Fiction! Fiction!!Fiction!!!

I love fiction. I love to get lost in a world that is not mine. A world of  fantasy and imagination, a world where anything and everything can happen. Fortunately for me, I come from a land of great story tellers. We love to tell stories in Nigeria.  Growing up, one could never get straight answers from parents. Every answer came with a story. Some came filled with proverbs and morals. Some came with jokes and riddles.

 Every incident that happens is an opportunity to tell a story. Everybody is a potential story teller.  Every NEPA (Nigerian Electic Power Authority) blackout was a time for storytelling. As we sat outside, family, friends and neighbours, stories would come pouring forth. Some told stories of their childhood, stories they had heard from their grand-mothers and mothers. Others told stories they had read and if you were really lucky, they would come with songs and dance steps. Beats and rythms… ah! the good old days…of mosquitoes and darkness…

Those days are long gone and I do not sit outside anymore with loved ones telling stories but I do read books! Lots of books! I spend hours at book stores and libraries. I love a good story and I am always looking for one. It is therefore of no coincidence that I have found stories in the Nigerian blogosphere(or blogville as it is also popularly called). 

I have selected a few of my favorite stories that have been written over the years. Of course, I might have missed a lot of good stories, but these I remember…

Indigo  is one of my favorite posts from this very talented writer, Jaja. I still crack up anytime I read this fictional love letter written from the swamps of the Niger Delta(Okay, I just wrote “swamps” because it gives it  a certain, you know, “je ne sais quoi”). In it, the writer describes his new life as a youth corper to his supposedly very intellectual girlfriend. All I will say is that  it is “delightful”.  I love the absurd, and delaria always makes me happy to know that there is somebody else out there having ehhhhhh weird thoughts. Now enough of Jaja. This man claims he is done with blogging but I know he misses us as much as we miss him and I sincerely hope he throws us a bone once in a while…something short will do. I miss his writing.

Catwalq, catwalq, what can I say? A talented lady whose  mind it seems, is constantly at work. She writes and writes… and writes. I have had a hard time choosing from her work because she has so much! But I decided to go with the ones that I absolutely remember.  Greener pastures is the story of many Nigerians. The allure of the city and the sometimes terrible conditions in which many young children are often subjected to, all in the hope of a better life. Sisterhood of need is  a story about the meeting of two women and a story of betrayal, trust and friendship.  She has been writing for five years now and I hope she keeps writing. I always look foward to her stories…one never knows what she’ll write about…no, thats not right. You can always depend on the fact that it will be something to make women THINK!

Ever heard of Pius, Nigeria’s first astronaut?  No? well then, it seems you must have missed atutupoyoyo, who is still around ( I heard he recently resurfaced from the depths of Nigeria where he relocated to and was never heard from again…but like I said, there are rumours that he is still alive…). So many short stories to choose from, but in the end, any die hard fan of Sherlock Holmes would do what I did. I have chosen On a brief meeting between Sherlock Holmes and King Jaja of Opobo.

At this point, right in the middle, it is only fair that I spice this post up, and what better way of getting things all hot and spicy than introducing our very own king of erotica? “Ubong da” writes erotic stories…oops! unfortunately, it seems  you have to be invited to be able to read the hot stuff…it used to be free…well, too bad, I guess. Let’s move on.

Allied…writes and writes…and writes. Like Catwalq, I do not think I can do justice to her work. I just came from her blog and there is so much that I have not yet read! Whoa! What shall I do? Again, I shall have to rely on my memory…I hope they both understand and not hate me for my choices…but who cares? I am doing this review, so I get to decide. I therefore pick “The Engagement” because I enjoyed it very much.  Stolen Childhood is from 2007 but I still remember it,  the “flogging” of a child in church, in a bid to “flog” out sickness.

This post, Mother love, is one of my favourites from  Porter deHarqourt , who graces us with his presence from time to time.  From sugar to shit in just a bit   is short , sweet and…bitter? Can something be sweet and bitter at the same time? He seems to have abandoned his blog…but somehow, I think he is busy writing a novel or something…surely he must be writing somewhere?

 Finally, this interesting experiment, 14th and serenity is worth checking out. It’s a sort of “hand the baton” kind of thing, you know, one writer stops the story somewhere, and the other conitinues…the links to the bloggers who participated are on the blog and I am sure you will find many more stories on their blogs.

There are many blogs that I have not mentioned and many more that I am sure I do not know about. However, I hope this encourages you all to keep your eyes open for bloggers who write because there is a lot of good stuff out there and for free too!

Keep reading!

Waffy