WHAT AILS KENYAN WRITING? Kenyan writers need to stop being so timid and safe as if nothing cutting-edge ever happens to us. We need to be more bold … - Moraa Gitaa

My favorite authors are Indian and Arabic/Mid Eastern. Because of their descriptive style and the way they have a way with making words so colorful and turn the words into their very own language. I guess I am also biased towards their writing because I grew up and schooled in the coastal port city of Mombasa whose inhabitants are predominantly Indian/Swahili/Muslim-Arabic. There is some influencing force about a coastal culture. On top of my Christianity, I would fast on Ramadhan, celebrate Diwali, have Muslim and Indian friends for sleepovers at our place and cook a wicked chicken biryani and mutton pilau!

The hardest part is making time for my writing, given the above scenario. This calls for immense discipline like cutting down on my social life – that means no partying!! Sacrificing my sleep on most nights to write and type. No outings on weekends!!

I got interested in this genre coz in the early and late 90’s in Mombasa and in my travels across the country, I realized that once a girl was infected with HIV/AIDS, most of the parents blamed men, thinking their daughter was the innocent victim. I thus decided to explore this and reversed the status. So in Crucible it is the lady protagonist Lavina who is HIV positive while the main male character Giorgio is HIV negative