Riding a wave...

What makes a bestseller?
And how do you catch the wave of the latest trend in reading? When my first novel, The Housemaid's Daughter, was published in 2012, I was swept up in a wave that crested with the movie of 'The Help', based on the well-known novel set in the USA. My publishers in the UK and USA saw my book as a South-African version of that work... a connection that did indeed resonate with readers around the world, and pushed my book towards bestseller status, with many translations following the original English publication. And options out for the film rights...   

Timing, therefore, is key! You need a good story, of course, but if you happen to present your manuscript to a publisher who is looking for work in a particular genre - crime, romance, fantasy - and yours fits that description, then you may be lucky. The genres that have held sway while I have been writing have ranged from science fiction to thrillers to mystery to "cosy" crime, to "romantasy"... 

Where does The Case Against Fili Du Bois fit? It is characterised as historical fiction and also embodies the elements of a family saga - but with a twist! And that twist comes from the unique era in which the story unfolds: the rise of a young democracy in South Africa, after the system of brutal racial discrimination is swept away. Riding that wave is my young heroine, Fili, who must navigate the promise - and challenges - of this new world in which she finds herself. Can Fili be a peace-maker or will she have to take sides? In today's unsettled world, many people face similar challenges.
You decide... and let's make Fili a bestseller!

  

Mind Mapping Fili Du Bois

Have you heard of Mind Mapping? It is a technique used in business to visualise ideas and concepts - and then organise them in a structured way to help solve problems, set goals and manage a business better. A Mind Map will show at a glance where your business is - and where it could go. I've adopted this technique for each of my 4 novels!

From the early days of Ada in The Housemaid's Daughter to the challenges faced by Fili in The Case Against Fili Du Bois, I set myself the task of creating a Mind Map before I began to write the novel. This let me get my head around the plot, see where the story was going, how I could pull the threads together - or tease them apart. 

I like to start with the central character and build the Map around her, with arms radiating outwards to cover the action and/or the characters. As you become more experienced, it is possible to gather parts of the Map into potential chapters. Or you may prefer to create a Map that starts with chapters at its heart, with the radiating arms then covering the content of each. 

Some aspects of the novel may stray from the original Mind Map e.g. characters may be less involved, a new plot twist may emerge once you begin writing... but if you hit an impasse, never fear! The Mind Map may save the day by setting you back on track. In The Fire Portrait, I wondered how to manage the relationship between dynamic Frances and modest Julian as events in their community escalated. The plot I sketched out on the Map demanded I find a way and it came about, surprisingly, through quiet Julian. 
"You have the courage to say and do what I can't, Frances..." 
He borrowed that courage, and began to stand up, literally, for what he believed... 
But will there be a cost?
A cost further down the line?  

Fili's publication birthday...

It is now a year since The Case Against Fili Du Bois was published! But how did it come about? What was the spark? There is no guarantee that an idea will be viable, so taking it from spark to publication is rather like going on a journey whose route is uncertain and whose timeframe may be open-ended!  

In the case of Fili, her possible story came to me some 6 years ago, while I was on a beach in South Africa. Nearby was a family with three young children, one of whom was clearly not a biological sibling. Nevertheless, this little one addressed the adults as 'Mum' and 'Dad', and I realised she must be adopted. It got me thinking about adoption, inheritance, and legacy... and how they might intertwine in a novel. I imagined a young girl, abandoned as a baby, adopted by a couple who were unable to have children of their own.

But Fili's potential parents were no ordinary pair, for they were the owners of a prominent wine farm in the Franschhoek Valley, and their child would become heir to their French-heritage estate. As I developed the story further, I began to incorporate twists and turns in the narrative. What if Fili's adoptive parents unexpectedly had a child of their own? What would be the impact on her future? And, given that the era was post-apartheid South Africa, how would the changing political climate affect the wine estate, its owners, and its traditional workforce? Especially in the light of a potential crime...

Years - and much research - later, Fili's story became my fourth published novel. If you have enjoyed it, please help spread the word by adding a quick review or ranking onto amazon so others may get to enjoy it, too. https://amzn.eu/d/bengEvf  or https://a.co/d/1o43VrO

I found that I learnt as much about life in the process of writing this book, as Fili did... 
Turn vines, soil and water into wine...
And into life.  

Cover Stories...

What makes a good cover? What will catch a potential reader's eye? What will intrigue - or even disturb? It's a fine balance...
For The Housemaid's Daughter, my publisher's artists produced a stunning image of a white woman leading a black child through the arid Karoo region of South Africa. Just visible, is a backdrop I was keen to include: the subtle 'watermark' of a musical score - music being the vital connection between the Irish matriarch, Cath, and Ada, the child she leads by the hand. My editor devised the captivating subtitle: 
An epic journey, An uncertain love, 
An enduring friendship.

And it seemed we had found a theme that would animate all of my subsequent novels: a young woman, pictured from the rear. In The Girl from Simon's Bay, she stands alone above Simon's Town, the naval base at the heart of the story, wondering where life will take her, and what she can do to influence its passage. 
Sometimes David surprises me... in the passing slide of blue eyes, or the line of a warship slicing across the bay... 

I returned to a Karoo setting for The Fire Portrait, which depicts Frances, the heroine, facing a sunset whose colours she uses in her work - and which also evoke the fire that will upend her world and yet lead her on a journey she might never have imagined. Art was her refuge - and it becomes her triumph.
My paintings reflect more than their surface images. They show the passage of drought, fire, flood and war...  

In my latest novel, The Case Against Fili Du Bois, Fili is shown running through the vines against a mountainous backdrop in the French-heritage winelands of the Cape. Running away from danger, running towards it? Can she find her place in this beautiful valley, despite the suspicions of those around her? The subtitle hints at the challenge:
A stray child, an unsolved crime, a precious legacy... 

A French Moment...

In the town of Franschhoek, in the Cape Winelands, stands a memorial to a group of determined individuals who fled religious persecution in France and settled here in the late 1600s. I first saw the Huguenot Monument years ago but returned during research for my novel, The Case Against Fili Du Bois. 

The Monument was inaugurated in 1948, and is a poignant reminder of times past: the figure of the young Huguenot women at its centre holds a bible in her right hand and a broken chain in her left, symbolising the religious freedom that the settlers craved; she appears to be casting off a cloak of oppression and gazing upwards from her elevated position into a world filled with optimism. Behind her soar three arches, to represent the Holy Trinity, while a spire rises further with a cross at its crest and, just below, a golden sun. Beneath the globe she stands upon, representing the earth, is a water pool reflecting the monument, and its meaning. What an eloquent tribute to people who journeyed from one hemisphere to another to seek new lives!

In my novel the fictional wine farm, Du Bois Vineyards, traces its ancestry back to those early Huguenot settlers. Fili, the heroine, learns about her adopted French background from her grandmother, who had spent time in France as a child. 
"It's our heritage," Grand-mère would look at me with appraising eyes, "and part of our future, too..."

Learning amongst the Grapes

In all my novels, research has played a crucial part. If you want to be able to reflect a particular period in history, or if you want your characters to display a certain skill, you need - as the author - to understand and ideally master that historical period or physical skill yourself! 

And so, in researching my latest novel, The Case Against Fili Du Bois, set in the lovely Franschhoek Valley, I needed to explore how wine is actually made. Having lived in Cape Town and visited the winelands of the Western Cape, I did have a basic knowledge of vine cultivars and the notes to be looking for in tastings... but it wasn't enough.

I wanted to gain a more in-depth understanding of how wine is actually made - from grape to glass. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I was lucky enough to be taken under the wing of a wine estate owner and his wine-maker who explained the whole process, and invited me into their cellar to see the wine being aged in barrels. From fermentation to filtration, from maturation to bottling... it all became clearer. I could then write about the fictional Du Bois Vineyards and its wine production with confidence.

And now, when I raise a glass to my young heroine, Fili, who collaborates on her first vintage at the tender age of 13, I also drink to the complex and beautiful process that I've come to understand more closely... a process that takes grapes from the vineyard and turns them into the wine in our glass!
Cheers!   

Happy New Year!

What are your New Year resolutions for 2025? Or do you prefer to take the year as it comes? I tend to find that any resolution made in the heat of a New Year's event quickly dissipates in the cold light of day come 1st January! 

I often find it easier - and more effective - to have a general desire to do something fresh/differently, rather than setting a specific task. So, in a writerly context, rather than giving myself a stern talking-to about focussing on worthy books, I often go with the flow of what is being recommended by well-read friends, or what I spot someone consuming avidly on the train...

However, before starting to write my novels, I did indeed set myself a challenging reading list. I wanted to sample books written by a variety of authors, in different styles, and set across a range of centuries and geographic locations. It taught me a great deal, and helped me to hone my style of writing. 

Reading for pleasure or distraction, though, is a different occupation  - yet often just as rewarding as that worthy tome I've been meaning to start for ages...
And a book can be a much-needed companion. The great C.S Lewis said:
We read to know we are not alone. 

Happy New Year, and Happy Reading!