UP-AND-COMING WRITERS SHOULD LET DILIGENCE AND CRITICISM BE THEIR BEDFELLOWS - LERE FAGBOLA

Olalere Fagbola, a former South-West Bureau Chief of the Punch newspaper is a seasoned and veteran journalist, with untiring passion for engaging in various forms of writing as he treats writing with serious devotion. As an accomplished author, biographer, poet, songwriter, writing prophetologist and publisher, Fagbola has authored and published no fewer than twenty books of his own authorship while he has edited great works of academics, educationists and biographies of more than thirty clerics at home and abroad. In this brief interview with Wole Adedoyin, he talks about his writing career.

WA: WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START WRITING?
FAGBOLA: Solitude
WA: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WRITING?
FAGBOLA: Forty six years.
WA: WHEN DID YOU START WRITING?
FAGBOLA: 1975
WA: HAVE YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A WRITER?
FAGBOLA: I can't remember.
WA: WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE A NEW WRITER, SOMEONE JUST STARTING OUT?
FAGBOLA: Let diligence and criticism be your bedfellows.
WA: HOW DO YOU HANDLE WRITER’S BLOCK?
FAGBOLA: Carry it to the balcony
WA: HOW MANY BOOKS HAVE YOU WRITTEN?
FAGBOLA: No fewer than thirty
WA: WHAT IS THE MOST SURPRISING THING YOU DISCOVERED WHILE WRITING YOUR BOOK(S)?
FAGBOLA: The muse spreading writing table before me in the presence of vice chancellors
WA: WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE CHARACTER?
FAGBOLA: “When Mr Nobody Is Around”
WA: DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE CHARACTER THAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN? IF SO, WHO? AND WHAT MAKES THEM SO SPECIAL.
FAGBOLA: So special because they don't have reputation
WA: WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INSPIRATION?
FAGBOLA: On a mountain higher than I
WA: WHERE CAN READERS PURCHASE YOUR BOOKS?
FAGBOLA: On the rack and at the archives while making efforts to get them online
WA: WHERE CAN READERS FIND OUT MORE ABOUT YOU AND YOUR BOOKS?
FAGBOLA: @worduniversity.net
WA: HAVE ANY OF YOUR BOOKS BEEN MADE INTO AUDIOBOOKS?
FAGBOLA: NONE
WA: IF SO, WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES IN PRODUCING AN AUDIO BOOK?
FAGBOLA: Unchallenged
WA: WHICH OF YOUR BOOKS WERE THE MOST ENJOYABLE TO WRITE?
FAGBOLA: Heroism Songs and Troubles
WA: TELL US ABOUT YOUR FIRST PUBLISHED BOOK?
FAGBOLA: It began at the University Gate of the then University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University where the Vice Chancellor and JAMB slugged out over my provisional admission to read English
WA: WHAT WAS THE JOURNEY LIKE?
FAGBOLA: The journey was eventfully wonderful
WA: WHAT, IN YOUR OPINION, ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF GOOD WRITING?
FAGBOLA: Witnessing to it before setting pen on paper to avoid being superficial.
WA: WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE AUTHOR OF ALL TIME?
FAGBOLA: King David the Psalmist
WA: YOUR FAVORITE BOOK BY HIM?
FAGBOLA: Psalms
WA: ON YOUR LATEST BOOK, CAN YOU SHARE WITH US THE TITLE OF THE BOOK.
FAGBOLA : "Rauf Aregbesola Sworn Enemy of Convention"
WA: ARE THERE ANY SECRETS FROM THE BOOK, YOU CAN SHARE WITH YOUR READERS?
FAGBOLA: Comparatively having written biographies of no fewer than ten in which three were biographies of Governors, this latest is the one in which I have been deliberately so unreasonable to write because I was thoroughly myself in the course of writing it.
WA: WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THE STORY?
FAGBOLA: Cosmological
WA: WHAT IS THE KEY THEME AND/OR MESSAGE IN THE BOOK?
FAGBOLA: Judgment belongs only to god
WA: WHAT DO YOU HOPE YOUR READERS TAKE AWAY FROM THIS BOOK?
FAGBOLA: Separate facts from fallacies truth from opinion and news from noise
WA: WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE?
FAGBOLA: Breaking the rules and still excel.
WA: HAS A BOOK EVER CHANGED YOUR LIFE?
FAGBOLA: Two books did, the poetry of King David and my latest book both changing my life spiritually
WA: WHAT GENRES DO YOU LOVE?
FAGBOLA: Poetry
WA: ARE THERE ANY GENRES YOU DISLIKE?
FAGBOLA: None
WA: WHAT AUTHOR (WHO IS STILL LIVING) WOULD YOU DEARLY LOVE TO MEET?
FAGBOLA: Author whose book is read by his mother
WA: DO YOU LIKE TO DISPLAY YOUR BOOKS ON A BOOKSHELF OR KEEP THEM IN A VIRTUAL LIBRARY?
FAGBOLA: Keep them on the racks of archives
WA: DO YOU PREFER FLASH FICTION, SHORT STORIES, NOVELLAS, OR NOVELS?
FAGBOLA: Non fiction
WA: WHAT BOOK CAN YOU RECOMMEND TO ME?
FAGBOLA: On Becoming A Writer by Vera Brittan
WA: WHEN DID YOU LAST VISIT A LIBRARY?
FAGBOLA: I live inside it.
WA: HAVE YOU EVER HAD A CRUSH ON A BOOK CHARACTER?
FAGBOLA: No
WA: HAS A BOOK EVER MADE YOU LAUGH OUT LOUD?
FAGBOLA: Yes.