I'm Over at Wendy Noble's Place!!!

My good friend Wendy Noble has kindly hosted me at her blog as part of my effort to market my new Kate Gomolemo Mysteries now available as ebooks. I met Wendy when I just started writing about eight years ago over at Writers Weekly, a forum where I learned a lot about this writing business from people like her.

Here's a bit of my guest post about being a writer in Botswana:

Imagine if you will, a country with no trade publishers. A country the size of France with only three or four (if you stretch the definition) proper bookstores in the entire country, all located in the capital. A country with a population of 1.8 million where buying books is not a priority and when you ask, “Do you own a Kindle?” the most likely response would be silence and a face that defines the word confusion.

(To read the rest go HERE)

Thanks again, Wendy!!

Happy Short Story Day!!

Today is Short Story Day Africa (and I think Internationally too). I've been busy with various things trying to be part of the day.

1. I donated a story to the website
My story, The Colours of Love, which is in my collection In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata and Other Stories can be read at the Short Story Day Africa website.

2. I'm running a workshop
I'm running a workshop for junior secondary school children in my village at Parwe Junior Secondary School. The students will be writing stories around the theme "young in the city" for the writing competition HERE. The workshop will be this Friday at 10 AM.

3. I'm participating in YA Short Story Chain Gang
In celebration of the day, writers have grouped themselves into chain gangs. Each writer writes for an hour and then passes the story onto the next one (Rules HERE) . In the end, we hope, we have an exciting story. I'm in the YA group. Our story can be read and voted on HERE.

4. The Farafina Class of 2011, of which I'm a part, is Celebrating SSDay-Africa
Members of the group (people who attended last year's Farafina Workshop in Lagos) have written 100 word flash fiction and we've posted them at our blog- HERE.

5. I'm judging the SS Day- Africa Writing Competition for Under 12s
Kids are meant to write a story about an inanimate object. I'm looking forward to reading them! Learn more about the competition HERE

Also, Hope Road Publishing, in celebration of Short Story Day Africa, has posted another story from my collection, Funny Rich Man, read it HERE.

Hope you're celebrating Short Story Day wherever you are. Read, write, listen...enjoy!! Why not share your favourite stories?

Poem: A Fear of Drowning

A Fear of Drowning
By Lauri Kubuitsile

I skim on the surface
Like a boat, not a submarine.
I was never a submarine.
As you added more and more water,
I kept skimming.
I dip a toe in and feel it cool and enticing
But I won’t jump in;
I can’t.
You knew this.
I told you in words
Even if my actions lied.
I can’t get in.
I’m not made right.
I don’t have gills,
Or even a snorkel.
But I like water.
I watch you there
Your head bobbing on the surface
Diving deep
Time and again.
I’m jealous.
Of course I’m jealous.
But I know what I’m made of.
Paper.
Paper can’t stand up to water
Never could.
Don’t make me.
Don’t pull me in.
Keep your distance.
Let me skim here on the surface.
It’s enough for me.

Love in the Shadows- Get the Ebook at Barnes and Noble!

The ebook for Love in the Shadows is now available at Barnes and Noble! Get it here.

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?

Also available at Kobo- here.

Get Murder for Profit for FREE!!

The second book in my Kate Gomolemo Mystery Series is on promotion at Amazon. If you have a Kindle, you can get Murder for Profit for FREE.

Click HERE!!

Short Story Day Africa

(from their press release)

On Wednesday 20 June revel in a celebration of fiction’s short- yet-perfectly-crafted form, the short story.

Last year on June 21st, the shortest day of the year, we invited you to participate in Short Story Day South, a southern-African celebration of short fiction.

This year on June 20th, Short Story Day goes global with the launch of International Short Story Day and Short Story Day Africa.

Short Story Day Africa aims to highlight the outstanding short fiction Africa has to offer. We encourage every one of all ages and all genders to do something in honour of the short story. This could be absolutely anything, from running a creative workshop or class, a competition, making a short film or film adaptation of a short story, organizing a spoken word night, a reading, an author appearance, a literary salon, or simply picking up a short story and enjoying it, for maybe the first or the hundredth time.

Whatever it is you're doing, we want to hear about it! Send us details of your event to info@shortstorydayafrica.org, a link to your website (if applicable), and any images you have, and we'll put it on the brand new Short Story Day Africa website, where you can also find short stories to read and enjoy, short story recommendations, competitions, giveaways and more.

Follow us on Twitter @shortstoryAFR or Facebook Short Story Day Africa

What’s it all about?
The concept, celebrating the short story on the shortest day of the year, is borrowed from the pilot project, National Short Story Day (www.nationalshortstoryday.co.uk), which launched in the UK in October 2010 and concluded on 21 December (their shortest day). The project grew organically using social networking tools (Facebook and Twitter) and was a great success. Short Story Day South followed on 21 June 2011, culminating in a series of events around the country, including the popular Chain Gang Challenge.

This year, the organizers of National Short Story Day and Short Story Day South, decided to collaborate to create an international celebration. International Short Story Day was born, with Short Story Day Africa focusing on African writing and writers.

Who can take part?
Readers and writers of all ages, teachers, students...YOU!

Competitions and Giveaways
As part of the International Short Story Day celebrations, The Book Lounge (South Africa) and Comma Press (United Kingdom) challenge you to a chain story competition. At 8.30am GMT* on Wednesday 20th June, the first literary legends will sit down around the globe and start writing. An hour later, the keyboard will be wrested from his/her hands and passed on.

As each segment of the story unravels, we’ll upload it to the Short Story Day Africa website. Readers will be able to watch the stories unfold online and, at 2.30pm GMT, when the last writer adds the final full stop, the polls will open and readers can begin voting for their favourite story. Prizes sponsored by Comma Press.

* 9.30am UK and 10.30am SA

This year also sees the return of the popular Fiction Flash and, during the week running up to Short Story Day, we will be giving away books and prizes. See the Short Story Day Africa website for details.

YA and KIDS
This year, the Short Story Africa has a new team member. Tiah Beautement will be spearheading an all new Short Story Day Africa children’s programme. See the website for details of kids’ workshops, competitions and giveaways.

Submissions
In the week surrounding short story day (18 – 24 June) we will publish short stories from some of Africa’s most talented. Previously published writers wish to take advantage of this opportunity for greater exposure of their work, should see the website for submission guidelines.

Who is behind Short Story Day Africa?

Rachel Zadok is the author of Gem Squash Tokoloshe (shortlisted for The Whitbread First Novel Award 2005 and The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2005). Her long-awaited second novel, The Gathering Station, is due out April 2013. She lives in Cape Town with her husband and her daughter.


Isla Haddow-Flood is a writer, editor and marketing specialist who works specifically on cultural fields in Africa. She currently works for the Africa Centre (www.africacentre.net), advising on and implementing marketing strategies across their 10 projects. She lives in Cape Town with her husband and son.

Colleen Higgs is a writer and a publisher. She launched Modjaji Books (http://modjaji.book.co.za/), an independent press for southern African women writers, in 2007. She has two published collections of poems, Halfborn Woman (2004) and Lava Lamp Poems (2011). In 2012, her first collection of short stories, Looking for Trouble was published. She lives in Cape Town with her daughter.

Tiah Marie Beautement is the author of the novel Moons Don’t Go to Venus. Shorter works have appeared in various publications, including two anthologies: The Edge of Things and Wisdom Has a Voice. She lives on the Garden Route with her husband, two children, Orwell the dog and five chickens all named Eva.
______________________________________

Let's Get Involved!!!
I've jumped on the bandwagon and have my short story, The Colours of Love, up at their site. Stop by and give it a read. Let me know what you think.

Kate Gomolemo Mysteries are Now Available as Ebooks!!

My Kate Gomolemo Mysteries have only been available as paper books- that is until today! Three of the four books in the series are now available as ebooks at Amazon!

Murder for Profit (Book Number 2)


Something is not right in Mogobane. With a note scribbled in a child’s hand, Detective Kate Gomolemo is drawn into the dangerous, brutal and horrific world of muti killing.

Four children and their grandmother are burnt to death in their mud hut at the lands. The local police constable writes it off as an accidental fire, but within a few hours of her being in the village, Kate realises that can’t be right. She soon realises that the people in Mogobane are not always who they appear to be- from the local business man, to the dark traditional doctor, she even begins to suspect the police constable.

Despite the danger in the air, Kate sets out to find the killers. She will not rest until the murderers of the five innocent victims are put behind bars, but will she have to pay the ultimate price for her stubborn search for justice.

BUY it HERE.

Anything For Money (Book Number 3)


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, 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? How far can greed push a person?

BUY it HERE.

Claws of a Killer (Book Number 3)


Everything is going great for Detective Kate Gomolemo. The second love of her life, John Mogami, has stopped pushing her to set a date for their wedding. Her son and his wife are both nearby in Gaborone and they have big news- she's going to be a grandmother! Things are going well until a young University of Botswana student is found dead. Raped, with three odd claw marks down her body.

Botswana is not the home to serial killers, Kate is sure of that. But her certainty is shaken as the bodies pile up. And to make matters worse, her new partner, the annoying Ntoko, realises the killer is working to a schedule. Every fourteen days he must kill.

As the days pass, the pressure builds. Will Kate be able to stop him before this monster kills again? She'll risk everything to catch him and in the end she almost does.

BUY it HERE.

What's Gwaning?

My blog has gone all silent, and I apologise for that. You may wonder what is taking up all of my time.

First, I am doing maintenance on my house, or rather I've hired people to do maintenance on my house. This is eating into my time. Running up and down buying things. Making sure they don't paint the cat blue (they seem to be very keen on painting everything they can blue. I'm keeping the cat nearby just in case). So that's time eater number one.

Second, after living nearly alone for the last year or so, everyone is suddenly home on university holiday. Though I have my nice little office ( the most wonderful gift for a writer) I still must socialise with my family.

Third, I've been having teeth things going on. A tooth pulled out and then a temporary tooth put in and then that one taken out and everything made very sore and then another temporary put in and now waiting for the final thingy to get sorted. The process has made me cranky and lazy.

And lastly, I'm busy learning how to self publish at Amazon's Kindle Direct Programme. I am publishing the last three novellas in my Kate Gomolemo Mystery Series: Murder for Profit, Anything for Money and Claws of a Killer. Two of them have been published in paper but I wisely kept the ebook rights. (I didn't do that for the first one in the series though- The Fatal Payout). I hired someone from Gaborone to do the book covers, Alastair Haggar (editor@kgogomodumo.com) . I wanted them simple with a common theme. I've posted only one of them above. Let me know what you think.

My plan is to publish them all at once, hopefully in the next couple weeks.

Botswana and its Beauty Contests- NI Column 2

(This is my second column in New Internationalist. They don't put everything online and since many of us don't have access to the print magazine I thought you'd like to read my column here)

When I first moved to Mahalapye in 1989, most Saturday nights, especially at the end of the month when everyone got paid, you would find a beauty contest at our community hall. It might be Miss Mahalapye or Miss Madiba (our local senior secondary school) or even something commemorating an event, Miss Independence Day or Miss Mahalapye Agriculture Show. It didn’t matter. These contests consisted of local young women putting on their best dresses, getting their hair done, and then parading around on stage to music at eardrum splitting levels. The height and weight of the contestants was not important. The clincher was always the smile. If you had a good smile, you had a good chance. Judges were picked from local VIPs, people like ward chiefs, a councillor’s wife, or teachers. The winner won a blanket or an iron. After the formalities of the beauty contest were over, the night turned into what everyone had pitched up for – a disco.

But all of this changed in 1999. For the first time in history, Botswana sent a young woman, 20 year old Mpule Kwelegobe, to the international Miss Universe contest. She got to the finalist stage and then was asked the question that sealed the deal-“Should Miss Universe step down if she should become pregnant during her reign?”

This was just about the best question to ask a young Motswana woman from a country that views all births, no matter inside or outside of marriage, as a blessing, and where it is estimated more than half of households are female headed.

Her answer? “I think it should not in anyway interrupt her duties, she should celebrate her femininity. Having children is a celebration of womanhood for all females, including beauty queens.”

And with that Botswana erupted into cheers of joy when Mpule was crowned Miss Universe 1999, and beauty contests in Botswana were given an adrenaline kick they haven’t yet recovered from.
Where they used to be casual affairs organised the afternoon before the event, they now became serious with marketing budgets and big prizes. Miss Botswana winners nowadays win a car and a flat in Gaborone. The standards of who is beautiful have changed too. Tall and thin is in, and though a smile is important, sadly, it isn’t going to win you a Mercedes Benz unless you have the other requirements.

In 2006, I was asked to be a beauty contest judge. We were living in the tiny village of Lecheng where my husband was the headmaster of the secondary school and as his wife I was a prime target for the position of beauty contest judge. It was for “Miss Lecheng 40th Anniversary of Independence”. It was a post-Mpule beauty contest so I expected the regular kind of thing, but as soon as the contestants walked on the stage I knew something else was going on, at least I hoped so. The age range of the women was about 18 to 60. The weight and height range was just as varied.

I realised then these were the women from Ditshephe, a local traditional dance troupe. I’d seen them dance many times before and I had my favourite in the group, Thatayaone. She was about 30, with large breasts and an equally large bum, who, when not dancing, you might not even notice in her doek and letaise, but once she began, you saw no one else. As her feet stamped across the dusty ground as if possessed, the entire time she smiled and she was transformed.

I hadn’t noticed her at first, not in the fancy dresses, mostly satin in colours not seen outside of weddings. It was only when she put on her traditional dance uniform and she came stamping across the floor, her wide smile in place, that I knew my judging was done. She would be my winner, and across the form I gave her ten, ten, ten. We were back to those early days when the smile was the clincher. I was sure of it.

Sadly, in the end, my co-judges clung to the more western standards of beauty, ala Mpule, and my woman came second despite my best effort. Apparently, a smile just wasn’t good enough anymore that was all part of the past now.

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?