It started in Virgin Upper Class, was followed by a load of fabulous socializing with the ultra hip, was interrupted by a brief sojourn to Paris, and then continued with culture, more socializing, fabulous feasts, loads of only-in-London shopping and loads of literary chats with the most fabulous, divine, gorgeous and insightful literati… White Knights is now available at daunt books in Chelsea (fabulous wonderful amazing news!)… and then ended with an exhausted sigh back in Virgin Upper Class. Life is wonderful!

More about the fun coming soon, in the meantime, pics!

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All I can say is WOW! Cape Town’s literary fashionista, media, and most stylish and sassy ignored the bitter cold and winter thunder storm to sip cocktails, chatter excitedly and generally have a ball at the CT launch! It was stupendous, amazing, gorgeous and divine! And the party went on and on and on…I was over the moon, absolutely blown away and utterly honoured at the turnout, reponse and warmth of the CT crowd. It was the most gorgeous wonderful evening!

The fabulous photos were taken by the phenomenally talented Sally Rodrigues (click here to view divine slideshow). Sally’s portfolio speaks for itself but her passion is remarkable… oops, gushing! Grin. Happy to pass on sally’s details if anyone has occasion they need captured by such a gorgeous, charming, divine chick simply oozing talent…

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Click here to check out the vitaminwater facebook pics!

I know, I know… I keep promising feedback, scoop, news, words… and all you get are pictures (worth 1000 words?) . The scoop is coming, grin. Promise. I’ve just been dashing to hand over everything at work, get everything in order before my fabulous new life kicks off on Wednesday! What more could a chick ask for: a six-month writing sabatical, a beautiful new German Shepherd friend and a dishy husband who’s promised to cook (grin). Life is simply peachy. Counting the hours until I can pack my suits away, slip on some jeans, return to being Az and, of course, publish the scoop. grin.

View Northcliff & Melville Times article

View Rosebank Killarney Gazette article; view Fairy Godmother article;  view Fairy Godmother website

View the Fairy Godmother video interview on You Tube

And so, on the evening of April 7, Jozi was infused with a dash of New York. White Knights Jozi launch was a fabulous melange of literary hob nobbing, high fashion, pink drinks, tunes, gumboots, vitaminwater and delicious nibbly bits! Thought to tease and throw up some photos taken by the fabulous Katie W…and the scoop is still to come! Grin.

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In cities like New York and Jozi, the hippest coolest chicks are those who know the scoop first! They know where to brunch, cocktail, shop and how to accessorize! The chic chicks at The Hummingbird revealed this season’s must-have accessory for the fabulously heeled, intelligent chick …. grin!

PS: If you’re not yet subscribed, you absolutely should be!

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It has been a week filled with magic and excitement!

It started with the first sale from this website… to a gorgeous lady with the most romantic name (Mrs Hart!!!)… who I didn’t know … who lives in LONDON! Made me smile and grin and bounce around. White Knights was autographed, swathed in hot pink and red, and zapped across the equator for her London debut! And we know she’s in fabulous hands as Candice sent glorious pictures…

And the magic continued…

7 orders were placed from the USA (New York, Connecticut, Michigan and LA!) and one from Central America (Panama!). The South African sales keep climbing: 73 books sold in 5 weeks! Which excludes the 50 books given to our wedding guests! And no marketing… wow!

And… 3 Jozi book clubs have requested that I join them for a glass of wine and chatter about writing, publishing, shoes, shopping and White Knights! A complete privilege and I simply can’t wait! So if any other book club feels like they’d like to share a glass of wine with this writer and chat about everything from the writing to the publishing process, I’d be delighted! Grin.

And…I am doing a coffee morning for Exclusive Books in Hyde Park on 25 February! Wow! Exclusive was wonderful, fabulous and completely supportive… they also suggested that White Knights be submitted for Homebru, which is an annual promotion of selected local titles. So please hold thumbs that White Knights is selected… because April will then be the best month ever, filled with events and signings and loads of fun stuff!

And… in the quest to find White Knights an international publisher so that she can proudly parade besides the heavy weights on the global stage, there have been a flurry of suggestions, two introductions have been made and with fingers crossed and bated breath, we wait to see if any convert into something tangible. (PS: still looking for people who know people… so if you know anyone in the international publishing arena, please could you email me!!!!)

But more than anything, the support, chatter, good wishes and feedback from so many far-flung people has made this week completely magical. Friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of… etc, have been sending comments, feedback, congratulations and praise for White Knights. Three lovely ladies reported that they couldn’t lay their hand on White Knights because their men had hijacked the book first! (I adore modern men!) Two of them were ex-investment bankers, and their feedback was that it was spot on in terms of banking and was more than girl’s beach read! Which I thought was phenomenal feedback. And the chicks are saying they can’t put White Knights down, are dodging dog walking and dishes, and staying up late to read “just one more chapter”! Which has me grinning and utterly delighted that readers are enjoying Emma’s story so much.

And then…just to keep me real…life threw a pothole at me (seriously, out of nowhere!) and a hole the size of my fist in my tyre. Which meant that I spent Friday afternoon with Aziz the friendly AA guy, dropped a couple of thousand rand on 2 new tyres and missed a fabulous bash! Back to earth with a bump, grin.

Happy yoga car

sad blow-out car!

Did you miss the show? Click here to listen to the audio.

And so on Sunday, wonderful Andrew rushed me out of the house and got me to SABC Radio Park on time. In fact, before time. Which made me giggle as clearly he’s identified that when it’s something super important (like getting married), I might arrive a “little” late. He was having none of it… especially for White Knights national radio debut with Karabo Kgoleng on SAfm Literature!

We were zapped inside by the gorgeous Tsholo Pelo who was totally lovely and seeing my butterflies, invited Andrew to sit inside the studio! Totally divine and very special!

Karabo is wonderful, bouncy and uber intelligent… and she had me on twinkle toes with her intelligent, spunky questions! She loved the book (yah!), was totally professional and completely got the book. Her questions tackled some of the deeper themes in the book, from women in the workplace, to the contrasting of investment banking and the medical profession, to the various foils and contrasting characters. She also tackled the larger themes of the book, such as homelessness, being an outsider and eastern mysticism in the western world… which is wonderfu, because the book was read intelligently, appreciated and I completely loved the chat! wow!

And afterwards, while I was still laughing with excitement, we drove home on a gorgeous highveld summer day and cracked a bottle of Life from Stone sauvignon blanc and enjoyed it in our gorgeous home, the threshhold of which my dishy husband had carried me over the the day before! grin.

First official book signing went fabulously! The Book and I were absolutely fantastic, utterly professional and it is the most gorgeous book store! Just what St Francis needed… a wonderful literary oasis!

People came! They were curious, laughed, asked questions, drank wine (grin) and bought copies. Very exciting! There was even a queue for autographs because we were having so much fun chatting to everyone who was buying books!

And so now, 3 weeks after the wedding launch with little publicity, almost 50 books have been sold from book shops across the country. While this might sound ridiculously small, it is appropriate to give you context. In South Africa, less than 500,000 people buy more than three books in a year. As such, in South Africa a first print run for a novel is 1,000 copies. In the UK, this is 3,000 and in the US, 6,000. A best selling novel in South Africa is … wait for it… 700 copies!

So while I’m sure those in the industry could correct my stats (and please do!), this means that my first few sales make me almost 7% of the way to becoming a South African bestseller… and then shortly thereafter an international bestseller! Watch out world, grin.

And so we headed on our honeymoon road trip… magnificently planned by Andrew and absolutely fabulous! We hit the road with the top down, ribbons on the bonnet and provided much amusement to all the toll gate operators!

First stop was The Graskop Hotel, where we stayed in room 23 decorated by the contemporary South African artists Anthony Dalton.  Had FABULOUS Moçambique Portuguese of peri peri chicken and espetadas and the most insanely delicious bata frita at Canimambo Restaurant (you simply have to go if you’re in the area!)… and then headed to Standerton the following day. We arrived at the glorious Die Kliphuis and were promptly escorted to the honeymoon suite (grin). When I mentioned this was most appropriate as we were really on honeymoon, we experienced gasps and the delicious comment: “Why would you honeymoon in STANDERTON!”. Had us tickled!

Day three was a long travel day, and as with the wedding, we took the rain with us. Which is an omen of good luck! It even rained in the Karoo (which is a desert!) where it poured so hard we needed to pull off the roads because we couldn’t see where we were driving! All the farmers we met gave us their blessings too! After a long day filled with spectacular drives and thundering rain, we slept in Bethulie (which we love!) and sat between a sideboard supporting mismatched “stuff” (ostrich egg, tourist pictures of the big 5, candles painted with Guinea Fowl feathers… you get the picture) and a stack of plastic crates containing all the bread for the restaurant and were fed the most enormous meal: the steak covered at least half the plate, and the rest was piled high with salad, vegetables, pasta salad and chips. Karoo portions!

And then another day spent waving at kids waving at the honeymooners and we arrived in the most glorious piece of heaven: Somerset House. We immediately asked if we could stay another day!  And just to make it even more glorious and special, the fabulous and famous Janet Telian of Savoy Cabbage (etc etc) cooked us feasts every night! It was beyond divine! on our first evening, we sat together, just the two of us, husband and wife, and drank Vintage Champagne that Andrew had bought 8 years ago when he was traveling through Champagne, across a glorious expanse of Cape Dutch furniture and we knew that life was good!

And it only got better… because we met some lovely ladies who, like all of us, love LOVE! And they purchased the book and we autographed it! So Myrna (who ironically we discovered used to live next door to Andrew about 35 years ago!), Joan, Vega & Janet joined Anneke as ladies who not only have exceptional taste (grin) but who made this honeymooning author very very happy!

Divine Myrna!

Fabulous Joan!

Inspirational duo: Janet & Vega