The two books were written in completely different circumstances. I wrote Kemi's Journal in the safety and security of a full-time job. I travelled around West Africa for my job which was great but in terms of writing, a bit of a nightmare but you know the saying, when there's a will, there's a way. Writing the book was important to me so I made time for it. I get very irritated when people assume that because I'm a writer, I have all the time in the world, like writing is my hobby or something. It annoys me because they don't think of writing as a real job, which it is. I'm a writer and writing is my job.

Many people will like to write but it's the real writers who put in the hours, the graft and what I like to call the blood-stained keyboard (or paper) in. Such people inspire and challenge me. And please don't call me a poet. Hate poetry. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Maybe that's because I don't understand it. The only poet I like is John Donne and I don't even know all his poems, only some.

Back to writing Kemi's Journal. A liberal through and through, I converted to Christianity only to find myself challenged by a new set of standards that although on the surface seemed fine didn't seem to connect with the practical day to day challenges I was facing. And the strange thing was that nobody seemed to be having the same challenges as me. I wanted to write a book that would articulate all these challenges but in a readable format. Christian fiction already had a bad press and I didn't want to add to that list. As for why I chose the diary format, well, it's because people are by nature voyeuristic and unbelievably nosy. Leave an open journal lying anywhere and I guarantee it will be read within 5 mins. Lots of psychologists have written about Big Brother and its social ills but those who watch it call it a fascinating insight into human behaviour. And so it was with Kemi's Journal. I wanted people to see into Kemi's mind, her thoughts and challenges and it seems to have worked. People always tell me that reading the book was like watching a movie. They could actually visualise what was happening in the book before their very eyes. Which is nice. If only they would stop calling Kemi'

Kemi's Journal was pretty easy to write (remember, I had the stability of a job so no financial hurdles but more on that later). I had some male friends whose ex-girlfriends had aborted their children without their knowledge and years down the line, they were still grieving for the child they never knew. My nephew Zachary, was three years old when I started Kemi's Journal and four when I finished. Zack is named after him. And the final clincher, I didn't think it was right to depict every non-Christian as fork wielding Satanists. That would have been too easy. Once I had all these themes and issues out of the way, I had a framework for Zack's character. While we're at it, please tell the ladies that there is indeed a Zack and he's almost 6 years old and no, he's not interested.

In all, Kemi's Journal took me about 4 months to write. and I loved every minute of it which is quite strange because when working on a book, I tend to veer between two extremes; love and hate for it.

Me, myself and Kemi

I am not Kemi but I have shared some of her challenges. A lot of people have called her 'a selfish cow and the way she treated that boy! I thought she was a Christian!' I'm very surprised by this. I don't understand why she's selfish. Because she's such a strong character? My brand of Christianity advocates compassion not stupidity. Being a Christian does not make you a doormat. I wanted a real character, somebody professional women can identify with. We got Kemi and I'm pleased with her. I'm very pleased with the way I've dealt with her job pressures because we've all been there. The rate we're going in this world, it seems more than likely that our employers will own our souls if we're not careful but that's another story...

Somebody once asked me what gave me the right as an evangelical Christian to judge people who've had abortions. I didn't know what I was talking about in my book, he said, because I had never known what it was like to have an unexpected pregnancy. I wasn't offended. I'm pretty open about my faith and being judged without reason comes with the territory. I told the guy that I did know what it was like to be in Kemi's shoes because I have had a pregnancy scare before.

About the pastor in KS and ZS. Note that he didn't condemn nor judge Kemi. He was more concerned for her wellbeing. I based his characters on one of the pastors from my church. He was born and adopted in the year abortion was legalised in the UK so he has a real heart for these issues. He is not the pastor in KS but he gave me the platform for developing the pastor's character.

Churches have often been accused of hurting people with Kemi situations but the truth is that they don't have the skills to deal with it. I hope they will learn from Pastor Michael and show people real Christian compassion a la Jesus.

Zack's Story

Last year (2005), I found myself living a parallel life. Kemi's Journal had just come out (Jan 2005). The Independent on Sunday newspaper did a feature on me and I had my 15 minutes of fame. In Feb 2005, I left my job because quite frankly I wasn't being remunerated and I'd had enough. There I was hopping from Liberia to God knows where and donors weren't interested in funding the programmes my organisation was doing. I hung in there for 5 months without pay and then I quit. I'd had enough. Of the hypocrisy of the whole saving the world thing plus, I'd been feeling very dissatisfied with my job for a while anyway.

So there I was, in the midst of this publishing spotlight with no money, no job and lots of debt to pay. The next 10 months were really terrible. Probably one of the hardest in my life. I applied for other human rights/international development jobs but didn't get anything. I had to settle for admin jobs and anything I could do to get some money, any money, coming in. in the meantime, I had book contracts to fulfil. What to do? Stop working or renege on the contracts? I had bills, loans, credit cards and everything else to pay and throw in the mother of all heartbreaks in the mix and that was me; a right Egba mess. It was a complete nightmare. My typical day went like this:

I would wake up at 2am, write until 5am before doing my devotionals/prayers and leaving the house at 6.45am to get to work by bus because I couldn't afford a travel card. I would get to work (whichever office I was working in at that time) at 7.45am and stay there as late as I could (to earn overtime) before getting the bus (a 1.5 hr in London traffic with annoying/drunken/smelly/take your pick passengers) and getting home about 8/8.30pm. I went to bed about 9pm or 9.30 if I was feeling adventurous before starting all over again the next day.

And that was how I wrote God has Daughters Too and Zack's Story last year. Without sleeping. Without eating (pretty much). If I didn't learn anything else last year, I learnt about determination, tenacity and faith in God. It was a really low point in my life. In October 2005, I sat down with a colleague and said to her, 'I'm going to relaunch my website, open a writing school, launch a magazine and finish these books to fulfil my contracts.' I didn't have any money and there was nothing on the outside to show that these things would come through but by July 2006, every single thing I said came to pass. We often wonder why God allows us to go through hard times but I think it's merely to strengthen our characters and rely on Him. Now, when I look around me, I can't believe that this is the same girl that was so messed up just a year ago. I'm paying off my debts, have a great job as an editor for a mainline denomination and to date, Kemi's Journal has been published in Germany, Holland, the UK and of course, Nigeria. And I set up my own company in June of this year. I've got other writing and publishing ideas I'm working on but the bottom line is that I'm in a very good place now and I love my life.

Wanting to write and writing ain't the same thing

Many people would like to write a book. I think what they mean is that they would like to have written a book. I don't know what it is about writing that evokes such strong, romantic ideals in people. To have written and published a book via traditional means is considered a main feat even in today's cynical society. Writers are credited with having superior intelligence and the secret to hidden mysteries known only to people of their intelligence quotient, which is absolute bull. Writers write. Lawyers do law and engineers engineer. I'm a writer, that's my job. I know I'm fortunate to be earning money from something that I love doing and I never, ever take it for granted. That's why I read voraciously. To keep my pulse on what's happening in the literary world, sharpen my skills as a writer and really, because I enjoy reading. And I'll read anything. Literary, or commercial fiction, the odd biographies and any odd that takes my fancy. And for the record, I see myself as a commercial, not literary writer. There's no point in me trying to write like Ben Okri because I'm not him and I don't want to be him either. What for? What I can do is read his books - the readable ones anyway — and learn from him in terms of writing techniques and style. In a similar way, I would caution budding writers not to write like someone else because they can't write like that person because they are not that person. It makes better sense for them to develop their own writing voice. I'll put it this way; I cannot write like John Grisham because I'm not John Grisham. If I tried to write like him, I would fail because I'm not him. All I can do is write legal thrillers and impose my own styles on them. Similarly, nobody can write like me because they are not me. I have my own writing voice that nobody else has got because they haven't got my experiences or my perceptions. Okay, I'll stop now before I belabour the point.

The discipline of writing

I once mentored somebody online for 18 months only for her to turn around and say she didn't want to write anymore, she wanted to be a songwriter instead. Mentoring that woman was a privilege because she understood writing. She was a hard worker. She read voraciously, asked questions and was always on about writing. And she had 2 children under five years of age. Once, I commissioned her to do some writing for the website for me. She got back to me with her work within 48 hours. I was stunned. Her commission would've any taken any normal person at least a month to do and she did it in 48 hours. I talk about her a lot because she inspired me.

I once met someone who had invented something. He was having issues with the UK Patent Office. When we spoke further, I asked him why he wasn't pursuing his invention with more vigour. He said he didn't have the time. And that's the attitude most people take with writing. Romantic notions aside, they would like to write but insist they haven't got the time. They've got too much on; work, kids, school, spouse, family…

Somebody once said that if you don't have anything worth dying for, you have nothing worth living for. If you really want to write, you will make time for it. You wouldn't have a choice. You will write something, anything, anywhere. When I didn't have a computer, I wrote longhand. When I didn't have my book contracts, I kept on writing and sending my stuff off to publishers because it just didn't occur to me that I wouldn't get published. Sounds arrogant but it's true. Although, I'm firmly established as a Christian writer, I have every intention of breaking into the mainstream because I'm a writer and whatever labels I've been tagged with, I call it my evangelical duty to shake it off. John Grisham gives me hope because being a devout Baptist hasn't made a difference to his mainstream publishers so why should it be different for me?

And by the way, being a published writer does not mean that I have 'arrived.' I'm still learning and that's another lesson budding writers should take hold of. Each book I write is supposed to be an improvement on the last one. I hope to grow and develop as writer. That's why I read a book three times; first for pleasure, second for study and the third for both. Having said that, I've been on page 100 of War and Peace for the last 3 years so I better get a move on…

Things that annoy me

Gender compacts. I once told someone I was a writer (which by the way, I very rarely do) to which he reposted, 'I see. Romantic fiction?'

I shook my head.

'Poetry?'

I shook my head again.

'Well, what?'

'Fiction that tackles issues of socio-political significance.'

I got a harrumph in reply.

Making money. Can someone tell the publishers that writers would like a faster way of getting their money please? Once a year is not enough. Bills come all year!

Bad manners. No need for it.

Smoking. Take it from an ex-smoker. Your breath stinks. Your clothes stink and giving a company regular payments to decapitate your lungs is not sound business sense. You'll do better to give the money to the Society for the Betterment of Abidemi Sanusi, London, Enfield Chapter.

How I write

Well, I have a 9-5. I write and edit a website, launched a subscription magazine for Christians who write (because there wasn't one) and a whole host of other stuff. This means that I have to manage my time very carefully. The one thing I do insist on is an exercise regime. I'm not too bothered about weight loss as I am about being fit. Being fit does wonders for my creativity and brings down my stress levels to between nil and manageable proportions. I love running and earlier this year, I had an ankle injury so I've been banned from running outdoors for life. I have to stick with the treadmill which I do for now.

My creativity is best in the mornings so I might wake up a bit earlier and do an hour's writing, do my devotions before leaving my house at 6 to go to the gym and then work after. In the evenings, I check my emails, maybe write some stuff on my blog and then do some more writing. You have to remember that with a website, magazine and (now) blogs, there is a demand for fresh content so I'm constantly doing that stuff. And when I have a book contract to fulfil, then basically, I'm in the boiler room.

And yes it's true. My alarm goes off at 3.14am and I lie in bed until 4.30 listening to the sermons on the local Christian radio station. If I'm working on a book or have a deadline for some freelance work that I do with some publishers, I start working about 4am and do my daily prayers about 5 before heading out of the house at 6 to go to the gym. If I'm not working on a book, I might start my prayers at 4.30/5am before leaving the house at 6.

Weekends, I'm usually writing, updating the website, working on the magazine or something. There's always something on. That's my writing process. Sounds very regimented but I have to be. The website gets anything from 500-2,000 page views a day. It's not for me to wonder why they keep coming back but rather to continue to give them reasons to come back. And if I'm working on a contracted book i.e. the publisher is waiting for it, then the pressure is magnified a million times. Other times, it's manageable.

The writing process

It varies. For the characters, I usually have a framework based on something or someone I know, then I flesh it out. Ideas for books comes in different forms. For Kemi's Journal, I wanted to write something that encapsulated many women's experiences of Christianity. For ZS, it was more to do with my love for Liberia. There's nothing to recommend the country much to anyone but I just like the country all the same. It's a shame but I had to tone down the book as my publishers thought my first draft was a bit too political but that's Christian publishing for you. it's a shame because I've always thought standing up for injustice and highlighting uncomfortable is part and parcel of the Christian ethic but I live in hope.

Sometimes, I have ideas for what I call my 'campaign books'. These are books I write to raise awareness of an issue very close to my heart. They are more for mainstream rather than Christian publishers. These books include The Gay Bishop which is self-explanatory, Eyo, which is about a 10 year old brought into the UK as a domestic servant but ends up a sex slave and there's White Man's Curse which is about a 12 year old Liberian prostitute who contracts HIV/AIDS from a Nigerian peacekeeper. At the heart of these campaign books are good, strong stories that I hope will effect and challenge my readers. I haven't finished these books, they are being written alongside other projects I'm working on. I suppose I'll focus on whichever book my agent finds a publishing contract.

Getting published

I've attached an article called My Road to Publication which should give you an idea of how I did it. I've got an agent now, a devout Christian like me who funny enough is not marketing my work to Christian publishers but mainstream ones only because he believes that my next step. This suits me fine because I haven't got anything for the Christian publishers. I'm all Christian-ed out.

The beginning

I should've started with this but here goes.

People often ask me when I started writing. I've always written. I found writing cathartic. Writing made sense of my world and reading allowed me to escape from it. I didn't come from an abusive home but I always the sense of wanting to escape into a world of my making. As a child, I used to have these images and pictures in my head of where I would rather be and how I would like the characters I created in my head to act.

I read anything and everything as a child. At home in Nigeria, we even had the children's version of Shakespeare's plays which I absolutely loved. My favourite was The Taming of the Shrew. In secondary school in Nigeria, one of our literature books was The Jero Plays. I remember when Wole Soyinka won the Nobel Prize, I thought to myself, well, if he can do it, so can I. Not surprising I studied for my first degree at Leeds University, his alma mater. Although, I have to say, I studied Politics because I wanted to effect positive change in the world. Obviously, I had much to learn about the dirty, dirty world of international development and human rights.

About the critics

I'm fortunate enough to have had good reviews for my books but I always tell people, you can't be a writer and not expect your work to be open to interpretation. The critics keep us humble and the public keep us lifted up. Between the two groups, writers remain grounded. Plus, I make a distinction between a critique of my work and my person. That's only to be expected but I do not under any circumstances tolerate any denigration of my faith.