After 5 Years Of Blogging

Very relieved that April is done. I loved being able to get away from work,but there was a huge impact on productivity because sometimes I couldn't reach the people I needed to get things done. But now I plan to rev up some of my writing and business activities to make sure that I meet the goals that I set for 2011.

Last year I wondered if, after years of blogging ( launched Storypot in January 2006), I had a decent enough track record and accumulated enough meaningful posts to use them as a basis for a book. Maybe something called The Diary Of A Multimedia Writer?

Heaven knows the material is there. During this period, I worked as journalist for an online news publication, took issue-based campaigns and a TV series online and published a wide variety of materials online and in print.

I went through Storypot and selected posts that could be relevant and rearranged them by date starting from the beginning ( as opposed to a blog which has the last post first.)

I put together a 97-page document, but there were still more than a year's posts in the archives for me to review and add to the document.  BUT, I didn't feel ready: I wasn't sure my story was interesting enough for a publisher, or that people would want to hear what I have to say.  I was also afraid I had 97-pages worth of useless navel-gazing. Telling people about your day works well enough on a blog, but Anne Frank I'm not.
This year March has been a period of consolidation for me, and the thought of using information from the blog as the basis for an ebook for writers came back to me. This time, I feel more confident: not that traditional publishers will be interested (I still don't have a big track record with them), but that I have blogged about some useful stuff  and had enough conversations with other writers (here, on other forums and in person) that I can share what they taught me too.

It will take a long time, though, for the book/diary to become a reality though. Ideally, I'll find a traditional publisher, because I want someone else to validate its publication as a useful tool for writers. I also want to have as wide a distribution and reach as many aspiring writers in this country, as possible.

What do you think of the whole idea?

What Makes Jozi Great?

By Pamela Moeng

Leaving the little black steed aka my Hyundai Getz to my man to chauffeur me this morning and risking the adrenaline rush of will- the-number-83-hit-the-bus-stop-or-not in the afternoon, I get a fresh perspective on city life and have time to let my usually rushing thoughts meander - no, actually amble - through my mind.


For instance, why does the Harrison Street taxi rank reek of pee? Who says 'thank you' to the Outsurance youth who stand in for the robots that so often don't work? Why aren't more streets turned into pedestrian malls to keep traffic on the outskirts of the city as much as possible? Why don't bus drivers have change for a R50, now that fares border R20? Is Ghandi Square really the pickpocket paradise I was warned it can be since I've been lucky to avoid mugging so far? Who was the idiot who planned that all the roadworks should happen simultaneously and which lame brain manager approved the plan? I mean really! Ask any woman and she'll tell you not to plan to renovate the house and re-design the garden at the same time!

The upside of public transport is the community of fellow passengers. I've ridden buses that featured morning prayer meetings and gospel sing-alongs and no one was more caring in the last stages of my late-lamb pregnancy than the women who rode the bus with me. I've had older women give me advice on child rearing and ways to deal with a bad man and I've had strangers pour their hearts out and thank me for listening.

I think the thing that makes Jozi great is the shared humanity of so many people. The rotten apples don't manage to spoil the apple cobbler the rest of Jozi's inhabitants create!

Is it possible to make a decent living writing full time?

By Pamela Moeng

Is it possible to make a decent living writing full time? That's the big question in my mind these days. I wake up at night thinking about it and it's usually the last thought before I doze off and the first when the talking alarm clock rouses me in the morning.


At some point I want to kiss the day job good bye, along with all the trappings: the hours commuting to and from the office, the long meetings that decry productivity, the beauracracy that creates a whole lot of busy work that leads one to wonder if any visible result will surface once the dust of the daily treadmill settles.Is being the next Barbara Cartland or Wilbur Smith possible? I'd settle for being the next Alexander McCall Smith if wishes were horses and beggars could fly! I wonder if the day job is just an excuse not to write more or if I really would have the discipline to write most of the day every day to put a crust and a cuppa on the table.

How many of our readers are full-time writers? How did you start? Was it a deep breath and a sudden plunge as if it were the first dive of spring into the backyard pool? Was it a slow, meandering road from I'm-not-really-an-office-drone to a gradual jog and then a final burst of Olympic speed to what-I-am-is-a-writer? I'd really be keen to hear how others who shared the dream of being a full-time writer took baby steps or giant leaps toward that goal.

I've always clung to the day job. A security blanket to hide under when the post brings a rejection slip or writer's block hits and that feeling of I-just-know-I'll-never-be-able-to-fill-another-page paralyses my typing fingers. You know the old line about those who can do and those who can't teach? Well, in my head I think those who can write and those who can't edit. Or become publishing house readers with the power to reject other people's dreams.

So please do share the serendipitous-strokes-of-fortune or the long-years-of-slog or the just-took-a-blind-leap-of-faith-madness with someone teetering on the edge. What is your advice to those who might want to follow you into the abyss? Was it worth it? Were your expectations spot on the mark or way off base? Would you do it all over again or do you keep asking as some of us do of past paramours, "what in the name of heaven was I thinking"? Do tell and take my out of my misery.

Hmmmm. Not that I watch them - why live vicariously when you can live for real - but why not a reality show following a full-time writer around? Donald Trump, Randy Jackson and a host of others have become household names because of the fascination of so many with watching other people try to live their dreams. Nadine Gordimer, Don Mattera or Chris van Wyk spring to mind here in SA. Is anyone from DSTV reading this?! Maybe the writers here at Damaria Senne Media should volunteer for the world's first writer reality show - LOL!

Productivity and Public Holidays

Tired. Spent the morning writing a business profile for a client, emailed it, and then went to meet the client to discuss the draft. It's an urgent assignment, so everything has to be done NOW. Spending the afternoon doing edits and then emailing the final document today. The client is new, and by the sound of it, is going to develop a number of print and digital materials. I'm kinda hoping to do such good work for her that Damaria Senne Media will be allowed to get on that gravy train.

The rest of the Easter holiday is mine. I'm going to spend some time with my family. Baby is also coming up from Durban, so that should be nice

I'm also going to have to work a bit over the weekend - do some admin, type up some fiction that I drafted by hand, finish a client job that seemed small at the beginning( less than 200 words) but has so many queries it's taking more time than I ever budgeted for.  The latter is one of those assignments where a per hour rate would really have served me better.

What are you planning to do during the Easter weekend and the coming weeks riddled with public holidays? Are you going away to visit family, taking a well-earned rest before tackling the rest of 2011, or are you planning to use the quiet time to catch up with long-neglected tasks?

Life Issues Affect Writing Aspect

Life interfered with our second writers' meeting. One of the members is in the UK for 3 months (we knew of the trip, but we still missed her), another was on a business trip ( he phoned in and sounded miserable), a mother and son team had no electricity and were too busy getting gas, trying to keep the food in their freezer from going off to come to the meeting. And it rained  endlessly, so some members just wanted to cocoon at home. So we didn't have a formal meeting - though we did chat about life, writing, art and living a creative life.

Despite these challenges, I had a lovely time at the meeting. I drank waay too much tea... and our hostess Elaine, who's in heavily involved with our local Heritage committee, is going to have a weekly 15 minute segment on Radio Today and she wants to interview me. We're going to talk about me, my career, why I like living in my surburb and why the suburb is very popular with creative types.

Elaine is also an artist ( she has a beautiful range of postcards that she's developed and is now sorting out distribution) and for some reason she wants to paint me. So she took a couple of pictures which she will use for the painting.

How do you find writing time?

By Pamela Moeng

Trying to find time to write in the past 24 hours has been impossible. End of month, which for me is payday on the 15th, finds the cupboards bare, the accounts in need of payment and a house full of youngsters expecting mom to fork out for whatever they've been waiting for be it fast food, the latest thingymabob or just cold cash to line their Mr Price denims.

I asked Ms D to keep pushing me for my contribution and she obliged - lucky my Blackberry let's me email even if I'm lolling in bed trying to keep warm in what I think is a premature chill in the air. Do other writing moms have the same problem - stretching the hours that seem to have shrunk in the wash? For me, the day job also takes 12 hours every day, if you count drive time, not to mention the energy drain. I'd love to get tips from other writers with similar constraints. How do you find writing time?

So what about Friday?

The Friday meeting with the organisation I want to do a newsletter for went well and I'll hear from them soon about whether I'm their man .. ahem.. managing editor. Actually, the pub is more than a newsletter - it's a magazine, which will have 70% editorial and 30% advertising, with the advertising portion being done by an agency. Ja, it will mean that Damaria Senne Media is actually growing up, if I'm able to handle a project of that scope. Like I said, wish me luck!

The rest of the day was very busy. I updated client sites as usual, did a bit of research and writing, liaised with some people I'd subcontrated work to and looked for more publishing opportunities. I also:

• I submitted 6 articles that were gathering dust in my computer to portal that says they're looking for general interest articles. The pay really sucks, but even a low fee is better than having the articles gather dust.
• I edited and scheduled a short story that I wrote years ago on this blog. It's called "Cold blows the summer wind" and I hope that you do have the time to read it. I wrote the story, which was part of an online writing group exercise in 2000, I think. I hope I grew as a writer since then.

My short story synopsis was accepted for the anthology: Outcasts. Deadline is the 1st August, so I have time to write the story. Thank you Tiah for sending me the anthology brief.

How as your Friday? What did you accomplish? Or did you just sigh "TGIF"?

Cold blows the summer wind

A short story by Damaria Senne

P.S. This short story was my entry for a writing exercise for an online writing group. The story heading was "Cold blows the summer wind" and we could interpret that as we wanted. I wrote the story in 2000, I think. I hope I grew as a writer since then. Enjoy:-)
I first met Tony at Eastgate shopping mall. It was a warm spring afternoon, and I’d gone to see a movie. He sat next to me and by the time the movie finished, we were talking like old friends. He later admitted that he saw me enter the movie theatre and bought the ticket just so he could meet me.

For the next several weeks, he pursued me relentlessly. He called me daily, just to chat when I was too tired to even consider going out. He’d arrive at work unexpectedly to take me out to lunch. He sent flowers. He made it very clear that he found me sexy and exciting.

At first I was suspicious; what did he really want? Surely my dream man wouldn’t just walk into my life? Wasn’t he too good to be true?

“What’s to understand?” my friend Sara asked impatiently when I broached the subject with her. “If a handsome young man like that was chasing me, I’d catch him and drag him to my bedroom for some fun. I wouldn’t be sitting here with you, trying to understand him.’

I Won!

No, not the nine hundred and fifty million dollars that the scammers keep dangling in front of me! I won a copy of The Young Enterpreneur's Guide to Starting and Running a Business through BizAssist's R30 000/100 Books Giveaway.

Essentially, BizAssist is giving away a book every three days. I entered the competition on Facebook and somehow, I was the winner. Interestingly, I'm working on an article on how to start and run a small business for magazine, so this win has energised me a bit.

BTW, you can still enter the competition. The next round of book giveaways starts today.

The Business Of Being A Writer

I woke up to lots of good news on Wednesday. A membership organisation for which I hope to do a monthly magazine asked for a meeting for Friday. It was a quick response to an application I made the day before. Their offices are near my house, the job is interesting and within my skills set and it would be steady work, which would mean I could scale down a bit on the marketing and focus more on the actual writing. I really do hope I get the gig - wish me luck.

I also had a new client asking me to take on an urgent assignment, a regular client had also sent work overnight. I need to finish 3 short articles to submit by the 20th. And I still have my daily client website updates to do.

So I'm working until late tonight so I can get as much work done as possible, as I never even managed to touch a whole pile of admin (service provider forms for a client and publishing grant application) I need to do. Ja, I could do with some rest - and wish I didn't have to work late today - but I'm also grateful for the work.

I also got an email from an old friend asking me about a career as an author. Her 20-year old son doesn't want to do anything but be an author, and she wanted some advice because she's not confident that being an author is a reliable source of income. She supports her son's career choice 300% in theory, but authors also need a roof over their heads, need to eat, wear clothing, drive cars etc. and she wants to encourage him to get some backup training. Maybe get a diploma in graphic design or something ( he was tested and said to have an aptitude for that).

Her son sounds like me, back when I was young and wanted to be an author. I had an aptitude for science ( did a Bachelor of Science degree), but I didn't want to do anything but write stories.  With age, I learnt that I have to take on writing work that's not necessarily creative because it pays me better. I  also learnt that being a writer needs a business mindset. Sure, there's the creative aspect of it ( and I wish I was able to spend more time doing that), but like I have mentioned quite a lot here, there is also a big marketing and admnistrative element to it.

So I invited mother and son to the next meeting of my local writing group - so she can meet professional and aspirant writers and learn about how they are making their writing careers work. One of the members is in his early twenties, and I'm also hoping that they will hook up, support each other etc, because they're likely to have face similar issues in their writing careers.

Question: what advice would you give a young man/woman who wants to be a fulltime author and nothing else but an author?

Learning about networking

On Tuesday morning I attended a meeting at the local chapter of BNI , a global organization which offers members the opportunity to share ideas, contacts and most importantly, business referrals. I met really awesome people, lots of business referrals were shared and I need to think about whether I will join.

There are huge advantages for joining. The biggest being, the networking is very structured and people actually bring lots of business referrals to the table. Ja, I was impressed and the only reason I hesitate is that weekly meetings are mandatory and I don't know if I'm in a position to commit to that. Many thanks to Adri  and Gaynor for inviting me and Tamara for telling me about it waay back when we first met in person.

By Pamela Moeng

Ms Twenty-Something aka My Brown-Eyed Baby Girl is taking driving lessons. I didn't encourage her to be a teen driver, but my maternal fears of highway mayhem and her possible bodily harm can't hold her back any longer. My chicklet wants wings to cruise if not to fly.


For the first time our transport roles have switched. She drove while I did my best to breathe deeply and portray the image of a totally calm passenger. It wasn't that hard actually.

The nameless-faceless young driving instructor has earned every cent of that R180 per hour. Little Ms is practically a pro after six lessons and I'm almost ready to see her drive off into the sunset in my trusty little black Getz. Who'd have thought it'd be so painless?

Of course, Little Mr torments his big sister unmercifully about her driving technique, or lack thereof, as the biggest fan of Top Gear perceives it, but his day is coming sooner than I'd like. Someday soon the last of the lambs will be tooling off into the sunset on four wheels while I do wheelies on a zimmer frame!

For now, I'm glad Little Mr is still shouting "Shotgun!" whenever Mom is chauffeur to some kids-and-mom venue.

Being productive when you have a power outage

Woke up this morning to find out that power is out in portions of my suburb. Bath water was cold, laptop battery can only last so much. And all I could think was "Thank God I don't have a major copy deadline!"' But I do have web site updates that have to be done daily, so the power outage still affected my productivity.

Here is how I worked around the power problem:

• Attended a meeting - I already had a meeting scheduled with my accountant, so that's one solid task that made me feel productive.
• Went to see client at office - one client had a query on Friday and we were going round in circles with our email correspondence. Power outage gave me excuse to go in and attend to the issue in person. Query is now resolved, and most importantly, client knows she is important enough for me to show up to spend 10 minutes with her to resolve query. Occured to me later that this was a good PR exercise:-)
• Did some admin and filing - Good time to catch up with the never-ending paperwork, hey?
• Drafted an article by hand - My writer friend Anita Khanna was saying the other day that writing by hand alllows the creative side of the brain to take over. And she's right - the words just kept coming.
• Found alternative work space - spending the afternoon at a friend's house ( who also works from home) working in her dining room. That's where I'm updating this blog. Thank you, Gaynor!  

Blowing Judy Croome's Vuvuzela!

Congratulations to Judy Croome for being shortlisted for the AFRICAN WRITING PRIZE FOR FLASH FICTION 2011, for her story, The Place of Doves. It was a very pleasant surprise to check the site for the results and see your name mentioned there. It's great to see friends do well.

The overall winner was Jane Bauling, with her story, Settling.  Nice one, Jayne!

In-Kind Payment

A friend of mine cooked dinner Wednesday night and something in it didn't agree with me. So I spent the night heaving and took things easy on Thursday. Cancelled a major appointment that was to take place on Thursday, and am now trying to reschedule. Not good, but these days, I'm careful about my health, because ignoring a small complaint allows it to build into a bigger problem.

The good news is that I have finalised plans to go on holiday in May. Initially I was going to use a bunch of vouchers I have (the vouchers allow you to stay in a number of places all over SA and Mozambique and only pay for the food and drinks), but a friend of a friend emailed me last night, asking if I  would stay at their resort in exchange for writing some copy for them. Essentially, the assignment is a two-day job and I'll spend the time using their facilities and having fun, and then write about it. Once that's done, I stay on for my actual holiday. Two of my friends are very excited because they get to come along for the ride.

My question to you is, would you take on a job that offers payment in-kind, rather than cash? And if so, what are the conditions that the payment have to meet?

What Sparked Your Creativity This Week?

Jenny Nijenhuis, the illustrator for my children's book, sent me a copy of Meerkat Mail to show me the kind of children's book she likes. And I have to say, I find the book very inspiring.

Click on the link embedded in the title to buy the book

 It's not just the story, which is fun and funny and well-written. The illustrated book has a lot of points of interest -  the CD of the story, being read by John Sessions, the newspaper clippings,  the postcards attached on a number of pages of the book etc.

This is the kind of book from which children learn something new every time they read it. Now my mind is seething with ideas on how I can make my own children's book interesting.... Many thanks Jenny, for the book, and Angela, for the delivery.

In my drive to give my works a chance to be published or developed, I submitted a project proposal that had been languishing in my computer. This one went to The African Story Teller Development Project, who are are actively developing African and South African stories into Films and Television Shows.  Check out their call for submissions on the South African Writers Network.They accept fiction  and non-fiction.

Spent the rest of the day doing client work, setting up meetings for the next two weeks and doing admin work.

How's your week shaping up? What sparked your creativity this week?

Nature or Nurture

By Pamela Moeng

My pounding-at-the-door-of-puberty son's favourite DSTV channel is not Disney or Discovery but The Food Channel. He loves watching The Barefoot Contessa and knows many of the celebrity chefs by name. Maybe it was all that Food Channel watching he did at the breast. I didn't have time or energy to actually prepare gourmet meals as a new working mom, so I lived - or ate - vicariously while breast feeding my baby.


Nigella was my favourite - I envied her ability to indulge herself completely, with no thought of a-moment-on-the-lips-a-lifetime-on-the-hips Western obsession with looking like a malnourished child. She seemed to make love to her ingredients, taking a sensual delight in caressing and stroking them together into dishes that even through a TV screen oozed orgasmic delectableness.

Clearly the soon-to-be-teenager was storing all that decadent food-focused TV in his developing psyche. Is he a Jamie Oliver in the making? Who knows, but it would be great if he could pander to my multi-cultural desires for African traditional, Greek, Italian, Thai, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Portuguese, Mexican, Indian and old-fashioned American food.

All his Food Channel watching makes me wonder if babies aren't taking in and storing a lot more than we think they are. Are all those nonsense songs, stories and rhymes I made up even while he used my womb as his personal Virgin Active why he loves to read and why he is a secret hip-hop lyricist? Or is it merely in the genes as the offspring of a painter father and writer mother?

It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the nurture-nature debate.

Sharing Baby's Artwork

Pam's post about Nature or Nurture (above), prompted me to publish a couple of photos Baby took and then edited. The first one, on the left , is her friend C.

She then edited it, creating highlighting the atmosphere you can see coming through the picture. She then added the text. Now you all know who's going to do my ebook covers, yes?

The second picture, on the right, is the image of a family member holding hands in such a way as to create the heart. The light fixture on the ceiling creates the atmosphere, with a portion of the fan looking like a cross.

Anyhoo, to answer Pam’s question, in Baby’s case I think nature wins hands down. My family does tend to have an equal mix of creativity and art, but none of us have the level of interest / competence that she’s shown in photography. But I suppose a small element of nurturing contributed, because I raised her emphasising that she can accomplish whatever she sets out to and that she should explore her passions.

BTW, for those who are new to my blog, Baby is my 12-year old little girl. I raised/fostered her since she was a couple of months only, and had to give her back to her biological mother at end of 2009.

To run a race, you have to enter first



Enter the race!

 To run a race, you have to enter first. That's what Tiah said in this post. It reminded me that all the stories and poems that are in my computers and notebooks will never stand a chance of being published, unless I send them out to publishers.

So I spent some time editing and sending out material (both client work and my own creative material) to be published/used:

1. Finished the edits of a translation of a client booklet, sent the copies to language editors I know, and then forwarded to clients once they'd double checked my work.

2. Edited a poem I wrote some time back and submitted it to The Poetry Project.
3. Edited a 1600-word chapter of a story that didn't seem to be going anywhere. I wrote the story years ago, and somehow I got stuck after the first chapter. Or maybe this story stands alone as a short story? I don't know. Anyhoo, I sent the story as a contribution to our Writers' Group monthly round-robin. I was supposed to be the first contributor, so the next writer in the queue is going to write the second chapter, take the story in a new direction.
4. Published a story in an online forum for beta readers, so they can critique it. This story will probably be published under a pen name ( yes, I have occassionally used one) so I'm not putting the title of the story here.
5. Also sent out an enquiry to the National Library of South Africa to apply for the ISBN number for the children's book. BTW, registration is free.
I'm going to try to send out some creative material out at least once a week, so I increase my chances of getting published.

Thank you Tiah, for the reminder.

Weekend Update

Last Thursday and Friday I felt like I was getting a cold, so I spent most of the weekend in bed, getting a lot of rest and drinking lots of herbal tea to boost my immunity system. So now I'm feeling energetic and ready to tackle this week. Ginger rocks!

I did make the time to meet with Jenny Nijenhuis, the artist who's illustrating my children's book. We worked out some of the major issues regarding the illustration and design of the book and finalised the contract. Yay! So glad that part is almost done!

Talking to Jenny reminded me of how much work I still need to do to market the book. But I have time, and will do the tasks bit by bit until the book is launched. Exciting times, me thinks!

Hunting For Ghosts, A Short By Damaria Senne

Last year I mentioned that I have a nameless jumble of words that I just keep spewing and I have no idea what form they will take.  Well, the  words are slowly taking shape into a rough  draft of a YA novel. It will probably take me years before I finish it, what with the work I am already committed to. Meanwhile, here's an excerpt (the intro of the first chapter)s my web story Friday contribution.

Six months after our family moved into our new home in Kensington, I found a gun buried in our vegetable garden.
“Ben? BEN? Where did you find that?” Mom asked when she saw me holding the rusty weapon instead of digging the garden soil to prepare it for planting.
I pointed to the hole on the ground. Mom's eyes tracked my hand from the gun to the hole. The same question that was running through my head was probably running through hers too: “What was old Mrs Bernstein, the previous owner of our house, doing with her gun in the garden?”
She was 150 when she moved out of the house. OK. Maybe I exaggerate. Mom said she was 85 years old when she sold us the house to move to an old age home. But old is old and I had trouble imagining her holding this gun or shooting someone with yet. And if it wasn't her, who could it be? Mom was proud of the fact that the house was an antigue ( built in 1932) and still in its oriiginal state. Apparently, Mrs Bernstein and her husband were the only people who ever lived in it. So if she didn't bury the gun in the garden, who did? Her husband, who they said was sick and couldn't even get out of bed for years? And if she did shoot someone with the gun, where was the body?
Suddenly, the ceramic tiles covering most of our backyard no longer looked like an “easy-maintenance” solution for busy home owners that I heard the estate agent lady tell Mom it was.
“Mom, do you think there’s a body buried in this yard, maybe even in this garden?”

Share with us what you think of this story.