Bringing Honour, Prestige and Colour to African Publishing!

At Kente Publishing we believe in stories that are profoundly African. We liken our stories to the Kente cloth – ceremonial garment of the powerful Ashanti Chiefs of Ghana. The Kente cloth brings honour, is prestigious and never ceases to bring colour to an auspicious occasion.

Tuesday 14 June 2011

Have you heard of 1000 awesome things?

Leopard here....I just came across this yesterday and wondered why it took someone so long to write this: 1000 Awesome Things' and apparently, there's another one called 1000 Even More Awesome things! Examples you ask? See what I just ripped off from their  this awesome site

#227 When you finally get rid of that thing that’s been rolling around the trunk of your car forever

It haunts you on every turn.
The muted thump of that half-filled water bottle, grass-stained golf ball, or pair of skates clanging against the side of your trunk. And you think it’s annoying, and you think you’ll get rid of it, but when you arrive at your destination it’s suddenly about getting out, getting in, and getting it tomorrow.
That’s what makes it great when the glorious day finally comes.
When you clean out the trunk and it sounds like
AWESOME!

Monday 13 June 2011

Terry's 2nd Class!


Yes I know I am 1 day late in posting this but can I tell you how I am still drooling over how interesting and insightful the class on Wednesday June 08/11 was!
Note to Self: Please make sure you look out for other classes/readings/ by Terry. Fun times
Podcasting was the subject for this class. Yah, yah I know. I can almost hear some of you social media aficionados and geeks saying that this is so yesterday…well some in the class were striving so hard to get past the concept of YouTube downloads and podcast downloads! Terry taught on the benefits for writers when using this media. This is especially if you are thinking of seriously putting your name and work out there.
Benefits of Podcasting. Terry gave us about 6 of them but will tease you with only 1! 

Benefit #1: Even a writer with an “almost” well-produced podcast is sure to build an audience or following of his/her work(s). After posting his first novel The Best Laid Plans, chapter by chapter on his website Terry got a following from as far off as Asia, Australia, Scotland, and even South Africa. Of course that led to sale of the next novel The High Road and he has just signed on for a third novel and the book isn’t even written yet!

Have you podcasted before and how easy did you find it?
Tiger

Monday 6 June 2011

It's another week

Hi Booklovers,
Here's hoping this week is just as exciting as last week was (if last week was exciting for you!).  I'm reading Paulo Coelho's "The Fifth Mountain' on my Sony E-reader and liking it quite a bit. The story is about Elijah - biblical Elijah but it's not preachy at all; infact it can be a bit irreverent in some places but that makes it that much more realistic. I don't know about you but Elijah used to come across as this old man, long beard, holy as *el* and not too human...you know what I mean? He was a prophet for crying out loud! Coelho makes him fall in love, doubt his calling from God and have major moments where he wishes he were dead. Talk about the humanity of it all....
Ok - gotta go back and try and finish it!

Leopard

Sunday 5 June 2011

Teaser Excerpt - Serwa Akoto's Diary

Serwa is a twenty-something year old teacher in Toronto struggling to maintain her identity as a black woman while realizing that dating white guys is not helping that image! All her Ghanaian friends tell her she needs to fatten up – black guys want something to hold on to for crying out loud. How is she going to nab that elusive Ghanaian man and when she does, will he be totally worth it?
Excerpt from Serwa’s Diary – 

September 15th…The Outdooring
I’m going to make up for not writing in my diary for a couple of days.

Saturday 4 June 2011

Teaser Excerpt - Ayele's Dilemma

This is from one of our short-shorts...less than five pages long and destined to be a smash hit as one of our unique 'fonebooks'  [Yes Ghana - you will be reading amazing stories like this on your phone because Kente is just the bomb!]:

Excerpt from Chapter 1
It paid to be patient. I had always known that, and if nothing at all, I could recall my grandmother’s voice admonishing me to be patient in all situations and never chase after a man. However, grandmother had gone into the other world for a while now and couldn’t possibly know that this time, I was actually going to chase after a man for a different reason. I had to agree with her though, that it does pay to be patient. However, my patience with Kofi had ran thin and I was about to end a relationship that had been going nowhere from the beginning.

As usual, he was about a half hour late for the date, and as he eventually came speeding up to the house in his latest toy, I could not help but wonder what had kept me glued to this man for two solid years. Sex? Maybe, because it had always been good, but then as my dear friend Esi was fond of saying, ‘you don’t marry sex, you marry the man’. In this case, the man, Kofi was not marriage material and though I had known that for some time now, I had made excuses. Don’t get me wrong, I am not callous; I had loved Kofi and had excused his occasional cheating, but not anymore because I had to move on.

“Ayele, how was work today?” He asked as soon as he ushered himself into my living room. Not Ayele, you look lovely or what is this you’re wearing? I guess I should not care anymore or should I?

“Work was fine, Kofi.”
He made himself comfortable next to me on the couch and took hold of my hands in his, staring at me with unreadable, disturbing eyes. Here was I, trying to find words to end a two year relationship and yet as I stared back at him, mesmerised, I knew instinctively that Kofi had something important to tell me.

Would the magnitude of his news surpass mine?


Tiger 

Friday 3 June 2011

Teaser Excerpt - Mistress Of The Game

Coming Fall 2011
A story about love, oil, politics and the machinations of scheming mothers! Quarterfinalist in the 2011 Amazon/Penguin Breakthrough Novel Award.
Published by Kente...who else?

Excerpt from Chapter 6
Maggie called Ceci’s Nigerian cell phone number and had to leave a message; she was probably turning off her phone since she’d be charged for cell phone roaming while in Canada. She tried the Holiday Inn in Mississauga where her sister was staying for her two-week immigration fact-finding trip to Canada.
“Hello?” said a white voice. Must be the receptionist at the Front Desk.
Margaret put on her best British accent.
“Yes, Hallo. I was wondering if you could put me through to Rm 202…Cecilia Akinyemi, spelled A-K-I-N-Y-E-M-I.
“Please hold”.
She did and the front desk put her through to Ceci’s room. After the sixth ring, just as she was about to hang up, Ceci took the call.
“Hello?”

Thursday 2 June 2011

Terry Fallis is Cool!

Our Acquisitions staff (Leopard & Tiger...just our spynames!) attended a class yesterday taught by Terry Fallis at U of T! Yes - Terry Fallis! He of the'Best Laid Plans' fame. Lovely man - so patient with newbie writers and bloggers and full of real advice about the writing life. It was awesome also to be sitting in the same room with GG nominees and short-listed authors, other self-pubbed authors and those just looking to tell their 'thang'...

Tiger will update us on the next few weeks about the writing life - podcasting, blogging...generally getting your 'thang' out there. In the meantime, take a look at some of the excerpts of books Kente is planning to publish soon...we're jigging it, word!

Leopard