My book of short stories will be free on Amazon from 5 to 9 October. I wrote this collection of short stories during the MA Creative Writing course at Rhodes University. I found the experience exhilarating and explored different ways of telling a story, which is evident in this collection. Below an extract from Akere, … Continue reading Eye of a Needle: And Other Stories free on Kindle for 5 days!
Tag: writing
The Buried Chameleon: A novel
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
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
“Voice” in writing
During the MA Creative Writing degree at Rhodes University a few years ago they asked us to read widely. The aim of it, the lecturers explained, was to identify where your interest and talent lay as a writer. Ideally you would discover what type of fiction you wanted to write in order to find your … Continue reading “Voice” in writing
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
Cornelia Smith Fick 