It’s time to get off the wheel. Imagine days lying in or relaxing on the beach, or in your own backyard.
Laid-back days are built for leisurely or serious reading. Soul searching or fun, reading is a fascinating activity that delivers anywhere -anytime- every time.
I asked readers to recommend some of their recent great reads. With Black Friday deals still available at some retail bookstores, it’s quick and easy to bag a good book bargain.
Here is a mixed-genre list of the most enjoyed and/or informative reads. Blurbs are not included; they are available online and at bricks and mortar bookstores wherever you are.
I took the liberty of naming some lists. Three recommendations from Queensland’s Logas Padayachee, who thoroughly enjoyed her choices:
LL’s Selections:
When the Singing Stops by Di Morrissey
Without Merit by Colleen Hoover
Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
Mavis’ Sydney Picks:
Black & Buddhist by Pamela Ayo Yetunde and Cheryl A. Giles
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Black Teacher by Beryl Gilroy
Blue Mercy by Orna Ross
Jenny Trotter’s Choice:
The Tilt by Chris Hammer
More Suggested Reads
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
Miracles Happen by Dr Brian Weiss
Stories with a Christmas theme are appealing during this time of year.
Stocking Fillers, Twelve Short Stories for Christmas by Debbie Young
Christmas in the Scottish Highlands by Donna Ashcroft
The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan
My Books with a hint of Christmas:
Gallery Nights by Mala Naidoo
Souls of Her Daughters by Mala Naidoo
Literary classics by Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and many other literary great-reads offer timeless entertainment.
Add your favourite reads in the comment box below to spread the love of reading this holiday season to keep books alive.
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
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 3rd 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
I extend my gratitude to Mel Goven for sharing her author journey and wonderful advice to aspiring authors. Unfinished has certainly grabbed my attention!
Routine is necessary to accomplish a finished product. The creative benefits from a routine that maximises goals and intentions.
Rote, however, harms creative growth when curiosity is denied in favour of robotic daily ‘doing’ that limits the capacity and capabilities of the mind. Rote erodes enjoyment, takes the fun out of creativity if allowed to fester in mindlessness.
Once we relinquish the act of questioning, debating, and learning alternative ways, the creative quest goes down the rabbit-hole
Open to what others are doing successfully in their creative pursuits. Debate with the self, first, to test how to improve our creative patterns and when we observe or flex to alternative methods, before embracing them, then we are on the route to extending the creative mind.
What we read is as significant as what we write. As a fiction writer, it is essential for me to move beyond restricting myself to only reading fiction.
Get out of the box – mind the bog
It is imperative that we read judiciously selected, respected successful forerunners of the craft of fiction—past and present—for inspiration on the ways in which we can flex the mind. Engaging with the information gathered is the actual flexing—then question what does not sit well. Argue why this is so, look for alternatives to the arguments that have surfaced. Never ignore your internal unrest without asking why and how. Why am I unsettled by this? How should I address why I feel this way? We learn to flex and extend our skills from observing first and then listening to what is around us. The inner well is deep, but testing the waters from the ocean of talent available deepens and brightens the path ahead.
The choice to extend ourselves is within our grasp to refresh or radicalise how we create. Flex to invite minor changes, analyse what is working for you, and incrementally extend to achieve more.
Like muscles that face a new physical challenge which is overcome by gradual flexing and extending, achieved through the art/act of trying—not rote, but being open to challenging the self, so too, the creative mind grows.
Photo Credit: My Life Through a Lens (Unsplash)
Creative and Critical
As creatives, we ought to be critical thinking beings—not cynical but critical. Herein is the source for debate to generate fresh waves of thinking and doing.
Watching a documentary, for example, on an unfamiliar topic that holds some interest is beneficial for starting the mindset extension with exposure to new knowledge. This opens inner and external debates that arise from the observation phase to grow the knowledge base and experience on the subject/topic.
Extend listening skills to enhance creative growth without visual distractions by listening to podcasts that present new knowledge to stimulate thinking without the bias of the visual effect. The brain rain received generates novel ways of thinking or questioning how we can reinvent old patterns.
Never stop asking why, how or what can I gain from this?
As fiction writers, we should seek to understand the values that differ from our own to invite creative ideas to emerge from this openness to what lies outside of our inner workings.
I ground my novels in, in our angst and joy we are one under the sky of humanity.’ Inclusivity is my pre-wired emotional mindset because I have lived my formative years under South Africa’s apartheid regime’s divisive rule.
Suggested Reading
Try reading all or extracts from the following non-fiction books to open new vistas of understanding, or to deepen your understanding of human relations, justice, and politics, if this is of interest.
Essays – George Orwell
The Source of Self-Regard– Toni Morrison
The End of Imagination – Arundhati Roy
Caste – The lies that Divide Us – Isabel Wilkinson
Pick up, or do something different—something you have never read or done before and observe, reflect and note by writing what it stirs within. Get past the initial discomfort then decide if you want to extend what you do and how you do it.
When we flex the mind in a new direction, there’s discomfort at first, when extended, it fuels passion and ignites creativity
How do you flex and extend the mind in your creative pursuits?
Writing a trilogy is not how I began writing, Souls of Her Daughters. The ending brought on an extension to the lives of Grace and Patience, and as the muse requested two more tales were born ending in the grand finale of, What Change May Come. The second book, Chosen Lives, picks up from Patience’s mission shrouded in mystery, and suspense when the aircraft she travels in disappears, followed by time tense revelations and heart-stopping fulfilling thriller magic!
enthrals with mystery and suspense ~ engaging and addictive ~ exhilarating… oozes with deep passion ~
~ Goodreads
The present trilogy in the making was planned. Book 1 of The Bardo Trilogy, Aurora Days, was released in April 2020 and Book 2 is scheduled for an October/November release. Book 3 will follow in the first quarter of 2021. And poetry beckons, egging me on with each publication. Hence Viola is also a closet poet! Stories crafted will always borrow some aspects from the writer’s world.
1
2
3
entrances and entertains… epic tale of courage, love and peril ~ Goodreads
Lessons learned in writing a trilogy are keeping a tight track on characters, places, time, and events. While for the most part, I am a panster, I do plan on Scrivener and shift and rearrange as each idea emerges. The glory of Scrivener is a necessary asset in a writer’s toolkit!
Sometimes the protagonist’s trajectory takes on a different path than originally envisioned. This is the power of independent creative choices — a freedom to chop or sustain at will.
Creative freedom is the stuff dreams are made of!
The Bardo Trilogy revolves around a family mystery in the life of PI Viola Bardo, schoolteacher extraordinaire with music in her heart and justice in her soul. Family relationships are a keen part of both my trilogies as are hidden secrets that connect to my thriller edge.
Changing locations is a wonderful way to revisit places I’ve been to in grounding the story.
While all this is in the making, a new venture beckons as an epic once-off or standalone novel on a family saga. The title came to mind first and pieces are emerging on that idea. Currently, I run two journals, something I have not done with my backlist publications. It has been largely one book at a time.
I am allowing the creative spirit to bite whichever way it wants so while the second book in The Bardo Trilogy is given priority, I am jotting down ideas as they appear on a new vision. I have taken on board Elizabeth Gilbert’s advice in ‘Big Magic’ — if you don’t pick up the stories coming to you, someone else will.
The muse will nudge the writer with her private messages when a story must be told.
The new venture beckoning will shift and change with time and no deadline is on the horizon for that yet. But it will be created as it comes.
I don’t intend on leaving Viola Bardo in the wings because she has many more revelations for the reader.
Keeping track of all that the divine muse dispenses is the best way forward.
Diverse voices exist in literature but are under-represented by trade publishers.
All hail the dawn of self-publishing!
The tragedy of George Floyd’s death in the United States has sparked a resurgence for the recognition of black writers. Read the rumble in the UK here on what the newly found Black Writer’s Guild has initiated.
It is shocking to note that black writers are offered a lower advance to that of their white contemporaries, and editors ask for white or racist characters to be added to books.
As an author of colour, in Australia, I faced the dilemma of whether I should create a neutral non-black pen name to get publishing recognition. But my writing mission is, In our angst and joy, we are ONE under the sky of humanity, which does not support using a pen name and so authenticity prevailed.
My apartheid past in South Africa had stolen the right to feel comfortable in my skin or to dare to speak out against racism. Hence my debut novel Across Time and Space and the sequel Vindication Across Time, present the bald face of racism as a universal disease through my eyes. My third novel, Souls of Her Daughters exposes injustice on multiple levels.
Fear makes one believe that a name that hints at race would be bypassed by publishers and readers. Listen to the words of author Michael La Ronn who articulates the issues black writer’s face in writing and publishing. Note what he says about gaslighting
Racism – Inequality – Injustice – Prejudice – by any name must be caught and called in the books we read, movies we watch and conversations we have
The Zulu word Ubuntu refers to the human spirit as it should be:
I am because we are
humanity towards others
the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity
In writing multicultural stories as I do – the spirit of Ubuntu prevails.
What will you be reading and watching in the renaissance of Black Lives Matter in literature?
I recommend watching the movie In My Country on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa and Rabbit-Proof Fence on Australia’s Stolen Generation.
From the Uncle Tom’s Cabin and beyond, voices have raised the alarm but sadly the call to end racism fell on deaf ears. Now it must be made history, an unforgotten one to remind us that prejudice is heinous and should be obliterated from the stage of life. Diverse voices that are in the main ignored, share why the human condition needs a radical shake-up.
Feel the angst, walk a mile in the shoes of the racially downtrodden – only then will you know the corrosive impact of racism.
The wound of prejudice cuts deep to the soul leaving indelible scars.
But you pick your head up, as you do, to face another day no longer silent especially to subtle bias…
In the wake of the change in 2020 and beyond, walk a mile through these suggestions to know and feel that in our diversity the common factor is that we are emotional beings with the capacity to rectify prejudice by the stories we tell and read.
Here are ten suggestions where diverse voices rip out your heart to sensitise your soul.
Long Walk to Freedom – Nelson Mandela
. My Place -Sally Morgan
Talking to My Country – Stan Grant
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates
Cry the Beloved Country – Alan Paton
The Power of One – Bryce Courtney
The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison
Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence – Derald Wing Sue
May you write and read stories that share histories to sensitise our souls to dismantle racial bias.
Life is topsy-turvy. The news makes us morose. But creativity must go on.
So how do we keep the momentum going when all else has fallen apart?
This time shall pass
To avoid dwelling on the negative statistics of the world’s mortality rate, look for reading matter that will stimulate your soul to breathe as the mind’s eye turns inward. This will generate refreshing conversations. Too much has been coming at us in recent weeks, but we have the imaginative capacity to redirect this towards positivity.
Movies will come and go, but a novel or poem lingers. Change your routine. Begin your day doing some inspirational reading. Download free eBooks. Load your Kindles, iBooks, Kobo readers with words that enhance creative thinking.
Roll up the newspaper, shut off the television
We need to be informed — limit this to once a day because overkill might devour your muse. Turn to poetry, short stories, novels and inspirational music. Teach the creative muse to move beyond the immediate.
Limit the online interactions.
Lend a helping hand to a fellow creative. Encourage the reading and writing of new content — unrelated to the current context. Bring the wonder of nature back into our lives, even if it’s from an armchair perspective — watch a documentary — mentally travel to another realm
Free yourself from fear
Here are some hand-picked inspirational suggestions to awaken and maintain a healthy muse. This is a brief list to get the creative juices flowing, to inject an abundant dose of ideas, if you are feeling the slump with each passing day. There are many more you might have already read and perhaps a re-read is another way to lift the lid to ignite the imagination.
Poetry:
The Daffodils – William Wordsworth First Hush – Orna Ross Frost at Midnight – Samuel Taylor Coleridge Still I Rise – Maya Angelou A Spark of Hope Vol 1 &11 – Brenda Mohammed and HTWFS
Fiction and Non-Fiction:
The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho The Catcher in the Rye– J.D. Salinger Beloved – Toni Morrison A Thousand Splendid Suns– Khalid Hosseini Swami and Friends– R.K. Narayan Half of a Yellow Sun– Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
We are not alone, reach out, touch a life or mind and enjoy the benefit of the enhanced energy this brings.
Stay safe and well.
Read or write something today.
How do you keep your creative juices flowing when things fall apart?
As writers, it goes with the territory that autobiographical bits of ourselves will slip into our writing. A creative project, the creative process is emotion-driven, its passion on a page — bleeding…
My collection of short stories, out this week, Life’s Seasons into the digital and print worlds is a diverse collection that emanates from my visions of life and some from a generous muse — or perhaps a subconscious memory on history or culture of different times and places.
Launch Video
Here’s a little teaser on some of the stories:
The book cover is drawn from a story set at a picturesque beach resort when an incident occurs to disturb the world of the observer. Final View is both dark and lighthearted through the voice of an aging mortician — her take on why she serves the way she does. Now, I don’t know any morticians, personally, but this story found me. Those Were the Days, is part autobiographical and part imagined on life as a university student. Ancient cultures fascinate me, hence in, Moving On, the life choice of young Anqui emerged to represent the clash of the old and the new. Crime fiction is a passion and a particularly enjoyable teaching experience so The Call of the Outback was born with Inspector Donovan out and about during his early retirement days when a crime finds him, not your typical crime fiction story, but my spin on how things find you where your passion lies.
Then a story about a writer in search of her muse, set on the ocean aboard a luxury cruise ship stems from my love of the ocean although the story is far from peaceful, akin to the symbolism of a turbulent ocean. And there’s more in Stilled Heart, a University Professor struggling with not knowing what happened to his family during an air raid, and meeting a young, hopeful writer who shares the same sense of loss. A secret from the past is revealed by Jacob, a messenger of dreams in Wandering The Earth. And there’s Mai in Adrift, hiding her past on how she arrived in a new country. The shame apartheid enforced in my world is a trigger for Mai’s tale.
Haruki Murakami’s view on the writing of short stories captures the essence of pouring the self into what we write.
My short stories are like soft shadows I have set out in the world, faint footprints I have left. I remember exactly where I set down each and every one of them, and how I felt when I did. Short stories are like guideposts to my heart...
― Haruki Murakami
Without a doubt, the voices and visions of a writer’s world seep into the stories we tell, dressed in different clothes, stretched through the imagination with colour, light and shade, and not forgetting what the muse wills, and so stories are born.
Launch day this week is 22/8/19 for the ebook and 29/8/19 for the Print editions in hardback and paperback. For more on each story you are invited to go these links for the full description:
Librarians are Writers’ Greatest Allies in their Ability to Influence the Joy of Reading
It gives me great pleasure, today, to introduce you to Fiona Sharman who has kindly shared her passion for her favourite books. One of Fiona’s favourite quotes is from ‘Pride and Prejudice’, when Mr. Bennet says, ‘for what do we live but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in turn?’Continue reading “Need A Good Book?”
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