A Golden Baobab Happy Dance!!

Yesterday I found out that my story "The Mechanic's Son" won first prize in the Golden Baobab Prize for the senior category and my story "Lightning and the Thunderers" was highly commended in the junior category. I was also very pleased to see another Motswana writer, Gothataone Moeng being highly commended as well as our honorary Motswana, Jenny Robson, who still holds a South African passport but has lived most of her life in Botswana.

Last year "Lorato and her Wire Car" won the same prize in the junior category and "Birthday Wishes" was highly commended in the senior category. Both are now published with Vivlia Publishers in South Africa.

Congratulations to all of the winners and thanks to the Golden Baobab Prize organisers and judges. They're really doing a lot for African writers of children literature.

The Bed Book to Be Launched in London!!

YES!! The Bed Book of Short Stories which I helped compile and I have a story inside of is to be launched in London. A wonderful sort of culture has developed around this book. The writers organise launches wherever they are. There have been launches so far in Windhoek Namibia, Gaborone, Johannesburg, Franschoek, and now there will be one in London.

If you're around London please stop in. The writers who will be reading are South Africans Margot Saffer, Melissa Gardner and Zambian Ellen Banda-Aaku who is just fresh from winning the continent wide Penguin Prize for African Writing for her novel, Patchwork.

For a recent review of the book stop by Helen Ginger's blog.

The London Launch
Date: Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM
Venue: OXFAM BOOKS, 91 Marylebone High St
London W1U 4RB
RSVP: Melissa Gardiner, melissagardiner@gmail.com
If you get to the launch stop by and let me know all about it!

The Invasion of the Flying Termites

After the first good rains, in the night, maybe the next night or the night after that, the flying termites emerge. Last night was our flying termite night and it was crazy!

They fly for about an hour, hour and half at most. They fly straight to the light. If you forget to close your window, as we did last night, you will be swamped with them. They all fly to the light and then they lose their wings and are back to being pedestrians. But since they've all congregated at the light already it makes it easy to find a date, which is the whole point of this exercise.

In the morning after the invasion of the flying termites, you will find big piles of wings:



...and other big piles of mostly dead termites. I don't know this but I assume they must have mated and laid eggs somewhere before their demise or else the whole thing seems a very dramatic waste of energy and I know nature doesn't do that.



I understand that some people around Africa fry these termites and eat them. I've never seen it but it does seem a waste, all of these piles and piles of perfectly good morsels of protein. Buster the African Sausage Dog ate a good share of termites this morning and he barely made a dent in the piles.

Pula e a na!!!

It has been raining in Mahalapye for the last few days off and on and this morning I got a lovely surprise- a mophane moth outside my bedroom door!

These lovely creatures lay eggs which hatch to form the fellows below:

This caterpillar is voracious. I remember one year when we lived in Lecheng we had had fantastic rains and the mophane trees (from which these guys get their name) were in full leaf. We went away for a week or so and when we returned I remember being out on my daily walk with the dogs and thinking everything seemed so dry somehow. Then I realised suddenly that the trees were completely de-leafed! These guys were long gone but they'd stripped the trees nearly bare. I have stood quietly under a mophane tree when these fellows are around and you can hear the crunching- that's how mad they are about their food.

These worms are a source of income and food for many Batswana. They are a serious job to collect and process as they have hard, thorny bodies, but they are collected and gutted and dried. People cook them in various ways and eat them with maize porridge. People who like them like them a lot. My children and my husband will eat them one after another like a snack. In a year of good rains there are often two crops of mophane worms.

I cannot comment on their taste I'm afraid. Though quite adventurous with my eating, I've yet to dive into the world of the mophane worm.

Sue Guiney's Blog Book Tour Stop

Though born and raised in New York, Sue Guiney has lived in London for twenty years where she writes and teaches fiction, poetry and plays. Her work has appeared in important literary journals on both sides of the Atlantic, and her first book, published by Bluechrome Publishing in 2006, is the text of her poetry play, Dreams of May. Her first novel, Tangled Roots, was published in May ‘08, also by Bluechrome. Her second novel, A Clash of Innocents, was chosen to be the first publication of the new imprint Ward Wood Publishing and was published in September, 2010. Sue is also Artistic Director of the theatre arts charity which she founded in 2005 called CurvingRoad.

Sue Guiney has stopped by Thoughts from Botswana today as part of her blog book tour promoting her new novel A Clash of Innocents.
Welcome Sue!!
Let's get into some questions.

All of the "expats" in your books seem to be running away from something. As an expat of sorts yourself, do you think we're all doing that in one way or another?

The expat community is a very funny one, I’ve found. There are some who are dragged kicking and screaming into the experience and spend their entire times waiting to go ‘home’. There are others who stay abroad happily for years and years but always seem to be looking over their shoulders wondering what’s happening ‘back there.’ If anything, those sorts of expats don’t start their running until after they’ve moved. But then there are others who leave without the intention of going back to wherever, with the full determination of making their new country their ‘home.’ And of those people, some are running away and others are running to. I think I am one of those running to. But I agree, my characters are usually running away and that is a predicament that fascinates me.


Why did you decide to use first person with Deborah as your narrator? How did that limit you?

This is an interesting and important question for me, because it goes to the heart of something I still haven’t gotten my head around as a writer. After writing my 1st novel. Tangled Roots, in the 1st person I was determined to write my next book in the third. I didn’t want to have to limit myself to the knowledge or understanding of only one person which a 1st person narration necessitates – ie, unless you are the one having the sex, or you are there peeping through the keyhole, you can’t really know or describe what is actually going on. But I seem to need to know who my narrator is. In order to write in a voice of any kind, even an omniscient 3rd person voice, I need to know about the person from whom that voice is coming. In other words, the narrator becomes another character to me and from there it’s a slippery slope into 1st person. I don’t have this problem when I read. I can readily accept other writers’ 3rd person narrators. I just can’t seem to do it myself. But I’m determined to keep trying. But having said this, I didn’t conceive of this book as Deborah’s story. It was always supposed to be Amanda’s story only with somebody else telling it. But Deborah is a pretty strong and pushy broad. Once she got started talking, the story became more and more about her as well.

It felt to me when I finished the book that perhaps this story might not
be finished. Will there be a sequel? If so, I sort of hoped Deborah would get together with the doctor. Any chance you could work that in?


Wow! I’m so glad you got that inkling of a relationship between them. I thought maybe I had been too subtle! Well, I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say that I am thinking long and hard about setting my next novel in Cambodia as well. There is still a lot there I’d like to explore. And I love having characters weave their way from one book to another. Careful readers of Tangled Roots might recognize that the character of Amanda in A Clash of Innocents is the same young woman whose wedding opens up that first book. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Deborah and the others end up in a new novel, though I would be surprised if it was a sequel. I’d prefer the novels to be able to stand alone. Though there is something delicious about realizing you already know a part of the life of a character you are now meeting.

Where is Cambodia now? Is there hope?

Cambodia is much better off than it was, but it is far from being sound. It is still a country with some of the worst poverty anywhere in the world, with terrible problems of human trafficking, a very corrupt government. It is a country at a crossroads. But yes, there is hope. There is always I hope, I believe.

What is your next project?

For now I am concentrating on getting as many people to know about A Clash of Innocents as possible and I am planning a trip to SE Asia where I will do a series of charity workshops and events – my way of bringing the fruit of my inspiration back to the people who inspired it. But I am starting to plan my next novel and, unofficially, there’s a good chance that interested people will be able to read a lot more of my poetry soon.

Fantastic! Thanks for stopping by Sue. Best of luck with the book.
If you want to buy Sue's book A Clash of Innocents click HERE.

This and That on Books and Reading

For a nice Friday change I thought I'd share some booky and writerly things I've been reading around the web.

Well Christmas is around the corner they tell me and what would be better than giving Cousin Abbey a copy of Jane Eyre where she plays the role of Jane?! Yes- I said it! You can now get your own personalised copy of this classic novel with you as the star- how great is that? (Not, very I'm afraid.).

But here is something seriously cool- an automated library. You order your book online and pitch up at this book ATM and out pops what you ordered. I wish someone would put one in Mahalapye. Can I get that for Christmas Santa?

I had a bad experience with online writing groups but this one claims it is something special. Now people are wondering - will online writing groups replace in person ones and writing programmes at universities? What do you think?

Lastly a letter written to Woolworth's by South Africa's very funny Ben Trovato about the magazine selection at the grocery chain. Enjoy!

5 Things I loved About A Clash of Innocents by Sue Guiney

A Clash of Innocents is set in Phom Penh Cambodia. It is about a home for orphaned and abandoned children run by a 60 year old American expat named Deborah. A stranger with secrets appears one day and from then on Deborah struggles to keep things going on kilter. The stranger, another American named Amanda, carries secrets that Deborah thinks, once revealed, could harm all of them, but still they let her into their lives and their hearts.

The author of this novel, Sue Guiney, will be stopping by Thoughts from Botswana next Monday as part of her blog book tour to talk about this fascinating novel- don't miss it!
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5 Things I loved Abouth A Clash of Innocents

1. It's told in first person. Against the current grain of thought, (as is usually the case with me) I love books in first person. This is told through the jaded, often tired, occasionally lonely eyes of Deborah.

2. I knew nothing about Cambodia before I read this book. Sue does a great job putting us there. We feel the weather and the celebrations, the sadness.

3. I love the character Samnang, Deborah's adopted daughter. I wanted more of her. She is loving and responsible and so fearful to follow her own dreams afraid of letting her family down. But when she finally does think of herself for once, I was her biggest cheerleader. A fantastic character with too small of a role perhaps. Maybe she needs her own book...

4. In the middle of the drama of trying to raise 40 children, which alone might have made a pretty good book, there is this puzzle of Amanda running through which keeps you wanting to turn the page.

5. This bit of the story from page 223:
"Airplanes do more than take you from one part of the globe to another. If you let them, if you need them to, they can also provide transitions, real, physical transitions through space and time. Suspended over earth in a large metal tube for hours and hours, a person can do more than just get from one place to another. You can move from one need to another, one purpose, one dream, one reality to another."
How true is that?!


Pop by next Monday for a stop on Sue's blog book tour and ask her a question if you'd like!

Note the book is available HERE.

Groovy's Groovy Questions

These questions come from my pal Groovy Old Lady's blog. She's not that old but she is pretty groovy.

1. What do you think are three top qualities to look for in a politician?
Honesty, integrity and selflessness.

2. Which do you read more of, fiction or non-fiction? And please give us one awesome book recommendation while you're here...
Fiction by far. I just started The Lacuna and I think it will join my list of fantastic books. I also recently loved Wally Lamb's I Know This Much is True. And I really like both of Sarah Lotz's detective books- Exhibit A and Tooth and Nailed. She's a South African writer but I think she's just about to break-out so you guys out there should watch for her.
Okay I also have a bit of trouble counting.

3. What is your go-to outfit for dressy occasions? Describe it for us!
Sorry, I try my best to avoid dressy occasions. If forced it will be my black "swingy" skirt and my purple shirt, which is a little bit low-cut (cause if you have 'em you should flaunt 'em).

4. What song(s) do you want sung at your funeral? Why?
I'm not planning to die, when it happens I'll be completely taken by surprise.

5. What is your favorite way to unwind?
Reading and swimming and walks in the bush.

6. Do you think you could live contentedly in a 2 room home (plus a bathroom, of course)? Why or why not?
Yes, have done it before actually in one-room and loved it.

7. What is your all-time favorite breakfast? (Come on now, make us drool!)
Pancakes with real maple syrup and real butter with nice juicy pork sausages.

8. And lastly, are you gonna join me in participating in NaNoWriMo this November? (I hope so!)
No, but I could since I am writing a novella right now that I am attempting to finish in 15 days. So far it is going better than expected.

What Can Art Do? by Lemn Sissay

A few years ago I was speaking with a lecturer from the University of Botswana English Department and I asked him why there was no degree course for creative writing. He told me when they approached the former vice chancellor about that very issue he said,"What's the use of writing in Botswana?" Wish he was still alive to watch the fabulous Lemn Sissay in this video.

Birthday Wishes and Other Stories

Last week I received some copies of Birthday Wishes and Other Stories a collection of three short stories for children published by Vivlia Publishers (South Africa). The stories in the collection inclde the title story which was highly commended in the senior category of last year's Baobab Prize ( which now has a new name - Golden Baobab Prize- and a new beautiful web site). The story is about two girls in South Africa, one a Zimbabwean, and how they deal with the xenophobia sweeping through their neighbourhood.

The second story is called The Only One With Any Sense to It about a boy who has to make a difficult decision between his family obligations and his dream to play on Botswana's national football team the Zebras. The final story is one that has been published in many places The Rich People's School and was first published in Mslexia.

I love the cover of the book and I really like this little collection. They're all stories about kids with problems who make a plan to solve them. This is important to me, empowering kids to sort their own problems out, sometimes a skill we fail to teach our children for fear they might make mistakes but we forget the mistakes are sometimes just as important as the successes.

Botswana's Spring

(Photo above: The jacaranda trees in our garden)

It's currently spring in Botswana. In my village of Mahalapye that means the jacaranda and syringa trees are in blossom and the village looks and smells fantastic.

Another not so nice thing about spring in Botswana is bush fires. We've had some terrible ones this year. In one a brother and sister died when they were out collecting wild fruits. On my way back form Gaborone this weekend I took the photo below. The entire eastern side of the Francistown Road from Dibete to the Tropic of Capricorn going back deep into the Tuli Block was burnt.

(Photo above: The burnt bush along the F-town Road/ A1 highway)

I have an odd thing happening in my yard right now that perhaps one of my readers can help me with. We have two morula trees; a male and a female. The female is completely leafed out but the male tree is completely leafless. Is this normal? I'm afraid our male tree might have a disease. Any help regarding this would be appreciated.


(Photo above: Male morula tree)


(Photo above: Female morula tree)

Otherwise spring in Botswana is hot and windy and everyone and everything is in wait mode, waiting for the first rains. As of October 17th, we're still waiting.

Resilience

People who read this blog might remember last year when we had the most amazing hail storm in my village of Mahalapye. Windows were broken and roofs blew away and many indigenous trees fell down.

This morning I was driving from town and I saw this. The colour is not so nice but the tree was bright green, all leafed out, even though the storm nearly pulled it completely out of the ground. I little hail storm is not going to put this acacia tree out of business. No way.

So what about you? Can you stand up to this tree? In writing, in life- it's all about resilience.

What I'm Up To or How Tomatoes Can Ruin a Good Day

The tomato situation is out of hand. Even as I write this I should be in the garden collecting yet another bucket of tomatoes. Yes, bucket, bowls will no longer do. I have many packages of frozen tomatoes. I've given tomatoes to everyone who steps into my house including the friend to Giant Teenager No.2 who looked at me as if I was asking him to please take a package of nuclear waste home.

But tomatoes notwithstanding, I've actually had a fairly productive week. I finished my rough draft of The Vanishings. It is currently very plotty as my books tend to be at rough draft stage. It has all sorts of curves because we like curves. Now it will sit for at least a month probably two to cook.

I have set aside the end of the year for four fiction projects and thanks to my good royalties this year, I have the time to do that. The first was to finish this rough draft. Number two is a romance novella that has been banging at my head and I fear will almost be vomited into the computer as fast as my fingers can type it. Then I need to go back to the book I worked on in Egypt, Revelations. I'm quite excited about this as it's been in the cooking phase and I have some solid ideas about where I want it to go. Lastly I want to work on a young adult book for next year's Sanlam Prize. The theme is hope. I'm hopeful I can come up with something that does not scream maudlin as much as theme suggests it might.

In the meanwhile, today I was going through proofs for two of my books with Vivlia Publishers in South Africa: Curse of the Gold Coins and Anything for Money, the third book in the Kate Gomolemo series. It was nice to read them after such a long time. I also got alerted to a write-up in The Mail and Guardian (a South African newspaper) about the Sapphire books and both of my books were mentioned, Kwaito Love and Can He Be The One? Though they spelled my name wrong, I was still pretty pleased.

So that's what I've been busy with. And of course tomatoes.

The Sea Monkey Scam Gets Worse

People who know me know I blame sea monkeys for a lot of things. I sort of see my life as the innocence before the sea monkeys and the jaded post-sea monkeys child I became.

We all saw these beautiful sea monkey adverts in our Richy Rich comic books. Look at that family! The jolly little baby, the fashionable mother. And as the advert clearly says they are "so eager to please, can even be trained". Yeah. Right.

We all bought them. They arrived as a powder. A powder. Nothing coming from a powder smiles. But still I had hope, it WAS pre-jaded child time so I was willing to give them a chance, so I mixed it all together, loosely following the instructions. And nothing happened. No little crowned family appeared. There was no smiling. There would be no tricks. Later I learned they were brine shrimp. Mine never even became brine shrimp. They were a stinky bowl of water with a layer of brownish scum on top which ended up flushed down the toilet.

And now I hear that the guy who "invented" sea monkeys, Harold von Braunhut was a white supremacist and the money we all forked out to buy the brine shrimp that ruined our childhoods was used to buy guns for the KKK. He was also a proud anti-Semite though he was apparently Jewish. Gave bucks to the Aryan Nation too. Great. Really great. As if this whole sea monkey incident was not traumatic enough.

Gaborone Bed Book Launch!!!

Thursday 23rd of September, we launched The Bed Book of Short Stories at Mmabolao,The House of Beds, in Gaborone.


Our MC for the evening was Botswana's most celebrated poet- TJ Dema.




That's me (above) selling books, which we did quite a bit of that night. (yeah!)


Aamina Khan (right front) manager of Mmabolao and Deborah Morgan (right back) director of Mmabolao, listening attentively. They were both great!

Zimbabwean writer Novuyo Rosa Tshuma came all the way from Johannesburg where she is studying, to read us an excerpt from her story "In Bed with Ikeji". This is her third bed launch attendance. Five stars for the lovely Novuyo!!

Below is Malawian Luso Mnthali (right) with a friend. She lives in Cape Town and we were lucky to have her in Gaborone. She read from her story "A Requiem for Daniel".


Dr. Leloba Molema from the University of Botswana (below) was our guest speaker and she did a fantastic job!


Our very own uber-talented Gothataone Moeng read from her story"Lie Still Heart: Scenes from a Girlhood Devoured".


Some of the guests among the beds.


We had a FANTASTIC time!
Thanks everyone!!

My New Love

I came to writing because of my love of books, I wanted to be more a part of them. My love of books leads to my other affliction- my love of owning books. I want to have all of them. I am greedy beyond measure. Because of this, bookshelves are always a problem. Thankfully I found a new carpenter and he has made me the best new bookshelves. I'm so enamoured with these shelves I can barely look away from them. The best part about them is that they have so much space! Space for more books- yeah!

Lazy Writing

This is actually my column from The Voice two weeks ago but for some reason it didn't go up online so I thought I'd put it here.
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I was recently at a poetry reading. People who know me know I love good performance poetry. I cry at good performance poetry. I’m moved, I babble on about it for days. It sits in my mind, bits of it taking up permanent residence. At bad poetry performances I look engaged but am, in fact, either ticking off things I need to do the next day or preparing a mental grocery list. My tolerance level seems to have lowered as of late, though, and on this night in question I didn’t even pretend to be engaged. I was bored -but more than that I was furious.

I’m sick to death of lazy writers or all sorts, poets are just more on my mind as I write this but prose writers should consider themselves warned. For poets, if you have “African queen” or African princess” in your poem I’m talking to you. Yesterday I watched a little girl on My African Dream reciting a poem about how she was “an African child” and I thought shame on you lazy adult poets teaching this young girl that stating the obvious accounts as poetry nowadays. That lazy, clichéd writing is okay- it is not.

The words in a poem should be fresh- and please note, this does not mean pulling out your Roget’s and finding as many rhyming, seven letter words as you can and then stringing them in a line and spitting them out in an angry voice while standing in front of the audience very proud of yourself, the audience clapping only because they’re being polite. No one understands anything because what the poet just recited was unintelligible, to the poet as well as anyone forced to be the recipient of it. That’s not poetry- no matter what pretty clothes you put on it.

I will admit I’m not a poet, but I am a word user. I know that writers must respect words if they are to be any good. If you want to stand before us and tell us your mother is an Africa queen, please don’t call yourself a poet. Don’t disrespect poets so blatantly by doing that. A poet struggles and fights with words to find the exact image she wants to create. She will not use old, saggy, overused phrases just to get to the end. She will not use flashy words that leave everyone lost. She wants to carry the listener or the reader to a place that she has created and then she says “Look”.

Good poetry is fresh. The words crackle in the air and hush all thoughts that try to invade its stage. When silence comes and the words are finished the images and their echoes reverberate through the ether tickling at the audience members’ minds forcing them to think. Nobody thinks when the African queen takes centre stage, believe me.

Please folks, I beg of you, if we are to make any progress, let’s respect the words. Let’s work at our art. Laziness has no place in writing.

A Bed Launch for Botswana!!

I have been absent from my blog because my blog is not behaving. I can only write. I can't do anything that needs a pop up window, like add the invite for this launch. When I press the button I get a blank page. If anyone knows how to sort this out I'd be thankful for any help. I have a feeling it is a problem in my computer and will see the compute guy on the weekend.

In the meanwhile I want to invite you to another launch for The Bed Book of Short Stories that I helped compile. What has been so lovely about this book is that the contributors have taken it on to launch the book wherever they are. First there was the main launch at the Franschoek Literary Festival in South Africa. Then our contributor from Namibia organised a launch in Windhoek. Then there was the Joburg launch which I was blessed to be able to attend. There was a launch in Cape Town a few weeks ago where everyone wore pajamas. Tonight there is a launch in Centurion organised by the vivacious Rita Britz. And then next Thursday is ours in Gaborone.

The contributors present will include Gothataone Moeng, Luso Mnthali and myself. The MC for the evening is our TJ Dema and the guest speaker is Dr. Leloba Molema from the University of Botswana English Department. Please if you're in Gabs we would love for you to pop by!

When? Thursday 23 September
Where? Mmabolao, Westgate Mall Gaborone
Time? 5:30 - 8 pm

Books will be on sale!!

SEE YOU THERE!!!!

In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut

An odd coincidence occurred. I finished In a Strange Room in the early hours of yesterday staying up far too late reading because I could not put it down and then yesterday that very book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. My hope is it will go on to win it in October.

I love Damon Galgut's writing but In a Strange Room is something quite special. It is about travelling. It's divided into three sections: The Follower, The Lover and The Guardian. I listened to Galgut speak about the book at the Cape Town Book Fair this year. He was interviewed by Ben Williams of SA Books. Ben asked him if the book was fiction or memoir since the traveller in the book is called Damon. Galgut admitted that he took these trips and he had these experiences but still it is classified as a novel. It is up to the reader to see what to make of it.

In the same interview, he spoke about the reasons behind sometimes writing in first person, sometimes third, even drifting into second. It happens seamlessly in the book, it seems correct and right. He explained that it is how we think when we think about memories. Sometimes we are there, we are in first person. Sometimes we watch the characters play out the scene, third person. He wanted to be true to the memories. I find this fascinating.


Galgut's writing is simple and his unflinching pursuit of the truth in each sentence laser accurate. He writes with no fluff. He is not here to impress anyone. He knows his purpose and I feel it is an internal push driven by an intellect that will not rest on platitudes. He wants to know what it means, what this all means, the core truth in this living in the relationships between people.

The Damon in the book feels compelled to travel, but it is not a jolly, holiday by the sea kind of travelling. It is something else for him. Of late I have wanted to travel alone. I think as a married woman with a family I've become very insulated from the world, always safe in my group. And so I travel alone, though I don't particularly like it, I do it because it forces me to feel things with no cushion around me. I like to force myself into awkward scary situations where I will feel lost so as to feel vulnerable. I think in that place things are often clearer since the fear magnifies the senses. When I read the passage below I was gobsmacked by its resonance. There are many of these in the book.

The truth is he is not a traveller by nature, it is a state that has been forced on him by circumstances. he spends most of his time on the move in acute anxiety, which makes everything heightened and vivid. Life becomes a series of tiny threatening details, he feels no connection with anything around him, he's constantly afraid of dying. As a result he is hardly ever happy in the place where he is, something in him is already moving forward to the next place, and yet he is also never going towards something, but always away, away. This is a defect in his nature that travel has turned into a condition.

I read a lot of books. Some stick ,some fly away, and others change me. This one changed me.

The Distraction of Fresh Tomatoes

My blog is being sadly neglected and I apologise. As part of my apology I am giving you this lovely photo of the tomatoes I just now hunted from our garden. It is like hunting a bit, and one of my favourite things about gardening. Searching in the spicy green leaves to find the little red jewels. Then picking and assessing what you got.

So why have I been so thoroughly neglectful of my lovely little blog?

1. It is the beginning of summer.
This needs no explanation.

2. I am stuck in up to my elbows with my latest work in progress.
I have four months to wallow in my fiction. The first project for that time is a new novel which is a prequel to a novel I've been fighting with for about four years. I gave it to an editor friend of mine who gave me some sterling ideas about how to get it in shape. It was a thriller but my friend thought my cop and his friend seemed destined for a series and suggested I re-work the book into a detective novel. I've done a detective series before, my Kate Gomolemo series that includes The Fatal Payout and Murder for Profit, so this was something I was familiar with and decided to give it a go. BUT then something happened. I read a book, recently published, that is very similar to this book I'd been struggling with for four years and if I changed it to a detective novel it would be even more similar. So I decided to have my cop and his friend meet in a book before that one- which is the book I'm currently working on- and then after I finish this one I will go back to the first one which is now really the second one. Understand?

3. I've been reading lots of fabulous books.
These I intend to blog about soon.

4. I signed two contracts for two new books and I sent one of my wallflower novels out to a few agents.
One contract is for the third book in my Detective Kate Gomolemo series which will be published by Vivlia Publishers in South Africa. The second book is also to be published by Vivlia and is a children's historical mystery (is there such a genre? ). I also sent out queries to some agents in America for my novel Claudia Lanchaster's Adventures in Love, a young adult romance. I have had one response so far and they asked to see the entire novel, so cross fingers!

So those are really the main reasons I'm neglecting my blog. But I will try to be better. In the meantime enjoy the tomatoes because I'm intending to eat a fair share of them for lunch and they will soon be finished.