Karina Author, Book, Event, Festival

Tickets available for WOMEN IN A FRACTURED WORLD: Melissa A. Volker and Dawn Garisch in conversation with John Maytham

SALONFESTIVAL CAPE TOWN 2020:

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

Karina Author, Book, Event

“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!

St Francis Brewing Company 1  St Francis Brewing Company 2

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.

St Francis Brewing Company beer

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.

Shadow Flicker_stfrancis_invite

Cheers!

Karina Author, Book, Interview

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.”

Karina Event, Interview

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

Karina Author, Book, Review

LitNet’s Yolanda Wessels reviews Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker

Shadow Flicker on Muizenberg BeachShadow 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

Karina Author, Book, Competition

Caroline Gill wins the Karavan Press Review Competition for her review of A Fractured Land by Melissa A. Volker

Review competitionCongratulations to Caroline Gill! With her review of A Fractured Land by Melissa A. Volker Caroline wins the Karavan Press Review Competition and a book voucher worth R1000 for a bookshop of her choice. Thank you to all participants for reading, engaging with Melissa’s novels, A Fractured Land and Shadow Flicker, and submitting your entries for the competition. To show our appreciation, we would like to send you all a copy of Melissa’s next novel, provisionally titled Switchfoot, when it becomes available next year. In the meantime, we wish Caroline happy book buying and reading!

Karina Festival

Karavan Press at the 2019 Prince Albert Leesfees

Prince Albert Leesfees 2019

Please join Karavan Press authors, Dawn Garisch and Melissa A. Volker, for an event at this year’s Prince Albert Leesfees:

SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY

SATURDAY, 2 November | 14:00 – 14:45

Melissa A. Volker, A Fractured Land and Shadow Flicker (“Expect eco-fireworks and literary Happy Ever Afters!”), and Dawn Garisch, Breaking Milk, (“an evocative exploration of the divisions and connections between humans, animals and the environment”) discuss their novels with writer, editor, literary critic and publisher, Karina M. Szczurek

(English)

Venue: Jans Rautenbach Schouwburg

Ticket price: R40pp

To buy tickets, click here: Prince Albert Leesfees

Karina Book, Review

Barbara Erasmus reviews Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker in the Sunday Times

Local eco-romance novel will blow you away

There are no blurred lines between the good and bad guys who all get their just desserts – cynical readers must bear in mind that Volker’s genre is romance rather than noir

By Barbara Erasmus

Many South Africans will identify with the heroine of Melissa Volker’s debut novel Shadow Flicker – she experiences panic attacks.

But unlike the gender-based violence currently grabbing the headlines, hers aren’t triggered by rape or murder – they date back to a grisly shark encounter.

This is not the only unexpected aspect in this absorbing debut novel, the first release by Karavan Press, the publishing house recently established in Cape Town by Karina M Szczurek, editor, writer and critic.

Publishing books is a brave venture in an industry struggling internationally in the face of the digital onslaught but Szczurek is well-known in local literary circles, not only through her marriage to André Brink. She is determined to nurture writers who may have been overlooked by mainstream publishers.

Shadow Flicker_LR for web

Shadow Flicker, the novel selected to kick-start this new venture, is classified as an eco-romance, a deserving winner of the Strelitzia Award in 2017, given to the most promising manuscript by ROSA – the local Romance Writers organisation.

Volker explains that the difference between a love story and romance is that the latter has a happy ending – a refreshing change in the current gloom. Her novel has the obligatory romantic ingredients – a good-looking, sexy hero and heroine ranged against a cast of suitably corrupt predators, out to enrich themselves by any means possible. Evocative descriptions lift the story above the commonplace, as well as the well-researched environmental issues it explores. Volker also writes a regular blog about surfing and skilfully incorporates her knowledge of the sport into the novel…

Continue reading review: Sunday Times

Karina Event

Shadow Flicker launched at Xpression on the Beach

“On Saturday mornings, Kate and her dad used to wake up early and surf for hours at Muizenberg.”

Shadow Flicker on Muizenberg Beach

Kate, the protagonist of Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker, grows up in Muizenberg and becomes a surfing champion before a tragedy puts a stop to her career. Years later, she returns to the sea to face her trauma and to find love and healing.

Last night, Shadow Flicker‘s author visited Muizenberg, the place where she usually catches waves as a SUP champion, to launch her novel at her local surf shop, Xpression on the Beach.

The launch was hosted by surf legend Gary Van Rooyen. Melissa was in conversation with surfer, writer and historian Glen Thompson. Many friends from the surfing and literary worlds joined us for the special occasion, a kind of homecoming for the author and her novel’s protagonist.

A scene in Shadow Flicker is set in the St Francis Brewing Company and Melissa brought a few beers to share with her readers to give them an actual taste of the novel.

Thank you to Gary and all the other wonderful people at Xpression on the Beach for being such generous and enthusiastic hosts, Glen for leading a fascinating conversation and supporting Melissa and Karavan Press, to all surfers/readers who came to celebrate with us, and to Melissa, whose literary wave is becoming more and more impressive with every day!

Next stop for Melissa and Shadow Flicker: Fish Hoek Public Library, Friday, 30 August, 10am. Come and join us for books and tea!

Karina Book, Competition

Review competition: Gail Gilbride reviews Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker

Shadow Flicker_LR for webAn Eco-Romance to keep you on the edge of your seat.

I didn’t plan to read Shadow Flicker in one sitting. I thought I’d read a chapter before I went to bed. At midnight, I turned the last page and breathed out!

Melissa A. Volker took me on an unexpected roller coaster ride. Her protagonist, the vulnerable Kate Petersen, has a secret and she means to keep it. On a renewable energy assignment in an Eastern Cape surfing village, Kate’s resolve is challenged and she has to dig deep in order to hold everything together. She takes a risk and does not tell her boss that he is sending her into the very spot where the tragedy which has shaped her life actually happened.

Kate arrives in St Francis Bay, ready to tackle the inevitable opposition to her company’s planned wind farm. The widowed Matthew Sykes, local vet and surfer, proves to be a distraction, and she tries to ignore him at first…

Local residents begin their protest peacefully. But soon this develops into something more sinister, as other agendas surface. Kate is forced to face her worst fears and her secret is about to be exposed to the one person she’s come to care about. Her unexpected strength lifts this novel into a heroine’s journey.

As the drama develops, it becomes clear that other people have secrets too. The stakes are high for Kate. Both her job and her new relationship are under threat. What she doesn’t realise is that her life is in danger too…

Volker is a trail blazer in the Eco-Romance genre. Her gentle voice is unexpectedly powerful. Thorough research, well rounded characters, and a nail biting plot nudge the readers to sit up and take note.

I, for one, will be on the lookout for her next offering.

Gail Gilbride is the author of Under the African Sun.

Under the African Sun

Review also posted on Goodreads.