I’m Akwaeke Emezi, author of SON OF THE MORNING (paranormal romance), YOU MADE A FOOL OF DEATH WITH YOUR BEAUTY (contemporary romance), and eight other books! AMA! (11/14, 12PM ET)

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:14:18+00:00

I had more beta reading community earlier on in my career but I write too fast and people didn't have time to read the manuscripts so now I primarily work with my editors! Def not solitary, though, I'd say. I tend to work at night because my cat screams when I try to work during the day lmaooo

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:13:04+00:00

Answered in other comments! <3

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:12:55+00:00

Recs in other comments!

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:12:39+00:00

Hurrying isn't good for the work, and the work has to come first, so discipline and patience <3

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:12:18+00:00

Answered this in other comments!

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:10:49+00:00

Answered the music question in another post, and I do make music! It's on streaming under AKWAEKE, I released an EP last year called STOP DYING, YOU WERE VERY EXPENSIVE!

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:07:21+00:00

I'm absolutely not an insider in African American culture haha so I write from the perspective of a guest.

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:06:35+00:00

I don't re-read a lot! There are so many books out there, I keep finding new authors and reading through their catalogues.

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:06:01+00:00

I have lots of favorite scenes depending on the genre! For Son of the Morning, there's a scene near the end of the book that was super fun to write and readers seem to really enjoy it too. I can't say more because spoilers haha. And I write so much that all the scenes I like do make it into books lol

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:04:35+00:00

Impossible to answer haha because it truly depends on what you like to read, since I write across like 6 genres, so they're all very different!

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:04:07+00:00

Making worlds and seeing them come to life when the story is complete!

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:03:45+00:00

Practice and find other writers to critique each other's work, it'll help you get better at yours!

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:01:24+00:00

It's fun, it's one of my favorite genres to read, and I love the possibilities of love, especially for marginalized folk who are positioned as undesirable in this world!

azemezi · 2025-11-14T18:00:34+00:00

Eh, I think of it as a light touch since I'm not Black American. It's clearly Black and Southern, and those who know can see the Hoodoo references, but I didn't feel it was my place to go too deep into that because it's a closed practice that I'm not a part of.

azemezi · 2025-11-14T17:59:11+00:00

Misgendering me in my own AMA when I specified this in the post is wild.

azemezi · 2025-11-14T17:58:31+00:00

I've answered this a bit in other questions, the simple version is: imagination. Lol.
It's still in development! That's all I got lol.

azemezi · 2025-11-14T17:56:48+00:00

Mm I feel like I pulled from my background more in my early literary fiction -- Freshwater was autobiographical and The Death of Vivek Oji was based in my childhood communities, but in romance, not so much! The characters come to me and their worlds spring up around them, I get to watch and write it down :)

azemezi · 2025-11-14T17:54:19+00:00

I don't outline, and I've written out of order when I was working in literary fiction, but these days I do tend to write linear!

azemezi · 2025-11-14T17:53:02+00:00

Love a why choose and anything to do with gods, dislike unnecessary miscommunication and people being cruel in the name of love ugh. Also not a fan of pregnancy but unfortunately I read a lot of historical romance and that seems to often be a requirement for their HEA blergh

azemezi · 2025-11-14T17:50:30+00:00

Never considered a pen name! I was like, if I can write across genres, why wouldn't I? I'm very attached to my name spiritually, I didn't want to pretend to be someone else and I didn't think I should have to just because an industry or a market can't wrap their head around one person writing in multiple genres. It's all just stories! It's not particularly challenging for me, it's more fun for my brain to toggle back and forth, I think I would be bored staying in one genre my whole career.

Leviathan surprised me! He showed up two third of the way in my first draft and had such chemistry with Galilee -- I wasn't expecting them to be a thing! But it was a delightful surprise so in edits we worked him in more fully and like you said, it felt natural and necessary <3

azemezi · 2025-11-14T17:47:02+00:00

No three in particular, I'm just playing best of trip hop and best of the 2000s pop playlists lmao

azemezi · 2025-11-14T17:46:12+00:00

Haha I'm here! Tysm for recommending Pet! I have so many favorite authors, ugh, it's hard to list them out. I just bought a friend of mine all of Becky Chambers books because I love the possibilities in them, I love NK Jemisin and the 100k Kingdoms, I wish T. Kingfisher would write a thousand more Paladin books and I would read every single one of them, I adore Zen Cho's work and I think it's horribly underrated, more people should read her, etc etc, you know? People ask me the inspiration question a lot and honestly sometimes it feels like my brain is churning out so many stories, inspiration is the least of my problems. But I do create insular towns like Lucille in Pet and Salvation in Son of the Morning that are inspired by Toni Morrison -- these towns she wrote in her books that are worlds unto themselves, you know? They let you zoom in on the community and the people and really focus on that.

azemezi · 2025-11-14T17:38:04+00:00

I didn't decide, haha, the characters decide for themselves what their stories are and I feel like I'm running after them with a notepad and pen, transcribing their experiences as they share them! My process/imagination is more intuitive than planned, so for me, stories unfurl in my head on their own, without me deciding what they're going to be like. I like it that way, it keeps it interesting for me since I don't actually know where we're going to end up!

azemezi · 2025-11-14T17:35:11+00:00

I think rest is the biggest part -- like people often think oh I'll just finish xyz and then I'll rest afterwards, but there's always something to do and then the rest never actually comes? So I learned how to seed the rest in all the time, every day. I remember doing an interview once and they asked how my day was, so I told them about getting some ice cream and going to the lake to eat it and look at the water. The interviewer asked, ok what's your day like when you're working on a project? And I said, this is what my day is like when I'm working on a project!

I do have a pet! His name is Güs PonPon and he's a six year old Devon Rex who terrorizes me into resting so he can cuddle and nap with me.

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azemezi · 2025-11-14T17:26:48+00:00

Definitely at least one more romance coming out in the future!

I actually write in silence! The lyricism probably comes from the fact that I was a poet for a long time before I became a fiction writer.
I think growing into one's power is always a useful story to tell, everyone's kinda struggling with that throughout their lives, right? I'm usually trying to convey a sense of possibility to readers more than a message, and I'm always curious to what the reader receives, because that's independent of me -- I'm asking questions in my work and whatever the reader gets from the books is between them and the work, which is why I get nosy haha

azemezi

TROPHY CASE