Below an extract from the slave novel I'm editing. I'm sending out queries to agents and so far I have collected a number of no's. Although I finished the novel in April 2023 I have waited a while to get back to it due to my husband's illness and death. The novel is set at … Continue reading The Buried Chameleon: A novel
Tag: books
Mentoring young writers
Now that I’m older I’m sometimes approached by a young writer looking for a “mentor”; or trying to sell his or her books. And I’m always faced with a dilemma: do I tell them the truth, hoping that they’ll use it to fine-tune their craft, or do I praise them and move on. I remember … Continue reading Mentoring young writers
Show and tell
Recently my old supervisor asked me to look at a collection of short stories. The student had been deemed to be “weak”, and asking an outside reader was an attempt to get a fresh insight. I read the student’s portfolio and right from the start his work had garnered comments like “too much explanation”, etc. … Continue reading Show and tell
The power of story
I’m currently reading Patric Tariq Mellet’s The Lie of 1652: A Decolonised History of Land. Near the beginning of his tome of 429 pages the following caught my attention: the “imposed ideological framework” of apartheid’s strategy of divide and rule was bolstered and carried by the "narratives" chosen to underpin it. One of the myths … Continue reading The power of story
Cornelia Smith Fick 