Deadly Sacrifice by Stella Oni
1- As a cake enthusiast and foodie, would you please share a holiday cake recipe, perhaps with pictures?
Jamaican Rum Cake is the best one but it is not straightforward baking. I tend to try different recipes. Chef Ricardo’s below is a good one.
Jamaican Christmas Fruit Cake (©2014)
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Place fruit in a large jar at least a day (longer if possible) in advance, pour wine and rum over fruit, so that it is completely covered. Cover jar and leave fruit to soak.
Cream butter and sugar in a very large mixing bowl. Add browning. Add 1 and a half cups of soaked fruit, stirring in with a large wooden spoon. Beat eggs until light and frothy (10 to 15 minutes). Add rose water, vanilla mixed spice and cinnamon powder. Add egg mixture and orange juice to butter mixture, fold in well.
Fold soaked fruit into this mixture. (Any leftover fruit can be left to soak until the next time you bake!) Gradually fold in flour mixture. Test to see if the wooden spoon can stand upright in middle of the mixture. If not, add some more flour until the mixture can support the spoon. Grease baking pans and line with grease paper. Grease and flour lined pans.
Pour mixture into tins and bake for 2 hours in a slow oven, 300-350 F. Place a pan of water in the bottom of the oven to ensure cakes do not dry out. Check cakes from time to time, as baking times may vary. Cakes are ready when a toothpick or skewer inserted in centre comes out clean, or almost clean. To store the cake for a few weeks, keep moist by pouring Red Label wine and Jamaican white rum on the top, and wrapping.
2- Would you please, in 160 characters or less, give a #WriteTip ?
Create a secret space in your mind for your writing and don’t let anything that is not improving or honing your craft get near it.
3- What is the best piece of writing advice you've received?
Keep writing. Never give up.
4- What might people be most surprised to learn about human trafficking?
It happens worldwide and we are only at the tip of the iceberg.
5- Would you share a picture with us of your book with something colorful and shiny?
6- What are six things that most people probably don't know about Nigeria?
- The Film industry in Nigeria is known as Nollywood and is bigger than Hollywood
- Argungu fishing festival in Kebbi state Northern Nigeria is one of the most interesting ones in the world and is about to be revived
- Nigeria is the largest importer of stock fish in the world. They eat tons of them each year and make a lot of Norwegians very wealthy from it.
- More than half of the population use social media and nearly all have mobile phones.
- A lot of top world African achievers have Nigerian heritage
- Aliko Dangote - The richest man in Africa is Nigerian
7- What's your Twitter handle, and do you have two or three writer friends on there to shout-out to for #WriterWednesday ?
My handle is @sonithewriter . Shout out to @KKareemBello @rashedaashanti
8- Do you have a favorite #bookstagram image or account/ profile?
@reads.and.reveries I love how she arranges the books on her profile and have had many tips from her.
9- What most motivates you to read a new book?
I am always drawn by subject matter that show adventure, settings, and so I read widely. I also love a well written story that will allow me to inhabit that world for as long as I can.
10- It's our tenth anniversary! How far has your writing come in the past ten years and where do you see your writing career ten years from now?
Happy Anniversary! I used the past ten years to hone and improve my writing and will use the next ten years to hone my writing, explore my creativity and produce many books.
11- What is your favorite book by someone else, what's the author's Twitter handle, and what do you love most about that book? #FridayReads book recommendation time!
Author name: Lola Shoneyin @lolashoneyin
Title: The Secret Lives of the Four Wives
Love because: The story was gripping and the secret mind blowing!
12- What emotions do you hope your book will evoke for the reader?
I want my reader to be immersed in my story and to see the character, place and location. I also hope that they enjoy reading it.
13- What kind of impact do you hope your book will have?
To enable the reader to be open to diverse viewpoints, be interested, gripped and think on many complex levels.
14- What is the best writing tool, program, or reference book you've ever bought?
I love the writing tool - Scrivener
15- In what ways are the main characters in your book diverse? diversebooks.org #WeNeedDiverseBooks
I have diverse characters in the book and they have normal life issues.
Detective Toks Ade - British Nigerian, Coretta Davis- Biracial, Detective Philip Dean is white British
#TwentyIn2020 is Jacaranda Books' historical, groundbreaking initiative to publish 20 Black British writers in one year. The works include fiction, nonfiction and poetry, with the aim of normalising the presence of diverse literature by talented Black writers in the UK.
16- Who is your favorite book review blogger?
I will cheat and instead pick a podcaster - Sarah Ozo-Irabor of Books and Rhymes
17- What was the deciding factor in your publication route?
I went for Jacaranda’s Twenty in 2020 initiative. An independent publisher willing to publish 20 black writers in 2020 and did it to a high standard. It has been great.
18- Which author, past or present, do you feel most resembles your work?
It is difficult to say as there has not been a police procedural in the UK with a black main character. Perhaps Leye Adenle, he is a brilliant writer.
19- Would you please ask our audience a question to answer in the comments?
What would you do love to do once the pandemic is over?
20- Anything else you would care to share about your book and yourself?
I started a a new cozy series, THE LONDON HOUSE MYSTERIES the prequel, THE STRANGER IN THE HOUSE appears in Festive Mayhem – an anthology.
More about Deadly Sacrifice
They arrived at a clearing surrounded by bright lights that cast huge shadows on the police officers standing by a small taped off area. Her eyes were drawn to the shrub in the middle of the scene. A police woman joined them and she recognised Mary Clark from her old unit.
‘Hello Mary! What’s going on here?’ she asked.
Toks remembered Mary as a big Irish brunette who liked to be in the thick of the action. Mary tried to smile and failed. Toks noted the shock in her eyes and the paleness of her face.
‘Toks! I heard you abandoned uniform.’ Her jocular tone sounded false as she glanced at Philip. She gestured at the shrub. ‘You must take a look for yourself. Here. You need these.’
She passed both of them some protective clothing.
Philip said nothing but his eyes, like Toks, were glued to the shrub. He turned to Mary. ‘Has the pathologist been yet?’
‘No. We’re waiting for her. SOCO have been working for a while now, though.’
Philip joined the officers and began talking to them.
She lingered by Mary. ‘Is it very bad?’ The woman nodded as her eyes filled with tears.
Toks went to join Philip. He pulled up the tape and they both went under it. Her heart beat so loudly that all other sounds became muffled. She was right to feel as she did. They were now standing by the patch. It had close-clustered leaves with thin, scraggly branches. The earth around it was dark and wet and just by one of the low branches sat a black clay pot. She bent down beside Philip and it took a while for her brain to register what she was seeing. Then she found herself choking back bile.
Short Bio
Stella is a cake enthusiast who makes exquisite cakes and writes about it on her cake blog. She is also an avid foodie who writes about Food, Culture and Tech on her blog African Britishness and on Medium. Her dream is to travel around the world to taste and experience food from different cultures. Her debut fiction Deadly Sacrifice was published in September 2020.
Social Media Links
Website: http://Stellaonithewriter.com
Instagram: @stellaonithewriter
Facebook: @sonithewriter
Twitter: @sonithewriter
Deadly Sacrifice by Stella Oni
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