Martie Preller

Busy

2011-07-02T03:52:00.000-07:00

Very busy with new projects. If you have overseas literary connections, please contact me.

Underground: My wrist aches ...

2011-05-15T12:42:00.001-07:00

Underground: I touch ...

2011-05-05T15:10:00.000-07:00

Umderground: The marrow of the soul

2011-05-05T03:19:00.000-07:00

Underground: In the jungle of my head

2011-05-04T01:28:00.000-07:00

Underground: If you believe in maps

2011-05-03T01:40:00.000-07:00

Underground: I understand nothing

2011-05-03T01:30:00.001-07:00

Where do all the stories come from?

2011-04-09T21:01:00.000-07:00

From the Story Dimension!

And where is the Story Dimension?

Everywhere!

Margaret Atwood: Negotiating with the Dead, Virago Press 2003, Part of the Empson Lectures, Introduction pp xxi,xxii:

"All writers must go from now to once upon a time; all must go from here to there; all must descend to where the stories are kept; all must take care not to be captured and held immobile by the past. And all must commit acts of larceny, or else of reclamation, depending how you look at it. The dead may guard the treasure, but it's useless treasure unless it can be brought back into the land of the living and allowed to enter time once more -which means to enter the realm of the audience, the realm of the readers, the realm of change.

We could go on to make explicit what has been implicit. We could talk about inspiration, or about trances and dream visions, or about charms and invocations - all of them linked with poetic traditions of long standing; then we could go one step further, and talk - as many have - about the shamanistic role of the writer. This may of course be a metaphor, but, if so, it does seem to be one that has held a central significance for writers over a very long period of time.

Such subjects can get murky or pretentious with astonishing rapidity, but I'll try to lend some respectability to the proceedings by leaving you with the words of a real scholar. This is from the Italian social historian Carlo Ginzburg's book, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath:

Indubitable ... is the deep resemblance that binds the myths that later merged in the witches' Sabbath. All of them work a common theme: going into the beyond, returning from the beyond. This elementary narrative nucleus has accompanied humanity for thousands of years. The countless variations introduced by utterly different societies, based on hunting, on pasture and on agriculture, have not modified its basic structure. Why this permanence? The answer is possibly very simple. To narrate means to speak here and now with an authority that derives from having been (literally or metaphorically) there and then.

In participation in the world of the living and of the dead, in the sphere of the visible and of the invisible, we have already recognized a distinctive trait of the human species. What we have tried to analyze here is not one narrative among many, but the matrix of all possible narratives.

As the best authorities have it, easy to go there, but hard to come back; and then you must write it all down on a stone. Finally, if you are lucky and if the right reader comes along, the stone will speak. It alone will remain in the world to tell the story.

I will give the last word to the poet Ovid, who has the Sibyl of Cumae speak, not only for herself, but also - we suspect - for him, and for the hopes and fates of all writers:

But still, the fates will leave me my voice,

and by my voice I shall be known."

When a dream catches you ...

2011-04-09T20:52:00.001-07:00

Will Ferdinand return to the town of unfulfilled dreams?

2011-04-09T20:48:00.000-07:00

Evil has an ordinary face ...

2011-04-09T20:45:00.001-07:00

People are idiots ...

2011-04-09T20:43:00.000-07:00

Alexander doesn't need anybody. A school trip into the mountains turns into a nightmare ...

Read more here.

Everybody has secrets ...

2011-04-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

Read more about: My Strange Friend, Moesoek

How to get lost in the Story Dimension ...

2011-04-09T20:06:00.001-07:00

go for a walk ...

Read more on Higgedly-Piggedly

You choose and you bear the consequences!

2011-04-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

A series of three books which are great fun and will work perfectly as electronic books. You are the main character in the story and you have to make choices by choosing and turning to different pages.

The settings are:
Ancient Egypt
The world of the dinosaurs
and
Ancient Greece

Extract from: You and Tutancat
We have to go and warn the Pharaoh!” you say.

“Not a good idea,” Tutancat says.

“Why not?” you want to know.

“Because I say so,” he answers.

You have really had enough of this arrogant, know-all cat who pretends to know everything. “I am going to warn the Pharaoh,” you say firmly.

“Not a good idea,” Tutancat says and wiggles his whiskers.

Do you really want to go and warn the Pharaoh?

If you decide to warn the Pharaoh, turn to page 12.
If you decide to listen to Tutancat, turn to page 24.

Extract from: You and the Dinosaur

You are desperate. The tyrannosaurus is just below the boulder. The boulder needs just a little push and it will roll down the mountain and squash him.

You try your best to push the boulder, but it won’t budge.

“Come on, PUSH! Help me!” you scream at the cavemen, but they seemed to have turned into statues.

You are very angry and say all the nasty words you can think of: “You &^%$ idiotic cavemen,” you say, but they just ignore you.

You are feeling very frustrated and helpless. And very scared! What are you going to do now?

If you know how leverage works, turn to page 5.
If you don’t know how leverage works, turn to page 16

Extract from: You and Hercules

You watch in disgust as Hercules barbecues a whole sheep on a spit and starts devouring the whole sheep until nothing is left except a heap of bones. He ate everything – not just the neck or the leg – everything!

You wonder whether you should say something to him about it or should you keep quiet and mind your own business.

If you say something to Hercules about his disgusting enormous appetite, turn to page 43.

If you decide to mind your own business, turn to page 34.

More about the stories::
You and Tutancat
You and Hercules
You and the Dinosaur

It was great fun to write, but you have to keep your wits about you to make sure that all the stories work out! I loved doing the research that was necessary to write the books.

Rabbit has to do what rabbit has to do

2011-04-09T18:34:00.001-07:00

Extract from the book:
“Ouch!” Ruthie shouted. The pain shot through her whole body. It really hurt being picked up by your ears. She tried to free herself, but couldn’t. She was helpless. “Let go of me, you big ape!” she shouted, but Peter didn’t respond. He dangled her by the ears and studied her from all angles.

Then he put her under his jersey and gripped her with his one hand and set off on his bike again. It felt horrible. It was pitchdark under his jersey. She tried kicking herself loose with her hind legs, but she could not. His grip was too tight.

“Hi Gerald,” she heard him shout. “Look what I found! A tame rabbit. It was just sitting in the street. It didn’t even run away. He held Ruthie by the ears and dangled her in front of Gerald. “This is my biology project. I didn’t know what I was going to do – but now I have rabbit bones! I must just cook it up and sort out the bones. Isn’t it a great idea?”

More about the story here

I spent a whole morning in the Johannesburg Zoo before I started writing the story - just sitting and watching the rabbits!- how they move etc and I tried to imagine myself being in one of those little bodies, because in this story Ruthie wakes up one morning and discovers to her horror that she has been transformed into a rabbit overnight.

I got the idea from Kafka's The Metamorphosis - a story that had fascinated me.You always have to be in the "skin" of the character you are writing - but this was a totally different "skin"!

It is very much an "African" story because Ruthie eventually has to try and stop the elephants from ... doing what they are planning to do!

Never preach to a child!

2011-04-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

Extract from "The Elephant-Bus"
My name is Ngwana

and these are my trees.
This is my home,
where I do as I please.

I was walking along
just singing my song
and stripping the leaves
off all of the trees
when suddenly …

Five praying mantises
looked me in the eye.
“Leave our tree alone,” they said,
“before we make you cry.”

More about Ngwana, the little elephant

A story about sharing and good manners! But you never preach to a child - because they will do what you do and not what you say! Stories are about showing - making a story alive for your readers. You can point out consequences to deeds, actions or attitudes as I did here. If you think everything belongs to you, you are going to get in trouble - for sure. And this is a "lesson" the world has yet to learn ... to live together - sharing what is left of the earth after we had plundered it for so many years.

Who knows everything?

2011-04-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

Extract from "Nobody ever listens"
“Dad, Dad,” Lisa shouted. “Come quickly. William locked himself in the bathroom, but I know …”

“Oh my word,” Father shouted and jumped into the air. (Illustration shows that Father was reading the newspaper in the garage and not working at all.)

Father rushed out of the garage. He ran right past the fig tree, underneath the veranda and into the kitchen.

Lisa followed him.

Grandpa and Grandma shuffled after them.

“What is William doing with the broom?” Grandpa asked with his hand behind his ear.

“William is locked in the bathroom,” Grandma shouted at Grandpa.

“Come out immediately, William!” Father shouted and hammered on the bathroom door. “William!”

But all was quiet in the bathroom and the door remained shut.

More about the story here

This was really fun to write - a send up of how ridiculous grown ups sometimes can be - so important ... so all-knowing and yet, sometimes, children know better - as the story of the Emperor's new clothes so clearly shows! One doesn't automatically know more when you are older ... perhaps you know more facts ... but grown ups have been conditioned by society ... and children are still "new" - they speak their minds! Never underestimate the wisdom of anyone!

I am unique! Don't compare me with others!

2011-04-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

I insert a page from: "I am Simon" placed with the permission of Vian Oelofsen who did the stunning illustrations for the Afrikaans and local English version of this story. A terrible thing happens one night at bedtime, when Simon suddenly finds himself inside his favourite book and it becomes a nightmare ... because the animals are so rude ...

More about the story here

" I am unique - there is no one like me" is something we all have to remember! Children often feel helpless and although they cannot identify the emotion, they feel disturbed and become difficult if the parents or others expect them to be ... like them? Or like other children? After all: the duiker is swift and and the elephant strong - each one of us has different gifts.

Don't put me in a box!

2011-04-09T12:00:00.001-07:00

Extract from "Babalela"

The man took the Babalela
Far, far away from the forest
And held him in his hand
And looked at him with a magnifying glass.

People came and looked and talked and looked and talked
Some more people came and looked and talked and looked and talked

They talked so much: they never stopped.
And there was never a gap for him to speak.

More about the story here

"Babalela" is the Sesotho word for "Little One". Sesotho is one of South Africa's indigenous languages. I wrote the story, but could not find a suitable name for the character - so I looked in my children's Sesotho dictionary that they used for school. I started at the A-words and when I got to the B's - there was this beautiful word - babalela - meaning - little one! Perfect!

This story drives children wild! I suppose we all know how horrible it is to be labelled (put in a box) by others even when we are three years old! I later wrote two sequels to the story which have proven to be just as popular.

Where have all the smiles gone?

2011-04-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

Extract from "Emma and the Smile-Snatcher"

Her mom sighs. “Oh, please, Emma. Don’t start with that again.

There is no such thing as a smile-snatcher.
Walk faster! We still have to do lots of shopping.”

“Grownups do not understand, Alba,”
Emma whispers to the albatross doll in her backpack.
“They do not see what is right in front of their noses.”

She slowly follows her parents
while keeping an eye out for more smile-snatchers.

More about the story on: Emma and the Smile-Snatcher

It was a difficult story to write - it is never easy - especially Picture Books. Less words make it more difficult, not easier. And how to tell the story of laughter being stolen?

Those of you who have (tried to) shop in malls with small children in tow, will understand the mother's irritation ... they can really dawdle and the smallest things catch their attention. They see stuff we don't see any more because we are used to it - but children are "new" - they see life more clearly in many ways than we do! From Emma's perspective even her own parents have become smile-snatchers!!!! And something should be done about it ...

Here I am ...

2011-04-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

I can think random thoughts indefinitely, the problem is, that when I think the thoughts (Oh the thoughts you can think if only you try … you can think up a guff going by [Oh, the Thinks You can Think – Dr. Seuss]) I want to link them in some pattern that makes a story. I love patterns. I love story-patterns. I love writing. I am not a "natural" blogger - I want to create stories!

I also want to be part of the world and I am part of the world and the only way I can connect is via the internet and the social networks. I am a South African writer (see profile etc.) and although I love living in Africa, being part of the small literary scene of a developing country and continent can be very restrictive and isolative.

I don’t have much to say, but I can talk a lot about stories!. Blogging or social networking is a form of “talking” not “writing” – I think. But I love to read and write, of course.

I am looking for an overseas literary agent or literary partner with the necessary connections. I own the overseas translation rights of my published books and I have set out the possibilities for translation/rewriting on three Wordpress blogs (the links are to the right of this post). I don’t want to repeat everything here. (I really am a prolific writer and I am continually working on new stories.) I have much to contribute and I hope to learn a lot too. Please read my Wordpress blogs if you are interested and contact me if you think we could be of use to each other.

I have also posted some writing tips on Twitter and the Wordpress blogs.

I am a passionate believer in the power of stories to unite the world in our common humanity. Very idealistic and naïve of me, I know – but sometimes you just have to Don Quixote.