Question: How do you transform a five-minute oral narrative into a full-length novel? Answer: Color! Lots and lots of Color! If Luanda's oral narrative is a naked, black and white stencil, A Deliberate Act is my colored-in adaptation. It's my adaptation; no other author would pick the same colors. I chose airy pastels and three shades of light blue. Another author might employ rich earth tones and the boldest of reds. Neither adaptation is wrong, so to speak; each author's palette choice and color intensity would change the global genre, but each expression relies the same framework. For this folktale, that framework (the black and white canvas) must include:
a magnificent Luo warrior from Kano's Sidho clan
strife and turmoil with the neighboring Kalenjin tribe
a bride
ultimate betrayal
death
This coloring book analogy asks, "What do we get from Fredrick Rege's chosen pastel palette?"
Here's a limited preview.
Historical Fiction
If historical fiction is your jam, I dare to suggest you'll love this novel. A Deliberate Act places real and fictitious characters within real and fictitious events, and within real and only real places. Have a notebook and/or web browser nearby; the novel will include people, places and things to note and research beyond front and back covers.
Luo Culture
The Luo People represent one of over forty tribes in modern-day Kenya, and one of over three thousand within the African continent. Some tribes contiguous to the Luo differ in tongue and tradition as much as Italians differ from Koreans. A Deliberate Act promises explore Luo traditions, norms, and taboos through a natural story-telling device. A Kisii might learn as much as a Canadian.
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