Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 135

Back in bracing form

My children and husband are calling me robot arm. Wednesday morning my son, instead of holding mummy's hand like asked, grabbed the wrist. I thought I was going to meet Jesus. I have a rather high pain threshold. In my experience, most people who have battled with migraines at one point or another do. Something happens to them, they look back at their history of migraines and then say, 'That's not pain!' But Wednesday I had to admit that things had become painful. Off to the doctor I went, and I grabbed my brace knowing whatever they told me, brace...

Women's Day

But that was yesterday, I hear you say. Really? I believe I am still here, as is my daughter, my mother and a number of my female friends. Men are here, too. And to you lovely males, may I wish you a lovely day as well. However, I do concede that there was a holiday of sorts that took place yesterday. Damaria over at STORYPOT has been involved in a very interesting project: Feminist Technology Exchange. For those that are shy about using the 'F' word (hey, I'll confess, I went through a phase like that, too), The Yarn Harlot...

MIA

And there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for my blog-absence. See my post on BookSA, The Dare.

More info on Read South Africa

Not sure how many of you read the comments, but Damaria Senne replied to yesterday's post. For your info, I thought I'd re-post her words here: Hey Tiah Thanks for highlighting Read SA's new web site. Much appreciated. I hope that more SA writers will email us to tell us about their books and their thoughts on reading in South Africa. We'd be happy to publish that content on the web site. Writers can also talk to us about their own books - what they're launching, when they're launching, whether they're able to take part in school visits in their...

Read South Africa ... great deals on books :-)

Read South Africa, a group whose e-presence has been confined mostly to their facebook page, now has a website! Please do have a look! Their board is composed of some very well known (and loved) faces. Go check it out! (That is a lot of exclamation marks in one sentance. Oh dear. I blame it on being the weekend.) One common excuse as to why South Africans don't read is that it is too expensive. But as I began typing out this very post, Collen Higgs announced a fantastic deal through her publishing company, Modjaji books. Here is the link!...

We have a bond

Husband is telling the Estate Agent today, which is good, since today also happens to be our deadline. My name is not on the deed. This bothers me. More than I can begin to tell you. But as soon as transfer is complete, we will look into legal options on how to ensure I'm not totally vulnerable to great unknowns. My name was thisclose to being on the deed. We got an offer. An appealing offer only marginally bettered by the one we are accepting. The margin so small that we were seriously debating about spending a bit more to...

Writing tips: Sokoloff and Vincent

A writer bud of mine has been emailing me links by two of her bookmarked writing blogs: Alexandra Sokoloff and Rachel Vincent. The two latest posts are of particular interest to me: First Chapters and Don't tell me what I already know I want to print these out and give them to my writer's group. Especially Sokoloff's point that the main thing with the first draft is to get a completed first draft. No, the reader doesn't care about a detailed description of the main character's family tree ten generations back. But if writing that stuff down will get you...

Margaret Atwood via Helen Moffett

After yesterday's depressing post I return to the land of writing where all is not well. Then, was it ever thus? Although the time that is now-now is truly terrible for lesser known writers and editors. YET - we still love books, yes? And the people that try to write them (that's me! Sort of...) and of course the people who help make them great (psst - editors). Speaking of editors, one of Helen Moffett's hats is as an editor. (See her link on the side bar.) She has also been putting up links of other writing news here and...

Nechama Brodie to Lara Logan

Lara Logan has been on my mind lately. I tried to stop reading news and commentary regarding her, not because the incident is horrific - many news stories are - but because of what is being said in the comments following the majority of the coverage. I am well aware there are assholes out there. I know. But the comments tend to illustrate how much larger the problem is than meets the eye. Depressing. But the coverage of Lara Logan has been impossible to avoid. Even BookSA has a thread, highlighting a piece written by Nechama Brodie. (The direct link...

South African, African-American and a free ebook

White Readers Meet Black Authors put up a post over the weekend which links readers to a free ebook offer of Wading Home.* I put the links up for two reasons. One - A FREE BOOK. And a book by what appears to be a very well regarded author, no less. The other is to bring your attention to the site itself. The South African book market seems to suffer many of the same pitfalls as the US African-American market and finds itself having many of the same debates. It is interesting stuff. Not only because the South African market...