Dumelang (Hello) &
Q1 has ended... I was about to add, and so abruptly (lol).
My plan was to be finished with draft zero of the manuscript to my second novel. "Draft zero" because I came across this term and rather liked the no-pressure invitation — to write even if it's messy... and when you are ready, you can share a more coherent version with your writing group. Mind you, sharing the messy first draft of my debut novel with my writing group was the momentum I needed to finish it.
The only thing with this second book is that I don't feel I know what I'm trying to say yet. Or, I have too many things I'm trying to say, and not one thing is clear enough. So I really need the space to think, through writing a VERY messy draft without the interference of external voices.
At some point, I'll share the first picture I saw in my mind when I first dreamed up the second book, which I've titled Bokamoso (Sotho for "Future").
If there's anything else you'd like to see in the newsletter, please do let me know. I am actively considering what else to do [here] to keep things interesting for myself (and for you, hopefully).
As for my debut... all I have to say about it is: we are seven months on submission. We've received our 3rd pass (out of eight), which, funny enough, was an answered prayer — the difference between not knowing (so you can't have closure), and knowing, processing, and moving on. And remembering that a "no" is as powerful an answer as a yes.
WHAT ELSE?
I've been reading — not just listening to audiobooks, and the occasional (if riveting) ebook — but I've wanted to hold a physical book in my hands recently. I recently finished Mine Boy by Peter Abrahams (see more under Book Recs). I'm currently reading Es'kia Mphahlele's memoir Down Second Avenue (you'll hear more about him because not only is he South African, but he's from my home province of Limpopo). And this weekend I'm getting into Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson.
AND?
I am reading eleven entries for a Word mentorship program (much like LitUp), and I'm having a ton of fun seeing what other writers — in this case, Young Adult authors — are creating. I am genuinely challenged and encouraged by the sheer amount of work others like me are putting into their craft. And I'm moved by the passion with which other writers are pursuing their art to build a more diverse literary environment that reflects cultures and experiences beyond Western norms.
BACKSTORY
One of the characters in my debut (DRY BONES), Johnny, is a miner, forced to leave his rural village for Johannesburg. Growing up, and still today, some South Africans call Johannesburg Gauteng/eGoli (the place of gold, in Sotho and isiZulu, respectively) — though Gauteng is actually the province, encompassing far more than just the City of Johannesburg.
Way back when, the Boers — Dutch-descended settlers also known today as Afrikaners — were carving themselves a place in South Africa, away from the British who had taken over the Cape Colony, prompting thousands of Boers to undertake the Great Trek, pushing into the interior and seizing land from its native inhabitants, to establish independent republics in the Transvaal and Orange Free State.
At that time, Johannesburg was nothing more than a rural landscape in the then-Transvaal Republic — until gold was discovered in 1886, triggering one of history's great gold rushes. After that discovery, Johannesburg would rapidly become Africa's most vibrant economic center. But at the heart of this economic explosion was one of the most heinous exploitations of the black majority — and more specifically, of black men lured (or more accurately, coerced) through the crushing weight of unfair taxation away from their homelands and into the gold mines. This marked the beginning of the still-unrepaired breakdown of black families that continues to reverberate today.
I wanted to explore this landscape of life in the mines for black men that I came across Peter Abrahams' book, The Mine Boy....
Ntebogeng
