Sang Kromah's 'DJINN' Available for Pre-Order

SYKESVILLE, Md. - Feb. 24, 2018 - PRLog -- Not a Pipe Publishing—the only U.S.-based publishing house to accept British Pakistani author, Kamila Shamsie's challenge to publish only women authors in 2018 for #TheYearOfPublishingWomen—announces the pre-order of author, Sang Kromah's young-adult fantasy novel, DJINN, set for publication on March 20^th, 2018.

Throughout history, countless stories have been told of guardian angels or watchers, watching us from afar, but never seen. Truth is, there are certain people, special people, born of this world and of the other, who need that extra protection. They go their entire lives, unaware of the Otherworld, and unaware of the existence of their own personal watcher—a djinn—watching from afar. But what happens when fate takes a turn for the worse, and the one who needs the aid of a djinn most can't be found to be protected?

DJINN is a powerful #ownvoices novel about Bijou Fitzroy, a sixteen-year-old, orphaned girl who simply wants to know who she is and to be normal. She's sixteen-years old and has never been to school, never had friends, and knows nothing about her family history. To add insult to injury, she sees things that others don't and is sensitive to the emotions of others. After being homeschooled by her nomadic grandmother all her life, they finally settle down in Sykesville, MD, where she attends high school for the first time. She thinks things will change for the better, but she's wrong. When local girls who share her birthday go missing, the truth about who she is begins to unravel and the creatures from her imagination begin to take shape in reality.

"Growing up, my parents would tell me djinn lore from Liberia and beyond. In these stories, the characters were girls like me, from families like mine. Because I wasn't fortunate enough to see representations of myself in the books I read, these are the stories that stuck with me, so I spent my childhood writing stories where extraordinary things happened to girls like me or like the diverse people in my world," Sang Kromah said. "There was one story that stood out to me about a mischievous girl named Femeni who escaped—what should have been sudden death at the hands of a notorious Djinn. After hearing the story, I always wondered what happened to Femeni, and did she have any other encounters with the djinn? As I grew older, the questions became more complex; what was so special about Femeni that helped her escape the djinn? What if Femeni had a child, would there be something special about that child as well? These questions gave birth to DJINN. This story is the evolution of those stories merged with my experiences in high school and in Sykesville. I feel like I've been writing this book in my head since I was six years old, and I'm happy to share this story with the world."

Karen Eisenbrey, author of The Gospel According to St. Rage and the forthcoming Daughter of Magic said, "Bijou's story, like Buffy's before her, applies a magnifier of myth and magic to typical adolescent issues of identity, belonging, and empowerment. Author Kromah widens the folklore scope to include African (specifically, Liberian) sources, enriching material that may be familiar to some readers and new to others."

"Hauntingly captivating," wrote YALMC (Young Adult Literature Media and Culture Research Network). "DJINN is part of the changing face of YA fantasy, one you definitely don't want to miss."

Sang Kromah is obsessed with books and is opening a female-run library café in Liberia. She can usually be found with her head in a book or writing on http://www.projgirlspire.com. You can find her online just about anywhere at @SangWrites.  DJINN (https://www.amazon.com/Djinn-Sang-Kromah/dp/099838805X/re...)  is available in all formats on Amazon.