Franschhoek Literary Festival: Are There Boundaries To Your Imagination?

It's kinda sad that I've been writing (officially) for four and a half years and I've never been to a literary festival. But today I set out to change that! I headed off to Franschhoek, the small but beautiful town about an hour away from Cape Town. A place filled with mainly art and food -- and, this weekend, a ton of literary-minded people.

Earlier in the week, I spoke at two schools as part of the FLF Book Week for Young Readers, but from today through till Sunday, the "proper" part of the festival is running (the part that features loads of panel discussions throughout each day where anyone from the public can come along, buy tickets, and listen (or, like me, take notes and then beg some of the participants to let me take a photo with them!)).

Not having a great deal of time (read: way behind on work!), I got myself a ticket for only one event: Are There Boundaries To Your Imagination, with Savannah and Sarah Lotz (aka Lily Herne), Louis Greenberg, and Charlie Human.

If you're interested in what they chatted about, I've listed the main stuff that stood out for me below. If you're not interested, you can skip to the photos (and drool over the giant chunk of chocolate I got from the Huguenot Fine Chocolates shop!).

Does research help or hinder the imagination?

The comment I could relate to here was that too much research could confine the borders of one's imagination. All those facts your brain becomes full of may end up constricting your imagination and prevent you from coming up with truly original ideas.

I've had people ask me what kind of and how much research I did into fae lore when writing the Creepy Hollow series. The answer is: not a great deal. I wanted my faeries to be different. Modern. Unique. I did some research so that I could use a few traditional elements (the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, for example), but I made up just about everything else.

What taboo topics have you written about?

Paedophilia was mentioned (!), but the answer that resonated with me was that genre fiction itself was almost a taboo thing to write when these authors started out. AND I TOTALLY GET THAT! When I first began writing, I was told by people in the industry that publishing fantasy in this country is really difficult. Look for an overseas publisher, they'd say. Local publishers don't go for that. They go for the literary stuff. Walk into a bookstore and head to the "South African Fiction" shelf, and what do you see? Mainly literary fiction. Which is great if that's what you're into, but what about us spec fic lovers?!

Anyway, since then, some amazing South African urban fantasy works have been published, and I'm SOOO excited for the next generation of writers in this country who hopefully won't ever have to feel that genre fiction isn't "good enough" for us to write.

What challenges have you found in writing characters that are different from yourself?

Louis Greenberg said he's always found it easy to write female characters, and when he's had to write a male character, it's been much harder for him! He he! I'm the opposite, in that I always think to myself, But how could I write from a male perspective? I don't know what they're thinking! What did make sense to me in the discussion, though, was that for most of them, writing from the perspective of a character from a different culture or race is a big challenge. I'm scared of trying that (which probably means I should try it!).

How do you deal with negative reviews?

Louis had an interesting answer based on the fact that when you're publishing the traditional route, so much time passes between finishing a book and when it actually becomes available for the public to read, that he felt he had enough distance from that book for negative reviews not to hurt that much.

Sarah: "I just cry!"

He he! Hopefully that's not entirely true ...

The cool peeps!

And yes! They let me take a picture with them! (Too bad the camera chose THAT moment to be weird! :( )

Porcupine Ridge Wines was having a special: BUY A CASE, GET A CASE. Since that would land me with 24 bottles of wine, I decided to restrain myself. (We live in a tiny cottage, remember? No space for that much wine!)

The obligatory selfie with my awesome friend who could not let me go off to this festival on my own.

I would walk much further than 25m for good chocolate!

Yay! We found it!

Keep drooling ... It's all mine! (There were a lot more ... We ate them all in the car on the way back!)

Z is for Zombies

'One thing about the Deadlands, once you've been out there, surrounded by the dead, the living aren't anywhere near as scary...'

When seventeen-year-old Lele de la Fontein and her brother are forced to move to the city enclave to live with their estranged father and bitchy, war-hero stepmother, she has no idea her world is about to implode. Stuck in a school run by the Resurrectionists -- a fanatical sect who worship the sinister, all-powerful Guardians -- Lele dreams of escape. But she's trapped. No one can survive in the Deadlands, the shattered remains of Cape Town's suburbs, without being turned into one of the living dead. No one, that is, except for a renegade group known as the Mall Rats. But who are they? And are they the answer to Lele's prayers, or is she about to find herself in more trouble than even she can imagine?

I'm not a zombie fan. At all. Normally I would not pick up a book like this. But it was written by a South African and set in South Africa (where I live) and so I thought, zombies in Cape Town? This I gotta see!

A few chapters in I wasn't so keen, but then I got caught up in Lele's story and couldn't put the book down! Aside from the main story there are so many little things I enjoyed:

• the names Lele has for certain people (her stepmother is The Mantis)
• the random mention of real books and movies that were "in" at the time the zombies took over ("And I've got a treat for you, Lele," Ginger said, holding up one of his DVDs. "Transformers -- crap movie, but awesome explosions.")
• the sprinkling of South African colloquialisms that reminded me I was reading about home :-) (kak, ja, hayibo, seriaas)

The only thing I was a little disappointed with was the ending. The story seemed to wrap up a little quickly. I think I was expecting.... more (hello, sequel! Come to me!). But I enjoyed all the rest of it enough to recommend it :-)

'Deadlands is cool, provocative and sharp as spiny teeth. A viciously satirical, pop-culture loaded, teen zombie apocalypse with heart -- it's smart, dark, sweet, gruesome, political and, best of all, funny.' -- Lauren Beukes, author of ZOO CITY and MOXYLAND

~ ~ ~

Phew! Made it to the end of the A to Z Blogging Challenge!

Thank you so much to Arlee and company for hosting this piece of blog epicness. And well done to everyone who completed the challenge!

And for anyone who's not feeling totally exhausted, don't forget the A to Z Challenge Reflections Mega Post on Monday 2nd May.