Even with so many of them still missing, I was devastated to learn about the horrors endured by the girls who had survived. At the time, 276 young girls were abducted from a school in Chibok, Nigeria, which began the global hashtag campaign known as #BringBackOurGirls. Though the first inspiration for Blood Scion is rooted in my Yoruba culture, it wasn’t until 2014 that the story became fully formed. So fast forward to 2012, when I started brainstorming Blood Scion, I knew immediately that I wanted to ground it in the myths and legends of the Yoruba culture. African literature not only offered me the kind of escape I craved as a child, it became the inspiration behind much of my own writing. Reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe was the first time I felt grounded in a world much like my own, and it was the first book that birthed a curiosity in me about the power of stories and the magic of creating them. I grew up devouring stories by Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, and any African literature I could get my hands on. Back then, my mom was a teacher, so we always had piles of books around the house. I grew up in Nigeria and lived there for twelve years before moving to Canada. The decision to write about my Yoruba culture was intentional. At the time, I had no idea how much the story would evolve, but I knew I wanted to write a book about a young girl descended from the Orisha gods who was grappling with the loss of her identity and culture. I was in my early twenties, a Psychology student in my second year at university, when I had the first spark of idea for Blood Scion.

Deborah falaye blood scion