(This post first appeared on the Romance Writer’s Organisation of South Africa blog) 2020 has been the year of the parties that weren’t. Weddings canceled. Theatre shows. Dream trips. Family reunions. But there’s one show that is going on, and it will, as usual, bring all the feels: the love, the excitement, the joy, the camaraderie, all the good stuff…
Category: writing
Book Review – Death Other Happy Endings.
Way back in the olden days – Also known as Early March 2020 – when we still had Bookclub – I took out Death & Other Happy Endings by Melanie Cantor. It took me a while to knuckle down and read it because I didn’t feel like a death book, especially in the midst of a pandemic. I eventually decided,…
How to create better stories in three simple steps
Taking a well-known story and ‘reverse engineering’ it helps you to understand key elements of a solid plot.
Tickets available for WOMEN IN A FRACTURED WORLD: Melissa A. Volker and Dawn Garisch in conversation with John Maytham
27 February 2020, 18:00-20:30
Karavan Press authors Melissa A. Volker and Dawn Garisch will talk to John Maytham of CapeTalk about the divisions and connections between humans, animals and the environment in the Rosebank home of writer, editor and publisher Karina Magdalena Szczurek.
Dawn’s latest novel is the evocative meditation Breaking Milk, and Melissa’s are eco-romance thrillers Shadow Flicker and A Fractured Land. As a writer, medical doctor and founder of the Life Righting Collective, in her writing, Dawn explores the fascinating relationship between art and science. As a writer, blogger, environmentalist and SUP surfer, Melissa includes environmental themes in her stories to increase awareness about such topics as fracking and renewable energy in a palatable way that will not make readers feel disheartened. Both write about independent women and their relationships with the land in their home country, South Africa.
To…
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2019 – launches, festivals and fun
My last blog post was in JULY!!! What is wrong with me? Did I get writer’s block? Did I become a recluse? Did I surf too much? NOOOO, none of the above. (I don’t believe in writer’s block, I love ALL the friends and it’s impossible to surf too much.) Instead, I was carried away on the crazy wonderful roller…
Shadow Flicker launched at Xpression on the Beach
“On Saturday mornings, Kate and her dad used to wake up early and surf for hours at Muizenberg.”
Kate, the protagonist of Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker, grows up in Muizenberg and becomes a surfing champion before a tragedy puts a stop to her career. Years later, she returns to the sea to face her trauma and to find love and healing.
Last night, Shadow Flicker‘s author visited Muizenberg, the place where she usually catches waves as a SUP champion, to launch her novel at her local surf shop, Xpression on the Beach.
The launch was hosted by surf legend Gary Van Rooyen. Melissa was in conversation with surfer, writer and historian Glen Thompson. Many friends from the surfing and literary worlds joined us for the special occasion, a kind of homecoming for the author and her novel’s protagonist.
A scene in Shadow Flicker is set in the St…
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Barbara Erasmus reviews Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker in the Sunday Times
Local eco-romance novel will blow you away There are no blurred lines between the good and bad guys who all get their just desserts – cynical readers must bear in mind that Volker’s genre is romance rather than noir By Barbara Erasmus Many South Africans will identify with the heroine of Melissa Volker’s debut novel Shadow Flicker – she experiences…
Love and Launches
Wow. What a week I had last week. It’s taken me a while to pause and reflect on it. First I had the pleasure of making a trip down to the Cape Talk Studio for an interview with John Maytham. To say I was nervous is the understatement of the year. My mouth was dry like the Sahara desert and…
Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker launched at the Book Lounge
It was quite a while ago that Melissa A. Volker and I sat at Jonkerhuis, discussing over cake and coffee a version of the manuscript that would eventually become her novel Shadow Flicker. During that conversation, I mentioned my dream of becoming a publisher. I also told her that I’d loved her novel; that it needed some work, but that I was convinced it would…
An Equal Share
This article first appeared in the print edition of Zigzag 2 years ago. So much has happened in women’s surfing since I wrote this, equal pay from the WSL for example, Emma Smith on the cover of the Zag, the women’s championship tour invited to JBay and a women’s event scheduled at Mavericks. In some places it is still a…
Melissa A Volker 