Danie Botha's Blog, page 2
August 22, 2018
Art is medicine
Art can help us heal. Art and the creative energy behind it has captured our imagination through the ages, it has comforted and inspired us. Art can be so much more than an object with esthetic value. Art can be medicine. We all experience pain and hurt and suffering in our lives. It changes us. […]
August 7, 2018
The secret life of rock ponds
A gust carried the cry of the solitary fisherman to the children huddled below at the rock ponds. For a moment the two turned their faces as the wind swallowed the man’s warning His dark figure waved at them from the far end of the pier, silhouetted against a nail of cadmium sun inching out […]
July 30, 2018
Art is medicine
Therapeutic art is a thing. Art can help us heal. Doing creative art is telling our stories in a non-verbal way and has the unique power to help restore us. We all have stories. Many of us struggle to get our stories out and get it heard. Here’s the thing: emotional trauma can happen to […]
July 22, 2018
Beach Day (at the lake.)
Half the joy lay nestled (in the planning), packing of provisions; buns and butter, ham and cheese with holes, cucumber slices, bottled water, and soda in a can, chilled, huddled in a cooler. Incessant chatter of the grandkids, effervescent, lotioned, sandalled, each buttressed in broad-rimmed hats. Checkered tablecloth, red and white, six clips to hold […]
July 16, 2018
Peek inside my latest novel, An Unfamiliar Kindness
When the Second Wave Feminism crosses paths with the Troubles . . . Mistaking gratitude for love comes at a price. In 1971, Oxford student Emilee Stephens marches with the just-formed Women’s Liberation Movement. She meets Connor O’Hannigan, an intriguing sympathizer who harbors more secrets than the reason he’s at the march. Despite her friends’ […]
July 9, 2018
Why on earth do I write?
Why do you write? I would like to know. Why do I write? It’s a long story. (Pun not intended, but it’s still true.) I write to inspire and challenge my readers. Oh, I write to entertain and inform them as well, but the need to challenge the status quo is stronger. I want my […]
July 2, 2018
Why on earth do I write?
Why do you write? It’s the quintessential question often put to writers and authors. What prompts you to put a hand to paper or fingers to keyboard? The short (and somewhat bland) answer is because I like it; the longer answer is, as I write more, the compulsion and need to tell stories—my own and […]
June 24, 2018
Unleash the Superpowers of Poetry
Poetry has a language all its own. It’s imbued with superpowers. “Poetry is not the language we live in. It is not the language of our day-to-day errand-running, obligation-fulfilling, not the language with which we are to justify ourselves to the outside world.” Tracy K. Smith According to Tracy Smith (who gave her lecture in […]
June 18, 2018
Red Kiss
“Haast je, Thijs!” “I am hurrying. You’d better watch out!” Lotte Van Dijk laughed at his warning and pedaled harder, only to swerve sharply to the side to avoid collision with a family of four, gawking at the Saint Basil’s Cathedral. She mumbled an apology as she regained her balance, legs flailing, but kept going. […]
June 7, 2018
60 Things to Do Before You Turn Sixty
I love birthdays. Not the growing older part, but the blowing out of candles. Do you have any idea about the amount of heat generated by sixty candles? Our granddaughter took a step back the other day, hollering at the top of her little voice, “Oupa, there’s a fire!” By the time I managed to […]
