ON THE COUCH WITH
Zwai Bala
PERCY PUBLISHING
Pubisher with a Vision
AMANDA PROWSE
Life imitating Art AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 1
ditor
A message from the
Forget eggs,
I want a book buny!
It seems that we have only just seen the back of all that pink and red candy that festooned stores in February, and yet, the Easter madness has already begun. Time moves far too quickly, and I can’t seem to catch my breath – thank you 2016! Everywhere I look there is chocolate as far as the eye can see – chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies, chocolate chickens – grocery aisles have become a veritable smorgasbord of sweet treats that will do nothing to further my New Year’s Resolution to stay away from sugar. Not that I’ve been that that committed, anyway! Having three young children under the age of 8, there is no hope that I can avoid the Easter escapades. I will be filling my trolley with mountains of eggs, which I will attempt to hide until the special day dawns. Some eggs won’t make it, and I will stash wrappers in the bottom of the bin, trying to alleviate the guilt that I feel at having denied my children of more white hollow eggs. More eggs will be bought to replace these guilty pleasures, along with a few added extras to lift my mommy score-card, and the entire process will be repeated until the 27th arrives, or I admit myself into casualty for a sugar overdose. Then there is the dreaded 4 am wake up call, which entails me and my better half tiptoeing out into the cold, to hide the bounty before the children wake up. I will spend the remainder of the weekend bemoaning the rocketing price of chocolate, all while shopping up a storm online in search of new books that I may or may not get around to reading. As always, our March issue features a host of writers’ tips – in
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depth articles written by our talented author contributors. Ian Tennent’s “The Devil is in the details” article focuses on author research – an absolute must to lend credibility to your story. Have a manuscript lurking in your bottom drawer that has yet to see the light of day? Cat Hellisen will let you know what to do with it. Nerine Dorman also gives an amazing insight into the world of Fan-Fiction this month. We interviewed Amanda Prowse for our cover this month, and there are so many reasons why. This talented author originally self-published her novel, Poppy Day, but went on to sign a publishing contract with Head of Zeus Publishing. Amanda holds a degree in English Literature but she claims it’s the study of human nature that has taught her the most. In this issue we also delve into the world of book publicity – the pros and cons, and exactly what a good publicist can do for your brand that you can’t. As always, we wish you and your loved ones a safe and happy Easter, filled with chocolate eggs, and spectacular books! My March to-read list includes the likes of Shonda Rhimes’ The Year of Yes, The Short Drop by Matthew FitzSimmons, and The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. What will you be reading this month? Tweet us @authorsmag and let us know!
Melissa Delport
Contents COVER FEATURE
04
AMANDA PROWSE Life Imitating Art
ARTICLES
PUBLISHER Lesiba Morallane ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Sardia Mustapher MANAGING EDITOR Shalate Davhana EDITOR Marion Marchand ASSISTANT EDITOR Joan Hack ADVERTISING COMMUNICATION Dineo Mahloele
10 14 20 22 26
PERCY PUBLISHING Publisher with a Vision THE MONSTER IN THE BOTTOM DRAWER ASK MY PUBLICIST FAN FICTION: Guilty Pleasure... or Literary Treasures RESEARCH: The Devil is in the Detail
REGULARS A Message from the Editor.........................................................02 On the Couch.....................................................................................17 Sallys Sanity A Milestone worth Marking...........................................................18 Justin Fox Snowbound with Pamuk................................................................28 Recommended Reads...................................................................30
LAYOUT AND DESIGN Apple Pie Graphics Tel: 079 885 4494 CONTRIBUTORS Melissa Delport Cat Hellisen Dineo Mahloele Sally Cook Nerine Dorman Ian Tennent Justin Fox
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
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AMANDA PROWSE “Amanda Prowse writes contemporary fiction.” This could, quite possibly, be the understatement of the century. Amanda, who started her professional writing career in 2011, has released no less than 11 full-length novels and 5 novellas in the five years since. Not only does she write books faster than most people take to read them, but she does it magnificently! Her books have made her a household name and a bestselling author. yourself are married to a soldier. How much of your own personal experience did you draw upon in writing this book?
Amanda’s author journey, however, was certainly not without heartache. Her debut novel, Poppy Day, was rejected by every publisher she submitted it to, but this bubbly blonde was nothing if not determined. Amanda had faith in the story she had written and so she opted to self-publish. Poppy Day went on to sell over 25,000 copies, earning itself bestseller status, and Amanda was soon approached by a literary agent. She signed a traditional publishing contract with Head of Zeus and her second release, the number one bestseller What Have I Done, went on to sell 250,000 copies in a few short months. As well as her enormous talent, her dogged determination and her prolific output, Amanda also attributes her success to hard work, a whole lot of luck and a positive outlook. This Bristol mother of two doesn’t take life too seriously and has been known to suffer fits of giggles at the most inappropriate times. Melissa Delport of Author’s Magazine was nothing short of ecstatic to interview this delightful, down-toearth author: Often, in the creative sphere, life imitates art. Your first novel, Poppy Day tells the story of an army wife whose unwavering love for her husband gives her the courage to rescue him from being held hostage in Afghanistan. You
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I think in hindsight this book was me playing out my worst fears on paper. It was certainly a lot cheaper than therapy! In all seriousness, as an army wife, fear of that ‘knock on the door’ is very real and it certainly helped in creating a character who was believable. I wrote it while my husband was away on tour and so it wasn’t hard to imagine the gut-churning heartache of separation. I think that certainly made it easier to write. Thankfully my man continues to come home unscathed, and for that I am thankful each and every day. All of your books in the No Greater Love series share a common theme in
that the main characters are ordinary women, just like you and I, who find themselves in extraordinary situations for love. What inspired this theme, and what message do you want readers to take away from the series? I am passionate about women supporting women and the themes of my novels echo this. I want to empower women through my stories by saying, you are strong! You are amazing! You are not alone! No matter how dark ahead the road might seem, how lonely, how tough, you don’t know what is around the next corner, so hang in there! What were you doing before you started writing? I was working in data analytics... Zzzzzzzzzzz. I cannot make this sound
LIFE
A
imitating
ART
g
by Melissa Delport
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Excerpt READ AN
‘That’s it! Breathe, my love! You are doing great, Jacks! Breathe!’ Pete puffed with bloated cheeks and lips pursed. All inhibitions now gone, he was lost in the moment. As he gripped her hand and squeezed her shoulder in support, he wasn’t thinking about his footballing career; he was her husband, about to become a dad. The two of them weren’t simply recent school-leavers now; they were grown-ups, new parents. ‘Don’t leave me!’ she shrieked. ‘I won’t! I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here. We’re a team, you and me.’ ‘Not just now, we’re not.’ She sighed. ‘Don’t leave me! Not ever!’ He looked her in the eye. ‘I won’t. Ever. I love you.’ She stared at her husband. ‘And I love you, Pete, I really, really do! I love you!’ She sobbed. ‘You do?’ he asked, beaming with joy. She nodded. ‘I do! Oh God! Oh God!’ She panted the words. ‘It’s really happening. I can feel it!’ ‘This is it!’ Cath said. ‘The head is crowning. Nearly there! Come on, one big push for me, Jackie! Nearly there!’ And then, in a matter of seconds, after a guttural shout that seemed to come from deep inside, they heard the sound of crying. It was a stuttering call from new lungs. Cath lifted the baby girl and placed her on her mum’s chest, still attached by the umbilical chord that had been her lifeline for the last thirty-nine weeks. Jacks lay back against the pillow with her small, wet child on her chest, kissing her damp, head as her little fingers flexed in the air and her tiny mouth sought her mother’s skin. ‘She’s… she’s so beautiful!’ Pete managed through his tears. ‘Hello! Hello, my little girl,’ he whispered as he kissed her head with its soft covering of down. ‘Can someone go and tell my mum and dad?’ Jacks asked. ‘Sure.’ Cath smiled. She walked down the corridor and into the waiting room. Ida and Don both stood up, side by side, desperate for news. ‘Hello, Granny and Grandpa! You have a
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beautiful granddaughter. Mum and baby are both doing well.’ Don turned to his wife and pulled her towards him. Reaching up, she held him close, enjoying the moment as she inhaled the scent of the man she loved, the man she had always loved. ‘Fancy that! Our clever girl, eh?’ Don whispered into her hair, kissing her scalp. Meanwhile, the cord had been cut and the baby had been checked. She was perfect. The obstetrician washed his hands in the little sink at the side of the room. ‘Have we got any names yet?’ he asked. ‘Yes.’ Jacks nuzzled her new daughter with her mouth and nose. ‘This is Martha.’ The doctor wandered over as he dried his hands, smiling at the little family who were huddled together, staring at each other in wonder. ‘Well hello there, Miss Martha. Welcome to this funny old world!’ Jacks felt her tears flow again at his words. ‘Hey, Martha, I’m your mum. Yes I am, I’m your mum and I am so pleased to meet you. We’ve been waiting for you, your dad and me, and we already love you so, so much.’ ‘We do,’ Pete confirmed. ‘We really do.’ He beamed at his wife. ‘You are the cleverest woman in the whole wide world!’ He kissed her firmly on the cheek. ‘That was amazing. Just amazing. I can’t believe we did it, can’t believe what you did! You were brilliant.’ He kissed her again. ‘I’m a dad, Jacks! Can you believe it? I’m a dad!’ ‘You are, Pete. You’re Miss Martha’s dad.’ She smiled at her husband.
interesting, believe me I have tried (laughs). Haha, I will take your word for it! Did you study anything or attain any qualification that assists you in your writing? I have a degree in English Literature, but I think it’s my study of human nature while doing cleaning and waitressing jobs that taught me the most. You learn a lot about someone’s nature when you are on your hands and knees in front of them with a scrubbing brush! So you studied literature, and you have admitted that you obsessively crafted short stories and scribbled notes for potential books for most of your life, yet it wasn’t until you were forty that you began to write full time. Why do you think it was only then that you started your career in earnest?
I think those lightning bolt moments of awakening happen to us all at different times and for very different reasons. Mine came when I was diagnosed with bowel cancer. It made me sit up and think, hang on a minute, this is my one life, what do I REALLY want to do? The answer was sit in my pyjamas and write stories and so I did! Cancer was the best and worst thing that has happened to me. It made me reevaluate EVERYTHING and I now live a life without fear and that has been the greatest gift. Take me through your writing process. Do you have a set time or place that you stick to, or are your hours erratic? What does your average work day consist of? I wake early, in my opinion the very best part of the day, and start writing before I have showered or even had
my first coffee. I like to empty out my head of all the words that have backed up overnight. Real life irritatingly interrupts my writing, so I stop to give interviews, travel, do a spot of TV or radio, and also to cook the supper, strip the beds etc. You get the idea! But my ideal is twelve hours in my pyjamas, with a never-ending pot of coffee. I like being left in peace to create. It occurs to me sometimes that I might not have spoken to a human (other than the ones in my head!) for a long time, so I then call up my mum or my best friend for a bit of a natter, but inevitably before that conversation is even finished, I am longing to get back to my keyboard. Yes... I am obsessed. I know this is a tough question, given how much work goes into a book, but do you have a personal favourite of your own books, and why?
FUN FACTS
about Amanda
HEELS OR HATS: Neither - I’m much more of a “can’t I stay in my pyjamas?” kind of gal, but I do favour a pashmina! MOVIES OR MUSIC: both depending on my mood and my internet connection. FAVOURITE BOOK/AUTHOR - that’s like asking me to pick which child I favour! But if I HAD to choose, Thomas Hardy’s Tess of The D’Urbervilles. GREATEST PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT: My boys, they are the very best of me. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT: I think always having at least 5 or 6 books in the Kindle top 500 at any one time, how mad is that? It’s proper pinch me stuff! IF YOU WEREN’T WRITING, WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING: Wishing I was writing and wondering how to get started.
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I love Clover’s Child, a story of a mixed race relationship in 1960’s London. I adored the main character Dot and felt her loss very keenly. The book is also set in my grandparent’s house in Limehouse East London and my granddad worked in the docks, which is also featured, so I think I saw my family in every setting which is maybe why I love it so. What advice would you give aspiring authors? Write. Just do it. Whether it’s a paragraph, a list, a letter, a thought. Just get it down on paper, as practising is what hones your craft. Rejection is part of writing, but listen to the feedback, act on it and never, ever give up. You never know when your ‘YES’ will come, it might be tomorrow, or the day after that… If I can do it, anyone can. What does 2016 hold in store for you? More lovely stories, some real goodies in fact, more TV and radio, and perhaps the odd drama written for the screen... Keeping us in suspense, I see! I won’t press you for more, but I will personally be following your every move! Before we wrap up, I have to ask: is there anything you can’t do? Yes! I am the world’s worst cook and I really, really try! I sometimes spend hours buying for and then following a recipe, only for my family to prod the offending offering and reach for the phone, where the pizza man lurks on the other end in readiness. Amanda currently resides in Bristol, the United Kingdom, with her husband and two sons, Josh and Ben. To find out more, please visit her website www. amandaprowse.com
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ARTICLE
PUBLISHER
with a
Percy Publishing is not your average publishing house. At Percy Publishing, they like to do things a little differently – to scrap convention and invest in talented individuals from all walks of life. 2016 is set to be a big year for the PP team: How does an independent publishing house become involved with contracted mercenaries, ex mobsters, the British Armed Forces, law changers, theatre and the annual Paul Raymond Awards? And that’s only half of it!
Mascot Percy the Labrador with the cast of The Judy Garland Song Book, Judy’s daughter Lorna Luft, Ray Quinn and Louise Dearman.
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R
Vision
a
Percy Publishing was founded in Woodford, Essex (England) in 2013. The company started small, but through careful nurturing and passion it has already taken off in a big way, building up a strong team of editors, printers, and suppliers – all remaining faithful throughout the development of the company. The team is still based in Essex, but having enjoyed a whirlwind success in the UK is currently setting up offices in the both the U.S and Australia. PP’s selection of autobiography and fiction involves a fascinatingly diverse range of authors - from a trained mercenary, a psychological crime fanatic and real life gangsters and celebrities, to TV stars and music legends - each with something fresh and unique to offer and a page-turner of a story to tell.
The founder of the company, Clifford Marker, is a huge fan of the immensely popular pulp fiction style books that at one time were present in every household, on every journey and in everyone’s pockets. The action-packed and fast-paced style of these novels has been key to their success and resulted in their becoming reading matter for the masses. This was the kind of book that appealed to Clifford many years ago when his work often took him
abroad - a plane flight here, a train journey there – and yet the huge novels seemed daunting and unmanageable in the time frame. Clifford envisioned something shorter, which still contained all the excitement of a great story. Percy Publishing aims to rekindle the love affair the world once had with pulp fiction, perfect for the modern generation with their busy lifestyles and continuous travel. The company started out with only a handful of fiction books but soon branched out into autobiographies, specializing in people who have lived a fast-paced and unusual lifestyle with a one-of-a-kind story to tell. Like with the brand’s fiction titles, the autobiographies selected for publication are in keeping with the company’s theme of exciting but down-to-earth easy-reads.
Percy’s writers are given maximum support every inch of the way, and have enjoyed crowd-pulling Waterstone’s book signings around the country. Last year the team was involved with the Costa Book Prize and the Isle of Wight Literary Festival, and for the last two years Percy Publishing has had several authors nominated for the People’s Book Prize awards. The 2015
awards ceremony was televised on SKY News and included a long list of PP finalists - singer and TV personality Ray Quinn; local Essex crime fiction writer Colin Llewelyn Chapman; DJ. Priddle; psychological thriller writer I.D. Jackson; the controversial John Marsh, and active mercenary Simon Chambers, who has featured prominently on British Forces National Radio and TV over interest in his latest Amazon No1 best seller. These authors had beaten all the odds to make it through to the finals amongst some of the best independently published literary works in the UK. Very much part of the local community, Percy Publishing proudly and wholeheartedly supports charities, campaigns and businesses within the area, sponsoring local racing team D.A Motorsports, who came second in class in their first year. The team also went along with author Kevin Paul to Parliament in collaboration with Channel 5 TV to lobby for changes in the laws governing the tattoo industry, to make it safer for the public. Percy’s philosophy is that to publish a good autobiography you have to be involved right at the grass roots of the writer’s world.
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The team at Portcullis House, Parliament, with Authors Kevin Paul, Ray Quinn and MP Chris Williamson To keep pace with its rapid development, Percy Publishing now works in conjunction with PR Company Marker & Marker, who deal with all media enquiries. Percy’s authors have featured extensively in the press, and on radio and TV. Accompanied by the firm’s popular show-biz author Ray Quinn, their mascot Percy the Black Labrador has also been doing his bit by supporting the RSPCA and will again be attending the next Big Walkies event in London. Known for its truly exceptional adult crime and thriller writing, Percy Publishing has attracted interest from the high-end adult magazines of the Paul Raymond empire, and the People’s Book Prize finalist Colin Llewelyn Chapman’s dark erotic thriller ‘Cold Call’
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This year the team is excited to be publishing a book by former national newspaper chief sub editor Andrew Trimbee, who has worked for The Times, The Daily Mail and the Telegraph and spent much of his time in the Far East following ground breaking news stories.
It is incredibly hard, even with such talented authors as Percy’s, for an independent publishing company to break the surface of the mainstream literary world. Percy Publishing is something fresh and different, proving that success can be achieved through self-belief, and team support; through hard work and sheer determination.
Also this year, Percy’s bestselling authors Jamie Fineran and I.D. Jackson will each be releasing a third novel. ‘Hearts of Green’ by John Marsh and ‘Dead Charming’ by I.D. Jackson are the first of Percy Publishing’s best sellers to be adapted into screen plays, and the publishing house already has six titles scheduled for publication in the first half of 2016.
Not content with only the adult-market, Percy Publishers have also opened Puppy Print, the brand’s children’s books imprint. Puppy Print publishes a series of books for children, and has accompanied their young author to schools around Essex and the Isle of Wight to promote creative writing and inspire other youngsters to follow their dreams.
was featured in the famous Mayfair Magazine.
Author Lily Say teaching children at St Albans Primary about creative writing and story telling
Lucy Hilbert publicist, Clifford Marker MD, Ruth Killeen Literary agent, Daniel Adams driver Percy Publishing is currently looking for new authors to join their portfolio. Should you wish to submit, please visit their webpage at www.percy-publishing.com.
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The Mon When I first started writing I was a starry-eyed idiot adrift under the helium balloon of my inflated ego. It’s not that I thought I was the greatest writer, but rather that I believed those high school English teachers who had told me I had talent; that I should become a writer. I was painfully oblivious as I joined internet writing groups, (remember Yahoo Groups? No? Good. My early work is safe from mockery) certain in the knowledge that at any moment editors were going to beat down my door, begging for my deathless prose.
This isn’t as awful as it sounds. Heady, egotistical self-belief is a pretty necessary tool for a budding writer because it keeps us going in the face of reality. If we started off writing truly knowing how terrible we actually are, how much we have to learn, and how hard this industry is on writers, we’d give up after the first opening sentence. Most of us write a fair few novels and short stories before we start making sales to professional publishers and magazines, and this in itself is not a bad thing. It gives us the space and time and practice to hone our craft and become better story-tellers, and better nutsand-bolts writers. We don’t expect someone who just picked up a violin to walk straight into Carnegie Hall simply because they’ve listened to music all their life, so why we would expect that we would sell our first stories just because we’re readers, or we wrote some essays in high school, is a rather puzzling blind spot. All that practice does lead to having a number of manuscripts stuffed into the bottom drawer. Some of them we keep for sentimental reasons, with vows that no one will ever see just how truly awful we were, but others are not quite as bad as all that. The could-have-beens: novels that had a great premise but were horribly broken in the writing, projects where our ambitions outstripped our ability, ideas that fizzled out, stories we fell out of love with. And some we fell back in love with years later. So what does one do with those bottom-drawer babies? If you’ve got a number of them it might be time to have a look through and see if any are worth salvaging. First off, sort them into groups:
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IN THE BOTTOM I’ll Burn in the Fiery Pits of Hell before Anyone See This. Neat Idea, Terrible Execution. Neat Idea, Just a Bit Rough. What Was I Thinking This Is Genius I Must Drop Everything and Submit It Now. Very, very few people are going to have much to put in that final pile, and first novels invariably go into group one. And sometimes novels you think might have potential actually belong in the first pile. Be honest with yourself. There is an upside to those permanently trunked novels: as long as no one has ever seen it you’re left free to mine it for characters, plot ideas, cool scenes and the good lines. That done, we’re left with the rather more interesting piles in the middle. Here’s where you decide exactly how much work you’re willing to put in. If books were abandoned because they were broken or overly-ambitious, it might be that now with more experience you’ll be able to finish them or strip them down and rewrite them completely. Rewriting a Neat Idea, Terrible Execution book is not an exercise for those with feeble hearts and minds. You may have to throw away everything except for your notes, and begin again. This is up there with starting a new novel—that’s how much work you’re going to be doing. It can be especially daunting to look back on those old works with your jaded authorial eyes and see just how far off track you went, and how early on. These are works that require complete rethinks, new approaches and visions. Generally, unless you’re convinced that an idea is brilliant, you may want to put that pile aside for another year and take a good long look at pile number three.
nster
M DRAWER by Cat Hellisen
These are the books that need rejigging; new scenes, a bit of restructuring, plot wrangling, character arcs bent into shape, some more layering, a bit of depth and polish. Have a look through them and see if any of them would really be worth that elbow grease. If you say yes, remember that though your talents as a writer have most-likely grown immensely since you first started these works, it can still be difficult to see the problem areas yourself. Hand on your manuscript to some trusted beta-readers and get ready to rework your baby when the responses come back. Beta reader feedback may even make you change your mind. What might have looked like a manuscript that just needed a bit of spit and polish, may well on closer inspection turn out to need a lot more work than anticipated. And in case you are wondering, running spell-check does not qualify as a polish. Going though your novel with a guide like Renni Browne’s Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, and applying the advice that works for you and your novel— that is a polish. If it’s a novel that has already been through the submissions process, go through the list of editors and agents who have seen it and make sure that unless they specifically asked to see a revised draft, that you don’t accidentally re-query them. Given how slow publishing seems to be, things can change surprisingly fast. Within the few years since your novel was on submission editors may have moved on or changed job positions, imprints may have risen or fallen, so it’s worth it to Google everyone and see if you would be able to query a new agent at an agency, or a different editor at a publisher. A great resource for industry information is Publisher’s Marketplace, though the cost of joining may be prohibitive. I have always used agentquery.com to
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help me find agents who are open to books in my genre. If you’d prefer to go it alone, approaching smaller publishers is a matter of doing lots of research. A few, such as Angry Robot, have specific open submission periods to un-agented writers, but even today many of the smaller publishers have to be as ruthless as the Big Names when it comes to keeping their submission piles manageable. One obvious exception is Tor, who still accept un-agented submissions, but be aware that very few novels have been selected from the open slush pile. With your revised and rewritten novel and your list of eligible places in hand, it might also be worth reconsidering your title. I’ve found that just the act or renaming an old book gives me the desire to start the process of finding the right home for it all over again. There are many reasons why a book didn’t sell previously, and not all of them might have been down to the quality of your work. Even revamped, your drawer-manuscript may not be the kind of novel that has a huge market. With a more niche work, consider the fact that it might be a better option for you to hire editors, designers and type-setters and to tackle self-publishing. Self-publishing is very rarely a getrich-quick scheme, so don’t assume that your previouslyloved manuscript will hit Smashwords and shoot straight to the top, making you an instant millionaire, but it is a useful starting place if you want to go the ebook route and don’t know exactly where to start. They have a guide to help your format your work, and if your book meets their minimum criteria they will also list it on Amazon, Kobo, and other online book stores. Self-publishing puts an author in charge of their career, but before you go off high-fiving yourself, remember that this also means doing the drudge work and the horrible bits where you have to interact with people, do your own marketing, and perhaps spend many many hours learning new skills from scratch - all just to be able to sell five copies on Amazon. If none of your bottom drawer novels are ones you feel happy about reworking or publishing, don’t worry about it. They are the routes you took to get where you are now. We don’t get upset because no one pays attention to what marks we got for our high school Science tests, so why get upset that no one gets to read our first wobbly steps at learning how to write? Sometimes the best thing about those bottom-drawer novels is that we can open them, read the first few paragraphs, and pack them away again with a smile because damn, have we improved!
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Couch on the
The corner couch focuses on celebrities - their reading habits and the books that have shaped their lives.
with
Zwai Bala by Dineo Mahloele
The name Zwai Bala is synonymous with legendary status in the South African music industry. He was a member of one of Mzansi’s most successful groups, ‘TKZee’ in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. He also founded the group ‘Bala Brothers’ with his brothers, Loyiso and Phelo, one of the most sought after live performance groups in South Africa. The trio has also successfully toured Europe and the United Kingdom and they are currently building an audience in the United States. How would you say reading has helped you in your career as a musician and producer?
Please share with our readers your earliest memory of books. Do you remember the first book you ever read? Though I first saw books at school, my clearest memory of clean, fresh, neatly stacked books is when my township, KwaNobuhle just outside of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, received its first library back in the early 80’s. It was very refreshing. Sadly it did not survive long enough. The first book I read and finished was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
With the internet in the mix, there is almost an answer to every question there is. I ended up doing a full 3 and a half year study online because of what I stumbled into by pure coincidence. It’s also reassuring to know that not everything is the Gospel truth as we now have access to endless reviews on any given subject. I was never great at academics as a young learner but now I truly enjoy the discovery of new information. If you were stranded on an island and you were told you could take only one book, which book would it be? Conversations With God – Book 1. Which 3 books have had a profound impact on your life.
How do books feature in your home? Does your family take time-out for reading or is it mostly reading for school?
The Voice of Knowledge – Don Miguel Ruiz
My wife is an avid reader and has always enjoyed it. My son is also showing great interest which leaves me and my daughter. My excuse is mostly time related. I’m not sure about her.
The Class Struggle in Africa - Kwame Nkrumah
The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
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A Mileston Worth Marking by Sally Cook
I’m a couple of weeks shy of celebrating a big milestone. And it’s not what you think. I haven’t reached happy harmony with my body fat percentage, completed a half marathon, saved any money or stopped drinking wine for any noteworthy period of time. Don’t be ridiculous. This one is way more important than any of those. I have spent an entire calendar year as a home executive. Full-time mum, housewife, or whatever the politically correct term is these days. I’ve avoided social services, any trips to the emergency room and I’ve never actually followed through on my repeated threats to get into my car and drive to The Kingdom of Far, Far Away. “Yes, where Shrek and Fiona live,” I’ve shrieked at my daughter as I’ve picked up my handbag and feigned a theatrical search for my coat and keys. Emotionally abusive parenting aside, we’ve made it. The lightest of lighter shades of pale, but more or less intact as human beings. Physically, at least. I have to mark this milestone. At the start of the year, we had a newborn (another one). We moved house... again. My daughter started school for the very first time. And so began the juggernaut of morning, noon and afternoon school runs. Rinse and repeat. Every single day. My husband consistently clocking up the
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ne
air miles for work. Scrambling into taxis destined for the airport lugging his lurid pink Samsonite suitcase. Homework à deux and the trauma of trying to tutor my children with limited propensity and even less patience. Countless trips to ballet, swimming, football. Lugging a baby everywhere, with increasing and understandable resistance on his part. There have been tears and tantrums... mine mostly, but occasionally my children’s. I’ve begged, bribed and bartered my way through my brethren’s brawls with each other, and with me. I’ve discovered devious ways to deal with dirt - hide it or ignore it. I’ve never worked harder. I’ve had never had less money. I’ve never had worse regrowth. It. Has. Been. Epic. It has also been one of the best years of my life.
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I’m immensely proud at having emerged from a whole 12 months of parenthood with three children and no blue lights or sirens. Fist-pumpingly proud. I wish I could put it as a sub-heading on my CV, under key life experience, survival skills and superpowers. Maybe I will. It’s certainly relevant. Don’t let anyone say otherwise. Forget woman scorned - try mother judged. Try them apples. Ok so I do whinge. I do whine. I’m more than a little overt about sharing my disdain for dealing with human effluent. Just this weekend when my son dropped the rim blocker into the toilet while he was squatting monkey-style on the seat and I had to put my hand into the bowl, dodging his bobbing faeces, to try and retrieve it, I had a lot to say about that experience. Most of it not fit for repeating, in any syllable, shape or form. There was some retching involved too. I go positively postal when my kids moan that they don’t want pesto on their pasta or pasta with their pesto or that the bowl is too big or not big enough. When they turn up their noses at a simple steamed carrot, or waste perfectly good food because they suddenly “don’t like it” when just two days before they’d wolfed it down and declared it their absolute “favourite-favourite”. I’ve resorted to showing the little imps images of starving African children I’ve gingerly Googled. Emaciated, hollow-eyed souls, whose desperation is as terrifying as it is touching. Children who are dying to live. I’ll admit that it’s rather rough around the edges, this method, but it works. Suddenly piles of pesto pasta start disappearing into little mouths and there’s no more talk about flecks of basil that look like bits of bug or pasta that pongs like puke. In fact there’s no talk at all.
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I’m not a martyr mother who silently soldiers through. I can’t parent with poise. I do know, though, how fortunate I am. My issues are not real issues. They’re first world problems. In this country, never has there been a statement that can represent such a literal reality. We’re all healthy, we’re all safe and we have everything that we need. My husband argues that we need a Playstation 4, but then he doesn’t watch Downton Abbey and won’t cry like a baby when it ends forever on Christmas Day. So what does he actually know anyway? Not much of any value, obviously. At least once a day, amidst the deluge of domesticity, I take time to acknowledge how incredibly blessed we are. I promise I do. I’ve also got to recognise that had we not upped sticks and moved to The NotAlways-so-United Kingdom, I wouldn’t have this milestone to mark at all. We wouldn’t have our little boy Alexander. I wouldn’t have experienced a rewarding and roll-with-it year at home with our children. I wouldn’t have been an often willing and sometimes reluctant witness to their lives. To all the moments that make up a childhood: the good and the best, the disgusting and disturbing. I moan a lot about Britain – but thank you oh climatically-challenged-littleisland for this year. I will remember it forever. Parts I will treasure. And parts I will bury deep within the recesses of my psyche. I’m a full-time mother with three kids. Glorifying the great and repressing the repugnant are skills that come standard. They’re like factory settings. Part and parcel of the job description. Every mother knows that. Even the rookie ones like me.
ASK MY
Publi
Book Publicist, Helen Ho in-depth questions
What sells books? That is the million dollar q countless hours contemplating. For those writing it is not good enough to simply adv build a brand and they promote that brand titles which fall under that brand. Book marketing is not for the faint of heart. In today’s publishing world, even traditionally published writers are expected to do a lot of their own marketing, although they do have the might of the publishing house’s marketing machine to lighten the load. Indie authors, however, are often solely responsible for their own book marketing. It takes up a huge portion of your productive day, and can often interfere with the writing itself, sapping you of the strength and energy required to complete the marathon that is writing a book. As with any industry, an advertising budget goes a long way towards aiding you in the marketing process, but where do you invest that precious sum? It is almost impossible to quantify what your marketing budget will buy in the unknown abyss that is book publicity. I do, however, believe that within every avenue
icist... by Melissa Delport
Holyoake, answers some ns about marketing
question, a question which authors spend who wish to make a career out of their vertise your ‘product’. Successful authors d as a whole, while still pushing individual
of product and brand marketing, there is a professional who has learned the hard way what works and what doesn’t. Enter Helen Holyoake: professional book publicist. Helen spent 11 years at Struik Publishers, and 6 years as the Sales and Marketing Director. In her time at the company, Helen’s primary function was to market books. The experience she gained at Struik was invaluable and equipped her with the necessary skills to branch out on her own. Helen has run her own publicity company, Helco Promotions for the past 21 years. She represents such names Amanda Prowse, Fiona Snyckers, Felicia Mabuza-Suttle, Olivia Forsyth, Patrick Gayle and has previously represented Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the late Nelson Mandela. Melissa Delport sat down with Helen to find out more about the exciting world of book publicity. Helen, my first question is simple. What do you believe, in a nutshell, sells books? Books that sell are books that have a
target market and are of current interest. Press coverage, interviews and reviews in the electronic and print media, provide the ideal platform to spread the word about a newly published title. A book that arrives on the shelf of a bookshop can just sit there and nobody would know about its existence if it wasn’t for the press giving the book a chance to sell. These days social media provides an important role and assists with the most important tool – the old fashioned ‘word of mouth’. Being an avid reader and a lover of social media, I am shocked by how aggressive many authors are, when it comes to marketing. My pet peeve is the automated direct messages I receive on Twitter telling me, in no uncertain terms I might add, to “Read my Book!” Why do you think authors are using this approach, and do you think it is even remotely effective? Perhaps desperation in an attempt to get the word out. I don’t know for sure but this is one of the ills of social media. I’m not sure how effective this method of marketing is but I do know that the traditional formal independent reviewing system is favoured to give a book a credible review.
There is a term that we authors like to bandy about, a term that we speak with reverence: “Exposure.” To our minds, this “exposure” is key to our success, but in reality, many authors do not even know where to start, or what this supposed “exposure” entails. How do you define effective exposure, and how important is it for an aspiring author? This can vary from author to author and also depends on the genre. New authors don’t know where to start. The lucky authors who land publishing contracts are provided with built-in marketing services but this may not result in expectations being met. Exposure generates interest and knowledge and is paramount to making a success or failure of a book. My advice to aspiring authors is to talk to a books publicist and get advice to ensure their book is exposed to their reading market even if they are going to go it alone. Let’s talk about Helco Promotions. What inspired you to leave the corporate world and become a book publicist? Haha! A colleague, whom I was working with at the time I resigned, said ‘So go off and be a mom then’. Yes, I did leave corporate publishing to juggle life as a
Cont. on page 25 AUTHORS MAGAZINE | 21
Fan Fictio
Guilty pleasures... or literary t
Once upon a time I’d never breathe a word to anyone that I read, let alone wrote fanfiction. I wouldn’t exactly come out and say that I was embarrassed, but it was just that people kinda gave you the side-eye if you ’fessed up. To the uninitiated, fanfiction happens when fans concoct their own stories about their favourite fandoms. Some of these stick to standard “what if” scenarios within the existing universe – known as canon – or they can ask, like “What if an ordinary girl from the real world got sucked into Middle-earth and ended up marrying Aragorn?” Often they deviate into the sometimes realm of slashfics – “So, Captain Kirk, what exactly was it that you and Spock were doing last night?” (I needn’t elaborate further, nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more?) In the world of fanfiction nothing is sacred, not movies, TV series, books, video games, comics … We’re limited only by authors’ imaginations, with (at the time of writing) the top fandoms over at fanfiction.net in film being Star Wars (well, that’s hardly a surprise), Avengers, Pirates of the Caribbean, High School Musical, and X-Men: The Movie. A peek at the books section at the same
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site reveals Harry Potter, Twilight (yes, still), Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Lord of the Rings and The Hunger Games. No surprises that Supernatural is at the top of the pile for TV series. The thing is, fanfiction is hardly new. If you look as far back as the ancient Greeks, you’ll see how they often reinvented their myths for their theatre and numerous versions coexisted where each author put his own, unique spin on a popular tale. It’s in our blood to tell stories, and what better than to take a familiar setting and tell it like you want to. A quick poll on Twitter revealed a few folks who were willing to share their thoughts and, as expected, the responses were quite illuminating. Lood (30) shares: “I read Harry Potter (HP) fanfiction almost exclusively. The fandom of HP has taken on a life of its own, to the point where it enriched my experience so dramatically that it is hard to discern canon from fanfiction sometimes. “I found that out earlier this month when my partner watched the Harry Potter movies for the first time (he has never read the books) and I actually
had to concentrate to make sure that the info I gave him was real and not imagined. Re-reading the books now I realise that the plot holes in the series was the perfect fertile ground for the breeding of new ideas, new stories. Originality with constraints. People adapted characters in ways that allowed the characters to become more relatable to niche personality types, or as interesting ways to delve deeper into the psyche of beloved characters.” Serious fans will often delve deeply into the source material and pick it apart to untangle further mysteries, as Gabby (30), points out: “The X-Files fandom was huge for me, very formative. I was in deep. I videotaped every episode, I took notes to try to unravel hints about the overarching conspiracy; I idolised Dana Scully. I was a staunch NoRoMo (no romance) – as opposed a to “relationshipper”, later ’shipper, now shipper – so I didn’t read the many, many, many Mulder/Scully fics that the fandom produced, but did read a lot of Mulder/Krycek, Scully/ Krycek, and Scully/Skinner, and a lot of gen (general audiences). Gossamer (an internet archive) is where a lot of fic was collected, but at the time many authors also maintained their own basic
on:
treasures? by Nerine Dorman
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sites to host their stories.” Which brings us to the wonderful topic of where you’ll get your fix – now that you’ve watched your favourite TV show/movie or played your video game and wanted an alternative to the ending – because damn it, you admit that you got sucker-punched in all the feels when your favourite characters kissed but didn’t quite get to have their happily ever after. Or maybe you secretly wished that two other characters who, in canon, hooked up. Or wondered what if someone hadn’t died … Believe me when I tell you that fanfiction has most likely already been written to fulfil your deepest, darkest secret desires. If you’re in the mood to trawl for a good fanfic, there are two websites most readers will suggest as the goto for your fix. These would be www. fanfiction.net (known as FFN or FF) and the other is www.archiveofourown.org (AO3). You can visit as a guest, or create a profile so you can eventually post your own content or leave comments. The layout of FFN is quite clunky, and could definitely use a sprucing up, but AO3 is much more user-friendly, and sees a fair bit more traffic though FFN has the benefit of having been round for ages, so there will be a lot of content for particular fandoms. Not all fics are created equal, and sometimes it takes a bit of skimming before you find That Story that will suck you in and make you forget about the rest of the world for a good while. (And let’s be honest, not all published books are perfect either.) Reading a good fic set in your favourite fandom is like hanging out with a good friend – you know all their quirks, and sometimes the twists in a story will make you see your canon in an entirely new way. And do the writers become creative
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… Many stories might follow canon rigorously, but sometimes they’ll go off in the most surprising directions by crossing over into other fandoms (imagine Pokémon meets My Little Pony or Harry Potter meets Supernatural – yes, these are things you can find). Some concepts may take a fantasy setting and recast it as modern, creating what is known within fanfic circles as alternative universes (AUs). Fanfiction has spawned an entire lexicon of terms related to particular fandoms, usually related to a relationship – a Harry Potter “Snarry” is when Harry is paired with Snape... At first, with all those terms flying about, you may not know what the hell some folks are talking about it but give it some time and soon you too will baffle the uninitiated when next falling into conversation with a fellow fic fanatic. Some might roll their eyes at the wellworn trope of an “Earth girl is magically transported to Magical Realm” yet many stories are clearly wish fulfilment fantasies on the part of the author, who will create a Mary Sue (or the male equivalent of a Marty Stu) to selfinsert themselves with all sorts of super powers into a story. And let’s be brutally honest, sometimes all you really want to do is pretend that you’re swept up into your favourite adventure the same way Dorothy got dragged to Oz by that tornado. Liam (18) adds: “That’s one thing that’s so great about fanfic – everyone thinks it up when they get truly into something. If you’ve ever read or watched something and said, ‘wow, I wish that character didn’t die,’ you know what people feel when they read fanfic. It lets anything be possible. A lot of people go for AUs and get to see things like what those sweet, teenage characters would be doing in regular high school if they
weren’t stuck in some world-ending disaster. I usually prefer the more subtle ones – what was your favourite side character doing when all the mains were saving the world? Fanfiction lets you dive deeper into things, see what goes on behind the scenes, help you understand characters. Read enough fanfic and you’ll see everyone’s point of view sooner or later.” Tallulah (28) says: “HP is a big favourite for me. It’s a great universe to explore with really deep characters. It can get really dark and complex the way that a kid’s book can’t. What’s also great is how active the community is and the way that ideas disseminate through it. For instance, the idea of a Hermione being a WoC (woman of colour). It just kind of floated to prominence a year or two ago and now it’s everywhere and that’s lovely (Also, now canon thanks to the theatre production!). “In my experience fandom has also been a way of exploring social issues such as homophobia and diversity. A single book can’t be expected to do all of that, but an entire universe of writers can and do. It’s a good example of what humanity is capable of when forming a collective consciousness.” While I won’t digress and discuss The Book That Won’t Be Named (but we all know started out as fanfiction about The Other Book Won’t Be Named), I will add that writing fanfiction is a great way to hone your writing skills without any of the pressures associated with trying to get published. Not only that, but you get to meet some pretty awesome people along the way while getting back to the basics of what it means to be a writer – to tell stories. Now excuse me while I return to my personal Solavellan hell.
Cont. from page 21 mother and career woman. It worked really well for me. My children grew up with mom having a home office and always being on a ‘dead lion’ when they were little. Today my daughters are grown up and living their own lives and dreams and I do believe my contributing to their day-to-day wellbeing and working at the same time has benefitted them on many levels. After leaving Struik I had the experience and network to start my own publicity business specialising in publishing and the industry has served and continues to serve me well. What do you look for when taking on new clients? After 21 years in my own business I have been fortunate to have worked with a myriad of authors across different genres, but my preferences are local and international fiction, biographies, business, memoir, food, travel and natural history. Books and authors of these genres that come my way are always top of my list. Have you ever declined to represent a potential client? Yes, I have, for many different reasons, the most common of which is timing. Timing is crucial in this industry as there are often clashes over the growing number of Literary Events where international and local authors are invited to attend. The media industry in South Africa is small and there are limitations to the extent of airtime and space dedicated to books. I have to be mindful of this as an independent publicist since I am competing with big publishers. You have an incredible reputation as a book publicist. Do you only promote authors? Occasionally, and only occasionally, I do take on non book projects and
my deciding factor is if the project is of personal interest and I know I can produce results. For example, I worked on a project for an NGO for a photographic exhibition that was accompanied with poetry by Professor Wally Serote. I was honoured to have worked with photographer Michael Meyersfeld and Prof Serote and knowing I was helping to spread the word for a worthwhile cause was enriching.
be selected, reports and itineraries to be typed up... the list is endless! Then of course there are the personal client meetings. Lastly, someone has to pack up the press kits for the press because without a review copy there will not be any publicity.
What can a publicist do for authors that they cannot do for themselves?
That’s a good question! I would have to say thick skin, being fearless of rejection. You also need a happy disposition and a good sense of humour. Efficiency, patience, tenacity, diligence are also essential, and of course, you must be energetic!
Authors could easily promote themselves. The difference a publicist makes is enormous and the most important factor is the publicist’s media network. Without a close media network, which is nurtured continuously and kept up to date, any publicity campaign can fail. The second factor is the time that it takes to complete a project, particularly with books as they need to be read before any publicity can be published or broadcast. I believe in being thorough and persistent, in the nicest possible way. The third factor is that many authors find it difficult to self-promote to the media and this is something that should come naturally to a publicist. A publicist’s job is to sell the book he or she is working on and to make sure it is read and followed up with an interview, first prize, or a review. Talk me through a typical day in the life of a book publicist: Most of my day is spent sitting in my office, bum to chair, communicating with media and authors via email, social media and phone. This career is only glamorous when we dress up to attend a literary event, launch or accompany an author to a media interview. Every day there are deadlines, questions to be answered, interviews to be set up and confirmed, photographs and cover images to be emailed out, excerpts to
You have spent years building a reputable brand. To what do you owe your success? What, essentially, makes a good publicist a great publicist?
How do you think publicity affects sales – does it have a direct impact or is it more focused on author branding? It is a mixture of both. I religiously preach that reviews and media interviews get the word out to thousands and by generating publicity we are building a brand. Book sales do depend on publicity as how else would the public know about a book on their local bookshelf. Last question: any exciting news for 2016? Any new releases or clients that you are particularly excited about? I am particularly excited about three of my writers whom I am championing for upcoming Literary Festivals and maybe a literary prize shortlisting or a win! 2016 is looking to be very exciting with the expanded publishing programme of Heritage Publishing and the SA Lexigography Units and the year is still young so we promise to keep everybody updated on new books, writer and publishers. Helen Holyoake is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She can be contacted on Helen@helco.co.za.
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RESEARCH The Devil is in the Detail
by Ian Tennent
Research. Some authors love it and some authors detest it. Unless you’re in the fortunate position of being able to employ a research assistant or three, chances are, as a writer, you’ll have to do the hard yards yourself. Obviously certain genres such as Historical Fiction, Crime or Techno Thriller, for example, demand more research than others, but don’t for a minute think that the writer of Horror or Fantasy can dismiss research as surplus to requirements. For instance, if your fantasy world has Spanish Galleon type ships in it, ala Game of Thrones, then you would be wise to ensure that those ships are grounded in reality – that they still dance appropriately to the tune of wind and tide and sails.
Research, or the lack thereof, can often make or break a book. With my first book, a young adult work set in the 1980s, there came a point where I needed my twelve-year-old characters to engage in a night-time escapade. The date of the escapade was important as it tied in to actual events of the time. My characters needed to be able to see, and to see clearly, so I gave them a full moon to work with. To my horror, when I finished the book, after consulting with a moon-phase calendar, I discovered that on that particular night there was no moon. None. Full dark. I spent many sleepless nights until I figured out a workaround for that one. Lesson learned. I now plot my stories using a calendar, showing moon phases, public holidays, weekends, high and low tides etc. As new writers we have the mantra of ‘write what you know’ drummed into us from the outset, but what we know is seldom enough. And this is where the writer encounters their first problem when confronted with the need to research. How much is enough? How much research is required? The writing world is awash with ‘writers’ who are just waiting until they’ve finished all their research before they craft their stories. Most have been researching for
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many years, most will keep researching for many more. In today’s age, with today’s audiences, time is a resource in short supply for most writers. . If you want to stay ‘front of mind’ among your readership you need to be producing books, not reams of research. Nothing turns a reader off faster than a ‘data dump’ which is the risk that excessive research brings: you’ve done your research, you know your stuff, and now you want to prove it to your reader. Be warned, your reader will not thank you for it. In my opinion, research is only pertinent when it serves the story. If your hero Samurai only ever uses a katana sword then it’s all but pointless spending hours researching the flight and cutting properties of a shuriken throwing blade. Fair enough, some writers maintain that they need to immerse themselves in the period/technique /people/dress code/ you name it, of the subject matter about which their story revolves before they can pen a word but if, like me, time is always barking down your neck then I suggest, as far as possible, getting the first draft of your story down before committing to more rigorous research. That way you’ll at least know what it is you need clarity on and you can then drill down into those areas in depth.
Your research will become focused and value adding, rather than a pleasant escape or, worse, a hiding place for you to avoid actually writing your story. And these days, in the vastness that is the internet, there are plenty of places to hide. In many ways, as writers, we are more fortunate today than our predecessors. Should you need to know about the risks and symptoms of Alzheimer’s, no problem, a quick Google search will give you instant data. The flipside is that it gives you tons of it. More than you could ever read, often conflicting or laced with untruths. And as laymen we’re often not in a position to separate the wheat from the chaff. The solution? Why, more research of course. And so on we go. At least until you’ve corroborated your result three or even four times. And don’t be afraid to use the good old local library in this regard. This notwithstanding, the internet remains a superb place to get information for fiction. Maybe you’re writing a medical drama with a character who’s undergoing open heart
surgery? Fine. YouTube has plenty of actual video clips of doctors performing precisely that, if you’ve got the stomach for it. Or perhaps you’re writing about an assassin on a mission to take down a mark in Paris, but you’ve never been there and won’t be able to afford the trip any time soon? Pull out Google Street View and you’ll be able to check his line of site. We also have the luxury of telecommunications these days. A fact that is all too often overlooked by new writers. While interviewing someone ‘in the flesh’ remains one of the most productive research methods around, picking up the phone or arranging a Skype call be very productive too. Many people are only too willing to share their expertise if asked politely. At the moment, my own writing leans towards historical fiction which generates its own unique set of pleasures and pitfalls. Writers that dabble in historical fiction inhabit a surprisingly murky world. On the one hand we have an inbred craving for accuracy. On the other hand,
we are writing fiction. And fiction has scant use for sterile facts. One doesn’t need to dig too deep to find evidence of this conundrum. Tolstoy describes his work War and Peace as blurring the lines between Fiction and History to get closer to the truth. John Fowles wrote The French Lieutenants Women in 1969. The story takes place in the 19th Century, around 1867. He had something interesting to say about his experience. He says: “In the manner of clothes, social manners, historical background and the rest, writing about 1867 (insofar as it can be heard of in books of the time, is far too close to our own time to sound convincingly old. It very often fails to agree with our psychological picture of the Victorians – it is not stiff enough, not euphemistic enough and so on; and here at once I have to start cheating and pick out the more formal and archaic (even for 1867) elements of spoken speech.” In the final analysis, researching a fiction book is an intricate balancing act: we need to get our facts straight but we also need to remember that facts hang off the framework of our story. In other words research should serve the story, not the other way around. Online research resources include: • Wikipedia: despite the flak it gets sometimes for inaccuracies, still a good starting point • Infoplease: a ‘clearing house’ for online research • The Internet Public Library • Merriam-Webster Online: the publishing world’s dictionary • Rfdesk: fact-checker for the internet • Snopes: internet reference guide for urban legends •Online Etymology Dictionary: the history and evolution of words, including slang
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TRAVEL
It was an offer I could hardly refuse, a chance to explore a fascinating corner of the Near East at this troubled time. Every August, a Canadian-South African company conducts a threemonth journey in Land Rovers along the Silk Road. The trip is led by an intrepid Chinese woman, Yue Chi, who manages to thread her way through the complexity of border crossings, tetchy police and opaque bureaucracy across the length of Asia. Some guests do the whole journey, others fly in for sections. I was most interested in the western end: the silky road from Turkey to Azerbaijan. And I was thrilled at the chance to visit Kars, the city brought to literary life in Pamuk’s novel, Snow. I flew into eastern Turkey, where I met the group as it passed through Van. North we drove, through honeyed Kurdish lands tense with recent conflict and brewing rebellion. A day’s drive
brought us to Kars. ‘Kar’ is the Turkish word for ‘snow’ and the novel’s protagonist also abbreviates his name to Ka (his initials), while the novel is set in Kars. This border city is presented as a curious, alienating place, infected by a complicated past fraught with invaders, fundamentalism and genocide. Snow encapsulates many of the political and cultural tensions of Turkey, combining social commentary, humour, religion and a cast of unforgettable characters. Cut off from the outside world by heavy snowfalls, a strange coup is attempted and linked to a play being staged in the town’s theatre. The novel’s central theme is the interface between secularism and belief, but all of Turkey’s recent history forms the background tableau. Ka is a poet who returns to Turkey after
many years of political exile in Germany. Ostensibly, he’s in Kars as a journalist investigating a spate of suicides among teenage girls, but he’s also hoping to reacquaint himself with a beautiful woman he once knew. Ka is trapped in the city by the snow and uses his time to interview a former communist, a secularist, a fascist nationalist, Islamic extremists and moderates, young Kurds, the military, the police and an actor-cum-revolutionary. In amongst all of this, he falls in love, as one does. Our convoy drove up the main avenue of Kars. The architecture was a striking blend of imperial Russian, Armenian and Turkish. Despite the summer heat, I was transported straight into the pages of Snow: ‘the old, decrepit Russian buildings with stovepipes sticking out of every window, the thousand-year-old Armenian church towering over the wood depots and
Pamuk SNOWBOUND with
Justin Fox visits Kars in eastern Turkey to inhabit the pages of Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk’s mesmerising novel, Snow.
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the electric generators, the pack of dogs barking at every passer-by from a fivehundred-year-old bridge.’ We checked into a hotel occupying a neo-classical Russian villa, just like the one Ka stayed in during his snowbound visit. I strolled past stores that looked unchanged in 50 years. Indeed, Ka ‘found the shop windows in Kars displaying things that he remembered from his childhood – items that you never saw in Istanbul anymore.’ Centrepiece of the city is its 500-yearold fortress. We climbed up there one morning to admire the stone manof-war and spy out the surrounding countryside. Like Ka, I found that the fort offered a window on the many struggles of this corner of Asia. When the Russian army took possession of the citadel in 1878, the Pasha’s mansions and hamams, as well as the Ottoman buildings on the slopes around the fort,
fell into decay. Many are still in ruin today. From the battlements I could make out the new town designed by the Tsar’s architects, a thriving colonial settlement defined by five straight avenues, intersected by perpendicular roads – unknown in Turkey at the time. These are the things that impressed Ka: the wide streets with their cobblestoned pavements, the plane and oleander trees. ‘They gave the city a melancholy air unknown in the Ottoman cities whose wooden houses were burned down during the years of nationalist struggle and tribal warfare.’ As in Snow, the city still bristles with tension. The border with Armenia is closed, the Kurds are restless and old animosities lurk beneath the surface. Some Kurds are bent on secession and guerrilla activity keeps the town in a state of alertness. The rich have pulled
out their money and moved to Istanbul or Ankara. There are sandbagged buildings, armoured cars, machine gun emplacements. As we left town, I looked back and saw the many layers of fortification that stretch back through the centuries … and I thought of Ka, overwhelmed by history and the current troubles, making his escape as soon as the snowbound roads were cleared. Justin Fox was hosted by Drive the Silk Road Ltd, a fully-catered, driving adventure from Europe to China. The trip is undertaken from August to November each year in Land Rovers provided by the company. Web www.drivethesilkroad.com.
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Reads recommended
Title: The Revenant Author: Michael Punke Biographical Suspense
Title: My Name is Lucy Barton Author: Elizabeth Strout Literary Fiction
Description: A thrilling tale of betrayal and revenge set against the nineteenth-century American frontier, the astonishing story of real-life trapper and frontiersman Hugh Glass
Description: A new book by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout is cause for celebration. Her bestselling novels, including Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys, have illuminated our most tender relationships. Now, in My Name Is Lucy Barton, this extraordinary writer shows how a simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the most tender relationship of all—the one between mother and daughter.
The year is 1823, and the trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a brutal frontier life. Hugh Glass is among the company’s finest men, an experienced frontiersman and an expert tracker. But when a scouting mission puts him face-to-face with a grizzly bear, he is viciously mauled and not expected to survive. Two company men are dispatched to stay behind and tend to Glass before he dies. When the men abandon him instead, Glass is driven to survive by one desire: revenge. With shocking grit and determination, Glass sets out, crawling at first, across hundreds of miles of uncharted American frontier. Based on a true story, The Revenant is a remarkable tale of obsession, the human will stretched to its limits, and the lengths that one man will go to for retribution.
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Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable.
Title: NYPD Red 4 Author: James Patterson & Marshall Kemp Murder Suspense Description: It’s another glamorous night in the heart of Manhattan: at a glitzy movie premiere, a
Title: The Last Anniversary Author: Liane Moriarty Womens Fiction Description: Sophie Honeywell always wondered if Thomas Gordon was the one who got away. He was the perfect boyfriend, but on the day he was going to propose, she broke his heart. A year later he married his travel agent, while Sophie has been mortifyingly single ever since. Now Thomas is back in her life because Sophie has unexpectedly inherited his aunt Connie’s house on Scribbly Gum Island— home of the famously unsolved Munro Baby mystery. Sophie moves onto the island and begins a new life as part of an unconventional family, where it seems everyone has a secret. Grace, a beautiful young mother, is feverishly planning a shocking escape from her perfect life. Margie, a frumpy housewife, has made a pact with a stranger, while dreamy Aunt Rose wonders if maybe it’s about time she started making her own decisions. As Sophie’s life becomes increasingly complicated, she discovers that sometimes you have to stop waiting around— and come up with your own fairy-tale ending.
gorgeous starlet, dressed to the nines and dripping in millions of dollars’ worth of jewellery on loan, makes her way past a horde of fans and paparazzi. But then there’s a sudden loud noise, an even louder scream, and a vicious crime with millions of witnesses and no suspect--and now NYPD Red has a new case on its hands.
NYPD Red: the elite task force assigned to protect the rich, famous, and connected in the city where crime never sleeps. Detective Zach Jordan and his partner, Kylie MacDonald--a former girlfriend from the police academy who he hasn’t quite gotten over--are the best that Red has to offer, brilliant and tireless investigators who will stop at nothing to crack a case, even if it means putting their own complicated lives on the back burner. From celebrity penthouses to the depths of Manhattan’s criminal underworld, Zach and Kylie are soon in hot pursuit of a cold-blooded killer with everything to lose, and millions to gain if he can just shake the detectives on his trail. With the city on edge, the mayor out of patience, and the flames of their personal relationship threatening to reignite and ruin everything, Zach and Kylie are facing down their worst fears--and their worst enemy yet.
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AUTHORS
MAGAZINE
APRIL 2016
MARK PILGRIM