Thoughts from Botswana by Lauri Kubuitsile

FEMRITE Workshop Looking for Participants

2012-01-27T12:52:00.001+02:00

Call for Submissions for the 4th FEMRITE Regional Women Writers’ Residence November 2012

Uganda Women Writers Association (FEMRITE) calls for submissions for her 4th Regional Women Writers Residence to be held in November 2012. This is an inspiring initiative that brings together upcoming African women writers. The main objectives of the residency are:
• To bring established writers to mentor upcoming African women writers
• To give upcoming Ugandan women writers the opportunity to interact with women writers from the continent
• To give African women writers conducive space and time pursue their writing projects
• To create opportunities for inter-cultural discourse among women writers
• To strengthen collaboration among women writers’ initiatives in Africa
• To generate short stories for publication in an anthology

At the end of the residence, we expect the writers to have:
• had mentoring sessions with an established writer
• improved at least one of their writing projects
• enriched each other’s manuscripts through discussion
• submitted their improved short story for the residency anthology

How to apply
Interested women are required to submit;
• Part of a novel / short Story collection in WORD document (40 pages, typed in Times New Roman, font 12, 1.5 spacing).
• A short story for publication in the residency anthology
• A brief bio (not more than 10 lines)

This call is open to African women living on the continent. Writers already attached to writers groups in their countries are encouraged to apply.

Deadline for submissions is 30th April 2012

Please Note:
1. All applicants will receive notification by email once their manuscripts are received.
2. The Residency targets 15 writers
3. The Residency will last two weeks in November 2012
4. Successful applicants will be notified by 30th August 2012.
5. Successful published applicants will be kindly requested to donate copies of their works to the FEMRITE Resource Centre
6. Applicants should not have published more than one book.
7. FEMRITE will solicit support to meet costs of travel, accommodation, & meals.

For inquiries and submissions, please email info@femriteug.org

BREAKING NEWS: Former World Cup Icon Throws Weight Behind Botswana in Ghana - Botswana AFCON Opener

2012-01-24T14:03:00.006+02:00

In a surprise twist of events today, former 2010 World Cup icon, Bokumi (formerly known as Zakumi), confirmed that he has thrown his substantial weight behind Botswana's Zebras in tonight's Group D opening match at the African Cup of Nations (AFCON). In an exclusive interview with Thoughts from Botswana, Bokumi said, "The Zebras have what it takes to bring the Black Stars of Ghana to their knees."

This will be the Zebra's debut at AFCON having been the first team on the continent to qualify for the tournament and recently voted Africa's Team of the Year. Despite this, "misguided" ( Bokumi's words) commentators have dismissed the team as inconsequential to the results of the tournament.

Pundits have the Ghanaian team as favourites in the match but this does not deter Bokumi. "Who ever thought a yellow and green lion with , frankly, a pretty creepy grin, would have been chosen to be the mascot for a massive event like the World Cup? Underdogs, you need to keep your eye on them. They're slippery and they've got a point to prove."

Though famous prophets like TB Joshua have shied away from making predictions for tonight's match, Bokumi is willing to put his money where his mouth is. "2-1 in favour of Botswana."

Zebras Make Debut at AFCON in Style

2012-01-20T16:57:00.004+02:00

Botswana's national football team will have its debut match at the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) on Tuesday. After years of being the underdogs of the continent, they have had a magical year by first qualifying for AFCON for the first time in their history and most recently being named Africa's Team of the Year. On Tuesday in their first match of the tournament, they meet with the fierce Black Stars of Ghana.

Another first for our national football team is that they will be wearing kits designed by a homegrown company, our very own All Kasi! So not only will they play fantastic, they will look fantastic too.

I wish the boys the best of luck! SHAPA ZEBRAS SHAPA!!!!

New Literary Magazine in Botswana Looking for Submissions

2012-01-18T14:01:00.001+02:00

Kalahari Review Looking For Submissions

The Kalahari Review is interested in material exploring Africa and Africans in unique and avant-garde ways. We are looking for stories that have not often been told but should be – through voices that have not yet been heard - but should.

We hope to push the limits and expose the world to aspects of Africa not often shown - both the positives and the negatives.

We are also interested in pieces about and from Africans living abroad as well.

Because this is a web-based publication there are no word count restrictions.

Compensation will be paid on publication.

Thank you for being a part of this project and good luck.

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All submissions should be emailed to: editor@kalaharireview.com

Fiction, Poetry, Essays, and Humor pieces: Should be sent as a PDF or WORD attachment and should be accompanied by a proper query letter. Please include your contact details including full name, postal address, e-mail and telephone number in the body of the query letter.

Photos, Art Work and Cartoons Portfolios: Should be sent as a PDF, JPG. or PNG attachments and should be accompanied by a proper query letter. Please include your contact details including full name, postal address, e-mail and telephone number in the body of the query letter. (Note: this area particularly the publication is interested only in avant-garde content. We are not interested in ordinary wildlife or landscapes. Portraits will be considered if they have a unique quality to them.)

Feature articles, Profiles, Conversations and Interviews: Please attach your pitch letters as a PDF or WORD attachment. Please include any photos or graphic illustrations that you feel would help your pitch. Please include your contact details including full name, postal address, e-mail and telephone number in the body of the letter.

Note: Please thoroughly check your submissions for proper formatting, grammar and punctuation. Gross errors in these areas will seriously damage any works consideration for publication.

He Made $100,000 on Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing- in 3 weeks!

2012-01-12T15:57:00.002+02:00

Joe Konrath is a huge proponent of self publishing. He has predicted the last days of traditional publishing (or legacy publishing as he calls it). He sees no reason for authors to continue along the traditional publishing route. He claims we don't need publishers anymore, especially with such programmes as Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) at Amazon.
Today on his website he has posted a royalty statement for the last three weeks (!?!) showing that he has made $100,000 in royalties. He has many titles but still there is no way you can't find that impressive. I doubt most big name authors make that quarterly let alone in three weeks.

Over the holiday I did a bit of research about KDP for my column. I think the one thing that bothers me is the 30% taken by the US Tax Department. Apparently Botswana has no tax treaty with America. But I guess if you compare that to 80 + % publishers take it's not so bad.

I have a few books I think might work at KDP, I'm really thinking about giving it a try. Of course I'm still held back by the stigma of self publishing. I know it's crazy because even mega-writers like Stephen King and JK Rowling are self publishing their own ebooks.

Maybe the frustration of having 16 (yes 16, I counted today) published books and barely making a liveable wage might be enough to push me to a new way of thinking.

What do you think?

Trust Your Readers

2012-01-09T12:05:00.003+02:00

Last night I stayed up late to finish The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. It was a good book but there was something about it that annoyed me- the repetition.

The book is about a woman who gives birth to twins. It's a snowstorm and her doctor husband and his nurse are the only ones in the delivery room. It is 1964 and she is knocked out during the delivery as was common at the time. The first baby is born, a healthy boy, but then the second is born, a girl with Down's Syndrome. The father decides that the nurse should take the baby to an institution and that he will tell his wife that the baby was dead at birth.

We read this scene early in the book but parts of it are repeated over and over. It is as if the author doesn't trust that you'll remember it. Yes the scene is critical, more reason that it will be remembered. As I was reading last night, I was becoming more and more annoyed. And it is not just this scene that is repeated. The book might have been significantly shorter had the author and the editor trusted the readers.

Readers remember everything. If you've accidentally changed the colour of your protagonist's house, readers will spot it. Even if it is only mentioned once. It's okay to mention aspects of critical scenes again, but to repeat the entire thing over and over just becomes tiresome. Trust your readers and respect that they will follow your story.

Last Hike of 2011

2012-01-02T18:47:00.006+02:00

We took our last hike of 2011 on New Year's Eve Eve near Bonwapitse, a small village not far from Mahalapye. There was a lovely rock hill we climbed up. I took this photo about halfway up.

We found this interesting plant growing in one of the crevices up in the rocks. Does anyone know its name? I'd never seen it before.

Mr K up on the hill. My camera is not very good with distance but we were high up in the tree tops.

The rocks had beautiful coloured lichen on them: blacks, reds, oranges and blue.

Hikes in the bush and the lands around Mahalapye are one of my favourite things. There are so many places to discover. Hoping 2012 is full of many hikes.

My 2011- A Very Good Year Indeed!!

2011-12-27T06:00:00.002+02:00

Though most people get excited about Christmas, my favourite thing about this time of the year is New Year's. It gives me a chance to look back over the year and assess how it went and to look forward to what the new year has for me.

1. I had three fantastic trips this year. The first was to London in February to speak at the London School of Economics during their Space for Thought Literary Festival. See photos of the trip here. On that trip I had the opportunity to meet the fantastic writing trio of: Sue Guiney, Tania Hershman and Vanessa Gebbie. What a treat that was! A podcast of my talk can be listened to here. The trip was sponsored by Botswana's Department of Arts and Culture.

2. The second and third trips were actually combined. I set off for Lagos Nigeria in June then passed back through London on my way home to Botswana. In Lagos, I was privileged to attend the Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop run by Chimamanda Adichie and included other fabulous teachers such as Binyavanga Wainaina, Tash Aw and Faith Adiele. So grateful for that opportunity and I learned a lot!

3. The last trip to London was a result of me being shortlisted for The Caine Prize. I was honoured even if I was not the winner.You can read my thoughts at the time here. Fabulous things have happened to me as a direct result of that shortlisting. One of the most important is I met the owner of HopeRoad the publisher of my short story collection ebook, In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata and Other Stories. We spoke, I liked her, I sent her my manuscript and now we're working together. I also met the folks from The New Internationalist and will be writing a column for them starting in March 2012. I really need to thank Colleen Higgs the boss at Modjaji Books for submitting McPhineas for the Caine. At the time I thought she was crazy, I was sure it had no chance. Just goes to show what I know about these things and how wise Ms Higgs is.

4. I was lucky this year to have three books published. The first was a romance published by Sapphire titled Mr Not Quite Good Enough which came out in July. The second book, which is doing very well in South Africa, is the young adult, humorous book, Signed Hopelessly in Love , published by Tafelberg that came out in August. The book has since gone on to receive fantastic reviews including being mentioned in Oprah Magazine's "44 Brilliant Reads". The last is my ebook short story collection already mentioned above, In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata and Other Stories (all stories set in Botswana), which came out last week.

5. Personally, it's also been a great year. Both of my children are now at university with my son starting his first year of a Bsc degree. My daughter is in her second year of architecture. My husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary and were lucky enough to do that in the UK, thanks to the Caine nomination. The 11th of July, our anniversary, was also the awards dinner in Oxford. A magical day on all counts. (the photo at the top is of Mr K and I at Oxford before the dinner, taken by NoViolet Bulwayo who went on to win the prize, a worthy winner and a good photographer too!!)

6. The only downside for 2011 is that one of my goals for the year was to have my first, full length adult novel published. This I didn't achieve. I have two out there; one with an agent, one with a publisher, so perhaps that dream is meant to come true in 2012. I'll have to wait and see.

I hope your 2011 was as great as mine and I wish you a magical, prosperous and healthy 2012. PULA!!!!!!

My Two Favourite Books For 2011

2011-12-22T08:00:00.007+02:00

I read a lot and I've loved most of the books I've read this year, but two stand out above the others.

The first is Aminatta Forna's The Memory of Love. It was such a touching gentle way to tell the brutal story of the war in Sierra Leone.

I loved the way the author wove together the four story lines. It is sad but somehow not hopeless. Such an excellent read, it still lives actively in my mind though I read it months ago.

The other book that had a profound effect on me this year was Binyavanga Wainaina's One Day I Will Write About This Place. It is the coming of age story of a middle class boy in Kenya, a special boy who reads with an insatiable hunger and will one day go on to win the Caine Prize.

I read very little non-fiction but I can recommend this book unreservedly to everyone. The writing cracks with electricity. It is hilarious and touching. The chapter about his mother's death, written like an obituary, had me weeping so hard I had to change my shirt. You'll not have met a book like this before, I can assure you. Buy this book, come back and thank me later after you've read it.

I read everything, books from everywhere, and I'm quite pleased to find that my two favourites, the ones that stand out from all of the others, are both African stories by African writers. That makes me very happy.

Help Make a Film About the South African Border Wars

2011-12-21T08:00:00.001+02:00

My friend, South African Janet Van Eeden Harrison, is in the process of making a movie about her brother. Janet is an established scriptwriter and has written among others the award winning movie White Tiger. Her brother was a carefree rock musician until he was conscripted into the South African Defense Force (SADF) to fight a border war in Namibia under the Apartheid regime. Many young men's lives were ruined by being forced to fight and kill people. The story of Janet's brother is just one of millions of stories from all sides of the war.

Her brother came back changed. He had a complete breakdown and eventually had to be admitted into a mental hospital. He was released and sadly committed suicide.

Janet has already written the book and the script for the movie. Now she needs our help. She needs donations of any amount. She's also looking for actors.

Go to her website to learn more. This is an important project, let's http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmake sure it is a success.

Our Sunday Walk

2011-12-18T17:36:00.005+02:00

After the first good rains a few weeks ago, Mr K and I took the dogs for a long walk one Sunday. We visited two ponds near our house and I was happy to find tadpoles, one of nature's magic tricks. We also saw the most magnificent flower. Sadly I forgot my camera. Neither of us had ever seen that kind of flower before coming from a very nondescript plant.

Today we went out again. The tadpoles are now at that awkward teenage stage of being a tiny frog at the front and still a tadpole at the back. They were hopping and swimming and not quite knowing what they were meant to do.

We also found the flower again, but now it had dried up but it was still wonderful. I brought one home. I decided it would make a nice Christmas decoration. I got out the silver and gold spray paint.

When it dried I hung it up above our front door, a new take on a Christmas wreath. What do you think of it? I'm quite pleased!

In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata and Other Stories- the Book is Out Now!!!

2011-12-15T13:13:00.005+02:00

I just got word from my publisher, HopeRoad Publishing, that my ebook short story collection, In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata and Other Stories is now out. The collection includes some of my stories set in Botswana. A few, like the title story, have been shortlisted or won prizes including Pulane's Eyes, Jacob's New Bike and The Lies We Can't Hide (which was titled The Christmas Wedding and won two prizes in the 2007 AngloPlatinum Short Story Contest).

The collection is a wonderful example of all of the residual effects of being shortlisted for the Caine Prize. I met the owner of HopeRoad at one of our readings at the British Museum. I liked her straight away. We spoke and when I got home I sent her the manuscript. She liked it and here we are.

The cover photo is from the very talented Graham of One Stone Crow.

You can BUY your copy HERE....please! You can also buy it on Amazon for your Kindle - HERE. Let me know what you think about it.

Submitting a Non-Fiction Book

2011-12-08T08:00:00.002+02:00

One thing good about searching for an agent or a publisher for a non fiction book is that, unlike a novel, the book need not be written already. Most publishers and agents will want the following things:
• An overview of the book .
• The author’s bio/CV and marketing plan.
• A table of contents, chapter summaries and sample chapters.

As always check the website for the individual publisher or agent you’re sending to as they may want particular things and not others. Let’s look closer at each of these.

Overview of the book
Think of this as an advert for the book. It tells what your book is about. It should pull out all of the exciting things in your book. It should tell the publisher why your book is the very best on this topic and why you are the best person to write it. What will your unique take on the subject be to add to the discussion? The book overview should be about 1-2 pages long.

Author’s Bio and Marketing Plan
Your bio should talk about everything relevant, with the most important bits at the beginning. If you’re writing a book on the history of the Bakgatla royal family, you should not start your bio with where you went to primary school.
Perhaps you’ve worked in the Bakgatla kgotla your entire life or you write the historical column in their monthly newsletter. These should be at the top of your bio. Your bio needs to shout why you are THE expert on the topic that you’re writing about.
You should also include if you are a regular speaker on the topic. Mention the places where you have spoken or appeared on panels. This is what we call the writer’s platform. Other parts of your platform include your presence on the internet.

Do you have a Twitter account? Do you have a professional website or blog? How many visitors do these get per month? As for marketing, for a non-fiction book the publisher will assume that you already have a platform. Perhaps your book is about overcoming rape.
You might have groups you work with that have already mentioned that they would buy the book when it comes out, tell the publisher this. In this section, talk about what you have done or are currently doing to build up fans and potential book Know your competition. Maybe your non-fiction book is on life counselling.
There are hundreds of such books on the market. Talk about those books and what they are lacking that yours has. Talk about who you expect to buy your book. Is your book a how-to guide to setting up a business in Botswana? Is it for foreigners wanting to come to Botswana and start businesses or for Batswana entrepreneurs? Show the publisher you know who you’re writing for.

Table of Contents, Chapter Overviews and Sample Chapters
Most agents and publishers will require a detailed table of contents (with appendices) so that they know what topics will be covered in the book. Also you’ll need to write chapter overviews for each chapter.
These should be written in the style you intend to use for the book. Will your book be casual and friendly or academic? As for the sample chapter that you send, it should be written exactly as you want it to be in the final book. It needn’t be the first chapter; you rather choose the most exciting chapter in the book.

Things to Look Out for In Contracts

2011-12-06T08:00:00.001+02:00

In Botswana, as it is in most of Africa, as writers we operate without agents.
What this means is that you have no one in your corner who is familiar with contracts. You are on your own unless you have money to hire a lawyer but even then it can be problematic because I doubt most lawyers in Botswana are that familiar with the publishing business and publishing contracts and their implications.

To compound that problem, by the time a writer gets a publishing contract they have spent years writing a book and have had piles of rejections and are so thankful that finally a publisher likes their book they will sign just about anything out of sheer gratitude. But take my advice, once you get the contract, turn on your business mind or you will be regretting it for a very long time.

I’m not saying publishers are out to get you, they’re not. Publishers want what you want- to sell many copies of your book. But in the end they are businesses, they want to maximise their profit margin. Your publisher has likely said many lovely things but if it is not written down in the contract it is not legally binding. There will be no, “…but you said…” after you’ve signed on the dotted line.

So let’s look at a few things regarding contracts that you should pay attention to.

1. A contract is a suggestion
When the publisher gives you that contract they are showing you what they want. It is the beginning of negotiations. Negotiations don’t mean that you are fighting. You often hear publishers saying they don’t like working with difficult writers. Negotiating the terms of your contract is not being difficult. You need to make sure what you sign is what you want to be signing. Ask for everything you want. The publisher will then say yes or no. If there are things that you must have and the publisher is unwilling to budge on them, you need to keep in mind that it is better to walk away from a bad contract than to sign one.

2. Know what area of the world will be covered
When signing a contract for a book, you are handing over the copyright for that book to the publisher. If that publisher only has the capacity to sell books in Southern Africa, then why would you give them the copyright to sell the book in the entire world? Publishers want world rights, they’re optimistic that something might happen to allow them to sell books everywhere. You don’t need to wait for that. As a writer you can insist that they take only the rights for the area where they are able to sell now. In this way, you can sell the copyright to another publisher for the same book who can sell the book in the other places the first publisher can’t. If the publisher is only able to sell books in Botswana, you cross out “world rights” on the contract and write “Botswana rights only”.

3. Watch Out for Ebooks
The world of publishing is in flux. Things are changing on a daily basis. In Africa, ebooks are not so big, but they are exploding overseas. Many of our contracts include electronic books under the same contract as print books. Check if this is the case with your contract. This is not the best scenario unless the ebooks are in their own clause that stipulates the royalty rate separately. The standard royalty rate right now for ebooks is 25%. I’ve found most contracts in Southern Africa at least, want to give authors the same rate as print books, normally 10-15%. The reason ebooks get a hire rate is because they are usually produced after the print book, so all cover design and editing costs should have been taken up by the print book and also they are usually sold at a lower rate.

4. Check the Definition of Out of Print
For print books after a certain time the publisher will no longer print nor distribute your book. When this happens, the copyright should revert back to the author. Now with print on demand (POD) a publisher trying to be funny, can say the book is still available for sale when in fact it really isn’t so that they can retain the copyright, just in case. Make sure this clause is crystal clear.

A Story for AIDS Day

2011-12-01T13:52:00.004+02:00

Only to Believe

Matlapeng blames himself for her death. Things might have been different if only he had done the right thing from the beginning. She came to him that icy day in a controlled panic. “I’ve got the results,” she said.” I’m positive.” It meant he was likely positive too. They’d been lovers for more than five years, but she was the one who was sick. “I’ve thought about it. Mosadi knows of a church. It’s up north near the border.”

“Tebby, you know it’s not like that.” He took her small pretty face in his hands. He loved her with desperation at that moment, like a favourite toy that he’d soon have to give away. “It’s a virus. Didn’t they speak about ARV’s at the clinic?”

She stood up and began pacing, annoyed that he couldn’t see it her way. “Yes, they told me all about that, but Mosadi knows better. She’s been HIV positive for three years. She says those medicines are poison. We need to go to her church, the African Church of Hope. There’s a minister there, he has magic. Mosadi’s healthy now; she’s cured!” She was so hopeful and he was too sad and lost, so he gave in.

***

A week later, they were in the car pulling up to the church, a white painted cinderblock building in the middle of the mophane bush. The parking lot was packed with cars - from shiny Land Rovers to rusted out Hiluxes - people from all over had come to Pastor Nkgonne. They were searching for the answer they wanted; the truth of it had no relevancy.

“They say there’s no cure, but God has a cure!” he preached from the front.

“Amen!” the crowd shouted.

“I am here to tell you that God is almighty. There is nothing that he won’t fix if only you believe completely.”

“Hallelujah!” People rushed up to the front throwing money into the overflowing basket. Their payment for salvation.

Mosadi led Tebogo to the front of the excited crowd. Pastor Nkgonne placed his huge hands on Tebogo’s head, nearly covering it. He lowered his face and spoke quickly in a mumble that couldn’t be heard from where Matlapeng sat. Then he pushed her away, and she fell back into Mosadi’s arms. “She’s cured!” the Pastor declared. “She’s a believer, my sisters and brothers. For believers, there is nothing like illness.” The church erupted into ululations.

He ran to Mosadi and they carried Tebogo to the car. She slept until they arrived home at their flat in Gaborone. She looked radiant when she woke. For a few hours, Matlapeng was sure that Pastor Nkgonne had cured her that they would be okay, that she wouldn’t die.

***

“Let’s pray,” she said as the TB wracked her body and he would kneel on the floor next to her bed taking her skeletal hand in his. While praying, his mind drifted to how he needed to get her to the clinic, how he needed to get her to take the medicines that he was convinced would save her. “Amen,” she said weakly.

She opened her eyes and looked down at him next to her bed. “Please, Matlapeng, you need to have faith. I know what you want me to do, but Pastor Nkgonne says that I’ll be insulting God, not believing in His powers if I take the medicine. He’ll cure me. It’s only that my faith is not strong enough. Will you help me? Have faith Matlapeng and we’ll be cured.”

***

On a lovely September morning when the blue sky echoed with birdsong and Matlapeng was sure all would be well, Tebogo died.

Four months gone and the guilt still weighs heavy on his heart. It eats at him. He’s losing weight and coughing non-stop. He knows what he must do. He needs to take the action that he should have; the action that would have saved Tebogo’s life. This time, he’ll do the right thing. He parks the car. He has complete faith in his choice. This time a life would be saved.

Opening the heavy door, he walks towards the front of the church where Pastor Nkgonne waits.
__________________________
For another tribute to this day, stop by NoViolet Bulawayo's blog.

I'm Off to Music Camp!

2011-11-30T13:40:00.006+02:00

On Sunday I'll be off to Botswana Music Camp in spite of the blocks that kept getting put up to stop me.

In the middle of the year, after many years of sponsorship, Standard Chartered Bank decided to stop sponsoring Music Camp and we were all told it was cancelled. Sadness ensued. After 25 years, the institution started by the likes of Hugh Masekela was to be no more. Boo- hoo! But then in from stage left, on a white horse, rode Arts and Culture. "No!" they said and wrote a cheque for a whopping P150,000- and voila! Music Camp was back on track.

But for me that was not the end of my worries. I play trumpet, badly at the best of times, and when I go to Music Camp I look forward to being part of the band. This is my only time all year I get to play with anyone except myself. This year I was afraid I wouldn't be able to play with the band because of my tooth. One of my front teeth has been trying to fall out for about two years now. During my trip to Lagos/London earlier this year things got worse. The only option now is to eventually pull it out and put the fake one screwed into my head. I've put this off because a friend of mine said they're not as strong as the natural tooth.

The way I was playing trumpet was affected by this tooth's movement. I was finding it hard to get most any note, especially above middle C. But last night a wonderful thing happened. I was practicing and thought maybe I could find something on the internet that could help me play with my crooked tooth. This is when I found a video by Charlie Porter, an accomplished American trumpeter, who showed me that, in fact, I'd been playing wrong- forever. He showed me the correct way to position my mouth on the mouthpiece and suddenly there is no more pressure on my tooth and no more pain. Thank you Mr Charlie Porter!!

So I'm off to Music Camp for a week with my new embouchure and ready to have fun! See you on the other side! (Next week I've set up some posts from my weekly column in The Voice)

My Book in Oprah Magazine you say?? YES!!!!!

2011-11-28T13:26:00.003+02:00

My book is in the December issue of South Africa's O Magazine (page 79)! It is "44 Brilliant Reads"! My book Signed, Hopelessly in Love is recommended under "Literature for Little Sisters" though I think little brothers might like it too.
Seriously excited about this!!

Review of Signed, Hopelessly in Love at Saltwater Girl Magazine

2011-11-25T08:00:00.003+02:00

Saltwater Girl Magazine has a great review of my book Signed, Hopelessly in Love in their December issue.

"This is such a sweet book about love and ambition in high school. .... A lovely read."

And they're giving away three free copies. Go and try your luck HERE.

I'm Up On the Roof With The Monkeys Today!!

2011-11-23T13:14:00.005+02:00

Today is my last blog book tour stop for my young adult book Signed, Hopelessly in Love and I'm up north in Maun visiting my friend Val at her fantastic blog Monkeys on the Roof. Here's an excerpt of the interview:

Val: It is wonderful to read a work of fiction that takes you specifically into the lives of young people in Botswana. Although you have touched lightly on some of the bigger issues that they may have to deal with in their young lives – the rest presents them more or less as typical teenagers.

Me: Yes, some kids in Botswana have tough lives. Just like some kids in UK and some kids in America. I tire quickly with the much repeated “sad African tale” and I try my best not to perpetrate it. Not that I ignore our problems in Botswana, I know that they’re there and in many places in my books and short stories I address them. But I want truth. I think we need to be careful to show the truth, the complete truth not the CNN/donor NGO truth. In Botswana we have fun, we love each other, we laugh, we watch TV, we eat cake, we dance, we dream of Prince Charmings, we want to fly to the moon- we live full interesting, loving lives like humans everywhere. It is not all AIDS and poverty and problems. In fact that is just a small part of it really.

Read the rest HERE. Please stop by and leave a comment we'd love to hear from you!!

Post-Post Colonial Writing in Africa -Podcast

2011-11-22T11:49:00.005+02:00

I've not written anything here about Binyavanga Wainaina's book One Day I Will Write About This Place because I've already written two short reviews about it and have spoken to almost every human being I've been in contact with about it. For a writer, from anywhere not just Africa, it is a must read. It will reteach you what you knew before others taught you what they know. It will remind you that you need to write your way. Binyavanga's way is so unique and wonderful I wanted to shout with joy at his courage. Earlier this year I had my "Junot Diaz Revelation" that made me think quite differently about my own writing. This was a furthering and deepening of that.

But beyond my own personal revelations brought to light through Binyavanga's book, there are many lessons to be learned by the Africa is a Country Brigade, the overt and the covert. I think a lot of interesting issues come up in this Guardian podcast. The first part is Binyavanga speaking about his book, reading a bit of it. And then Lizzy Attree, the new Caine Prize administrator, and Zimbabwean author Brian Chikwava discuss some of the issues that come up from Binyavanga's interview. Though it's long it is definitely worth a listen.

Listen to the podcast here.

Legalising Prostitution in Botswana

2011-11-21T08:00:00.006+02:00

Recently the issue of legalising prostitution in Botswana has come to the fore. It seems very odd to me that people feel it's important to legalise prostitution but are not willing to make abortions legal. The prisons are full of women who had no option but to seek an illegal abortion. But yet they speak about women's rights.

I am not for the legalisation of prostitution. I think instead, the prostitute side of prostitution should be decriminalised. Why should people forced into such work because of the economic situation and structural discrimination be put in jail? I'm not against the legalisation of prostitution from some moralistic Christian perspective, it is from a feminist perspective that I take this position.

In Botswana I just cannot accept that prostitution is an occupation that women are willingly choosing. With our high level of unemployment and poverty women (primarily but even men) are forced to sell all they have left- their bodies. I also wonder in this debate- where are the women? Why is it the men who are speaking for the legalisation of prostitution?

The debate stems from attempts to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country. I think we can do that by decriminalising prostitution so that women can come forward without the fear of being arrested. At the same time the legal apparatus should now focus on the men that buy these women and the pimps involved in organising them. Pressure should be put on them with arrests.

Many of the prostitutes in Botswana are foreigners. I can't find any statistics about sex trafficking in the country but I would expect it is there.

Legalisation will increase the sex business in Botswana and make it a magnet for people looking for prostitutes. In Norway once prostitution was legalised it increased by 25%. And now since most Norwegian women (who have access to better jobs) don't want to be prostitutes, the big sex work lobby groups are pushing for foreign women to be allowed into the country to fill the vacancies. This is a recipe for the trafficking of women, sadly done legally.

The best way to help women in prostitution is to offer them good alternatives. Prostitution in most cases is the only choice. If there comes a point, where the problems of poverty and sexual abuse in Botswana were magically solved, when everyone who wanted a job that earned them a living wage got one, then and only then would it be right to legalise prostitution. Until then any attempt to legalise prostitution would be one that instead legalised the continued abuse of women and that's wrong.

What do you think? What's the best way to deal with prostitution in a country with high levels of unemployment and poverty? I'm interested in hearing your view.

The Heat And The Craziness

2011-11-18T13:07:00.005+02:00

We've had weeks now it seems of temperatures above 35C. I know for sure a few days were 40C maybe more. And the rain is just passing us by. Is this global warming? If so I think we need to make a serious plan. We need to somehow adjust our mindset to allow for the fact that rain is not part of life here. Otherwise I'm sitting in an endless state of anticipation, and this with the heat,is not conducive to sanity. But it seems I'm not the only one. We've had wild, crazy , scary things going on in Bots the last few weeks.

The one I can't quite get out of my mind is the flooding of rivers up north that has released a crocodile farm of crocodiles into the Thamalakane River and its tributaries. Some were found but some were not. They set out cages with chickens inside to capture the crocodiles live. In one case, a hungry dog got in before the crocodile but he wasn't heavy enough to activate the mechanism that closed the door. But the crocodile that followed him in was. Now they were both caught inside a tiny cage- dog and croc. Luckily the dog had sense of his situation and started howling at the top of his voice until a human came and saved him before the croc had him for supper.

They've given up on capturing any more of the crocodile farm crocodiles. But now there are these crocodiles, not quite wild, not quite not, out swimming trying to survive in the wild. Now the other day I read in the paper a woman was washing clothes by the river and put her baby on a blanket nearby. Before she knew it a crocodile had jumped from the river and the baby was gone- for ever. I can't even imagine the terror of such a thing happening. They're not sure it was one of the crocodile farm crocodiles but it is suspected.

The other crazy sad news this week was the woman in Maun who apparently changes into a snake- but she actually doesn't. Someone started a rumour and the village went crazy. People started crowding at her house demanding to see her. She was scared (rightly so) and refused to leave her house. Reporters were sent in to see what was going on. They went back to the crowd saying it was all a hoax and the woman was just a normal woman. This apparently incensed the crowd, some saying they'd burn her house down if she didn't come out. Eventually the police had to come to break up the mob. Some needed force to get the message. The whole thing has made me very sad. I wonder how this woman will be able to live in her home after all of that.

So the heat continues, I'm two degrees above melting, and I wonder what new craziness will happen this weekend. Or will the rain finally fall.

My Second to last Blog Book Tour Stop- Straight from Hel

2011-11-16T13:18:00.003+02:00

Straight from Hel is a fantastic blog all about writing and books. Always informative and today the owner, Helen Ginger, is hosting me to discuss my book Signed, Hoplessly in Love. Here's a bit of our discussion:

Helen: When you started writing Signed, Hopelessly in Love, was the ending already decided or did the full plot develop as you wrote?

Lauri: The thought that was the seed of this book was how we make mistakes and how we think they’re the end of the world when they’re really not. And how this is amplified by a million for teenagers....

Stop by and read the rest of the interview and leave a comment to let me know what you think. Thanks Helen!!!

Running is Not For Cowards

2011-11-15T13:37:00.003+02:00

A few weeks ago, my blogging friend, Gutsy Writer, asked us to write a true story about the time when we did something gutsy. She's put my story, "Running is Not for Cowards", up this week. Here's the first bit:

That day, I got in a stranger’s car and left-forever. It wasn’t a difficult move. In retrospect I guess it was dangerous, I guess some might have said it was reckless. But it was the choice that brought me here, to this point, to this life I have now. The journey started when I was 16. I was running away from home and it was the most important thing I’ve ever done.

Read the rest HERE. Let me know what you think of it.

Helen Ginger Reviews Signed, Hopelessly in Love

2011-11-14T15:00:00.003+02:00

In preparation for Wednesday's blog book tour stop at Straight from Hel, Helen Ginger has posted a lovely review of Signed, Hopelesly in Love. Though she's all the way in Texas and the book is set in Botswana, she thinks the book would be ideal for any pre-teen or early teenager anywhere in the world. She says-

Kubuitsile lives in Botswana and the book is set there. I know little about Botswana and loved getting to read about the people there, as well as the setting. Life there is different from here – and yet, not so different. Parents love their children there as much as they do here. Botswanan kids want the same things American kids want. And childhood friendships are lasting, no matter where you live.

Read the rest of the review HERE.

Pop Culture Reference in YA Fiction- My Take on It

2011-11-10T15:45:00.003+02:00

A few months ago, some YA writers in South Africa on LitNet were discussing this topic should they include lots of pop culture references in their stories to make them more relevant. The editor asked if I would like to be part of the debate and I gladly jumped in.

Here's an excerpt:

It reminded me of a session I attended at the Cape Town Book Fair, where British YA writer Kevin Brooks was asked about getting the lingo right in his books, asked if he did extensive research, since he was clearly no longer a teenager. He said no, because he saw no interest in getting the lingo right. As Partridge has stated and Kevin Brooks has concurred, what is in and what is out moves at lightning speed. The rate of the publishing world is more snail-paced, so logistics alone say you’ll get it wrong. And as Kevin Brooks said that day in Cape Town, when you try to be hip and you get it wrong, it’s not nice. Really not nice.

Read the rest HERE.

Caught in a Waiting Pattern

2011-11-09T16:41:00.005+02:00

Right now I'm in that odd place, a place I'm not at all comfortable with- waiting and finished.

I'm waiting for all sorts of things. Like most writers I'm waiting to hear about contest results. I'm waiting to hear about submissions I've sent out. I'm waiting for a big project to start. I'm waiting for the ending of this episode of the sitcom in which I star called "Searching for an Agent".

And I'm waiting to find out what the White Frog which has been living in my office for the last three weeks wants with me. "What?? What do you want???" Anyone speak Frog??

So on one side waiting is crushing me like an empty tin can in a room with high pressure. But normally when I wait I keep busy with projects so the waiting doesn't crush me quite so much. I always have projects going. I was sure I had plenty to do at least until the end of the year but it looks like I didn't. I finished the major edits to The Vanishings, my first book in the Dambuza Chakalisa detective series. I've sent it out to a few places and am ...(you guessed it) waiting. I also finished my attempt at writing in the romance/thriller genre, Love in the Shadows, and have sent it out into Submissionland too. My desk is scarily empty.

I don't want to start a new project now because I'm waiting to see if the big project I've been asked to work on gets the go ahead, which I hope happens soon. Yesterday in a complete fit of madness, I cleaned my entire house. That's not normal behaviour. I'm not sure it's healthy. Today I even trawled around looking for a few freelance gigs to fill time and I'm so over freelancing. Things are getting serious.

Waiting- does it do your head in like it does mine? What do you do to distract yourself? Please, help this poor writer.

Stop No. 3 on my Blog Book Tour- Myne Whitman Writes!

2011-11-02T14:24:00.003+02:00

My blog book tour for Signed, Hopelessly in Love continues today with a stop at writer Myne Whitman's blog- Myne Whitman Writes.

Stop by and take a look at the first cover of the book. Let me know what you think. Also learn a few things about me and the book that you may not know like.....

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Lauri's latest book; Signed, Hopelessly in Love

1. It was originally titled Aunt Lulu.
2. It was entered for a children’s writing contest in South Africa, The Sanlam Prize, when it was still an unpublished manuscript and was shortlisted but didn’t win. The winners are published each year, but the publisher liked my story so much she decided to publish it too.

For the other three go here!
Thank Myne for a great stop!

Making an Impact

2011-11-01T12:58:00.003+02:00

Someone on Facebook the other day put a status saying (I'm paraphrasing) that if a raindrop falls in the ocean, no one notices, but if it falls on a lotus leaf it is a beautiful thing. It's all about where you decide to shine.

I keep thinking about this. I'm in an odd place right now with my writing. I want to be successful and on some levels I am, but living in Botswana, or any African country really, there is this pressure that says you're only a "real" writer when you're published in America or in UK.

When I was in London in February I had a peek at what being an African writer published in UK can look like. I know the writer can have some say about how they want things to go, but I didn't like what I saw. It was a bit like a raindrop falling in the ocean. Whereas for me right now it's a bit like the raindrop on the lotus leaf. Or is it just big fish in a microscopic pond?

My goal from the beginning was to make a livable income from my writing, from my fiction if I can. I know many find this impossible, writers better than me. But still it's my goal. I care little about fame, in a perfect world only my words and books would go out into the world. I'm trying to find the way to my goal. I don't want books published that are drops in an ocean. What is the point of that?

Finding the way through this industry which is currently in so much flux is complicated. Should I stick with my publishers in Botswana and South Africa? Should I try to get an agent overseas? Should I instead try to get my books published in other African countries? And what about ebooks? I don't know the right way and right now I'm sort of going in all directions. A crazy way, maybe an inefficient way, but I'm hoping one of the paths will show that it is the right one for me. In any case, for now, I'm happy to be writing and finding some success.

I'm curious what you think about this?

Khama Government to No Longer Recognise Bakgatla Paramount Chief Kgafela Kgafela II

2011-10-28T15:22:00.005+02:00

In a turn that will likely have serious repercussions, according to an article in the Midweek Sun the government has taken a decision to stop recognising the paramount chief of the Bakgatla, Kgosi Kgafela. This follows two instances where cabinet ministers showed up at the kgotla and were refused permission to speak there. They were told that they could not hold meetings at the kgotla without the kgosi being present.

The Bakgatla tribe live in Botswana and across the border in South Africa.

I wrote before about the controversy around Kgosi Kgafela but since then things have grown quite tense between the Bakgatla chief and the Khama administration. Kgafela was brought before the court for "unlawful flogging" and the case is on going. At one point he appeared to have escaped from police custody. And throughout it all, Bakgatla have stood by their kgosi.

This move by the government seems rash in a country based on consultation. We wait and see what the response will be.

Five Things to Do In Central Botswana

2011-10-27T16:27:00.005+02:00

I live in Mahalapye which is in the Central District of Botswana, the largest district in the country. Most tourists zip through without stopping, heading to the watery north with the Chobe River and the Okavango Delta. But we also have some nice hidden treasures you shouldn't miss.

1. The Khama III Memorial Museum in Serowe
Serowe is the capital of the largest tribe in Botswana, the Bangwato. The history of the royal family is housed at the Khama III Memorial Museum. Our most celebrated writer, Bessie Head, also made her home in Serowe and the Museum has a special room dedicated to the writer. The thing I love best is the collection of photos of Sir Seretse Khama, our first president, and his family. The love story of President Khama and his wife Ruth is a touching one. Because she was white the British colonial government prompted by the apartheid regime in South Africa didn't like the marriage and did everything to stop it from happening and then frustrated them at every point. There is a photo that I love to look at there. It is of a pregnant Ruth standing on the dusty Mahalapye airstrip waving at a plane passing overhead. During this time, Ruth was trapped in Botswana and the colonial authorities would not let Seretse enter the protectorate. She had had word that they had changed his mind and he would be arriving on a plane in Mahalapye so she went there and waited but at the last minute he was denied permission to land.

There are many lovely photos there and a nice stop for an hour or two.

2. Old Phalatswe/ Phothophotho
Before the Bangwato moved to Serowe the capital for about 15 years was at Old Phalatswe. It can be found by going out the Martin's Drift Road toward the South African border and turning left to Malaka. Once in Malaka, you need to go to the kgotla to get permission. The National Museum is trying to formalise the area so you may be lucky to find a museum official who can give you directions.

For its time Old Phalatswe was a very modern town. It had a business district and was a stop on the stagecoach trek north. Now you can find the ruins of compounds and the once I suspect magnificent London Missionary Church.

After moving around the ruins you can climb down to the (normally) dry river bed behind the ruins of the minister's house. Follow the shady river left to its end and you'll find the beautiful Photophoto waterfall. Like an ampitheater the rock cliffs tower above you often with baboons at the top watching to see what you're up to. It is a beautiful place for a picnic.

3. Kaytee's Takeaway
In Mahalapye, Kaytee's Takeway is an institution. People heading north for years knew that it was the place to stop for a good dose of greasy food in the form of fish and chips or magwinya (fat cakes) or koko ya Setswana, or as we call it in our house- running chicken. If you're coming from the south, it's located right on the A1, on your left after the first robots.

4. Bush Walks
The Central District has some of the most beautiful areas for gentle walks in the bush. If you're a bird watcher, don't forget to bring your binoculars. Our family has had great walks around Mahalapye, Shoshong, Bonwapitse, Lecheng, and areas around Machaneng. You can stop your car most anywhere and find a lovely place to stretch your legs. A good place to start might be a walk up the dry Mahalapye River in Mahalapye with its wonderful granite boulders or the Lotsane River in Palapye.

5. Khama Rhino Sancaturay
One of my favourite places is the Khama Rhino Sanctuary located north of Serowe on the Orapa Road past Paje. You can go for the day or spend the night at one of their campsites or chalets. They also have a picnic spot with braii facilities. The park is a good size so you always see animals. There are white and black rhino as well as giraffe, zebra, waterbuck, kudu, springbok, ostrich, warthogs and much more. If you're a bird watcher, this is a fantastic place. We like to wake up early and bring a thermos of tea to the bird hide and wait to see what comes along. It really is a tranquil lovely place.

IBBY SA Reviews Signed, Hopelessly in Love

2011-10-26T17:18:00.005+02:00

IBBY is the International Board on Books for Young People and the South African branch reviewed my book in its latest newsletter! The review is copied below. Here is the link to the review.

Signed, Hopelessly in Love, Lauri Kubuitsile (Tafelberg, 2011)
I can quite understand why this novel was a finalist in the 2009 Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature: Lauri Kubuitsile has her own voice: the writing has an honesty and directness which appeals.

In a school environment two friends Nono and Amo share their lives – Nono an athlete, Amo the school journalist who gets the assignment to do a column under the pseudonym Aunt Lulu. She answers the letters of readers with personal problems.

Amo is in love with the head boy John Gababonwe, and when she receives an anonymous letter asking for advice by somebody who is hopelessly in love with a girl, she immediately assumes that it is from him, and that she needs to tell him that she likes him too!

The author presents the reader with a believable mixture of events and situations: school sport, studies, relationships, gossip, and the usual competitiveness and jealousy – Nono’s attempt to win a gold medal for the school is hampered by a student seeking revenge by attempting to injure her during a race; the Pig’s 1965 National Athletics trophy gets stolen, and then there is Amo making a complete fool of herself …

As she says: “They can cure terrible diseases, move genes around between plants and one day put a Motswana girl on the moon, and they still haven’t invented the invisibility button? Where is science when we need it?” A good read.

I Could Learn A lot From Pigeons

2011-10-24T12:20:00.007+02:00

We have a pair of Cape Turtle Doves that like to frequent the birdbath and bird feeder in our garden. Since both are outside my writing office window, I spend a lot of time watching them. I've realised I can learn quite a few things from them.

1. Watch out for Your Partner
The doves rarely both go to the birdbath at the same time. One will tentatively drink while the other sits in the nearby tree to keep watch. As one half of a partnership, sometimes I lose track of this. I forget, and become selfish and think only of me. But looking out for my partner is part of the commitment I've made- "I'll be there for you". Keeping that commitment is part of honouring my word.

2. Learn to Adapt to New Situations
All species of doves come from the rock dove or the common pigeon we all know. Pigeons are probably one of the most adaptable animals around. They can be found on barren rock cliffs and in most cities in the world. For some odd reason, humans seem to despise them for that very reason- their adaptability. We instead cherish the most rare, the most vulnerable. But evolutionarily that makes no sense. The pigeon should be our champion. Environments changes, we all could live a life with less stress by learning to adapt quickly to new situations. I know I could.

3. Don't Bully Others
Doves are among the largest birds that come to our birdbath, but I've never once seen them trouble another bird. This can't be said for starlings or masked weavers. Even a sparrow will occasionally try to chase others away. But the doves just mind their own business. No matter how crowded the birdbath might get (and this time of year when it is very dry and extremely hot it can get pretty crowded) the doves just move over and make more space. It could solve so many problems if us humans could do the same. Just move over and make a bit more space for the guy next to you.

4. Mate for Life
Cape Turtle Doves, like most pigeons, mate for life. I am neither a religious person nor conservative, but I've found that making a commitment to another person, an unbreakable commitment, helps me to have a firm foundation from which to do more experimental things with the rest of my life. I can risk other things because I know I have a safe place to retreat to. I also learn more about me by having that constant changing relationship with another person. Maybe this is not for everyone, but I know it works for me.

Farafina Class of 2011- 20 Day Challenge!

2011-10-20T11:14:00.004+02:00

People who follow this blog know that earlier this year I was in Lagos for the Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop run by Chimamanda Adichie as well as others. Our group, dubbed Linguistic Playfulness, is trying to continue the work started in Lagos. We have a closed Facebook group and a blog open to the public where we try out different things and support each other on the bumpy writing journey.

To keep us writing, we launched a 20 Day Challenge that started four days ago. Each day one of our members must post a story on the blog. Please stop by and see what my classmates and I are up to. My day was yesterday and I posted a very short flash fiction titled "Breaking up the Silence".

Lots of talented writers in the group. We'll be happy if you stop by and leave a comment.

The Second Blog Book Tour Stop!!

2011-10-19T12:11:00.004+02:00

I'm on the move again! This time to Kasane Botswana, way up north along the beautiful Chobe River. How I wish I was going for real not just virtually. Border Town Notes is hosting the second stop on my blog book tour for my YA adult book, Signed, Hopelessly in Love.

Karen the owner of Border Town Notes had this to say about the book:

"I actually found it to be really different, compared to the more usual type of high school stories that I've read in the past. Having been part of the adventure of raising two teenagers in my own life, I have great affection for teens, and enjoy reading about them. I have also maintained my taste in young adult literature, and this young adult book was a really excellent read! I devoured it speedily, really enjoying this endearing young lady and her world populated with amusing characters, and sprinkled with snippets of absolutely typical Botswana life! "

Read more including her interview with me HERE.
Thanks Karen!!!

Photos of my Life Today

2011-10-17T13:19:00.008+02:00

It's spring in Botswana, and that means the jacarandas are blooming. We have three in our garden and they are looking gorgeous right now, my photos don't do them justice.

The purple flowers decorate the lawn.

Senor Ramon has a new game. He sits in the little cubbyhole at the back of the lawn chair (what is the purpose of that space anyway?). And he waits. Then when I sit down, it is best when I'm from the pool in my swimsuit, he pokes his little paw through the slot at the back and gives me a few swipes on the bum. Fun game for him. Not so much for me.

Below is Cat's Eye, the Cactus. He arrived at our house hardly bigger than a thumb, bought by Giant Teenager No. 1. When she left for boarding school, I was left with Cat's Eye. Immediately he began to grow a strange shaped head. When I built my office, he moved here with me. For a while he was Cactus Man but it didn't suit him and he went back to Cat's Eye...and his odd head kept growing. Then in the last few months he started bending over, as if searching for light.

Today I decided the problem was getting serious and I've planted him outside where there is plenty of sun. I hope he goes back to being straight and tall. This bended posture gives me a backache to look at. I'll keep you posted.

Another problematic plant is our banana tree. We had lovely bananas that produced the sweetest fruits, but our Tenants From Hell decided to cut them down. Mr K then planted these, which have refused to grow, probably they know what happens to healthy bananas in this garden, they've heard the rumour. But now to add insult to injury, the masked weaver bird is back and he has chosen the few banana leaves on the decrepit banana tree as his building material. As you can see he's nearly stripped it completely and his nest is not finished. Oh poor banana tree!

That's today in photos. Now it's time to get to work!

Review from the South African paper The Cape Times

2011-10-13T16:02:00.001+02:00

And My Virtual Book Tour Begins in Australia!!!

2011-10-12T11:27:00.003+02:00

Today is the first day of my blog book tour for Signed, Hopelessly in Love. I'm over at Selma in the City. Selma is a long time blog/internet friend. She has a beautiful blog where she writes touching posts about her life in Australia.

Please stop by and leave a comment or question. You can find the blog HERE.

Thanks Selma!!!

Next stop- Kasane Botswana at Bordertown Notes.

I Miss Fatalism

2011-10-11T13:05:00.003+02:00

I live in a fairly large village in the Central District of Botswana on the eastern edge of the country. The village is called Mahalapye, though its real name is Mahalatswe; the modern name the spelling that seemed more sensible to British tongues. It is named after the normally dry river that runs through it. Mahalapye is not very pretty. It’s not so exciting. It doesn’t even have a very colourful history having grown from a railway stop where Cecil John Rhodes’s trains from Cape to Cairo (actually Cape to Harare) would refuel. Though it is not the most captivating place, it is a typical Botswana village, it’s home, and I love it.

Perhaps the nondescript, unexciting way of my village is the reason why when the TV man asked me what I missed about Africa when I was away, I first drew a blank. I was in London having been short-listed for the Caine Prize. The winner had already been decided the night before so the TV man was asking us, the rest of the writers, the losers, other types of questions, our answers meant to be sprinkled around those of the winner, to add local colour about the continent.

Like so many before him, though he knew Africa was made of lots of different countries, the TV man hadn’t made the leap that inside of each of those countries would be found so many different types of people and lives and ways of being. So he asked me again, “What do you miss most about Africa when you’re away?”

I hesitated. Africa? Am I meant to say lions and elephants? Sand? Tropical rain forests? Hunger? So I asked- “Do you mean Botswana? Do you mean Mahalapye?” He nodded. But that didn’t help, still I was blank.

By that time I’d been away from home for almost a month. I’d been first to Lagos and then to London and I was missing home desperately, but I couldn’t put my finger on one thing I missed concretely. And then I said it. It just came out, and my mouth ran, and my brain tried to keep up and I watched the whole thing as if the person speaking was not me.

“The fatalism,” the woman said, the one who sounded very much like me.

The TV man was not pleased. “The fatalism?” he asked, his face twisted into a scowl.

I was sure we’d got the whole thing wrong, me and her, but the woman continued as if she had thought about this for some time when I know for certain she hadn’t. “Yes, the fatalism. There’s something very nice about just accepting that things happen. That’s what I miss.”

The TV man was still not pleased. “But fatalism can be a bad thing too.”

The woman accepts that but still sticks by her answer. The TV man, frustrated, moves on. He asks her to describe Africa in one word, she says without thinking, in a way I find very reckless, “Space”. Again the TV man gives her his look of disapproval and I’m sure she’s messed it up completely.

The next day I talk to the other writers and find that indeed her answers were not correct. Africa in one word? Diversity, they say. I ask nothing else for fear I’ll learn the truth about my failure. In any case, the TV man will just edit it out, that’s what TV people do when they don’t like certain parts. It’ll be fine.

But later I think further about the answers the woman who was interviewed gave. As I dig around in the crevices of my mind I begin to see that, in fact, she had got my answers correct.

I grew up in America. America, if nothing else, is a land of people looking for answers. Unanswered questions are not allowed. There is a reason for everything and if you can’t find it you’re just not trying hard enough.

In Botswana, people accept that life sometimes goes wrong. Problems happen. Sometimes things don’t work. Sometimes the outcome you expect is not the one that you’ll get. It’s just the way it is.

There’s something very comforting about that. It alleviates a lot of responsibility. I suppose that’s what the TV man doesn’t like, but for me it sets me free. Not every action requires you to be ready to accept the entire burden of responsibility, so you can be freer to make choices that might mean things don’t work out. I don’t need to search and search for the reason behind everything. I don’t need to worry about things I can’t control. I can go forward and accept that sometimes things won’t go my way and that’s fine. And in that embracing of fatalism is where I find all the space I need.

Join My Blog Book Tour!!!

2011-10-06T07:00:00.004+02:00

I'm going on a virtual book tour for my new young adult book, Signed, Hopelessly in Love and I hope you'll go with me. Below is the schedule with links to the wonderful blogs I'll be visiting.

October 12 :Selma in the City

October 19:Bordertown Notes

November 2: Myne Whitman Writes

November 16: Straight From Hel

November 23:Monkeys on the Roof

The way it works is that each of these bloggers have read the book. They will ask me different questions about the book and other aspects of my writing. And then on the day they put up the interview and we discuss the book there and give links to readers interested in buying it. Much like a real book tour but easier (and cheaper) for someone like me living in Botswana. I hope you'll support me and stop in at the blog stops and leave a comment to say you were there.

And thanks in advance to all of the wonderful bloggers who'll be hosting me and my book!
Ke aleboga le kamoso!!!

The Silence of "The 1st Genocide of the 20th Century" in Namibia

2011-10-04T12:17:00.006+02:00

The silence around last week's repatriation of 20 skulls from Germany to Namibia is a sad commentary on an even sadder period in history.

The skulls belonged to four women, fifteen men and a boy of about 3 or 4 years old. They were part of an estimated 300 heads that were removed from dead bodies of members of the Herero and Nama tribes who died in Namibian concentration camps, particularly the one located on Shark Island in Luderitz, between 1904-1908. The heads were taken to Germany for research done by a German anthropologist, Paul Bartels, who wanted to use the skulls to prove that white people were superior to black people.

The Germans ruled Namibia from 1884-1915. In 1904, the Herero people, and later the Nama, tired of the abuse they suffered at the hands of the Germans, fought back and 123 Germans settlers were killed. In revenge, the German colonial authorities headed by General Lothar von Trotha called for the extermination of the Herero people. This extermination included rounding up the people and imprisoning them on Shark Island with no shelter and little to no food. Thousands died there from disease and starvation. During this time 65,000 ( some put the figure as high as 100,000) Herero people were killed and 10,000 Nama people. A thousand Herero people managed to run to Botswana and were given sanctuary. After the genocide only 15,000 Herero people survived in Namibia.

In 2004, Germany apologised for the genocide but has refused to pay any compensation to the Namibian people for the atrocities. Germany has paid out more than $61 billion in compensation to Holocaust survivors.

A delegation of more than 60 Namibian leaders went to Germany to collect the remains of their ancestors from the Medical History Museum in Charite Germany. Upon their return they were met at the airport in Windhoek by thousands of Namibian people.

For more information go here.

Life- First Up, Then Down, Then Slowly Up Again

2011-10-03T13:04:00.004+02:00

To say my life is currently like a roller-coaster out of control would be just about right. I feel like a passenger strapped in, control handed over, me just waiting to see what the ride will bring next.

Last week started with good news Tuesday morning. The negotiations between Sapphire Press and the production company Vanilla Productions had neared conclusion. My books Kwaito Love and Can He Be The One? were among the thirteen titles that Vanilla Productions had optioned to potentially be made into TV movies. It involved some money coming my way and the potential that my characters may be transformed into flesh and blood. This was fantastic news and I was flying high.

And then Tuesday afternoon the good mood took a serious nosedive. My husband came to my office and said something had happened to my cat, Catman. When I got in the house Catman was trying to move around, but it was as if both her back legs were broken. In Mahalapye, we don't have private vets, only government vets that see to large animals. The vets that tend to my pets live in Lobatse, hundreds of kilometres away. I called them. Luckily they were coming on Thursday and in the meantime I should keep the cat caged and sedated. He warned me that if her legs or hips were broken she could be saved, but if her back was broken she would need to be put down. So began two days of hope. Hoping so badly all would be okay.

On Thursday when they arrived (it's a husband and wife vet team) he felt along the cat's back and he said it was broken and the answer I didn't want was delivered. Then to make matters worse, he told me it was clear her back was broken by someone beating her hard with a stick or club. He had to put her down.

Of course the whole thing was devastating. She was only three years old. I don't know what could have happened that would have led a person to beat her so. Cats roam. Maybe she went in some one's house. Some people are very afraid of cats, that might lead them to react so violently. Though our garden is fenced, cats can escape. I can only have faith that this terrible thing will not happen again to her son Ramon. Hope and faith, the tenuous threads I hold, this woman who claims to be agnostic.

The days pass and the sadness softens its sharp edges and slowly slowly life drips back to normal.

Today is my first day back in my office trying to attend to emails and get some work done.
And then I see the people at New Internationalist are happy with my column and would like me to write for them. And the famous author I asked for a blurb for my soon to be out short story collection has received the request from his agent I took a chance and sent to, and his PA assures me she will pass it on. And I feel myself slowly rising.

Up and down and up and down and maybe that's the thing that keeps us moving, the simple unstoppable, undeniable energy of life. And it goes on.

And the Winner is......!!!!

2011-10-01T15:29:00.004+02:00

To commemorate Botswana 45th year of independence (which was yesterday) and to celebrate the arrival of my newest book, Signed Hopelessly in Love, I asked my blog readers to leave comments about what they loved most about Botswana. Comments were left here and on Facebook where my blog posts turn up as Notes.

I searched for a judge to pick the most deserving comment to win the book. In the end I got the highly qualified, internationally acclaimed Motswana writer Wame Molefhe to do the duty. (thanks Wame!)

The winning comment was left on Facebook and it read-

"I went to Botswana once, when I was a little girl of about nine. And I have incredibly vivid memories of flying over the bush in a tiny little airplane. I remember how astonishingly beautiful all the tributaries were, I can still play it out like a movie in my brain. Then on the ground on the last day of our trip we were chased by a hippo, it was awesome. This reminiscing makes me think maybe it's time to go back for a visit."

And the writer of the comment ....Paige Nick!!
Congratulations!
And thanks to everyone who entered.

My Romances as Ebooks!!

2011-09-26T15:39:00.006+02:00

Two of the romances I wrote for South African publisher, Sapphire Press, are now available as ebooks. Do you have a Kindle? Why not give them a read?

Buy Kwaito Love HERE!

And buy Mr Not Quite Good Enough HERE.

I'm slowly slowly moving into the digital age. Watch out- my short story collection, In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata and Other Stories will soon be out as an ebook with HopeRoad-London. I'll keep you posted.

Win a Signed Copy of Signed, Hopelessly in Love!!

2011-09-22T16:31:00.004+02:00

To celebrate my book coming out and in honour of Botswana's Independence Day (30th September) I'm giving away a signed copy of my latest young adult book, Signed, Hopelessly in Love.

So how do you win??
The winner is the one who, in the comments section below, best completes this sentence:

"The best thing about Botswana is_______."

For this I will pull in, as yet unidentified, impartial judges to make the final decision.

So try your luck and let me hear what you think about my lovely adopted country! Deadline is next week Thursday (29 Sept) winners announced on Independence Day.
Good luck!

You Can Buy My Romances in Gaborone Now!

2011-09-19T16:35:00.003+02:00

I was in Gaborone this last weekend. I led a Writers Association of Botswana (WABO) workshop on "Getting Published". Before coming back to Mahalapye I did a bit of shopping in Gaborone and passed CNA. I knew the Sapphire Press titles were now being sold in CNAs in South Africa but I thought I'd just check- and there they were!! What a lovely surprise! Kwaito Love was there and my newest Mr Not Quite Good Enough, I didn't see Can He Be The One? . And the other great thing is that they are reasonably priced- only P49.95. That is a fantastic price to get Batswana buying books and reading them.

I'm very excited!

The Pot of Gold is NOT at the End of the Rainbow

2011-09-16T16:50:00.004+02:00

I've always been a big dreamer, a rainbow chaser.

I remember growing up with a mother legally crazy, a father always gone, and a step-mother who could have given any fairy book step-mother a serious run for their money in the evil department and thinking -one day I'm leaving this place. I dreamt about my escape every day. And one day I did it. I left that place. For good.

I remember at university I went to "Out of Africa" with a friend on a hot summer Saturday afternoon. All we wanted was a room that was air conditioned, but I was surprised to find a new rainbow. I came out of the theatre, and as my eyes adjusted from the inside darkness to the outside brightness, I said, "One day I want to live in a place like that", and I followed that rainbow until I found the place where I live at the end of it.

Not so long ago I thought- I wish one day I could have a book published. Another dream to head toward, another rainbow followed. One dream after another, rainbows followed up and then down to their eventual ends.

This last week I received my author copies of Signed, Hopelessly in Love. I put a photo of the stack on Facebook with a status that said, "I'm a little bit happy". It's book number fourteen to be published, actually more than that if you throw in textbooks and nonfiction, but number fourteen for my fiction. It's not that I'm becoming blase about the event. It's just that when the book is finally finished, printed and bound, going out to do whatever it is it might be able to do, then I feel like my job is over, the dream has been accomplished. I feel like I've reached the end of my rainbow.

I don't see my books as my "babies" as some authors do. It's sort of the opposite for me. In the case of my children, once they were born the journey started. Now all of the wonderful things could be discovered about them and about me with them. But a book is born at the end of the journey. Books are sort of anti-babies for me.

My books are products of my hard work. Of my imagination. Writing is it for me. I'm proud of my books, I'm happy with myself for having produced them. I'm happy when readers enjoy them. But to be honest, I've found once the book comes out, for me it's as if everything is over and there's a bit of sadness in that. A lot of my other rainbows have been like that too.

Most people believe when our dreams are answered we'll be happy. We believe at the end of the rainbow there really is a pot of gold. But I've found it's not quite like that. For me there are bits of gold everywhere along the way and at the end of the rainbow? Well, at the end I'm just done, done collecting my bits of gold and now I must go looking for another rainbow.

Has it come to this?

2011-09-12T13:04:00.003+02:00

I'm a practical person. I accept that the longed for times when writers wrote and readers read their work has passed. Writers now must write and then they must perform. They must read their work (make sure you read well), they must be entertaining, they must twitter and Facebook and market market market. They must be experts on everything from the status of book reading in Africa to why Mugabe is still president of Zimbabwe...even when you're not Zimbabwean. But this? Has it really truly come to this?

This author is sitting in a shop window during a literary festival and writing while people pass by and gawk at her. Am I the only person who feels very sad about this?

Oh for the times when no one knew us. When the words were what mattered. When publishers sold our books, not us.

History, I guess. Nothing more than history now.

My Interview in The Voice

2011-09-07T07:00:00.003+02:00

A couple weeks ago I was interviewed for one of our national papers, The Voice, the same one I write a weekly column for- It's All Write. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Q. You are one of Botswana’s renowned writers, where did the love for writing come from?
My love of writing comes from my love of reading. I had a problematic childhood and books were where I found refuge.
Even now there is no better way for me to spend the day than reading a well written novel. Because of my love for books I was always fascinated by authors. One of the first letters I ever wrote was to an author of one of the books I’d read. I remember the book was about monkeys. My teacher posted it for me and when the author wrote back my teacher laminated the letter for me (lamination was a big deal in the 1970s), that letter was one of my most prized possessions for a very long time.

Q. What else do you do besides writing?
I’m a full time writer. I make all of my income from writing and things associated with writing (running workshops, speaking, etc.) Seven years ago when I decided to see if I could make a living as a writer, I wrote everything that came along. I freelanced for many local and foreign publications, I wrote radio scripts, I wrote for television. In quite a short time I was making a good enough income to live on and sold my business. But always my main goal was to try to live on my fiction writing. I’m not sure how sustainable my current situation is but I’m working hard all the time to reach my goal of living exclusively on my fiction.

Read the rest of the interview HERE.

Send Your Work Out! Now!

2011-09-05T17:02:00.004+02:00

When I was speaking about the publishing climate in Botswana and Southern Africa at the LSE in February, one of the questions I got from the audience was - what about people who just want to write for themselves and not submit anywhere? It seemed such an odd question to me that I struggled and in the end one of the people in the audience answered it for me.

I suppose writing for yourself has its purpose. I suppose it helps you to work things out, to figure out how you feel about things. But for me, to be a writer, to call yourself a writer, you must have readers. Perhaps my working class background dictates that work must equal pay. (It also means that pay must equal hard work, which is part of the reason I never seem to do things the easy way; but that is another blog post)

I know other writers might not agree with me, but I just think writers must submit. There is always the fear of rejection, but still you must submit. My cure to rejection angst is to have many things out there in Submissionland, so that one rejection doesn't sting too hard. As I write this I have:
1. Query for a book sent to two different publishers in India
2. A short story sent to a magazine in UK
3. A column sent to a magazine in UK
4. A romance novel sent to a publisher in USA
5. An adult novel sent to a publisher in UK
6. A young adult book sent to a contest in South Africa
7. A detective novella sent to a publisher in Nigeria
8. A short story sent to a publisher for an anthology in South Africa

Of course some of these I have more angst about than others. If a rejection arrives, I will feel sore for a bit without a doubt. But I know that's part of the game.

Submit! The worst that can happen is they say no. That's the worst, and it's not so terrible. Really. With a list like mine, I get lots of NOs, so I'm speaking from experience. I've been keeping a submission journal since 2005. One day I should work out my average, like a batter's average, of how many acceptances I get as opposed to rejections. It might be quite depressing. But it doesn't matter, eventually I do get some acceptances, and so will you.

Good luck!

And the Winner is......!!!!

2011-08-31T14:10:00.003+02:00

This morning I put all of the names from the comments on the post below and on my Facebook page with links to my blog posts (in the notes) and I picked the winner of the free book.

The winner of the FREE, SIGNED copy of Mr Not Quite Good Enough is ...One Stoned Crow!!!
Congratulations!! I'll send it off to you straight away.

And thank you everyone who entered! Keep your eyes open because as soon as my author copies arrive of Signed, Hopelessly in Love I'll be giving a signed copy away.

The Virtual Author

2011-08-30T16:01:00.004+02:00

I just read this article about virtual book clubs. Using video calling from Skype an author can hook up with a group of readers kilometres away. I think this is fabulous, especially for me living in Mahalapye Botswana. Our Skype connection right now is a bit slow for video anything, but everything to do with the internet is improving in Botswana and I hope soon such a thing could be a possibility for me.

I'm just now taking my first foray into a virtual book tour for my new YA book Signed Hopelessly in Love. My publisher, Tafelberg, in South Africa had never done such a thing before but decided to try it out with me. I'll only be visiting a few blogs, five in total. I'd be more than happy for any advice other authors who have done blog book tours might have for me. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll let you know when the schedule is in place.

Another Kind of Story

2011-08-23T13:29:00.002+02:00

10 Feb, 2011: The Texas Movement (TM) made of freedom fighters has advanced on the east coast. They have demanded President Obama’s resignation. They claim he has violated their human rights these include bankrupting the country with foreign wars, racial profiling at borders and in airports, a judicial system stacked against people of colour. Other factions of the Movement feel their civil liberties are being violated by not allowing prayer in school, others want polygamy to be decriminalised, and yet others think Obama’s new health care system is communist. Though the group is small, less than two thousand, and fractured along ideological lines, they are committed and armed.

24 Feb, 2011: The TM has made gains throughout the western United States. They are in control of all areas west of the Mississippi. For the first time, Obama has sent in land troops after weeks of heavy bombing. The President still stubbornly clings to power despite the wishes of his people. The international community condemns him for brutal attacks on his own people.

3 March, 2011: Obama supporters around the country tape messages of themselves trying to explain what is really happening in their country and post them on YouTube. The international community dismisses them as Obama propaganda.

4 March, 2011: TM leader, Sarah Palin, asks for assistance from the international community. “Will you sit by while this brutal dictator slaughters his own people?” The Coalition of the Greedy (COGs) a collection of the most powerful and morally corrupt states steps up to help. Their leader, Dick Cheney ,tells the media in a briefing, “This is not about regime change. This is not about Texas oil. This is about saving the lives of innocent people.”

5 March, 2011: 500 bombs fall on strategic Obama strongholds throughout the eastern part of the country. COGs dismisses claims that innocent people were killed. The statement issued to the media said, “All causalities were Obama supporters and members of his armed, home based army.”

25 April, 2011: COGs and TM have made significant gains. Last night COGs jets flew over Washington DC. The White House was targeted and both the First Lady and Obama’s youngest daughter were killed. Both staunch supporters of Obama’s inhumane policies. Obama seems to be on the run. Rumours are he has been offered asylum in the United Kingdom and Japan. His oldest daughter, Malia Obama, spoke in support of her father on Al Jazeera. “He will not hand over the country to people who do not recognise the Constitution of the United States of America. He will fight until his last breath for the country he loves.”

13 June, 2011: The battle rages on. COGs has instituted more than 6000 bomb attacks. Rumours that Obama was hiding out in Hawaii led to overnight air strikes on the islands. Infrastructure on all islands was destroyed, more than 3500 people injured, 235 killed. Obama was not found.

15 July, 2011: COGs’ CEO Dick Cheney said, “We will not rest until there is regime change in the United States of America.”

22 August, 2011: Washington DC is surrounded and TM has taken control. Malia Obama, unofficial spokesperson for the Obama regime, is in custody and will be taken to appear before the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity. Obama is found in the bunker under the White House. It is yet to be ascertained who killed him, but he is dead.

11 November, 2011: All Texas oil wells are bought by COGs. The exact amount of the transaction remains undisclosed.

Why are Certain Writers Still Afraid of Ebooks?

2011-08-22T07:00:00.003+02:00

I read this article titled "E-books Threaten Livelihoods of Aspiring Writers" and became quite annoyed. Booker winner Graham Swift is moaning about the fact that up and coming writers may not make enough money with ebooks so will leave writing altogether, leaving the world minus the stories these writers would have left behind.

I really wonder what world Mr Swift occupies because it has nothing to do with mine. Unless you're the top dog on the publishing mountain you probably don't make a livable wage now- anywhere in the world! And that's with paper books and the old system. Ebooks can ONLY be good for new writers. Their options have opened up. They can publish stories that would have been stopped by the gatekeepers of the past- traditional publishers and agents.

For African writers, ebooks are going to be the big equaliser. Right now our biggest problem is distribution. Our books just do not get off the continent and if they do they're relegated to the Africa section of the bookstore, the place no one ventures. With ebooks that will be a thing of the past.

Mr Swift needs to put his glasses on and take another look. In the past any story not deemed "marketable" never saw the light of day. If there was a time to worry about good stories not getting the chance to be told the time was then. The world of publishing is changing, and at least from my seat, for the better.

Win a Copy of Mr Not Quite Good Enough!!

2011-08-17T07:00:00.002+02:00

My new romance published by Sapphire Press, Mr Not Quite Good Enough is now out!!
Here's the blurb:

Gorata Kwadiba has a plan. By the time she turns thirty in two years' time, she wants to have made her mark as a public relations officer, and to have married a successful man. Ozee certainly doesn't fit into her plans. However charismatic and handsome he is, Gorata can't get over the fact that he's a petrol attendant. She wants a man with drive and ambition. But Ozee is persistent and Gorata finally agrees to go on a date with him. It doesn't take long, though, for Gorata to realise that there's more to Ozee than his charm and good looks.

Do you want to win a free copy? Leave a comment below (deadline 30 August) and I'll put all of your names in a hat (well probably a bowl) and pick a winner.

Good Luck!!!

Embracing Self by Thandie Newton

2011-08-15T14:21:00.002+02:00

"The cracks have started to show in our constructed world."

I'm Visiting Elaine's Blog!-"Lauri and The Caine"

2011-08-12T12:29:00.003+02:00

Elaine Pillay kindly asked me to write about my experiences around my Caine Prize shortlisting. She's put up the post HERE.

And on other news, I suddenly realised I've been globetrotting for most of this year so am in a huge panic that I have written just about nothing. So I'm trying to keep my nose to the grindstone.

Good news- Signed, Hopelessly in Love , my YA book, is now out and can be bought at Book Depository HERE. I also have a new romance out with Sapphire/Kwela in South Africa called Mr Not Quite Good Enough. As I write this I'm waiting for the courier to arrive with my author copies. Read about it HERE.

Enjoy your weekend!!!

Strengthen Your Writing

2011-08-09T18:35:00.003+02:00

(My blog is seriously taking a backseat to all of my other projects right now. So to keep you interested I'm re-posting one of my weekly columns I do for The Voice newspaper here in Botswana. Hope you enjoy!)

Everyone wants stronger more interesting writing. Today let’s look at some easy changes you can make that can begin to wake up a boring, tired story.

1. Get rid of adverbs and adjectives.
In English there are different parts of speech and each part has weight. Nouns and verbs are the heaviest, they have the most impact. This is because every sentence must have them. Adjective and adverbs have less weight. We use them to modify nouns (adjectives) and verbs (adverbs), but writing becomes stronger when we choose descriptive nouns and verbs and leave out the adjectives and adverbs. Here are two examples showing how adverbs and adjective can be removed to make the sentence stronger.

Her haunting, thoughtful eyes made him remember strongly his past love.
Her eyes haunted him, reminding him of his past love.

He was always hopeless and negative so people didn’t easily become his friends.
His hopelessness and negativity kept friends away.

This doesn’t mean you should rid your writing completely of adverbs and adjectives but make sure that you chose exciting, fresh modifiers or you use them in an interesting way. In the example below the unexpected use of brightly makes the sentence pop.
She watched them walk away through tear-filled eyes. “Enjoy yourselves,” she said brightly.

2. Get rid of qualifying modifiers.
A modifier like an adverb or an adjective is bad enough, but when you now add a word or group of words to qualify the modifier you’re weakening your writing even further. Look at the example below:

She was very unforgettable.
She was unforgettable.

That date is a bit noteworthy.
That date is noteworthy.

3. Be careful with the Be Verbs
We all know the be verbs, and there is no way a writer can toss all of them to the wind, but too heavy a reliance on these little verbs make your writing weak. Look at this example:

Elephants that are disturbed by people often become vicious.
Elephants disturbed by people often become vicious.

4. Use Active Voice
Active voice is when the subject of the sentence is the one performing the action. In a passive sentence, the subject of the sentence is being acted on and it makes for complicated and less energized writing. Look at the example:

The ball was thrown by Dineo. (passive)
Dineo threw the ball. (active)

5. Vary Sentence Length and Structure
If your entire story uses only compound sentences it will be very boring for the reader. And you shouldn’t think that using simple short sentences will mean your story is simple and uninteresting. Often it will mean the opposite. Look at this passage:

Mpho stopped at the lights and looked at the man in the car next to her. She knew him. She’d seen him many times before. When he turned, she quickly looked the other way. What was she afraid of? Herself. She knew herself too well. A man like that was the exact wrong sort for a woman like her. Not that it would stop her.

The passage is interesting because different types and lengths of sentences are used. And what happens when the writer uses the short, snappy sentences with the element of repetition? The suspense builds. If you have too many short sentences the reading becomes choppy, but the right amount helps to build tension and speeds things up.

6. Remove Clichés
I think most of us know common clichés, phrases such as: right as rain, everyday life, winds of change, bright and early. These are easy to spot and need to be removed and replaced with something more interesting. But other clichés can be found in lazy writing. I’ve been working through some edits for an upcoming book and the editor pointed out how many times I used almond eyes. This is a cliché too. A reader just passes over it, and because it is overused, it adds nothing to the excitement of your writing. Keep a keen eye out for those sorts of clichés too.

Blogging to Get Readers for your Books-Does it Work?

2011-08-02T16:42:00.002+02:00

I read an article I found through Twitter on my iPhone and can't seem to find it again, in which the writer made a very good point. She said that most fiction writers are under the impression that by keeping a blog we are building up our "platform" and increasing the number of people that will buy our books. She said that in fact this was wrong. Most writers, myself included, write blogs about writing and our writing life. And for most of us our readers are other writers, not necessarily the people we would expect to buy our books. We're actually doing this entire thing wrong.

Most of my books are for kids and young adults and very few kids or young adults probably read this blog. So I can't continue to think that blogging will increase the readership of my books. This is not to say blogging has not helped me as a writer, it has. I've met an important community of writers from all over the world. I get quite a few people contacting me about various things because of my blog. I still see this blog as an important part of my online presence but I need to readjust my thoughts about it as a way to market my books.

I wonder what other people think. Do you think it is important to be very clear about your readership and build up a web presence that caters to those readers? In my case, should I work on a blog for teens in Southern Africa? Do you think blogging helps to sell your books? I'd be interested to hear.

A Successful National Read-a-Thon!!

2011-07-26T15:37:00.003+02:00

Unfortunately I was away so could not attend the award ceremony on the 11 July for the National Read-a-Thon but the task was dutifully executed by the general secretary of WABO, Wame Molefhe. Despite the national strike that included teachers, we received lots of entries. What was wonderful too was that the winners came from all around the country not just Gaborone.

I was especially pleased to see primary school winners from Malaka, a village I came to love when we stayed in Lecheng. It's also the home village of my fictional character, Detective Kate Gomolemo.

The other wonderful thing was that all three of the students who won for secondary school (tied for first place) came from Diratsame CJSS in Moshupa, the same school that was represented at last year's Bessie Head Awards when three of their students attended with the school head and read their poetry during the open mike session. I think it is fantastic how the school is promoting the literary arts. Just goes to show how powerful an inspired teacher can be. Ten points for the administration and staff at Diratsame Junior Secondary School!

The winners were:

The secondary school winners were all from Diratsame Community Junior Secondary School and there was a three-way tie for first place, all having read 32 books.
Bone Ngope
Itseng Montle
Ontiretse Mosweu

For primary school, the winners were:
Kitso Okuketseng from Malaka Primary School-80 books
Ame Seitshiro from Malaka Primary School-71 books
Kgosi Monametsi from Raserura Primary School- 70 books

WABO has decided to make the Read-a-Thon an annual event and is in the process of writing a proposal for funding. We were really excited about the response and believe that getting our kids reading is an important endeavour.

NoVoilet Bulawayo Wins this year's Caine Prize!!

2011-07-17T15:33:00.003+02:00

I know this news is late and I have been a terrible blogger but I am home and will try to make amends.

Yes, for those not in the loop, Zimbabwean writer, NoVoilet Bulawayo, was the winner this year. Of the people on the shortlist, she was the only one I knew before getting to London. We met through blogging and Facebook and were internet friends. I am very happy for her and I think of all of us on the shortlist she will be able to get the most from this prize. She currently teaches at Cornell and is just starting out on her writing journey. She has a unique, fresh voice, a brilliant mind and I'm very excited to see how she grows in her writing. I have a feeling she is destined for great things. Watch out world!

Where do I start in writing about my last few weeks. I'm still in pieces really, not quite myself. It will be weeks, likely months before I see what my time in Lagos and then London has done to me. But there a few facts that I can state for sure and certain.

1. Mr K and I had a fabulous, never-to-be-forgotten, 20th wedding anniversary, ending with a lovely dinner at Bodleian Library in Oxford. Who on this planet can say they celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary on top of (to the side of, next to, in the vicinity of) every book ever written in the English language? We can!!

2. I met so many wonderful people. Some will definitely be pivotal in my writing career. Some will inspire me to be a better writer, and others I know for sure will become life-long friends. Where everyone will fall is yet to be realised.

3. The Lauri Kubuitsile who left Botswana about a month ago is not the one who returned two days ago. Molecules have shifted. Thoughts have changed course. Eyes have been re-focused. I'm looking forward to what this new person will get up to. I feel a bit like I don't have enough of my life left to do all the new things I want to. I hope this is not the case.

For now, that's all I've got. I'll try my best to get my thoughts sorted and more specific during the next few days.

Lagos to London

2011-07-05T06:41:00.004+02:00

I must apologise to my blog readers for not keeping you posted about all of the wonderful things going on. The problem is I'm busy being part of the wonderful things so have found if difficult to post.

Leaving Lagos and all of my new friends there was difficult. The Farafina event on Saturday night was amazing. I think I've never before met such a person as Chimamanda Adichie. She is brilliant and talented, this I think we all know, but much more than that she really cares that others follow her on the path she has laid. She said such wonderful things about all of us in the group that night when we came up for our awards. I was so touched by what she said about me. I know, even at this short distance, that the Farafina Trust Workshop will end up being one of the most important things to happen to me and my writing.

At the event I met another one of the One Worlders (the group of international writers who put together the short story collection One World) , Jude Dibia. He's lovely. Beautiful and calm and humble. I'd already had two incredible evenings with Molara Wood who came to our hotel in Lekki. Extra gifts to add to the bounty I've been receiving.

And now I write this in London, the second leg of this incredible trip. It was a stunning day weatherwise yesterday even through my overnight flight dead tired eyes. Today I will hopefully meet NoVoilet, an internet friend who is also on the Caine list. Mr K arrives this evening, likely dead tired after a long trip to London through Joburg and Dubai. And then all of the Caine things will begin.

If you're interested, here is the podcast of the BBC interview I did a few weeks ago. They're interviewing all of the Caine shortlistees. My bit on this one is just after the middle.
Okay off to get ready for day 2 in London.

Greetings from Lagos!!

2011-06-28T22:06:00.003+02:00

I'm in Lagos Nigeria at the Farafina Trust Workshop. Though I'm a writer, I can't quite find the right words to use to describe how great this workshop is. Our teacher/goddess is Chimamanda Adichie. I've joined her cult. She is amazing in so many ways- beautiful, humble, generous, laser intelligent, fantastic teacher and very, very funny. I'm having a series of epiphanies about my writing that started with the reading of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao a couple weeks ago and being reinforced by what I'm learning here. I know the writer me that returns to Botswana in a few weeks will be different from the one that left six days ago (is it only six days?), I suspect the person me won't be the same either.

The other amazing part of this workshop is the talented, interesting participants. This morning for one of our writing exercises I wrote the small passage below:

She speaks of fingering and blow jobs and I think of differences. If I think back some weeks ago when I sat in my wintry office in Botswana and got the news I would be going to Lagos, to Nigeria, it seems a mental year ago. I try to remember what I thought Nigerians would be like. Religious- ala Prophet Joshua. Loud. Patriarchal. Conservative. And, oddly, in my mind everyone wore green like their flag and their football team. I wasn’t sure it would be easy for me to find friends here, people I’d have anything in common with. In any case, it was all about the writing, I told myself. I was going to Nigeria to learn how to write properly and that was all that mattered.

And the beautiful, sexy but somehow still innocent Buchi speaks about anal sex and nipple touching and I think about difference and actually, maybe more than that, similarities. Nigerians, I find, are very liberal, more than most Batswana, and free to speak about anything, and everything. In five days I’ve had conversations about sex and HIV/AIDS, the obsoleteness of the male species, discussions about politics and the adrenaline rush of being part of a mad mob. Crazy, free conversations like those I have at home with my husband and kids and friends. I expected to find strangeness here, but I was wrong, and the hope that has given me, may end up being the most valuable thing I take home.

Last Night's Lunar Eclipse of my Mind

2011-06-16T11:05:00.004+02:00

Last night I braved the cold to watch the show put on by the cosmos. Excuse the photo, it was taken with my iPhone. I knew it wouldn't be any good, I just wanted a record that I was there.

For me the most interesting part was seeing the shadow of earth on the surface of the moon. I was, in a different life, a science teacher and I understand (at least in a certain part of my mind) that we live on one of the planets in our solar system. We have one sun and one moon. I understand how those bodies move around. But something shifted in me when I saw the shadow of the edge of our planet up there on the moon. Suddenly I understood where I was. The reflection of our planet so far away up there gave me insight into this home of ours. Suddenly the ground on which I stood meant the same thing as the planet called earth. Seems simple and straight forward but until last night I didn't really get that.

I wondered last night if maybe that is what we all need to get true insight about ourselves, to see our reflection on someone or something else. We may think we know a lot of things about ourselves, but maybe we only know them to a limited extent. Perhaps the true definition and understanding of ourselves cannot be found within us, it must be found somewhere out there.

In Setswana culture there is something called botho. Botho is a term used to describe a mature, polite Motswana. A person who shows respect to others, who is disciplined, well mannered and courteous . You gain botho through your interactions with others. Perhaps botho is a bit like the shadow of earth on the moon.

Coming from a family with mental illness, I've never quite trusted the inside of my head. Sometimes I think that may be why I write. I trust words on the page. So if I get the words out of my untrustworthy mind and on the trustworthy page I can see what they mean, what I mean. Maybe that's a bit of the shadow on the moon too.

Perhaps I'm rambling. Just my thoughts after last night. What did you think about the eclipse and our shadow way up there?

The Grass Suffers When The Elephants Fight

2011-06-14T16:09:00.006+02:00

And so with one announcement from the unions, the strike is over. At the end of last week, things got scary with people in Gaborone breaking windows of shops and public buildings. The unions felt things were getting out of hand and called for the strike to end and for the civil servants to go back to work this past Monday. They got none of their demands.

In the meanwhile, workers lost almost two months pay. Essential workers who were striking were dismissed. They've been told they can re-apply for their jobs, but it is not clear if they will be re-hired at the same place they left or will be considered new workers.

The cost to the public of this strike is hard to know but likely huge.

And what about the fighters? President Khama wins. He has pushed the labour movement in this country back to the dark ages. A place where his rich friends in and outside of the country will be pleased to find it. If reports in the private media are to be believed, the IMF had been advising him not to give in to the unions' demands. No surprise there.

The union leaders? They still have their jobs, never lost a thebe of their salary. Hopefully they learned a lesson about hubris. They got excited by the support they had during the first ten days of the strike, and, without planning for the outcomes, extended it indefinitely, to their detriment. One can wonder which worker will put their faith in them again?

In the end, like always, the ones most unable to withstand the pain, must be the ones that bear it completely.

Who's in the Driver's Seat? Authors!

2011-06-13T07:00:00.004+02:00

Yep, that's the truth. For us writers here in Botswana it may not seem that way, but worldwide publishers are accepting what they thought worked no longer does and that the sinking or the swimming of any given title is back in the hands of the author.

The author must organise their own readers, their own platform. And as Jane Friedman said in a recent interview, if you start doing that once the books is published it is too late. It will be seen as an insincere marketing tool and will fall flat. You need to build up relationships with your readers over a long period of time.

Publishers are scrambling now to see where they fit in the new publishing world. This excellent article asks what most of us have already asked ourselves:

And that’s why more authors are asking: If publishers don’t know what they’re doing and rely on the author to sell their own books, why should authors endure the long, frustrating, seemingly impossible job of finding a literary agent and selling your book to a commercial book publisher?

I'm not saying everyone should self publish, what I am saying is that we have all sorts of choices. The choices we make are not set in stone. You can publish one book with a traditional publisher, the next you can self-publish.

But don't be deceived into thinking every thing is now an easy walk in the park- it's not. No matter which path you choose, the success you get will be almost directly equal to the work you put in.

There are no rules and you are in the driver's seat. The only problem is that most writers are still stuck thinking they're sitting in the back seat being driven by their publisher to a destination only the publisher knows. It's time for a mental shift.

Cyber Friends

2011-06-10T16:47:00.004+02:00

Today on Facebook someone spoke about a friend they'd met on the internet. The friend had been very encouraging and when this person had some news, he'd sent this friend an email only to get an email back from the friend's wife saying he'd died in a car accident a few days before. The man was shaken by this, by the death of his friend who he'd never actually met. It got me thinking about cyber friends.

I've had a few cyber friends who just vanished. When I first got internet and started being serious about my writing a met a man at Writers Weekly who became my friend. He was also just starting out as a writer and we started communicating. He was very helpful and I relied on him for advice on many things about writing. But then suddenly he disappeared. I never found out what happened to him, though I often think about it.

Some think cyber friendships can't be as important as flesh and blood ones, but I'm not sure about that. I have quite a few cyber friends who I care about. Some I've gone on to meet in person like Colleen Higgs, Tania Hershman, Vanessa Gebbie, Sue Guiney, Fiona Snyckers, and there are many others. Because of my isolation from other writers, the internet is where I find other writers to discuss this business with. Those discussions are very important to me.

I suppose there are people who show a completely false side of themselves on the internet. I've not had much experience with that, but I've heard the stories. Mostly I've met bright, interesting engaged people, the sort of people I would seek out in my flesh and blood life. My life is fuller thanks to my cyber friends, and I'm grateful for that.

What do you think? Are your cyber friends as important as your flesh and blood ones?

Up the Gear to Wild Wonderful!

2011-06-04T14:11:00.007+02:00

So I've been already getting very excited about going to London for the Caine activities. Travel plans are getting sorted. I've booked tickets for Mr K. The 11th of July, the day of the Caine Awards Ceremony, is also our 20th wedding anniversary, so I wanted us to be together. I already missed Valentine's Day when I went to London for the LSE talk in February, so I couldn't miss our anniversary too, especially such an important one.

So like I said, I was getting crazy excited about London and I completely forgot that I had applied for the Farafina Trust workshop in Lago Nigeria. And then I remembered all of a sudden because I got an email yesterday that I was among the 20 writers (out of 400) chosen to attend! How crazy is that! And luckily it doesn't clash with London. The workshop is from the 22nd June until the 2nd of July. I'll go straight from Lagos to London since the Caine things start 5 July. I come back to Botswana on the 15 July. Lots of travelling and wonderful literary things to feed my brain. I can't believe how lucky I am.

The Farafina Trust is a nonprofit organisation that promotes reading and writing and the literary arts. The workshop is run by Orange Prize winner Chimamanda Adichie. This year other teachers include Malaysian writer Tash Aw, American Faith Adiele and Kenyan Caine Prize winner and founder of Kwani! Binyavanga Wainaina, a real all-star cast. I'm so excited and I'm sure this workshop is going to help me to push my writing up a notch or two.

Botswana Civil Service Strike June 1st

2011-06-01T18:39:00.004+02:00

Yes the strike is still on. Essential services workers (including nurses, doctors) were ordered to go back to work, they didn't and they've been fired, about 1500 of them. Schools re-opened yesterday and temporary teachers have been brought in, from where I don't know since now none of my children are in school, one is at university one waiting to hear about university. Also the government is taking a "no work- no pay" attitude so the striking civil servants received no pay this month. This is having a ripple effect through the entire country since most civil servants support many other people on their pay cheque. Businesses are suffering as well.

The unions dropped their demands from a 16% wage increase to 3% with the condition that workers be paid during the strike and essential workers that have been fired be re-hired. The government said no.

Meanwhile President Khama has sent his cabinet members out to the kgotlas around the country to try and get the government's position regarding the strike to the people. In most instances the ministers have met with near empty kgotlas or have been heckled. In Mahalapye yesterday Vice President Merafhe attempted to speak and people got up and left.

Today in Mogoditshane a similar thing happened. The workers then marched from there to Gaborone to the Civic Centre. As I write this (it is almost 7 pm) there are rumours that the workers are considering marching to State House. They've built a bonfire at the Princess Marina Circle, it's very cold tonight.

Despite propaganda being issued from the government the strike is weakening, it is getting stronger and because of the President's obstinacy and refusal to discuss the issue with the unions ( a position contrary to the Setswana culture of consultation) many are calling for him to resign. Opposition parties are capitalising on the situation. And still the government digs its heels in.

Pre-order Signed, Hopelessly in Love

2011-05-30T12:36:00.003+02:00

My book, Signed, Hopelessly in Love (Tafelberg) will be out mid-July but you can pre-order at Amazon. Click here at UK Amazon or here at Amazon Japan or here at Loot where you can be notified when the book is ready. Loot has a lovely little write-up about the book too- "A wonderfully original and humorous story".

If you pre-order, let me know so I can set up a little shrine in your honour. Kidding.

Well kind of...:)

TJ Dema Interviews Me

2011-05-26T15:12:00.004+02:00

Botswana's well known poet TJ Dema interviewed me on her blog about my recent shortlisting for the Caine Prize, my thoughts on writing in Botswana, and a few other things. You can read the entire interview at her blog, here is a small excerpt:

TJ: The short story that has been shortlisted for the Caine prize was published in South Africa by the independent publisher Modjaji what does that say, if anything, about publishers/publishing in Botswana? In other words why aren't local publishers crawling all over each other to publish a multi-award winning writer such as yourself?

LK: No – no one is crawling anywhere near me. When I was shortlisted I got emails of congratulations from only two of my book publishers (I currently have books published with five publishers, two are in Botswana) both are South African trade publishers. I don’t think publishers here give a hoot about any literary prizes because most of them are not book and writer lovers. It may sound bitter, but that’s how it appears.

TJ: What does it take for a (an African) writer to be noticed by a panel of international judges?

LK: I really don’t know. To be honest contests are subjective. I think you need to get the basics down and then it is really up to what that group of judges likes. I can give a perfect example. My story The Christmas Wedding which won the two prizes in the AngloPlatinum Short Story Contest was recently seriously bashed by a quite prominent South African editor. It’s just the parameters of this game. It’s subjective and you’ll never please everyone.

Thanks again TJ!

We're Here at the Right Time

2011-05-23T16:41:00.005+02:00

There is a lot of doom and gloom in the publishing world now a days. The book is dead. "Real" writers can't make money, people are only buying books by celebrities. People don't read anymore. Bookstores are coming to an end. Writers are becoming obsolete.

I don't buy it. I also wonder who's spreading these rumours.

If anything, people are reading more than ever. In my house at any given moment you will find at least two out of the four people reading. Often it's online but it is still reading. Words that must be written by someone, a writer. Books are not dead, they may be changing form but they are certainly not dead. And as for writers, as far as I'm concerned this may be the best time in history to be a writer.

I spent Saturday doing research about ebooks and I became more and more hopeful. Unless you are a rock star writer, the traditional model of publishing has eroded to such an extent that it really does not look good for most of us. If you want your book to have any sort of success you need to know how to market , you need to know the business. Your publisher will require you to be an active part of the marketing team. On top of that, if the book doesn't sell to their expectations you'll be dropped. The traditional model is harsh and getting harsher. But the upside is that the traditional model of publishing is on it's way out. The power is shifting away from agents and big publishing houses and towards writers and smaller independent publishers. People are changing roles. Writers need to be marketers. Agents are becoming publishers. Booksellers are becoming publishers. Writers are also becoming publishers.

On Saturday, I read this article at Kristine Kathryn Rusch blog. Things are changing and they're changing fast. One thing I found hopeful is that you don't have to choose either or. You don't have to run from your traditional publishers and only self publish. Although I'm in the process of self publishing a collection of my short stories, I won't stop doing business with traditional publishers. It will depend on the book. I'm currently working on a book I hope to sell to a publisher that only publishes and distribute ebooks. I could self publish but in this instance, with this book I think this is a better way to go. The choices available to writers are myriad and the power is in our hands. It really is a great time to be a writer. We have all sorts of control over our careers, and we have endless choices of how we want to do things.

I'm going to embrace the change. I'm not fighting it any more. What about you?

Defining Ourselves

2011-05-16T07:00:00.004+02:00

Being a full time writer, plodding away in my office in Mahalapye, I have no colleagues unless you consider Sgt Catman and Senor Ramon, my two cats, as people; I don't, they do. So when I need a break and want a bit of conversation, I go to Facebook where most of my friends are fellow writers. The last few weeks I've been having various discussions about the definitions we have for ourselves. It's easy for agents and publishers if we writers come to them in tidy boxes labelled accordingly but unfortunately many of us don't want to be confined within those four walls.

One contentious issue is the box called "African Writer". Because it often comes with a lot of accompanying baggage that includes said writer being able to discuss and have solutions for the continent's ills, many African writers prefer to climb out of that box. It also comes with the nasty business of your books being thrown into that dreaded African section. The stories you're "allowed" to write are often prescribed, as well. It's not a nice box to be in so people sometimes tread carefully around it. I don't mind the "African Writer" box but that could be because I have the leisure of choosing it rather than it being imposed on me.

Other confining boxes are "romance writer" or "sci-fi writer". And perhaps the most difficult to dodge "woman writer".

The problem with boxes is that they reduce a three dimensional writer to a one sentence tag line. The tag line sets down the rules before you walk into the room. It can even operate without you in many case since the box is often pre-furnished, you just step in and play the role.

These boxes are what sometimes cause writers to write under pseudonyms. I was asked when I had my first romance novella published if I'd like to have a pseudonym since the publisher knew I wrote a lot of other things too. I said no. I've likely made decisions which if I had an agent I might have been advised not to do, but part of why I said no to the romance pseudonym was that I hate boxes, I always have.

Why must I be this OR that? Why can't I be both? Why can't I write literary short stories, romance novellas and funny kids books? Why once I have a published romance I can't be taken seriously as a literary writer? I even dodge the description "author" as I find it is decorated with thin pretentious fringes I don't want rubbing on me.

I stick to "writer". It is my description of me. If push comes to shove I might say "Motswana writer" because my passport proclaims that as a fact. But after that most boxes I try my best to walk past. I think we all should be given the liberty to define ourselves.

Sad Days in Botswana

2011-05-12T16:31:00.000+02:00

As I write this the civil service strike continues in the country. This means there is little to no education taking place. Hospitals are barely staffed and most clinics are closed. Government offices are nonfunctional. It has now become an indefinite strike.

Sadly our president has failed completely as a leader. Instead of leading his people according to Setswana culture, a culture based on consultation and compromise, on negotiation and respect he has chosen to dig in his heels. He is doing his best to create dangerous divisions between Batswana in the hope that he will find support among the poor and the unemployed, the very ones most affected by this strike. It is a path that could backfire on all of us.

Our national television station (BTV) has become a complete sham. In the initial days of the strike they produced propaganda reports posing as news stories saying all was fine. For them students were in the classrooms being taught and clinics and hospitals were fully operational. On the ground we could all see with our own eyes that this was a lie.

Since then President Khama has been shown on the BTV news/propaganda report speaking at the kgotla telling the gathering that he will not talk with the Unions and he doesn't care if the strike goes on for months or years. He went on to insult the strikers in Setswana, an insult that enraged many people and has pushed many people sitting on the fence regarding this issue firmly on the Unions' side.

Last night on BTV Minister of Education and Skills Development Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi went on the BTV news/propaganda report and told the nation that a letter had been found on the ground at one of the secondary schools (Lobsec) urging students to revolt against the government. She blamed this letter on the Unions. To me it sounded like a lame justification for the government to take sterner action against the strikers. I fear for the worse.

So far we've had no violence. Still, everyone is sitting on the edge of their chairs. We snatch up private papers in an attempt to find out what is really happening. We discuss each development on Facebook. All of us are upset. All of us are nervous for what might happen next.

My Thoughts on My Caine Short Listing

2011-05-10T07:00:00.005+02:00

Last Thursday I received the news that my story "In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata" from The Bed Book of Short Stories published by Modjaji Books has been short listed for this year's Caine Prize. See the list HERE and read the stories.

When I first started writing seriously about seven years ago I remember not knowing anything about The Caine Prize. I suppose that's the case for most people who are not writers. I remember my friend and fellow writer, Wame Molefhe, explaining it all to me. She knew the importance of the Prize and I soon did as well. From then on we followed the Caine like others follow The Bold and the Beautiful. Each year we'd pour over the short list, reading the stories, discussing our favourites to win, and then be either happy or disappointed when the winner was finally announced. I'd meet Caine winners like Brian Chikwava and Henrietta Rose-Innes and be in awe of their talent. The Caine Prize was the goal held out there faraway in the distance and always at the back of my mind at least and I suspect Wame's as well was - "Some day I want to be there.".

And so last Thursday after a slightly disappointing day, having first been told two of my books had gone into second printing and I would be getting some royalties and then being told it was a computer mistake and feeling very down, I checked my email one last time before going into the house to cook lunch. And there it was. An email telling me I'd been short listed for the prize I'd always dreamed about.

So how do I feel? I'm writing this Monday afternoon after a frantic morning of congratulations from all sides after the official announcement. I feel a bit like a rock star. I know it will fade but for now I'm trying to just sit right in the middle of a big pile of happiness. I'm trying to remind myself how much I yearned for this very moment. I don't want to do what I usually do, tick it off as done and move on to number two. I don't want to think about the 11th of July (the awards day) and worry myself sick. I want to sit right here. Let time stop in my mind. Let me say for once without any reservation, without a single look behind my shoulder- I did this. I did this and it is an important thing.

This writing thing is such a crap shoot, keeping you always wondering if you're ever going to make it. Today you're fantastic, tomorrow you're a reject. But today, today I know I am a writer. I am a writer and I've done good.

The Cover of my New Book- Signed, Hopelessly in Love

2011-05-07T16:55:00.004+02:00

Here is the cover of my soon to be published young adult book, Signed, Hopelessly in Love to be published by Tafelberg in South Africa. What do you think?

The book was initially called Aunt Lulu, the name it had when it was shortlisted for the last Sanlam Prize, and it had a different cover but the sales people found that it wasn't very popular so we changed the title and the cover. I like this cover MUCH better.

Below is the blurb I wrote, though it will still be edited a bit by Tafelberg, just to give you an idea what the book is about.

For Amo her future couldn’t have looked brighter. She’s on track to becoming a famous journalist for CNN, is best friends with the (future) first Motswana woman to go into space and , if everything goes according to plan, she’ll marry the fabulously handsome head boy, John Gababonwe… though he doesn’t know about it just yet.

Everything was right on track, that is, until she’s asked to run the agony aunt column, Aunt Lulu, for her school newspaper. Amo takes it as an insult. She’s a serious journalist! She’s written hard hitting pieces like-“Do Prefects get More Meat?” and “Is Writing Notes Harmful?”. One day she’ll be known all over the world for uncovering dangerous stories with her finely tuned investigative skills. She can’t be Aunt Lulu! It’s not journalism, it’s fluff -and Amo is definitely not about fluff.

But then an anonymous letter arrives from “Hopelessly in Love” and Amo is sure she knows who the fabulously handsome writer is and she is even more certain he is writing about HER! Suddenly everything looks different and, on second thought, Amo decides that this Aunt Lulu gig might not turn out so bad after all.

Never was she more wrong.

I'm Starting an Ebook

2011-05-03T19:20:00.004+02:00

Lately I've felt a lot of frustration and vulnerability regarding some of my published books. Readers want them but they're not in stores and are unavailable online. When royalties are owed, the publisher can't take my phone calls. I have no control over anything. I'm at the mercy of the publisher. This is fine if the publisher is on your side, as many of my publishers are, but this is a nightmare when they are not. I can assure you it is not a situation anyone wants to be in.

Because of this I've decided to take a chance and self-publish an ebook of some of my short stories set in Botswana. Initially I was going to make a mixed collection of stories set here as well as elsewhere or even include some creative non-fiction, but a friend of mine who knows more about marketing ebooks than I do said I need to target my market more tightly so I'm sticking to my Botswana stories.

I'm doing it a slightly more expensive way. I'm hiring an ebook publisher in South Africa to put the book together in a few different formats. I know I could do this myself but I'm not sure it would be done as professionally as I would like. I'm also using the same person to design the book cover as they have professional book cover designers. I've also hired a professional editor to go through the manuscript.

But I will be doing all of the marketing myself, and that I'm sure will be a big, steep learning curve.

I'm not giving up publishing with traditional publishers, I just feel I want somewhere where I have more control over things, even if it is with only one book. Besides it really is time all writers get more active in the transformation of the industry or else we'll get left behind. This is my first step into the new publishing world. Let's hope it goes well!

Giving those Characters Depth

2011-04-28T18:48:00.005+02:00

I love starting a new book and that's what I'm doing just now. I'm starting a new romance provisionally titled That Kiss in Egypt. But don't get the wrong idea about the goings on during my writers residency in Egypt last year- there was no kissing- the entire story is one that originated in my mind. But I am using my time there and my recent trip to London to assist with my setting. My main characters meet in El Gouna but live in London, I even have my main lady, Kendra, working at The Royal Opera House which was just opposite my hotel in London.

When I start a book I always start with character bibles and my plot map. I want to get my characters solidly in my mind before I start writing or it will lead to lengthy rewrites when they decide to become vegetarians half way through the book or they suddenly pull out their 10 year old son. I want to know these people before we spend the next months together.

Sometimes writing down who they are is not enough. This morning before I started writing I was thinking about my characters. I realised I knew my man, Asra, but Kendra was not clear. I couldn't see her. If she passed me on the street I might not even know her.

This is when I need to go searching. I look in magazines, sometimes on line to try and find Kendra. Sometimes she can't be found in one whole. Sometimes you need to see her bits and pieces in a few photos. And that's what happened to me this morning. So this is what I got, here is my Kendra. Now we can get on with things.

Don't Fight Piracy, Sort out Your Distribution

2011-04-26T07:00:00.002+02:00

I read an interesting article about why spending money to stop ebook piracy is useless and a waste of resources. According to the article people who download books, movies or music illegally usually wouldn't do it if the supplier made the getting of such things easier.

"Common reasons are: convenience (in a file format of your choice to use on a device of your choice), speed (why wait for it to become available here if you can already get it elsewhere? It feels unfair, and more important: the consumer doesn’t want to wait) or availability (see the Harry Potter example , as mentioned on FutureBook two weeks ago)."

The author of the article,Timo Boezeman, makes the case that many of the real pirates out there were never going to buy the product legally anyway, so why waste your time on them.

So the answer to the bulk of piracy problems may be better service. Apparently at the London Book Fair some publisher tried to make a case that royalties on ebooks could not go up because publishers need to spend extra money to stop piracy.

What do you think about this?

Happy Easter Everyone!!

2011-04-24T07:00:00.000+02:00

Enjoy your holiday, use the time wisely (interpreted NO WORK) -I may be reminding myself. This is the Easter cake I made for the Giant Teenagers, a bit wonky Easter Bunny-Man but he'll do the job!
Happy Easter Everyone! Keep safe.

Botswana's Civil Servants' Strike

2011-04-21T16:04:00.006+02:00

Since Monday the civil service in Botswana, numbering over 90,000 employees, have been on strike. Despite raging inflation in the country, for three years civil servants have had no wage adjustment. Enough was enough. The unions asked for a 16% increase and our President, in a misguided move in a country founded on consultation, chose not to meet with them. He went on to criticise the government employees for asking for a wage increase during hard economic times. One wonders why during those same hard economic times he chose to refurbish the statehouse at extravagant expense and establish his pet project, the spy unit, DIS. Priorities I suppose is the only answer. Paying civil servants a respectable salary just is not on our President's list of priorities. The unions had no option but to call for a 10 day strike, from April 18-29.

So this week there has been little to no teaching, hospitals and clinics are operating on a skeletal staff, and even Botswana Television had to go without the nightly weather report because the meteorology folks had downed tools.

We're lucky to have a thriving private press for people who can still afford to buy the newspapers, because if you were left with the government media you would be under the impression that all was rosy in our country, that the strike was having no effect at all. Botswana Television (BTV) ran "news" stories that revealed yet again that the television station is nothing more than a propaganda arm of the ruling party. In the BTV world, the strike was barely happening. It was almost laughable if it wasn't for the fact that tax money is used to run the station.

The cost of living in Botswana is escalating on a daily basis. I feel for the civil servants who see that their pay check can buy less and less. At the same time the government is raising fees on such things as passports and introducing levies on things such as alcohol and tobacco, levies that economists have cautioned are money that can be misused by government, primarily the executive, as it is not controlled by Parliament.

A cautious, foreboding wind blows across Botswana. We look across our border at a sitting president who cares nothing about the suffering of his people, who will not listen to reason, who has destroyed his country's economy because of his arrogance, who controls state media with an iron fist and we Batswana feel sad for the poor Zimbabweans. We should look carefully at the state of our neighbour's house for it may describe the future of our own.

Read-a-thon Non-Sponsors: Botswana's Safari Companies

2011-04-13T18:40:00.007+02:00

As the vice chair of the Writers Association of Botswana (WABO) I've been sitting on the Reading Association of Botswana (RAB)'s organising committee for the upcoming 7th Pan-African Reading Conference to take place from the 11-14th July this year at the University of Botswana. One task I was given was to organise a Read-a-Thon for students in Botswana to get them involved in the conference and to get them reading.

At the Cape Town Book Fair I listened to a woman speak about a reading contest in Ghana where the final prize was a trip to Disney World. Imagine! So I thought at the very least I could get the safari operators and tour businesses up north in the Okavango Delta to sponsor a trip for our winners.

If you don't know, Botswana has a low capacity tourism policy, this means that exclusive, high priced resorts are built so that fewer people can visit the Okavango Delta. What this means for citizens is the vast majority of them will never be able to afford to see the premier tourist attraction in their own country. A sad but true reality. So a trip like this for the most prolific readers would have been incredible.

At the end of last year I sent out emails to about 25 tourism companies including the biggest- Wilderness Safaris. I did follow-up calls and follow-up emails and not a single one offered anything. Not a room, not a flight in, not a tour. Just goes to show what they think about the country from which they earn their very hefty livelihood and the residents that live here. Was I angry about this? Damn right. Am I still? Same answer.

I was so discouraged by this, in fact, it took me quite some time to get my head back in the game afterwards. I decided fine; I would stick to the people I know, the people I understand.

I approached booksellers and newspapers. Businesses barely holding onto their ever dwindling profit margin but yet they stepped right up to the plate without hesitation.

The Voice Newspaper offered the advertising space to put the entry form for four insertions. Modjaji Books (South Africa), Pentagon Publishers and Botswana Book Project donated books. And there are still other publishers I'm sure are going to donate as well. Five Stars and a standing ovation for these companies that really care about the future of our kids!!

Instead of a trip to the Delta, the kids will get books and cash and a trip to Gaborone to receive their prizes at the Conference where 700 international delegates will be there to witness.

700 delegates that might have wanted to visit the Okavango Delta with a tour company that cared about reading, books, and the education of the children of this country. What a missed opportunity!

To be a Genius....

2011-04-12T12:38:00.001+02:00

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
Albert Einstein

Thought we might need this one today. I know I do. :)

D.I.Y. Publishing

2011-04-11T16:25:00.003+02:00

My South African writing friend Judy Croome is doing it for herself! She is self publishing her book Dancing in the Shadows as an ebook and she made her own book trailer. This is her first attempt at making a video and I for one think it is fabulous!It really gives me inspiration to try and do an ebook of my own, one of my New Year's resolutions that seems to be slipping from my grasp.

Take a look at it here.

Good luck with the book Judy! If this haunting trailer is anything to go by it is going to be great!

Writing Contest Rules

2011-04-05T16:43:00.005+02:00

Anyone who has followed my career knows I love writing contests. I love them because they get my name out there. Wins in a world of rejection validates a writer, lets you know that you are doing something right. I've won prizes in all sorts of contests. I've won cash, the biggest prize so far has been R25,000 for one story. I once won a laptop, I even won a diamond necklace, all for my writing. So contests have been good to me and very important to my career. I'm grateful for each and every one.

What's the point of running writing contests for the organisers? They want to set standards by evaluating the writing and saying - "this is the best". What is good writing changes. A short story that might have won a writing contest 50 years ago wouldn't fare so well in a contest today because tastes of readers and writers change. Contests mark out the boundaries of those changes by choosing winners and saying this is the standard we are working for now.

This is why I find certain rules for contests odd. Just now I read on the website for the Golden Baobab Prize, a contest I have won twice, that past winners can no longer enter. This is also the case for our local Bessie Head Literature Award. If you've won in a certain category you cannot enter for five years. In a small country like Botswana with a handful of writers it seems a ludicrous rule that flies in the face of the purpose of a writing contest if indeed it is to award writing excellence.

The Golden Baobab Prize states as its vision: "to identify the African literary giants of the next generation and produce classic African stories that will be appreciated for years to come". Okay, that's a lofty, commendable objective but how do you do that when with each passing year you skim off the cream and throw it in the dustbin? The pool of writers becomes smaller and of poorer quality with each passing year. Your giants shrink.

The first year of this prize I won the junior category and was shortlisted for the senior category, the second year (last year) I won the senior category and was shortlisted in the junior category. It means now with the change in rules, I can no longer enter.

People can think I'm selfish and want to monopolise the prize, but that would be the wrong take on my position. In actual fact, I feel the opposite. If indeed we want the best African children's literature to originate from the Golden Baobab Prize, then everyone must be allowed to enter. I want to be beaten, then we know that the winners are truly the giants.

I was once told that a certain writer was "beyond the Caine Prize". If the Caine Prize is the measure for the best African short story writers, then if all short story writers cannot be considered then it is not a true measure, we are now lowering expectations, calling something excellent but only within a qualified ring.

I have no problem with prizes meant to develop writers. I do not try to enter contests meant for unpublished writers, for example. If the Golden Baobab Prize wants to be a prize to develop up and coming African children's writers, then let it be said, that too is a lofty vision. But if it wants to set the standard for excellence in children's writing on the continent, then I believe the organisers are doing the Prize a disservice.

So What's Up with Me?

2011-04-04T07:00:00.004+02:00

Thought I'd do a quick round-up of what's been happening with me.

1. Aunt Lulu is quickly making her way to publication. I've had the edits from the editor and have seen the cover. Getting quite excited since it is my first time working with Tafelberg quite a large, well established South African publisher. I really like Aunt Lulu, I hadn't read it for awhile until I went over the edits. It is for teens and I think (hope) they'll find it quite funny. It's about a girl, Amogelang, who dreams of becoming a world famous journalist one day, who gets roped in by the editor of her school newspaper to write the agony aunt column, Aunt Lulu. Here's an excerpt:

“So,” Lorato continued, ignoring me completely, “I really need a responsible person doing the column, someone who knows the importance of discretion. Someone I can trust. Someone who can keep secrets. Someone who can empathise with these people and help them find solutions to their problems. And, of course, I thought of my most trusted reporter – you.”

All I heard was “most trusted reporter”. I couldn’t believe it! It matters a lot when someone you respect says something like that.

I’ll admit, looking back, I was then at her mercy. My head swelled up and that could have caused some sort of brain misfiring. That’s what I think, anyway. Even though I could smell danger in the air and thought running the Aunt Lulu column was really a demotion compared to the hard-hitting articles I had been doing, I could do nothing but say yes. My mouth, all by itself said, “I’d love to do the Aunt Lulu column, Lorato.”

And that was it. Looking back, that “yes” when I really meant “no” was where everything took a wrong turn. It was when my life began to unravel and it is what brought me to the place I am now – contemplating an early exit from school and a trip to Kurdistan. Years from now, when I have a shaved head and live on a barren, wind-pummelled mountain, eating dirt and stones to sustain myself and spending the bulk of my day sitting cross-legged humming OMMMMMM, I will look back at the manipulative way Lorato pulled me from a firm “NO” to a wishy-washy, slippery-sliding “yes”, and blame it all on that one wrong decision.

2. Mr Not Quite Good Enough, my third romance with Sapphire Press, is also getting itself ready to go out into the world. The date for publication is this August. I've had the edits and seen the beautiful cover. I got the idea for the book from the South African talk show host Noleen. She had some famous South African singletons on her show talking about dating and relationships. One of the men ask one of the famous actresses if she would date a petrol attendant. She tried her best to convince him that she would but no one believed her. I decided to write a book about a successful woman making that jump for love and dating the petrol attendant she has a connection with instead of the long line of rich, successful men she doesn't really care about.

3. Sapphire is getting a lot of buzz in the media. I was interviewed recently for this article.

4. Fellow writer, Uche Umez, has asked writers what the hardest part of the job is for them. Here is my answer. What's yours? What's the most difficult part of writing for you?

Excellent Customer Service from Transworld Publishers

2011-04-01T12:11:00.005+02:00

I love owning books and I love Kate Atkinson. So imagine my disappointment when I finally purchase (in London) the two Kate Atkinson novels I've not read and when I get back to Botswana one of them falls apart.

So I dash off an email to Transworld Publishers, with photos, to show that their book has fallen apart. In a day I got an email back apologising for the problem. I was told I would get a replacement and could also pick an additional book. I chose Kate Atkinson's collection of short stories, Not the End of the World.

And in a few weeks look what has arrived!

Transworld Publishers gets five stars in my book for excellent customer service!!!

My Trip to Maun

2011-03-29T19:16:00.011+02:00

I had a lovely trip to Maun. I stayed with my friend Jenny Robson, a very famous children's writer from South Africa. The photo below is of a full Thamalakane River which is the view off Jenny's veranda. A bit of heaven!

Jenny teaches standard 2 and music at the Okavango International School. I spent Friday there reading some of my stories to the children and teaching them about the trumpet. Jenny and I played together, she on piano, me on trumpet, for their school assembly as well.

Sadly this "Keep Botswana Clean" dustbin is located along the Rakops- Maun road at one of the rest areas. Not a very good advert for tourists to see.

I also took this photo along the way. This is on the bridge over the Boteti River between Xhumo and Mopipi. It's been quite some time that the Boteti has flowed this far south. Apparently there is still more water on the way from Angola.

Friday evening I ran a narrative writing workshop with another writing friend and Maun resident, Bontekanye Botumile, for the poets participating in the Maun International Poetry Festival. It was a lot of fun.

On Saturday night the main event of the festival took place. There were twenty poets performing from all over Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and America. It was a great event. The highlights of the evening for me were Clinton Smith, Andreattah Chuma, TJ Dema, Outspoken, Dredd X, Priskath, Upmost-My BruthazKeepa and Zwesh Fi Kush.

They want the event to be an annual one and I hope their dream comes true.

One of my favourite poems of the night was from American born, South Africa living, Clinton Smith. Here is a video of him performing it elsewhere, enjoy!

A Connection Poem

2011-03-22T16:15:00.008+02:00

Only today I found this wonderful thing, I was shown where to find it by someone on Facebook. Stellenbosch Literary Project is running a poetry workshop led by Finuala Dowling. I wrote about her fantastic poetry book, Difficult to Explain, some time ago here and have been very jealous that I would never get to attend one of her workshops by the sea. No need to be jealous any longer.

I only found the online workshop today and realised it is too late to send her my connection poem, this month's assignment. So instead, in honour of my trip up north to Maun for the International Poetry Festival, I am posting my poem here.
Hope you like it! See you next week when I get back unless you're heading for Maun too!

***

I Have a Small Dog, Like Paris Hilton

I have a small dog

Like Paris Hilton.

It doesn’t look like her

Or even like her dog.

Mine is stocky

And would never sit in a purse.

She’s not like that

My dog.

She likes to run after weasels

And bark at small children

And see them burst from the gate in fright.

She likes to smother her body in cow dung.

Paris Hilton wouldn’t like that.

Mine wouldn’t accept a name like

Tinkerbell.

She would turn her head away in

Disgust and embarrassment

With me.

Paris Hilton’s dog is very like

Paris Hilton.

I guess my dog is

Very like me.

Beautiful Designs

2011-03-18T12:33:00.007+02:00

Some time ago I posted about the handmade books I made for a pay it forward exercise. When I was in London I already knew I needed to be thinking about what to make when I came upon these watercolour paints at The National Portrait Museum.

I like the way they've grouped the colours on each disk. I often look at them and wonder why they thought light brown needed to be with yellow while dark brown was grouped with green. Maybe they were making disk palettes according to environments. The yellow disk looks like the rocky hills of the Namib Desert to me, while the green is the white pine forests of northern Wisconsin. The blue disk the ocean, the deeper down you go the darker the colour until it goes black.

These paints are most lovely because of the clever way the disks stack together and lock in place.

I'm not often enthralled by objects but I certainly am by this one.

Good News For Writers- We Will Not Go Extinct

2011-03-17T18:38:00.006+02:00

Yeah, I said it. Agents might go extinct. Booksellers might too. Even publishers. But writers- nope. It is just not going to happen. Look at all of the words, all of the sentences. They're everywhere. They didn't get their by magic. A writer put them there. In your book, on your website, in the video game, on your Kindle.

I'm sick to death of all the bad news when in fact we should be jumping up and down. We have been the powerless victims (I say this as I wait for my royalty payment from a traditional publisher which is, as I write this, two days late as per the deadline in the contract) and suddenly the publishing industry is changing in our favour and people are saying we're about to die?? I don't get it. What is it some sort of Stockholm Syndrome for writers?

Come on guys! Now is the time to step up. Opportunities and ways to publish are myriad, more than every before. You have options galore. Good writers are needed, desperately. Why are we all so depressed? Why do we keep looking at the sky waiting for it to fall?

I think Margaret Atwood makes some fantastic points in the video. We're the dead moose. The dead moose will always be needed. So have no fear! Viva the Dead Moose!!

Maun International Poetry Festival

2011-03-09T18:23:00.002+02:00

Performance poetry is taking Botswana by storm and if you are a fan like I am then on the 26th of March all your roads will lead you to Maun for the inaugural Maun International Poetry Festival 2011. Zimbabwean poets Outspoken and Upmost and South Africans Zwesh Fi Kush, Flo, and Vallentine will be part of the star-studded line-up. Local poets performing at the event include Andreattah Chuma, Ntirelang Berman, TJ Dema, Phegal, Vygos, Juby Peacock, Mandisa Mabuthoe, Berry Heart, Dredd X, Mista Poke, Priskath, Ngwao Putswa, Mmakagri Dabutha, Messenger, Poko Ya Setso, King Philosopher, Swankies, and Tautona.

The event will be taking place at The Boma, Maun Lodge. The Festival starts with a pre-show on Saturday morning at 10 am which will include some of the poets that will be performing in the main show later on in the day as well as young poets from schools in the Maun area. Tickets for the pre-show are going for P50. The main event will be Saturday evening with tickets going at P150. Tickets in Maun are available at Maun Lodge or call 72947614 or 74404968. In Gaborone, call 72393149 and Francistown, call 72438017.

The event, which organisers hope will become an annual celebration of poetry, is being organised by the Maun based poetry group Poetavango Spoken Word Poetry. For the pre-show they had assistance in the organisation from Women Against Rape. The main funders of the event are the Department of Arts and Culture and Barclays Bank. Other organisations that gave assistance are Maun Lodge, Women Against Rape, Yarona FM, Ngamiland Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (NCONGO), and Maun Brand.

In conjunction with the Festival, I will be conducting a writing workshop on Friday evening from 7:30 pm at the same venue. The workshop will be on narrative writing but will also include the marketing of poems and short stories and a discussion about the current climate for these genres in Botswana.

Hope to see lots of people there!!!

My Talk in London is Online!!

2011-03-08T15:30:00.002+02:00

Last month I spoke at The London School of Economics (LSE)'s Space for Thought Literary Conference. The link to the podcast is here.

Let me know what you think, thanks!

Celebrate International Read an Ebook Week by Buying The Bed Book of Short Stories!

2011-03-07T12:24:00.004+02:00

The Bed Book of Short Stories, edited by Joanne Hichens and compiled by me, is now available as an ebook!! Buy it here as well as many other places. What a great way to celebrate International Read an Ebook Week by buying this collection of short stories from women in Southern Africa around the cosy theme of bed and curling up for a great read!

My World Book Day

2011-03-03T16:54:00.004+02:00

I didn't know it was World Book Day until just now because I had spent the entire day making books! I made books containing two of my flash fiction stories for a pay it forward activity. I took quick photos before I send them off to their owners.

What a nice way to love a book! And now to celebrate the day thoroughly I am knocking off early and spending the rest of the afternoon reading a very funny book by Dawn French.

Happy World Book Day everyone!

My London Adventure in Photos

2011-02-23T18:16:00.012+02:00

This is the London Eye. It is on the South Bank of the Thames River and you see all sorts of lovely things up there like Big Ben and the Parliament Building. It's not scary at all, sadly, a bit like a slow moving glass room.

This is award winning writer Vanessa Gebbie who I ate THE most fantastic burritos with.

Here is poet, novelist, stage writer Sue Guiney and short story writer extraordinaire (as well as poet) Tania Hershman in front of The Tintin Shop. Yes- everything inside is Tintin, hard to believe but I saw it with my own eyes, in Central London. I doubt Micky Mouse could do the same.

This is South Bank and the Thames River.
A seahorse at the aquarium at South Bank.

This is a very blurry photo (I wasn't sure I was allowed to take photos) of a panel discussion with Lionel Shriver (she's at the end) about new technologies and writers. I was a bit disappointed by her comment about free things, saying that free condoms were given away in Africa (the mythical country) and no one used them. Which, of course, is not true in Botswana, which is part of Africa. But otherwise an interesting discussion.

A juggler in Covent Garden.

A cool jelly fish at the aquarium.

This is the road on which my hotel, the Fielding Hotel, is located. If you look carefully it's on the right with a brown sign. I had a lovely little room on the third floor.

The Charles Dickens Coffee House, sadly I never got a chance to eat here but passed it numerous times as it was near my hotel

I'm Off To London to See the Queen!

2011-02-15T08:00:00.002+02:00

When you read this know I'm gone, off to London for the LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival. While I'm in London I'll be attending Sue Guiney's launch for her latest book of poetry. I'll also be meeting in the flesh two of my online friends: Vanessa Gebbie, a fantastic, award winning writer who I worked with on the One World book and short story queen, Tania Hershman. Very excited about this!

My talk is on Saturday at noon and I'd so love to meet any of you who have the chance to attend.

Talk when I get back...wish me luck in the BIG city!

When Traditionally Published Authors Jump Ship

2011-02-10T08:00:00.004+02:00

Alisa Valdes has learned some hard lessons from her quite successful run with traditional publishers. She felt since she was the one meeting with her readers she knew their needs better. Her publisher thought otherwise so she's in the process of self publishing a third installment of her Dirty Girls Club books. It took her two days to learn how to do it. Read the inspirational article here.

If you continue reading the comments, there's some interesting bits there as well. The warning from the agent that not all books should be published. This is the traditional attack on self publishing, that it's sub-par but I don't think that applies here. Alisa Valdes has sold over a million copies for traditional publishing houses. I also think the comment from the small publisher who instead of fighting the change embraced it by helping her authors self publish and then assisting them in marketing is interesting.

It really doesn't need to be either or, it actually can be both.
What do you think?

My Ancestress, a poem

2011-02-08T08:00:00.001+02:00

My Ancestress
(New Year’s Eve 2010)

They say she lived in a cave
Dark, likely with bats.
Her mystical, not of this world
And me, practical as dirt.
Yet finally something resonates inside
At the same wavelength
On which she travelled so long ago
And I think the one word
That never sat familiar on my tongue-
Family.

I wonder did they chase her there?
Somehow I doubt it.
A witchy woman is never chased.
She chose her cave.
I see her hair long and tangled
Maybe a cursory look would uncover sticks
Brought from the southern reaches
From where she came
To the icy northern land
In search of freedom.
The opposite trip from mine, though
Exactly identical too.

I’m happy to know that somewhere
In my cellular make-up
A strand of feral, feminine DNA
Untainted and pure,
Hiding in the powerhouse
Of the cells, of my body
Belongs to her.
Perhaps the essence of us both.
I hope.
I wish.

Her bits make me want to look behind
From where I come,
The place I fled.
Where everything was unfamiliar
And strange.
She has sent out a torch light
For me alone, I think
Over generations and time, over distances.
And for the first moment, I am connected
No longer floating untethered.

From a Friend in Egypt

2011-02-06T08:00:00.001+02:00

On the last day I was in Egypt a friend of one of the writers I was with Dalia Basiouny took us on the most amazing tour of Cairo. A whirlwind tour that took us to ancient mosques and hidden magical places. Her love of Cairo was so apparent, she adored the city. Through the last 12 days I've wondered about her and others I met in Egypt. I was so happy to read her account here of being in Tahrir Square on the Day of Departure. Here is her blog from Cairo.

I've been so touched by the humanity and dignity of the protesters; their bravery up against such fear and mis-information.

They are all heroes and I hope they know the world is with them.