My novel, Sunny and the Leopard People, has just been acquired by Sharyn November at Viking (for the harcover) and Firebird Books (for the paperback). Both are imprints of Penguin.About three years ago, I met this spunky little gangly girl. She was the daughter of a family friend. They were visiting from Nigeria. She was also strikingly albino. Imagine a girl with two fully Igbo parents who's facial features and hair are Igbo but whose skin is pale, whose hair is so blond it's nearly white, who's eyes were grey green.My daughter and I got to spend a week with her. She had this very animated personality. And she had an affinity for telling stories. She was a beautiful girl, inside and out.By the end of the week, I knew I'd write about her. Especially when she told me about the day she set her hair on fire. A priceless tale and the inspiration of a short story I wrote titled The Albino Girl (read it here).This short story turned out to be the first chapter of Sunny and the Leopard People, a fantasy novel set in Nigeria (time period: maybe a few years from now). It's technically a prequel to my second novel, The Shadow Speaker.Below is the link to an Angelique Kidjo video. This video very much inspired this novel, too. I saw this video years and years ago, but when I wrote this novel, the gods and spirits in this video came back to me. See it here.Needless to say, I'm ecstatic. :-)!!!!Tentative pub date: Spring 2010Nnedi
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