I strongly believe in my dreams and I know that with God all things are possible. In the course of my writing career which began in 2012, I have weathered many storms and rejections. Following this maddening experience, the only thing I could choose as my own was self-publishing a vast number of books, until being an Igbo writer meant the struggle and the pursuit of success, the pain and the agony of failure.
I was born on the 20th of April 1987. My names at child’s birth are: JohnPaul Tochukwu Ezike. I am the founder of Cobana Books – a publishing and licensing company which was launched during my academic years in Guyana South America, in 2014. There, I pursued a career as a screenwriter, venturing into several online script-writing competitions.
I had my eyes on Hollywood. I can still remember the excitement I felt when my film scripts were reviewed by some Hollywood agents. I was only 26 years of age. Yet even then, as young as I was, I had already began to sense that Hollywood was a difficult industry. It required luck and the grace of God to be inducted. Despite the rejections, I continued to write cinematic stories, with a consuming passion that exceeded my limited talents.
I never doubted art’s redemptive power even when exhausted and with multiple rejections at my heels, it promised a new and uncompromising beginning forged through the sheer force of determination. Inspired by the many stories produced by your film studios (King Kong, Harry Potter, Titanic…) I insisted on writing great stories with universal appeal. This consuming passion for excellent poetic writing, gave birth to a secret wish, a wish that my “black story” would transcend it’s place of origin, and by an act of God, might somehow reflect Hollywood’s humor, love and tragedy! I decided that the only place I wanted my stories to dwell in, was in Hollywood – the world’s global entertainment market.
In 2016, while studying in India, my greatest idea was born. I had stood in front of a temple that was the holy place of the late guru – Shirdi Sai Baba. I saw a spi-ritual leader roistering with three spider monkeys. And abreast of the temple was a neem tree which had five brightly colored birds. Right there, an idea sank into my consciousness. I could see pictures in my mental frame. A story of a spi-ritual leader embarking on a fatal adventure alongside three monkeys and five brightly colored birds.
He encounters demons, ghouls, gurus, kings, queens, goddesses, gods, warriors, soldiers, slave masters and beasts. The story is a marriage between the Igbo cosmology and Hindu philosophy. It is titled: Baba Goo. And it is the “longest African book ever written.” It was first published on August 30, 2016. Published in 21 series, along with its sequel titled: Aveena which had 6 series, making it 27 series in total. The story depicts the tale of a character known as Baba Goo, a witchdoctor who carries the blood of a god and a demon, a child of light and darkness sent to earth by the City of Gods – the Higher Immortals, to redeem himself. He begins his journey in Africa and travels the seven continents of the world, including extraterrestrial worlds. To conquer the darkness within, he must embrace the scourge of a painful destiny and the promise of his elevation back into the realm of light can only be complete after his Eight Chores in the Eighth World that harbors the Eight Beasts, to be finalized in Eight Years.
Baba Goo is my ultimate legacy. I had worked on it for over eight years. It was written in the following cities: Bangalore, Lagos, Orsu, Doha, Texas, Boston, New York, Montreal and Ottawa. Baba Goo is my best-selling cinematic novel.
But it must be noted that my journey in life, as a self-determination activist, had been a dangerous one. Thus, incase we do not work together in partnership while I’m still alive, then I wish for us to work together in partnership when I’m dead or when Baba Goo ends up in public domain.
This open letter is a way of offering either of you, the perpetual rights to commercialize and to manage the IP – Baba Goo series, along with its sequel Aveena series – when I’m dead or when the book ends up in the public domain. Although my hope is to work in perpetual partnership with either of you now that I’m alive.
And these are my wishes under this partnership proposal: 1. That either of you interested in this partnership will find my descendants and the descendants of my siblings and share the profits with them in perpetuity. 2. That the story will be used to honor God, to honor Black History and to entertain the world. 3. That the characters and the narrative of the story will not be changed or altered or used to celebrate homosexualism in anyway whatsoever. 4. That the story will be heavily merchandised and licensed through spin-offs, prequels, toys, figurines, cosmetic and beauty, clothings, fragrance, videogames, theme parks etc.
If I cannot work with you as a perpetual partner now that I’m alive, then let’s be perpetual partners in my death or when Baba Goo ends up in public domain. I solemnly ask, that you honor my vision and my legacy in the course of my partnership with either of you.
Finally, include my descendants and the descendants of my siblings as perpetual beneficiaries of the profits arising from the commercialization of “Baba Goo series” and it’s sequels, prequels and spin-offs and in anyway whatsoever.
Thanks and God bless.
Contact:(234) 09066036944
https://selar.com/m/johnpaul-david-ezike1
https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/baba-goo-11?srsltid=AfmBOoqhKnxtu4O_T8hP60Uz8U273n8nXLpemG5oT_ofG83Fawjwxx3L
https://www.google.com/search?q=j.%20ezike%20baba%20goo&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-m#ebo=0
