Authors at Home: Yasmin Angoe, “Her Name is Knight”
We are pleased to feature Yasmin Angoe, the debut author of Her Name is Knight, which published in November from Thomas & Mercer. Her Name is Knight centers on a fierce female assassin on a mission to avenge her family. We chatted with Yasmin about her daily writing life, her favorite foods, and who she’d cast in the series adaptation, which is currently in development by Endeavor Content and Ink Factory. Read on to learn more about Yasmin Angoe, a rising star!
What are you currently reading, watching, listening to? Anything you wholly recommend as being inspiring, uplifting or just really fun?
For something really fun that I’m watching, that would be The King’s Affection on Netflix. It’s a K-drama and yes, I’m totally enraptured by it. After a hard, long day I’ll shut out the entire family and watch the episodes and swoon over all the characters.
Can you take us through the day in the life of Yasmin Angoe? What’s your day-to-day routine like — when you’re writing a book, and when you’re not?
Day in the life of me…Well, on weekdays I split my time between my day job, my writing stuff (like following up email from my publicist, agent, editor, or others), family sprinkled throughout the day, and then my freelance developmental editing for other authors. My days usually start at 5:30 a.m. and ends at 11 p.m. in order to fit that all in. It’s a lot and I’m usually exhausted. On weekends and days I take off, it’s less hectic and I’m writing full force from morning to night with breaks in between. I like those days better.
What is your favorite food? Your go-to drink?
My favorite food is probably lemon pepper wings. I also like bacon avocado toast. Oh, and alfredo. I love pasta. I can eat all of that all the time. I also have a horrible sweet tooth. Help! And my go-to drink…are we talking alcoholic or non? Well, I don’t really drink alcohol, so my drink would be a chocolate caramel milkshake (sweets again, I know).
Are you working on any projects that we should look out for in the future?
Yes! I can’t really talk about the others down the line, but there is a book 2 in the Nena Knight series coming out 2022. I’m working on the edits right now.
If you weren’t writing books right now, what would you be doing?
I’d be still in the education field. I still am now, haven’t left yet. But I would be going further in education, teaching at a collegiate level, if I wasn’t writing.
How did you do research for this book? In what ways did your cultural heritage influence how you wrote Her Name is Knight?
My research consisted of asking friends and family who were experts in weapons, fighting, and the languages in the book. I also researched online and watched YouTube videos to help me visualize what I wanted to write. My culture was a great influence from the very beginning, from the first moment I knew I was writing this book, because I wanted to write about things readers didn’t hear much of. And I am proud of my heritage and family and wanted to highlight it and the memory of my dad.
What was your process like as you wrote your novel? How did you craft Nena’s two different timelines to work together so seamlessly?
I wrote the two timelines independent of each other. I felt in order for me to tell each story, I had to write each in its entirety from start to finish because to me, they were two books: the book of Aninyeh and the book of Nena. You can’t have Nena without first having Aninyeh. And after I wrote both, I could easily see where I could intercut Aninyeh’s story into Nena to methodically show the reader how Nena came to be.
Her Name is Knight already has a television series adaptation deal. Who would be your ideal cast? Did you have certain people in mind as you were writing the characters?
I really don’t know who my ideal cast would be! LOL. I’m too flip-floppy to stick to one person because if I watch something and love their performance, I’m immediately thinking, “Ooooh yes, such and such should play Elin or Georgia.” And then I see someone new and say they should play those same characters. I want everyone! It would be special if the cast could be direct or first-generation Africans because that’s who the characters are, and having that true representation is important. However, I know it can’t happen like that for each character. However, I do think Idris Elba would be perfect as the main antagonist of the book. I love a Colman Domingo for Nobel Knight. And the actress who served as my visual muse when writing Nena was Yetide Badaki from American Gods. She’s my muse…I don’t know who’d actually play Nena because again, I love everyone I see.
What do you hope readers gain from reading Her Name Is Knight?
First, I want readers to enjoy the story and feel all the emotions I was trying to elicit. When I get messages from readers saying they want to castrate a character, or they were in tears during a chapter, then I am ecstatic because I have done my job. I hope readers are literally talking to the book while reading it as I was talking to it while writing it. I also hope that readers see, accept, and enjoy the characters in Her Name Is Knight as they would any other character they usually read in this genre. You don’t typically see a Nena Knight in stories like this which is why I wrote it. Lastly, my hope is they come away understanding this is a book of survival, of agency, of reclaiming power, and of family all rolled up into a story about a Black woman assassin from Ghana.
BOOK SUMMARY:
A smash debut novel from rising star Yasmin Angoe, Her Name Is Knight features an elite assassin heroine on a mission to topple a human trafficking ring and avenge her family.
Stolen from her Ghanaian village as a child, Nena Knight has plenty of motives to kill. Now an elite assassin for a powerful business syndicate called the Tribe, she gets plenty of chances.
But while on assignment in Miami, Nena ends up saving a life, not taking one. She emerges from the experience a changed woman, finally hopeful for a life beyond rage and revenge. Tasked with killing a man she’s come to respect, Nena struggles to reconcile her loyalty to the Tribe with her new purpose.
Meanwhile, she learns a new Tribe council member is the same man who razed her village, murdered her family, and sold her into captivity. Nena can’t resist the temptation of vengeance — and she doesn’t want to. Before she can reclaim her life, she must leverage everything she was and everything she is to take him down and end the cycle of bloodshed for good.
About Yasmin Angoe:
Hailing from Northern Virginia, Yasmin Angoe is a first-generation Ghanaian American who grew up in two cultural worlds. She taught English in middle and high schools for years, served as an instructional coach for virtual teachers, and spent time as a freelance copy editor.
Angoe recently received the Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for emerging writers of color from Sisters of Crime, of which she’s a proud member. When she’s not writing, she’s in South Carolina with her beautiful blended family, trying new recipes and absorbed in an audiobook. Her Name Is Knight is Yasmin’s debut novel.
Connect with Yasmin:
Website: www.yasminangoe.com
Twitter: @YasAWriter
Instagram: @author_yas
Read more Authors at Home:
Lynne Reeves: The Dangers of an Ordinary Night
Gabrielle St. George: How to Murder a Marriage
Cai Emmons: Sinking Islands
Emily Giffin: The Lies that Bind
Jeanette Escudero: The Apology Project
