Life, Book and Strike News

I've realised that my pace here in Phokeng is much slower than when I was in Joburg fulltime. I don't want the change in environment to affect my earnings, so I will have to find a way to work smarter, so I can earn more even though I work less. Not sure how I will manage that though.

Meanwhile, yesterday I managed to:

• Edit 2 client press releases and get them out to client for approval ( client is very happy with it, so we'll be sending it out soon).
• Finished writing an announcement about The Doll That Grew for the local newspaper.  I hope that they will be interested and do something along the lines of 'Local author publishes children's story in 8 languages" or something. Then I realised that technically, I'm still a local in my suburb in Joburg.. So I sent the announcement to the weekly suburban newspaper and to the producers of a radio show about our neighbourhood. Holding thumbs that they find the story relevant.

Someone I don't know who works for a client company recommended me for a writing gig with a Cape Town-based web development company. I didn't liaise with him when I was working on the project, so it was nice to know that I made a good enough impression on the liaison person that her colleagues also knew about me.  Reminded me how important word of mouth is to a business. Anyhoo, we finished the negotiations and they are sending me a contract today.

This morning a friend of mine sent me a media list she created. I sent 10 anouncements on the 5th March launch of The Doll That Grew. We'll see if any of them bites.

Meanwhile, I'm very annoyed by what the striking miners are doing at Implants Platinum Mines. Around 10am this morning one of my  nieces, who attends primary school in Luka close to the mines, came back home from school. She said they had been released early because some of the striking miners stormed their school. Gun shots were fired. And her class teacher arrived this morning in tears because the mob stopped her while trying to get into the school. We're not sure what they said or did to her. One of the pupils was apparrently crying because they made her take off her clothes. And another, from the nearby Lebone Molotlegi I High School, was bleeding. He had come to take his sibling away from the primary school.

What makes me angry is that:
1. Schools and children have nothing to do with the relationship between the mining management and the miners. So why get them involved in their illegal strike issues?
2. What kind of people storm a school-full of children when their relationship with their employer fails?

I looked for the facts on the incident online, hoping some enterprising journo had already written something about it. But there was nothing on it yet. We're not sure how the situation will be resolved and when it will be safe for the kids to go back to school.  So we'll just have to wait it out. Sucks big time!