Earlier this year, Karavan Press authors, Dawn Garisch and Melissa A. Volker participated in the Salonfestival Cape Town.
Here is a link to the brand new Salonfestival magazine of 2020. The Cape Town festival features in it. The magazine is only available in German but the photographs tell their own story of times when we could still gather freely and celebrate these cultural encounters: Salonfestival. Happy memories!
I think I met Missy Volker, author of Shadow Flicker, on Twitter (quelle surprise) through author and publisher, Karina Szczurek where we bonded over our love of books and cats. I then met her IRL at Karina’s house and subsequently at the launch of my first novel Ms Conception at the Book Lounge where Missy was kind enough to paint my nails (yes, at the book shop) and mend a bra strap that decided to give up the ghost just before we began (it was an eventful launch). Missy has supported me on my writing journey right from the get-go and it gives me great pleasure now to return the favour – and not only because she is a friend – but because I really LOVE her writing. Her books could be categorised as up-lit – literature that uplifts and they are EXACTLY what people need to read right now.
I’m a beauty therapist. I work from home, but we were closed in lockdown. The sector reopened on Friday but I decided not to open just yet as I work from home and have family members with comorbidities. Also the husband has set up his WFH office in my salon. Maybe it’s time to finish that pesky first draft? Grooming tips? Always wear sunscreen and, if you decide to wax yourself, remember once it’s on there’s only one way to get it off. And it is not 123NOPE.
Continue reading here: Go.See.Do.South Africa – “Shadow Flicker & Other Things”
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.
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
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 fictionNovelists 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.
“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
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
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
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!
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.”
