A NEW WORLD ORDER? every country has its
going the DISTANCE
SECRETS
DIANE CHAMBERLAIN AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 1
ditor
A message from the
A Bookish
Birthday
This issue marks a very special occasion – Authors Magazine’s second birthday! To celebrate, we’ve prepared a bumper edition for you, so sit back, relax, and read on!
Speaking of reading, I recently devoured Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us – one of our Recommended Reads for September, and I was blown away. Hoover dug deep for this one, drawing on personal experience, and the connection for the reader is undeniable. I highly recommend you get your hands on a copy, if you haven’t already! First up on my ‘To-be-read-in-October’ list (which is different to my standard to-be-read list!) is Empire of Storms by the insanely talented Sarah J Maas. This fifth instalment in Maas’s bestselling Throne of Glass Series released on the 6th September, to the delight of legions of fangirls across the globe and I can’t wait to get stuck into it. #TeamChaol. That being said, I’m even more excited about Jilly Cooper’s brand new book, Mount, which sees the return of the dashing and charismatic Rupert CampbellBlack. The Rutshire Chronicles were fodder for my teenage mind in the nineties, and I’m feeling nostalgic at the mere thought of revisiting my old friends!
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Of course, everyone here at Authors Magazine is feeling nostalgic as we celebrate 2 years of publication. No one more so than our fearless leader, Hajo Morallane, who founded the magazine out of pure passion for authors and the written word. In honour of her achievements, this month we look back on the past twelve issues and celebrate how far we have come. Gracing our cover this month is none other than Diane Chamberlain – USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling author of over 24 novels to date, including Necessary Lies, The Silent Sister, The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, and The Keeper of the Light Trilogy. We were honoured to interview Diane and are thrilled to present her as our October cover. What book are you most looking forward to reading this month? Tweet us @authorsmag and let us know!
Melissa Delport
Contents COVER FEATURE
04
DIANE CHAMBERLAIN Going the Distance
ARTICLES
PUBLISHER Lesiba Morallane
10 22 24 28
IT’S ALIVE Book Series the Refuse to Die LOOKING BACK Over the Past 12 Months EVERY COUNTRY HAS ITS SECRETS A NEW WORLD ORDER
EDITOR Melissa Delport COPY EDITOR Ian Tennent ADVERTISING COMMUNICATION Dineo Mahloele LAYOUT AND DESIGN Apple Pie Graphics
REGULARS A Message from the Editor.........................................................02 Battle of the Bloggers...................................................................14 Authors Flash....................................................................................18 Sallys Sanity The Biggest Issue of Little Space..................................................20 Author Focus Ashleigh Giannoccaro.....................................................................32 Justin Fox Regular Beheadings and Lots of Cleavage...............................34 Recommended Reads...................................................................36
Tel: 079 885 4494 CONTRIBUTORS Melissa Delport Ian Tennent Sally Cook Justin Fox Graham van der Made
AUTHORS MAGAZINE: PO Box 92644, Mooikloof, Pretoria East Email: team@authorsmag.com To advertise online please email team@authorsmag.com or contact Ms Dineo Mahloele on 084 299 6812 DISCLAIMER The views and opinions expressed in this magazine are intended for informational purposes only. Authors Magazine takes no responsibility for the contents for the contents of the advertising material contained herein. All efforts have been taken to verify the information contained herein, and views expressed are ont necessarily those of Authors Magazine. E&OE
AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 3
DIANE CHAMBERLA 4 | AUTHORS MAGAZINE
AIN
going the DISTANCE
Diane Chamberlain needs little introduction. With over 24 novels published in more than 20 languages, this American bestselling author has been writing since the tender age of twelve! Self-admittedly, these early forays into the world of fiction did not a career make, and the tenacious young Diane set her writing dreams aside for many years to pursue an education. Diane attended Glassboro State College in New Jersey before moving to San Diego, where she received both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in social work from San Diego State University. It was while she was working in a hospital in San Diego that the inspiration for her first novel took hold. Private Relations, a heartfelt and moving contemporary romance, took four years to write. Diane sold the manuscript in 1986, but it wasn’t until 1989 that it was officially published. That same year, Private Relations earned Diane the RITA award for Best Single Title Contemporary Novel. Since then, Diane has focused her efforts on book-length fiction, except for a brief stint writing for daytime TV (One Life To Live) and a few miscellaneous articles for newspapers and magazines, and has written twenty-four novels, including Necessary Lies, The Silent Sister, The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes (The Lost Daughter), and The Keeper of the Light Trilogy. I was honoured to get to interview Diane for our October cover. First and foremost, I have to ask about those “truly terrible novellas” you wrote as a child. Do you still have them in a suitcase under your bed, and do you ever read over them in a fit of nostalgia?
If it had been up to me, I would have thrown them out long ago. I’m the anti-hoarder! But my mother wrapped them carefully in plastic wrap and kept them all these years, so yes, I still have them and they are indeed terrible. The first “novel” was called Witchville and as I read it today, I see that what I loved most was coming up with creative names for the characters. More seriously, I can also see that themes that moved me at age twelve still appear in my books decades later, specifically secrets in families that have a long lasting impact. You are and always have been an avid reader, and you cite on your website that, in high school, your favorite authors were the unlikely combination of Victoria Holt and Sinclair Lewis, both of whom influenced the writer you are today. What was it about their collective work that struck a chord and what comparisons would you make between yourself and them? I had to read a Sinclair Lewis novel for one of my high school classes and he hooked me with his attention to social values. I grew up in a highly integrated town where my schools were half black and half white. It was during the civil rights era in the US and I felt the struggles of my classmates keenly. To me, Sinclair Lewis’s books, although written decades earlier, reflected what was going on in the world around me. It influenced me AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 5
greatly and you can often find my interest in human rights in my stories. Victoria Holt, on the other hand, wrote romantic novels with a strong gothic atmosphere that I loved. I like novels that are a little dark and rich in atmosphere and I know that’s my “Victoria Holt side” coming through. You were born and raised in New Jersey and lived for many years in San Diego and northern Virginia before settling in North Carolina, yet you refer to North Carolina as your “true home”. Why is that? When I moved to Northern Virginia more than three decades ago, I began visiting the Outer Banks in North Carolina. I’ve always been drawn to the water and the coast and couldn’t get enough of that area. I wrote four novels set there. Then I began traveling inland to discover the rest of the beautiful state. Finally, my stepdaughter moved to North Carolina and began having babies and that was the last straw. I had to move to the state that had my heart in many different ways. Does where you live influence or inspire your stories or the settings of your novels? I’ve always written about where I currently live or have lived, partly because those areas are familiar to me. But I also love discovering new places. When I get ready to begin a new novel, I think about an area I’d like to learn more about. I visit it and see if any story ideas would fit there. You took your education very seriously – enough that you put your passion for writing on hold while you attained not only a Bachelor’s but
My sister Joann, Mom and me at a summer bungalow at the New Jersey shore
At a signing with members of my own neighbourhood bookclub 6 | AUTHORS MAGAZINE
a Master’s degree in clinical social work from San Diego University. And yet, when it came to writing, you “learned by doing.” How much of being a successful writer do you believe is raw talent, and sheer grind, as opposed to being taught? I think there is a certain degree of talent that’s necessary, as well as the need to pay attention in English class to learn how to string sentences together in a way that makes sense. If you have those two things, though, I believe the actual writing of a novel can be taught and learned. And then the “sheer grind” comes into play. That is really the hardest part—getting the words down on paper. It’s also the most necessary part. You initially wrote while running a private psychotherapy practice in Alexandria, Virginia, but you eventually made the decision to close that practice and concentrate on your writing career. How difficult was it for you to give up one of your passions in order to fully immerse yourself in the other? It was quite hard. I so enjoyed working with teenagers, which was my specialization, but I knew I couldn’t keep up with both the practice and the writing. One of them had to go. When I think back to my previous career as a social worker, however, it’s the hospital social work I miss the most, which is why many of my books have hospital settings. Did you ever have any regrets about the decision you made? No. I feel very fortunate that I’ve had two careers that have been both satisfying to me and that have touched other people in some positive way. You write complex stories, with a combination of drama, mystery, intrigue, and the occasional gasp-worthy twist, yet the underlying thematic focus often revolves around relationships – be it between men and women, parents and children, brothers and sisters, or friends. How do you think your background in psychology equipped you to write about these relationships, and, in particular, enable you to create such strong and realistic characterisation?
How I outline my stories I think my background helps me understand what makes people tick and why they do the things they do. But as a therapist, and particularly as a hospital social worker, I saw firsthand how strong people can be. How much they can overcome. I want my characters to be that strong, so that is always my goal when I write. I want them to triumph, but for that triumph to have meaning, they have to struggle a lot first. Let’s talk about the new book! Pretending to Dance releases this month in paperback. Your sister, Joann, who suffers with Multiple Sclerosis was the inspiration behind this book, and in your blog post you speak poignantly of your relationship with her. How deep did you dig when writing this story and how much of your own experience do you draw on when tackling a new project? Joann really helped me understand the character Graham in Pretending to Dance. She was very generous in sharing her experiences with me and I know she is excited about the book and happy I wrote it. As for drawing on my own experiences, I suppose bits and pieces of them do come through but it’s rarely, if ever, intentional. Do you have a favourite among your own books, and if so, which is it and why? While I love all my books, my third, Secret
Lives, stands out for me because I felt as though I finally knew how to write a novel. I found “my voice” with that book. Plus, I think it’s an unusual, Gothic, and captivating story. As a successful, traditional published author, what is your view on the rise of independent publishing? I think it’s wonderful that writers have so many options these days. What I don’t like, though, is when an author writes a couple of drafts and slaps it up as a book without any editing. All writers need three types of editors: a developmental editor who can look at the book and tell the writer where the story doesn’t work; a copy editor skilled in grammar and punctuation and who can check for blatant errors, like the time I had a character set down her lemonade and then pick up her iced tea (!); and a proofreader. I’ve written twentyfive books now and I still need all three. What advice would you give aspiring authors out there? Persevere! Make sure you know how to write—if you don’t, take a night class. Then get the story down on paper and invite friends to read it and give you feedback. Rewrite rewrite rewrite. And have patience as you try to find an agent and publisher. There are very few overnight successes. AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 7
You state that, for you, the real joy of writing is having the opportunity to touch readers with your words. You certainly succeed in that! Thank you so much for giving us your time, Diane and from all of us here at Authors Magazine, we wish you all the best for this new release!
FUN FACTS
about Diane Hats or heels?
Hats, definitely. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and wear a brace built into a shoe. My heels days are over! Plot or prose?
Plot. I need a good story. Movies or music?
Am I allowed to say both? I can’t imagine life without either of them. If you could choose one song as your life anthem what would it be?
Srpingsteen’s ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’. I love the spiritual sound of it and the positive message. Favourite holiday destination?
My beach condo at Topsail Island, NC. Favourite book/author?
Too many! The one that pops into my mind is The Color Purple by Alice Walker. If you weren’t writing, what would you be doing?
Hospital social work, for sure.
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Read an excerpt... “What do you think of this one?” Aidan asks. “It’s one of my favorites.” He turns his laptop so that I can see the photograph. In the picture, we’re sitting on a beach in Hawaii, Diamond Head in the background, and we look tanned and fit and very, very happy. But the picture won’t work for our portfolio. “You’re forgetting the rules,” I say. “No sunglasses. No bathing suits.” “Hmm. I forgot.” He straightens the computer on his lap again. We’re sitting side by side on our sectional going through hundreds of photographs, trying to find the right combination for our portfolio. Besides the ‘no sunglasses and no bathing suits’ rules, we’ve been admonished not to show any booze in our pictures. And no baseball caps. What is that about? I have no idea, but Aidan and I have turned into rule followers. We need to maximize our chances at being selected by a birth mother. We’d finally completed all the paperwork for the adoption agency two weeks before. They now had copies of our marriage license, our birth certificates, our medical records, our tax returns, and the reference letters written by our friends and employers. We passed our criminal background checks and our physicals. I’d worried about the medical records. Somewhere, sometime, I’m sure I filled out a medical questionnaire that asked if a parent had ever had cancer, and I’m sure I would have said ‘no’. How closely would the agency study those records? Would they compare that answer to the tale I told Patti-the-social worker about my mother’s putative breast cancer? I could drive myself crazy worrying about details like that. Three weeks have passed since our last visit from Patti and we are only now getting down to business on the portfolio, which will culminate in the writing of a “Dear Expecting Mother” letter we are both dreading. It’s simply been too nerve wracking to work on the portfolio before we knew we had approval from the agency. But the letter arrived yesterday: Congratulations! You’ve been approved to adopt a child through Hope Springs Adoption Agency. You now join Hope Springs’ ninety-two other waiting families. I was deflated by that number. A birth mother has ninety-two other potential placements for her baby. At thirty-eight, are we the oldest? How will that young woman view Aidan’s receding hairline? The laugh lines around my eyes? What expectant mother will consider a couple the age of her own parents to raise her child? I look at the photograph on my laptop screen. In it, I’m plucking
In the photograph, Aidan and I are on a carousel, each of us standing next to a horse as we hold onto his sister Laurie’s two-year-old twin boys, Kai and Oliver. The agency told us we should be sure to include pictures of us with children, and this one is perfect. “Definitely, yes!” I say. “Except . . . “ Aidan points to the sunglasses on my face in the photograph. “Screw the sunglasses,” I say. “That’s a great picture.” Aidan marked the picture to be included in the portfolio. “As long as we’re now following the ‘screw the sunglasses’ rule,” he said, “I think we should put in a bunch of action shots of us. You know, canoeing and skiing and those hiking pictures we have from last fall.” “But maybe they’ll make us look too . . . hedonistic, or too adventurous to be able to fit a baby into our lives. I think we should show us in our house so she can see where her baby will grow up.” “Well, how about some of each?” Aidan suggests. “I think we need more of us with the twins,” I say. a lemon from the tree in our backyard. Perfect, I think, until I remember the ‘no sunglasses’ rule. Of course I’m wearing them. You live in San Diego, you wear sunglasses. Maybe we’ll have to stick to indoor pictures. “How can we make our portfolio stand out from the others?” I ask Aidan. “I think we should make it cute,” he says. “Cute?” I laugh. “How exactly do we do that?” “We should look at how teen magazines do their layouts and mimic them,” he says, and I can tell he’s been seriously thinking about this. “Maybe some cutesier graphics. A collage of photographs, some on an angle. Vibrant colors, maybe.” I turn my head to study him, smiling. He is adorable. Mr. Sunshine. “I don’t know,” I say. “I think we should go with something more serious and heartfelt. I don’t want to come across as frivolous.”
Aidan nods. “Laurie says she has a bunch. She’s going to bring them to Mom and Dad’s on Sunday.” He clicks to another page on his laptop, this one full of dozens of small images. I know what they are. Pictures from his childhood. Zoe, the social worker at the agency, said to include a few. “Show the happy families you grew up in,” she suggested. Aidan loves the idea, and now I watch him sort through the old pictures. He is so family oriented. Not only did he scan family photographs into his computer, he organized them by year. What other man would do something like that? He treasures his history. I watch him smile as he clicks through the pictures, and I feel a powerful sadness wash over me. I have no old family photographs. I’d taken a handful with me when I left home at eighteen, but I threw them away one day when my anger got the better of me. I wish old memories could be as easily discarded.
“We’ll find a balance,” he reassures me. He turns his computer to face me again. “What about this one with the twins?” he asks.
AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 9
It’s Alive!
Die
Book series that refuse to
by Graham van der Made
A series of books can take an entire lifetime to craft. Some take more than one.
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When Terry Pratchett passed away in March last year, his daughter Rhianna stated she would not be continuing his world-adored Discworld series. It was “sacred to her dad,” she said. Fans were largely supportive of her decision, but when it comes to epic, sprawling, fantasy and sci-fi it is far from the norm. Often these beloved series rise from the ashes of their original creators and go on to live long, lucrative lives based off notes left behind. The debate around these “zombie series” rages. Are they a legacy? The fruit of a lifetime of blood, sweat and tears that the author would want to see come to print. Or are they a money-making scheme; hacks riding on the coat-tails of greatness?
Middle-Earth by J.R.R. Tolkien When one thinks of post-mortem publication, often the first book to come to mind is The Silmarillion, the companion novel to The Lord of The Rings. Debuting in 1937, The Hobbit, and later The Lord of the Rings trilogy, have sparked many a sword-and-sorcery-lover’s imagination. They have been adapted into a number of media over the years and have even been used as setwork books in schools and universities. J.R.R. Tolkien passed away in 1973 at the age of 81, but before his death, he appointed his son, Christopher Tolkien, to be the literary executor of his estate. With the help of Guy Gavriel Kay, he would publish The Silmarillion in 1977, created from notes left behind by his father. Christopher did not stop there. He also released Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, The History of Middle-earth, The Children of Húrin, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, and The Fall of Arthur all from various notes and transcripts left behind by his father. While all of the books have been lapped up by fans, the post-mortem releases have slightly lower ratings on Goodreads than that of sole J.R.R. Tolkien works. Even with the original author’s notes, it’s not always easy to mimic their storytelling style.
Dune by Frank Herbert Dune is arguably to science fiction what The Lord of the Rings is to fantasy. The series debuted in 1965 and, in 2003, was cited as the world’s best-selling novel of its genre, selling over 12-million copies. Herbert created an intricate universe where politicians waged war over entire worlds, giant sandworms were both feared and revered, and the most valuable substance in the universe was a drug known as “Spice”. Following this hit, Herbert went on to publish a series of titles that continued the story set out in the original book: Dune Messiah,
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Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse: Dune. They were each a roaring success. Herbert passed away in 1986, but notes on further tales in the Dune universe were discovered a decade after his death. In 1999 his son, Brian Herbert, and author Kevin J. Anderson, started to continue the Dune series with Dune: House Atreides. This lead to several prequel novels and two sequel volumes to conclude the original storyline. The duo has gone on to write more Spice-filled sandworm-laden novels than Herbert himself. Just take a gander at sites like Amazon or Goodreads: the post-Herbert Senior novels are arguably just as popular as the originals.
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan Another zombie-fied series, one that was well-received by fans, is the infamous Wheel of Time. It was meant to be only six books, but quickly grew into fifteen tomes. Using the pen name “Robert Jordan”, James Oliver Rigney Jr. penned a fantasy tale that eclipsed even his own scope. The Wheel of Time is about one man’s journey to face ultimate evil and either save or destroy the world in the process. While fans have adored the series since its initial release, there has been criticism towards it as well. Its vast story, intricate characters, and sprawling world were something that captivated fans, but the books were criticised for the amount of filler content, which drew out the story, and dangling plot threads. Jordan eventually realised he wouldn’t be able to complete the final entry in this epic before his passing and set out to leave behind an extensive set of notes. After his death in 2007, Tor Books brought in long-time fan, Brandon Sanderson, to complete the last piece. Under Sanderson’s pen, the final volume was split into three books due to its complex and robust story. The new author not only focussed on bringing The Wheel of Time to an end, but streamlining the meandering story. Fans adored these new volumes and often list them as some of the best entries in the series.
James Bond by Ian Fleming He’s the international man of mystery, a daredevil, a hero, and a bastard. Unlike other continuations on this list, the James Bond books were picked up by a number of authors after the Ian Fleming’s death. Part fantasy, part science fiction, I’ve included this spy-thriller because James Bond’s legacy is as prominent as others on this list. In 1953, Fleming introduced the world to James Bond, Agent 007, the man who men wanted to be and the man every woman wanted to have. This character captured the hearts of espionage fans everywhere, which in turn spawned a number of memorable entries
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in cinema history. In fact, the movies have included as many actors portraying the titular role as authors have penned novels about him. By the time he passed away in 1964, Fleming and had written 14 James Bond novels, beginning with Casino Royale. An additional two were published posthumously. Since his death 45 novels and spin-off titles have been published by no fewer than eight different authors, set across five decades. Ian Fleming Publications, formally Glidrose Publications and Glidrose Productions, manage Fleming’s estate and hold the rights to the James Bond series. Since the author’s passing, the company has commissioned numerous writers to pen new novels, adaptations of movies, and spin-offs. Even with a number of other writers dipping into the character and adding their own words to the plethora of stories, James Bond continues to receive decent scores from fans and critics alike. Decades of James Bond cars, gadgets, girls, and even hit theme songs wouldn’t have happened if no one else had continued on the tales of Ian Fleming. In fact, none of these series would be where they are today without the love of new authors. Who can really say what the motives are behind continuing a book series after the original author passes. Often, fans devour new stories in a beloved universe as long as they can sense the new author genuinely cares about the work. The success of these continuations also hinges on the fictional world being large enough to support more tales, the author leaving comprehensive notes, and, of course, the rights holders seeing the benefit. Regardless of the intentions, there’s something poetic about loved works passing from writer-to-writer, each building on what came before to construct something no single mind could be capable of.
AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 13
BATT
O TH
Blog
SHARON BAIRDEN
Book blogging site: www.chapterinmylife.wordpress.com
Sharon Bairden
about it around 8 months ago when I
lives in Kirkintilloch, a small town just
– one of the most successful online
outside of Glasgow in Scotland – the
book clubs in the UK, with over 6000
I’d been tentatively reviewing books for
ideal location to stalk (oops support!)
international
a long time but was too shy to let anyone
some of her favourite Scottish authors.
authors,
She lives with her 2 grown up children
bloggers.
and her adorable Golden Lab, Cooper (her kids are adorable too but at least the dog is always pleased to see her!) By day Sharon is a Services Manager of a local charity providing independent advocacy to vulnerable clients but by night (and most of the day when she can fit it in around work) she is an obsessive reader and blogger! When not reading or blogging Sharon can be found attending book events and launches in the Glasgow area as a staunch supporter of the Scottish Crime Fiction world. Sharon is also a member of the admin team on #TBConFB – The Book Club 14 | AUTHORS MAGAZINE
members
readers,
including
reviewers
and
What books/genre do you prefer to read?
plucked up the courage to go public! How did you first get into it?
see my reviews in case I was ridiculed. I then joined #TheBookClub and this opened up a whole new world for me in terms of reviews. I was able to see other people sharing their reviews and heard
I mostly read crime fiction and
from authors about how important
psychological thrillers, with a penchant
reviewing and blogging was to them.
for Tartan Noir. I guess this is because I
I started following a few bloggers on
am essentially a really nosey person, I
Facebook and Twitter and I was bitten
love to know what makes people tick,
by the bug! I set up my own blog using
why people do bad things and what
WordPress but it just sat empty for a
makes others want to “catch” them,
few months before I plucked up the
what’s the balance between good and
courage to add my reviews and a couple
evil and the books that I read tick all of
more months before I started sharing it.
these boxes for me!
Then I linked up a Facebook and Twitter
How long have you been book blogging?
page and the rest is history! The book
I’ve been book blogging for just over a year now but I only really starting shouting
blogging community on Facebook is so supportive and I got lots of great advice and backing from them.
TLE
OF HE
ggers
Helen Claire
Book blogging site: www.baattyaboutbooks.wordpress.com
What do you think makes for a
What are you looking for in your
want to support the authors out there
successful book blog?
submissions?
for putting their heart and soul into
Keep the blog “real” – I am guessing
Someone who has read my review
that real readers read my blogs, I am
policy.
not a literary critic, I’m a reader first and foremost – and I want people who read my blogs to get what I’m feeling and not feel as though they are being subjected to an English Lit lecture! Don’t be egotistical – you are blogging
A personal touch in the contact – not a copy and paste mass email. And obviously books that are within my preferred genre. How many books do you read a year?
writing the books that give me so much pleasure! Yes, as a Book Blogger you do get Advanced Reading Copies to review for free but if I have enjoyed the book I always then go on to buy other books that particular author has written. How much power do you think book bloggers have when it comes to driving sales of a particular book?
to share your love of books and to
Not enough for my liking – it is a full time
support authors – not to go on a huge
job on top of my full time job! I average
Oh how I’d love to say we are
ego trip for yourself!
around 100 – 120 books per year.
superpowers in the book world, but
Keep your criticism constructive, if you
Is there any financial reward to running
feel that you cannot review a book after
a successful book blog?
agreeing to, contact the author and let them know. Don’t just go and leave a scathing review!
I guess some people may make (or try to make) money out of it but that is not my motivation and to be honest if that’s
authors,
the main reason for setting up a Book
publishers, your followers and other
Blog I think it is wrong. For me, blogging
bloggers – there is always something
about books is a passion. I LOVE reading,
new to learn and lots of great support
I love finding new books to read – I want
out there!
to share that love with others and I
Communicate
–
with
let’s be realistic! I think through the sharing of our passion we can actively encourage others to pick up a book by an author they may not have considered before but I am not sure that we make a major impact on the sales of books. What do you hope to achieve with your book blog? Encourage others to read! Encourage readers to review! AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 15
Give support to the authors out there
or their interests and is basically a
Somebody asking me about the “Book
who are under-recognised.
standard sales pitch.
Festival I organise” – Bloody Scotland
Connect with other bloggers.
3. Expect the blogger to have read/
(Annual Crime Book Festival held
reviewed your book in an impossible
in Scotland) – lol I wish I was that
timeframe – despite our love of books most
influential!
Have a whole lot of fun! List 3 things that authors get wrong when approaching book bloggers for a
of us do have a life outside of blogging!
And as the above really are not that
The funniest thing that’s happened to
funny – my proudest moment was
you since starting your blog?
finally meeting Steven Dunne (author
Writing a blog spoof “expose” on the
of The Reaper series) in Harrogate
2. Send out a “mass email” that has
admin team of #TBConFB – the process
this year and him including me in the
no reference to the blogger, their blog
and the feedback was great fun!
acknowledgements of his latest book!
review 1. Ignore the blogger’s review policy.
Helen Claire
be looking out for more of the same.
lives in the South East of England and
time is a rarity for Helen, but when
Normal is superb, btw, and in a class of its
has adored reading since her childhood,
she does have a precious moment to
own, so well worth a read (You see, I just
when Enid Blyton and Willard Price
spare she ideally spends it near the
can’t help myself!)
helped her while away many a dull
sea, preferably with sunshine included
How long have you been book blogging?
day and took her to places as wide as
(which is sadly quite a rare occurrence
her imagination allowed. Remember
in the UK). Helen is the proud owner
The Faraway Tree anyone?
Helen’s
of 3 small but loud dogs, 1 larger but
reviews tend to be concise and to the
not-so-loud daughter and she collects
point, with no hint of spoilers as she
‘all things sheep’, hence the nickname
loathes spoilers with a passion If an
‘baatty’.
author wants a detailed, laborious, in-
What books/genre do you prefer to
true blogger fashion by Tweeting about
depth review, Helen is probably not
read?
it repeatedly (Twitter, in my view, counts
the blogger for you. She is, however, uproariously funny and her humour
It is more a case of what books don’t I
Not actually that long as the blog is still a fledging compared to other more well-established blogs out there, and there are a few of them about. I think my 1-year anniversary is coming up soon though, which I will celebrate in
as an essential part of blogging).
read as I am usually willing to try most
How did you first get into it?
genres, apart from romance, which I
Helen is rarely found doing anything
It really began when I started to take
avoid at all costs. I’m not overly fond of
Not-Book-Related, because books are
my reviewing more seriously and began
Chick Lit, either, but I have read a few
using professional review sites such as
not only her passion, but her career
recently that I was pleasantly surprised
NetGalley and Edelweiss to share my
of choice. She also has a love of
by. Mostly I like to read thrillers and police
reviews with publishers. It then swiftly
techno gadgets, which is just as well,
stuff but having discovered books written
progressed to wanting to share my own
considering how much time she spends
from the killers POV, such as Normal by
style of review with a wider audience
on her kindle and the internet. Spare
Graeme Cameron, I will, without a doubt
so blogging fitted the bill perfectly and
shines through on her blog.
16 | AUTHORS MAGAZINE
with a fair bit of help from my blogging
it is actually far more, I just don’t always
try to succeed in this new challenge.
mentors, Jo and Kelly, I was up and
have the time to update my account as
Moving forward, I just want to carry on
running and have not really stopped
regularly as I should. I have so much
enjoying the blog (that makes me sound
since. It is truly addictive, so thankfully
other stuff going on it frequently just
like a 1970’s film series) and continue to
I mastered the tricks of the trade early,
slips my mind.
spread the word about all the awesome
which helped enormously when things started to get busy. What do you think makes for a successful book blog?
Is there any financial reward to running a successful book blog? There is potential, I believe, in the form of advertising with the likes of Amazon
In my opinion, if the follower/reader
and their affiliate programme, but this
gets something positive from the blog
not currently something I do. The larger
then it’s a job well done and the blog
blogs could well turn a profit from their
is successful. Blogs tend to vary in style
recommendations. I would class the
and cater for different people with wide
review books I receive as a financial
ranging reading tastes. Personally I like
reward of sorts because it cuts down on
to have a good mixture of well-known
my spending on books (which is still too
authors and not-so-well-known authors
much).
for variety and I always try to include interesting interviews and reviews that I hope appeal to my followers as much as they do to me.
How much power do you think book bloggers have when it comes to driving sales of a particular book?
books out there, interview a few more of my favourite authors maybe, but topping Peter James and Elizabeth Haynes won’t be easy, discover new ones along the way. Reaching 5000 followers would be pretty epic too. List 3 things that authors get wrong when approaching book bloggers for a review. I almost answered this in an earlier question, I’m glad I didn’t now! 1) Sending the book without checking I would like to read it first because I feel bad if I decline it, 2) Getting the name of my blog wrong, which never fails to annoy me, 3) Assuming I can
Oh, a huge amount of power, in
work to their deadlines as I often
honesty and I think this is why so many
have to prioritise according to my own
authors support us with guest posts/
commitments.
It has to be something that I actually
giveaways and offer us the book in
want to read rather than just reading
the first place. So much is driven by
The funniest thing that’s happened to
a book for the sake of it. Reading is a
word of mouth, social media, etc and
very personal experience and hopefully
personal recommendations count for a
my blog reflects this with the books
lot. Equally, bad reviews can sway the
I feature. Preferably, I’m looking for
balance of success or failure.
What are you looking for in your submissions?
something original and not written to a formula, which I sometimes find the more mainstream successful authors can be guilty of – I won’t name any names but I’m sure all readers at some point have thought: “Really, why am I reading this formulaic drivel?” How many books do you read a year?
What do you hope to achieve with your book blog?
you since starting your blog? The frantic search to find a signal strong enough to publish a post can often be extremely amusing to passers-by, but not quite as amusing for me as I dance about in a Wi-Fi free zone reliant on 02’s often none too reliable signal.
I have been pretty lucky (determined may be a better choice of word here) and have managed to achieve most of my blog-related goals. I will include my role as a freelance book publicist (currently for Bloodhound Books) in this
Way too many, my current total this
list of goals, as without the blog I doubt I
year according to GoodReads is 97, but
would have had the confidence to even
AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 17
Gods of the Old Country By Kathy Strapp She shuffled through the grimy doorway, clutching paper money in her trembling fist. “Legba needs sacrifice. Gods hear me. Keep my son safe from the one-eyed drug lord, Bengani! I saw death in my dream. Pappa save him!” His mother said they came from Ghana. All they had now was the cramped corner of a condemned building. And the drugs. African history speaks of a snake named Oroboros, who devoured his own tail. And so his beginning was his end. Leon felt his life becoming that snake. He wanted out. The plan was to steal the heroin. To take his family, and run – and run. Leon watched the package spiralling down as the aircraft flew low. He turned the car South instead of East. Heavy storm clouds gathered, like omens. They waited nearby, their weapons pointing at him. He froze. He’d failed. Today he died. Slowly he got out of the car. “You disappoint me Leon” the boss man stared at him with his single eye. They tossed him a spade. “Dig” they commanded. As he began digging, tears of defeat fell with the increasing downpour. He felt the Gods here to bid him farewell. Their voices thundered in his ears as lightning blinded him. Bengani’s crew huddled under a tree as the Gods quarrelled. Then an enraged lightning bolt hit the tree and the day became fire . Instantly, all that remained were the charred bodies of his enemies. Tenderly, his mother bandages the burns on the fingertips of the swooning priestess. “Sleep now” she croons. “Pappa listens”. 18 | AUTHORS MAGAZINE
Supernova By Adrian Fuller It’s difficult to say when Alexei “Supernova” Ivanova began his voyage - awarded on the basis of bravery instead of intellectual prowess in the field of Gravity Controlled Propulsion. Time is becoming more warped with every kilometre he travels toward Colossus’ terrifying centre. He wasn’t ready, but the race was on. If Supernova was a Milligan fan, he might very well chuckle about the similarity between his situation, and one of the poet’s more revered works involving a proud primate and a celestial body. But, as he’s a doomed monolingual cosmonaut, he chuckles at nothing. Things get exponentially weird as he hurtles towards a place where space and time do not exist, where the strangest known laws of physics give way to ones far more bizarre. He picks up unimaginable speed as he approaches the dead star’s singularity. What awaits him? Will his end spell someone else’s beginning? If Supernova was a disciple of Multiverse Theory, he would surely answer…Da. But, as he’s a loyal student of General Relativity, he believes that time becomes infinitely slow as one approaches an infinitely dense object. And, as such, his fate he will never know. “Blyat!!” It’s not the most profound statement ever uttered by someone at the helm of an interstellar spacecraft. But, seeing that Supernova is now beyond the event horizon, nothing he says, no matter how profound or otherwise, will ever be heard by anyone but himself.
Every month we feature 250 word flash fiction pieces as submitted by our readers. If you would like to submit a flash fiction, please email us with “Flash Fiction Submission” in the subject line.
Happily Ever After
Henri du Bois
By Jessica Maree
By Peter Holliday
And we lived happily ever after. Or we would have if it hadn’t been for the black spell cast over us. But before that, we would have lived for many years. In harmony; yada yada yada
Henri du Bois, insurance investigator, cautiously trod the steps down to the Botha’s kitchen door in Durban, South Africa.
For once it would have been nice to have a gentle flow of problems. Small things; hiccupping in a crowded elevator or putting too much sugar in coffee. But here we are,(theatrical sigh) battling the forces of evil, yet again, because some crazed pointy hat person has decided that she wants to rule the world all by herself and punish everyone for living peacefully. In case you didn’t know, witchcraft didn’t stay in the dark ages. It was carried all the way through to modern times, and these days you never can tell who is who. For all you know, you may look at me and see me as harmless. And I am, except for the little power I have in divination. Just a touch of talent, but a gift nonetheless. Do I use it for evil? absolutely not! Except, whose perception of evil is valid?
“They ransacked the house but took nothing except for my daughter’s underwear and a flat screen TV!” said Mrs Botha. Ransacked? Demolished more like it; even the ceilings hadn’t been spared. Head office could not understand it, which was why he was here. “They were looking for something. Fred’s Ramsay’s flat was hit the worst,” said Mrs Botha with curlers in her hair, “he was our tenant, a perfect English gentleman. He died two months ago. We put his stuff in a storage locker with our caravan out Waterfall way.” “Madam, ziss Monsieur Ramsay, what did he look like?” asked Henri in his French accent. It sent a shiver of delight down Mrs Botha’s ample frame. “I’ll get his passport.” Henri looked at the picture of the late Mr Ramsay. His blood stopped flowing. His hand shook. Stephen Lord Flight!
There are some who are wicked through to their core and who would stop at nothing to create misery and havoc where they have been uninvited.
The following morning, Joe Morley aka Henri Du Bois jimmied the door of the Waterfall locker. It had been twenty two years but Henri could still hear him saying, “No Turners, no Constables. Think pre Raphaelite or Victorian Impressionist, easy to move.”
Sitting in a circle, a fierce group, chanting in unison to keep the badness out and do our utmost to put things right, just as they were and how they should be.
Joe thought of his stay at The Scrubs D wing, with George Elwood and his fetish for women’s underwear.
But let’s go back to the beginning, when it all started to end.
He couldn’t believe it! Flight had kept them. There they were, waiting for him; twelve Victorian Impressionist paintings worth–off the cuff–six million rand, and all his. AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 19
the
20 | AUTHORS MAGAZINE
BIG IS
SSUE of little space
by Sally Cook
I’ve written before that when we moved to the UK and I first opened the door to our modest end-of-terrace, my then four-year-old son immediately asked where the rest of our house was. He genuinely couldn’t understand why we’d left his spacious home in South Africa and travelled across a continent to live in a tiny half-house in Windsor. He kept saying: “But why? I just don’t understand why.” I did what I always do as an emotionally crippled mother when I don’t know what to say and the cracks start showing, I fobbed him off with a distraction. But actually, as is often the case with the unwitting wisdom of the fledglings, he touched a nerve. And not the emotional cripple mother one. That’s another nerve. For another day. As I’ve mentioned a few times, I was raised with a blue horizon that stretched as far as the eye could see. Hills and valleys formed the backdrop of my day. Every day. This supreme sense of space framed my reality. It’s a part of who I am. Losing it still feels rather unnatural. More unnatural than having shite weather for 10 months of the year. It’s one of the most
difficult adjustments to life that I’ve had to wrap my head around. It’s something that you never quite get over, either. You just try to learn how to deal with it. Like fat corrupt incompetent politicians stealing from the people to line their pockets and the curtains for their mansion. A screwing from Sars. Inflation at 6.3%. Forking over a small fortune to DSTV every month for 400 channels when you only ever watch four. Properties sprawl in South Africa and a terrace is a flat grass or paved area built up alongside a slope. In the UK urban areas, properties are stacked like dominos and a terrace has a completely different meaning. Terraces are a row of mirror-image houses that share side walls. Built as a means to provide high-density accommodation for the working class in the 19th century, terraced houses remain popular today. By 2011, a fifth of all new houses built were terraced. They’re easier to convert as few are listed (which means they’re architecturally or historical important and therefore protected from major alteration) making planning permission unnecessary. And, according to The English Heritage Trust, they’re 60% cheaper to maintain on average than semi-detached or detached homes. As a person from the South, life in a terraced home AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 21
takes some getting used to. Before moving to the UK, we knew our neighbours - in that we knew they existed. There was a house next to ours. People lived in it. We exchanged numbers for security purposes, but we rarely saw or heard them. Here, it’s rare not to see your neighbours. Or your neighbour’s neighbours and theirs, and so on. You see them parking their cars in the street. You spot them over the fence in their garden. You hear when they come home late. You hear the scraping of chairs on their patio. The sound of bins being dragged on to the pavement on bin day. You smell when they crank up the gas braai. You’re aware of people around you. All of the time. Just as aware as we are of them, they must be of us. Unless they’re stone deaf or blind, there’s no way they don’t notice us. They hear when my kids bawl in the bath because the one clubbed the other over the head with Dora the Explorer and the third has rubbed an entire bottle of shampoo onto their genitals. They hear the shrieks of delight when their dad chases them around the garden or I come outside carrying ice-cream cones. They see my eldest climbing a tree buck-naked, my daughter watering the walls, buck-naked. They see when my toddler son, yep you guessed it... buck-naked, squats and poos on the decking and then uses a plastic spade to smear it all over the outside furniture. They see me hose him down and dash inside for the disinfectant. They hear both of our howls. We share a space simply divided by two walls. Side by side, we raise our children. We deal with the drama of the day. We dream for the future. We lead our lives in such close proximity, and yet we’re strangers. I have a friend who uttered the first word to her neighbour after a decade of living alongside one another. How utterly bonkers. A space oddity indeed. When I’m a grown-up, I’m going to find a field and build a house. With no up-close view of another house. Where my kids can crap unnoticed on a lawn that takes longer than 10 minutes to mow. Our neighbours will be cows. Of the bovine variety. Not the other kind. I’ll happily swap Costa Coffee, Tesco and Gap on my doorstep for a space to call my own. When I’m a grown-up... so in a few years yet. But you saw it here first. Our neighbours heard it first of course. They hear everything. *Originally posted on So Many Miles From Normal 22 | AUTHORS MAGAZINE
LOOK
KINGBACK! 12MONTHS
OVER THE PAST
AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 23
every country has In a country rife with violent crime, it’s strange to think that certain things are still considered a taboo subject for the general public. Sometimes a South African news outlet will post a brief update on muti-murders, the victims or the culprits involved, but news reporters tend not to touch these stories with a ten foot pole. The question is why? Why do muti-crimes go unnoticed by local and international media? South African author, Monique Snyman, who recently released her debut horror novel, Muti Nation, was intrigued by this question and subsequently decided to explore the subject. “When I submitted my manuscript to publishers and agents, most of them thought I was selling bizarro fiction or shock horror, which obviously doesn’t translate well into a mainstream market. As a result, I received a ton of rejection letters, because they’ve never even heard of muti-killings before,” Monique Snyman said in regards to her publishing journey for this particular novel. “Omnium Gatherum Books, however, saw the brilliance in my madness and decided to sign me up. But I still find it strange when people question the authenticity of these crimes occurring in real life.” Don’t let her bubbly, youthful façade fool you, though. Snyman is no stranger to the publishing industry. She has worked as an author, editor, and book reviewer for almost a decade. She has published two other novels in a different genre, numerous short stories, as well as non-fiction articles about writing and editing. Muti Nation, however, is not just a story about mutimurders, and it’s certainly not a full-blown horror novel. It has many crime-thriller tendencies. The story follows three different point of views; that of the main protagonist—Esmé Snyders—an occult crime expert, that of the serial killer, as well as an omnipotent third that follows both their journeys. The book is also sprinkled with romance scenes that have been praised by readers and critics alike.
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SECRE “I’m not a romance writer, but apparently I have a knack for getting readers all hot and bothered,” Snyman said. Snyman also touches on other controversial subjects, such as the current state of South African mainstream media, religious biases, sexism, and shines a new light on cold cases and the suffering of victims. “Muti Nation was mentally exhausting, because I aimed to expose our dirty laundry to the world. But I wanted to do it in such a way as to be thought-provoking and entertaining, and without the underlining racial tension that always seems to be present in novels about South Africa. I also wanted people to question the integrity of our media, to remember the victims, and to realise that monsters don’t necessarily always look different to us.” Muti Nation has been well-received by readers, critics, and authors on the local as well as international circuit, and is available in eBook and paperback through Amazon, and can be purchased online via Takealot.com, Readerswarehouse.co.za, Loot.co.za, and Raru.co.za. While Snyman hopes for international recognition from various horror award committees this year, her ultimate goal is to enlighten the world to the heinous and brutal crimes committed in South Africa. In the meantime, she is researching the sequel to Muti Nation, exploring a myriad of ideas for other books, and editing established authors’ works for renowned South African independent publishing house, Crystal Lake Publishing. And when she’s not doing any of the above, she is planning her wedding to the love of her life. For more information about Monique Snyman and her work, please visit http://www.charmingincantations. com
s its
ETS
AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 25
Extract from Muti Nation
he had a calling at the South African Police Service. My Dad’s not that old, he’s only forty-six, so he’s not reached his golden years yet. The force didn’t agree with him, though.
Too often people mistake monsters for gods.
God knows this wouldn’t have been my choice of veld for an outdoor quickie.
The burnt orange skies illuminate the world in a warm glow as dusk comes to a close. Several stars already shine against the romantic evening backdrop, where orange turns to mauve and then to navy blue. Tonight the moon has a Cheshire cat quality to it, and I feel like Alice in Wonderland – or more accurately, like Esmé in Death Valley. Long yellow grass reaches up to my hips as I push my way through the open veld between WF Nkomo Street and the Magalies Freeway. Blue and red lights flash on top of the police cars at timed intervals where they are parked at the Sasol garage, on top of the hill. An eerie sound—a warped version of Mandoza’s up-beat hit Nkalakatha—drifts through the area as a taxi drives past the veld. Someone else honks in approval. Then there’s just the lull of traffic, the chirping crickets, and the rushing water of the swelled Skinnerspruit to drown out the silence.
Le parfum de la mort, the unforgettable fragrance of decay and faecal matter, wafts through the air like cheap perfume. My stomach churns in disagreement, but I keep my lunch down like a professional. The atmosphere is thick with despair, almost palpable, and even the least superstitious police officers can feel it. Something bad happened here. Something most South Africans, regardless of race, religion, intellect and profession don’t acknowledge out of fear.
A shadow of a smile crosses Detective Mosepi’s face, probably as he recalls fond memories of having my father as a partner.
“You again,” Detective Mosepi, a robust middle-aged man with a brusque temper, asks gruffly when I near him. He glances back to his notepad and scribbles something down. “Not wearing our Gucci heels today, hmm? Good thing, too. I know how women get when they ruin those expensive shoes.”
I raise an eyebrow in question, which makes him sigh in defeat.
Several uniformed police officers are standing ahead. Some look bored, but it’s a façade of bravado. Others wear a tinge of green around the cheeks, a perfectly normal response. A few are talking in hushed tones in languages I can’t understand. And then there are the two teenagers who’d called it in. The blonde girl is huddled up in the boy’s arms; she’s a blubbering mess. Tears and mucus streak her otherwise pretty face, knotted hair sticks to her skin where the day’s heat still clings against her small form. She’s trembling, but nobody can blame her. The boy looks in better shape, though not by much. He’s pale and staring into the distance, maybe wishing he could relive today. Perhaps he wishes he’d taken his girl to another secluded field for some “alone time” instead.
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Detective Mosepi is good at his job. With a single glance, he can recount every detail of a person’s attire. He sees evidence when others deem the find inconsequential. His memory isn’t too bad either. I’ve known him most of my life. My father and he worked at the same precinct until Dad’s retirement from the force a few years ago. Back then Detective Mosepi was energetic and ready to change the world for the better, but the job ate away at his soul, like it does to most cops. I give the scene a fleeting look, curious about what lies beyond the shrubbery and uniforms. “How’s your pa?” “Enjoying the new job, sir,” I answer. People always ask and the answer never changes. Dad’s more alive now in an accounting office than when he thought
“What’s the story here, Detective?” I ask to get the ball rolling. “Those two,” he gestures to the teenagers a way away, “were up to no good in the grass when they found the victim about an hour ago. The victim is a black female in her mid-twenties.” The vague explanation doesn’t help.
“Possible rape, definite mutilation and murder. The usual stuff you’re called out for.” Detective Mosepi is uncomfortable. I can see it in his body language and eyes. I don’t blame him or anyone else for feeling odd. These types of cases tend to make police curt and impolite. But then, I need more to go on if I’m going to do my job. “Is the forensics unit coming?” “Maybe, but don’t bet on them being any help. You know we don’t have the funding for fancy CSI gadgets.” I nod because it’s true. The forensics team only comes out for prolific cases and this murder wouldn’t make the local newspaper’s headlines if reporters were informed of the true nature of the case. It’s much too sensitive for the media, the government, and the people. “Have you found any identification for the victim?” Detective Mosepi looks over his shoulder and barks out a command in isiZulu. An officer shouts something
back, before the detective turns his attention to me again. “They bagged a purse, which might’ve belonged to the victim. I’ll send you the details later, after processing,” he says. “Thank you,” I say. He huffs, pockets his notebook, and heads toward the shrubbery. “Come on, let’s get this over with.” I’m already behind him, stepping where his feet have landed, and readying myself for the inevitable shock. Even though I’d seen dozens of homicide victims in the past few years, each one remains unique. Dad used to drag me along to his crime scenes when I was a kid, much to my grandfather’s dismay— so I know what’s coming once I’m past the shrubbery. I fish my cellphone out of my purse and search for the audio recording app I’ve downloaded to capture initial thoughts and ideas. Detective Mosepi steps out of the way when we reach the taped-off area. The rest of the hovering officials clear out so I can do my quick investigation, and I’m left with the full, grotesque picture. It takes me a moment to mentally shake myself into action. “Esmé Snyders, Occult Crime Expert, Case Number 137. It is approximately 1800 hours on Friday, 4 September 2015,” I say to my phone as I move around the border of the crime scene. “The victim is a black female, aged between twenty-six and thirty years. Height is average, at around 1,70 meters, and weight is about 85 kilograms. Clothing includes a turquoise peplum top and matching pencil skirt— cut off and discarded roughly two metres from the body—as well as black underwear and a pair of black open-toe heels.” The woman’s nude form looks like it’s been exposed to the elements for a couple of days judging by the insect activity surrounding the body; but I
could be wrong. I’m not an entomologist. She’s sprawled on her back; the extent of misery she was forced to endure in those last few minutes—or hours—on display for all to see. And with those empty eye-sockets and her slack jaw, the woman’s expression is frozen in a silent scream. I can’t become too emotionally involved though, not if I want to stay sane. So I push away my emotions, however heartless it may seem, and continue in a monotonous voice. “Breasts and genitals have been removed, presumably pre-mortem. Defensive lacerations on her palms may confirm theory. DNA evidence of assailant or assailants might be present underneath fingernails. Eyes, tongue and lips are also missing.” I walk around the body again, studying the evidence as much as possible underneath the single spotlight, erected nearby. “Further investigative information is required to determine whether the victim is, beyond a reasonable doubt, another muti-murder fatality. The preliminary evidence, however, is overwhelming.” I stop my recording, take a few pictures of the scene as well as the victim for my records, and make my way back to where Detective Mosepi is waiting with the kids.
more often than not, imminent. “This is Mina van der Schyff and Adhir Ibrahim.” He introduces the teenagers who found the body when I reach their location. They still look like their worlds have ended, but at least the girl has stopped crying. “I’ve notified their parents of their whereabouts and we’ll take them in for questioning, but I don’t think we’ll get anything useful out of them tonight,” Detective Mosepi whispers to me. I nod in agreement. “Do you want to sit in on the interview?” “It’s not necessary; just send me their details with the rest of the files,” I whisper back. “But I would like to read the victim’s family and friends’ statements. If you can arrange it for me, I’ll owe you one.” The detective glances over my shoulder, looks back at me, and nods. “I’ll walk you back to your car.” I begin to protest, but the look he gives me says not to bother. I swallow my words and make my way back to the Sasol garage where I’d parked alongside the police vehicles. We walk in silence until we’ve distanced ourselves from the activity. He steals a look again. “It’s getting worse, isn’t it?”
He gives me a worried look, but doesn’t ask the question I know he’s dying to ask: Are you okay?
“The ritual murder rate has risen, regardless of the official statements the government releases. Yes.”
Am I okay?
“How bad?” Detective Mosepi asks.
I don’t know. I’ve seen worse, but it doesn’t get easier. Every victim suffers in ways I can’t possibly comprehend. It is part of the ritual: the more they suffer, the more potent the ingredient will be for the witchdoctor’s magic. Of course, murder isn’t always the intended outcome, but the victims’ wounds are usually of such a nature that death is,
I grit my teeth. The statistics aren’t pretty, not by a longshot. As I am one of the few occult experts on the continent, I get to see the majority of the violent crimes committed. It’s become a pandemic of sorts, and everyone is at risk, but nobody talks about it. My silence answers his question. =
AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 27
A NEW WORLD ORDER? by Ian Tennent
I think it’s fair to say, where published authors are concerned, the best seats at the global feeding trough have traditionally been dominated by the older crowd. In fact, cast your eye down just about any of the NY Times fiction bestselling lists since they were first launched way back in 1931 and you quickly realise that this phenomenon is nothing new. Indeed it makes perfect sense when you consider that many authors only turn to writing in their later years, once they’ve built up reservoirs of life experience, confidence and wealth. The above notwithstanding the literary world is awash with middle age authors who slogged through their early writing years with nothing to show for it, before making their breakthroughs. So much so that at one point it seemed to have become somewhat of a mythical rite of passage that one had to endure before one could deign to refer to oneself as a successful author: if you hadn’t cried a river or bled a bucket-load en route to becoming a success, then you were largely irrelevant. A flash in the pan, nothing more.
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Happily, it seems the times they are a-changing. Certainly as far as commercial fiction is concerned. In recent years a brave new battalion of young, hip and happening authors have emerged. Authors who seem to have defied the odds as well as the slog-foryour-life tradition. These authors may be young, but they are incredibly streetwise despite their youth. They know their genres, they know their audience and they know how to reach them. In a word, they are savvy. And it shows. In the digital age they are are masters at personal branding and social media marketing, both areas in which the more mature authors among us are prone to neglect. And by mature, I mean authors over the age of 35. Many of whom still cling to the idea that a good story will sell itself. Chances are, it won’t. By now we’ve probably all heard of authors such as Veronica Roth (aged 28) with her bestselling Divergent series, Sarah J. Maas (aged 30) with her bestselling series: Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses, Marissa Meyer (aged 32) with her Lunar Chronicles series, Victoria Aveyard (aged 26) with her Red Queen series, Erika Johansen (38) with her Queen of the Tearling series, Amanda Hocking (32) with just way too many bestseller series to mention! But these young authors, while undoubtedly at the top of the pile, are merely the tip of the young guns iceberg. Behind
them, more and more young guns are making their way through the ranks, making their presence known and making a decent living off their craft along the way. So, what’s driving this change? The first thing that stands out about this crowd is the fact that demographically, their books fall in the Young Adult bracket, within Fantasy, Dystopian and other speculative fiction genres. The second thing, is the word ‘series’. Most young up and coming authors these days are ploughing their efforts into creating series, rather than standalone books, for the numerous benefits that writing a series brings: retention of characters, world-building efforts and reader base to name a few. No doubt many factors are contributing to this upwelling of youthful exuberance but one salient factor to consider is the following: The Pew Research Center survey of the reading habits of American readers has been showing a steady, year on year decline in the percentage of American adults who read. Since the survey was first introduced in 2011, based on their data and metrics, percentages have dropped from 79% in 2011 to 72% in 2015. Apparently this decline is occurring across all formats: print, digital, and audio. The same survey found that young adults (those in the 18 to 29 year old bracket) were the most avid
readers. No surprise then, that Young Adult literature is booming. So much so that a full quarter of all authors on the Top-Earning Authors List for 2015 penned Young Adult literature, even if the authors were no longer “young” themselves. These authors pocketed a combined $83 million in 2015, up 53% from the $54 million haul top-earning YA authors recorded in 2014. To be fair many of these sales were driven by Hollywood: many of these YA books found a home on the big screen, which in turn drove traditional movie-goers to go out and purchase the books, but that fact only cements the notion that Young Adult literature is booming. But perhaps the more pertinent question to ask is why Young Adult literature is booming in the first place? Currently this question is probably provoking more debate and factionalism in literary circles than any other. Some critics, such as Ruth Graham and AO Scott have launched particularly scathing attacks at adults who read these young escapist stories and have even gone so far as to claim that culturally we are collapsing into permanent adolescence. For these critics, young adult literature is the leading cause of ‘the death of adulthood’ and, for all intents and purposes, the antiChrist to serious adult literature. But this still doesn’t explain why so many adults are motivated to read books aimed at a much
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younger audience at the expense of ‘serious literature’. For many, the fault lies with the current crop of ‘serious literature’ itself, which tend to be characterised by negativity and focus on ‘all too real’ doom and gloom scenarios such as midlife crisis in a world where the protagonists are made to feel insignificant and impotent. By contrast, Young Adult literature tends to be more triumphant in nature with protagonists who can and do make a massive difference to the societies within which they exist. It’s interesting to note that more and more, the true villain of Young Adult stories coalesces as the ‘adult’ world itself (think Hunger Games, or Divergent, or
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The Maze Runner). And is it really so surprising that, in an overly complex world losing its way in a morass of rampant inequality, racial intolerance, civil strife, burgeoning debt and scarcity of resources, where the individual is made to feel insignificant and impotent, that escape is being sought more frequently? In any event, for whatever the reasons as mentioned earlier, Young Adult literature is booming and who better placed to take advantage of this boom than savvy young adults themselves. Authors who are closely aligned with their audience’s
reading habits, desires, thought processes and entertainment and communication culture. Looking at the above, one can’t help but wonder at these literary trends, at the fact that in the literary arena, as in other pursuits ranging from music to sport to politics, business and beyond, the major players seem to be getting younger. In the words of arguably the greatest YA author of them all: “Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth.” – J. K. Rowling.
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AUTHOR FOCUS
ASHLEIGHGIANNOCCARO by Melissa Delport Amazon best-selling author Ashleigh Giannoccaro lives in Jozi, AKA Johannesburg, South Africa with her high school sweetheart also known as her husband and two young daughters. She loves sunshine and psychopaths, her blood type is coffee and she has a pet Meerkat called Porky. She is a full time mom and author, and while she looks like a soccer mom on the surface, her books are another story. As a youngster, Ashleigh grew up devouring thrillers and crime fiction, favouring Jeffrey Deaver, yet all the while reading Sweet Valley High to fit in with her friends. When thrillers didn’t give her the love and the romance novels didn’t pack the punch she needed Ashleigh discovered the small genre of Dark Romance and her heart was happy. Here’s where the lines of right and wrong become blurred and the bad guy gets the girl, Ashleigh found the perfect balance of what she was looking for in a book. When the time came to write her own stories she knew exactly what they would be; dark and twisted with just enough love. Colour My Ugly was published in October 2014 and since then it’s been a whirlwind of words and adventure that included a trip to the Books Are Bigger in Texas signing in April 2016 and six novels being let out into the universe to challenge readers and leave a lasting mark. Her Colour Series novels are dark romance set within the lives of three crime families. Ashleigh wants you to fall in love with the villain, because after all they need love too. Three full length novels span three generations and challenge ideas such as nature vs. nurture. Sometimes Ashleigh conducts psychiatric experiments in between the pages, like that one time she let two sociopaths fall in love. To her the bad guy doesn’t need to be redeemed to get the happy ending. The best-selling Red Market Series followed when she teamed up with Mary E. Palmerin to see just how dark a love story could be. The series pushed limits that had never before been pushed and quickly become known as the darkest of dark reads. The two book series attained best-seller status on Amazon, even though Ashleigh and Mary both believed it would be banned on release day. She still asks herself “who does that?” about this series quite regularly. Once again writing solo, Ashleigh has turned a poll she compiled for her readers, asking about their biggest fears, and turned it into a psycho-erotic thriller about a clown. Cirque will make you forget how much you fear them and hopefully make you fall in love with the painted faces. A dark magical look inside the broken minds of two characters with the circus in their blood, Cirque is something completely different and new, even for Ashleigh. When she’s not dreaming up crazy stories or creating villains for you to love, Ashleigh spends her time reading and supporting the Indie author community. Ashleigh has a passion for words and is constantly seeking new ones to read and write. 32 | AUTHORS MAGAZINE
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Excerpt from...
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CIRQUE Act 1 ~ Imogene “That man has secrets buried so deep they might never see the light of day. I saw him at dinner, the way those eyes were down and his mind seemed to be a million miles away. I don’t know why but I feel this bad idea coming on, this idea that I want to know what he hides away from the world, that golden boy smile and rugby player body are too good to be true. There is always a reason that a man like him has no woman, or wedding ring. There is a dark, dirty skeleton hanging in his wardrobe, and I want to pull it out and see how it looks in daylight. We all have skeletons, I like to slow dance with mine, but most people hide them away so no one ever sees them. Well I want to be his no one, I want to climb inside those thoughts and pull him apart. He might be Samantha’s brother, but the minute I laid eyes on Sivan I felt a deep pull inside me, that same feeling I get when I swing from the trapeze and let go, the free falling grab that gravity has on your belly making the possible fall so much more real. Then you grab on and catch yourself. Falling is dangerous. Any sort of falling is going to get you hurt. Don’t fall. Sam has lived in the flat opposite me for four years now, we are friends, some days a little more than friends. She has this self destructive nature where she puts herself in harm’s way on purpose. Daring bad things to happen to her, asking for trouble to come and destroy her fragile little heart, then waiting for someone to save her. Usually it’s Sivan or her mother, and for a while even me, until I learned a little about how she worked. Sam takes no responsibility for herself, the stripping is a prime example of her self loathing. She doesn’t need to do it, but she needs to fall so someone can save her when she does. The thing is, one day no one will be there and she is going to hit the ground hard, she will shatter and break, and once you’re broken you can’t be saved – only mended. A sick part of me wants to be the one who breaks her, watching her thud down without her safety net beneath her. I am jealous because I don’t have a net. I only have me. When I saw her brother watching the Cirque performance I had an evil thought, a little idea of just how to remove her net. It would be easy you see, because he was watching me. When
Sam arrived at work that night in tears because her brother saw her at work with all his rugby mates, I pushed her away. I told her she was an attention whore and if he was upset she deserved it, imagine how embarrassed he is, all the blokes saw you naked. I helped her fall with my harsh words. “Sam, you act like whore. That’s what you are going to be treated as. Your brother just saw your true colours and they are fucking ugly.” The tears welled in her eyes through the whole performance, but I didn’t see them at all. No, because I saw him watching me again. I perform just for him. I am not connected to her tonight and it shows, we are slightly off and I know we will get it at practice tomorrow. I did nothing to adjust. I just watched him as he watched me. Secrets. He left before we came out of backstage, and I was disappointed. The drive home in his car was quiet as Sam silently fumed at me, I could still smell him in the car. A distinct smell of clean cologne and man — probably sweaty rugby togs somewhere. I let the smell and the image of his hooded eyes watching me take me away from the anger and shame swallowing up the air in the car, as Sam gets angrier and angrier.”
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Much of the popular, HBO television series Game of Thrones was filmed in Northern Ireland. I visited over the summer and plotted a route that took in some of its dramatic locations. The television extravaganza is based on a cycle of fantasy novels, A Song of Ice and Fire, by American author George RR Martin. The first volume in the series is A Game of Thrones, published in 1996. So far, Martin has written five out of a planned seven volumes. A Game of Thrones is set on the fictional continents of Essos and Westeros. The point of view of each chapter is the limited perspective provided by one character (growing from nine in the first novel to 31 in the fifth). The narrative entails a dynastic war between powerful families for control of Westeros,
the rising threat of supernatural creatures from the ice-bound north and the regal ambitions of Daenerys Targaryen, the deposed king’s exiled (and very beautiful) daughter. It’s a swashbuckling, bodice-ripping, swordbrandishing, dragon-riding romp through a parallel medieval Europe. There are two main areas worth visiting to view Game of Thrones locales in Northern Island. South of Belfast lies Castle Ward, which is recast as Winterfell in the series. There are nine locations on this vast estate. A 16thcentury tower and adjacent stable yard provide the site for Winterfell (plenty of computer-generated imagery transforms the place into a formidable fortress). Visitors can don medieval costume
and learn the basics of sword fighting and archery, re-enacting scenes from the series. At the end of our Winterfell tour, the weakest archer in our group was summarily beheaded … as one does. Just down the hill, on the wooded shores of Strangford Lough, lies 15thcentury Tower House, location of Robb’s Camp in the Riverlands (we watched the scene on an iPad in situ). Close by, is the battlefield of Baelor and the spot where Brienne of Tarth dispatched three Stark banner-men. Luckily we still had our swords with us, just in case. Just west of Castle Ward is Tollymore Forest. This lovely park, covering 630 hectares, was used as the back lot for many scenes, including Tyrion and
Cl
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Jon’s camp on their journey north to the wall, the spot where Wills finds dismembered bodies in the snow and the bridge where the Starks discover a dead direwolf and her pups. There are also a number of locations north of Belfast along the scenic Causeway Route. The land here is evergreen and spliced with hedgerows leading down to sandy coves. If the weather weren’t inclement for so much of the year, this would be a beach Mecca. We passed Magheramorne Quarry, site of Castle Black and the Wall. Stopping at Carrick-a-Rede, we took the swaying hang bridge across a channel of green ocean to a picture-postcard island with a single white-washed cottage and fishing boat. It’s a place I could have been happily marooned for a month
or twelve. The hang bridge marks the spot where one of the lords of the Iron Islands meets his fate in season six of the series. On we drove, along a shoreline that grew more comely at every turn. The North Atlantic stretched to the horizon in a sheet of blue velvet and rolling hills reached down to the water’s edge. Ballintoy Harbour on the County Antrim coast features as the Iron Islands’ Pyke Harbour. This is the boyhood home of Theon Greyjoy, to which he returns (in season two) after many years abroad. This is also where Ser Davos seeks the help of Salladhor Saan for the Battle of Blackwater Bay. Finally, we visited the Dark Hedges, a moody avenue of beech trees planted in the 18th century by the Stuart family. It was intended as an iconic landscape
feature that led visitors to the Georgian mansion of Gracehill House. Two centuries later, the trees remain a splendid sight and have become one of the most photographed locations in Northern Ireland. It was down this avenue, recast as the King’s Road in the series, that Arya and Gendry escape King’s Landing. With interlocking branches and bathed in soft light, it was the perfect place to end our Game of Thrones meander through the northern reaches of the emerald isle. To tour these sites, either hire a car and visit them on your own, or join an organised tour, web www.gameofthronestours.com. To plan your trip, contact Tourism Ireland, tel 011-463-1132, www.ireland.com.
leavage
EGULAR BEHEADINGS and lots of
Justin Fox visits Northern Ireland, only to find himself all got up in medieval costume, sword in hand, re-enacting scenes from Game of Thrones.
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Reads recommended
Title: Mount Author: Jilly Cooper Humorous Erotica In Jilly Cooper’s latest, raciest novel, Rupert Campbell-Black takes centre stage in the cut-throat world of flat racing.
Title: Bullseye Author: James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge Suspense Thriller As the most powerful men on earth gather in New York for a meeting of the UN, Detective Michael Bennett receives intelligence warning that there will be an assassination attempt on the US president. Even more shocking, the intelligence suggests that the Russian government could be behind the plot. Tensions between America and Russia are the highest they’ve been since the Cold War, but this would be an escalation no one could have expected. The details are shadowy, and Bennett finds false leads and unreliable sources at every turn. But he can’t afford to get this wrong. If the plotters succeed, the shockwaves will be felt across the globe. 36 | AUTHORS MAGAZINE
Rupert is consumed by one obsession: that Love Rat, his adored grey horse, be proclaimed champion stallion. He longs to trounce Roberto’s Revenge, the stallion owned by his detested rival Cosmo Rannaldini, which means abandoning his racing empire at Penscombe and his darling wife Taggie, and chasing winners in the richest races worldwide, from Dubai to Los Angeles to Melbourne. Luckily, the fort at home is held by Rupert’s assistant Gav, a genius with horses, fancied by every stable lass, but damaged by alcoholism and a vile wife. When Gala, a grieving but ravishing Zimbabwean widow moves to Penscombe as carer for Rupert’s wayward father, it is not just Gav who is attracted to her: a returning Rupert finds himself dangerously tempted. Gala adores horses, and when she switches to working in the yard, her carer’s job is taken by a devastatingly handsome South African man who claims to be gay but seems far keener on caring for the angelic Taggie. And as increasingly sinister acts of sabotage strike at Penscombe, the game of musical loose boxes gathers apace . . .
Title: Sting Author: Sandra Brown Mystery and suspense When Jordie Bennet and Shaw Kinnard lock eyes across a disreputable backwater bar, something definitely sparks. Shaw gives off a dangerous vibe that makes men wary and inspires women to sit up and take notice. None feel that undercurrent more strongly than savvy businesswoman Jordie, who doesn’t belong in a seedy dive on the banks of a bayou. But here she is . . . and Shaw Kinnard is here to kill her. As Shaw and his partner take aim, Jordie is certain her time has come. But Shaw has other plans and abducts Jordie, hoping to get his hands on the $30 million her brother has stolen and, presumably, hidden. However, Shaw is not the only one looking for the fortune. Her brother’s ruthless boss and the FBI are after it as well. Now on the run from the feds and a notorious criminal, Jordie and Shaw must rely on their wits - and each other - to stay alive.
Title: The Woman in Cabin 10 Author: Ruth Ware Murder, Crime From the bestselling author of Richard and Judy pick, In A Dark, Dark Wood comes Ruth Ware’s next compulsive page-turner ‘A rollicking page-turner that reads like Agatha Christie got together with Paula Hawkins to crowdsource a really fun thriller’ - Stylist This was meant to be the perfect trip. The Northern Lights. A luxury press launch on a boutique cruise ship.
Miles away from civilization and surrounded by swampland, the two play each other against their common enemies. Jordie’s only chance of survival is to outwit Shaw, but it soon becomes clear to Shaw that Jordie isn’t entirely trustworthy, either. Was she in on her brother’s scam, or is she an innocent pawn in a deadly vendetta? And just how valuable is her life to Shaw, her remorseless and manipulative captor? Burning for answers-and for each other-this unlikely pair ultimately make a desperate move that could be their last.
A chance for travel journalist Lo Blacklock to recover from a traumatic break-in that has left her on the verge of collapse, and to work out what she wants from her relationship.
With nonstop plot twists and the tantalizing sexual tension that has made Sandra Brown one of the world’s best-loved authors, STING will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the final pages.
Exhausted, emotional and increasingly desperate, Lo has to face the fact that she may have made a terrible mistake. Or she is trapped on a boat with a murderer – and she is the sole witness...
Except things don’t go as planned. Woken in the night by screams, Lo rushes to her window to see a body thrown overboard from the next door cabin. But the records show that no-one ever checked into that cabin, and no passengers are missing from the boat.
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AUTHORS
MAGAZINE
NOVEMBER 2016
RACHELMORGAN BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE YA FANTASY SERIES
CREEPY HOLLOW