The Housebroken Women: In Conversation with An King.

An King is a young Nigerian author, making a debut with her self published book; The
Housebroken women. From a very young age, she had been passionate about creating
stories, often causing her to live in her head. She has a deep love for thriller/mystery books with
a touch of drama influenced by the everyday lives of the people around her. A cumulation of all
of these led to the birth of the enthralling tale of The Housebroken women.
After reading An King’s The House Brokenwomen, I knew that I had to reach out to her – to
dive into her mind as much as I could. I personally loved the character development of every
single character and being able to see and to understand why they are the way that they are,
and the driving force behind their actions and inactions. I also loved that while physical abuse
was present, it also dived deep into other forms of abuse and just how demoralizing they can
be.

Abigail: Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. I thoroughly enjoyed your book and literally finished it in one evening. Now, I have a few questions, so first, how
does it feel to be a first time author?

An King: Thank you for the kind words, and I’m truly glad to hear you enjoyed my book. Being a first time
author is…scary and relieving. For me, creative writing, and I dare say other expressions of art,
is a form of vulnerability. And I don’t do vulnerability well, lol. Desiring for my book to be enjoyed
and appreciated(and even admitting that, is me being vulnerable) but running the risk of getting
the exact opposite reaction is scary. Regardless of whatever public reaction, I’m glad to have
gotten this story out, relieved to share a part of me with the world. I welcome all reviews but
please, be gentle, lol.

Abigail: What’s was your inspiration to write a book, particularly this book? To make your
first work this one.

My inspiration to write a book is that it was inevitable. Writing is in my blood, for as long as I can
remember, it’s always been a part of me. I’d often get lost daydreaming about made up stories
in my head, choosing to write stories over letters, essays and debates in all my secondary
school English exams, drowning myself in books after books for all of my childhood. It was only
a matter of time till I eventually succumbed to this path.
The Housebroken women is a story I’ve carried in my heart for many many years. It’s very
loosely based off women I know in real life, so it’s been my desire to expand on their story and
imagine an alternate and somewhat better ending for them. When I finally plucked up the
courage to be an actual author, it only made sense that I start with them.

Abigail: When people think of Domestic Abuse, it’s often narrowed down to just physical,
but you highlight different forms of abuse, can you share those different forms
and how it affects the lives of women?

An King: As someone who suffered depression stemmed from emotional abuse, it struck me at a really
young age that invisible injuries and pain can be just as harmful as visible ones. But somehow
the human brain is more reactive, in the sense of urgency of help, to tangible sources of pain (a
bruise, bleeding, deformity, etc). And let me just say that abuse is not gender specific, so of
course men can be abused and women can be the abusers. So even though it mostly affected
the women in my book (because the Housebroken women was inspired by real life Nigerian
Women I came across growing up), that’s not always the case. It’s not my intention to lend my
voice, at least through this book, to any gender type debate.
I believe, within the context of family and beyond spousal abuse, something that isn’t talked
about nearly enough is parental abuse. And no, I don’t mean excessively spanking your kids
and all the regular telltale signs of abuse. I mean the ignorance and the choices of parents that
lead to broken children, the neglect and damage children indirectly face due to spousal abuse. I
believe it is owed to the children you bring into this world the safest environment you can
possibly give them. It is your responsibility, dare I say sole purpose, to raise them into thriving,
well balanced individuals. And for you to do that, there must be a presence of mind when
making decisions. I guess if my book was to have a “moral lesson”, it would be; realise the
repercussions of your actions or inactions in the lives of your children. In all that you do and
become, think about the overall wellness of your children. A heavy responsibility, I know.

Abigail: Which character did you resonate with the most and why is that?

An King: Definitely Itunu in that she was a victim of circumstance. If I speak more on her, I’m afraid I’ll
divulge some spoilers, but I love Itunu quite a lot actually and am quite protective of her the
most. In fact, I’m open to discussing more about her(and other characters) in a safe and
modulated space like a book club meeting, IG live or Twitter spaces. But back to Itunu. I think
sometimes people take for granted the freedom of choice, because our choices define us. Eba
or Spaghetti? Wear the colour caramel or a sunny yellow with cherry polka dots? Whatever your
choice, it lends a voice to your personality, who you are. What happens when what you choose
is constantly denied you, forcing you to settle time and time again? What happens when all your
life, your hopes, desires, preferences, are continually deferred and squashed like a noisy and
inconsequential fly? There’s only so much wanting and hoping you can do before your heart
gets sick, or in Itunu’s case, dull.
Next is Ekom in that I understand being weighed down by mistakes of the past, so much so that
you lose sight of what’s important and can’t see that life is much more about the present and
what’s ahead of you.
I resonate with Rose and Stephanie the least, if at all, because you couldn’t pay me to stay
married to someone like Jamike, and I’d like to think I’m not as self-serving as Stephanie.

Abigail: What was your writing process for this book? Was it one you dreaded or was it
pleasurable?
An King: I’m what most people would call a “pantser”, which was very surprising for me to discover,
because I’m generally quite organised in all my day to day affairs and so expected to be a
rigorous outliner for my books. I’m also the type of writer who writes backwards, meaning, I
usually know the end of a book, and somewhat of the beginning, so I have to work from the
ending to fill in the gaps. I’d say the writing process for this book was entertaining…at least for
the first draft, lol. Because I’m a pantser, and I generally go into my books with a vague idea of
the story, it feels like the characters are the ones showing me what’s happening, rather than me
actually telling them who to be and what to do. So it’s quite interesting for me to experience it all
for the first time, to watch events unfold and characters evolve. And that’s what I do for the first
draft. But after that, I have to go back and solidify the plot, strengthen the characters, avoid plot
holes, etc…and I find that process so tedious and methodological that it gets boring. So yes, the
process was both pleasurable and dreadful.

Abigail: Did writing about people as flawed as this affect your mental health?
An King: Bold of you to assume my mental health isn’t as flawed as theirs, lol. I’m joking, but on a more
serious note, I was suicidal and depressed for the majority of my life. My earliest moments of
awareness that something was wrong with me mentally was when I was 9 years old. And this
was all before mental health became so important and actively addressed in our society, so
while I didn’t know the official term for whatever was happening to me, I knew something was
very wrong with my mind. Thanks to God, I’m healed now, in a much better place, but I like to
think that my poor mental health built a sort of strength and resilience in me, almost to a fault.
Sure I wanted to give Rose, Itunu, Ekom and even Stephanie, a hug sometimes, but overall, I
just watched them battle their fears and simply rooted for them in a semi-detached manner
every step the way. If anything, I was more affected (albeit emotionally) by the children, because
the result of broken homes, broken adults who become parents and invariably inflict their
children with some sort of trauma, is one topic I’m quite passionate about.

Abigail: Do you have a favourite quote from the book?

An King: “Don’t let your child suffer because of the unpleasant man you chose to spend the rest of your
life with.” This. This mundane and simple quote right here. It’s something I wish I could have said to the
real life Rose in my life. It ties in with parental abuse and childhood trauma I mentioned above
already—which, by the way, I think some of the women are unintentionally guilty of.

Abigail: Which character did you enjoy writing and which did you absolutely hate writing?
I love Junior. I love Junior so much and I’ll do anything to protect that boy, lol. I enjoyed writing
the children the most, and in fact I was more tender-hearted towards them. I had to reel in my
desire to expand on them and flesh out their characters because the housebroken women isn’t
about them, at least not directly. They’ll have their chance to shine in their own book (wink wink,
sequel alert). The character I disliked writing the most was Stephanie. She was the one I related the least with
and honestly, I tried to take her character in a different direction. I wanted to give her more of a
reason to want to be so selfish, something more dramatic. Brume’s dialogue to her on the drive
home from the party, when he told her why they left the UK, were my genuine thoughts on her.
“Maybe you were the child of a Kingpin kidnapper or drug lord or something more…heinous. But
no.”
I had considered exploring a route where this was Stephanie’s story, that she was the daughter
of a kingpin Kidnapper. But the more I tried to force my narrative on Stephanie, the more the
overall book felt bogged down and false. As I mentioned earlier, I allowed the characters guide
me through their own story, and this was Stephanie’s. In the end, I grew to understand (but still
not like,lol) Stephanie.

Abigail: Thank you for taking out the time to respond. Seeing things from your perspective makes the
experience of the book even richer. To you reading this, go and pick up The HouseBroken
Women if you haven’t already and thank me later. It’s available on RovingHeights, and don’t
forget to leave your review on Goodreads. You can get more of An King on her socials;
@AnKingofficial on IG, X and TikTok.

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About The Writer: Abigail Iyowuna is a writer who resides in Lagos, Nigeria. She is a Marketing executive, with an obsession with continuously expressing her love for her friends -the evidence is on her Twitter. She has a knack for adventures and one for people too, and she believes that the greatest love story ever told is the one where God takes on the form of man, to die for our sins.