Birthdate?
12
/ 12 / 77
When
did you start writing?
I'm
not sure. For as long as I can remember, I have made up stories in my
head, played make believe. There was that time in 4th grade where a
friend and I tried to write a novel that was a complete rip-off of
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Obviously, it was a
failure of a project.
When
and what and where did you first get published?
Moons
Don't Go To Venus, was the first piece published after I
graduated university. My then agent couldn't find a publisher
for it in the Western traditional press, but an in-law of mine in the
South African textbook industry heard of an opportunity via the South
African government. The RSA government was looking for new,
contemporary fiction set in post-apartheid South Africa. The book was
submitted and, despite not being YA, it was accepted as an approved
text for the then Grade 11 English literary curriculum.
My
first short story, "Gas Station Growing Pains" was
published about a year after that, to an American online flash
fiction zine which has since closed. A pity, because they paid.
Why
do you write?
A question I
often ask myself. I have discovered over the years that I am more
miserable when I don't write.
Why
do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy?
For a long
time, I didn't think I could, actually. It was pretty much the only
genre I wrote in as a child, and my stories from that time are
terrible. Also, a lot of the fantasy and science fiction –
speculative fiction – have complicated plots, where my best tales
tend to focus on the quotidian. But I admire many stories and writers
from the genre and a few years ago a couple of my own attempts
trickled out into the world and were received with encouragement.
Eight months into 2016, I left a five year stint at an African
literary not-for-profit and found I had time to write – really
write – and decided to use it as a chance to start writing outside
my comfort zone, from writing YA to trying all things science fiction
and fantasy. The past two years have been a steep learning curve, but
I've relished the challenge.
Who
is your favorite author? Your favorite story?
It would
feel like a betrayal to answer this question. I read in abundance,
and widely.
What
are you trying to say with your fiction?
For
the reader: Allow me tell you a story, a story I hope to tell well,
by painting a picture for you with words. I hope you'll enjoy it,
that it will create some empathy, perhaps go, "Oh, yes, this is
me too," and, lastly, perhaps make you think.
For me: My
writing, as a whole, creates a conversation with myself, about ideas,
challenges, themes, memories, and even politics that people in my
everyday life might not wish to discuss in depth or find interesting.
So rather than babbling to myself, I make up characters and have it
played out through them.
If
you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?
In 2014,
in honour of Thanksgiving, Isabella Jernigan, then eight, proclaimed:
"I’m thankful for all the dead people because at least they
tried."
How fitting, since that is all we really do at
life – try and then try again. So when I die, I hope my loved ones
can say of me, "She tried."
Do
you blog?
I
keep a blog, mostly of quotes I've pulled from things I've read, but
other items find their way on there
too: http://tiahbeautement.wordpress.com/

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