Blog on A. Sakyiama

Afenhyia Pa: Happy New Year!

Mon, 06 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Mema wo afenhyia pa.
(I wish you a good meeting of the years)

This is the traditional Akan greeting akin to ‘Happy new year.’ In response you would say:

Afe nkɔ mmεto yεn bio.
(May the year go around and find us again)

Now, for a formal poetic greeting from Ghana, the land of the talking drums, an excerpt from An African Treasury:

The Paperbacks are Coming

Mon, 03 Dec 2018 07:39:40 -0500

A Tower of Mortars and Other Ananse Stories has a new cover and, if I do say so myself, it looks amazing—on the ebook and …drumroll please…, the paperback.

Finally, the paperbacks are coming!

In fact, all the other story collections will be getting new covers and paperback editions too. And yes, there is a story for why and how this happened.:-)

Audio-eBooks are Here

Mon, 05 Mar 2018 06:31:13 -0500

Ayeekoo! The first batch of stories from the African Fireside Classics series are now available in Audio-eBook format.

All Shiny, New, and Fast

Sat, 18 Nov 2017 12:50:46 -0500

My little home on the internet just got an update!

It’s been months in the making, but just a week ago, I cautiously clicked the button to deploy the new website. It’s not too different in appearance from the old one and most of the earlier content is still here.

Underneath though, everything is different. As a result, the site is more responsive, more secure, and runs much much faster than before.

Speaking of fast, that is my favorite thing about the site redesign.

I am on Bandcamp

Sat, 04 Mar 2017 16:02:42 +0000

I found out about bandcamp.com recently. I’m still exploring but I love the place already. It is a site designed to let people find music and directly support the independent artists who make it. After knocking about the site a bit, I noticed that they had an audiobook category.

I was delighted to find all the audio from one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman. I signed up immediately.

Something New — Audio-eBooks

Mon, 06 Feb 2017 22:28:28 +0000

Took a planned short break that turned into a long, long break, as my family adjusted to post-grad life.

While it is not reflected here yet, things did move along, slowly, yes but there was movement. I wrote new stories, recorded more audiobooks, took a couple of courses to improve as a writer and publisher etc. etc. Murphy’s Law ensured that there were plenty boulders to be moved and giant pot-holes along the way.

Over the break I also discovered audio-ebooks by ReadBeyond. They put out over 100 of them for free!

Story Time: Wishful Thinking

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 12:00:01 +0000

It’s story time and I have another hyena tale to share. Poor hyena, an ugly coat was only the beginning of its troubles.

Credits: Hyena illustration by Jason Sweeney, via flickr.

Once upon a time, a hyena and a leopard met and became good friends. They sometimes hunted together and shared the food equally between them.

One day, the leopard was out alone, hunting for food, when the enticing smell of fresh fish came into its nostrils. The hungry beast followed the smell and found that it was coming of off a cart being pulled by a tough looking man. It was a fisherman hauling home a good day’s catch.

“It would not be wise for me to attack a man,” the leopard thought. “He has all sorts of weapons that can hurt me. I’m going to have to be clever about getting some of his fish.”

One Lie

Thu, 19 Mar 2015 13:00:36 +0000

"One lie spoils a thousand truths." —Asante Proverb Credits: Crow illustration by Jason Sweeney, via flickr. Card title Support card subtitle Some quick example text to build on the card title and make up the bulk of the card's content. Card link Another link */ --

Impossible to Fail

Thu, 12 Mar 2015 13:00:20 +0000

"You must act as if it is impossible to fail." -- Asante Proverb*/ -- "You must act as if it is impossible to fail." —Asante Proverb Credits: ‘Dream Big’ by Jason Sweeney, via flickr.

Audiobooks are coming

Mon, 09 Mar 2015 13:00:01 +0000

I haven’t been writing as much as I would like lately, but I have an excellent excuse. Exciting things are happening.

With the help of a most excellent sound engineer, I’ve been recording my stories for compilation into audiobooks.