[Interview] Ellah Kandi

Zimbabwean writer, Ellah Kandi is a chef, a wedding and events planner, and a basic worship sign language and performing arts teacher.

She is also secretary and choir coordinator of the Emmanu’-El Apostolic Gospel Academy aka De Montfort University Gospel Choir which is based in Leicester in the United Kingdom.

She is the author of El-Ellah Multi-Cultural Cuisines: Heavenly Recipes (Xlibris, 2011) and is currently working on a children’s book.

In this interview, Ellah Kandi talks about her concerns as a writer:

When did you start writing?

I started writing and producing short reports when l was still in high school in Zimbabwe. I remember using exercise books and arranging my work to make it look like a magazine and saying, “One day l will publish a church magazine or a book”.

When l moved to Leicester, there was a project called “As Is” that encouraged us to write. I remember a Mr Higgins asking me to translate Shona writings into English and to write what l did during the day.

Little did I know that Mr Higgins was re-structuring what I was writing and turning it into poems. It never crossed my mind that any of what I was writing would ever be published.

It was only after the project was finished that someone gave me copies of the small published book. I was amazed at seeing my work in the book and l remember saying to myself that if l had known the work was going to be published, l would have used a different approach.

How would you describe the writing you are now doing?

So far, I have compiled a cookbook and I am now working on a children’s biblical story book.

For the cookbook, my target audience doesn’t have any boundaries. The book is for all people, from all walks of life. It has recipes on meals from the four corners of the globe hence the title, Multi-Cultural Cuisine.

When I compiled the cookbook, I wanted to provide a book that gave my audience the opportunity to experience cooking from around the world and I wanted them to also enjoy food that is prepared in a circumspect manner.

The target audience for children's story book are children, schools, Sunday schools and various Christian communities. I was motivated to write this book because I believe there is a lack of books for children that contain messages that can have a life-long, real and positive impact on their lives. This story book is based on biblical events. It also explores some events in the Bible that have never been written with a young audience in mind.

In the writing you are doing, which authors influenced you most?

The Bible is my greatest influence. My experience of reading and enjoying the Bible fuels my desire for the children to have the same, if not more, enjoyment as I do. I thought the best way to achieve this would be to include illustrations in the story book. The illustrations will benefit English-speaking children as well as children of different nationalities and languages.

How have your own personal experiences influenced your writing?

I remember, a number of years back, we were praying and eating particular dishes and many heavenly recipes which God had revealed to me. I wanted to share many of them. l would jot them down when l received them.

I mentioned to a number of people that l was going to publish a recipe book someday and one particular brother would always ask when l was going to get the recipes published because he wanted a copy. Although he never stopped asking, it was only at the age of 29 that l decided to get the recipe book published as my birthday gift to myself.

El-Ellah Multi-Cultural Cuisines: Heavenly Recipes is based on my own cooking experience. It also contains testimony on how I was influenced by the bishop of my church who is an expert chef.

I teach children in the Gospel Academy where I am co-ordinator. This experience led me to decide to write a book for children because I noticed that with children’s biblical story books, some of the stories are not always told as accurately as they occur in the Bible. My book intends to address this and bridge this gap.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

My main concerns are accuracy and that my readers will enjoy and be impacted by what I write.

One of my biggest challenges is time and being able, on a daily basis, to coordinate the many projects I am involved with and meeting various deadlines. I deal with these challenges by delegating some of my workload to my colleagues and peers who possess the relevant skills.

Do you write everyday?

Although I do not write everyday, I write most of the days of the week. Having a busy life means it is complex but when you get going you forget you are tired.

I start by writing new pieces and then l proof read and l always end with illustrations.

So far, I have written two books, El-Ellah Multi-Cultural Cuisines: Heavenly Recipes (Xlibris Publishing, 2011) and the children’s Bible storybook, which is still in production and should be published this month (October) by Xlibris Publishers.

I believe that El-Ellah Multi-Cultural Cuisines covers important cooking topics and themes. It includes recipes for appetizers, soups, fish and seafood, meat, rice and pastas, vegetables and salads, pies, puddings, and so much more.

Pastor Samuel Gapara, who is the Pentecostal and International Chaplin for the De Montfort University, assisted me in looking for publishers and Xlibris was one of the publishers we found.

Finding a publisher was a bit tough. I settled for Xlibris because it was one of the two publishing companies whose consultancies I had a chance to speak to.

I have had a very difficult time with the publishers. As a first timer, l would have appreciated more assistance from Xlibris, which l really expected to get.

l did not receive the assistance I expected and I was not pleased. I thought about give up many times when the publisher was not helping but God was and is on my side so l got through it. When advertising their services, Xlibris sounded so different. They made me believe l would receive the help l need but that help was not forthcoming.

At the moment I am looking for a different publisher for any of my future works.

Which were the most difficult aspects of the work you put into your books?

At times, I’ve found it difficult to add that perfecting touch to my illustrations using modern gadgets. Being new to the gadget world, it was a completely different experience compared to drawing with a traditional pencil.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

Not using precise measurements in the recipes. A different method of cooking to what we are accustomed to.

What sets the books you have written apart from each other?

Having to draw the illustrations has been a new experience and this, I believe, sets the children's book apart from the cooking book.

The children's book is very different from my first book and I am enjoying the challenge. The writing is different. The cooking book was a more technical book and involved detailing ingredients and cooking techniques whilst the children’s book calls for innovation, creativity and simplicity.

There are similarities between the two books in that both books are written based on biblical principles and are driven by moral and ethical values.

What will your next book be about?

Recipe/Cookery Book no.2

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

Being able to reach nations, touching lives. For example, someone in Ghana said that my being a woman has encouraged a number of school students who were ready to give up on a hospitality course because of lack of resources. The person said that hearing my pre-testimony in the cookbook encouraged the students to stay on the course.

One organisation in Ghana has said that when they open their catering department they would like me to honour them by naming it. This has definitely been a significant achievement, being a role model to people l have never met.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

• 25 Best-Selling Cookbooks of All Time, By Naa Ako Adjei, The Daily Meal, September 27, 2011
• Cookbooks vs the internet?, By Jon Watson, Atlanta Journal Constitution, September 30, 2011
• Don't Worry About the Future of the Cookbook, By Jonathan Kauffman, SF Weekly, October 14, 2011

[Interview_4] Alice Lenkiewicz

Alice Lenkiewicz is an artist and a writer. She lives in Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

Her books include the novella, Maxine (bluechrome Publishing, 2005) and the collection of poems, Men Hate Blondes (original plus, 2009).

She also publishes and edits Neon Highway, a poetry magazine that supports emerging and established poets.

In this interview, Alice Lenkiewicz talks about her concerns as a writer:

Do you write everyday?

I go through phases of writing and then not writing.

At the moment I am trying to write a little each day. I like to research.

My session usually begins with brainstorming, so I jot ideas down quite quickly. I have an idea about what I would like to write and then I set about deciding which technique I will use. What kind of format will suit the work I am writing? This usually develops after working with free verse for a while and then once I get the feel of what I am going to do I decide how structured I am going to be. It could develop in many ways.

I have just started writing a book of poems about my father and my memories of him, combining personal memories of my own and that of others. so it is kind of a memoir and poems combined.

At present there are just fleeting thoughts. You are welcome to look at my blog.

As I start to write, after a while I will begin to research certain poetry techniques and look at ways of editing my work to make it more significant. I usually continue on until I feel the piece is finished. I usually don’t plan how I will end until I have a lot more work. It’s quite a long process and takes me a while before I am satisfied with the final result.

How many books have you written so far?

I’ve had poems published in magazines and two books published.

My first book, Maxine, is a postmodern novella about a woman who slips in and out of the present and the past. Her encounters with artists and poets helps her to assess her own life and her failing marriage. The book is illustrated by myself.

My first collection of poems, Men Hate Blondes was published recently by Sam Smith from Original Plus. The book is a collection of prose and poems that revolve around memories and influences from my past.

I’ve written and illustrated a book of short fairytales, Shadows and Furore which I am now in the process of editing. I will be seeking a publisher for these stories.

I have also written and illustrated a children’s story called The Moon Angel.

I am currently developing and writing a series of poems based on a short story, "Journey of the Bride", a story exhibition that I will be exhibiting in September here in Liverpool. I will also be organising a poetry reading for the event. You can find the ongoing poems on the blog above and the images on YouTube.

I have written two complete plays: St Catherine, a play about the life of St Catherine of Alexandria and, Wrappers, a play about a middleclass couple who end up losing all their money and then are living on a council estate.

How long did it take you to write Men Hate Blondes?

It took me about a year to write Men Hate Blondes and another two years to finally get round to publishing.

The book was published in 2009 by Sam Smith from Original Plus.

Why I chose Sam Smith was based around what I had explored in terms of publishers of poetry. I had a list of publishers that I had written to in the past and who said they would look at my work at some point and this was what happened with Sam. I finally sent him my work and he said he liked it and would publish it.

It’s not easy to choose a publisher for poetry. I would possibly have looked further afield but I think if you have someone who is bothered to take time to read and discuss your entire collection then that should never be undermined. It is not easy to turn this kind of offer down especially if you are not paying a penny.

The disadvantages are that many small presses are not doing well on the financial front and mass distribution is not on the cards, more likely books are printed when ordered to avoid publishers being lumbered with a large bill due to lack of large sales. For instance, my first novella, Maxine, is now out of print due to financial problems of the publisher. This can be very time consuming and also it is not what you need but you have to accept that these things happen.

Another disadvantage is that you sometimes don’t get a commission on each book you sell. The publisher sells directly from them and gets the buying price from the customer. So, basically to get any profit off it yourself you would need to buy your books at a discount price from the publisher and then sell them as signed copies to customers for the standard price in order to receive your commission. I just have no time to do this although you do have to remember that there is very little money involved with poetry publishing anyway.

The advantages are that you are working with familiar territory, one poet to another poet/publisher and also someone you may have heard read in the past and someone who has read your work and knows of you, someone who you trust. This helps with communication and makes the ride a lot less stressful.

Another advantage is that when you read the contract you may want to consider how easily you can pull out. If this is a simple process that also takes a big burden away.

Just remember, if you are not paying any money then you are not being ripped off. Don’t ever mistake small press publishing for vanity publishing. It is not the same thing in any way at all and you should never pay to have your work published. If they want you to pay to be published then they basically don’t appreciate your work.

Which were the most difficult aspects of the work you put into Men Hate Blondes?

You have to take care and make sure you edit well although some poets see editing as destroying their work. It is all what you are trying to achieve. You have to remember that once it is in print, it is difficult to go back and correct those mistakes, so, a lot of thought and consideration should go into your final piece.

The main thing, I feel, is to find the incentive to let go of your work and seek a publisher. I personally can’t see the point in keeping your poetry hidden away but some do disagree.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

Sound and imagery are very important for me in my work as well as overall composition, so, I spent much time working on my sound combinations in certain poems. If I was to perform these how would they sound?

I read my poems out loud to get an idea on how they come across and if this is not the way I want it then it has to change. Sometimes a poem will be more visual so it is important that it looks right on the page. It is such fun to combine a variety of sounds together.

Here is an example of a sound poem from Men Hate Blondes. This is a poem that is designed to be read out loud. It is called "Blacestonia" and is a chant where I play and experiment as well as create my own language..

Blacestonia

A Chant For the Abused Woman
(Text in bold to be read by two people at the same time)

Glances reserved sequined wings span centuries
Orion’s tilted belt
Soft grey light Infirm of purpose
Swift lute

Demalian interdem
Kalera demeto kachina ingletterra
Glamus Autocumulus

Mask of cloud and chaser
Droplets descending
Oration gathered to city levellers
Spiritualised desire acts

Demalian interdem
Kalera demeto kachina ingletterra
Glamus Autocumulus
An earth ressurrection

Does it come from the centre
State of shock

Shooting live subjects in pictures
They intersect in chaos
Lest our old robes turned wild
To those who appear the born

Demalian interdem
Kalera demeto kachina ingletterra
Glamus Autocumulus
Children of darkness

She weeps, she bleeds and each new day
A gash is added to her wounds
For this wild rage and furious cruelty

Demalian interdem
Kalera demeto kachina ingletterra
Glamus Autocumulus
You lack the season of all natures sleep

Plercution whatever the subject
Tidal sister
An indecisive flutter
When moon began to flow
I dream half a dream
Ragling nightling cloudling

Demalian interdem
Kalera demeto kachina ingletterra
Glamus Autocumulus
Saveel blacestonia

Absorbing shapes of rain and shine
Between here and the blue folder

Sometimes I like to write very simple poems based around incidents that have hidden meanings as in this poem about a vampire.

maybe it’s true

a child wanted to know
why it kept him away so
we tied some together
hung it over the door…
but nothing happened.

i saw nothing but she did
she said it was him so i clutched
her to me tightly and we both
stared out the window
at the invisible bat.

What sets Men Hate Blondes apart from other things you've written?

It is a visionary and diverse collection of works that I feel probably sums up my best writing to date, not discounting St Catherine, which I enjoyed writing.

Men Hate Blondes is a poetry collection while Maxine is a novella and a story with a plot. I am pleased with Maxine as it was my final MA Creative Writing thesis that I managed to get published as a book in its own right. I put two years of hard work into that book, much study and learning. If I could edit it again, I would probably make a few more changes but overall I am proud of that book.

The only similarities between the two books are that each book contains my illustrations and artwork.

This next book is quite straight forward and could possibly develop into a children’s book.

I am writing a short book of poems, ‘Journey of the Bride’ based on a woman who runs away on her wedding day, travels abroad and has an adventure. She bumps into a fairy prince who takes her to his kingdom of peace and beauty. She eventually returns home and reunites with her jilted bridegroom and they do get married only she wakes up to discover it was all just a dream. The story developed from a series of twenty drawings. The drawings have now been accepted to be exhibited in Liverpool in September so I am now thinking of writing poems to go with the drawings and organising a poetry reading about journeys for the private view.

After that I will work on the poems about my father that I feel I need to complete.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

At the end of the day I am happy about Neon Highway and offering poets a chance for publication.

I am happy that I have had my work published, that I curate events and that I have produced my first full poetry collection. This was always an ambition of mine and it has now been achieved. I just keep going.

The mystery of it all keeps me inspired.

This article is based on an email interview with Alice Lenkiewicz which took place in January 2010

Related books:

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Related articles:

• Alice Lenkiewicz [Interview_3], Conversations with Writers, August 25, 2011
• Costa Café, Bold St (14th and 24th July 2008) [Poetry Readings], Reviewed by William Park, Catalyst Reviews, August 19, 2008
• Maxine by Alice Lenkiewicz [Book Review], By Ian Jackson, artinliverpool.com, October 23, 2005

[Interview] Murenga Joseph Chikowero

Zimbabwean writer, Murenga Joseph Chikowero is a doctoral student in African Literature and Film at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In 2010, he collaborated with Annie Holmes and Peter Orner on an oral history project which gave birth to the highly-regarded book, Hope Deferred (McSweeney’s Publishing, 2010).

His short stories have featured in the anthology, Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe (amaBooks, 2011) as well as on the PanAfrican writers’ blog, StoryTime.

In this interview, Murenga Chikowero talks about his concerns as a writer:

When did you start writing?

Back in primary school, probably in 6th grade.

That year, I moved to a different part of the country, near Guruve in the north, and there a friend told me a story, one of those fantastic tales. When I went back to my old school a year later, our teacher asked everyone to write a story, any fictional story. I wrote down this story about a mythical, one-eyed giant but ... when our books were returned ... mine wasn’t there! Our teacher had misplaced it. When she eventually found it, she asked everybody to stop whatever they were doing to listen to my story.

That, for me, was when writing stories down began although storytelling itself was nothing new in my family and, indeed, other families in the villages.

How would you describe your writing?

I write mainly short stories though I have a novel on the way.

I am fascinated by the 1980s, the time when so many people felt they could dream ... independence was finally here and, for that reason, young men walked with a pronounced swagger, shirts unbuttoned down to the navel and hats worn at fancy angles. Young women wore their over-ironed pleated costumes, stretched out their graceful necks and went about their business. My writing traces the radical and more subtle changes from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe and what ‘Zimbabwe’ meant to different generations and groups. The clamor of the post-2000 politics masks the amazing beauty – and. yes, largely untold trauma – of the 80s and I try to recapture that in my fiction.

Outside fictional writing, I recently collaborated with two writers, Annie Holmes and Peter Orner on an oral history project that gave birth to a book called Hope Deferred. That project basically attempts to bring voices of ordinary Zimbabweans – at home and abroad – to bear on the narrative of Zimbabwean crisis of the last decade. I traveled to Zimbabwe and interviewed some of these witnesses and victims of torture and political persecution.

Hope Deferred is a collection of some of the most remarkable personal stories of ordinary people’s experiences of state-sponsored terrorism, their struggles for a better society and, ultimately, the triumph of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

My short fiction generally targets a mature audience but my novel-in-progress courts younger Zimbabweans although all English speakers will find something to enjoy there too. A lot of our young people today have no clue what the 80s and 90s meant – or promised – to those who lived through them. The beauty and ugliness of that period is unlike anything we have seen since.

In the writing you are doing, which authors influenced you most?

Because my school didn’t have a library, I read whatever I found.

The adolescent detective genre was quite an obsession early on, especially the American variety: the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series. Nothing was better than lying on my back before the yellow light of a paraffin lamp after supper and join Frank and Joe Hardy and their friends – and sometimes their father Fenton – as they put together the puzzle pieces of some big crime in their town.

Then, after reading No Longer at Ease, I considered myself a firm disciple of Chinua Achebe. No book made me happier even with its subtle, controlled prose. Achebe’s fiction, though written in English, read like my native Shona and I liked that instant recognition.

I bumped onto a battered copy of House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera in between reading the then ubiquitous Pacesetter series that we exchanged in middle school and I was instantly hooked. The problem, though, was that the copy was so battered it had no cover so there was no way of knowing its title or author.

But the Pacesetters series! My very first Pacesetter was called Evbu My Love by a Nigerian writer named Helen Obviagele. It was a somewhat sad story but there was something about love brewed in the African pot that nibbled gently at your heart and made you read the story once, then twice.

The Pacesetter Series was impressive for its vivid language and fast-paced action by African heroes and, occasionally, heroines. Secret service heroes like Benny Kamba in Equatorial Assignment. Some of the heroes had English names such as Jack Ebony in Mark of the Cobra but that didn’t bother us and we were right there with him as he delivered deadly karate kicks to venomous snakes hidden in his wardrobe by enemies of the state.

I also read some South African fiction, most of which I didn’t particularly like at the time, perhaps because the first ever South African novel I read was Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. The Pacesetters had introduced me to African heroes who could punch their way out of trouble so I found Cry, the Beloved Country particularly depressing.

Luckily, Dambudzo Marechera saved me around this time. A friend let me borrow his House of Hunger though we didn’t find out what the title was until much later. Unlike anything I had read before, Marechera seized me by the scruff of my neck and thrust me into a violent yet fascinating world of the ghetto slum. I had not stayed in any urban ghetto so the world of House of Hunger shocked me. Another happy problem was the language; I didn’t understand a lot of the more flowery prose but it excited and shocked me in equal measure. A less happy problem was that Marechera, of course, didn’t see anything wrong with describing graphic sexual acts, sometimes even in our native language and so I got a bigger book, a schoolbook actually, planted House of Hunger right in the middle and read and re-read the numbing details of ghetto life while my teachers marveled at my keen academic interest!

Around the same time, we discovered James Hadley-Chase, Louis L’Amour and the British classics – usually the abridged versions.

My older brothers also read anything under the sun and kept personal libraries of sorts. I was allowed to read these books – as long as I was behaving myself. I liked history books the most because they were packed with biographies of larger than life characters, characters who rose from nobodies and turned the world upside down. I liked all of those legendary figures. Our government was then heavy on what is called Gutsaruzhinji or Socialism and there were all these history books detailing the Chinese Revolution of 1947. I would look at a certain picture of a youthful Mao Zedong – then called Mao Tse Tung – and envy his army cap.

My brothers also had collections of Shona language novels, some of which were course setbooks at school. I detested the moralistic variety churned by the sackful by our Literature Bureau but absolutely loved the detective thrillers like James Kawara’s Sajeni Chimedza and Edward Kaugare‘s Kukurukura Hunge Wapotswa. Though targeted at older readers, these novels were not too different from the Pacesetter Series. Above all, I loved the Shona language liberation war novels, the best of which was Kuda Muhondo by a writer whose name I forget. The more overtly partisan ones like Zvairwadza Vasara, I didn’t particularly like.

These books and experiences shaped my early writing and made me feel I could try my hand too.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

Each time I sit down to write down a story, I am always struck by James Baldwin’s assertion that the job of the writer is to look for the question that the answer tries to hide. And yet we often think of the answer itself as a solution to a query.

The ease with which myth passes off as truth in Zimbabwe motivates me to write fiction. My major concern is the place of historical memory in contemporary Zimbabwe. A lot has happened and we have a state that considers it a moral obligation to control this narrative, especially since the year 2000, thanks to a severely – and perhaps deliberately – stunted media landscape. I use different generational voices to interrogate these changes that have happened.

For example, one of the biggest myths in our country is that all Zimbabweans lived happy, comfortable lives before the Mugabe-led farm takeovers which began in earnest around 2000. Few people are honest enough to remember that the ruling elites, led by Mugabe himself, actually colluded with the rich white farmers and industrialists to lord it over an impoverished population.

Who remembers now that the farm takeovers were actually planned and spearheaded by ordinary villagers? Who remembers that these villagers were actually arrested for their efforts before political expediency made it necessary for our politicians to turn round and celebrate these villagers as heroes of the Third Chimurenga? I try to write beautiful stories that bring a more nuanced understanding to these issues.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

The biggest challenge facing most Zimbabwean writers today is the shrinking publishing industry. This, of course is true throughout Africa with South Africa as a possible exception.

The few, mostly independent publishing houses left in Zimbabwe are forced to put their few resources behind book projects by trusted names so as to recoup their investments. Yes, ours is still a society that views fictional writing as something of an indulgence, a hobby for the educated class. Of course, there is that basic question: Who is going to buy a book when all the money they have can hardly buy a loaf of bread?

You will notice that, contrary to the 20 years leading up to 2000, there are fewer fresh writers whose works are published individually. The tendency has been to produce these anthologies from which some talented voices occasionally emerge, for example, both Brian Chikwava and Petinah Gappah published short stories as part of this short story anthology tradition before launching individual careers as celebrated writers. To date, I have also pursued a somewhat similar path although some of my stories have been published in the form of e-books in South Africa.

Do you write everyday?

Because I balance an academic career with writing fiction, I cannot write everyday. It is also not my style to write everyday. I generally let a story or a chapter ferment in my imagination for days, rather like chikokiyana, our traditional brew, before writing it down. But when I start writing, the story demands that I finish it in one sitting, much like a gourd of frothy chikokiyana. Then I pass it on to my partner to read. She is by far my harshest critic so I usually listen to her opinion before editing my stories.

Ever since I discovered Dambudzo Marechera, Toni Morrison, Njabulo Ndebele, V. S. Naipaul, Charles Mungoshi, Joseph Heller and Ernest Hemingway, I have never liked a story whose conclusion is overwritten, especially if it’s a short story.

My short stories in particular use plenty of silences which estimate real-life African dialogue as I have experienced it.

I have a special dislike for stories that end in formulaic ways ... for example, a relationship that ends with a wedding or a rogue who is caught and jailed. I like my rogues out there, maybe some of them reform or they are chased out of town but I like them better out there and not in jail. Instead of a wedding, I am usually satisfied with lovers looking into each other’s eyes or even doing seemingly small things for each other.

My most recently published short stories include “The Hero”, which was featured in an anthology called Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe by amaBooks, a Bulawayo-based publisher. I have also published two stories, “When the King of Sungura Died” and “Uncle Jeffrey” on the PanAfrican writers' blog, StoryTime, which is managed and edited by Zimbabwean-born writer, Ivor Hartmann.

How would you describe "The Hero"?

“The Hero” is about an accidental hero who starts off as a rather banal political party thug who falls into a large beer container at a party rally and dies. His party declares him a hero and on the day of burial, he even dislodges the president from the news headlines. "The Hero" is based on a true story that happened in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe, around 2003.

I wrote it in one sitting, as I usually do with my short stories, and it was published in Where to Now? by Bulawayo-based amaBooks in 2011. My story speaks to other stories in that anthology, all by fellow Zimbabweans. In my story, for example, the ill-fated character is essentially a victim of an economy gone haywire; he takes to partisan politics like one possessed. In NoViolet Bulawayo’s award-winning story in the same volume, “Hitting Budapest”, you find a similar theme of ghetto kids craving for very basic necessities of life which their parents cannot provide, thanks to a crashed economy.

The ghetto setting is something I am very familiar with. I think a story’s power also draws from its ability to evoke a setting that readers recognize.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

Creating the ghetto scene and the atmosphere of a Zimbabwean political rally are the two things that I enjoyed most. Political rallies in Zimbabwe have a whole life of their own.

I also especially liked working with Jane Morris, the editor of Where to Now?.

What sets "The Hero" apart from other things you’ve written?

The satire ... Some of the so-called heroes and heroines buried at our publicly-funded heroes’ burial sites – heroes’ acres as we call them, including the National Heroes Acre, are no heroes at all ... But because of media censorship, there is little public debate about these kinds of issues outside the columns of the few privately-owned newspapers ... Thankfully, developments in Information Communication Technology have seen a steady rise in online newspapers, blogs and online social forums where a culture of robust debate is slowly taking root.

What “The Hero” shares with my other stories is the fascination with Zimbabwe’s public memory, particularly how it has been edited, suppressed and manipulated at various times to suit the goals of the political class.

Related articles:

[1] Where to Now? Short stories from Zimbabwe [Book Review], by Cynthia R Matonhodze, NewsDay, October 11, 2011
[2] Omen Muza [Interview], Conversations with Writers, September 29, 2011
[3] Publishing in a Zimbabwe under strain, by Jane Morris and Brian Jones, amaBooks, July 20, 2009

[Interview] Myne Whitman

Myne Whitman was born in Enugu, Nigeria.

She has a Master’s degree in Public Health Research and is the author of two romantic suspense novels, A Heart to Mend (Authorhouse, 2009) and A Love Rekindled (CreateSpace, 2011), which are both set in Nigeria.

In this interview, Myne Whitman talks about her concerns as a writer:

When did you start writing?

I've been writing for a very long time, well, since I was about 11 or so. Unfortunately, most of those scribbles were lost when we moved cities. I started writing seriously around my third year in university, took a break for work and further studies and, now, writing is my full time career.

The decision to send my work out into the world matured in 2009 after I had been writing again for about six months full time. I had joined a writing group, started a blog, and people seemed to like what I had to write about.

I researched available options of publishing, and gave traditional publishing a try for a few months. The rejections I received had a common thread. While most agents liked my writing, they didn't think it suited them, and there were a couple that suggested I change some fundamental parts of my story. I found that idea abhorrent, and further research yielded some resources on self-publishing.

When I had satisfied myself that I understood what self-publishing entailed and was ready to face the challenge, I decided to go with Authorhouse to design, print and distribute my books. On the editorial angle, I drafted my manuscript several times, working with feedback from my writing group, beta readers on my blog, and finally an editor, to make sure it was ready for a mass audience.

How would you describe your writing?

My writing is romantic fiction.

It has been described as a marriage of literary and pulp fiction.

I write about the romantic experiences of the hero and heroine in my story, and frame them in a background of realistic day-to-day life of their setting. My stories are set in Nigeria where I grew up and lived for most of my life. My language is simple and direct, accented by the tones of local people in the Nigerian setting but adapted for an international audience.

My target audience is international ... anyone who has ever loved or felt emotions as they interacted with other people. I decided on romantic fiction because romance is universal ... most people will experience relationships more than anything else in their lifetime.

When I started A Heart to Mend as an 18 years old, I had at the back of my mind, not only the loads of Mills & Boon romances, but also the Pacesetters and African Writers Series I had devoured as a teenager. I was motivated to write stories that featured people like me, and that people like me could identify with.

When I went back to the story, I was living in the US, and in rewriting it, I made it a story in which I could share my background and world view with those that were different from me. For everyone who reads it, if there is one thing to take away, I want it to be the universality of what makes us human ... the experiences, the emotions, and the aspirations of life and love.

In the writing you are doing, which authors influenced you most?

The authors that I take as my role models include Nora Roberts, Danielle Steele, Buchi Emecheta, Cyprian Ekwensi and Helen Ovbiagele, among others. I love these authors because of their writing (their works drew emotions out of me, they made me think, and they also educated and informed me) and because of what they've been able to achieve (they are prolific, and their stories are accessible to a wide audience, the stories are those that a large number of people can relate to).

Have your own personal experiences influenced your writing in any way?

Mostly because my stories are set in locations that I've either lived in or visited.

Also, I write on themes that are universal, and I've personally felt some of the emotions I describe in my books. That said, nothing in my books are autobiographical.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

First and foremost, I want to tell a good story, one that will hook the reader into it and take them on a journey. I want my readers to enjoy my books, and I also hope that I will make them feel (laugh, cry, and think) while they read. Also, because I am self published, I'm concerned about how to ensure that my books are of very good quality.

I believe in my stories, and I believe in the message I want to pass through them so my biggest challenge is how to get my books to as large an audience as possible. I deal with that by investing a good amount of time in promotion. I also utilize the strategy of giving away free books in order to build a following.

My first book, A Heart to Mend, stayed at #1 on the AmazonUK Kindle store for romantic suspense (free) for over two weeks, with almost 20,000 copies downloaded. It was a very good feeling to know that even half of that number will read the story and it would fit into how they make sense of the world around them.

Do you write everyday?

I do not write everyday, not that I wouldn't like to though.

I write when I feel like it, and usually I would've been thinking about the story and so it comes easily to my fingers as I type (I used to write long hand, but I now write directly to MS Word on my laptop).

When I have start thinking about what to write, or whether it makes sense, then I stop.

How many books have you written so far?

I have written two books so far:

A Heart to Mend was published through Authorhouse in December 2009. It tells about the coming of age of a young woman, Gladys, who falls in love with Edward, a wealthy businessman. They become romantically linked but emotional issues from Edward's past make it hard for him to fully trust Gladys. Their relationship is further complicated when she becomes embroiled in a plot to take over his business.

A Love Rekindled was published through Createspace in March 2011. Efe is an independent woman who returns to Nigeria ready to face the future, after years in the United States. However, it is the past that she first has to confront when her former fiance, Kevwe, comes back into her life claiming he's never stopped loving her. He has to unravel the mystery of their broken engagement before she is willing to rekindle their love.

How would you describe A Love Rekindled?

A Love Rekindled is my latest book, and it took about a year to write and edit. It was first published in the United States.

I moved from Authorhouse to CreateSpace for my second book because I found that the latter's services were more affordable. The next advantage was that they worked directly with Amazon.com which my first book had shown me was my biggest market.

Which were the most difficult aspects of the work you put into A Love Rekindled?

I enjoy telling stories and giving free reign to my imagination. I think this is because I'm recreating the world through my characters, and breathing life into them in such a way that readers will be emotionally invested in what happens to them.

For me, the most difficult part of writing is the editing process. The primary reason being that I do not have a formal background in Writing, English, Communication or Literature. Taking several free online courses and joining writing groups have been very helpful in increasing my strength in these areas. I have also tried to improve my knowledge of the publishing industry in terms of branding, publicity and marketing.

What sets A Love Rekindled apart from other things you've written?

A Love Rekindled differs from A Heart to Mend in that it spans a longer period of time. Readers will be transported to the years at the turn of the millenium and to the days of first love and loss.

The two books are similar in that they are set in Nigeria and are about people dealing with issues of love, family, and personal development.

The book I'm working on now is about a woman who has just clocked the big 30 and has to determine whether marriage is the next step in her life as everyone one around her expects. Being seduced by a local lothario during a vacation to Nigeria does not make this decision any easier.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

I think it is too early to conclude, but I'll like to be counted among those that revived the writing of popular and commercial fiction in Africa.

Related books:

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Related articles:

• Myne Whitman, author of A Heart To Mend [Interview], Jaguda, December 29, 2009
• Have Nigerian Romance Novels Come of Age [Book Review], by Sylva Nze Ifedigbo, Critical Literature Review, January 24, 2010
• Onaedo, The Blacksmith’s Daughter by Ngozi Achebe [Book Review], by Gibril Koroma, Digital Journal, October 6, 2011

[Interview] Omen Muza

Omen Nyevero Muza holds an MBA and runs a financial advisory firm he co-founded in Harare.

He is also a financial columnist with a local daily newspaper. 

One of his short stories appears in the anthology, Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe  (amaBooks, 2011).

He writes and plays guitar in his spare time. 

In this interview, Omen Muza talks about his concerns as a writer:

When did you start writing?

My first serious attempt at writing was while waiting for my O-Level results. I cobbled together a collection of poems which was, however, never published.

Before that, I recall that my Grade 7 teacher put my name to something I didn’t write and submitted it to some obscure publication. Perhaps as some form of poetic justice, the publication misspelt my name to something entirely unrecognizable so in the end it was never attributed to me anyway. I am sure my beloved teacher meant well and obviously had a soft spot for me but I wonder whether she was aware that she was making me an accessory to an act of plagiarism. I certainly wasn’t aware!

How would you describe your writing?

Intermittent and undisciplined.

Although I have attempted a novel before, I now tend to focus only on short stories because they are less demanding, time-wise. The rigour of full-time work and contributing a weekly newspaper column on banking and finance does not leave room for much else, apparently.

I have never consciously thought about who my audience is or should be. I just write, really. Sometimes your audience can come from the most unlikely quarters so it may not be wise to have pre-conceived notions about who constitutes it.

In the writing you are doing, which authors influenced you most?

My pool of influence is quite an eclectic mix. However, if I have to name one person I consciously sought to emulate during my formative years, it would have to be none other than Dambudzo Marechera. With the benefit of hindsight, I was trying to emulate his lifestyle, not his writing style.

And have your own personal experiences influenced your writing in any way?

I would say extensively.

Most of my creative work is based on my personal experiences, sometimes to the point of being crudely autobiographical, I must say.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

To write in a manner that is believable... to be authentic... to write in a manner that people can relate to.

Perhaps this explains why I only write fiction when I have to. I no longer write for the sake of writing.

Like Nhamo, the character in "The Poetry Slammer", from the collection Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe, my biggest challenge is the balancing act between finding time to write while working full-time in the financial services sector. It’s never an easy road.

Do you write every day?

I don’t write every day but I read every day. And when I write it is never structured - there is no formula. I let the chips fall where they may. At any given time, I usually have several incomplete stories that I am working on.

I haven’t published a full book yet but I have published a number of stories in various online and print media.

My latest short story, "The Poetry Slammer" was published in early August as part of amaBooks' latest collection of short stories, Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe. I cannot remember how long it took me to write the story but because I wrote it for submission to a literary competition, the story can’t have taken much time to write.

An earlier short story of mine had been one of the top ten stories in the Intwasa Short Story Writing competition in 2007 organized by amaBooks in Bulawayo, so amaBooks was the natural destination for "The Poetry Slammer".

Though largely fictional, "The Poetry Slammer" draws significantly from real events and places. Under those circumstances, the challenge was to be faithful to the zeitgeist – the true spirit of those events and places because some people who went through the experiences on which the short story is based may read the story one day. I had to do quite a bit research in order to deal with that concern. For instance, when I was writing the short story, I actually visited the Book Café for the House of Hunger Poetry Slam in order to get into the right groove, and I remember chatting to Chirikure Chirikure one night in the Mannenberg Jazz Café.

I enjoyed writing every bit of "The Poetry Slammer", not only parts of it. I wanted it to be different from anything I had written before in terms of style, plot and characterization.

What will you be working on next?

Interestingly, or maybe strangely, it will not even be a work of fiction. It will be a collection of my NewsDay banking and finance articles written over a period of more than a year, tentatively titled Banking Insights from an Economy in Transition.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

Not giving up on writing... staying true to my craft in spite of the odds heavily staked against writing.

Related books:

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Related articles:

• Zimbabwean Literature: a Nervous Condition, By Brian Chikwava, Pambazuka News, November 1, 2007
• Literature and Crisis in Zimbabwe, By Ranka Primorac, The Guardian, April 22, 2008
• Novuyo Rosa Tshuma [Interview], Conversations with Writers, September 25, 2011

[Interview] Karen Wodke

Karen Wodke lives in the Midwest, in the United States and is the author of James Willis Makes a Million (CreateSpace, 2011), a novel for young readers.

She also writes for websites and magazines that include Associated Content, Adventures for the Average Woman, Foliate Oak Literary Journal and Ehow.

In addition to that, working with P. J. Hawkinson, and writing under the name Wodke Hawkinson, she co-authored books that include the novels, Betrayed (CreateSpace, 2011) and Tangerine (___, forthcoming) as well as the short story collections, Catch Her in the Rye (CreateSpace, 2011); Blue (CreateSpace, 2011) and Alone (___, forthcoming).

In this interview, Karen Wodke talks about her writing:

When did you start writing?

I have always enjoyed writing, but only in the last few years have I gotten serious about it.

A couple of years ago, I decided to write a book for young readers, James Willis Makes a Million. I made the decision to self-publish that book. I felt it would be the first of, hopefully, many books I would write.

In publishing my solo work, I started out with Lulu.com and was pleased with them. I still knew next to nothing about marketing or promotion. In fact, I’m still learning.

On the novels I co-authored with P. J. Hawkinson, we tried the traditional route first. Many traditional publishers do not accept simultaneous submissions, which tied up our manuscripts for months at a time. We grew weary of the process and began to consider self-publishing our novels.

We ultimately decided to put together short story collections, self-publish them, and see how it went before making a decision about self-publishing our other books. I think at this point, however, we were pretty sure self-publishing was the way to go, even with our upcoming novels. We like the control we have over our material, the higher royalties, and the freedom to explore controversial topics that wouldn’t necessarily appeal to traditional publishers.

We are just now getting the first of the reviews on our short story collections.

How would you describe your writing?

I would describe it as a fictional smorgasbord.

We don’t stick with one genre, which may or may not turn out to be a mistake. For instance, our upcoming novels couldn’t be more different from each other. One is set in the future, almost a sci-fi novel, entitled Tangerine. It has aliens, space-travel, and other elements you would expect in that sort of story. The other, Betrayed, is the tale of a woman who is abducted and abused, who finally escapes from her captors only to end up lost in the wilderness at the onset of a harsh winter.

Our target audience is anyone who enjoys a good story, regardless of genre. Both of our short story collections offer a variety from contemporary fiction to sci-fi to noir, and even a little humor here and there.

I myself love to read and will read almost anything short of technical manuals. I figured there are people out there who feel the same way, people who just want to be drawn into a tale regardless of subject matter.

In the writing you are doing, which authors influenced you most?

I suppose I am most influenced by the authors whose writing really reached out and grabbed me. J. R. R. Tolkien, Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, Dean Koontz ... to name a few.

I took something different away from each author’s work. From King, it was the realization that dark themes are petri dishes for literary ideas. And I love the way he uses sentence fragments almost as tools to deliver his stories. Teachers of English may not like them, but sentence fragments are a powerful element in fiction writing, as long as the technique is not overdone. If it’s overdone, it just makes your writing look poor.

From Tolkien, I loved the elegance of his writing, his ability to describe a scene, and the complexity of his plots. Dean Koontz inspires me because he knows how to grab a reader’s attention and hold onto it. Asimov’s work, of course, is brilliant. Ahead of its time.

Have your own personal experiences influenced your writing in any way?

Great story ideas come from many places. Sometimes it’s a person I’ve met, or a scene I have witnessed. Other times, just a phrase spoken to me will trigger a story idea. In that way, my own experiences have an impact on my writing. It is rare, however, for me to take an actual event from my life and write about it.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

Like most writers, I wonder if I will gain an audience for my work, and how well it will be accepted. There is also a question in my mind of whether I can ever justify the time and effort I have put into it.

I deal with these concerns by writing what I want to write and doing it to the best of my ability. Both P. J. and I are painstaking editors of our own work, and even then things can slip past.

The biggest challenge for me is the promotion of the books. The writing is a labor of love, and the proofreading/editing/revision are just part of that process.

I sometimes have to really push myself to do the promotion. But to make it as an author, you have to be willing to promote your work.

Do you write everyday?

Yes, I would say I write something every single day. But all too often, it isn’t on our current project, but rather blog posts, networking, promotion, emails, or reviews of other authors’ books.

A good writing session starts for me in the morning with a cup of French vanilla cappuccino. My desk sits before a window that looks out over my front yard. I will sit at my computer, open the blind so I can see outside, sip my cappuccino, and write. I love it.

Generally, my writing starts with editing our current project, doing revisions, and emailing the manuscript back to P. J. for her to review. If I have time and feel inspired, I can start a new story.

It usually ends a few hours later out of necessity so I can tend to other things. However, if things are rolling along smoothly, I have been known to stay up late at night to finish a chapter or conclude a story. I admit I’ve lost some sleep at times.

How many books have you written so far?

I wrote James Willis Makes a Million, a story for young readers about a boy who starts his own business and ends up a millionaire by the time he is grown. I initially self-published this book with Lulu.com in January of this year, but it’s now available in other places as well.

With P. J. and, together, writing as Wodke Hawkinson:

• Catch Her in the Rye, Selected Short Stories Vol. One, published on createspace.com in May, 2011. Short stories in a variety of genres.
• Blue, Selected Short Stories Vol. Two, published on Smashwords in June, 2011 features more stories in various genres. Blue is a bit darker in tone than Catch Her in the Rye.
• Our next book, Betrayed, the story of a Denver socialite who is abducted during a botched carjacking. She is held captive in a remote location and abused for days and, although she escapes, she ends up injured, nearly naked, and hopelessly lost in the forest at the beginning of a harsh winter. Almost at the end of her endurance, she happens upon a wild-looking, reclusive mountain man who takes her back to his secluded cabin where she fears she has traded one form of captivity for another.

How long did it take you to write the stories that appear in Blue?

The collection of short stories was written over a period of about nine months.

We published the e-version on Smashwords in June of this year and the paperback version on Amazon in July.

We chose Smashwords because they offer a wide variety of formats for their ebooks. Another advantage with Smashwords is how easy it is to format the book. They offer a free guide that is excellent.

For our paperback version, we chose CreateSpace, which puts the book on Amazon.

The disadvantage to any self-publishing venture is that the author is responsible for all marketing, distribution, and promotion. It’s a daunting task, but we are learning as we go and researching other authors who have experience in promotion.

Which aspects of the work you put into the book did you find most difficult?

The most difficult aspect of the actual writing of Blue was deciding how to handle delicate and controversial subject material.

We approached the task with the attitude that we will tell the story even when it’s an unpleasant one, but strive not to unnecessarily bludgeon our readers, but instead to inform and entertain them. Unfortunately, they are some who might nevertheless still feel they’ve been bludgeoned by the end of the tale. (I say this with a smile.) But if they do, they can rest assured it was not intentional.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

Putting the words together. Then tearing them apart and putting them together again in a better way. But it’s rough sometimes, getting things just right.

I love writing with P. J. It helps so much to have another brain and another set of eyes working with me to create our fictional realities.

What sets Blue apart from other things you've written?

While Blue has its wholesome elements, I feel it generates an overall darker tone since it contains stories about murder, incest, and suicide.

Blue is similar to Catch Her in the Rye because it too offers a variety of genres and storylines.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

I would like to think the most significant achievement hasn’t happened yet. But it will. It’s just around the corner.

Related books:

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Related articles:

• Author interview with Wodke Hawkinson, FlirtyandFeisty Romance Novels, ___
• Interview with K Wodke, By Ella Johnson, Mymcbooks's Blog, August 27, 2011
• Reading, Writing and Self-publishing, Conversations with Writers, April 13, 2007

[Interview] Novuyo Rosa Tshuma

Novuyo Rosa Tshuma is a Zimbabwean writer currently studying at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

In 2009, she won the Intwasa Short Story Competition.

Her short stories have been featured in anthologies that include The Bed Book of Short Stories (Modjaji Books, 2010); A Life In Full and Other Stories: Caine Prize Anthology 2010 (New Internationalist, 2010), African Roar: an Eclectic Anthology of African Authors (StoryTime, 2010) and Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe (amaBooks, 2011).

In this interview, Novuyo Tshuma talks about her concerns as a writer:

Which authors influenced you most?

The novels of Orhan Pamuk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Arundhati Roy, Sembene Ousmane, Naguib Mahfouz, Tsitsi Dangarembga, James Baldwin.

A particular piece of short writing which comes to mind is Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor’s "Kin la Belle: In the clear light of Song and Silence" which was featured in the Pilgrimages Project and was about her pilgrimage to Kinsasha. I love descriptive writing, writing that engages one’s surroundings, and in this piece a stark, out-of-the-box creativity merges with the writer’s experiences to create an intensely sensual reading. Absolutely beautiful.

I read an online excerpt of Yvonne Vera’s Butterfly Burning where landscape merges with the emotional state of the protagonist in an intense poetic prose that is just awesome.

Brian Chikwava’s "Seventh Street Alchemy" is a read filled with memorable scenes painted with linguistic prowess.

The short fiction is endless.

Why did these particular writers have this influence? For me, they each offered something new in their readings, something beautifully executed, something I had not previously encountered in my readings.

Arundhati Roy’s gymnastic linguistics in The God of Small Things showed what was possible with language in literature, how words could be bended, stretched, rearranged and created to form a rich literary mosaic. Naguib Mahfouz’s Palace Walk offered intense characterization, as did Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions.

In Palace Walk I found myself in an intricate love-hate relationship with many of the characters, the father-figure who was the true depiction of chauvinism, his wife Amina who had an irritating blandness, and their son Yasin who embarked on the most mischievous escapades. I formed a complicated bond with these characters, irked often by their complexities, disappointed by their short comings, in love with their 'humanness'.

Nyasha in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions is a beautifully complex character with acute perceptions and an original flair.

Orhan Pamuk’s novels offer philosophical characters set in plots that give a great view of the complexities which have plagued Turkey at different points of its history; a lot of tugging between fundamentalism and secularism/westernization.

I became fascinated with Nigerian dishes after tasting them in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus.

There is always something new, something refreshing offered in the memorable reads.

How have your personal experiences influenced your writing in any way?

Hmmm ... I have said before that I like to keep it 'purely fiction'. However, pieces of oneself, one’s experiences are invariably interweaved in one’s writings.

I like to explore characters who may be removed from my direct self, but perhaps whose bits of experiences here and there, are my own. Taking, for instance, my story "Crossroads" in the Where To Now anthology ... it is a fictionalized piece and yet the descriptions at the border are details of characters I have observed, conversations I have overheard and so forth.

It helps in a piece of work to be familiar with setting and to be able to capture the atmosphere of a place, its edge or its bluntness. So, for me, personal experiences function well for setting and atmosphere.

I like to experiment with characters who are not directly linked to me as a writer, characters who I may feel do not exhibit too much of myself. I do not like too much self-examination in a piece of fiction; one becomes self-conscious as a writer, and rather apprehensive of this idea of self-depiction.

People may, nevertheless, link a character to the writer. I have had people read a story and then come to me, agape, and say, "You really did that?!" The excitement lies in stepping into the shoes of a fictionalized character and capturing such a character as though it were you, which then becomes, on some level, a humanizing of the self.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

The biggest, I would say, is the apprehension about one’s writing, capturing a story as best you can. One is ever aware of how much one is yet to learn, how much one does not know. These apprehensions are most easily tackled by ever writing, ever reading, ever exploring.

The biggest challenge is finding a home for your work. One gets more rejections for one’s work than acceptances. Some publications don’t reply. So one needs a persevering spirit.

I remember when I first started sending out my work. I was very bold and persistent in my letters. Got many rejections. I always kept sending.

Another challenge is fighting inertia ... it is important to ever grow in your writing, especially as a young writer. It is crucial to step out of one’s comfort zone and experiment, in order to discover the things one may be able to do in and with one’s writing. Some experiments fail. But that is part of the learning process, isn’t it? To discover what works and what doesn’t. Writing is a constant state of patience.

Do you write everyday?

Not every single day. I would say four to five days a week for several weeks, and then reading takes over for the next week or two and so forth. Some days are busier than others.

The trick, I find, is to allocate writing its space in your life, and to ensure that others respect that space. I usually write early morning, as that is when I feel sharpest.

My sessions usually begin by reading the previous session’s work. This helps me get into the mode of my work. Some editing usually takes place during this time. After reading, one simply delves into the writing. Many times, particularly with first drafts, one feels that one is writing a lot of rubbish – it is as though one is feeling for a thread in the dark, searching for the vein of a story.

Many first drafts end in despair! I find I have many first drafts of different scenes, different stories, and usually the stories that I finish at a point in time are alterations from first drafts written a while ago, which when perused with a fresh eye, offer a gem or two worth pursuing. And so that is how it goes.

If it is during a morning where I have to attend lectures, then time constraints end my sessions. You find that when you have had a good writing session that must end before you want it to, the story stays in your mind, and you ponder sentences and scenes as you go through your day. When you feel you have a particularly good hunch, you are impatient to get back to your writing.

If it is on a day when I do not have lectures, my sessions can carry through the day, which then becomes an intermittent act of writing and revising, and a lot of editing. This is on a good day, when one has tapped into the vein of a story.

Usually such sessions end because one is tired, and feels satisfied with the work one has managed to do on that particular day. And success on any given day is not judged by quantity but by quality – writing is a constant state of patience (unless one is working with a deadline and needs to balance number of words and the quality of the wording.

Time constraints sometimes pull the writer out of a surreal state where all writing can take place forever! So one may write three thousand words, and only a thousand of that three may feature in the final story.

Some sessions end in despair, when one is struggling with a scene, a story, a character. Usually when this happens I just grab a book and read – it helps to calm the mind.

My sessions usually begin and end in solitary space. I deliberately live alone, as I find the space invaluable for the writing. Growing up, I always used to crave the idea of a space to write, as there was always a lot going on around, interruptions and the like. The act of writing is ultimately an act of solitude. So it is good to have a space where you can just wake up and begin writing, and not have to entertain disruptions.

When did you start writing?

I began writing stories for fun when I was nine, thereabouts.

Influences change. It was during the Echoes of Young Voices young people’s anthology project with British Council and amaBooks publishers in 2006 that I acquired an inclination towards what you would call 'African Writing' ... I was eighteen at the time.

How would you describe the writing you are doing?

Realist fiction.

Who is your target audience?

Everybody who loves to read ... but this statement itself carries preconceptions, whether even subconsciously, of what our generic readership is, based on the common culture many of us consume or are invariably exposed to, through technology and other mediums.

It is interesting how the idea of Western influence (through, say, its preconceptions) becomes the focal point around which a reaction is lodged, whether towards or against it. Is the idea of a target audience presupposed by the idea of a commercial concern?

It is interesting ... in certain reviews you hear reference to what we, the readers, think; how we may view this and this, and one wonders who this we is. In lumping a generic readership, the question is, who or what informs the tastes of this readership? From where do the influences stem? And what of the other readership, take the rural masses who may 'love to read' but who do not have the commercial viability? Who or what shapes whatever literature they have access to? The relationship between writer-reader can be a complex one.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

Hmmm ... Achievement ... That word. I am skeptical of it.

There have been wonderful isolated moments, which I would not call achievements: My first story ever to be published. The very act itself of being published. Working with publishers on a piece of work at an intimate level, such as Jane and Brian of amaBooks. Mixing with writers on a whole other 'political' level at the Caine Prize Workshop, and building friendships there. Learning from writers I greatly admired at the Farafina Workshop. Growing, from these workshops and these interactions, into a more solid writer. Interacting with writers online and meeting some great people I hope will be lifelong friends.

I guess the idea of achievement goes back to a question: What is it that one sets out to achieve as a writer? Hmmm ... Interesting question, that.

The more obvious ideas of achievement are just that, too obvious, and therefore immediately boring.

I do know one thing though, which is that probably, this achievement in writing and I, shall always play a cat and mouse game.

Why?

Because it always feels I have not captured what it is I would like to capture in this thing called writing because the element to be captured is ever evolving. There is always a better way to capture a story, a new story to be told, a new story idea to try. The more one reads, the more one meets with freshness, and the more one’s critical horizons are expanded.

I am a young writer, I really cannot speak of achievement, whatever this suspicious thing called achievement is, and whatever it should mean to a writer. There is much work to be done, much writing to do, so little that has been done. The focus is on the future, spurred on by past and present writings.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

• Waiting [Short Story], By Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, Munyori Literary Journal, ____
• African Roar: an Eclectic Anthology of African Authors [Book Review], By Ikhide R. Ikheloa, the new black magazine, May 15, 2010
• Novuyo Rosa Tshuma [Interview], Geosi Reads, February 2, 2011