Segametsi Moumakwa's Blog, page 4

Redemption – Blurb

Macy is no longer a dearly devoted housewife. Being confronted with the true nature of her cheating husband has fuelled her with fury only satisfied by revenge. But what happens when a seemingly flawless plan has tragic and heartbreaking consequences?

Now strained with a dark secret and a suspicious husband, Macy must try to find redemption with the help of an emancipated group of ex-wives.

Meanwhile, cool cosmo-girl Brandy struggles to adjust to her new role as wife, with her career promotion financially emasculating her husband. Will her new financial success and old on-line antics lead her back to a lost lover?

As both women challenge their roles as wives, they learn that confronting their problems may just lead to a confrontation with each other. – Redemption ‪#‎TheSetUpNovel‬ ‪#‎Redemption‬

Jozi Fm Reviews The Set Up

Listen to Jozi Fm tomorrow 24June at 11h15 am for “The Set Up” review! Station 105.8 or DSTV channel 878 or online at http://www.jozifm.co.za #TheSetUpNovel #Redemption

Pretoria Launch

#UnMissable #TheSetUpNovel

Johannesburg Launch

#JohannesburgLaunch!!!! #UnMissable #TheSetUpNovel #Redemption

Revealed! Cover

Finally! Cover and title revealed #Redemption #TheSequel #TheSetUpNovel

Short Story

Own Medicine

Iris took one look at him, and could tell that it was safe to brooch the subject. She started slowly, deliberately. She wanted to make sure that he understood that she wanted him to tell her what to do. She said that a friend of hers took her into her confidence. She had an affair. She did not mean for it to happen, it was one of those things – a bored housewife, feeling unappreciated got flattered when someone else paid her attention. She had no intention of leaving her husband. Her husband was not perfect, but she loved him. She believed in the sanctity of marriage, she just got distracted. The guilt was killing her and as Iris is her trusted friend, she wanted her advice. The affair seemed to have re-ignited the fire back into her marriage. It was like the other man was some kind of place where she goes to rejuvenate. After spending time with the other man, all the faults she found with her husband seemed trivial. There was a time she thought her marriage would not last, but now she felt that her marriage was perfect. The only thing eating her was the guilt.

“What should I tell her?” Iris said, walking over to sit on the sofa next to her husband. She was dressed in black sweat pants, black t-shirt, and a floral apron. Her medium length braids were tied back tightly, and she wore flat pump shoes.

“Should I tell my friend to confess and ask her husband for forgiveness?” she said, sitting down and looking at Kitso.

It was Sunday morning, so Kitso was still relatively fresh. He was not yet strung up by the fact that the following day he had to go to work. It was not a stressful job being an engineer in his firm. The stress was the people he had to work with. He found himself more and more having to take over other people’s responsibilities, or redo some of the work. Besides that, he enjoyed his job.

Gently putting down the copy of the Sunday Times, he looked up at his wife, “What makes people think that having an affair is a solution to an unhappy marriage,” he said shaking his head.

Iris looked away and said nothing.

“Now tell me, she says she is not going to leave the husband?” he asked.

“Absolutely not,” Iris answered, a little too quickly perhaps. “I don’t think so,” she added more gently.

“Well, then what purpose would it serve, if she goes and opens this can of worms?”

He was in no mood to entertain his wife’s friend’s shenanigans. Gossip was for lazy minds that had nothing better to do. Especially on a beautiful Sunday morning like this. His Sunday routine was sacred. He wakes up and enjoys a full breakfast – cereal, followed by toasted bread, eggs, bacon, sausage washed down with a strong black coffee. This is followed by a short drive to Spar, where he gets his favourite Sunday newspapers – The Sunday Times, Citizen and Sunday Independent. It takes him the whole morning to go through them. He starts with the back page- the sports section, until the front page. His wife used to ask him why he bought three copies. She was used to it now, and now leaves him in peace.

“Relationships are difficult and complicated. If having someone on the side is putting a spark back on your friend’s relationship, I would say, let her be.”

He picked up the copy of the Sunday Times. He gently shook it to chase away the creases that had settled there uninvited. He uncrossed his long legs, then crossed them again as he sat back and settled on the couch. The smell of Sunday lunch filled the house. He loved his wife’s cooking, especially the Sunday one. He could smell his favourite – roast lamb, the garlic and rosemary teasing his nostrils and wetting his taste buds. His mother once told him that the highest compliment he could pay a woman was to appreciate her food. He did that every Sunday.

“Thanks you dear, I was just thinking…you know…” Iris stammered, and looked away when her husband lifted his eyes to meet hers.

“What..?” he said, irritation creeping in his voice.

Iris’s eyes went down to her lap, and she started picking at her floral apron, cleaning the non-existent dirt from it. “I can see how happy my friend is. I wished her source of happiness was not an illicit affair. What she is doing is wrong. My friend should stop the affair immediately, and then seek counselling to try and see if there was no way she could seek the same satisfaction she was getting from the affair, if she could not find it in her marriage. Marriage was created by God and therefore sacred. If she believes in the sanctity of marriage as she claims, there is no way she could be having an affair. The only consolation is that at least she was feeling guilty, which means she still has a conscience. Guilt is her conscience telling her that what she is doing is wrong, right? In fact, she should confess the whole thing to her husband, and beg for his forgiveness.”

Taking a deep breath, and slowly breathing out audibly, Kitso put down the Sunday Times again, this time on the coffee table. He took off his reading glasses and gently put them on top of the paper. “You are being naïve my dear. Marriage is complicated.”

Focusing now on the paper her husband abandoned, Iris answered in a measured tone, “She is happy. The affair has put the spark back into her marriage. For the first time in years she feels appreciated, loved.”

She lifted her eyes to find her husband focusing at her intently. She had seen that look before. It frightened her. She had seen it one day when he told her that she was not a very good liar. This time she wanted to prove him wrong. So she looked him straight in the eyes, and held her breath. She saw the suspicious look left his face.

Relief flooded her. This was a sensitive issue. Not only did she want him relaxed, she wanted him sober as well, which was why she chose Sunday to talk about this. He was never home most weekends. Iris was not sure where he went. She used to ask him, and his answer was always that he was with his friends. Probing further had upset him, and Iris had stopped. One of her friends told her that he was having an affair. Iris knew what was good for her, and asking him if he was cheating on her will be like walking in a lion’s den.

She had rehearsed and timed how she was going to relate her dilemma to him. In the evenings during the week he was stressed from work. Trying to discuss serious things with him at that time was a futile exercise. He was irritable, impatient, and prone to outbursts. After ten years of marriage, she knew that Monday to Thursday was out. Fridays he was in a much better mood. He liked to come home and relax with his favourite drink, Castle Light. After he had consumed a few, he was relaxed and it was safe to brooch sensitive topics, like ask him for money to buy whatever was need in the house.

Money was a sensitive matter with him. It was a subject she would never dare to bring up on a Monday. She once did that, and had a scar that bore testimony to that. She could still remember it clearly. It was Monday morning and they had run out of meat. He always complained when she cooked without meat. To him a meal without meat was incomplete. So without thinking, she approached him just as he was about to leave. It was big mistake, made worse by the fact that he was running late. As he picked up his briefcase to rush out, she blurted it out, “Dear, there is no meat, I need money to get some.”

The volcano erupted. He swung his briefcase, Iris was too slow. It caught her above her right eyes. The pain was blinding. She never repeated the same mistake again. It was a catch 22, either way she was going to make him upset. It was either then or in the afternoon when she served him dinner without meat.

He was very apologetic that afternoon when he came home. He examined the after- effects of his outburst and he was sorry. Iris did not take his mood swings personal. She understood where they came from. He grew up in an abusive home. His father used to beat his mother, right in front of them. Then he left them and moved in with another woman. Her mother married again, only the step-father was worse than the biological father. Not only did he beat her mother, he beat him and his siblings. As the eldest, he bore the brunt of the abuse. Sometimes she wished he could get help for his anger, but he would never do that. He was too proud. It was now up to her to manage him, and she did her best to avoid pushing him. She avoided anything that made him angry. It was just that it was impossible to know each and everything that could set him off. It’s like negotiating a minefield. She was used to it though.

Kitso cleared his throat. “If she stopped, like you say, then why go back there. It might just break a marriage that is getting back on its feet.”

“Yes, you are right.”

“Of course I am right. You have a lot to learn about relationships. And who are you to judge? Your friend is happy, her husband is happy. What more do you want?” Kitso said automatically and picked up his paper to continue reading.

Iris studied him. This was the man she married, the man she used to look up to, because he was educated, and she was not. He had two university degrees. She had two kids that made it impossible for her to get further education. Three kids if you count Kitso, for to her, he was as good as a kid – never cleans after himself, never lifts a finger to help his wife.

Standing up from the sofa, Iris started running her hands over her apron to smooth it. “I better go back to my pots, then,” she said.

She opened the oven to check the roast. The hot aroma-filled air hit her face. After checking the meat, she turned around, a smile on her face.

Imagine! I was ready to blurt out to him that I was having an affair! I am so glad I sought his opinion. What the hell was I thinking? I am happy, he is happy, why open a can of worms?

END

Reader Review 25

Odi Molusi wrote:

Jus spoke to mae dad. I can’t believe this, he says he read “The setup” in one day. He says he jus couldn’t put it down. He says he slept around midnight. I was so exited to hear him say that as if he was presenting me with a gift. I loved it when he said he can’t recall the last time a book kept him so captivated. #UnPutDownable #TheSetUpNovel

“What is going to happen next?”

There are three phrases that I got used to hearing from people who read “The Set Up”. The first one is “I couldn’t put it down!” The second one is “Are you sure this is fiction?”, and the third one is “What is going to happen next?”

“I couldn’t put it down!”

It makes me very happy to hear that! It is a compliment I can never get tired of hearing. To me it means I achieved my goal: To entertain the readers.

 ”Are you sure this is fiction?”

Most people say are amazed at my imagination when I tell them it is fiction. Apparently the book reads like a true story. Others tell me that they don’t believe that it is fiction – that maybe it happened to me or somebody I know. I have given up trying to convince them, so I just laugh at that.

“What is going to happen next?”

Initially I was not going to write the sequel, but the pressure got to me and I caved in. I started writing the sequel and it has been quite a challenge. Unlike “The Set Up”, this time people have expectations. Most women have specifically told me “Jim must pay!” And you see, I want to please them, while at the same time I need to make sure the sequel is still unputdownable, and most importantly make sure the story is believable.

I did my best and I am happy with the final results. And if you loved “The Set Up”, then I have no doubt that you will love the still-untitled sequel.

The sequel – coming up in September/October.

Next time

Thank you note

Reader Review 24

Hope Tsholofelo Ursula Mogorosi II wrote:

While in hospital,I took time and read The Set Up,and for the 1st time in my life I finished a book*hides*. All I can say is WOW. That book ya go ngoka gore o e bale o e fetse. Ga o kake wa e baya fo fatshe ka nnete. Ous Sega,WOW. Ke emetse sequel. O setswerere mo kwalong #UnPutDownable #TheSetUpNovel

Reader Review 22

Lesego Mosenyi wrote Finished reading The Set up recently…Wow! Great work there. I didn’t expect such a gripping ending and now can’t wait to read how the story continues on to the next series…(The Setup Sequel, right?). The beauty of this is that it written by my homegirl, from our humble village of Dinokana. So, I had those proud moments when I dropped the line : “I know the author…we’re from the same village” and it drew the response : “really??”

“Really!”

#Proud of you gal! Well done!:) #TheSetUpNovel

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