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ABOUT JUDAH
Westville is a leafy suburb on the outskirts of
Durban where my daughter and I share a house on a huge property
(we fondly call it “the farm”) slap-bang in the middle of
suburbia. We also share it with “our zoo”—a German
Shepherd Doberman, one of her offspring from a gorgeous German
Shepherd Timber Wolf, and a Great Dane masquerading as a
miniature Maltese Poodle. We also have two cats, both of which
have personality issues. But that’s another long story.
I have a degree in Communications and English, with
some Education and Psychology thrown in for fun. The need to
earn a living has taken me from managing my husband’s plumbing
business through an animal science laboratory (who put me there
and what were they thinking?) and conferencing, and finally into
the property industry. But my nature is essentially creative,
and I have tried pretty much everything there is to try in the
“arts and crafts” genre.
Beading is a passion, especially on wedding gowns,
which I design and make in my “spare time”. I am also a
guitarist and vocalist, and I am experimenting with combining my
love for words with my love for music and writing some of my own
songs. As a widow (my husband passed away eleven years ago from
bone cancer) and with my daughter now “all grown up”, I am
finally able to focus on doing what I love best—writing!
It was a passion discovered years and years and years ago
growing up on the farm. Through the years it’s been my friend,
my therapy, my way of self-discovery, and sometimes the only
lifeline to sanity!
INTERVIEW
Q: How would you describe a typical day in your life?
A: There isn’t one. I avoid routine. Or it avoids me, I’m not
quite sure which. Except that I’m a very early riser. Anything
from 3a.m. onwards, which is an ingrained habit from the farm.
But that’s about the only thing that’s typically me. The only
real “rule” I have is to do what has to be done now, especially
if it’s stuff I don’t enjoy. That way I can free up my time to
do the stuff I want to do. Luckily my “day job” has flexible
hours, so I can set things up as I want them to be.
Q: With this kind of flexibility, how do you structure
things to fit in time to write? A: That’s
easy. Writing is my priority, so I find that most things are
worked out around this. Anything non-essential just has to wait
until I’m all written out. But I don’t necessarily write
everyday. I tend to do it in marathons, with a day or two in
between to regroup and charge the batteries.
Q: Do you structure the book before you begin?
A: Not really. I have a rough idea, and I start writing. I
prefer to let the characters tell their own story. And I also
never revise as I go along. Basically I just let the story spill
out until it’s done, then I go back and rework what needs
fixing. I prefer to capture the heart of it as it happens
instead of second guessing all the time. Q:
What is the driving force in your writing?
A: I love words. And I love people. I love the way the way they
react and feel in different situations. I love the way none of
us is ever exactly the same. And I love the complexity of life.
This is what I try to capture. Q: Do you
have a purpose in mind when you write? A:
To tell that particular story. To capture something of human
experience, good and bad, and make something positive out of it.
To touch on things that all of us feel, things that are
essentially human, and to share them in a way that we can
“touch”. Q: Why have you waited so long
before submitting your first book? A:
That’s a question I’ve asked myself often. Life happened, I
suppose. Other stuff. And maybe I needed to just get to that
space where I was ready. Q: Do you think
you put yourself into your books? A: As
creator I suppose it’s inevitable. I have a strong value system
and that’s bound to come through. But I do try not to make my
characters rigid, and to allow them their own space.
Q: What made you pick romance as a
genre? A: Because life without it is
pretty dull! To love and be loved is something we’re born to.
And I believe that love is the most powerful force in the world. |
