Review of Signed, Hopelessly in Love at SA Books

SA Partridge, one of the authors shortlisted with me for the MER Prize in South Africa, has reviewed Signed, Hopelessly in Love. She describes it as "a little book that gets around". An excerpt:

Signed, Hopelessly in Love by Lauri Kubuitsile is a little book that gets around. It was short listed for the Sanlam Youth Prize in 2009 and was recently short listed for the M.E.R Prize for youth fiction. The story follows fifteen year old Amo Sethunya, or just Amo for short, who lives with her grandmother in Botswana.

Read the rest of the review HERE.

Is Gaborone Faceless?

I was having quite an interesting debate about our poor capital city, Gaborone, on Facebook. All was sparked by this article written by Gothataone Moeng. Here's an excerpt:

"But despite these developments, or perhaps because of them, it is difficult to pin down what it is that Gaborone now stands for as a city. Along with its stature as one of the world’s fashion capitals (alongside Milan, New York and London), Paris is also widely regarded as the “city of love” while London, New York, Johannesburg and Lagos are cultural cities. “Are we a financial city, an industrial city, a cultural city?” asks Mokwete about Gaborone. Mokwete, who also writes for architectural and property magazine Boidus Focus, says the image and character of a city can either be consciously cultivated, especially in the case of a ‘virgin’ city such as Gaborone was at its inception, or it can be allowed to grow organically."

On a recent trip to Gaborone, I commented how beautiful it looks lately. It is fairly quiet for a capital city, that's true , and culturally it's only on a lucky weekend you'll find things to do, but I for one like it that way. In any case, it is quite a young city so it's a bit unfair to compare it to London or Paris or New York, even Joburg for that matter.

What do you think? Does Gaborone have a face?

Signed, Hopelessly in Love Up for an Award in South Africa

My book for teens, Signed, Hopelessly in Love, has been shortlisted for the M.E.R. Prize for Best Youth Novel in South Africa. The awards ceremony will be in Cape Town on the 8th of June. Here's a link to the short lists for the awards.

Wish us (me and the book) luck!

My Mini Break in Gaborone

On Thursday last week I set off for Gaborone for a short break.

The mission was to attend a concert my daughter was in which was part of the Maitisong Festival. That's her up there, second from the right. The concert was for Lee, my daughter was singing backup for him. Other singers featuring in the programme was Kennedy Thal, well known from BTV's programme My Star. He performed an original song accompanying himself on the piano. It was lovely. Also on the programme was the very talented Samantha Mogwe. Anyone out there who is involved in the music industry really needs to wake up and get to know this young woman. Here is a video of her singing at Ladies No. 1 Opera House. She was amazing on Thursday night.

Then on Friday night we attempted to attend the Setswana version of the Italian opera Cavalleria Rusticana. Thanks to an exam that ran overtime and us getting lost trying to find The Ladies No. 1 Opera House, we only managed to see the last 20 minutes or so, but it was lovely. We have world class singers in Botswana including the lead female in this production, Tshenolo Batshogile. Fantastic. Here is an article that explains more about the show.


And Saturday we headed back to Mahalapye.On the way we got some traditional roadside takeaway, roasted mealies. YUM!! And then home sweet home.
 

Vanessa Gebbie: On Dreams and Goals and Work and Talent

Vanessa Gebbie has been doing an extensive blog book to celebrate the paperback debut of her wonderful book, The Coward's Tale, in the United States. I was honoured to be asked to host her at this blog. I'm the last in the queue and as we say in Botswana- moja morago ke kgosi!!! (the last to eat is the chief)- ;))

Before we get on to a few questions for the lovely author, I'd like to take a moment to speak about my thoughts on the book.

The Coward's Tale is set in a Welsh mining town that is trying to make peace with a coal mining tragedy, the Kindle Light Tragedy, that killed many townspeople and continues to show its effects in the survivors' lives. The story, told through linked narratives about the eclectic characters that make up this tiny town, is given to the reader by the self appointed storyteller of the place, the beggar Ianto Passchendaele Jenkins. He's prompted to tell the tales when Laddy Merridew, a young boy, comes to live in the town to stay with his grandmother while his parents sort out difficulties at home.

Each chapter brings us a new character to unravel in all of his or her complexity with strings leading back or all caught up in the mine disaster. And as people do, their stories intersect and clash with other people's stories and through this slow, lyrical unravelling, the story of the disaster that defines the town unfolds.

As a writer, what I found so scrumptious about this novel was its method of telling the story as almost an aside, by understating the main stories so that they become like a whisper heard louder than the most ear breaking roar; such a subtle incidental way of writing a novel. There is a talent in doing that that few writers have. There is also a poetic rhythm to the telling, maybe this is a Welsh thing, maybe its the voice of Ianto, this I don't know, but it was hypnotising.

I loved the book, and not just because I adore the author. It is a book that readers will love, but it is for me, a book that writers will appreciate even more for its meticulous craft whose hard work that inspired it is completely invisible.

____________________________________


Vanessa Gebbie is the author of two collections of stories (Words from a Glass Bubble and Storm Warning both published by Salt) and and contributing editor of a creative writing text book (Short Circuit -A Guide to the Art of the Short Story also published by Salt). She has won numerous awards – including prizes at Bridport, Fish and the Willesden Herald (the latter judged by Zadie Smith) – for her short fiction.

The Coward’s Tale, published by Bloomsbury in November 2011 and in paperback March 2012, is a powerfully imagined, poetic and haunting novel, spiked with humour. An extract from The Coward’s Tale won the Daily Telegraph ‘Novel in a Year’ Competition. Vanessa Gebbie is Welsh and lives in Sussex.

I met Vanessa first when we both were part of the One World project and I've been so happy to see her meteoric rising star. I'm so pleased to have her stop by Thoughts from Botswana and talk a bit about goals, dreams, talent and hard work.

So Vanessa, do you remember your dreams from when you first started writing? What were they?

Vanessa: Hmm. It depends what sort of dreams you mean. If you mean dreams about what might happen, I suppose I was focussed usually on the next step. I wanted to know about writing short stories. I wanted to know about writing them well enough that they’d get published - but the publication itself wasn’t a dream - it was just the knowledge that it was some indicator that I’d be writing well.

Publication alone still isn't the dream, although people reading one’s work is lovely beyond words. It’s hard work! It's not the end of something, but the beginning of a lot of hard work, and it takes you away from what you do best--- dreaming, on paper.

So was your writing path more of a happy meandering?

Vanessa:It was a happy meandering at first, but then it became goal-orientated. Remember, I was a bit older than a lot of people, when they start this thing, and I couldn’t wander about aimlessly for too long if I was serious. Which I was, and am. Then I started planning, and had targets of places to be published, competitions to be placed in. That lasted for a few years, and then things seemed to take a path of their own - with the Salt publications, writing the novel, then Bloomsbury. I’ve been very lucky - but it’s also been hard work, and still is. Who knows what’s next? the next novel, certainly... let’s hope it doesn't take as long as the last!

But there is a down side to being goal-orientated. The writing becomes more loaded with expectation - both yours and that of others. It’s less free and easy - and more hard work to get back to a writing-state that I enjoy.

How much do you think talent plays in the success of a writer?

Vanessa:I reckon talent plays a big role - but it might not be just talent to write, necessarily. It might be talent to network, to publicise, to sell, to persuade...tenacity too -

How big a role does fortitude play?

A big one. There are so many knock-backs in this game - rejections aplenty. We need to have what it takes to get up and dust ourselves off after a big disappointment, and the courage and self-belief to carry on.

Do you think a non-writer can be taught to be a writer?

Vanessa: Sure. Whether they’d be a good writer, or a successful one (if those are the same things) is another question, though. I believe craft is teachable - making a competent piece of writing is not beyond the abilities of most people, whether it is fiction or non-fiction. What you can’t teach is originality. That indefinable something that makes someone see the ordinary in an extraordinary way. But even then, you can open people up, give them permission to explore in ways they may not have done before.

Children use their imaginations all the time - then we forget to use them, and the imagination-muscle atrophies. I think we can get back to the same imaginative state we used to enjoy as children - with practice and a few tricks and games.

I've learned to use my subconscious to solve writing dead-ends, do you ever use your dreams to get through a piece of writing?

Vanessa: Not sleeping dreams, no. But if I reach a sticking point in my writing, especially when I’m away in Ireland, I will first go for a long walk, then curl up and almost go to sleep, when I get back. I need to keep a notebook and pen alongside - because it’s often when I’m in that state that the answers come, or new thoughts that I mustn’t let escape.

I try to be in a bit of a half-asleep state when I’m writing too. I type as fast as I can, often covering the screen of the laptop with something - a tee shirt, or a towel - so I can't see what I’ve written. I like that.
----------------------------------------------
Vanessa, thanks for stopping by, it was a pleasure to talk to you. And best of luck with your fabulous new book. If you have any questions or comments for Vanessa feel free to leave them in the comments , I'm sure she'll be hanging about to answer them.

People wishing to buy The Coward's Tale can find it HERE at Amazon or HERE at Book Depository.

The Grapes of Wrath- A Book for These Times

"The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it."

That is a passage taken from The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I think most of us read it when we were kids at some point. Recently, though to be honest my conscious self was not completely aware of why I was feeling the need, I wanted to read it again. I see now I needed to read it to try and understand better what is happening all over the world right now.

The world over the working people feel disheartened. The future seems uncertain. Jobs are disappearing. The environment is degraded to such an extent that many have accepted that it may never recover. Governments, meant to protect us, are shrinking, on the verge of collapse. Democracy, true democracy - a government of the people- is disappearing. Growing food is no longer a way to make a living and yet people starve. No matter where you look- Greece, The United States, France, Nigeria, Botswana, India- the people suffer. Why is this so? Can anything fix it?

In The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family are forced from their farm in Oklahoma. They can no longer pay the loans they were forced into because the environment is degraded and the fields can no longer produce enough. The bank takes their land to be given to the big farmers to make better profits and the Joads must head to California with next to nothing where they've been told there is a better life waiting for them.

Throughout the book, Steinbeck tries to show how if only the people, people from all over the country in the same situation as the Joads, could join together to fight the banks and the corporations and their commitment to profits over everything else- over people, over the environment- then the people could win. But the people are fearful. They been told such talk is "red" talk. Such troublemakers will come to no good. The debate defined by the ones in power, the ones who want to keep things exactly as they are.

Every aspect of this book resonates with what is happening in the world today in 2012,and yet the book was published in 1939. Often people ask- what is the use of literature up against the problems of humankind, especially in a developing country like Botswana? What is the use?

I think The Grapes of Wrath shows the use. This book illustrates the problems caused by the rampant greed of corporations in a way that a true story could not. It allows the reader to understand the problem in a more intimate way through the struggles of the Joads. And in this case, it allows the author to speak, 73 years later, to give us clues to the answers for what ails our planet. Answers brought to me, crystal clear ,through the words written on a page by a single, lonely, frustrated writer so long ago. Can there be anything more important than that?

Love in the Shadows is Out!

My newest book with Sapphire Press is now out- Love in the Shadows. For the first time I'm trying my hand at a thriller/romance. Here's the blurb:

Songbird Kedi Taukobong is living her dream. Enormously successful as an Afro-pop musician, she travels the continent performing to adoring crowds. However, fame comes at a price – a sinister stalker is watching her, intent on making her his. Kedi’s management team is determined to hire the best private investigator in the business, her ex, Sefhemo Phaladi.

Face to face for the first time since they split, Kedi and Sefhemo can’t deny the attraction still sizzling between them. But the stalker is getting too close. He has to be in Kedi’s inner circle. Can she really trust Sefhemo, especially after he betrayed her nine years ago?

This is the fourth book I've written for Sapphire Press, a fantastic South African romance imprint, part of Kwela Books. On a search to see where it can be found I saw it on Amazon Canada here. Or at Kalahari.com here. I'm sure it will soon be available as an ebook too. I'll add the link when it is up. Also Sapphire titles can be found at CNA bookstores. If this one is not there, please ask.

The Rest of my Cape Town Trip

After leaving the Caine Workshop I still had loads ahead of me. I arrived in Cape Town on the 15th and almost immediately set off for Springfield Convent School to speak about my book Signed, Hopelessly in Love.


I was lucky to be in Cape Town while the authors' party for NB was taking place. NB is the publishing company under which all of my romances (published by Sapphire Press, an imprint of Kwela Books) and Signed, Hopelessly in Love (Tafelberg) are published. So on the evening of the 15th it was time to party! It was such fun to spend time with all of the Sapphire folks, many I hadn't met before (above photo).



The next day, the 16th was all about being on television for the first time. I appeared on the teen show Hectic Nine 9 to speak about my book. (above I'm with the presenters in the green and brown plaid shirts and the two other guests) When I was at Volmoed, I was interviewed on SAFM and despite what people say, you actually can be at two places at the same time. The radio interview aired very near to the time I was live on TV. HA!!


That night Tafelberg organised the most lovely thing!! It was a dinner with 14 girls from various teen magazines in South Africa. They'd all read Signed, Hopelessly in Love and were so keen to discuss it. We had dinner and great conversations. It was really a delight. One of the girls, Taryn, has already blogged about it at Saltwater Girl. It sounds like they had as much fun as I did. I got some good insight for the sequel to the book that I've already started. (above is a photo of our name tags at the dinner)


The next day I was off with my friend Lesley Hay-Whitton to the first day of Hangclip Art Week in Betty's Bay. Such a beautiful drive from Cape Town along the coast. Above was my favourite statue called "Yummy".


From there I spent a few days with my good friend Colleen Higgs. She's a writer and poet and owner of the acclaimed, independent publisher Modjaji Books. On Sunday I went with her and her daughter to a place called Spier where cheetahs, raptors and owls are rehabilitated.

Above is a Cape Eagle Owl having a bath and below is a barn owl. If you get a chance to go to this place you should attend one of the raptor shows, it was wonderful.

On the evening of the 20th, Colleen was launching her collection of short stories, Looking for Trouble at The Book Lounge in Cape Town. She asked me to interview her at the launch and I was very honoured to be part of it. The book is fantastic. It is a collection of stories all set in Yeoville, a part of Johannesburg, during the turbulent 1980s, all told in an honest fresh way.


And now I'm back home. It was a fantastic trip! Thanks to everyone who made it all happen!!

My First Column at New Internationalist

I'm back home and will blog about all of the wonderful things that happened to me while away- but first I need to recover a bit. In the meanwhile, I thought I'd introduce you to my new column.

One of the many wonderful things that happened as a result of my Caine Prize shortlisting last year was meeting the folks at New Internationalist. I'd had some interaction with them because they're the publishers of One World, an anthology I was a part of. They were at the awards dinner and spoke to me about maybe writing a column for them. I thought I could give it a try and now it is a reality.

The column is called Letter from Botswana, and the first instalment is called "ET is Not An Alien".
I'd love to hear what you think about it.

2012 Caine Prize Workshop: Volmoed

One of the wonderful things about being shortlisted for the Caine Prize is that the following year you get invited to attend the Caine Workshop. The workshop lasts for ten days (this year 5-15 March) and takes place in various places around Africa. This year we've been lucky to be in a tiny corner of heaven called Volmoed which is near Hermanus South Africa. I took the photo above from one of the trails up into the mountains that surround Volmoed. If you look carefully in the valley in the middle of the photograph above there are the collection of lovely houses where we are staying.

From last year's shortlist, only Beatrice Lamwaka and I were able to attend. The other writers were chosen from around Africa. They include: Mehul Gohil (Kenya), Brenda Mukami (Kenya), Waigwa Ndiangui (Kenya), Tendai Rinos Mwanaka (Zimbabwe), Grace Khunou (South Africa), Rehana Roussouw (South Africa), Yewande Omotoso (South Africa) and Rachel Zadok (South Africa)



Above is the waterfall on one of the trails around Volmoed. Volmoed is usually a retreat for Christians and most of these trails have benches for a person to sit and pray or meditate. In our case, to think about our stories. We are here for ten days and during those days we are meant to be writing a short story that must be handed over at the end ready for publication. The stories produced here will be added to this year's shortlisted stories to make the Caine Anthology for 2012.

We are lucky to have two very good facilitators; Henrietta Rose-Innes (a former Caine Prize winner) and Jamal Mahjoub, an accomplished author from Sudan via UK. Since I'm normally a very fast writer, I thought before I came that I might find ten days far too much for the work required. But the process used allowed me to slow down and take more time to try and really understand how my story works, something I never do. I'm quite instinctual in my process with short stories. Either it works or it doesn't. I don't take the time to evaluate why something works or doesn't work. I really enjoyed the process and learned a lot about the inner workings of a short story.

Each night 3-4 writers read bits of their story that they've completed and the rest of us make comments.


In the mountains around Volemoed is the fynbos the Cape is so well known for. Above (I think ) is one of the fynbos flowers. I took the photo out on one of my morning walks. Another common feature of walks in these mountains are baboons- lots of them, lots of big ones. Mean ones with teeth. So far no writers have been eaten.

The workshop is nearly over and it has been fantastic. I've met some lovely people, had some interesting conversations, and have had far too much fun. A big, big thank you to The Caine Prize folks.

Our Indian Myna Birds

This tree is just in front of our garden. It is forever under threat. People want to cut it down for firewood. Now, if you look carefully at the photo, you'll see the termites are making some headway. But I fight this tree's destruction because it has been a nesting site for birds ever since we built our house.

First it was always lilac breasted rollers. They'd set up house each summer and raise a family. Then about five years ago there was a massive battle, it lasted for weeks, between a pair of starlings and the rollers. The starlings won, but not for long. This year a pair of Indian myna birds have arrived and the battle ended before it even began. The starlings were out and the mynas were in.

According to my bird book mynas don't live in Mahalapye. Well these two do. There is apparently a huge problem with Indian mynas, especially in Australia, as they are an introduced species and are very aggressive. I found this site that talks about the eradication programme the town has to get rid of the Indian mynas. I found it all quite disturbing. I know all about the threat of introduced species and perhaps this pair are the pioneers for colonising Mahalapye but I've grown to love them.

They have had a problematic breeding season because a cuckoo has been around for most of the summer, the cuckoo wanting to lay eggs in the mynas nest. They are nest parasites. The mynas want none of that. They've had epic battles.

They're funny birds mynas. They like to walk on the ground and have a swagger that many would envy. They are taking no prisoners. The bird bath is outside my office window, and while writing this, one of the mynas was at the water drinking. A cape dove flew in ready to land on the edge of the bird bath and the myna flew out and grabbed the chest of the dove pulling out a few feathers- mid-air- and as if nothing had happened, it went right back to drinking water. It's aggressive, of course, and probably the very reason the Australians have such a problem, but there is something about that audacity you need to respect.

I know all about maintaining species diversity and the harm introduced species can cause, but too isn't evolution about the survival of the fittest? I've always wondered why people say scornfully- "House sparrows have adapted to every place on earth" or "cockroaches will survive a nuclear war". Why are these adaptable, evolutionarily successful species so hated? Shouldn't we be championing them for their success?

My Busy Busy March

March has started and I'm about to get very busy. First I'm off to Cape Town for seventeen days then I'm back for a few days and then I head up north to Maun until the beginning of April. So my quiet office days will see about a month off. For hermits like me, April will be needed just to get myself back to normal.

I leave for Cape Town on Monday and will be there until the 21st. The first item on the agenda is attending the Caine Workshop at Volmoed near Hermanus. I'm looking forward to spending quiet time writing for ten days. I'm also looking forward to meeting writers from around the continent. Great connections and discussions about short story writing. Just what my mind needs right now.

The workshop ends on the 15th. As luck would have it NB, which is one of the biggest publishing groups in South Africa, is having their author's party on the night of the 15th. I have quite a few books published with imprints under NB. All of my romances: Kwaito Love, Can He Be The One?, Mr Not Quite Good Enough and soon to come out Love in the Shadows are published by Sapphire Press which is under NB, and my book Signed. Hopelessly in Love published by Tafelberg which is also part of the NB group. I'm looking forward to meeting the people there including other authors so that ought to be fun.

On the 15th and 16th the publisher for my book Signed, Hopelessly in Love, has organised some PR events around the book. I'll be speaking at some schools. On the 16th they've organised a book club dinner, inviting some teen girls from teen magazine book clubs in South Africa. We'll eat and talk about the book and writing. I'm really looking forward to that. Since I'm currently working on a sequel to that book, I'll be very interested in hearing how they think the story might progress. I'll be able to see if I'm on track or not.

After the Tafelberg events I'll be staying with a writing friend, Colleen Higgs, getting ready for the launch of her short story collection, Looking for Trouble and Other Yeoville Stories, on the evening of the 20th at The Book Lounge. I'll be interviewing her about her new collection and her writing.

I'll be back for only a few days and then I'm off to Maun for the Poetavango International Poetry Festival on the 30-31 March where I'll be running a writing workshop for participants.

And that will be my March finished. Looking forward to all of the excitement.

Using Cellphones to Get Kids Reading!

In Botswana and Southern Africa in general books are expensive. And like everywhere kids are not reading as much as they used to and this is impacting on their education. In Africa cellphones have taken off like mad. It's difficult to find a teenager without a cellphone. A trust in South Africa decided to use cellphones to solve the problem of teens not reading.

The organisation is called FunDza Literacy Trust. One of the many exciting things they do is to serialise short (3500-4200 word) stories (popular fiction such as romance and mystery) and send them out on their cellphone network for kids to read. They have a website where kids can comment and discuss the stories. I think it is such an exciting idea and was over the moon when I was asked if I might want to write a story for them. The answer was, of course, YES!

Here is my story, "Love and Science Don't Mix" and here is a short interview they did with me. Let me know what you think about the idea.

What Do You Define As The Stealing of Your Work?

After my incident last week of my story being lifted from a website and put on another one without my permission, I've had numerous discussions about this.

There are writers who actually want this to happen to their stories. They want people to take their stories and post them all over the internet, permission not needed. They think it's good for them, it gets their work out there so people can read it.

I know for news articles I've written, I can often find them on sites which are news aggregators. When the internet was a bit new and I owned a newspaper, I was not pleased to find articles from my paper on a website about Botswana without my permission. When I complained, the man, a foreigner, acted like I was mad.

In a way, this site that took my short story is doing the same thing. He is collecting poems, photos, short stories on the internet and bringing them to one place. He links through the author's name to the place where he took the piece. But he includes the entire piece on his website.

I think it would be different if he put a few paragraphs and then linked to the original literary magazine where the story was published. In that way he would be supporting the arts he claims to love, not exploiting them.

What is your view on this issue? Is the internet free for the taking? What will that mean in the long run for writers?

New Look- So Soon?

Dear readers,

Please excuse my blog makeover so soon after my past blog make over. It was needed. My interim design was far too busy and dark. I had complaints and I agreed.

So we've gone light and bright.

Have no fear- I will stop my dithering and dathering now.
Comments welcome. :)

Lauri

My Story Was Stolen!!

This is not the first time this has happened and , sadly, it will likely not be the last,but this afternoon I found one of my stories on a website without my permission.

I'm not sure how someone rationalises this type of behaviour. Writing takes time. It takes effort. For me it is my sole way of earning an income. When a story is published online, it is published and now is of less value financially. In most cases you can no longer submit it for competitions either. Also, a writer has the right to decide where and when they want their writing to appear online or anywhere else for that matter. I own the copyright to that story, no one else. Surprisingly at the bottom of his web page it says- "Images/Writing © their respective owners and creators" so apparently he seems to have some loose grasp of the concept of copyright.

I contacted the man and asked him why he had used my story on his website. I asked if perhaps I had given him permission but had forgotten. I have many published stories and this could happen but it is unlikely. His response:

"No, I do not recall also. May I have your permission? Thank you."

How arrogant is that? Here is a person who has stolen my words and posted them on his site to draw readers to his site, to bring himself personal gain and this is his response? No remorse at all.

When I told him that first he would need to pay for the eight months that he had my story on the site illegally his response was:

"I will remove your story from the website. I am sorry that I cannot have your permission. It is writing that I liked very much.
Take care."

Stealing is stealing. He might as well have broken into my house and stole my television. I suppose the law according to him is that you can steal something from someone as long as you like it very much. That certainly makes life much easier.

Here is the link to the story. The man's name is Stephen Laidlaw. He is apparently Canadian.
To my writing friends, you best check his site to see if he liked your story too.

PS: He has now taken my story down but if you want to check the site for your own content here is the website.

Two of My Books at Vivlia Arrived Today!!

Both of these books were published some time ago by Vivlia Publishers in Johannesburg South Africa but I only received my copies today. I thought you'd like to see them.

Curse of the Gold Coins (children)

Leano and her sister, Pelonomi have a problem. They're going to be kicked out of school for not paying school fees. Their mother seems unwilling to do anything to help them because she's convinced they're cursed. She believes all the women in their family are cursed because the long dead Mojewa, the girls' great, great grandmother stole three gold coins from her own mother and the ancestors are punishing the entire family for her evil deed.

To make matters worse, in the middle of everything, Leano starts slipping back and forth between time-one minute she's in her village of Serowe and it's 2008, and then suddenly she's back in time to 1902 when Khama the Great is preparing to leave Old Phalatswe. It is in Old Phalatswe that Leano meets Mojewa and discovers a terrible secret- Mojewa has been wrongly accused!

Now not only must Leano solve her own problem about how to get the school fees paid, she must also help Mojewa prove that she's innocent and in the process, hopefully, rid the family of the curse once and for all.


Anything for Money
(Third book in the Detective Kate Gomolemo Setective Series)

Detective Kate Gomolemo is not sure what to make of Helen Segole's wild allegations. She's claiming government ministers and high-ranking civil servants are behind the cold-blooded murder of her father in front of their house in Shoshong, but Kate wonders if Helen is not confused by the grief she's feeling.

Against her better judgement, Kate agrees to do some investigations and suddenly she's swept into a high-rolling, dangerous game of power, greed and corruption. The people behind it will stop at nothing to get what they want. How many people will have to die before Kate finds Goitsemang Segole's killers? And will Kate be one of them?

Both books are available at Vivlia Publishers visit their website HERE.

My Name is Lauri Kubuitsile and I am an Exercise DVD Addict

You wouldn't know it by looking at me, but I love exercise DVDs. I like to exercise, the problem is I like to eat too so I never see any dramatic change except in my attitude. Exercise is my happy pill.

For years it was Jane and I:



Then I got Jillian Micheals, who was frankly kind of scary.



But now I've fallen in love! Thanks to a Facebook friend I now have Richard Simmons' Sweating to the Oldies. What fun!! I've become a complete addict. I have to stop myself from doing it everyday because I fear I'll get bored . It just makes me happy to wake up and dance to such fun music. What could be more fun than doing the twist, monkey and the cha cha cha before breakfast?? Luckily there are four different DVDs in the set I bought so I get to alternate them. Yeah for Richard Simmons!!

Do Women Get a Raw Deal in Publishing?

I recently finished The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt and it left me confused and, frankly, annoyed. I knew nothing about the book in advance, in fact, I initially hadn’t intended to buy it but was at the cashier and realised I had bought books in a buy two get one free deal and hadn’t chosen the third book. The cashier was the one who recommended The Summer Without Men so I bought it.

The title and the cover would make you believe this would be a light book, in the chick-lit category, about a woman fed up with men and who decides to take a summer off to get some perspective on things. That is not what the book is about at all. The question becomes why did the publisher choose this cover, the cover one of the biggest parts of marketing a book? Even that title?

It’s quite a serious book about a woman who has separated from her adulterous husband of many years and is spending the summer with her elderly mother and her group of elderly women friends. At the same time she’s teaching a poetry class to a group of girls. It is almost everything except what the cover and the title suggests. Okay, there are no men, but that's not really the point of it.

This got me to wondering why would a publisher choose a title and a cover that purposely hides the real content of the book? I wondered too if a male author would have been treated in this quite underhanded manner.

It reminded me of the big literary debate in 2010 between, on one side the New York Times Book Review and on the other Jody Piccoult (author of My Sister’s Keeper) and Jennifer Weiner (author of Good in Bed). It started with a tweet from Piccoult. She was annoyed that Jonathan Franzen had received two glowing reviews by The New York Times Book Review for his book Freedom.

She said, “Is anyone shocked? Would love to see the NYT rave about authors who aren’t white male literary darlings.” Then Weiner stepped in to support her and said, “I think it’s a very old and deep-seated double standard that holds that when a man writes about family and feelings, it's literature with a capital L, but when a woman considers the same topics, it's romance, or a beach book—in short, it's something unworthy of a serious critic’s attention.”

I think the Piccoult/Weiner debate and my annoyance at the cover of the Hustvedt book are symptoms of the same problem. The established literary community still does not accept that women can write serious books about serious issues. If someone like A.S. Byatt does manage to break though that prejudice, she is considered nothing more than an anomaly.

Even the resources and hype that go into men’s books shows that they are overvalued compared to books written by women. Look at One Day by David Nicholls. If that book was written by Jane Doe, it would have been given a pink cover with a cartoon woman carrying a purse and it would have been relegated to “chick lit” and never a reviewer’s eyes shall see. But because a man wrote it, it was hailed high and low as a masterpiece.

JK Rowling knew the prejudice against women. She admits that’s why she used her initials instead of her full name.

And it is not just female authors spewing sour grapes either, facts back up the talk. From 29 June, 2008 to 27 August 2010 the New York Times Review of Books reviewed 545 novels, 62% of them were written by men. 101 of those books were reviewed by both the New York Times Review of Books and their Sunday issue, the Sunday Book Review, 72 of the 101 were written by male authors (71%).

People often criticise prizes like the Orange Prize that only allows books by women to be considered. The point of the Orange Prize and publishers such as Modaji Books (who only publishes women from Southern Africa) or literary magazines such as Mslexia (which publishes only women) is to try to address the inequities that still stubbornly persist in the publishing world. Until women authors are on a level ground with men, it is imperative that these equalisers remain in place.

I'm Interviewed at Guerilla Basement

Last year I met Tahirah Avosuahi at the Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop in Lagos. I immediately liked her self- depreciating way and her intellect. She is an exceptional and unique writer and I think you should watch out for her in the future.

A few weeks ago she asked if I would be willing to be be interviewed for the website she writes for and I very happily agreed. Below is an excerpt from the interview. Please pop over to Guerilla Basement for the rest of it.

Thanks again Tahirah!

Tahirah: What are your thoughts on the structure of short stories, what is usually the most compounding aspect of crafting one?

Lauri: For me the biggest problem writing short stories is to keep the story small without it becoming irrelevant. I see a short story as like a peek at someone’s life. You see a woman sitting in the aisle in the supermarket crying , that’s a peek. You see a man walking down the road pushing a stroller that’s a peek. Now the problem for you as a short story writer is to make that peek relevant. Don’t burden the reader with all sorts of baggage to achieve your relevancy, that is no good in a short story. You need to take a peek and make it relevant, if you do that it is a good short story in my book.