Category: truth and fiction - Mala Naidoo's Book World

Perspectives on Truth and Conflict

Conflict casts a shadow on truth telling, giving rise to versions of the truth over time .

Plantation Shadows unravels the truth through competing perspectives or on point revelations captured for posterity to convince the reader on a particular point of view.

The crafting of characters influences how the reader receives fictional truths. The proven trustworthy character holds the stronger sway in truth. Often, the social standing of a character influences following the ‘esteemed’ character, which might, unfortunately, lead the reader down the rabbit hole to a multiplicity of mistruths.

Who should the reader trust, the doctor, gardener, or domestic staff? Truth is not devoid of emotional strains, and memory creates versions of the truth depending on who demands it, narrates it, and receives it.

Plantation Shadows unearths the inner and outer conflict spanning three generations in a family drowning in secrets. The women living in a patriarchal community on the canefields of Natal, South Africa, take the forefront in narrating the truths that unfold one perspective at a time. The only male perspective has no blood ties to the conflicted family he serves. Edgar is the all-knowing eyes and ears between the two plantation houses, embroiled in secrets withheld in the living years. What ancestral truths will the grave yield?

There was internal strife that I was privy to, but I kept my head down and my ears open… Part Three, Edgar, ‘Plantation Shadows’

In unraveling the truth in a land buckling under colonial domination and rising resistance, is the twisted patriarchal mindset genuflecting to colonial expectations by preventing women from being heard. It is not until the fourth generation breaks the cycle of control, by assuming the courage and conviction to address and accept the long-held secret of an imploding family, hope rises.

Creating fictional women as untainted characters in a controlled society is to deny their right to break with convention in choosing the path they desire. Plantation Shadows is a closely held sisterhood of hidden truths among grandmothers, mothers and daughters.

Truth is a double-edged sword—it names and shames but creates understanding and gradual acceptance. Are generations of secrecy ever allowed to rest in peace?

Read Plantation Shadows, to feel and understand the secret hearts of the aging Milly and her dead mother.

Secrets diminish with death – Part 3, Edgar, ‘Plantation Shadows’

Please like, share and comment below:

Research and Fiction

Historical fiction either reveres, subverts, or shames the past through citing actual places, creating imagined characters and perhaps recreating a historical figure.

Historical fiction is the unequal blending of the real and the imaginary

Time is fluid in historical fiction, moving between the past and present depending on how the plot unfolds. Is it a character in the present time speaking, recalling a time past, or is the character narrating an experience having lived in a past era?

The cautionary reminder is in ensuring the imaginative aspect of the story is respectful of the truths of the time, while preserving the overarching fictional plot/characterisation and quality of the writing. Culture, values, and social issues researched lend an authentic historical flavour to the fiction crafted. Transporting the reader to a time past enhances the storytelling without rewriting a history textbook.

Find that sweet spot between what is fact and fiction to elevate the fiction on culture, values, and social mores.

Including actual historical figures is the writer’s choice in relation to whether they will be a speaking character in the fictional tale, or a few cursory references would suffice.

Research should not overpower fiction. History has been written and read many times over—add the imagined juice for an entertaining read that prompts speculation on whether the fictional aspects could have possibly occurred.

Memorable characters, a believable setting, an intriguing plot, and a dash of history is a good measure for a satisfying read.

Ultimately, knowing who the intended audience is for a particular work of fiction is just as important as the message it creates.

Honour the history researched to enhance the setting and add lustre to the fictional plot without repeating what has already been documented. Recreate rather than rewrite. The risk of overly recounting a history is losing the fiction to non-fiction. The decision ultimately rests with the author. Readers of fiction will be the primary audience.

In honouring the history, notions of sensitivity to time, place, and people should be observed. However, shaming a dark history is the fictional storyteller’s prerogative.

There are no clearly defined genre parameters when the power of the story is honoured in its ability to move and entertain which is paramount in fiction.

The truth that all historical writing, even the most honest, is unconsciously subjective, since every age is bound, despite itself, to make the dead perform whatever tricks it finds necessary for its own peace of mind. Carl Becker, American historian (1873-1945)

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. Bishop Desmond Tutu.

History is the study of all the world’s crime. Voltaire, French writer, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Fiction is the truth inside the lie. Stephen King

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities: Truth isn’t. Mark Twain.

Please share your thoughts in the comment box below.

Romance Across Genres

The days of writing rigidly to a particular genre, crime fiction, detective fiction, sci-fi, horror, historical fiction, thriller fiction, and romance have slipped, crept, and rolled across the genre borders.

Romance has the potential to capture the coldest of hearts.

The basic elements of the genre remain. Mystery and suspense with a soft touch of romance add to the allure of the tale. Romance as a genre in its pure form has limitless power to create relationships that stretch and bend the imagination as far as it will go.

While romance engages the emotional side of the reader, it does not overwhelm the crime/detective/historical/sci-fi, which occupies the greater space of the genre.

The love story element in any story adds the desirous human connection.

Age is no deterrent to romance. It’s not restricted to young love such as that of Romeo and Juliet. Including older characters in the angst and joy of their romantic interludes creates an inclusive perception of love. It increases the appeal of the overarching genre at work.

The happily ever after isn’t always true. Fiction is a mirror of life. Testing the strength or commitment of a relationship between crime/detective fiction heightens its entertainment value. Romance, while not central to the story outside the romance genre, might add a satisfying element against the crime/detective fiction at work.

Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning ~Paulo Coelho

Wonderfully true — it is indeed our charismatic or struggling fictional characters who love, or are in love, that linger to remind us why love given and received should never be extracted from the soul.

There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart ~Jane Austen.

Magical! The reader is drawn to the story regardless of the genre.

I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary ~ Margaret Atwood.

Brilliant! This stirs ideas on how this would unfold in a crime fiction tale!

The gist of these well-known lines deepens the human connection in any genre.

Happy Reading. Happy Writing.

Please like, share, comment and hold on to a tender heart. We need it in both fiction and life.

Fiction and Reality

Pen, a fictional story and aspects of the scribe’s life, spills onto the page between fiction and reality. Angst and joy collide in the unfurling of the emotive content of the story. The emotional hooks in a story invite readers to open their own wounds and happiness for a well-penned story.

In my novels and short story collections, dogs feature as necessary in human lives. A lifelong love of dogs finds their way into the lives of significant characters I create.

In the Sequel set Across Time and Space, and Vindication Across Time the wonderful Ted is the adored pet of human rights lawyer, Michael Morissey, and aspiring writer Meryl Moorecroft. Michael advises and befriends schoolteacher Marcia Ntuli, caught in workplace professional racism. Ted is the first to understand the growing romantic involvement between Michael and Marcia. His sensitivity to Marcia makes him even more adorable.

Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth. ~Albert Camus

Read Now

Two hours later they emerged from Michael’s bedroom, laughing at Ted’s quizzical peaked ears and worried frown.

In Souls of Her Daughters, Patience, a social worker has two dogs, Ajax, and Sprite. She adopted them while her sister Grace was overseas at a medical conference. Patience witnesses her sister’s battle with her past demons and hoped Ajax and Sprite might offer her healing and joy. We may read this novel as a stand-alone novel or as a trilogy.

Read Now

They were abandoned in an old building on the south side of town. I could not take one and leave the other. They are high maintenance in the love department but adorable to come home to.

Life’s Seasons, a short-story collection, includes a valiant dog as title story – Toby. This story was first published in the short-story collection, The Rain, where Toby, a brave dog, living on his owner’s family farm is confronted by a treacherous storm. Instinct guides Toby when the safety of his beloved human family is threatened. Toby’s heroic, selfless act unwinds minute-by-minute to melt hearts.

Read Now

He gripped the harness between his teeth, prostrating to give the children a lift, to allow them to be pulled up with ease.

The Bardo Trilogy has Woza and Khaya, the loyal companions to the mysterious doyenne Tempest, on her mission to offer safety to women and children who are victims of crime.

Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Read Now

Living in isolation was difficult, but her parrot, Caramba, a keen white watcher of the skies and her two Rottweilers, Khaya and Woza, filled her lonely hours.

The act of including dogs in each of these novels and short stories is a subconscious inclusion drawn from experience.

Pets are companions who combat loneliness, fulfil a caring need, aid healing from grief and bring joy during life’s challenging times. Both fiction and reality meld to create balance to live in unison with the universe.

Now there’s nothing like one’s writing companion puppy snuggled at one’s feet as words and new worlds rise and fall on the page.

Happy Reading. Happy Writing.

Please share, like and comment below:

The Way We Were

The creative question asked is, where are we now? What have we done?

As we slow pedal to year-end, as opposed to manically motoring towards the shenanigans of the period, it’s time to reflect.

Lessons from lockdowns include pondering the way we were.

When freedom is aborted by the rapid onslaught of an unseen enemy, the subsequent mandated exodus from office spaces, a retreating from global, is a new way.

Home is the place to work, play, and rest. If graced with wide open spaces and human company, the retreat might be bearable.

The creative advantage is possible when the shutters are down, streets are emptied, and parks and beaches are deserted.

The creative muse tunes into stillness—if the eye and mind turn more deeply inward, away from the repetitive media message that induced fear and guilt every morning at 11.

When emotions are raw, thoughts tumble out in reaction to the siege on the way we were. Social interactions are prohibited and replaced by a hermit lifestyle, or heaven forbid, succumbing to the doom of extinction.

Global and national disasters, past and present—world wars, financial crises, bushfires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and pandemics, shake up the world to stir the creative soul.

The documenting of histories during global upheavals through fiction and poetry, painting, or musical compositions captures the heartfelt angst of the moment. Creative works emerge from such a time to reverberate into the future. This has the potential to educate and strengthen the action of future generations.

We can never rewrite history’s truth.

Fiction and poetry fearlessly tell the naked truth. Stories created now, in any medium, hold the key to spreading awareness overtime on the traits, pitfalls, and reactions to disasters.

truth and despair – the creative gateway

Capturing today through visual images is vital. A history through words, however, is the ageless wisdom of the soul of our current human condition—life as we feel it, and breathe it in the now.

As we roll up the year, not a long way off socially and politically to where we were back on day one of 2021, let us reflect.

Reflect on the stories we should tell of this time. A time when the world faced a common threat, an enemy that morphs and attacks just when we hope we might return to the way we were.

Time moves forward, and the past is only a backward, behind-the-shoulder lingering glance at how we were.

Change is grain for an undulating creative harvest…

The way to make sense of the world is to read a good book or write one on the story of the world as you live it. There will never be enough stories told of a torrid era.

As you shed the skin of 2021, brace yourself with hope. Arm yourself with a good book, and share love, truth, and joy.

Go forth today in cheer, the world’s voices shake and threaten doom, but you, my friend, keep the spring in your step, the light in your heart and a smile upon your lips

~life~

Stay safe this season.

Please share, like and comment in the box below.

Creative Fiction: Keeping Histories Alive

The world is teeming with the here and now, current stories in the making with the mounting flux of national and international events and situations that drown the past as voices evaporate into the mists of time. The danger is in relegating these voices to forgotten histories when they have much to teach this time on human kindness and compassion, to obliterate the self-centred I, me and my way of thinking and behaving.

Fiction writers have the skills at their finger-tips to animate these voices through fictional recreations, Many such esteemed writers, as Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Elif Shafak, et al, have done so to great effect over time.

Ignorant of history, we find it easy to accept our isolation from one another. We are more able to recognize differences than shared experiences and perspectives. History proclaims our common humanity. – Author: Linda Simon

South Africa’s apartheid history has a multitude of women’s voices, women of colour – some of whom have gone unnoticed under the radar of time.

Souls of Her Daughters arrived to highlight the role that women of colour made to the contribution in dismantling apartheid’s constructed barriers of race, sex, culture and ethnicity.

In Souls of her Daughters, two mothers, Varuna and Elsie, the mothers of Grace and Patience unite as one family when their husbands are brutally killed during the darkest times in the land’s racist history. Their daughters, Grace and Patience, become the stoic women they reveal themselves to be while fighting their own demons on sexism and abuse. Kindness and compassion pave the way forward as the personal histories of Varuna and Elsie in demonstrating their resilience under the scrutiny and accusations of racist stereotypes.

From humble beginnings both Grace and Patience emerge as women of courage, serving humanity in an international arena. Before they achieved this level of confidence they found a space where they were valued, belonged, to reach out to those struggling a similar or worse fate.

These four forgotten voices were deep, and the reach expansive that it opened the way for two more novels to follow, Chosen Lives, and, What Change May Come. These novels that followed, Souls of Her Daughters takes the reader on a journey from South Africa to Australia, Ireland and India. The novels showcase the kindness and compassion of two sisters born from different mothers into a segregated South African society with the potential to overcome the debilitating challenges of their birth country’s political history.

Fiction has a valuable role to play in the recreated telling of stories that did not make it into the history pages of its respective time, yet these stories carry the potential to educate the here and now for a future built on kindness and compassion. These human qualities dissolve the quagmire of the human condition.

Please like and share your thoughts and ideas on the recreated fictionalised histories you would like to read.

Mothers Mirrored in Fiction

Mother’s Day this year has a different ring to the freedom of yesteryear.

The nation waited to hear if we would be allowed to visit our mothers on this special day of the year. Something we took for granted… our mothers would always be there to listen, comfort, cook an amazing meal, take care of grandchildren, advise on matters of the heart, and chastise bad behaviour.

Love the whole world as a mother loves her only child ~ Gautama Buddha

The hype leading to Mother’s Day has been a buzz from infancy. 2020 has been still but some retail stores have opened for a dash purchase of a gift and a card to celebrate our mothers to tell them we love them. We fervently add that we want our mothers to be safe and well during this global health crisis. Some among us ache to see our mothers, some have passed on, and others are in social isolation — it has been two months of just telephone conversations and if possible, FaceTime, Zoom and Skype chats. The aching emptiness of the missed mama/nana hug is still not a possibility. A joyous expression of love is now a cause for global anxiety as we fear the unknown, the lethal. The comforting hug now a possible cause of harm.

Mothers occupy a universal, sacred place in our hearts. A mother’s unconditional love goes with her children from the cradle to the grave. Cultures revere mothers with a divinity deserving of profound respect and care. This value should undoubtedly be universal. The hearth of family and home is a mother.

Paradise lies at the feet of your mother~ Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

In paying tribute to all mothers today I also refer to the fictional mothers in, Souls of Her Daughters, and two follow-up novels in the trilogy (each reads as a stand-alone novel too) Chosen Lives, and, What Change May Come.

Mothers Varuna and Elsie present as the yin-yang of motherhood. Mama Varuna is Grace’s bold and strong mother who has weathered hardship with loss and societal criticism. Patience’s mother, Mama Elsie is a mild-mannered mother who faces racism and hardship in apartheid South Africa. Both mothers raise their daughters as one family united in their cultural difference and struggles. The highs and lows of the lives of mothers and daughters captured in the daily lives of Grace and Patience are what makes Mother’s Day a constant expression of love.

To all mothers, and future mothers, you are the pillars of family and society and should be celebrated daily.

She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.’ ~ Proverbs 31:26

Share your thoughts in the comments.

Stay safe and well as restrictions ease in New South Wales and around the world.

Happy reading, happy writing.

Fiction Changemakers

If stories were never told — history would not exist — change would not occur.

So much that is fictional is drawn from reality.

The horrors that have occurred historically and afresh each day (as the daily news never fails to report) become the fictional realities writers create in imagined worlds. The fiction writer’s world is in tune with current and past societal occurrences. The subconscious mind sifts and imprints that which has emotive associations. From this collaboration of mind and emotions, the writer begins with a particular premise — then something magical happens — the pen takes on a life of its own.

Plotter or panster merge when that magic happens. Hey, presto! Fiction and reality commingle!

For this reason, mindful writing is imperative. It helps guide your book to a niche or a wider audience with a message melded to the entertainment a good book affords.

Every good story has a lesson to teach, an angst or joy to share

Where does the act of creative mindfulness emanate from?

The soul of the writer, his or her angst and joy sensitize the writer to the struggles people undergo — be it a socio-economic matter such as Charles Dickens’ novels that exposed England’s elitism, and Jane Austen’s portraits of gender and social class. These are two writers selected from a host of others of the day.

Today fictional writers create worlds around ‘me too,’ racism and power struggles. Power struggles and injustice are timeless from Fritz Lang’s 1927 German expressionist film Metropolis based on the 1925 novel by Thea von Harbouto, Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four and my current reading of American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins referred to as a ‘high-octane’ story, are a few in the countless number of books that connect readers through discomfit to what it means to struggle and survive.

Political thrillers expose mismanagement, and immorality while entertaining readers with suspense, the drama of high stakes, etc.

If fiction mirrors reality it becomes a record for posterity like all good books. A ‘good book’ depends on which end of the moral spectrum both reader and writer share. If a book angers and soothes, keeps the reader on the edge of their seat by creating desired expectations for the protagonist — it’s a great story penned.

Fiction should make us uncomfortable enough to question where we went wrong, and how can we rectify it

Nothing is political in writing if it showcases reality. The word ‘political’ from my apartheid history conjures thoughts of being labelled as being on the wrong side of the law. Yet a political thriller exposes heinous human behaviour in organizations that we trust to uphold justice.

Fiction is reality dressed up as the world on the pages of a good book, one that dares expose the foibles of troubled societies

Discomfit, guilt and thought

Let’s continue to create fictional realities by rocking the boat of complacency in assuring that the history of the past and history in the making generate discomfort — discomfit elicits thought and one can only hope that positive action will follow to change catastrophes that are within the human scope and rectify atrocious human behaviour.

My stories cut to the bone on forgotten voices who deserve to be heard.

Here’s to more fictional stories for all our better tomorrows.

Happy Australian long weekend. Happy pleasurable reading hours.