Radio Interview |
|
BOOK ONE: STORM AND SKYE - THE LOST ISLAND OF MAGICON
"Off
The Shelf" Show, LOTUS FM 23rd
September 2005 J:
Before we even get to the book, an engineer by
profession who’s now writing children’s books. How did that happen? A:
Well, actually, I’ve always been writing. I mean, ever since I can
remember really. I’ve just fitted it in between school and studying,
university and then work, and of course, now in between my married
family life. So, once I got to a point where I thought I could
contribute (to society) in a different way, I decided that 10 years of
an engineering profession really did it for me - I wanted to try
something new and different and follow my passion really. J:
Well, Nalini, I feel very strongly about the statement that I am about
to make and I feel that you really can’t trust some of our current
schools to deliver the message of the importance of reading. The reality
in some of our schools (have) large classes, discipline and
administrative problems, endless red tape; so I think that we need to
get more books out there for our youngsters so that they can have
something really good and solid to sink their teeth in when they get
home. Do you agree? A:
I couldn’t agree more with you, K. If we’re not careful, we could be
facing a reading pandemic, if you can call it that. I’ve actually been
to several schools where I’ve done presentations on writing and the
writing process and I’m trying to get children to get back into the
system of reading and appreciating it the way we did, that many years
ago. What I have noticed, is exactly the way you’ve put it, I mean
it’s a problem where children are actually diverting away from
reading, away from basic things we used to do – from creative
imaginative things to things like play-station and movies. I’ve often
had people ask me, ‘so when is the movie coming out?’ as opposed to
‘where can I get the book?’ type of thing. I find it sad and so that
drives me further to get out there and get to the schools and get people
back in the system, in terms of reading and so on. J:
I had the absolute pleasure of reading this book, in fact it just took
me two nights, I recently completed it. So, Nalini, I read it, I loved
it, I loved the names, I loved the adventures, I loved the descriptive
words. I loved that you have this ability of taking someone on this
fantastical journey – now, aside from JK Rowling, the last time that I
was actually transported into this land of mystery, was when Enid Blyton
books were out – how fantastic! Where did you get the entire idea or
the inspiration for STORM & SKYE? A:
Most of my inspiration comes from authors such as like Roald Dahl,
Tolkien, Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and so on, and
when I read JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books, that for me was the light
bulb moment, then, I knew that it was a genre that I wanted to get into.
My ideas were really just waiting to be recorded - put into print. J:
You know, when I started reading it, I actually felt very sad because it
starts off in the orphanage and then I thought, what is going on? The
circumstances were low in which these children were living and then as
the pages were being turned, it was just getting better and better for
them. Is this something that you made a concerted effort to do?
A: Yes, I purposely tried to get the reader pulled in from chapter one, so my way of doing that was actually to call on their emotional side and a lot of people actually admitted that after chapter one, you were already into the story; which is definitely a technique. Caller
1: Hi, I wanted to find out how long did it take you to write the book
and how easy was it to get published?
A:
Depending on the writer and the writer's technique, there are literally
thousands of ways to write a book. Using my model, I could complete a
book in about 6 months or less, however, my first book actually took 4
Decembers because it was in between my engineering career so that was a
long time in coming. It actually depends on whether you’re a dedicated
writer or whether you’re fitting it in between another career.
Caller
2: Hi, its ***'s mom.
She’s very excited – she’s reading the book. She would like to say
something to the author. -Hello. I have read 75 pages of the book so far and I think that your book is amazing.
A:
Thank you, its exactly the kind of thing that drives me on to write
more. Thank you so much.
J:
Thank you to your mum for calling us, I actually feel very warm inside
when parents get involved in the reading process of their children, so
to ***'s mom, thank you very much. We’ve taken a few calls, certainly
positive responses there, Nalini, but I have to ask
do you think that there are enough children’s writings out
there? I personally used to rely on the pennings of Enid Blyton and the
Hardy Boys series and things like that and I wonder if perhaps children
growing up now have lost out on those gems that were published not so
long ago.
A:
These days, the onus actually lies on the parents to ensure that the
kids do go through the classics and go through the Roald Dahls and the
Enid Blytons and the CS Lewiss, however, I feel that there is a huge
shortage of SA writers that write for children and that’s why I’m so
passionate about my objectives in trying to get into this fantasy
adventure genre because I feel it’s the kind of things where we’ve
got a lot of SA talent ... locally we could actually harness our
own talent and have equally fantastic books on par with international
standards of writing Caller
3: One of the previous readers talked about local writers.
My question is what can we do really to encourage people to read
more of our local writers ? A:
I think as far as my actions are concerned - what I am doing, and I’m
trying to make a concerted effort at it, is to try and go to schools and
make us as SA writers familiar with readers and make us a part of our
children’s lives. Actually go to schools and say here we are in the
flesh and blood - we do write, this is what we have to offer you
and please believe in us. What I’ve been doing so far, is trying
to get credibility so that it would be easier for (other SA writers) who
want to (write) this genre. J:
Well Nalini, here’s my next question to you. XXX is only 10 years.
I’ve been flipping through the book. Even the humour, do you think
that the young children would understand it?
A:
I think the book's been written such that it offers different levels of
literary analysis. I’ve did that purposely so that you could have
a reader as young as (10 years read and enjoy it) and you could
have them enjoy it on a different level, as well as get someone in their
thirties or forties reading it. The way in which I’ve written allows
for that flexibility in terms of the readers that I’ve tried to
attract.
J:
And also, when I think of the so many fantastical names, then suddenly
'Googley'! Because I work with the internet a lot, I suddenly think
Google the search engine and then, (there's) Thembi. That’s a name
that we (all) know in South Africa. But also you use words like liberal
minded and then that’s when I suddenly enjoyed the book and then when
I closed it I thought to myself, do you think that younger readers would
actually take the time to find out what it means or would it detract
from their understanding of the book.
A:
Well actually, that’s a very good point that you’ve brought up there
because before I did start writing I’d done intensive research into my
young adult readership as well as into children's literature and what I
found was that the common mistake which authors make is that they
sometimes tend to write down when they write for children,
so that’s something that we actually shouldn’t be doing. In my
books, I’ve thrown in certain concepts (which could be understood in
context or discussed with an adult) but it does not deter from the
story, it doesn’t affect the story line in any way. You have to have
(such words) to build up their learning curve in terms of their
vocabulary and their understanding in terms of certain concepts.
|