Tag: novels - Mala Naidoo's Book World

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.

Paving the Crime Fiction Way

Why does crime fascinate the reader or the viewer? From a gripping novel to a suspenseful film, both mediums are loaded with intrigue, blood, gore, missing persons, and dead bodies, and they certainly hold our attention for more.

Pushing boundaries is the adventurous inclination invited by human fascination, as is vying for the person we want to set free from crime.

Crime writing, like reading crime novels and viewing crime films, is an emotional investment for the adrenaline rush we crave. Words on a page must do the creative hard work that diegetic or non-diegetic music elicits to keep us on edge, before, during and after the crime has been committed.

Descriptive language, sharp, short sentences, sensory imagery and specific punctuation, create and elevate the mood that befits a crucial scene in a novel. The intrigue must be deep enough for the reader to push on, chapter after chapter, well into the night, or wee hours.

Crime fiction often draws inspiration from actual crime, which allows for greater reader appeal. Research is vital to achieving a realistic, entertaining selling point.

Attending a criminal court hearing is a valuable catalyst for storylines to kick off. Make a friend in your local police station and shadow the police person to walk in their shoes for a few days. What better way to get inside the aftermath of the crime?

Visit a prison, and if allowed, ask to interview a prisoner. Getting inside the minds of criminals fuels the creative urge for the realistic crafting of your MC.

Research profiles of victims of crime and seek a psychologist or psychiatrist to gain a greater depth of understanding of why the victim might have been targeted.

Visiting crime sites long after the investigation and conviction enrich the landscapes in a crime fiction story.

Live research is valuable for the unique imaginative triggers they invite. Equally, reading crime novels of note is vital to the crime writer.

Crime documentaries are accessible anytime if physically going to a prison or crime site is not an option.

Don’t go too far. Grab the daily newspaper, and a new crime of the day or week holds our attention as we seek more on the investigation.

Unending thirst for crime novels and films continues to expand, weaving through different genres and is an inroad to writing for aspiring creatives.

Writing the right crime pays.

What are your favourite crime novels and films?

Please like, share, and comment in the box below.

Author Spotlight: Mel Goven

As creatives, news about a debut author from the land of one’s birth is received with great joy. The creative landscape is a connected, supportive space that celebrates newcomers to the publishing fold.

Meet Mel Goven, South African debut author of the crime novel, Unfinished, launched in July, 2022 on Amazon. Please join me in welcoming Mel Goven to the blog this month.

Get to know South African Author : Mel Goven

1. Biography : Mel Goven

I hail from Johannesburg and have quite a demanding day job as a teacher in a primary school.

Unfinished is my first novel although I have written many short stories which have gained a place in short story competitions in local magazines and writing groups.

My short story, Scorned, a crime mystery, was placed 3^rd in Woman and Home, in 2014. Love Knots, another short story, was shortlisted in the annual short story competition run by The Writer’s Group. One of my favourite short stories, Lucky, featured on a few writing blogs and had quite a successful run in 2016. All these stories can be read on my blog site.

I have also published newspaper feature articles and opinion pieces during my stint as editor for the local newspapers: The Randburg Sun, Fourways Review and the Northcliff Melville Times.

My features were around education challenges in South Africa. Some of which were: Preparing for Future Career Opportunities, Effective use of Technology in the Classroom, Private versus Public Schools.

Having always been drawn to the romance genre, I imagined I would write romance novels, which I haven’t completely taken off the table yet. However, I found my voice in thrilling crime mysteries.

I have two more novels in the pipeline and have realised that with each new world I create, I am finding myself as a writer. I don’t like conforming to a specific trope and while I admire the writing styles of my favourite authors, I don’t think I am in the same league and so choose to write my way.

I have been blessed with four incredible children of whom I am super proud. In formally starting my writing career at this stage in my life, I hope to inspire them that dreams come true at any age, no matter what challenges and obstacles arise.

2.When did your passion for writing emerge?

I love reading. I believe you must be an avid reader to be a good writer. When I was a child, I would beg my parents to take me to the library.

I visited many libraries in the area I grew up in: from the little mobile libraries that would go around the community on Tuesdays and Thursdays; to the community libraries that were finally built when the demand increased, and then to the Durban City Hall library when I was old enough to travel to the city on my own.

I started writing after I read Anne of Green Gables. I felt such a deep connection to the main character, Anne. Although she was a lifetime removed from my world in terms of the era, race, and circumstances, she felt what I felt; messed up like I did; was the odd duckling — just like me.Anyway, the community library did not have the sequel to Anne of Green Gables and so I decided to continue the story in my imagination. Eventually, I wrote it at the back of a Maths book (I did not like Maths very much). That was how I began writing.

Every time I finished reading a book, and if I felt that I wanted more from it, I would continue the story to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion.

3. What inspired you to write your debut novel, Unfinished?

In 2012, I became fascinated by a story I heard from a patient in a doctor’s surgery. The patient had undergone a heart transplant a few months before and she had been excited to meet the family of her donor.

I found myself researching it and was surprised to find that some heart recipients experienced major personality changes which are sometimes connected to their donor. The idea of the heart, which we consider the seat and symbol of emotion, sparked a story and this epic drama unfolded.

Unfinished is set in Hout Bay, Cape Town, because the first human heart transplant occurred successfully at the nearby Groote Schuur Hospital. But, it is more than just a story about a heart transplant. It revivifies an unsolved murder committed almost 40-years before the story begins; those affected by that crime and how their lives have interwoven until a heart transplant finally exposes the truth. I wanted my characters to come to life on the page, and each one needed to have a voice, so I opted to write in each main character’s POV.

4. Who are your favourite authors?

I have so many. I have great respect for the classics, so Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Emily Bronte, L.M. Alcott, Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and of course, L.M. Montgomery.

Contemporary authors: I would say, Khaled Hosseini, Kazuo Ishiguro and Eleanor Catton. But there are so many others. I have never restricted my reading to specific genres. I read all, except perhaps horror. Although I did spend a few sleepless nights reading Stephen King’s, The Dream Catcher.

I suppose I could say I have favourite books rather than authors. At present I am enjoying Barbara Kingsolver’s, The Lacuna. And, A Madness of Sunshine, by New Zealand author, Nalini Singh, and The Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah.

Oh, dear! There are so many more books I still have on my to-be-read list. My guilty pleasure is that I also enjoy a Harlequin romance novel now and again.

5. What advice would you offer to aspiring writers?

Write about what you experience. Write that story you wished could have had a different ending. Write about your dreams. Whatever takes seed in your imagination, write about it.

Grab your copy of Unfinished at these Amazon Book Links

Paperback

Kindle edition

Join Mel Goven on social media:

Facebook

Instagram

I extend my gratitude to Mel Goven for sharing her author journey and wonderful advice to aspiring authors. Unfinished has certainly grabbed my attention!

Happy Reading, Happy Writing.

Please sign up, like, share, and comment blow.

Creative Risks

Dare you should—damned if you don’t

Writing might simmer in the novice writer’s subconscious, afraid to put words on a page, or perhaps a manuscript sits half-written or complete, but safely locked in a desk drawer or tucked away in the garage under a heap of stuff.

Are you that person?

Risk 1: Creative Exhilaration

Taking the first creative risk is writing the story or poem that dwells in the mind’s hinterland.

Then pursuing the idea through to completion is the time risk invested to get to ‘the end.’ This is the honeymoon period. Bliss reigns as a generous muse massages words

Risk 2: New Eyes on the Page

The most daunting risk is getting an extra pair of eyes to read those beloved, private words. This could go horribly wrong if fresh eyes are inclined to be super critical about EVERYTHING.

The novice writer is a sensitive soul in need of validation. A poor selection of new eyes could end a potentially stellar career. Then again, choosing new eyes as your significant other, carries the risk ramifications that over validates, or liberally criticises, and possibly risks ‘the end’ to the union!

New eyes on new words should be benevolent in first congratulating the timid scribe on getting that far, then comment on the story, and throw in a few suggestions, expectations, and gently draw attention to plot holes that might exist.

Risk 3: Who will edit?

Choosing an editor who is the right fit for a novice writer has its risks that could go either way. Choose wisely, ask and check out vetted individuals through organisations such as ALLi, or trusted fellow authors in finding the right match that assures writing longevity.

Nobody’s perfect

If a novice is averse to professional feedback then the red flag goes up, and it’s best to consider whether the risks taken to get this far will be worth risking much more, or if it’s time to hand in the pen.

To be a successful writer, lock ego in the desk drawer or stash it under the rubbish in the garage, or better still, scrub it out of existence.

It is imperative to observe and listen to the safe, knowledgeable advice of those who do it well and successfully so. This applies to anything in life. In publishing, it is necessary to do so.

Be authentic, be unique, but know the ropes.

Take risks with an open mind. Push boundaries but know when to ponder the road ahead.

The journey is not over yet, there is the risk of whether the general reading public will love or loathe a close to the heart piece of literature.

When fear is overcome, it steels the novice (for a while – NB creatives are sensitive beings) to continue dipping a toe into the world of writing and publishing.

Risk 4: Publishing

There are many ways to get your words out into the world, so carefully consider the risk of giving up all the rights of a creative endeavour that spanned many days and nights, the ultimate sacrifices made to get to the grand finale before the decision to hand over blood, sweat, tears, and other emotional hooks.

Protect your rights, know your rights.

Risk you must, for unheard stories to be told, leave your legacy — stories have value, but choose your tribe wisely.

George Orwell in his essay, Why I Write:

‘In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.’

Best wishes, always!

Happy Reading, Happy Writing!

Where are you now in your writing dreams?

Please share, and leave a comment to help a fearful novice step out in the right writing shoes.

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: History, Culture, Truth

Every voice like every story has its place in the world. A niche audience might be readers of a particular history, people and culture of forgotten voices.
In an era that has in so many ways moved leaps and bounds forward, the opposite is true of human tolerance. Everywhere we dare to look, the capacity of the human spirit for evil outweighs the good around us, often overshadowing a multitude of voices and actions for common good.

Stories, fictional stories, even if thematically dark demonstrates the human capacity for change.
Fiction has had and continues to have the rite of passage to dismantle oppressive notions of the wicked side of human nature.

At the Sydney Writer’s Festival last week, the festival theme, ‘Lie To Me,’ resonated with memories, of the apartheid era where race and power/powerlessness named and played the game, and understanding of the impact of assimilation on the stolen generation.
An evening of storytelling affirmed the need to keep telling our societies’ truths to dispel the mistruths in the media, in politics and the use of social media as a tool to denigrate.

Forgetting past atrocities in no way heals the human condition. It’s a double-edged sword — remembering keeps the pain alive, but alive in recall that has the potential to thwart such heinous future acts. To quote Descartes, ‘I think therefore I am,’ is significant, but must be married to, ‘I feel therefore I am,’ and what better way than through a fictional story that ensures that the movement towards human value for all lives, does indeed matter.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ~ George Santayana

Cultural stories of forgotten people hold them in conscious thought, remembered as life lessons to pass on to the next generation. While such stories might have a micro niche audience because they tell of the far-flung corners of history, they must be told.

Lines from Vindication Across Time sees the character Marcia Ntuli telling Michael Morrissey, a human rights lawyer about her mother’s hardship as a single mother under the apartheid regime.

Mama Dolores…the police would barge into our home and drag her to the police station for questioning. They were rough with her, they broke things in the house… kicking her in the back, calling her an evil kaffir. It was horrible. ~ Vindication Across Time.

Michael walks in Marcia’s and Mama Dolores’s shoes to gain an understanding of what preceded democracy in a troubled land. His theoretical basis on what constitutes human rights has a ‘live’ life lesson in a recount of the terror Marcia’s mother endured at the hands of the district police. This, in turn, opens the depth of understanding on what might have been misreported in historically written and spoken accounts of this era. The voices of men/women struggling on the fringes of society are left forgotten if not told through story, to entertain and awaken compassion that a history forgotten is dangerous — it lurks in the dark corners of the mind ready to be unleashed in the terrors we experience today.

The storyteller has the power to dispel untruths by telling stories that make us uncomfortable, those stories that some publishers are reluctant to put out into the world, so why wait, when a world of empowerment, without gatekeepers, awaits the telling of unheard stories.

Go tell those stories today. Keep an underrepresented history alive, in the minds and hearts of a niche audience in engaging fictional stories -stories that tell of truths that have been swept under a forgotten, tattered rug.

Share your reading that has inspired a new wave of thinking in the comment box below.

Happy Reading, Happy Writing.

Fiction: Perfection in Imperfection

Perfection is too exhausting. It’s not true to who we really are as individuals, communities, and societies.

Fictional characters echo this representation of imperfection without necessarily being labelled Shakespeare’s Iagos of the world – they do exist – the first page of the daily newspaper or the first news item on the evening television news reveals that Iago exists in politics, education, the corporate world, and other dark corners.

Nobody is as good as gold…

My tag line, Perfection in Imperfection, the themes in my novels, and short stories, and essentially most novels, illustrate that life is just that – a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. Nothing is perfect nor is anything entirely imperfect – there is always a reason for the apparent ‘imperfection,’ the interpretation of which is dependent on one’s value system in either accepting or rejecting a perceived ‘imperfection’. The psychological benefit of understanding that ‘perfection,’ as defined by ‘particular’ standards, is not the norm, invites the greatest learning in appreciation, understanding and compassion which is born from trial and error or walking in the shoes of others.

Perfection bores, it disconnects the reader from the lack of reality evident in the world around. A saintly character who holds pious thoughts and performs selfless acts through the duration of a story might offer some inspiration, but insufficient entertainment value for the reader. Give that saintly character’s perfection a dent or two and they are endearing as human after all.

The socially moral cop with a particular weakness, perhaps peeling bags of onions, eating tubs of ice cream, or engaging in a ‘monkey-ish’ tossing of almonds into his/her mouth, or some such habit, when a case is in a deadlock or about be nailed, is either loved, creates amusement, or is despised. Inspector Aldo in Vindication Across Time, a man who controls the media and women, particularly the rich, widowed, and lonely like, Ana Kutnetsov, a housekeeper with a big heart, and a secret past, grates on every character’s nerves. He is enigmatically dark – a looming manifestation of Iago.

Literary heroines such as Tolstoy’s, Anna Karenina, illustrate this point, and Margaret Atwood’s speech, Spotty-Handed Villainesses, on the good-bad women of literature highlight the fallacy of crafting perfect female characters as unrealistically flawless or insanely bad. Flaws might engender empathy in the reader when weaknesses or vulnerabilities are exposed, not the overt Jekyll and Hyde associations – which exist, depending on the genre of the tale.

Nuanced human foibles draw connections and acceptance, that to err is human. From Count Dracula, Robin Hood, Ned Kelly, to Portia and Desdemona – it’s the yin and yang, the balancing between the scales of imperfection and perfection that makes them timeless characters through reader held values, and the emotions elicited.

Perfection in the natural world is not assured, periods of drought, fires, snow and floods, etc, strengthen human and animal reactions or behaviour to changeability.

As What Change May Come is released this week, my heroes and heroines are both weak and strong. Even the selfless character Patience has her weaknesses much to the embarrassment of her sister Grace. While there are consistencies of characterisation across the three novels, Souls of Her Daughters, Chosen Lives, and What Change May Come, there are times when change elicits or decrees an unexpected behaviour in the character. They are all human after all and aren’t we all?

Happy Writing, Happy Reading!

Please share your thoughts on the topic in the box below.

Do You Feel It?

No pain, no gain, no compassion, did the book you read make you feel, did it create a connection? Did you feel the fear, pain, joy, laughter, hope, and love or perhaps just one, maybe two of these emotional triggers through the characters and events in your book?

‘In a dark time, the eye begins to see’ ~ Theodore Roethke

Some of the greatest artistic expressions emanated from the seat of pain, ‘a dark time’. Sylvia Plath’s Ariel comes to mind, her suite of poems on life and pain.

Emotion brings art to life, inviting the beholder to stop, listen, and absorb, to feel the pulse of the writer’s being.

In a dark time, challenges and struggles turn the eye and ear inward. Stop… still yourself from thought and action – listen and connect to your internal landscape. When writing grows from such a place, compassion is born through created events and characters.

Emotion, regardless of whether it’s negative or positive, draws us in, more so when love and understanding emerge through the connection. We are emotional beings. While Descartes said, ‘I think therefore I am’ (Cogito, ergo, sum) – it can be said, ‘I feel, therefore, I connect’ or ‘I feel, therefore, I understand, appreciate…’

Giving in to the emotion-feeling the pain to redefine your world (pixabay image)

Stories should build connections, to validate the reader by bringing characters and their challenges to life. When readers leave a review on the connections the writer’s prose created for them, this provides valuable feedback and acknowledgment.

Here’s an extract from my latest novel, Souls of Her Daughters when the realization of where her life is at, comes crashing down on the protagonist… too much has happened, the past and present collide…

Grace walked around the hospital grounds, confused, lost in thought on the uncertainty of life. Visions of what her mother would have done came to mind. She walked to her car, sat back in the seat and sobbed for all she had lost in her life, and that poor Mrs. Beresford lay dead for the better part of a day, waiting for someone to claim her – Grace understood the pain of loneliness.

Loss and loneliness are sadly, but realistically universal. With the protagonist feeling the emotional weight of both, in a single moment, empathy is elicited and might perhaps connect with the reader, offering solace that we essentially are not alone in what we feel.

Emotional connections whether through song, literary fiction or a life-size painting, draw us in by the intensity of the emotion expressed.

Alternately, there are light-hearted moments in the novel, to lift the weight of the struggles the protagonist and the women around her undergo. The blurb concludes, ‘A timeless tale of every woman’s story…’ Timeless on the struggles and celebrations of life, of women from different cultural contexts and professional backgrounds but nonetheless women with collaborative fighting spirits.

Tapping into the essence of our humanity through any art form, is a way forward, to capture the moment in its rawness, to allow us to walk away from the wars of the world, to look at the pleasure and beauty of life, to let the time of struggle pass. Appreciation and compassion are bred from challenges – how do you know the dark side, if you have not felt it? So too, characters’ lives should represent life through art to make fiction sing with timelessness.

Souls of Her Daughters captures the dark side of life, but the positive emotions swell in the relationship between mothers and daughters. Amidst tears, there is laughter, the reality of the experience of life. I hope you read this tale which will leave you with the message – never deter telling the truth, no matter how painful it might be.

I leave you with this timeless TED message from Susan David, that encapsulates the essence of Souls of Her Daughters, on embracing your emotions in its truth.

Please leave your thoughts in the message box below or sign up to receive future posts, free book offers, and the occasional newsletter.

School BOOK TALK

It’s with gratitude that I write this post today in respect for the invitation to speak on reading and writing at a local school whose English Faculty and Librarian are tirelessly working to foster a love for reading to encourage students to expand their horizons and improve their speaking and writing skills.

Leading up to my talk, students were asked to send me their response to, ‘I enjoy reading because…’ – a simple question that elicited some thoughtful responses from teenagers.

Here are a few lines that suggest that young readers seek refuge between the pages of a book:

I enjoy reading because it is a spectacular and intriguing ticket to a distinctive and captivating dimension which either creates a gulp of despair or a shiver down my spine.
I enjoy reading because it allows me to be in two places at once.
I enjoy reading because it allows me to escape reality without leaving the comfort of my home
I enjoy reading because it allows me to broaden my horizons without having to get on a ship and sail halfway across the world…
I love reading because my heart is satisfied- my heart learns more than my brain can ever know- I learn priceless lessons. It’s the portal to my heart.

Additionally to complement the study of Cry Freedom I was asked to share my apartheid, South African experience on a personal level to forge greater connections to students’ appreciation and understanding of the world through the study of their school selected text.

The sharing of a terrible history elicited compassion and questions from students on how one overcomes this decimation of one’s people and identity and yet remain simple and humble, free from anger. My response was, that drawing from family values, the people one associates with and careful selection of role models will ultimately work in sync to fortify and support the entrance into light from darkness. I cited Nelson Mandela’s ideology of tolerance, acceptance, and forgiveness as the selfless way forward. This attribute shapes the crafting of the character, Marcia Ntuli, in my novel Across Time and Space.

The final message was that reading expands understanding of diverse ways of thinking, promotes exposure to varied writing styles and elicits inspiration from the unique crafting of characters and their experiences.Ultimately it’s about allowing strength to grow from fear.

To Quote Jane Austen:

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! – When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.

Here’s to many hours of delightful and informative reading!

What are your views on the benefits of reading for teenagers today and into the future? Extend the conversation today.