Nobody does quarantine better than literary cats. They know how to stay at home and snuggle up in bed with a great book. Here are Karavan Press’s Frosty and Salieri with Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker. Up Lit at its best! If you would like to follow in Frosty’s and Salieri’s furry footsteps, but don’t have a physical copy of the book yet, we offer the ebook version on Kindle at a special quarantine price. Happy reading! Stay safe. Furry love from all of us.
Amabookabooka interview with Melissa A. Volker
Listen to this wonderful interview that Jonathan Ancer conducted with Melissa A. Volker as part of Amabookabooka’s podcast series: “The Quarantine Chronicles: Melissa A. Volker”
You can read Shadow Flicker on your Kindle: Amazon
Blown Away by Books, Fish Hoek Library, 11-14 March 2020

Karavan Press authors Melissa A. Volker and Dawn Garisch will be participating in this year’s BLOWN AWAY BY BOOKS at the Fish Hoek Library. The festival is taking place between 11 and 14 March 2020.
Writing the Environment: where fact meets fiction
Novelists Lynton Burger (She Down There), Melissa A. Volker (Shadow Flicker) and environmentalists Colin Bell (The Last Elephants) and Richard Peirce (Orca: The day the Great White sharks disappeared) talk to Robin Adams of World Wide Fund for Nature about telling stories that need to be written about our world.
Saturday morning, 14 March, 10:00-11:30, Fish Hoek Library.
This Writing Life
Tracey Farren asks novelists Dawn Garisch (Breaking Milk), Qarnita Loxton (Being Shelley) and Trevor Sacks (Lucky Packet) where their stories come from. Do they arrive fully formed, or do uncontrollable characters dictate what will happen next? How do they write, and when, and why, and can anyone ever fully explain this writing life?
Saturday afternoon, 14 March, 14:00-15:30, Fish Hoek Library.

Andy Martin reviews Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker

“I should declare an interest. I have a special fondness for the part of South Africa where this novel is set: in and around St Francis Bay on the Indian Ocean side, down the road from J Bay, boasting some of the best waves in the world. And like everyone else I have an interest in trying to save the planet. So I am naturally drawn to a novel that pulls together a beautiful and moody coastline, a handful of lonely, messed-up characters, and a plan to build a wind farm. But, I’ve got to say, Shadow Flicker beguiled me way more than I could have expected. It’s a love story with a noirish edge …”
Read the entire review here: Goodreads
Andy Martin’s is the author of the upcoming Surf, Sweat and Tears: The Epic Life and Mysterious Death of Edward George William Omar Deerhurst.
“I don’t normally read books about surfers, but this is like Truman Capote, with shorts.” — Lee Child
Two writers bump into each other on holiday…
Read this wonderful account of how Pamela Power, author of Miss Conception, Things Unseen and Delilah Now Trending, went on holiday and bumped into Melissa A. Volker, who was launching her latest novel, Shadow Flicker, at a family & friends event on the Kromme River…

My friends are verrrrrry accustomed to getting WhatsApps from me telling them they HAVE to come to this or that book launch. Usually, it’s a launch happening at my home away from home, Love Books in Melville. Occasionally, I will venture to Exclusive Books Rosebank or Hyde Park but that’s as far as I go. I certainly didn’t expect to get an invitation to a launch while I was on holiday, so I was thrilled to discover that writer Melissa A. Volker (Missy) was launching her novel SHADOW FLICKER on the banks of the Kromme River in St. Francis…
Continue reading on Go See Do Gauteng: Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker: A book launch with a difference
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 book tickets, click here: WOMEN IN A FRACTURED WORLD: MELISSA A. VOLKER AND DAWN GARISCH IN CONVERSATION WITH JOHN MAYTHAM
“When in doubt, drink a stout” – Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker to be launched at the St. Francis Brewing Company
Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker returns to its place of origin, the small coastal village made popular by The Endless Summer, and will be launched at the St. Francis Brewing Company on 19 December 2019 at 6pm. If you are local, or there (or nearby) for the holidays, don’t miss this event: books, beer and waves. Guaranteed fun!

The St. Francis Brewing Company features in Shadow Flicker and has something vital in common with the book: eco-awareness. The company has just introduced new eco-packaging: biodegradable and compostable six pack rings and compostable shrink packaging – a first for the brand and great for the environment.

And here is Melissa with a friend, enjoying a beer at a previous launch of her stunning novel in Muizenberg at Xpression on the Beach.

At the event at the St. Francis Brewing Company, Melissa will speak about Shadow Flicker and how St. Francis Bay inspired the setting of her eco-romance thriller.

Cheers!
Dragonfly interview with Melissa A. Volker
“I’ve noticed in my own journey in surfing how the ocean empowers women, how surfing teaches women that they are stronger than they ever knew. This inspired my female protagonists: strong women who prevail in the face of waves of adversity. I like to steer away from the usual gender stereotypes, for example, I made the engineer in Shadow Flicker a woman, and the single parent, a man.”
Read the entire interview here: Dragonfly.eco
Dragonfly.eco is a “news site that covers environmental fiction authors’ works via book posts, interviews, reader-submitted reviews, book database, guest posts, and author spotlights. This site raises awareness of the impact and diversity in storytelling around the world that explores climate change and related ecological themes.”
Salonfestival Cape Town 2020: WOMEN IN A FRACTURED WORLD
WOMEN IN A FRACTURED WORLD with Melissa A. Volker and Dawn Garisch is one of the highlights of the Salonfestival Cape Town 2020:
Melissa and Dawn 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 M. Szczurek, on Thursday, February 27 at 6pm.
To read more about the Salonfestival, please click here: Sneak Preview of the Salonfestival 2020
LitNet’s Yolanda Wessels reviews Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker
Shadow flicker vertel die storie van Kate Petersen wat leef vir haar werk, veral omdat haar persoonlike lewe ’n gemors is ná ’n lewensveranderende gebeurtenis. Sy vertrek na St Francisbaai in die Oos-Kaap, waar sy die boere moet oorreed om hul grond beskikbaar te stel vir die ontwikkeling van hernubare kragopwekking. Dit is haar keuse om nie haar baas in te lig dat sy terugkeer na die plek waar haar probleme ontstaan het nie – ’n tragedie wat steeds by haar spook en die oorsaak van haar paniekaanvalle is.
Hier ontmoet sy vir Dr Matthew Sykes, die dorp se veearts, wat steeds in rou is oor die ontydige dood van sy omgewingsgoedgesinde vrou. Alhoewel sy geensins beplan het om emosioneel betrokke te raak nie, ontwikkel dié twee spoedig ’n sagte plek vir mekaar. Ongelukkig is die pad nie net met rose besaai nie en behalwe vir die vyandigheid wat in die kusdorp uitbroei, word Kate die slagoffer van inwoners met verskuilde agendas…
Continue reading: LitNet
