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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

So the wedding has happened and the surprise has been unveiled…grin grin grin. But that probably means nothing to you, so some behind the scenes info.

In the lead up to our wedding, all Andrew knew was that I was planning a  surprise. What he didn’t know, was that in those many many hours on my yoga mat (more about the yoga another time!) I was trying to come up with an appropriate way of saying thank you to our wonderful fabulous amazing friends and family for… well… EVERYTHING!

Because it wasn’t just about the fact that they flew from all around the world, gave up sacred vacation days, drove North for five hours braving wandering cattle and potholes to share a weekend at The Coach House with us! It was about everything that came before as well. The support, care, love, laughter, shoulders, reprimands, wine, tequila, dancing, crying, commiserating, reading, writing, giggling… it was for a lifetime of just being there! And then there was my darling Andrew, who has stepped so wonderfully into my life and offered all the above for the remainder of my lifetime!

Clearly needed loads of yoga to think through a thank you that was massive enough! It also needed to be personal, something that was incredibly important to me, that mattered more than anything else.

And so, I decided to dedicate my first novel to Andrew and to give each guests a copy at the wedding.

Andrew’s face was priceless, stunned, thrilled, delighted… and our guests were stunned! As the choir entered the room, White Knights balanced on their heads and singing joyously, the room exploded with laughter, clapping and whistles! Andrew was on his feet, beside me in two seconds and hugging me! Guests were reaching for novels, chatting, laughing, getting goose bumps! It was so gorgeously wonderful… and worth every surreptitious second of plotting and planning.

And so here we are… White Knights has been launched, autographed, we sold our first copy to Anneke Joubert from Tzaneen who heard about the book while having lunch at the Coach House on the day after the wedding… and we heard 2 days before the wedding that Exclusive Books will be stocking it!And now Andrew and I are on day 2 of our honeymoon… sitting on the verandah of Die Kliphuis, a 100-year old house in Standerton. Our next stop is Bethulie… and your next update is when we reach the sea!

ps: for more wedding photos click here