Karina Author, Book, Event

Melissa A. Volker reports from Comic Con Cape Town 2024

My books on display at the ROSA stand.

Comic Con was first held in 1970 in San Diego, California as an exhibition of comic books. Today, Comic Con is international event, celebrating popular culture, film, comics, fantasy novels, anime, art and storytelling in its multiple forms. Comic Con Cape Town and Comic Con Africa (Johannesburg) are now annual events.

With one of the Jawas from the deserts of Tatooine – Star Wars.

Comic Con Cape Town also hosts the Animation Festival, where visual storytellers are upskilled by international and local animators, story board artists, producers, screenwriters and filmmakers.

A Fremen – Dune.
The Mandolorian.

Comic Con brings gamers, writers, actors, dancers, publishers, illustrators and artists together to gather, learn and share. Merchandisers, artists, animation schools and book sellers display and sell creative wares. I saw a stand selling the most accurate replicas of light sabers I’ve ever seen.

This year, I was invited to participate at Comic Con Cape Town as an exhibitor with the Romance Writers Organisation of South Africa (ROSA). As a member of ROSA, I assisted other members who were hosting the ROSA stand next to the main stage.  Writers, readers, fans and publishers stopped to buy books or discuss reading and the craft of writing. I displayed my books, Shadow Flicker, A Fractured Land and The Pool Guy. I am so proud of the beautiful physical books that my publisher, Karavan Press, created for my stories. The Cape Town City Library stand was nearby, on the other side of Artist’s Alley, so I and the other ROSA writers enjoyed meeting them and discussing strategies to raise up readers and writers together through libraries and author events. The ROSA stand was coincidentally at the gathering point for the daily Cosplay competition. (Cosplay is costume play – a form of performance art where fans dress up as their favourite popular culture character.) We had a close-up view of Vikings, superheroes, a Fremen (from Dune) in a Stillsuit, and children’s cartoons characters. Captain America had to sit down to take a break after a lengthy round of selfies with fans. A writer came to the aid of one cosplayer who found the confines of a heavy costume caused overheating. Perhaps there’s inspiration for a fictional meet cute there?

The resting Captain America.

My favourite were the many Mandolorians. I admire the storytelling techniques of the streaming series. If you’ve not yet watched The Mandolorian, it’s a Sci Fi tale set in space, with the atmosphere and some tropes of an old Western. Of the two main characters, one speaks, but the audience (almost) never sees his face. The other character never speaks but communicates with facial expressions. It’s delightful. And clever.

Comic Con Cape Town is bright and busy, loud and energetic, a diverse mix of creative people, from geeks to gamers, who love stories and characters. It’s a crowded, frenetic celebration of storytelling in its multiple formats. 

I am Weird Barbie from the movie. My daughters and niece are K Pop Band G-Idle.

Karina Author, Book, Interview

Dropping In to Power: Sheila Gallien interviews Melissa A. Volker

Listen to the podcast here:

‘Melissa Volker found a way to obsess about surfing in any conditions – by obsessing about writing about surfing! A mid-life blooming writer and water woman from South Africa, Melissa’s delicious fiction blends “surf noir” with “environmental romance suspense.” (Check out the addictive Shadow Flicker!) In our pod, we chat about the coastal topography and bathymetry of South Africa’s breaks (get out your pencils) and she indulges my obsession with South African sharks. (Did you know you can get a gig as a Shark Spotter in Cape Town?) The South African waters are wild and intimidating, and though she grew up learning to paddle on flat water in an estuary, the ocean felt menacing to her well into her 40s. She still considers herself one of the most frightened surfers in her lineup, but she has braved sharks, orcas (!!!) and kilometers of open water on paddleboards, SUP’s and longboards. She credits a community group focused on supporting women for getting her off the beach and into the lineup. She also finds inspiration, and courage, in books and courses on surfing, the ocean, and, yes, sharks. Recognizing how her own life has transformed from surfing, feeling “older, but stronger, happier, braver, and stoked” she created Saltwater Sisters with her BFF to share their love and stoke and to empower other women to experience the joy they have found themselves. Melissa wraps up with one of my fave pieces of advice so far: “Get to know the ocean, because not every day is your day.”’

Dropping In to Power
Karina Author, Book, Event

Salon Hecate launched at Noordhoek Art Point

SALON HECATE was launched Noordhoek Art Point last night. Art lovers from across the peninsula gathered to celebrate the new space which will welcome readings, book signings and discussions throughout 2023 and beyond.

Thank you to the gallery and Helen Moffett for welcoming writers into this exciting place of co-existence between the visual arts and literature.

Melissa A. Volker and Stephen Symons, among others, read from their works and I read from one of the stories included in Let It Fall Where It Will by Lester Walbrugh because Lester was baking Grabouw Bread between insane bouts of loadshedding and could not make it to the launch (it was an honour to step into his literary shoes for a few minutes).

Karina Author, Book, Event

Karavan Press authors talk about love and relationships at the UJW’s Stonehaven

Last week, Joy Watson, Cathy Park Kelly and Melissa A. Volker spoke to Karina M. Szczurek about love and relationships in their lives and writing at the beautiful Stonehaven, the home of the Union of Jewish Women (UJW). Thank you to the UJW for hosting, thank you to the authors for their insights and laughter, and to everyone who attended with such generosity of spirit. A beautiful evening!

Thank you, Bernie Shelly, for being there and for sharing a few photographs with us!

Karina Author, Book, Interview, Review

‘Reading Romance: Melissa Volker’s twisty love stories with an environmental agenda’ by Joy Watson

Daily Maverick

… Volker’s tales are carefully spun, a weave of gossamer thread of the finest ilk. Her books take a while to write and she has an uncanny ability to transpose the reader into time and place. 

In A Fractured Land, we are able to visualise the arid landscape, the sweat of hot nights is tangible, and we can smell the lingering scent of wisteria on dry, balmy days. Volker is adept at breathing life into the South African landscape, making it jump off the page to embed itself in the reader’s mind. 

“Quite a lot of work goes into my books,” says Volker. “I have been working on my current novel for about three years. I’m quite fussy. I try hard to layer the characters, to make the dialogue work. I feel like each novel is taking longer – maybe I’ve become a harsher critic of my own work, or maybe I am learning the craft of writing more.” 

The time that Volker invests in her writing is evident in her other books, Shadow Flicker (released in 2019) and The Pool Guy, a novella published in 2021. Attention to detail sets her work aside from other books in the genre, where some writers have managed to push out many books in a short time. 

Volker’s writing stands out in its meticulous effort to cobble together a love story that is complex, exquisitely told and of a high calibre. 

What also sets Volker apart is that both A Fractured Land and Shadow Flicker skillfully incorporate an attempt to pluck at the strings of environmental consciousness. 

“I write about the environment because it’s an issue of concern to me. When writing the books, I thought about some of the social circles that I am in where these issues don’t even touch ground. I realised that one way of getting people to think about it is through fiction. 

“Sometimes people are just so fatigued about bad news and watching it on TV. So I wanted to package it in a way that was palatable… in a way that raises awareness.”  

…

Daily Maverick
Karina Author, Book

The literary friendships between us

In 2019, when the first two Karavan Press titles – Melissa A. Volker’s A Fractured Land and Shadow Flicker – went to print, I was travelling in Turkey and Austria and asked Penny Haw to assist with checking the printer’s proofs that arrived while I was away. Melissa and Penny worked together to make sure that all was in order. For me, it was terrifying not to be able to oversea everything myself as I was completely new to this side of things as a publisher, but I also knew that our books were in excellent care.

This year, when Penny’s novels, Nicko and The Wilderness Between Us, were looking for a distributor in South Africa, being a fan of her work, I did not hesitate to offer entering an agreement with her and Karavan Press’s distributor, Protea Distribution. In this way, the books and their amazing author belong to the Karavan Press family and I am delighted to be working with Penny.

And so it was wonderful to see that, when I could not attend Penny’s book signing at Exclusive Books Constantia (I was interviewing Nancy Richards at her Greyton launch of The Skipper’s Daughter), Melissa was there.

This is what I meant when I wrote on our submissions page: “We want to establish strong bonds between our authors and readers, so please join the community of writers, creatives and readers that is Karavan Press” – the literary friendships between us.

Thank you to EVERYONE who makes this possible!

Karina Author, Book

SALE: 4 for R550, including delivery

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