Writer Profile: Biola Olatunde

We thought we would provide author profiles here and there, just so you get a feel for who is up and coming. We decided to start with Biola, whose inaugural novel will be published in the next month or two.

With more than 30 years experience as  a scriptwriter and producer, Biola has written more than 200 stories for both radio and television.

She is an alumnus of the Dramatic Arts department Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

A professionally trained newscaster, she went independent some 23 years ago. She got involved in intervention drama to help change attitudes towards behavioral change and so created a series for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on teenage reproductive health, “I NEED TO KNOW” It was so successful that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) got involved and had it adapted into radio as well as in two of the major languages. It was shown on national, state and private television and radio in the country as well as on a satellite television.

Biola has always been interested in bringing social issues to public attention using drama and has thus written for USAID on maternal health, Democracy and Governance, Womens issues, and HIV/AIDS.

She was given a distinguished alumni award from the Dramatic Arts Department of her alma mater O.A.U Ife, in recognition of her contributions to the growth of the legacy of Dramatic Art.

She is also a poet.

It really was by good fortune that we met Biola through Facebook and she decided to chance sending her manuscript to us. We saw great potential, and the rest is history. Biola's novel is a short novel, against the norm, but it is a wonderful work. It is an action adventure, set in an exotic location, and the characters are all real. What especially attracted us to the story, however, is the extent to which Biola drew from real life settings, and her probing interest in social issues. This is not a clinical novel, but it is based on what is happening in Nigeria today. In other words, Blood Contract is a social commentary.

This is current proof of the cover of Blood Contract. It pretty much sums up the adventure of the novel. 

Finally, Here is the current blurb for the novel:

Ken (Kenawari) left his village in the Niger Delta region many years ago, carrying with him emotional scars. However, he did make a life for himself in the city and built a reputation as a slick troubleshooter in inter-village disputes, of which there were many. He was one of the best operators on the books of the private security firm he worked for.

Then it happened. There was trouble in his tribal home. Reluctantly he agreed to return. Not only has he got to settle a dispute that resulted in kidnapping, and tread gingerly through the political minefield of the region - including local robber barons, but he also has to face the most fearsome obstacles of all - his past.

Blood Contract is not just an adventure set in the dangerous swamps of the Niger Delta, it is also the story of a man who is imperfect and must finally find some reconciliation with his past. Most of all, Biola Olatunde provides the reader with a vivid social commentary of the lives and challenges of those who live in this most neglected of corners of the earth.