7 Questions For: Author Tomi Adeyemi

Tomi Adeyemi is a Nigerian-American writer and creative writing coach based in San Diego, California. After graduating Harvard University with an honors degree in English literature, she received a fellowship that allowed her to study West African mythology and culture in Salvador, Brazil. When she’s not working on her novels or watching Scandal, she can be found blogging and teaching creative writing to her 4,500 subscribers at tomiadeyemi.com. Her website has been named one of the 101 best websites for writers by Writer’s Digest.

Her debut West African YA Fantasy novel is CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE (Holt Books for Young Readers/Macmillan). The CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE movie is in development at Fox 2000/Temple Hill Productions with Karen Rosenfelt and Marty Bowen (Twilight, Maze Runner, The Fault In Our Stars) producing it.

If you want to know everything important about her and her stories, you can read this blog post: Why I Write, Telling A Story That Matters.

If you're an aspiring author, check out her writing tips and free writing resource library here.

Click here to read my review of Children of Blood and Bone.

And now Tomi Adeyemi faces the 7 Questions:


Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

Some of my favorite YA books are Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older, An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir and The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo.

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

I spend about 30-40 hours a week writing, squeezing in reading whenever I can!


Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

It’s been a wild ride! I’ve been writing my whole life and working on books with the hope of getting published for 5 to 6 years. The first book I tried to get published took me 4 years, but didn’t go anywhere.

However, I learned everything that I needed to learn about writing and publishing with that book, so it will actually always be the most valuable book I ever wrote for everything that it taught me!

With this book, the process was fast, but it was intense. The final product is almost 600 pages that were rewritten more times than I can count over an intense 18 month period, so it was a labor, but I am very proud of the final product!

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

 I think writers are born with the desire to write, but it's a lifelong education on how to actually do it.


Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

The most fun part is outlining. It’s pure inspiration and imagination without any of the hard work of getting it on the page.

The hardest part is revision. It’s the most rewarding part, but I’m the type of person who cares about every single word on the page and when you have 140,000 words in your book, it’s a process that can drive you insane!

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

Don’t give up, and know that nothing is wasted. Also read, read, read!

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

I love Dan Fogelman! He is so talented, I'd love to pick his brain.

tomiadeyemi.com