The Gig Life: Fractured Lives Book Launch 08/05/2013

Attending a book launch at Love Books is always a treat. The store is beautiful and the owner, Kate Rogan, and her staff are some cool human beings. If you love books you really should stop by and say hello; and if you end up buying a book (or ten) and a cup of coffee that's good too. My lovely companion, Judy, says attending book launches and comic book stores with me is bad for her wallet. What she doesn't know is that I'm looking out for the well-being of her bookshelf. I really am. I digress though.

Wednesday, 08 May 2013 saw the launch of Toni Strasberg's memoir, Fractured Lives, published by Modjaji Books. The book documents Toni Strasberg's life as filmmaker covering wars in southern African countries in the '80s and '90s. The book offers a female perspective on the senseless nature of war, which is often seen as 'the province of men'. Toni focuses especially on the effects of war on women and children. From what I saw of her on the night of the launch Toni is a very formidable woman. Her demeanour is that of someone who will not take nonsense and is not to be trifled with. I imagine that these are some of the character traits that allowed her to be a woman in charge of a film crew covering some of humanity's most inhumane actions at the time. Fractured Lives is a documentary of Toni as a woman and as a human being who has witnessed war in its many terrible forms and even in its exhilarating forms. The book provides social commentary on war in general and our fascination with it. Toni admits to not being a writer in the traditional sense of the notion as she is primarily a filmmaker and sees the world more visually than in terms of words. Fractured Lives is her written account of all she has seen and lived through.

Toni Strasberg was born in South Africa and went into exile in Britain in 1965, following the Rivonia Trial. She studied in Britain where she eventually became a filmmaker. Toni's responsible for award-winning films like Chain of Tears, Chain of Hope and A South African Love Story. In addition to making films and dabbling in writing Toni has served as an International Peace Monitor and Election Observer for the United Nations. She was also involved in NGO work for UNESCO and other similar bodies. At the launch she pointed out that she's old now and that, of course, she's done some things in her life.

Toni was in conversation with Hamilton Wende, a journalist and writer who has also seen and experienced many of the brutalities of war on the African continent and has added his voice to the literature that documents these conflicts. As formidable as Toni is she is also quite humorous. She regaled the crowd with funny stories about the slow and arduous process of shooting a film and meeting flamboyant political figures. As a white woman documenting war in Africa she did find herself in many humorous and even unsettling situations. Toni and Hamilton also spoke at length about child soldiers in many African wars and how, as the title of the books suggests, war fractures people's lives. As a result of war many families are scattered across the globe and it's difficult for them to stay in touch. War takes lives and ruins those it leaves behind. Humans are also very resilient in that they find small things to hold on to in times of conflict, things like a music teacher charming Toni and her crew into filming a boy he taught to play the piano. War is also exciting and addictive Toni points out. She has made a career out of documenting war because all those stories need be told but also because it got her adrenalin pumping.

War is hell as is always said but as humans we are ever drawn to it. 

Pick up a copy of Toni Strasberg's Fractured Lives and Hamilton Wende's Only the Dead on sale at Love Books.

As per usual, thanks to Joostenberg for providing the wine to fuel an amazing literary evening.

The Gig Life: The Shining Girls Book Launch 17/04/2013

It's always wonderful attending an event at Love Books. The store is beautiful and any book lover instantly feels at home there. The owner, Kate Rogan, and her staff are friendly and just downright delightful people.

This time around Love Books was launching Lauren Beukes' new novel, The Shining Girls. The novel's about a time-traveling serial killer compelled to murder a number of girls throughout different periods of time. These are the shining girls who are each gifted in a some manner. One girl survives the killer's attack and hunts him throughout time. The hunter becomes the hunted.

You had me at Lauren Beukes and time-traveling serial killer. The concept sounds like something Dean Koontz would write and I'm looking forward to reading the book.

This also proved one of the rare occasions that I could don my fanboy hat. I'm a huge fan of all things literature but my heart and soul belong to the green valleys of fantasy and bright lights of sci-fi. I am a fan of Lauren Beukes' work and I especially love that she writes stories in different but interlinked media. She's responsible for novels like Zoo City (for which she won the Arthur C. Clarke Award) that are weird and yet accessible to people who aren't necessarily fans of sci-fi, she writes for TV in wonderful shows like URBO: The Adventures of Pax Africa (I love this show) and gets to play around with Rapunzel in Bill Willingham's Fables comic world in the Fairest spinoff arc.

This is very cool for me in terms of the ability to write stories in different genres. I'm intrigued by the idea of telling stories across platforms. When I asked Lauren (I think I can address her on a first name basis now) to comment on the process of writing in all those different spaces she replied that it all boils down to storytelling. You're a writer trying to tell a story and picking up the mechanics of each medium comes second to that. I am always in awe of comic book writers as that storytelling format seems alien and mathematically complex to write for and Lauren did say that on many occasions she has to cut many lines of text she really wanted to include because you are limited by how much text you can include in a comic book.

Lauren was interviewed by the owner of Books Live, Ben Williams, about the new book and I like that she addressed how confusing genre is in literature and how people coin new phrases for genres to place stories in. The Shining Girls is sci-fi, it's a thriller and many other things beside. Lauren playfully called Zoo City muti noir when it came out. It's difficult to assign genre tags to literature because most writers are well read and everything around them inspires the stories they write and they dabble in all of literature. I read a comic book like Grant Morrison's Final Crisis and I see Milton's Paradise Lost right in there with Darkseid's war in heaven and subsequent, but victorious, fall.

I got to speak with (and fist bump) Lauren for a short while and despite her hectic schedule (it's crazy, you guys) meeting so many fans, signing books and taking pictures she is interested in what you have to say and is a delightful conversationalist. I don't like meeting people I idolise for the most part because they are rarely what I expect but it was a great meeting Lauren Beukes, she is awesome. She is a shining girl.

Thank you to Love Books for a great evening. Whenever you're in Melville stop by say hello, buy a book and some Joostenberg wine.

The Gig Life: A Quiet Kind of Courage Book Launch 14/03/2013

Preamble:

Let's run through the checklist:

Nervous? Check

All-Stars and tie? Check

Curiosity? Check

Excitement to meet the author of such a beautifully titled book? Check

Off we go to meet my beautiful compadre, Varsha then.

Amble (whatever that means):

Varsha and I attended the launch of Anthony Schneider's first literary novel, A Quiet Kind of Courage. The event was held at the very charming Love Books in Melville on Thursday evening, 14 March. I commend Kate Rogan and the team at Love Books for putting together such a warm and intimate affair and for the delicious finger food and wine. A bigger crowd than expected turned out but that only made it all the better.

I got to meet some very interesting people who work in the literary field like the wonderful staff who work at Penguin Books SA and a fellow literature junkie and blogger, Amy Moonsamy. She is doing some cool things over at My Solo Book Club. Pop in and say hello. I even met an astronomer! Such a pleasure to run into you, Sarah Buchner. I also bumped into Nhlanhla Khumalo who runs a great initiative that addresses hunger and poverty in general, The Sparkle Foundation. Show them some love. Then there's Anthony Schneider, of course. The reason we were all gathered there.

Anthony Schneider is a gracious fellow -- he's laid back and has a witty humorous streak. He was born in South Africa but was educated in the U.S. Although A Quiet Kind of Courage is his first literary novel he has been published in two fiction anthologies, magazines and literary publications such as Bold Type, The Globe and Mail in Toronto, Details, McSweeneys and Conjunctions. When he's not writing Anthony is an email and online marketing guru.

Anthony discussed how his novel came to life an how inefficient the writing process of a first novel was. He even imparted some made-up writing tips for us aspiring writers.

It was a very enjoyable evening of meeting people and sharing stories.

Read Varsha's write up of the evening for Books Live.

Thank you to all the wonderful people who made this possible.