For all those authors out there putting their submissions and ideas out on Twitter pitch events - it really does work! I was meandering through the #Moodpitch event which was on Twitter November last year (I probably should have been reading my submissions instead but all the stunning artwork was far too tempting) and came across a pitch which immediately caught my attention.
The Tweet was: Sinnilah, a time warping cosmic dimension of horrors, harbors a prophetic evil. 5 pariahs are chosen as sacrifices to face it & only 1 will survive. Kisodoh’s lost memories could either be the key to survival or wht throws the prophecy into chaos #MoodPitch #EF
I mean, really - what wasn’t to love? I hit that ‘Like’ heart so hard my keyboard nearly broke. I was the first of 80 likes on that pitch.
Mood board for Name of None as featured on #Moodpitch
Antoinette got in contact with me after the event, and I asked her to send me the script. I’d started reading it and was thoroughly enjoying, but it was only a week or so after receiving the manuscript that Antoinette dropped me a line to let me know that she’d received an offer of representation. Cue panic.
Obviously I didn’t want to miss out on the book - but, having been an editor for decades, I make it a rule of thumb to never offer representation without reading the entire book. It just wouldn’t be fair on me - or the author - if I offered to work with them on that book without knowing how it ended, whether we shared the same editorial vision for it and whether I was still as much in love with the story at the finale, as I was part way through.
So I went back and explained, with total honesty - and a complete realisation that I was likely to lose out on this fabulous writer - that I just couldn’t offer representation at that time as I had to finish reading it, but I completely accepted she’d had a massively exciting offer and would need to make a decision quickly.
Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one - and Antoinette extended the deadline so she could give other agents the opportunity to finish as well. We managed to schedule a call on the very last day of her deadline and we chatted about the book, her writing, where we thought it would be a good fit and I explained what I adored about her writing, the characters and world.
While it was a massively positive call, I knew she had four offers of representation and - as an agent in that situation - you resign yourself to the possibility the author won’t choose you - the odds aren’t necessarily working in your favour. I won’t say that the next 48 hours were spent refreshing my email religiously every ten minutes (but they totally were). So I was absolutely thrilled upon receiving an email from Antoinette saying that she’d like to work with me on the book - and that a major part of her decision-making had been based on my requirement to finish the book before offering representation.
For me, part of what makes NAME OF NONE special was that, on my first read, I felt that same sense of dizzying scope I’d had when picking up my dad’s dog-earred and well-loved copy of DUNE. A full immersion into a world with a vastness and realism to take your breath away - and, in this case, the cultural influences are celebrated and acknowledged. From the Cosmic deserts where a nomadic tribe glide over the sands to the young woman - lost, nameless, with no past and uncertain of a future. This journey of outcasts into an ancient dimension - all set against a magical and hugely original landscape written with a poetic and lyrical prose is boundless in its possibilities to engage and enthral the reader. The world building alone blew my mind - but the characters - well, I fell for them hard.
Kisodoh from NAME OF NONE ©Antoinette Van Sluytman
Five will go, only one will return.
When Kisodoh awakens at the bottom of a nebula desert with no memory of who she is or how she got there, she is called “Name of None,” and taught to live as the nomadic Rhen people who traverse the cosmic sands. Desperate to find out about her past, Kisodoh travels to Cernaddon – a nation where perfection is sacred and anything less than that, treated as an aberration. A damaged fruit. A pariah.
Shem-Qwasi-Sol hides a secret that will see him ousted from the Cernaddon throne should it be revealed. So when the revered Schaimarhad council - five primordial women – cast a prophecy that the infamous Traitor of the Red is gathering strength to wreck chaos on their lands, he knows it’s his chance to prove himself. Five sacrifices, one from each Nation, are chosen to travel into an ancient dimension to destroy their enemy, only one is foretold to survive, and Shem-Qwasi-Sol is determined his representative will succeed.
Chosen to fulfil the journey as the Cernaddon envoy – the hopes of an entire nation are pinned on Kisodoh’s shoulders. She and her companions; a resentful warrior, a blind lutist, a spearman desperate for glory – and an introverted creature shunned for its differences – are to travel beyond the known lands into a dimension from legend and prevent the harbinger of chaos from completing her task. That’s if they don’t kill one another first.
The further they voyage, the more Kisodoh feels a whispering connection to the lands and to the very people they’re supposed to be hunting. Could her past be connected to this mysterious world, will she survive long enough to find out? And will the name she so desperately seeks be that of the woman prophesied to upend the worlds’ balance…
Corodonli from NAME OF NONE ©Antoinette Van Sluytman
Antoinette tells us a little about the inspiration behind NAME OF NONE: ‘As a part of my homeschooled upbringing I was immersed in the studies of my history. From the literary extraordinaires of the harlem renaissance, to the inspirational activist memoirs of Assata Shakur and Elaine Brown that captured moments of the 1960 black nationalist movement, all the way to the classic works of Dumas, Baldwin, Ivan Van Sertima, and the great scholars of Al-Andalus. The gamut of classic black literature was practically endless.
A notable feature of the African Diaspora Museum and Research Center, a local museum I had the pleasure of volunteering for, is the sight of a rather elaborate picture of Moroccan General, Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād, as soon as you walk inside. As a diaspora writer, it was an image I’d look up at with pride and a sort of revelation. I’d gaze upon pictures of great African queens like Kandake Amanirenas and Hatshepsut with a yearning to learn more.
From a young age I was familiar with the astounding astronomical ingenuity and influence of ancient Africa, and how it continues to be completely overlooked in our history books. Kisodoh, is a love letter to that history. Most importantly, the cosmological achievement of great civilizations of ancient Africa. There’s a vague sense that the ‘black experience’ does not extend to the speculative indulgences and futuristic ideas of science fiction and fantasy, and yet our ancestors were paragons of cosmic knowledge, calculating star systems and implementing them into calendars, architecture, tradition, and festivals for decades.
With inspirations traced from the Sahara desert meteorite hunters, the summer solstice Nabta Playa of the Nubian desert, and even the Dogon Sigui star festival, the world of Kisodoh is inspired by the idea of an Afrocosmic and matriarchal epic fantasy world. Beyond that, it's a journey of no return and a quest of self discovery that explores the conflicts of society, individualism, and existentialism, seen through the eyes of a young nameless woman without a past.’
Kisodoh from NAME OF NONE ©Antoinette Van Sluytman
About the Author:
Antoinette Van Sluytman is a 22 year old scholartist who was raised and homeschooled in Mexico. She graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Graphic Design and Interactive Media and is an accomplished artist in a range of media. Her work has been showcased in many prominent art shows in San Diego and she has won multiple Scholastic Art and Writing awards from the Alliance for Young Writers & Artists for her illustration, poetry, and short fiction.
Antoinette is currently a full time junior literary agent at the New York agency, IGLA, and is a member of the AALA and Media & Digital innovations committee. She is the co-founder of the upcoming multimedia studio, Broken Chalice Studios, and a black belt student who has studied the Korean arts of taekwondo/hapkido.
Antoinette lectures on the literary circuit, including at writing conventions and events, about the essence of decolonizing fiction and countering literary hegemony in the industry.
I cannot wait to share Antoinette’s fabulous writing with the rest of you and know you’ll fall in love with Kisodoh and her amazing world, just as much as I did. So watch this space!