Karina Author, Book

Karavan Press title: Aggressiewe Water by Erika Viljoen

Jy skryf so genoeglik, ek sal graag sien dat hierdie briewe ’n wyer gehoor bereik.
– A N D R É  P.  B R I N K

Een dag was daar … ’n mama en ’n papa en twee kindertjies wat uitgewyk het na ’n stuk veld in die Klein-Karoo waar niemand anders nog permanent gewoon het nie. “Julle doen nou dit waaroor ons almal maar net droom,” het ons vriende vir ons gesê. Dit was ’n droom, ’n werklikheid, ’n kosbare skat. Ons het geswoeg en gesweet, ons het geval en opgestaan. Die diepe vreugde van die veld sal altyd deel van ons sielslandskap wees. Die naaktheid waarna ons gesoek en wat ook van ons geëis is, het ons almal vir altyd verander, ten goede.

ISBN: 978-0-6399942-4-6

Publication date: September 2026

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ERIKA VILJOEN kom van ’n skaapplaas in die Noordoos-Kaap, van goeie ou Afrikaner-afkoms, waar sy niks anders as die eenvoud van die plaaslewe geken het nie. Toe word sy ’n swerwer, ontdekker, woordvraat, verloopte Afrikaner, huisskepper, moeder. In haar diep middeljare weet sy dat daar geen groot uitbarsting van wonder en faam is waarop ons kan reken nie, die ou lewe ry jou soms bloots, maar vir vrede in jou hart kan jy nooit genoeg dankie sê nie. Nou is sy ’n trotse “crone”, ’n mama van twee vlieënde arende, ’n voornemende boerin, ’n stoepsitter met haar Geliefde.

Karina Author

Author: Erika Viljoen

ERIKA VILJOEN kom van ’n skaapplaas in die Noordoos-Kaap, van goeie ou Afrikaner-afkoms, waar sy niks anders as die eenvoud van die plaaslewe geken het nie. Toe word sy ’n swerwer, ontdekker, woordvraat, verloopte Afrikaner, huisskepper, moeder. In haar diep middeljare weet sy dat daar geen groot uitbarsting van wonder en faam is waarop ons kan reken nie, die ou lewe ry jou soms bloots, maar vir vrede in jou hart kan jy nooit genoeg dankie sê nie. Nou is sy ’n trotse “crone”, ’n mama van twee vlieënde arende, ’n voornemende boerin, ’n stoepsitter met haar Geliefde.

Karina Author, Event

Story Seller HQ with Cathy Park Kelly

Sell your story, not your soul

Story Seller HQ is a supportive community for authors who are tired of figuring out audience-building and book marketing on their own.

It’s a place to learn from people who know the industry, create the content you’ve been putting off, share the wins and the cringe-worthy moments, ask the questions you’re too embarrassed to ask elsewhere — and get a little encouragement to keep going.

Because writing your book is only half the story.

What is Story Seller HQ about?

It’s a community of authors who are working to overcome their self doubt, build their audience and get copies out into the waiting hands of readers.

Just a bunch of writers showing up, sharing ideas, celebrating the wins, commiserating about the cringey moments and helping each other keep going.

It’s not another writing workshop.

It’s the bit that comes after: finding your readers and building the connections that help your book find its way into the world.

A place to ask, “How do I…?”
A place to say, “I tried this and it completely flopped.”
A place to celebrate, “Someone actually bought my book!”
And a place to get on with the things that help people discover your work.

Because you shouldn’t have to figure out how to sell your story all by yourself.

You don’t need a massive marketing budget.

You don’t need to make endless Reels.

You just need to connect with others who are doing it, then give it a go.

Writing the book is only half the story. The rest of the story can happen with support and encouragement.

What will Story Seller HQ look like?

  • One Inside Track online interview per month (I’ll be chatting to authors, publishers, publicists and literary agents about all things book promo-related.)
  • Two online Content Create-along sessions per month. We’ll gather in the Zoom room, choose marketing content we need to create — a newsletter, a few social media posts, a book-launch invitation, an author bio or whatever is currently sitting on your I really should get around to that list — and actually do it together.
  • These monthly community sessions will be a chance to share marketing challenges, successes and ‘I can’t believe I posted that’ moments.

And best of all, this first month of Story Seller HQ is fully free! So you get a seat on our Inside Track webinar and two content create-along Zoom sessions in September… for mahala!

Please click here for details: NOTES FROM MY DAYBED

Karina Uncategorized

The Book Lounge launch of 185: The Janine van Wyk Story as told to Firdose Moonda

Please join us for the launch of 185: The Janine van Wyk Story as told to Firdose Moonda. We will be celebrating this special book at The Book Lounge on 22 September 2026, 5.30 for 6PM. Firdose will be in conversation with Carlos Amato. Because of her commitments abroad, Janine will not be able to join us, but a few copies signed by both Janine and Firdose will be available for sale.

RSVP: The Book Lounge

Karina Author, Book, Event

Salon Hecate: Salt-splashed authors Melissa A. Volker and Glen L. Thompson in conversation

On 1 September 2026, Helen Moffett’s Salon Hecate will be having a ‘full circle’ celebration: many of you heard novelist Melissa ‘Missy’ Volker read extracts from her work in progress at one of the surfing salons in World Ocean Month. Likewise, you’ll have heard Glen Thompson, historian and surf scholar (there is such a thing!), read his poems on sea and surf. Both are familiar faces at Salon Hecate: they’re great supporters of local authors, they’re passionate about preserving the ocean and its denizens for the future, and share the Noordhoek Art Point gallery’s commitment to all things green and blue.

So we’re delighted to announce that we will launch not only Missy’s important new book – Chasing Waves: The Rise of Women’s Surfing in South Africa – but we’ll be celebrating the arrival of Glen’s debut collection of poetry – In the Slowness of Melting – as well! This is particularly special because he read those poems for the first time at the Salon.

The salt-splashed pair will interview each other, complementing each other’s approach to waves in words. Don’t miss this event, and be sure to tell all your surfing buddies to come along. (Remember, entrance is free, and there’ll be wine and small snacks.)

Details: Noordhoek Art Point | 1 September | 5.30 for 6PM.

Karina Author

CapeTalk’s Read the Room with Karavan Press and Indeed Books

CapeTalk’s next edition of READ THE ROOM book club will tell the story of publishing.

Author and independent publisher Karina Szczurek of the multi-award-winning Karavan Press will join John Maytham to share the process of getting a book from an idea in an author’s head into a book that someone opens with delighted anticipation.

She and fellow writer, Kerry Hammerton, have set up a platform, Indeed Books, to help would-be published authors along the often fraught process of self-publishing.

Kerry, Indeed Books author Jenna Mervis and Karina will be in conversation with John.

All the ins and outs of publishing in READ THE ROOM on Thursday, the 27th of August, between 6 and 7PM at the CapeTalk Studios.

Email tribe@capetalk.co.za to confirm your spot.

Karina Author, Book

Karavan Press title: In the Slowness of Melting by Glen L. Thompson

Paddling
to what pleasure?
sporting hope in dying
waters

from ‘Paddle action!’

They slip
out of reach
while forming on my lips,
utterances mouthed
become
not sound; an essence of sound
a blank speech-bubble,
the panel un-inked.

from ‘I wander between words’

Publication date: September 2026

ISBN: 978-1-0671781-2-3

About the author

GLEN L. THOMPSON (he/him) is a Research Fellow in the History Department at Stellenbosch and holds a PhD in History (University of Stellenbosch). He lives in Cape Town and is writing a book on the history, politics and culture of surfing in South Africa.

He is the co-host of The Deep Duck Dive Podcast, a hydrofeminist and critical surf studies public scholarship project. To support his pursuit of the waves and the past, he works as the privacy officer at a mobile messaging technology company. In 2006, he co-wrote Txt Me: A Cellphone Affair, a stage play that was performed at the National Arts Festival Fringe. In the Slowness of Melting is his debut poetry collection.

Find him at writingsurfinghistory.org.za and thedeepduckdivepodcast.alitu.com

Karina Author

Author: Glen L. Thompson

GLEN L. THOMPSON (he/him) is a Research Fellow in the History Department at Stellenbosch and holds a PhD in History (University of Stellenbosch). He lives in Cape Town and is writing a book on the history, politics and culture of surfing in South Africa.

He is the co-host of The Deep Duck Dive Podcast, a hydrofeminist and critical surf studies public scholarship project. To support his pursuit of the waves and the past, he works as the privacy officer at a mobile messaging technology company. In 2006, he co-wrote Txt Me: A Cellphone Affair, a stage play that was performed at the National Arts Festival Fringe. In the Slowness of Melting is his debut poetry collection.

Find him at writingsurfinghistory.org.za and thedeepduckdivepodcast.alitu.com

Karina Author, Book

Karavan Press title: An Unsuitable Woman by Gail Gilbride

Life has dealt journalist Deborah Morsey a challenging hand. The traumatic dealings with South Africa’s apartheid police, devastating betrayals and failed love affairs make her feel like a stranger in her own life. Dancing with Nick, a widowed sheep farmer, at a friend’s wedding, she begins to see a new future. After a whirlwind courtship, she accepts his proposal and embraces the idea of becoming a farmer’s wife as well as the stepmother to his daughter, Sara. Opening a small pre-school on their property for the farm workers’ children gives Deborah a renewed sense of purpose while the forgotten love letters she finds hidden in her grandmother’s desk rekindle her innate romanticism. But the uninvited flashbacks to her earlier life and the secrecy around the circumstances of Nick’s first wife’s death are unnerving, and the everyday with Sara and her father is not as uneventful as she’d hoped it would be. Deborah’s weekly visits to her cousin Abi in Grahamstown give her some respite from the farm until she is introduced to human rights lawyer Sanjay, who makes her question everything she thought she knew about love.

A bold exploration of love in all its confusing guises, An Unsuitable Woman is the much-awaited second novel from the author of Under the African Sun.

Praise for An Unsuitable Woman

‘What happens when a young woman from the city suddenly marries a widowed farmer believing that he, his young daughter and country-living will cure her post-traumatic stress disorder and broken heart? Is it possible to sustain the role of traditional wife under any circumstances by simply willing it? What does she do when encounters, events and lingering looks remind her who she truly is and what she really wants? Heartbreaking, heartwarming, and oh-so very true, An Unsuitable Woman delivers a pitch-perfect tribute to the complexities of relationships, misplaced longing, and the general messiness of life. Gilbride excels in exploring how characters are shaped over time by politics, family dynamics and tragedy. An insightful, sharply observed gift of a book!’

– Penny Haw, author of The Invincible Miss Cust and The Woman and Her Stars

About the Author

GAIL GILBRIDE lives with her family in the Hemel en Aarde Valley, where she swims in the sea, writes, gardens and paints. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (Rhodes) and a post-graduate diploma (UCT). She taught English, Sound Perception and Communication Skills. She also used to dance and mastering the Tango is still on her wish list. Gail is the author of Under the African Sun, a top ten finalist in the Author Academy Awards competition (USA) and Cat Therapy, an unplanned memoir. An Unsuitable Woman is her second novel.

Publication date: September 2026

ISBN: 978-1-0492-1511-2