Elephant tales...

 

Here I am, posing with a sculpture of a rather cheerful elephant! 
While elephants don't feature in The Case Against Fili Du Bois, the Franschhoek valley - where the book is set - was once alive with these giants up until the 17th century. The last elephant apparently left for wilder parts in 1850.


Before the arrival of French Huguenot settlers, who gave Franschhoek its name and developed its reputation for fine wine production, the area was in fact known as Olifantshoek (Elephant's Corner). The trails followed by those elephants have become the routes we drive or walk today through the valley, and over the mountains. Perhaps my fictional heroine, Fili, trod some of those paths near her parents' wine estate... 

Elephants can remember - for decades! I was reminded of this recently, while on a trip to a game reserve in South Africa to see them. Did you know that an elephant's brain weighs about 11 pounds? By contrast, our human brains weigh in at about 3 pounds. According to scientists, the part of the brain that stores memory, known as the cerebral cortex, is particularly large and well-developed in elephants. Matriarchs gather experiences throughout their lives, and these are stored as memories to help guide their herd to the water and food sources they need. Elephants can also acknowledge animals they have seen before - maybe many years ago; they can even recognise themselves in a mirror, a trait few animals possess. And, most poignantly, they display grief when confronted by a death in their herd.
They are more like us than we realise...

Be a Reading Role Model!

Do you know that a survey has found that just 1 in 3 young people (aged 8-18) said they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2025? This is a decrease of a third in the period since 2005. And according to The New York Times, the share of Americans who read for pleasure between 2003 and 2023, decreased by 40%. It seems that reading is on a downward spiral. How sad is that - and what can be done?

There is hope. Children, even when they confess to low reading levels, recognise that reading helps them learn new words or understand new subjects. And they like to read song lyrics, comics or short pieces. When books emulate or expand on a favourite movie or series, youngsters are also more likely to read.  

So... what can each of us do?
We can become Reading Role Models for our children, grandchildren and our community by encouraging reading as a daily habit - and setting our own example. Perhaps compile a personal reading list, and target to read a book a month. Or, if you are often on the go, get your reading kick via audiobooks. Start or join a Book Club and, most importantly, encourage young people to do the same - not just for reading pleasure but also for the social interaction. 
In today's world, perhaps we can come together through the written word?
An ancient Greek philosopher, Epictetus, had this to say about reading:
Books are the training weights of the mind.

Birds - of a feather...!

I love birds, and they have featured in all my novels. From the gulls riding the south-easters above Simon's Town, to the various tweeters and raptors that swoop through the Karoo or the Winelands, birds have both inspired - and troubled - the characters at the centre of my plots.

In The Housemaid's Daughter, Ada draws on ancestral fears about the potential of noisy hadedas (ibises) to deliver bad tidings. As they honk their way above the Great Fish River, will they carry the news of her mixed race child to Cradock House? Will her betrayal become known to the family she loves?

In The Girl from Simon's Bay, Louise admires the ribbon-tailed sugarbirds that perch on pincushion proteas on the mountainside. She's less keen on flycatchers, known as 'butcher birds'. They like to spear their insect prey on barbed wire before eating them! Curing them, her mother used to tease, waiting till they were just a little crispy!

By contrast, cryptically-coloured nightjars are far more restrained. They often settle on quiet roads at night, emitting a low, distinctive call over and over, and only stop if disturbed. When Fili, in The Case Against Fili Du Bois, hears a broken-off call one night, she fears intruders on her father's land. She prefers the familiarity of jackal buzzards circling by day, and pied kingfishers that hover and dive into the farm dam within the blink of an eye.    

Frances, the heroine of The Fire Portrait, looks at birds through an artist's eye. The stark Karoo landscape offers unexpected treasures like quiver trees, with their lofty cactus-like leaves and brilliant yellow flowers after the rains come - and the distinctive, feathered visitors that follow:  
I blend blues and greens to create the malachite sunbirds that gorge on the quiver blooms - but the glitter of their wings defies my brush, which is as it should be. 
Real life holds miracles that no likeness can capture...    

Vines in winter, hope in spring

 

Winter vines are, I think, perhaps even more dramatic than their summer versions! Only in winter can you appreciate what lies beneath the greenery: gnarled, twisting trunks and branches, perhaps sparsely garnished with a few crimson leaves. It is the period of hibernation, of gathering strength before the warming temperatures and increasing light of spring cause the plants to burst once more into green abundance. For Fili, heroine of The Case Against Fili Du Bois, winter was special, too, but also unsettling as it raised issues and emotions she would have preferred to avoid. 

Our vines turned dark-red against the resting earth. Gum trees swayed in the gales. The swallows flew north. For me, the thrashing trees brought a chilly anxiety, a sense of foreboding. Dead leaves eddied about my feet as if trying to warn me of something I couldn't yet know...  

And Fili was right. Despite embracing her new family and community, and securing her future - or so she thought - a tragedy takes place on the wine farm and Fili is accused of a crime. Will she be able to prove her innocence?
The police investigate. The medical evidence is sifted, and her family and friends wait for clarity. The season changes, the vines turn lush with new tendrils and the first trusses of grapes. Yet beneath the greenery, the truth twists and turns like the gnarled trunks of winter.

For how long will I live in this limbo of being neither guilty - nor innocent? 
Years pass. Memories fade. Life goes on. And yet...  
Every five years or so, an investigative reporter in search of a scoop sifts through the evidence - and the conjecture - and produces a new theory.
I give no interviews and admit no public or private suspicions, or the truth...

 

Finding a vantage point...

 

With each of my books, it has helped to be able to "look down" on the setting for the story! Not just for me, but also for my fictional characters...

With my second novel, The Girl from Simon's Bay, I could look down from where I am standing in this photo, and take in the naval base of Simon's Town and its beautifully-preserved town set against the crystal bay. This allowed me to get a sense of the scale of the sea and the mountains that would form the backdrop to the novel - and go on to influence its plot and shape the lives of its characters. 

In The Housemaid's Daughter, I explored the heights of the rocky koppies of the Karoo to get a view of the endless, arid, plains, and to watch eagles circling lazily against a white-hot sky. The harshness of the environment became a metaphor for the life of the young heroine, Ada, while its hardy wildlife gave her the courage to hold on for a better world. While the Karoo's vast spaces influenced my writing, they also directly influenced Frances in The Fire Portrait. She climbed the mountain above the fictional community of Aloe Glen to find views that she could reflect in the watercolour landscapes she painted.

And what about The Case Against Fili Du Bois? Well, here I was spoilt for choice. The setting is the Franschhoek Valley, surrounded by towering mountains that change from green in summer to snow-capped in winter. From their heights I could spot individual wine farms, and see their iconic Cape Dutch homesteads nestling between rolling vineyards, the fictional Du Bois Vineyards surely among them. The lush valley at my feet became Fili's world, and her hoped-for future. 

If you check out the photo again, you will see that I have cheated a little:
I am not holding The Girl From Simon's Bay but The Case Against Fili Du Bois.
I think Fili might enjoy the stunning view! 
    

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?