The Chiz : Writing

Getting Up: Thoughts on Falling

David — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:47:21 GMT

Collections of writing are odd beasts. Once never really knows how to name them or hold them down exactly. Collections like this one by Andrew Miller are even odder as it combines searingly autobiographical material with political diatribe and satire.

“Getting Up: Thoughts on Falling” is a collection of essays from JHB based writer, Andrew Miller. Andrew has been a writer for a very long time. He is well respected as a poet, and as an essayist with some astute views. He also works very hard uplifting artistic communities and artists. He also suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Type II.

Andrew’s stories and recollections of his childhood, the progression of his disease and the mental/emotional journey it has taken him on are open, sincere and devastating. At no stage are they whiney, self pitying or even vague. He just talks you through it. It is YOU the reader that freaks out.

And then, on the next page, a calm discourse on politics, global zeitgeist, whatever. This roller coaster through the book tears your heart and mind one way and then the next, and you are left wondering if THIS is what it is like in Miller’s head as intellectual preoccupation battle for head-space in the midst of a debilitating disease that is very reluctant to surrender centre stage.

This is not a comfortable read. Even the politics are of the "make you think" variety. Miller even scratches around in history looking for the British roots of the apartheid ideology (and finds them). His style is like a well washed window… clear and simple, although you are sometimes not sure if you are seeing more of your own reflection than what lies beyond.

If books are to be judged by the impact they have on your way of thinking, this is a great book indeed. The best part about this impact is that it is not, as you might assume, due to any empathy that we might develop with Miller due to his illness. Rather it is because we can be shamed by our own lack of bravery, intellectual rigour and willingness to contemplate alternatives.

But if a book is to be judged on how good it makes you feel, then it fails horribly. Or does it? Does not the sheer human scale of determination and will inspire and exalt through the pages of pain and confusion? That may well depend on your own disposition.

Getting Up in then end would seem to exhort all of us to do just that. As a nation, as human beings. The only alternative is to stay fallen down…

You can buy this remarkable book online by clicking here.

New On BKO

David — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 06:22:30 GMT

My friend Phehello Mofokeng runs a great website focused on South African Writing called BKO... It used to be a print 'zine, but he has gone online now at www.bko.co.za

He was kind enough to give me the third degree via email and you can read the result here:
http://www.bko.co.za/innerviews.html

If you want to know what's happening in the less than mainstream areas of SA literature, this is the place to check out. Lots of poetry, interviews and excerpts to be found.

Talking About Writing

David — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:29:06 GMT

There is a new web site out there which is involved with writers and writing called Live Writing. Its run by a very cool bunch o people out to make a bit of a difference to both writers and readers.

They have a section on the site where they have asked various writers to send in apiece about writing itself, and their experience of the process etc. I was very flattered to have been asked to contribute, and you can find my piece if you click on this link here.

According to their site, they are all about giving help and support to writers in any way they can. This includes information on many subjects from criticism to finding grants. also the opportunity to provide freelance work to the writers and editors who are part of the Live Writing team. Thus as well as providing excellent feedback copy and any other writing-related requirement, the services offered by Live Writing also meet more of the writer's needs - for support and sustenance

The Live Writing Fund assists writers of exceptional talent, with small financial grants to help to pay for editing and mentoring, writing courses or essential writing materials. A percentage of the editing and writing fees paid to the Live Writing team will go towards the fund, all very much in the spirit of writers helping writers.

So, go and check it out:

www.livewriting.co.za

Answer, Question and Answer

David — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:13:46 GMT

South African resident and Dutch journalist Fred De Vries has just published a collection of his interviews with South Africans through WITS University Press. I decided to put him on the post for a change here.

You can read the review of his book over at my blog on The Times.

1) I for one am glad that this book has come out, as I did not see many of these interviews when they were published in magazine or newspapers. But why did YOU want to do the book?

Thanks Dave. It was never my intention to publish the pieces as a book. That idea came much later, when, after some 60 stories, I realised that they, taken together, would give a nice slice of South Africa in the noughties. It appeared that after a careful selection there would be a good balance between the arts and the non-arts. Moreover, I thought that most of the people who ended up in the book deserved a little bit of ‘immortality’. Some, like Abdullah Ibrahim, Helen Zille and Steve Hofmeyr, of course don’t need it. But others, especially some of the musicians and poets (think of Jim Neversink, Diesel Whores, Rokkeloos, Japan and I, Buckfever Underground, Ronelda Kamfer, Yabadaka Shamah) may have faded into oblivion in a few years time. And in my point of view they were important, and presented something bigger than just the little cds or books of poetry they released and published. They had stories to tell, that said a lot about a country in transition. And these stories should be kept and archived somehow.
Additionally I wanted to cut across stereotypes, i.e. gave space to important Afrikaans artists in an English paper.

So partly it was a kind of closure for me (it’s really nice to see all those sometimes badly edited and severely cut newspaper stories turned into a proper, well laid-out book) and partly it was a little ‘thank you, you deserved it’ to the interviewees.

2) Your Book is a riveting collection of interviews with some of the more interesting characters on the SA cultural landscape. How do you go about selecting your subjects for these interviews?

Some of them (like DJ Kenzhero and Lodi Matsetela) were brought to my attention by other people; some were so much in the news that they HAD to be interviewed (Hofmeyr, Bok van Blerk). Others had just released a work of great importance (Ivan Vladislavic, Marlene van Niekerk, Ingrid Winterbach). But mostly they were people whose work I saw or heard. And I thought it so interesting or outstanding that they deserved at least half a page in the newspaper. Not sure, however, to what extend my little stories contributed to any sales or popularity.

3) As an interviewer you seem to prefer to become almost invisible, but sometimes you comment quite overtly on what you are being told. When and why do you choose to shift into stronger focus in the interviews?

That’s a tricky one. Generally I think the ‘I’ should be left out as much as possible. I mean, who are you after all? But I also feel that as an interviewer your ‘self’ is already very present in the stories. Basically they are all little vignettes of yourself, your interests, your obsessions, your (lack of) knowledge, your flirts, your past etc. Interviewing, as you’ll know, is essentially a version of psycho-therapy. It’s a reflection of what academics always call the self. But at the same time you have to become that other person during your research, preparation and during the talk. And even when you write, you still have to crawl around in the brain of the other. It’s all about empathy.

And sometimes I found it necessary to bring myself in in a more direct way, as with the Abdullah Ibrahim and the Japan and I interviews. The first because the man treated me with such disrespect and disdain that I could only write it if it featured the ins and outs of our encounter. The latter because they made me feel old and jaded. The kind of connoisseur who knows the whole punk canon and will teach these little girls a lesson in music history. Which was slightly ridiculous. So after our talk I realised that I was the laughable one and not them. So I wrote a self-deprecating story.

4) The interviews are divided into 5 sections, but to my eye they have a lot in common in terms of their importance. How do you see these interviews as a group?

I don’t think any of the sections is more important that the other. The division in groups was more of an easy way to bring some structure in the book and make it easier for the reader to pick and choose. But as you say, there are a lot of similarities.

I realized that what all the people I interviewed have in common is what I called at the launch: ‘a kind of stubborn resilience in the face of an increasingly banal and mediocre society’. In other words: they do what they feel is really important, and, with a few exceptions, don’t so care about money or fame or celebrity status. But at the same time you fear and know that most of them will give up at some point, because kicking against the pricks is exhausting and doesn’t pay the rent. Which is not typical for South Africa, but happens all over the world. But it may be slightly harder here, because of all the disconnections. So it’s very important to spot these people and give them some kind of encouragement.

Mr De Vries Himself

5) You are Dutch yet living in South Africa. Can you explain your fascination for this place and its emerging culture? Why are you here doing this now?

I’ve also lived here between 1992 and 1995, which were pivotal years for the country. It was then that I discovered extraordinary cultural phenomena like the band Koos, musician/producer Warrick Sony and his Kalahari Surfers and someone like poet Lesego Rampolokeng and artists like Wayne Barker, Belinda Blignaut and Kendell Geers. Even Kerkorrel and Koos Kombuis were fascinating. These were real idiosyncratic artists that you could only find in this country. I’ve used Koos for my book on the eighties underground Club Risiko (Nijgh & Van Ditmar 2006). I never realized that South Africa had such an exciting alternative culture

So when I came back I was interested in what had happened to art and culture after the country opened up. Doing all these interviews also helped me to get a grip on this incredibly complex place and on the eight years I missed.

The reason I came back was that I wanted to write a book about South Africa’s only real beat poet Sinclair Beiles, who would fit in perfectly with all these other interviewees. He too was a kind of outcast, even though he hung out with William Burroughs and Gregory Corso in Paris in the late fifties.

6) In my opinion, South Africans are very often ignorant of the importance of many of the artists and people around them. How important really do you think some of the more marginal people are that you have interviewed and why?

That’s a hard one to answer. I think some of the writers I interviewed are really important, in the sense that they’ve managed to capture something genuinely South African. Like Vladislavic’s Portrait with Keys is an outstanding insight into the rapidly changing metropolis that is Johannesburg. Same with Marlene van Niekerk and her novel Agaat, which says so much about the intricate history and racial relations of this country. I’m less sure about the music. I do think Buckfever Underground have made something that is uniquely South African (that’s probably why they only sell only a few hundred copies). Same with Jim Neversink and his local, dislocated take on Americana. But most of the other bands basically make straightforward rock music, which could be from anywhere. That doesn’t mean a band like Fokofpolisiekar wasn’t important. They opened up a whole reservoir of Afrikaans creativity, fun and anxiety, and offered us a great view on the Afrikaans community.

For some of the people, you just wish they were born elsewhere, because they would have gone so much further. They are incredibly talented, but they are stuck with this diminutive audience and cultural and geographical barriers. Surely they deserve a break in that holy, mystical place called overseas. And some of them do get that lucky break, like Gert Vlok Nel, who isn’t in my book, but should have been. Hope this answers the question.

7) Does your perspective as an outsider looking into this place give you a perspective that you think might help South Africans understand their own cultural changes right now?

Haha. If only. But yes, I do think my perspective is somewhat different from most local journalists and observers. Of course one compares all the time with places and countries one has lived before (I’ve lived in Kenya, Uganda and Eritrea). And sometimes I’m surprised by the level of popularity and praise of artists that I find very ordinary (now less so than in the mid-90s). And you do get an eye for what is probably truly exceptional. But there’s an increasing number of South Africans who also see that, so I don’t think I’m unique in that respect. But I do find that whole dismissive, almost sneering stand about local music and art and literature quite surprising. There’s so much talent out there.

8) In the last 14 years there has been a lot of talk of the rainbow nation and the emergence of some kind of shared sense of national identity, but often one feels not much action around it. From what you have seen and explored, so you think there is some kind of new identity emerging in this country?

Not in any clear and obvious way. But of course, slowly but surely there is something emerging like a national feeling. I think that every South African, black, white, coloured, Indian, whatever, will feel very South African when he’s visiting a different country. However, it’s hard to pinpoint this identity. It has to do with a shared history and culture. But that shared history is also the problem, and certainly wasn’t experienced the same way by everyone. And culture was even less shared. So ignorance is a great hindrance. But when I interview someone like theatre director Paul Grootboom is do feel hope. He’s Xhosa and grew up in Soweto, writes very South African plays that attract a mainly black audience, that don’t directly refer to apartheid and have foreign language movies (Italian, French) as the great inspiration. Now this kind of cross pollination is important. That’s why I thought the xenophobic attacks were such a disastrous thing. Six steps back. Nativism is the death knell for culture.

9) As an interested observer/participant what would you like to see South African creatives doing more of as we move into this brave new country of ours?

It would be nice if they kept their artistic independence and vision, and not to do too many concessions to commercialism or wanting to ‘break overseas’. But what’s more important, I guess, is that we get more cross-fertilisation, that we go to each other’s performances, read each other’s books, watch each other’s plays. And wouldn’t it be great to have some real kind of street culture again, like Hillbrow and Yeoville and Sunnyside used to be until the mid-90s. Away from the deadening, stupefying mall culture. And we need some myths again, artists who portray something ambivalent and mysterious and who transcend the mundane and ordinary. William Burroughs was a great myth maker, so is Blixa Bargeld of Einstürzende Neubauten. Here Kaganof is quite good at it, and Fokofpolisiekar did a great job promoting themselves before they’d played one single note. Diesel Whore Jaxon Rice was also good (too good, probably) at creating the myth of that hedonist rock star. Zola is quite good with the myth too; not too accessible, but with something to say. I mean: ‘Zola for president’ proves he has done a good job.

10) I think like me, you come from a generation that still expects our heroes to socio politically relevant, and yet often I feel we live in such a commercialised environment that this is no longer possible. Do you feel there is still a place for artists, musicians, actors and the like to be real forces for social change and the dissemination of alternative points of view? Are ours doing enough?

That’s an impossible question to answer in a few sentences. I think the whole digital revolution has turned things upside down, to such an extend that the outcome is anything but clear. This seems a transitional era. The age of cds has almost ended. Newspapers mean much less than they used to. Even books might be on their way out. New ways of disseminating and absorbing information have come about. How do socio-political issues fit in? The time of a singular rock song that causes a huge stir (think Anarchy in the UK, Street Fighting Man, etc) is gone. Same with movies that caused scandals and uproar. New communities of like-minded people have emerged. But it’s all very scattered, and I think you still need a strong, resilient underground and a visionary avant-garde to create something of an impact.

Big changes happened when everything and everyone came together. Like in Slovenia the band Laibach and their artist friends managed to rally a huge group of rock fans, philosophers, politicians, writers and activists around a single cause: independence of Slovenia. Their concerts became like a gathering place for like-minded people.

Those days are gone. But there’s definitely a need and a hunger for cultural events here. Just look at the amount of people who came to the presentation of Mark Gevisser’s Thabo Mbeki book at Wits, or the success of the Joburg Art Fair and the Cape Town Book Fair. Or even the concert on that synagogue on Oxford Rd last year. We need rallying point and spaces where events can take place. Government and business should do a lot more to promote arts and culture and create spaces for creative people to work and perform. And we can use the digital means to inform people. But I think real life encounters are still essential. Which brings us back to the lack of street culture and the fear and…

11) Where to for you from here? Staying on in South Africa? Exploring new ideas or themes?

I want to finish writing that book about Sinclair Beiles and I’m also working on a book about Afrikaners. The coming two years will of course be extremely important, if somewhat shaky, for the country, with presidential elections and the World Cup football. It will be a good time to be here.

12) Out of all the subjects you have spoken to, and people you have met, who would you like to see being more influential in terms of where their thinking is and how it could change things for the good here?

I really like the way with which Toast Coetzer of Buckfever Underground approached things. He’s fully aware of all the privileges he has had during his upbringing, and he’s also fully aware of the possibilities these advantages gave him. It has made him generous and inventive. He knows affirmative action will not do much for him, but he also knows that South Africa is still a bit of a frontier country, where initiative is rewarded and can get you far. He’s a living example of what Burroughs called a Mobist, Mind Your Own Business. On top of that he really does all the things he likes to do (writing, photographing, singing, publishing) without caring too much about the finances. He has a job that allows him to pursue all his other interests. And he has remained a really likable, generous guy.

I also think we should listen more to our writers. I think they all deserve much more space in our media, because they are the ones who truly reflect on what’s going on in the country.

I’m not too sure about the category ‘activists’ in my book. Although Rian Malan has done fascinating stuff. He’s a great researcher and writer, and genuinely feels he belongs here. But he, like some of my other subjects, does have a tendency to self-destruct. That, by the way, is also a typical South African thing. I guess it started in the 80s when things looked really desperate, and unfortunately it has become a bit of a national habit.

13) Lastly, and stupidly, how does it feel to the on the other side of the interview process?

It’s a real privilege. It’s great to give some of the background stories, and explain in some way what was meant with the interviews and the book. And to say that most of the interviews and meetings were lots of fun and invigorating. Personally I loved the Japan and I interview, because it taught me a lot about myself. Writing I had most fun doing the Abdullah Ibrahim one, which was really the ‘writer’s revenge’. But I also have excellent memories talking to Vusi Beauchamp, Danie Marais, Toast Coetzer, Prinses Petro, Ingrid Winterbach and Steve Hofmeyr... Oh and I must mention Warren Siebrits who taught me so much about collecting and the importance of LPs and books.

Pity you didn’t ask me who I’d still like to interview. Local I would say Minki van der Westhuizen, to ask her about the sad emptiness of celebrity status in South Africa and whether is beauty really only skin deep. Foreign I’d love to talk to Ray Davies of The Kinks, one of the most literate rock stars, full of melancholy and just the right amount of nastiness.

Affairs From Home

David — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:23:17 GMT

Bree O’ Mara is the winner of the inaugural Citizen newspaper Book Prize, and Home Affairs is her resultant debut novel.

The most refreshing thing about this book is that it is far from a dull, dry first novel affair. Quite the contrary! Many have been comparing it to Tom Sharpe’s legendary satirical work on South Africa. If I have one criticism of this very funny book it might be precisely this: at time it is a little TOO Tom Sharpe and not enough Bree O’Mara.

That nit picking aside, this is a hilarious examination of small town South Africa and the odd preconceptions we all seem to harbour about our place in the new world we live in. There is no cow so sacred as not to be slaughtered and O’Mara goes about her work with glee.

Her characters are excellent comedic line-drawings: not so deep as to detract from their function but neither so sketchy as to reduce our empathy for them. This works to perfection in the world of weird opposites and contradictions that is her small town of Hillman.

The usual suspects of relations between black and white residents, English and Afrikaans whites, servants and bosses are all explored and poked at thoroughly. No one group come out looking very good, or more battered than the other. Well, except maybe the English, and no-one cares about them anyway, so we?

Without giving too much away, Home Affairs concerns itself with the changes that over take an otherwise peaceful Drakensburg town when a change of mayor is mooted, and the entire name-changing debate arrives in town in force. Needless to say, everyone suddenly has a stake and an opinion where before there were none, with often hilariously catastrophic results.

But the pieces are all neatly tied up by the end of the book. (Perhaps too neatly for my maverick liking) and life in Hillman threatens to go on much as before. As a comedy the book undoubtedly succeeds and I hope O’ Mara goes on to be bolder and ruder and really express her own voice in the threatened follow on books. AS a political satire, Home Affairs may be less successful, but I suspect that this may be rectified in these still-to-come follow-ons.

Definitely worth a read for those in need of a humorous take on some key South African issues.

So you Wanna Be a Writer...

David — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:48:19 GMT

In 2001, Urban One was published by Spearhead, an imprint of New Africa Books. The title was a vehicle to showcase brand new, previously unpublished writers, and a method of creating access to market for a host of new voices. It was followed in 2002 and 2003 by volumes 2 and 3.

Your Name In A Book Like This!

Now, after a five year hiatus, Urban 04 is set to be compiled and released in 2008. As is befitting after such a break, a few things have changed with the concept as well. Think of it as a metamorphosis to suit the times.

In 2008, we are approaching specific writers for stories as well as making a general call for submissions. We will be paying each successful author for the use of their story. We will be using a small selection of photographers and artist to illustrate the book. We will be selling the book though the normal channels as well as an informal vendor system and of course via the authors.

The Brief:

For Urban 04 we are looking for the voice of a new breed of writers. A voice that is new, powerful and totally South African. Stay away from typical short stories and their narratives, reach into your daily experience of life in South Africa today and tell us what you see, hear and feel.

The object of Urban 04 is to demonstrate the new spirit and attitude that lives in the heart of South Africa as represented by you, the writers. This is a chance to stand up, say your say, and use a voice that typically does not have much of a platform.

Length: 3 500 maximum, 1 200 minimum

Language: English

Publishing Date: September 2008

Deadline: 1 July 2008

Submit to: david@dcpm.co.za

Ons Afrikaanse Vriende

David — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:01:00 GMT

For 111 years, various people have been putting out an Afrikaans literary journal known as Ons Klyntjie. More recently taken over by Toast Coetzer and Erns Grundling, it has evolved quite a bit from the original vision I am sure, but retains plenty of power and relevance.

Basically Ons Klyntjie is a literary journal, although they include photographs, drawings, cartoons and more. In this most recent edition, you also receive a free 22-track CD of Afrikaans music entitled Ons Kerk Se Mense.

The biggest change Toast and co have made to the journal is that they also accept submissions in English, so you can enjoy some fresh new writing in both languages, as well as look at pretty pictures and listen to some cool music.

The big thing with Ons Klyntjie is not to make the mistake of assuming that you are dealing with highbrow art here. This is street stuff, and as such reflects the gritty mindset of the writers more than anything else. Yes there is some magnificent writing in here (with 145 pages of content, it would be unfair to identify even just a few of these).

Some of it is political, some whimsical, some is definitely ars gratia artis and some of it just plain bad, But not a lot thank god! It is my sincere recommendation that you look out for this little volume and buy it as soon as you can, along with any back issues you might find. You might be surprised to find just how much culture there is out there, emerging quietly and unnoticed under the noses of the mainstream international smorgasbord most of us seem so pre-occupied with.

So buy one by Mailing Toast Coetzer on
toast@bastardmedia.co.za
If you email him, he will give you bank details, you pay R80 (local post, R100 airmail anywhere overseas) and he posts it to you asap.
EASY

Just Who The Fuck Does Kaganof Think He Is?

David — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:56:30 GMT

Aryan Kaganof has been around. He’s pissed a lot of people off. The established art fraternity don’t like him as they see him as a huckster and a pollutant whose very fecundity sullies the pure halls of art. His prodigious output of poetry, performance, films, novels, photography and blog is enough to keep an average observer occupied for some time. He published a great novel last year called Uselessly, through a real publisher that was well received. So what the fuck are these two books?

12 Shooters and The Ballad of Sugar Moon and Coffin deadly are the two latest collections that Aryan has released through Pineslopes, his DIY publishing house.

12 Shooters is just that, 12 stories, shot from the hip. And on the back he claims that these autobiographical pieces are the best introduction to the author himself. And that is where the trouble starts. The stories of heavy drinking, attempted sex, the refusal to buy women drinks, guns and cars are engaging, funny, twisted, and well written. But are they autobiographical? Are they a real introduction to the author? No I don’t think so. Kaganof is funning you; he’s pulling your literal leg and tickling his literary funny bone. You don’t access people like this. You access ideas of people. And like the ideas that people may come up with from reading this collection, the Kaganof that lives in these pages is a vision the author may have held of himself at one time. Is it him now? I don’t think so. But that’s just my idea. I mean these days when I whip his ass at pool, he drinks coke or coffee, not beer. And yes, that was me name dropping.

But literary theory concerns aside, this is a great little bundle of short stories. Fast, angry, dirty. Love them. Kaganof is a great voice of the weirdly disenfranchised white male that seems to hold court in the drinking holes and wannabe cool joints of our fair nation. And hear he frames the pain and the paradoxes of that position perfectly. And much like rubber neckers at freeway accidents, the compulsion to slow down and get a good eyeful is irresistible and rewarded with plenty of human wreckage. If anyone is in any doubt that white men in this country are a bit fucked up, read this. Luckily, you might also develop a bit of sympathy in the process…

The Ballad Of Sugar Moon and Coffin deadly on the other hand is super violent ballad of a pair of murderous lovers and their ultimate demise. It is sort of NBK in South Africa without the self justifying crap. It's just brutal stuff. Since Kaganof stopped drinking (has he?) he seems to have developed a voice that is arresting and clear. These two new books both have a painful clarity about the writing. Despite what one may think of the man or his previous works, his previous incarnations, his decision to reinvent himself, these two books are well written and attention grabbing, And not just because of the content. This is a new voice, a clear one that seems to have broken clear of the emotional clutter of the past to celebrate a life that may have been shattered, and a psyche that may well be twisted, but above all, it belongs to one person and he is pleased to be here.

So you may well end of loving or hating Aryan Kaganof, and you may already hold one of those two opinions, but these books need to be read. And in a sense, yes, the back of 12 Shooters is right. It is a great introduction to the man and his vast volume of work. But whether it is really him or not, I do protest!

For more, visit www.kaganof.com

Falling Into A Future

David — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:19:29 GMT

I wrote this some time ago and I posted it on my myspace page a little more recently. It's from a novel I am writign and might be the end of the book. I am not sure.

Thought you might enjoy seeing as I am so uninspired otherwise...

The End

In the midst of the chaos that is the tiny back stage room, my mind suddenly coalesces in to a totally quiet zone of though and I have the sense of time bending and slowing down as my brain functions slip into something faster, less recognizable. The rush and panic o f the last weeks, days, even minutes slows right down and laps gently up against the shore of my consciousness, like s soft, semi sold tide and then is still.

Around me a see a kaleidoscope of visions, all distinct, achingly clear, moving with machine-like precisions in technical slow motion. But I ca hear nothing, there is no sound. The sucking and pulling of my breathing booms in my ears like a B grade movie sound effect and the mangled mess below my rib cage releases out slowly into its separate organs again as the tension I have been feeling releases out. A tingling sensation rise along my spine from my pelvis to rest between my eyes, from where it spreads out along my limbs and through my body, giving my body a curious kind of weightless energy as it goes.

I know this set list off by heart

I have my links between songs down pat

I remember every chord progression to every song

I wrote the lyrics in every single piece of music

I am one with this sonic creature.

I look up and make eye contact with the band – Tshepo, Gerard, Xen. And suddenly my mind presses play on my vision again, and the noise f the backstage room crashes back into my head and we all move in smooth real time. Returning my gaze wordlessly, they all know where I am. We rise as one to stand in a tight circle as Sarah, our manager, leaves the room silently.

I may not know what tomorrow will bring. Hell I don’t know what the next breathe or turning the next corner could case. And yes, I am in love, and all I have ever wanted was to be happy. And yes I have a job and all the perks and security that I have been taught I need to have. And here I stand, with my band, and the soundtrack to our lives that our senses and experiences have forged. Poised to hit the road. Poised to take a gamble that percentages tell us will not pay off. As we stride from the tiny dressing room towards the sound of the crow that is gathered there solely for us, I see the range of my choices line up in the spotlights shining down onto my stage. Beyond their glare is a blackened precipice beyond which I cannot see. The people noise is a curtain that buffets all the senses into submission as I walk up to the edge of that cliff and, taking the microphone in my hand, I lean and fall forward into a future whose destination I suddenly have no real desire to know.

Kurt Vonnegut: R.I.P.

David — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 10:18:02 GMT

Last year, apparently on the spur of the moment, he agreed to speak again at Ohio State. It would be his last campus lecture.

When word spread, a line four thousand students long instantly formed at a university otherwise known only for its addiction to football.

Anyone expecting a safe, whimsical opener from this grand old man of sixties rebellion was in for a shock. “Can I speak frankly?” he asked Professor Manuel Luis Martinez, the poet and writing teacher who would “interview” him.
“The only difference between George W. Bush and Adolph Hitler is that Hitler was actually elected.”

Rae the full article here....

writing out my days

David — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 03:32:55 GMT

Monday morning.
Actually, my favourite day of the week. It’s a control day, a day which I can use to set the tone, direction and form of my week. By putting in a big, constructive Monday, I feel I can go a long way towards making sure I have a good week. I have never had a good week that was followed by a bad Monday. Sure I have had bad weeks followed by good Mondays, but never the other way around.

Yes its true: Dilligent like a monk. No other similarities though!

So, in a complete change of pace, I thought I’d tell all of you, The Chiz readers, about my other blog today. Those of you who know me in the real sense of the word are well aware of the fact that I am a writer of fiction and have this claim to be writing a novel. Well, I have been back at it. I finished one book at the end of 2004, and it has been in the bottom drawer since. A few critical readers pointed out various flaws, and I have come to accept that basically it is what it is: a fundamentally flawed first attempt. I was going to embark on an extensive overhaul this year. Then I decided not to, and I am leaving it in the drawer. Instead, I am now working on a whole new book. I started last week.

Now this is where the other blog comes in. I have my own personal myspace page which I am using for my literary endeavours, quite separate from my interest in music. So if you want to see how it’s going and read some extracts and maybe some bad poetry, point your browser this way
www.myspace.com/floatingword
And join me on my adventures as I write a whole new novel during the course of this year!

I hope you enjoy the process as much as I have been so far!

Happy Monday Earthlings!

New women's writing

David — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 04:17:00 GMT

If you are a young new female writer and looking for opportunities to get published, here's one tailor made for you!

Read on and follow the instructions. This is a great idea, and one I think is realy going to reveal ome explosive material!

Urban Chick

Friday night. The bar is filled with smart, sexy, sussed women fresh from a week hard at work. They have cocktails in hand and are deep in conversations with girlfriends, lovers or potential new partners. They are Urban Chicks, women who live in fast paced, traffic choked, money hungry, concrete landscapes. Landscapes where working hard is as much a priority as playing hard. They’re not superwomen. They’re able to laugh at themselves, even as they struggle through their experiences.

In recent years, the blogging phenomenon has allowed internet users, male and female alike, to explore the stories behind the lives of these women and their daily battles with their relationships, with work and their individuality. Their stories are told with candour and humour.

Urban Chick: A Users Guide plans to showcase these kinds of stories

If you’re a 20 to 30 something, and you feel you fit into this category, then we’re looking for your stories. Tell us about a crazy night out, a skewed work experience or a tangled romantic relationship using your intellect, wisdom and wit.

Visit the website www.urbanchick.wordpress.com for more information, submission guidelines and examples. Also sign up with the blog for news updates, tips and hints and join the Urban Chick community.

Short story submissions should be no longer than 3000 words.

Send your stories to: urbanchick01@gmail.com

PO box: 292048 Melville 2109

Stories must be no longer than 3000 words, typed and double spaced in order to be considered

Remember to include all of your contact details with your submission.

Submission close end of May 2007.

new, dynamic, challenging, south african writing!

David — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 05:08:28 GMT

Pas vrygestel - Just released: Ons Klyntji November 2006 uitgawe.

Come again?

Ons Klyntji is all of 110 years old as a title en sedert onlangs bevat dit ook baie Engels. Currently it comes out twice a year, basies wanneer die redakteure (Erns Grundling en Toast Coetzer) die tyd en geld het om dit te doen. It is 108 pages thick, A5, black and white, perfect bound en dit lyk so:

Waar en hoe can I buy it?

Dis te koop vir vir R30 over the counter of R40, posgeld ingesluit vir SADC-lande, via die pos. R50 for if you're living overseas, ie nowhere near a SADC country. This item usually ships once you've paid and we've been to the post office. First 50 orders will ship (it doesn't really go by ship though - meer soos in kak poskantoorbusse en vliegtuie en dalk selfs treine) with limited edition badge designed by Willem Samuel. As daar nog oor is, sit ons 'n Trouvrou badge ook by. Orders can be placed by contacting toast@bastardmedia.co.za.

Also available by hierdie winkels/ plekke: Die Boekehuis (Auckland Park), Armchair Theatre (Lwr Main Rd, Obs, CT), The Bin (Harrington Street, CT), Clarke's Bookshop (Long Street, CT), Protea Boekwinkels (Pretoria en Stellenbosch) and more to be confirmed.

What's in it for me?

Teks, foto's, prente. Short stories, poems, liedjies, emails, SMSe, cartoons, strips, sketse, boek reviews, CD reviews, reisverhale, ramblings ensovoorts. In Afrikaans en English, but we take contributions in any language.

Wie is die bydraers/ contributors?

Krisanne Johnson, Merwe Wiese, Nicolene Louw, NP van Lyk Skou, Hermien de Vos, Tania van Schalkwyk, Aryan Kaganof, Jean Meeran, Brenda, Die Wit Rus, Helene Dancer, Stephen Timm, Ruan Kemp, Jaco Jacobs, Drikus Barnard, Henk Esterhuizen, Floyed de Vaal, Shakeel Manzoor, Greg de Villiers, Francois Breytenbach Blom, Kleinboer, Jason Bronkhorst, Jane Dowd, Monique Pelser, Byron Levey, clinton v du plessis, Wiezel Crouse, Isabella Matambanadzo, Riana Wiechers, Harry Kalmer, Yvonne Beyers, Rebecca Hodes, Andries Bezuidenhout, Joe Botha, Graeme Brimmer, Mass Dosage, Patrick Cairns, Len Skead, Craig McKune, Andrew Miller, Willem Mulder, CM Muller, Michelle Wilmers, Alphabet Brett, Sjaka Septembir, Ewoudt Cloete, Jan Heese, Kabous Verwoed, Jahn Conroy, Ami Kapilivech, Andrew McFall, caltex omega, Anneke Botha, Danila Bloomberg, Adolph van Coller, Lorimer Wilmot, Dara Kell, Krisjan Fourie, Anton Krueger, Christian Frauenstein, Rebecca Kahn, Liezl Dick, Marissa Baard (sub) en Willem Samuel (cover design). Redakteure: Erns Grundling en Toast Coetzer.

Contributions for next issue

Bydraes vir volgende uitgawe (rofweg Maart 2007) kan reeds gestuur word na toast@bastardmedia.co.za tot 15 Februarie 2007. We prefer work that has not been published elsewhere and if it has, please say where and when. Send a two-line mini biog with each submission so we sort of know who you are, as well as your most reliable postal address. The word limit is 5000. When sending poems, please make a tight selection. Photos too - layout prefers 2 good landscapes that can work together on a page, or 4 portraits that can work as a group. 300 dpi. Send books and CDs for review to PO Box 12370, Mill Street, Cape Town, 8010. Satisfaction not guaranteed. Deadline: 15 February 2007.You retain copyright and payment is one free copy of the zine as well as a drink of your choice to the value of R10 when and if you corner one of the editors in a bar somewhere. This offer never expires.

room 207

David — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 04:06:28 GMT

“I tell you, walk carefully and think fast;
This is Johannesburg; you are either fast or dead…
That’s dream city for you. It will city-ise you, hold you,
Lovingly caress you and orgasmify you and,
By the time you wake up, it’s too late…

Room 207 is a novel by Kgebetli Moele, published by Kwela books, telling the tale of a group of young black men living together in Hilbrow. I think by now, most readers and publishers have become sick of reading tales of our political past, its angst, its loss and sorry and horror. So it should come as no surprise then to read a book like this. For this book, while it lives in the world of post apartheid Hilbrow and deals with the horror and angst, sorrow and loss, is not a political book at all. No, this is an honest story, a tale of hope, despair, struggle and madness. It’s real and breathes fire and ice in equal measure.

Like Phaswane Mpe’s Hilbrow, this is still a place of vice, degradation, perversion, drink and drugs and most importantly, opportunity. Six friends live in what used to be a room in a hotel in Hilbrow, room 207. Forget any intimations of Club 206 in Orange Grove if you are so inclined. These six guys are hustlers, hucksters, street entrepreneurs, trying to get ahead. They live, eat, sleep and fuck under one roof, the only thing they can afford.

This book is visceral and chooses not to obey too man of the traditional literary tenets when it comes to story telling, plot and linear progression. Instead it is as Hilbrow is: manic, kaleidoscopic, and sometimes violent. Our narrator tells his stories and those of his friends with passionate detachment, lurching slowly towards the point where enough is enough is enough already.

Suburban whities, be they black or white, would do well in reading this book. It is up front and honest and by its end, it admits that its protagonists are as addicted to their mistakes and their wild life as much as any crack smoker or pill dropper. It admits that their vision has been perverted and over taken. This book seems not to seek to blame, to rationalize. Rather it acts as the true artistic mirror to our society, it is what it is and it thereby shows us what we are.

This is a crucially important read. Because it shows us what desire to improve ourselves can lead us to, its shows how we can be influenced by our surroundings, by our peers, but our very own dreams. Yes, how our very attachment to the idea of how our future selves WILL be, can degenerate and erode the self that we currently are, excusing all in the name of what we will become.
But don’t be disenchanted, our dreams are all we have.

Buy This book from Kalahari.net by clicking here!!

The real deal with al lovejoy

David — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 05:06:00 GMT

Acid Alex is one hell of a read for anyone who grew up in South Africa during70's and 80's - hell even the 90's. It's like brushing up against the
unshaven past when you least expect it. So much of the story is real and
visceral, like unexpected memories sparked by a song you haven't heard for a while, or a street you haven't turned down in ages: Loaded…
Here I ask the author, Al Lovejoy some question about writing, drugs and
society, just to try and get more of a handle on the book, and the man behind it.

You can buy Acid Alex by clicking here. Which you really should do if you haven't already!

1) Al, you've mentioned in previous interviews that you started writing
down your experiences as part of therapy, not with the intention of
writing a novel. At what point did this change into being a book, and did your experience of the act of writing change once you changed your ideas about what you wanted to do with the material?

It was a very deliberate and calculated two-stage process. I primarily had to decide if I was going to at least try and embark on what I could only foresee as a long, lonely, painful and terrifying excursion into my past, and coupled with this was knowing that semi-completed therapy is always detrimental to a positive prognosis…so IF I started – I would HAVE to finish it. Once that extreme decision had been reached, and let me tell you, it wasn’t no easy decision baby – I then had to creep up on the idea that if I really and truly applied myself to this task with the cold determination to make the process work (and it did!) - then surely I should attempt to make it accessible to the rest of the world or at very least those of my contemporaries in the same predicament. That meant writing it as a truly compelling book that would convince me as an extremely well read and utter cynical bastard. It would have been pointless for me to even start otherwise. That is the sole reason why the very first sentence I typed was: “I was born to tell a story…”

2) I some times feel that writing is treated like the medical profession.
It is shrouded in this veil of mystery and mystique, and the idea that only a gifted few are ALLOWED to write, are good enough, strong enough. Your book is one of the most honest, up front and simple that I have read in a long time. You certainly don't come across as an Ivory tower kind of guy. How would you debunk the idea that not everyone can write?

Good writers are master story tellers. But not all master story tellers can write. Welcome to Africa. And I am very much of the verbal school of story telling and as that kind of African I had to bring my stories to my writing - not the other way round. That’s why my prose has a conversational flavour. But I know exactly what you mean when you speak about almost having to ask permission. Look I journalised dialogue and expressions, which I knew any sane South African would recognise immediately but simultaneously kakked myself thinking: “Jirre, Al, you can’t write about Poena pomping spiritsuipermeide – even if it is all true” See, now where the hell did that come from…?

3) Compared to much of the post apartheid, political angst ridden texts that have been published, your book is a breath of multi coloured fresh air. Did you struggle to find a publisher on the basis that your book was just too out there, too extreme?

Weirdly enough no. Struik signed roughly on the basis of the first four pages. Publishing wasn’t the problem. Getting booksellers to stock Acid Alex is the problem. Apparently it is okay to sell Irving Welsh’s books, which raised the use of the word “cunt” to an art form and of course any other foul, filthy thing Americans or other English speakers can produce artistically or otherwise but because I had to take my writing into the gutter of the real South Africa – it is apparently too obscene to stock on their shelves. Struik has actually offered copies of Acid Alex to these booksellers free on consignment (basically if they can’t sell the books just return them) - They refuse flatly. I might be wrong but isn’t that something called censorship? And isn’t it one of the major reasons why this country was considered the siff, racially obsessed, Poes of the Whole World …for so long?

4) Since the book has been out, you have become very active with your website, its forums, posting new writing and keeping a community going around your book and other projects. How do you view the internet as a whole? Do you think it really is an open area where anyone can and should be allowed to post their ideas, creativity and thoughts?

As an IT specialist I come from the Copyleft school of thinking which is rooted in a philosophy that embraces the free association and sharing of thoughts and ideas in an open transparent community. From this perspective - the Internet is merely a common, electronically sustained, artificial consensual hallucination - of both the soaring genius and rude idiocy, the carefree generosity and appalling greed, the astonishing strength of spirit and the utter animal depravity found within the human race. And we as contemporary human beings have skilfully conspired to make the Internet into as much a unique part of our existential experience as the DNA in our living tissue. So skilfully in fact that we can no longer sustain human life as we know without it. And as such, having become a real part of our common humanity – in a crude sense, it is like having a metaphorical extra hand, which may serve to proffer an unexpected gift or become a cocked fist ready to strike and injure. A calculated, mathematic reflection of our universal, recidivistic, human nature.

Remember the Internet was born out of the post-WWII Arpanet, which was conceived by the USA for the sole purpose of processing NATO’s military intelligence and thereby maintaining its trans-Atlantic control of Western Europe - and simultaneously facilitating: the financing, R&D, construction and eventual deployment of bigger, better, more efficient armies and weapons of mass destruction - which singularly serve to underwrite America’s political will. Underneath the beauty and bestiality sculpted from the raw material of abstract algorithms - that is still the underlying backbone and primary application of the Internet – as was carefully defined by the American National Standards Institute in American Standard Code of Information Interchange. In my opinion - it has to be kept an open forum of ideas and exchange by all responsible free thinkers and computer scientists because some corporate spiritual responsibility has to be taken for the Internet before it achieves its ultimate purpose of complete control or the alternate destruction of everything which refuses to submit to American economic, political and military dominance.

It is only in the hands of a slave that a tool is granted more consideration than the hand that manipulates it. I am a free child of God and the slave of no man. For me the Internet is merely a tool to facilitate the communication of this declaration of self-expression and formed opinion plus a means to gain access and benefit personally from any other schools of shared and applied thinking.

5) You tell so many stories in Acid Alex that any 30+ South African will relate directly to, and a good few more that just about anyone who has ever partied hard, or taken drugs of any kind can relate to. So many in fact, that it seems there could be any number of more books on each of these topics. How did you decide on what to keep and what to focus on?

It is my opinion that most screwed up adults were screwed up kids, so I did spend a lot of time in sketching what I perceive to be the developmental psychology markers of my childhood and adolescence. It was also a personal search for what I call milestones. In between the mud, potholes and rocks strewn along the pathway of a journey are intermittent milestones indicating two things. One, exactly how far one has travelled and two, the means to calculate exactly how much less there is to go before a certain destination will be reached. And remember, while we are bouncing along merrily in the ruts of this metaphor – real time doesn’t ever figure into this equation, measuring spiritual distance is all that counts. Sandy was a milestone. A very big one. That is why he has a whole chapter to himself. That is why, as possibly the only real father figure of my childhood - I chose to dedicate the book to him. See, I figured that if my past was the reason why I was currently pissing all over my future prospects - then I had to re-root myself in my past from a different perspective. It was a process of deciding what people and events had kept enough of that spark of humanity alive in me that they had managed to hold me back from slipping completely over the edge into intractable sociopathology - then taking those things, focussing on them and building the rest of my life from there. Being born again logically necessitates a different Father and thus a different Family.

In this sense, trying to apply Wally as a nurturing father figure behind the man I have chosen to become - would be psychologically destructive once again, because as role model of memories for my malnurtured inner child - I had to realise and accept that the only person who engendered the real beginnings of self-esteem and spiritual responsibility in me was Sandy. And it was okay for me to recognise this and allow myself to feel that way about him too. Wally and Denise formally and emotionally rejected me from their family and actively ground that rejection into my psyche in the most vile way possible - but Sandy never, ever wanted to say goodbye. Writing Acid Alex was a search for that personal truth and a process of making it the first internal building block of a spiritual gateway to entering a place of understanding my true identity as a child of God. And using it to take my place as that unique, precious child and irreplaceable member of another adopted Family which will always remain intact. Bubu was another element. Beating alcoholism and hard narcotic addiction with this understanding - more of the same. And I didn’t feel it overly presumptuous to think that almost everybody relates to this model more or less the same way and most people would find themselves on the same quest somewhere in my story and might possibly benefit from engaging in the same process - so I tried to stick those things that in my opinion we commonly share and experienced as the young South Africans of our era.

6) The world you describe in Acid Alex is one that most deny ever existed, and that most certainly does not exist now. But it is one that I have walked through myself. How entrenched do you think the sub culture, underground life is in South Africa?

Ja, poor, old South Africa and its perpetual culture of denial. We are who we are and that is that. But don’t let it get to you china, if you don’t know where to score zol – just ask. Someone will sort you out. There is only one rule though. Avoid asking the white men who carry Bibles on Sundays. And all their chommies too. Seriously. See, zol was okay with God from when He created it millions of years ago and told bra Adam that zol, cucumbers, mielies, magic mushrooms, garlic, naartjies, suurvye and basically everything else growing there was all irie-I for chowing - but china don’t durb on any of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden because that was guaranteed upset tummy shots. You know this of course - but just under a hundred years ago the ous that carry bibles around on Sundays, all got together with their chommies and voted that they weren’t entirely happy with a lot of the plants and Arrangements God had made - including rumours that heaven actually had a blêrrie back door for the odd unlikely kaffir or hotnot to sneak in! Anyway they set God very straight on all sorts of old score’s including the hemelse-swartgevaar, white people buying alcohol on Sundays and everything to do with zol. Now we don’t talk about it. So, what’s changed Cousin?

7) In South Africa, writing and indeed book reading is comparatively Ivory Tower-ish. by which I mean, books are very expensive, and top book shops mostly hidden away in leafy suburbs and shopping Malls. Do you think more can and should be done to give greater access to writing and reading for more people in this country?

Yeah, first remove import tax from books. Especially non-fiction and educational books. Give writers the same tax incentives as the movie industry. Bring reading to grass roots level by means of multi-genre graphic novels. Set up more creative writing scholarships for promising youngsters and illustrators. Support promising aspirant writers and illustrators through subsistence contracts. Translate Asterix, Tintin and Lucky Luke into all the official South African languages (I apologise if somebody has done this already…) and maybe bring J.K. Rowling to South Africa on a speaking tour in schools…

11) Now that you have a novel out, a film on the way, what do you feel about the act of writing itself? How do you now approach this idea of setting out the ideas that might become a book?

Of all of my obsessions, chocolate, photography, reading and writing are the only ones that I can safely live with. However, I now have a slightly different approach to the latter. During the writing of Acid Alex the thing that freaked me out most was reading very, very good books and being entirely intimidated by the staggering talent of the various authors. I remember laying my hands on an Isabel Allende I had wanted to read for a while – and then being unable to write a single word for two weeks I felt so deeply cowed. Now that Acid Alex is finished, I have managed to gain some distance from myself as a writer and when I read bits of it, I’m quite impressed. Really. It means that I can feel comfortable within my own style now without that paralysed so-out-in-the-chilly-bites feeling. So there is a tiny bit more confidence creeping in for me. And that is good and normal. John le Carre was being interviewed after the publishing of Russia House and made the astonishing statement that after publishing about six bestsellers he was at long last comfortable and felt he had now finally learned to write. I know exactly what he is talking about. And while I have given myself another ten to fifteen years to learn how to write all properly like a big person - I can feel that smattering of confindence bolstering my approach. And my editing time is coming down.

Unfortunately I am a slow, nitpicking, hack. I can’t move on from one thing till I am satisfied that it works. And I keep fighting this nightmare thingy where I wake up one morning unable to scribble even a blurb onto a corn-flake box. I am also still a tiny bit shlocked sometimes when I read stuff I’ve written because as a momentary objective reader I think: Fuck Al, that’s actually written quite well. Okay, not all – just some. So it is a process of coming to grips with the extremes of waking up every day and being this totally blue-baboon-bum schizo - yet maintaining the air that all is irie-I. But I suppose that any truly honest writer will admit they are nuttier than Scrat and writing is merely a thinly veiled excuse to excavate a tunnel - in any general direction away from the sabre-toothed squirrel farm. However, even though I would not wish being a writer on my worst enemy (It would make me pity the poor fucker too much and you can’t pity your friggin enemies dammit!). Truth…? I’m happy and I will probably always be a writer.

The Muse did bite the Oracle’s arse and the Oracle in turn has spoken…
Damn!! #&@*!!! What’s yo’ muv’fucking proll’em nigga? I ortta bust a muv’fucking cap in your crazy cannibal ass…you muv’fucking, Guido lovin’, snake haird, shit stirred, mel’n munchin’, spoon-licker… Look at my ass!! …Godamned crazy nigga. Yeah, God damned crazy nigga muv’fuckka is what you is. Biting my ass... Muv’fuckka… What the fuck is wrong wit’choo nigga?

12) I always like to ask if my interviewees have any advice for aspirants. Particularly because your background is not one of formal schooling, I must ask you what advice you have for wannabe writers, and how to get
themselves over their personal hurdles?

Wrong oke to ask that question china. I was so frightened and self-conscious the day I sat down to begin writing Acid Alex that I physically locked my room. First of all, my personal desire to try and become a writer was born out of my very deep love of reading. Everything I write is first tempered by me as an admittedly limited, objective and thoroughly hard bitten reader. If it doesn’t work for me personally as that detached casual reader then I abandon or edit whatever I am writing until it does.

Secondly, a book is written, word by word – sentence by sentence – paragraph by paragraph. Writer’s block usually begins its ravaging attack when this simple focus is lost. It’s like attempting to win the (or someone else’s) game but failing to score the next point. Plots and outline’s are only bright ideas and rough guidelines. The next sentence decides where the actual story is going and that special place is where the real fun begins for a writer. Write about what you know. Be yourself but allow yourself to be moulded by your research (do it nigga) and influences (exclude HBO). Be natural, especially when writing fiction. That’s when the suspension of disbelief occurs and the story starts penetrating the fabric of subjective reality within the reader’s mind. Remember above all else - You are all that limits your writing (That and the word nigga). Do not editorialise or judge your characters, it stifles the reader’s freedom to form a personal opinion. I am only beginning to experiment with all this personally in my first novel. Be lucid, clear and fluid. Also, be truly prepared for the fact that reading for pure pleasure will forever be lost to you. From the moment you take up a pen seriously – every other writer, good or bad - becomes a literary tutor foremost rather than an fellow journeyman. And until you have been edited properly by a good editor, you haven’t begun to learn how to write. Most of all – even seriously, writing should contain elements of fun (read lots and lots of Terry Pratchett when you headbutt-the-wall) and ultimately needs to be deeply and personally satisfying!

13) You hint strongly on your website that we can expect more written work from you... Is there a time frame yet, how far are you? Or is the idea still in the incubation process?

I though it might be a good idea to let you answer that question yourself and therefore permit you: An Exclusive! - For Your Eyes Only! - Sneak Preview! - of the first couple of chapter of a novel I am working on… …word by word, sentence by sentence… Read it, destroy it and then write a few words and you tell us what you think…

OK, so Al sent in the prologue and fist chapter of his latest book… a novel this time. And let me tell you, this is as searing and gut-wrenching as Acid Alex is… and this time you can be glad that its just fiction. Al has a talent for creating real and believable characters. In Acid Alex these were real people, but in his new work, he achieves the same with fictional characters. So far it seems an apocalyptic and dark work, but it’s too early to tell. One thing is for sure, this one will shock a few more readers and book distributors!