When do you write and where?

Late at night when my girls are asleep or at nap time in the afternoon.  I work on a desktop computer in our study, which overlooks the beautiful grounds of my eldest daughter’s public elementary school.

Where do your ideas come from?

From newspapers, television news, internet news, from conversations overheard, from the interesting people I’ve had the privilege of meeting in my years of nomadic existence and now in my permanent abode in a city that is more cosmopolitan and creative than outsiders realize.

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

Not really, but looking at keepsakes from my childhood the signs were there that I was going to be a writer.  I have saved a newspaper clipping of my first piece of fiction, published in a Johannesburg daily newspaper when I was five years old (I think the draw for the editor was the amusing spelling), books classmates and I wrote and illustrated, (we were influenced by British literature and so these stories are often about mysteries on trains), a poem about the seashore that I was chosen to read at the weekly school assembly.  After university I intended to go into advertising, but then, on a whim, I answered an ad for a journalist and was offered the job.

Do you miss being a journalist?

Yes, but not the twice daily deadlines and I enjoy having the time to polish my words.

Why four novels about South Africa when you no longer live there?

Because I just can’t help it!  A good part of my internet news reading is spent on developments in South Africa.  There’s one thing South Africa can never be accused of, and that is being boring.  Nobody ever refers to it as that country on the southern tip of Africa where nothing ever happens.  South Africa is a perfect character: she is beautiful and complex, suffers immense tragedy but finds joy where others would not, and although she is flawed, we like her and really want her to succeed.

Do you still have self-doubts about your writing? 

All the time!

What’s the best writing advice you’ve heard?

Show, don’t tell.

What’s the worst piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?

Don’t think about your readers when writing, write for yourself.  Writing fiction is not writing a diary; authors need readers.  

Are you a seat of the pants writer or a plotter?

It depends on what I’m writing.  With the first book of my South African series, The Road to Home, I did not plot the story out until the end, but with the other three books of the series I did.   

Who are a few of your favorite authors?

My all time favorite book is Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia- Marquez.  I read it every year.  I am a big fan of melancholy, and Marquez is the king of melancholy.  I also really admire the “quiet” short stories of Jhumpa Lahiri.  I like to read stories set in different parts of the world and am always intrigued by the collision of cultures.

Which author do you especially admire and why?

Alexander McCall Smith.  He reportedly writes 1,000 words an hour!  And at a signing of his that I attended in Houston he admitted that he never rewrites and that in the case of the Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series he is hardly edited at all.  The man is an intellectual, yet his stories are accessible and charming.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you like to be?

A documentary film maker.

What are you working on now?

A series of children’s books featuring Coco, a pampered dachshund who has adventures in different countries all over the world.  I’m also trying to write a screenplay based on my first novel, The Road to Home.  I also have a book of short stories on the boil.  What I should probably do is concentrate on one thing, but as a mother, multi-tasking is what I do.

Any advice for aspiring writers?

Write!  Every day.  Aim for 1,000 words, even if you don’t feel inspired.  Think of writing as sculpting; you chisel away and chisel away, 1,000 words here, 1,500 words there, and before you know if you have a novel-length manuscript.

Why is AIDS always mentioned in your books?

It is impossible to write about South Africa without mentioning the scourge of the country: AIDS.  If the plight of AIDS orphans in Africa touches your heart, there are many non-profit groups that would be grateful for any help you might be able to offer.  Many have web sites that publicize their wish lists.  I support Cotlands, a South African non-governmental agency that runs AIDS orphanages as well as a pediatric AIDS hospice.  Please check out their web site at www.cotlands.org.