African Proverbs – Anger And Madness Are Brothers

Language Shouldn’t Be A Barrier To Writing

A language is a tool for communication and not a barrier to writing.

– Bernard Kelvin Clive

It’s true most people prefer to write in Eglish language because it’s the universal language and large proportion of the populace get to read their work. However, writing is not limited to the English language alone. Any writer can write in any language of choice as long as he’s good at the language and can write good stuff.

An aspiring author doesn’t have to wait until he has mastered the English language art and become a guru before writing his first book. He can write in any language he is more comfortable with.

If a writer’s writing is good, the good news will definitely go round, and the world will get to know about it through the speakers of that language and probably demand for translation.

So, do not be discouraged from writing, if English is not your native language and you have not been opportune to master it as to write with it.

Writers write to communicate, and any language has someone who understands it.

It doesn’t matter which language you write in, as long as your writing is good.

– Chinua Achebe

The quote above says it all- the language you write in doesn’t matter. What you need to focus on is good writing.

Penning Poem

Initiate the incidental message

Renounce your petty solace

Leave your eyes behind

And race in tune with your mind

Trust your marbles as guide

Your imaginations as guard

If you ever missed your path

Got lost in the forest of thoughts

Or got buried in the sand of words

Do not ever pause to fuss

Your insanity’d excavate you

And your sanity’d fix you

Your labours’ll refresh the lands

Earth’ll shake your aching hand

Author | John Grisham

John Grisham is an author with not less than 39 books published in his name, from 1989 to date.

Brief Biography

John Grisham is an American novelist, politician, attorney and activist. He was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas on February 8th 1955.

He got his first degree from Mississippi State University and received his Juris Doctor Degree from University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981, the same year he got married to his wife, Renee. He practiced Criminal Law for about ten years and served in the Mississipi House of Representatives between January 1984 and September 1990.

He has two children, Shea and Ty Grisham.

Writing Career

John Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill was rejected by 28 publishers before it got published by Wynwood Press in 1989.

He became really famous as a writer after his second novel, The Firm – got published and it became the bestselling novel of 1991. Ever since his writing career has been blossoming.

Genres

His works cover Legal thriller, crime fiction, southern gothic, football and baseball. But he’s mostly known for his Legal thrillers.

List of John Grisham’s Books

1989 – A Time to Kill

1991 – The Firm

1992 – The Pelican Brief

1993 – The Client

1994 – The Chamber

1995 – The Rainmaker

1996 – The Runaway Jury

1997 – The Partner

1998 – The Street Lawyer

1999 – The Testament

2000 – The Brethren

2001 – A Painted House

2001 – Skipping Christmas

2002 – The Summons”

2003 – “The King of Torts

2003 – Bleachers

2004 – The Last Juror

2005 – The Broker

2006 – The Innocent Man

2007 – Playing for Pizza

2008 – The Appeal

2009 – The Associate2009 – Ford County (short stories)

2010 – Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer

2010 – The Confession

2011 – Theodore Boone: The Abduction

2011 – The Litigators

2012 – Theodore Boone: The Accused

2012 – Calico Joe

2012 – The Racketeer

2013 – Theodore Boone: The Activist

2013 – Sycamore Row

2014 – Gray Mountain

2015 – Theodore Boone: The Fugitive

2015 – Rogue Lawyer

2016 – Partners (a “Rogue Lawyer short story)

2016 – Theodore Boone: The Scandal

2016 – Witness to a Trial (a digital short story)

2016 – The Whistler

2017 – Camino Island

Famous Quotes by John Grisham

“In life, finding a voice is speaking and living the truth. Each of you is an original. Each of you has a distinctive voice. When you find it, your story will be told. You will be heard”. -John Grisham

“You live your life today,
Not tomorrow,
and certainly not yesterday.” -John Grisham

“I was tired of secrets, tired of seeing things I was not supposed to see. And so I just cried.” -John Grisham, APainted House

“Mr. Buckley, let me explain it this way. And I’ll do so very carefully and slowly so that even you will understand it. If I was the sheriff, I would not have arrested him. If I was on the grand jury, I would not have indicted him. If I was the judge, I would not try him. If I was the D.A., I would not prosecute him. If I was on the trial jury, I would vote to give him a key to the city, a plaque to hang on his wall, and I would send him home to his family. And, Mr. Buckley, if my daughter is ever raped, I hope I have the guts to do what he did”. -John Grisham, A Time to Kill“Death row is a nightmare to serial killers and ax murderers. For an innocent man, it’s a life of mental torture that the human spirit is not equipped to survive” -John Grisham, The Confession

“It’s amazing how lies grow. You start with a small one that seems easy to cover, then you get boxed in and tell another one. Then another. People believe you at first, then they act upon your lies, and you catch yourself wishing you’d simply told the truth” -John Grisham, The Client

Lessons I’ve learned so far from John Grisham’s writing history

Keep writing even when the pile of your books and the height of your fame have reached the sky.

Rejection doesn’t mean the end of writing. Persist even when you meet a hundred publisher rejections.

Work hard to publish at least a book in a year.

——————-💙

Toxic Love

Azuka’s roommates had held her back one evening from returning to the psycho, who had on several occations given her a black eye without any remorse. But she had screamed like a naughty child and said they should leave her alone.

She couldn’t keep Jeff waiting in the cold harmattan weather for long. It’s her life, she had said.  Whatever she did with it wasn’t any of their business. They let her go – back to him.

That night at 1:30 am, she returned sobbing, holding the left side of her face. She got hit again – by the psycho.

She got hit again because she talked to her best friend Ola. Ola hated Jeff and his ancestors for the way he treated her soft-hearted friend, Azuka. She had confronted him one day and had sworn to deal with him if ever he laid his hands on his friend again. From that day, Jeff forbade Azuka from moving with her friend Ola.

Ola didn’t know that Jeff hit Azuka again. She hid it from her because she didn’t want to make Jeff angry; Ola would fight him.

That same midnight he came back to the window calling and begging. He needed her to come to him. Azuka’s roommates told him to leave immediately but Azuka dressed up before their glaring eyes and left.

She went down to meet him. She couldn’t bring herself to refusing his plea. She loved him with every drop of her blood!

Azuka’s parents got to know about the toxic relationship through an unidentified person, who said she was concerned their daughter could die in the hands of a brute of a boyfriend if they didn’t do anything about it. But when they went to school, Azuka told them there was no such thing. They shouldn’t listen to anyone trying to make them hate her. They believed her and left.

Things got out of hand when at the beginning of the first semester Jeff took her ATM card from her after a little plea for ten thousand naira. That same day, he withdrew all the money in her account including her school fees and living allowance. When she asked him to return the money, he threatened to leave her. The worst that could happen to her was breaking up with Jeff. She couldn’t afford to lose him. She lied to her parents to have them send her more money, they did. She was their only child and they were well to do.

When Azuka went to ask Jeff to give back her ATM card, he got annoyed.

“I can see that something is wrong with your head, ” he said and walked away from her. She didn’t know what to do.

The next day, Azuka went to the bank and blocked the ATM card and got a new one. She was afraid Jeff was going to react, so she asked Ola to be with her always. Ola was a tiger – two strong men were probably trapped in her feminine frame. Asuka needed not to fear once she was by her side. It’s just that most of the time, she had kept Ola in the dark concerning the toxic relationship.

It was weekend and Ola needed desperately to visit home. Her oldest sister was opening a supermarket and wanted her to be there on Saturday for the event. She pleaded with Azuka to come with her but she said she had to stay to prepare for her test coming up on Monday.

Three days had passed since Jeff had refused to talk to Azuka because she blocked her ATM card with him. He had given her the condition to unblock her card with him if ever she wanted him to have anything to do with her ever again.

“You know it’s not possible Jeff. That particular card can’t be unblocked but I can give you the new one.” She rummaged in her bag for her purse and brought out her new ATM card and offered it to him like an idiot. He had refused it and had walked away.

She was going crazy without him. She had told Ola and Ola had felt like whipping her.

“Stay in your room all weekend. I’ll be back on Sunday evening.” Ola pleaded with her and she promised never to see Jeff without Ola.

But on Saturday evening, around 10 pm, Azuka heard his voice in the dark night calling at the window. Her heart swelled with pleasure. She took off to meet him downstairs, despising her roommate’s plea.

Her roommate heard them giggling as they went away in the dark night. She shook her head and retired to bed.

All through the night, Azuka did not come back to her room. In the morning, she didn’t return. Her roommate had to involve the school security service after searching and waiting into the Sunday afternoon.

When Ola returned on Sunday evening, she went to Azuka’s hostel and was told she had been missing since Saturday night.

Ola knew at the instant that Jeff was behind her missing. She called home but she was not there.

Ola went to Jeff and he coldly said he didn’t see her.

Azuka’s roommates were interrogated. One of them revealed that Azuka went out with Jeff that night and didn’t come back.

Jeff was detained and interrogated by the police. He denied having seen her that night and because nothing could trace her missing to him and the roommate couldn’t prove anything, he was released.

The next day, Jeff disappeared from his room with his valuable possessions – got himself accommodation in the town. Students suspected he had a hand in Azuka’s sudden disappearance.

Azuka’s parents made sure Jeff was tracked down within a month. He was seriously at large and was found at the remote area of Abuja in a one-room apartment. He looked like someone who had sorrowed too much and had not slept in months. He looked unkempt, hungry and worn out.

.

Jeff was taken back to Borno State Police Headquarters and that same day, he led them to the spot in the school garden known as ‘love garden’

“This is where we last met,” he said and begged the policeman to pick up the withered hibiscus from the ground. He moved closer and sniffed it. “She had put this in my hair. She knew how much I hated hibiscus. I had yanked it off my head jokingly and thrown it at her. She got amused and I can still hear her laughter echoing in the night.” He moved closer and sniffed the hibiscus again. “Now that she is gone, I feel I’ve begun to love hibiscus.”

“Where is her body?”

He led them to the nearby bush. They found Azuka’s body in a big sack. A careful look devolved bruises on the back of her neck if the rotting corpse.

“You have the right to remain silent, anything you say from now onward could be used against you in the court of law.” an officer said with his palm over his nose.

‘I dont care anymore. I don’t care if I lived or died. What could life be without my only babe? All I wanted was to kiss her that night. She refused and my anger mounted.”

You have the right…..

“I hit her only once. She wasn’t supposed to die. I’ve hit her more than that in the past and she didn’t even slump to the ground. Oh, my God”

“You son of a ***. All I wanted was my daughter, alive. You have given me a rotten body. What am I going to do with— what am I going to tell her mother?” Azuka’s father struggled with the men holding her from hitting Jeff.

Jeff was put in jail after confessing that he hit his girlfriend, Azuka just once on the back of her neck and she went lifeless. According to him, he didn’t mean to kill her.

“If my babe Azuka were here in this court in death, she would forgive me and let me go. I implore you to please do what she would do for me and let me go. Not for me, I do not want to live anymore but just for her to be happy wherever she is.” This was his last statement when he was given a rare chance in court to say something before the final verdict.

That statement aggravated Azuka’s parents resentment. All they wanted was for the judge to grant their daughter justice.

Jeff got life imprisonment.

THE END