system, so that fits in well.

SITFOB: Do you have a routine that you follow when you write – a specific time of day, or place to write for example? Do you use a computer or write your scenes longhand? Are there pictures or other prompts that inspire you?

KQ: Early morning is the only time that really works, and I’m talking 5AM. I am very clear-minded early in the morning, but my mind is like soup late at night. However I can write late into the night if I have to – for instance if I have a deadline for submitting my manuscript. I prefer the quiet of my home, but funnily enough I can also write in a busy café.

Writing out my manuscript longhand would render me completely insane. No, straight to the Word page. Editing is easier, it’s legible, and it’s fast. The thought of transcribing what I’ve written in long hand is just exhausting.

SITFOB:  If you were to describe yourself, without using your vocation as an author/doctor, what would you say about yourself?

KQ:  Dogged and focused.

SITFOB: Can you tell us a little about yourself as a reader: What types of books do you like to read when you’re not researching? What was the last book you read, and what are you reading now?

KQ:  I read crime fiction all the time and often I read more than one book at a time. I started Michael Stanley’s The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu and Val McDermid’s A Darker Domain, and I’m revisiting Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep. I decrease my reading when I’m deep into writing a novel, though, because I find it derails my focus on my work.

SITFOB:  Before we say “goodbye,” is there anything else you’d like to share with readers of “She Is Too Fond of Books?”

KQ: Maybe writers and movie stars have an attention-seeking neurosis, I don’t know, but I so intensely want people to read my work and enjoy it, and for it to be of some importance to them. I can hardly express how grateful I am to people who read in general, and to those who read my book in particular. Authors are nowhere without their readers. I don’t take them for granted, and hope I never will.

SITFOB:  Well, we appreciate what you’ve done in bringing us Darko Dawson and his story; we’ll look forward to hearing more from both of you.  Thanks so much for spending some time at She is Too Fond of Books!