Giving those Characters Depth

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

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!!

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

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

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....

"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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!

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!

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

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

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!

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!