Bianca Marais's Blog
July 2, 2019
International Giveaway
I have an awesome international giveaway happening across my social media platforms for everyone who pre-orders 'If You Want to Make God Laugh'.
Please head to my Facebook or Instagram pages to see the prizes (valued at over $200).
Just mail me proof of pre-order to [email protected] to get your ticket into the draw. Purchase from an independent bookstore gets you an extra ticket!
Competition ends at 11:59pm on the 15th of July and the winner will be notified on the 16th.
Please head to my Facebook or Instagram pages to see the prizes (valued at over $200).
Just mail me proof of pre-order to [email protected] to get your ticket into the draw. Purchase from an independent bookstore gets you an extra ticket!
Competition ends at 11:59pm on the 15th of July and the winner will be notified on the 16th.
September 25, 2017
Apartheid Poetry
I've been so encouraged to hear back from readers of HUM who've said that although they never knew much about apartheid, the book made them want to learn more. Some readers expressed a wish that I'd written more about the history of apartheid, and although I had binders and binders full of research that I'd really wanted to include in the novel, it unfortunatley would've bogged Beauty's and Robin's stories down with too much backstory. That's always the flipside to doing abundant research: what to include and what to leave out.
I decided that instead of providing all the history, I'd show how the characters' daily lives were affected by apartheid so that readers could see the inhumanity and cruelty for themselves rather than reading the dry details of the the laws, etc.
Having said that, I'd like to share information about apartheid for those who are interested. After all, what's happening in the world today makes what happened in South Africa more than forty years ago feel less like a history lesson than a cautionary tale.
In 1992, two years before the official end of apartheid when Nelson Mandela became president, my high school allowed a handful of black students admission to the school. At the same time, our English curriculum was changed to include a few poems by black South African poets. Interacting with those students changed my entire worldview, as did reading this poem by Sipho Sepamla, a Sowetan poet who visited our school to talk to us about it.
It's called 'To Whom it May Concern':
Bearer
Bare of everthing but particulars
is a Bantu
The language of a people in Southern Africa
He seeks to proceed from here to there
Please pass him on
Subject to these particulars
He lives
Subject to the provisions of the Urban Natives Act of 1925
Amended often
To update it to his sophistication
Subject to the provisions of said Act
He may roam freely within a prescribed area
Free only from the anxiety of conscription
In terms of the Abolition of Passes Act
A latter day amendment
In keeping with the moon-age naming
Bearer's designation is Reference number 417181
And (he) acquires a niche in the said area
As a temporary sojourner
To which he must betake himself
At all times
When his services are dispensed with for the day
As a permanent measure of law and order
Please note
The remains of R/N 417181
Will be laid to rest in peace
On a plot
Set aside for Methodist Xhosas
A measure also adopted
At the express request of the Bantu
In anticipation of any faction fight
Before the Day of Judgement
If you'd like to learn more about Sipho or read more of his work, here's further information:
I decided that instead of providing all the history, I'd show how the characters' daily lives were affected by apartheid so that readers could see the inhumanity and cruelty for themselves rather than reading the dry details of the the laws, etc.
Having said that, I'd like to share information about apartheid for those who are interested. After all, what's happening in the world today makes what happened in South Africa more than forty years ago feel less like a history lesson than a cautionary tale.
In 1992, two years before the official end of apartheid when Nelson Mandela became president, my high school allowed a handful of black students admission to the school. At the same time, our English curriculum was changed to include a few poems by black South African poets. Interacting with those students changed my entire worldview, as did reading this poem by Sipho Sepamla, a Sowetan poet who visited our school to talk to us about it.
It's called 'To Whom it May Concern':
Bearer
Bare of everthing but particulars
is a Bantu
The language of a people in Southern Africa
He seeks to proceed from here to there
Please pass him on
Subject to these particulars
He lives
Subject to the provisions of the Urban Natives Act of 1925
Amended often
To update it to his sophistication
Subject to the provisions of said Act
He may roam freely within a prescribed area
Free only from the anxiety of conscription
In terms of the Abolition of Passes Act
A latter day amendment
In keeping with the moon-age naming
Bearer's designation is Reference number 417181
And (he) acquires a niche in the said area
As a temporary sojourner
To which he must betake himself
At all times
When his services are dispensed with for the day
As a permanent measure of law and order
Please note
The remains of R/N 417181
Will be laid to rest in peace
On a plot
Set aside for Methodist Xhosas
A measure also adopted
At the express request of the Bantu
In anticipation of any faction fight
Before the Day of Judgement
If you'd like to learn more about Sipho or read more of his work, here's further information:
August 16, 2017
We need to talk
I've agreed to do a few Skype sessions with book clubs over the past few weeks, and have a few more coming up. There's one, where I'll be dialing into a club's meeting in Kenya as some of its members call in from the US and France, that I'm particularly looking forward to!
I've enjoyed them so much that I'd like to actively offer to do this rather than just wait to be asked. I think the reason for my enjoyment has been the amazing level of engagement. Writing is a fairly lonely undertaking, and except for readings at bookstores or events, authors don't often get to interact with their readers.
During these sessions, I've been asked about my inspiration for writing HUM, the history of apartheid in South Africa, the current political climate there, further clarification about South African culture, food and customs, advice on travelling there as well as my experience of volunteering in some of Soweto's poorest communities for an HIV/AIDS nonprofit that I worked with.
I love that readers are so open to other cultures and that they want to learn more. I love being told that they did research after reading HUM and that the book inspired them to read other South African books.
Even more than that, I think it's time that we really get to the nitty-gritty of talking about racism and examining privilege where it exists.
This morning in Toronto, a woman mistook me for a Brit and asked me if I didn't think it was terrible that Prince Harry was bringing that awful brown woman into the royal family. I was flabbergasted at this casual racism, uttered in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. She didn't bargain for my very heated response!
It made me realize how much we need to talk about these things and examine these deep rooted prejudices now more than ever! Let's engage and see where it takes us.
If you'd like to set a book club session up, please mail me at [email protected]. As part of the experience, I'll send you the official book club kit as well as signed bookplates for every member of your group. I'm also happy to send you links to further information, or suggestions for other reads, based on our discussions.
I look forward to chatting with you and hearing your views.
I've enjoyed them so much that I'd like to actively offer to do this rather than just wait to be asked. I think the reason for my enjoyment has been the amazing level of engagement. Writing is a fairly lonely undertaking, and except for readings at bookstores or events, authors don't often get to interact with their readers.
During these sessions, I've been asked about my inspiration for writing HUM, the history of apartheid in South Africa, the current political climate there, further clarification about South African culture, food and customs, advice on travelling there as well as my experience of volunteering in some of Soweto's poorest communities for an HIV/AIDS nonprofit that I worked with.
I love that readers are so open to other cultures and that they want to learn more. I love being told that they did research after reading HUM and that the book inspired them to read other South African books.
Even more than that, I think it's time that we really get to the nitty-gritty of talking about racism and examining privilege where it exists.
This morning in Toronto, a woman mistook me for a Brit and asked me if I didn't think it was terrible that Prince Harry was bringing that awful brown woman into the royal family. I was flabbergasted at this casual racism, uttered in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. She didn't bargain for my very heated response!
It made me realize how much we need to talk about these things and examine these deep rooted prejudices now more than ever! Let's engage and see where it takes us.
If you'd like to set a book club session up, please mail me at [email protected]. As part of the experience, I'll send you the official book club kit as well as signed bookplates for every member of your group. I'm also happy to send you links to further information, or suggestions for other reads, based on our discussions.
I look forward to chatting with you and hearing your views.
July 10, 2017
One more sleep!
Today is exactly one sleep until Hum If you Don't Know the Words is officially launched! It feels surreal that the time has finally come considering that I started working on the manuscript in 2013 and that Putnam then made an offer on it in the October of 2015.
Now seems like a really good time to take stock and look back at the journey, because I'm feeling so incredibly grateful that the long path to publication led me here. Writing is a solitary pursuit, but it takes a village to bring a book into the world after the writer is done with it.
I spent a year on the first draft of HUM and was lucky enough to land an amazing agent a few weeks after that. The fabulous Cassandra Rodgers of The Rights Factory picked my book up out of the slush pile and was kind enough to offer me representation even though the book needed A LOT of work.
With her guidance, and input from another amazing Rights Factory agent, Olga Filina, I reworked the manuscript and we sent it out for submission. Even though the feedback was very encouraging, most editors felt I'd been overly ambitious with the novel that originally spanned four decades, and so I started from scratch and rewrote the book to span only a year and a half.
After more than a hundred rejections, HUM found its home with the phenomenal Kerri Kolen of Putnam and I couldn't have asked for a better editor or publisher. The entire team has been so amazing and enthusiastic, and I am so grateful to every single one of them for making my lifelong dream a reality.
Getting a book published takes a lot of work and commitment, but it also takes a lot of luck. If Cass hadn't picked up the book when she did, if she'd missed her appointment with Kerri (which she almost did) or if Kerri hadn't remembered the book she'd been pitched months before and found the time to read it... I wouldn't be here today and HUM would be a dusty manuscript abandoned in a drawer somewhere. For the writers out there who are feeling as despondent as I was at so many points in the process: don't give up; if you believe in your book and in what you are trying to achieve, keep at it and keep working at making it better because you never know when your lucky break will come.
I was kept going by my wonderful husband, friends and writing group team mates who wouldn't let me quit, and who kept telling me it would happen for me. I don't know what I would have done without them so here's more advice for writers: surround yourself with talented and caring people who get what you're trying to do and really, truly want you to succeed.
Books wouldn't get out into the world without booksellers and book lovers and I have been so lucky to have the most amazing ones champion HUM. Thank you to all of them for reading the early copies of HUM and for responding with such kindness and enthusiasm. I have been overwhelmed by the positive feedback and thank my lucky stars (and the fabulous Putnam team) every day that HUM found its way into the right readers' hands because that's all I ever wanted: to have my book land in the hand of a reader who would connect with it and the characters. Based on that criteria, HUM has already succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
To each and every one of you who have played a role in this journey, I sincerely thank you.
Now seems like a really good time to take stock and look back at the journey, because I'm feeling so incredibly grateful that the long path to publication led me here. Writing is a solitary pursuit, but it takes a village to bring a book into the world after the writer is done with it.
I spent a year on the first draft of HUM and was lucky enough to land an amazing agent a few weeks after that. The fabulous Cassandra Rodgers of The Rights Factory picked my book up out of the slush pile and was kind enough to offer me representation even though the book needed A LOT of work.
With her guidance, and input from another amazing Rights Factory agent, Olga Filina, I reworked the manuscript and we sent it out for submission. Even though the feedback was very encouraging, most editors felt I'd been overly ambitious with the novel that originally spanned four decades, and so I started from scratch and rewrote the book to span only a year and a half.
After more than a hundred rejections, HUM found its home with the phenomenal Kerri Kolen of Putnam and I couldn't have asked for a better editor or publisher. The entire team has been so amazing and enthusiastic, and I am so grateful to every single one of them for making my lifelong dream a reality.
Getting a book published takes a lot of work and commitment, but it also takes a lot of luck. If Cass hadn't picked up the book when she did, if she'd missed her appointment with Kerri (which she almost did) or if Kerri hadn't remembered the book she'd been pitched months before and found the time to read it... I wouldn't be here today and HUM would be a dusty manuscript abandoned in a drawer somewhere. For the writers out there who are feeling as despondent as I was at so many points in the process: don't give up; if you believe in your book and in what you are trying to achieve, keep at it and keep working at making it better because you never know when your lucky break will come.
I was kept going by my wonderful husband, friends and writing group team mates who wouldn't let me quit, and who kept telling me it would happen for me. I don't know what I would have done without them so here's more advice for writers: surround yourself with talented and caring people who get what you're trying to do and really, truly want you to succeed.
Books wouldn't get out into the world without booksellers and book lovers and I have been so lucky to have the most amazing ones champion HUM. Thank you to all of them for reading the early copies of HUM and for responding with such kindness and enthusiasm. I have been overwhelmed by the positive feedback and thank my lucky stars (and the fabulous Putnam team) every day that HUM found its way into the right readers' hands because that's all I ever wanted: to have my book land in the hand of a reader who would connect with it and the characters. Based on that criteria, HUM has already succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
To each and every one of you who have played a role in this journey, I sincerely thank you.
