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.