Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 154
June 11, 2010
Can't get over it
Did you see the opening ceremony for the World Cup? I can't get over it. Can't. Get. Over. It. I'm so bloody proud. Impressed. Ready to yell, "Hallelujah!", at the top of my lungs. And if you sat back and thought about it, it is utterly depressing I'm so happy, because this shouldn't be the exception to the rule. South Africa had dancers. Lots of 'em. Lots and lots of dancers, doing their thing, kicking their legs, shaking their booty and having a good time and the women were not all the same...
K word update
Thank you to all who responded to my writing racism post, both publicly and privately. Here is what I am thinking right now: 1 - The story, so far, works better with it in. 2 - I may lose sleep if I keep it. I am very conscience of the fact that I am an outsider writing about my children's country. The reason my novel has an American as the main character was not because I had no imagination, but due to feeling uncomfortable writing from the point of view of anybody but the outsider. "Melkter...
June 10, 2010
GOAAAAAAAAAL!
The request is in: What are my thoughts on the World Cup? And like everything in this country: complex. I was here when Germany, gosh dang it, was picked to host the one before. Everyone I knew thought South Africa was going to get it - crushed. Taxi driver (that's an SA taxi, not your luxury cab) asking me, "What went wrong?" and I had no reply. Everyone moping around like a funeral. It was awful. And insulting. Germany had already hosted one, when not one country in Africa had ever had the ...
Comment settings
Blog is refusing real people again. Messed with the settings. Hopefully it will help.
Writing racism
How does a writer depict racism? How does one convey the depth of a character's anger and filth yet not hurt the reader? Or, in some cases, not make the publisher freak and refuse to publish a story out of fear that the outcry would be too great? Or end up with the book banned? (Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, anyone?) I've hit that spot with a story. In many ways the story is rather light, and in many places funny (or trying to be). But like many stories, there is a villain, and in this case ...
June 8, 2010
Mthetheleli Malambile
He introduced himself as Matthew and since that day last year I've held a bit of a soft spot for the man. We would chat, as people do, and he'd keep telling me, "Someday you'll write my story. Just have to wait till after 2010." Sadly, the artist passed away last night, leaving behind a wife and two children, the youngest only a year old. I'll miss his smile. I'll miss his work. I'll miss his stories. I'm sorry he didn't live long enough to see the World Cup, because he brought it up every ti...
June 7, 2010
Writers and handbags
Last full day of school today before the five weeks of World Cup madness begins! This includes all SA children being on Winter Break the whole entire time. Chaos? I think so. Could be fun. Could lose my mind and not remember a thing. Or I'll remember it and my love for the beautiful game shall be severely tainted. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I'm off to a writer's meetings since it is local and none of my children are sick / injured / in hospital. Which is a marvellous thing, indeed....
Yellow mellow, brown down
Water. Everybody needs it and right now we have plenty ... if you like it nice and salty. Drinking water...um, well, not so much. So "not-so-much" that the 20 kilolitre monthly allowance is going to be halved in the near future. Argh. This is going to be tricky. I have never gone over 20 since the restrictions. However, in the past 6 months, I have only managed to get under 10 twice. This was only achieved because nobody visited us and we were gone for a few nights each of those months. Oh, a...
June 6, 2010
Eat, pray... jealous?
Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat, Pray, Love has been turned into a movie and the promotional posters are out! Jezebel posted a thread regarding the movie's poster and, as what usually happens when the book is mentioned, many folks were quick to attack Gilbert for ...well, I'll let one poster tell you herself: Invite a friend to comment I'll reserve the right to ignore and be annoyed by anyone who actually has the means to travel and live even more or less comfortably all over the world for a yea...
June 4, 2010
A humbling moment
I google myself from time to time, I admit. There are a few reasons for this and they are fairly practical. A subject I'm happy to go into further at another time, if you so desire. But for now, what I was most hoping to find, and did, was an un-biased review of my book, Moons Don't Go To Venus. Feedback from somebody that owed me nothing. That owed my publisher nothing. Even better, it was a review from a South African. Not to dis on my US and UK fans - I love you all very much, too. But...t...
