The self-proclaimed Texas native began drafting the story in 2018.
SAN ANTONIO — When Osawese Agbonkonkon isn’t making 7-feet jumps on the track team or meticulously studying for his economics degree, he’s writing stories.
As a full-time student-athlete at the University of Texas, Agbonkonkon published his first book “Psychic Suit,” a novel about 320 pages long and 90,000 words of in-depth science-fiction.
“I’d say thought-provoking might be one of the first [descriptions] that comes to mind because I definitely want to tackle a couple of big themes with this, things like mental health and power and how those relate to the world we live in,” Agbonkonkon said.
The self-proclaimed Texas native began putting pen to paper in 2018 but always enjoyed the melding of words.
“I started at a young age, so it kind of became a default thing, but definitely as I’ve continued doing it, it is something that I really enjoy. So, it’s fun that I get to do it,” Agbonkonkon said.
And despite loving all kinds of genres, sci-fi holds a special place in his heart especially if they’re stories written by Richard Morgan.
“His work inspired so much of mine,” Agbonkonkon said.
“I would say as I’ve gotten older, sci-fi has become a big genre for me. But, I mean, I just love all genres, I love reading, I mean as a kid, I remember every book fair. [I’d] always go in there and come back home with bags full of books. So writing, reading has always been a big thing for me,” he said.
The idea behind the sci-fi urban fantasy, “Psychic Suit,” had been bouncing around Agbonkonkon’s head since he was 10 years old. He says he would walk somewhere and find himself jotting down notes about the characters and their lives.
When the university’s school newspaper, “The Daily Texan,” published an article about the book, Agbonkonkon quickly posted it on his Instagram – his phone blew up for the next several hours.
“I think that was a really fun experience for me to just kind of spring that on everybody at the exact same time. The response has been so positive, including when I send it to book influencers and reviewers,” he said.
“Psychic Suit” centers around characters called, The Psychics, a group of people blessed with powers by an alien metal. Then a terrorist organization, The Circle, attacks New York City and the Psychics must band together to stop them.
Many of the main characters deal with hard yet relatable problems like alcoholism and mental health issues.
“So, my main characters are public figures and some of them have mental health challenges. So, I wanted to use that as a way to look at how the world treats people who have mental health challenges and sometimes how they have to hide those because of how people might perceive it,” Agbonkonkon said.
One of the most interesting scenes for Agbonkonkon to write includes all of the characters engaged in an argument. He said it was central to the book because it showed various points of view.
“I got to play with all the different perspectives, but just making sure that [the audience] knows whose speaking, whose saying what, and of course giving each character their own unique like tone and style because you don’t want a set of a bunch of flat characters,” he said.
And despite loving all of his creations, Agbonkonkon connects with one character the most: Caitlyn, who not only suffers from depression but who’s also an alcoholic.
“My favorite character is definitely Caitlyn. And I’m not going to spoil too much about the book, but she goes through quite a bit. So, just seeing her resilience, getting to create a character like that, that goes through so much but shows so much resilience that’s definitely why she’s my favorite character,” he said.
Agbonkonkon says the hardest part of writing “Psychic Suit” was balancing out the action and the emotional aspects within the book, but he wanted to stay true to the hard-hitting topics.
“As I grew older, as I came to new ways of thinking, as I became more educated, I started looking at some of these real-world themes and said this is something that I want to go learn about and this is something that I want to go talk about. And of course, these are big themes and I handle them with a lot of respect and care, but [it was] just this idea of I’ve grown in knowledge, I want to share this thing that I feel is important to me,” he said.
And when the time came to publish the novel, Agbonkonkon didn’t go the traditional way. He started his own publishing house instead and credits the resources he found at the University of Oregon – where he first attended college and his current home at UT.
“It’s been phenomenal at UT. I mean everything from the people I’ve met, my team, coaches, teachers, resources on campus. It’s been an amazing experience for me, and I’d say there’s nowhere in the world like the University of Texas,” Agbonkonkon said.
“Just being able to send a text message to someone asking, you know, ‘I need help with this. Do you know anyone who can make that happen?’ The alumni association getting involved of course, being an athlete, the athletic department, lots of resources, lots of people who could help me. So, just so much support. It’s been really great,” he added.
Agbonkonkon says he immediately knew the perfect name for his publishing house, Songspire Press, named after an alien tree in his favorite book “Altered Carbon,” by Richard Morgan.
He recently got in contact with Morgan, who wished him a fruitful writing career – a blessing Agbonkonkon will cherish forever.
But going to classes, competing in long jump and high jump, writing books and managing a publishing house is a lot for one young man. But he gets it all done with a 3.8 GPA to boot.
“I would say it’s just learning to manage time. So, just learning to budget that time and I mean, of course, everything I do, I enjoy. So, I always find time to write and whether it’s late at night, just jotting down some quick ideas and then building on that later. You know I take a lot of notes on what I’d like to write next,” he said.
Plus, he uses the calendar app – a lot.
Agbonkonkon also marketed the book himself with guidance from professors and other athlete deals.
“I’d say my inspiration was kind of, if major brands are looking at athletes and saying this person being attached to our product is positive for the brand then attaching myself to my own product should also be positive for me,” he said.
And despite having a busy life and going into his junior year, Agbonkonkon plans to continue writing and building his publishing house.
“I have a few ideas of doing something outside of this series. I have started writing a little bit of that, but it’s going to require a lot of work. For now, this series is definitely going to be one of my biggest focuses,” he said.
Agbonkonkon is set to graduate with a bachelor’s in economics and minors in English and history in 2027 and will continue his education in law school.
“So, all that writing is going to come in handy,” he said laughing.
“Psychic Suit” is available everywhere books are sold.