Friday Five - Five Fun Things that Happened During the Writing of Dark Patches

Azuka Thomson graduated from the University of Benin in Nigeria with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and later obtained a master's degree from the University of Lagos. She worked as a consulting engineer for many years in Nigeria before relocating to Germany. She has three daughters and lives with her husband in Leverkusen.

Dark Patches, her first novel, is on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Azuka-Thomson-Dark-Patches/116641701734714

It is available on amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Patches-Azuka-Thomson/dp/3837207633/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301263282&sr=1-1

About Dark Patches

Meet Ndidi, the high school teacher and adoring wife. Blissfully married for seven years, a single question brings her world crashing down.

Grant, Ndidi's loving husband, is his mother's only child. Unable to stand up to his relatives, he devises a plan to keep his family together.

Omorose, Grant's mother, is determined to leave no stones unturned in her quest for more grandchildren, even if it means spiritual intervention.

Josephine is no ordinary second wife. Selfish, manipulative and troublesome, she does not intend to share Grant with Ndidi, so she starts an evil campaign with horrifying consequences.

As each of them make sacrifices for the sake of a common goal, ruthless bids for power unleash sinister forces of catastrophic proportions....

Azuka Thomson's Friday Five.

# 1 When my daughters first read Grant´s thoughts towards Josephine, his second wife, they cursed and screamed in indignation. How could Grant think like that and pretend to love Ndidi? However, after I reminded them that it was only a story, they calmed down and we had fun at Grant´s expense.

#2 Although, Grant´s mother Omorose is normally a devout Christian, she manages to talk herself into a visit to a juju priest ...Did it not say in the Bible, James 2:26, “for as a body without the spirit is dead, so is faith without deed dead also.” ...... A visit to the juju priest would definitely be in order and if he could make a love potion to ensure that a man loved his wife, surely it ought to qualify as a good deed. I can´t help laughing every single time I read that passage.

#3 My husband and daughter were decorating for Christmas while I sat nearby ostensibly to assist. My mind wandered and I was deep in a plot when she suddenly asked me to pass her the scissors. The effort must have been beyond me because I glanced at her and said

'I am engaged.'

'Really,' she dead panned, 'does your husband know about that?' We all fell about laughing and of course I lost my train of thought. #4 I once gave my youngest daughter a romantic scene to read after which she turned the short passage left and right, then

'Mummy, what is this?'

'What do you mean?'

'Come on, where is the rest of it?'

'Erm, but you know that this is not a pornographic book.'

'So? Does that give you license to skimp on the details? And why are you blushing?' She still teases me about it to this day.

#5 My daughter and I were on a train to Cologne and she asked me whether Omorose would uncover Josephine´s misdeeds.

'Yes she will, and then I will kill her' I replied with relish

'Mummy!! Bloodlust, see the way your eyes are shining!' It was very funny!

Frank Nash: the Most Inspirational English Teacher I Ever Did Know! By Vincent Zandri author of The Remains

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Thirteen Things About The Bedtime of the Sky and Other Sleepy-Bye Stories

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First Draft to Published

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