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I’ve posted The Mouse Trap, a story I heard related by one of the speakers at a conference hosted by the Black IT Forum.

Mmamathe Makhekhe–Mokhuane is the chairman of South Africa's Government IT Officers Council ( a council made up of all the public sector Chief Information Officers) and CIO for the North West Provincial government.

She used the story to drive home a message to IT companies that said : “Please let us help one another. Let my problems be your problems.”

I think the story is very appropriate for short people too, who sometimes don't understand why they should help if they are not affected directly by an event.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR LOCAL CONTENT PROVIDERS

Mmamathe also spoke about the opportunities that South African content providers will enjoy once the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has licensed more pay-TV providers.

She noted that many South African children watch the Disney channel and Cartoon Network every opportunity they get (24 hour channels on DSTV).

The stories on these channels do not reflect South Africa and were not developed in SA, she said.

“It’s about time South Africa created as many entrepreneurs, animators, content providers as possible, so we do not have to import content when the eight TV channels that are planned go live,” she said.

ICASA is currently holding public hearings where companies that would like to be licensed as pay-TV services providers (satellite and broadband) present their case.

Applicants include old broadcasters like the SABC, etv and Multichoice, and new potential players( in the SA market) like Black Earth Communication, Pretoria-based power-line broadband company Goal Technology Solutions, Quantic TV Network, Walking on Water Television, MultiChannel Television, Q Digital Cable Vision and MiDigital.

Eighteen companies/ consortiums submitted their written applications at the end of 2006.

Local writers of all kinds, including children’s writers, would do well to watch these developments, as they promise to bring forth new opportunities for their work to be used.

It’s been a busy week, so I haven’t posted since last Friday. But, I’ve been working hard, and managed to do some writing for children. I’m quite happy with the output. I also have a lot to talk about today.

EMPOWERING GIRLS

I’ve finally worked out what was wrong with my retelling of “The legend of Tselane and the giant ogre.”

Girls are portrayed as an endangered specicies that need to locked up for protection and rescued when the first measure fails. That’s not the message I want to pass to our kids, so I’m making a number of plot changes, making Tselane a more empowered character.

The “captive with a knife” plot twist has been done to death, so never fear, I won’t stoop to making Tselane peel potatoes for supper a few minutes before Dingwe arrives. Too convenient a solution.

Speaking of empowered girls – tomorrowis mobile operator Cell C’s designated “TAKE A GIRL CHILD TO WORK” day. What are your plans to help empower your daughter/niece/sister? If you can’t take a girl child to work on that day, what else can you do?

THE RIGHT TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS

Colleague: Why do you call your daughter Baby? What’s her real name?

Damaria: XYZ [A combination of consonanats and vowels making up an African name]

Colleague (looks blank for a moment, then laughs): Hmm. Baby’s a really good name!

It’s true enough her name is difficult to pronounce, as some of South Africa’s languages don’t have the combination of consonents her name has. But the major reason I don’t disclose her name is to protect her privacy. I choose to be a journalist and to blog about aspects of our lives.

She is not old enough to consent to it. And until she does, she will remain anonymous to most people outside our social circle. For the same reason, I don’t post her pictures on the blog.

INSPIRATION

Some time ago, I mentioned that a blog visitor emailed me, just to say how much she enjoyed the blog. I learnt she was nominated for the same award I was. (probably how she stumbled on my blog)

Anyway, I liked the article she was nominated for so much I suggested she pitch for freelance work with my employer. Turns out they were looking for someone more permanent. She started working with us this week. Isn’t that amazing?

Also, while doing some vanity searches ( yes sometimes I do a Google search of my name to see where my business articles wind up), I came across Home Alone - Diary of a dark alley.

The blogger, called lalasini, said he/she was reading my work. “Cool stories, and not only for children.”

That kind of endorsement is inspiring, especially because he/she is a complete stranger. Thank you lasini.

WRITING NEWS

- Please visit the SCBWI Gauteng’s blog to read about the “meet the editor” event.
This report is more detailed than my initial post, and will be very useful for writers looking to crack the children’s book market.

- South African writers and illustrators looking for work, and willing/able to do newspaper work should also read this blog post by The Times editor.

He’s not advertising a writing/illustration job, but a smart writer would watch that space very closely.

- There’s been a lot of media coverage about the dangers social networking sites accessed through cellphones. Patricia De Lille’s comments on the phenomenon and on blogging made for some interesting reading.

So I polished up my proposal for “A parents’ guide to protecting children from harmful mobile content” and sent out to a number of publishers. Clearly the issue is becoming more relevant as social networking media and the use of mobile content is becoming increasingly relevant for our society.

I sent out two other book proposals (from my ideas file) – it was time I actually started shopping the book ideas around rather than letting molder in my computer files. I also sent out one children’s story out to a publisher. We’ll see how that turns out.

Finlay Book Club is hosting a breakfast with John van de Ruit, author of SPUD and its sequel SPUD- THE MADNESS CONTINUES. The event be held on the 22 June at the Park Hyatt in Rosebankin Johannesburg.

The recently launched SPUD – THE MADNESS CONTINUES chronicles 15 year old Spud Milton’s second year at boarding school.

Spud is returning to a boarding school where he is no longer the youngest or the smallest. His dormitory mates, known as the Crazy Eight, have an unusual new member and his house has a new clutch of first years (the Normal Seven).

He is soon beset with girlfriend trouble, coerced into misguided late-night adventures, and finds his dreams of a famous career on the stage in tatters after landing the part of the Dove of Peace in a disastrous house play production of Noah’s Ark.

To book for the event, click here or email Isabel / Angela on events1 at finlay dot co dot za

All profits for this event will be donated to Noah, a non-profit providing care AIDS orphans.

I have an article published on this week’s edition of Writers Weekly. I’m rather excited about it, so if you haven’t seen it yet, please check it out?

Also, I’ve finally written the article that came out of my interview with Candi Castleberry-Singleton, Vice President of Global Inclusion & Diversity at Motorola.

I met Candi recently while she was in South Africa, and she had some strong feelings about the role of education and mentorship in ensuring diversity in the workplace.

She speaks quite a lot about educating our children, guiding them, providing them with role models and how ensuring diversity shouldn't just be something companies have in their "to do" list to comply with laws and regulations. It should be part of our lives.

A lot of the information was not appropriate for my ITWeb article, which is strictly IT business orientated, so I asked DiversityBusiness.com if they’d like to see it and they responded with a yes. We’ll see how that works out.

Speaking of diversity, a book package for my book review project arrived last week, and Baby and I spent the past week going through the books.

Baby divided the books into three piles – those she can read (English), those I wish she could read (Setswana language) and those she struggled through (Zulu language).

As we are not Zulu-speaking and our grasp of the language is basic, we decided to ask Baby’s friend (9 years old; next door) to read the Zulu books for us. Unfortunately, she can’t read the language. Like Baby, her English-language reading level is high, but she has no clue about reading her own language. So her grandmother has offered to read for us this coming weekend.

The issue of South African kids not being able to read or write in their own language is an emerging problem among the South African middle class, because we tend to send our kids to private schools where they may not necessarily teach the child’s mother tongue.

Baby’s friend speaks fluent English and Afrikaans (her school uses Afrikaans as a medium of instruction) but can’t read and write in her own language, and Baby can’t read or write in her mother tongue (Setswana) because her school doesn’t offer the language as an option.

This problem is one of the many reasons I began writing children's stories in Setswana (in addition to English).

Anyway, we selected Zanzibar Road, written and illustrated by Nicky Daly and I’ll post our review/impressions tomorrow. We have the English and Setswana versions of the book (published in 13) so we’ll look at it from a multi-lingual perspective too.

The much-awaited “meet the editor’ event arranged by the Gauteng chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators was informative, exciting and challenging and I’m glad I made the time to attend.

Representatives from Jacana Media, Lapa and Pan Macmillan made it clear that the SA's writing/publishing is a competitive, maybe even cutthroat business. The market is small and revenues generated unlikely to make a writer rich.

The publishers said they are more likely to give a writer a break, maybe work with him/her to polish the manuscript, if they can see that he/she put in a lot of research into the work. One of the publishers showed a manuscript which she says she saw sixteen times before she accepted it. The author was persistent and put in the work required to make it publishable, she said.

THE SA PUBLISING MARKET

* Only five percent of the SA population buy or read books (estimated total population is 46 million). I knew the market was small, but I didn’t reckon on tiny.

* Indigenous language books do not sell well. Lapa, which used to publish primarily in Afrikaans and recently entered the English market, no longer publishes indigenous language books to sell. The company publishes four indigenous language titles per year and donates all copies to Biblionef South Africa.

* Non-fiction is a big seller.

* Online book buying has not taken off in SA. Part of the challenge is Internet access, the publishers say. (Read some of my articles on ITWeb) Also, South Africans still prefer to physically touch a book before making a buying decision, one of the publishers said.

SOME GUIDELINES

a) Jacana Media

Unfortunately missed a portion of the presentation by Russell Clarke, Jacana Media’s representative, as I was late (work deadline.) What I did hear is that:

* The company has keen focus is on creating a love for our own land through books(SA), so books should not be Eurocentric.

* Writer/Illustrator partnerships are encouraged. “Hook up with someone so you can both do the pitch,” he says.

* Books that are a cross between fictions and non-fiction welcome.

* Jacana is looking for well-developed non-fiction proposals

b) Lapa Publishers

Former librarian Miemie du Plessis, now head of Lapa’s children’s publishing division, is very passionate about getting kids to read again.

Her primary focus is providing FUN and ENTERTAINING reading for the kids. She says she always keeps in mind that she’s working for the kids, and interacts extensively with them through school tours to make sure her content is relevant and meets their needs.

She insists on quality writing from her writers which meets this criteria and will not settle for less. “If I don’t find what I’m looking for, I will translate,” she says.

du Plessis also uses kids as primary readers who provide official reports on a book before she decided whether to publish it or not.

Lapa publishes:

* 70 titles per year, primarily in Afrikaans

* About 50% of titles co-editions with international partners

* Recently began publishing in English. “Only publish in English if content is local.”

* Looking for non-white writers, with view of translating from indigenous language to Afrikaans (Opportunity smacking me in the face?)

* Writing should be lyrical, humourous

* Dialogue should make characters sound like real kids

* For picture books, submit text only as she prefers to identify own illustrators for projects
* Publishes a lot of series books
* Writer should be willing to do book promotion, including school tours. Parents, teachers and kids out there in small towns don’t know what’s available in the market, she says.

Distribution

* 70% of Lapa’s books go to trade (bookshops etc)

* Sell by mail order quite a bit. Free local postage.

c) Pan Macmillan

* In SA, Pan Macmillan focuses on trade books, while sister company Macmillan SA does educational publishing.

* 80% of books are international source(for distribution). Only 20% locally produced.

* For children’s books in SA, submitting text and illustrations together helps push approval process faster.

* Has three main lines:

* Giraffe Books – 32 pages, illustrated, African/South African, 4-10 age group, open to submissions, 8 titles so far, books translated into other South African languages, as well as Lesotho’s Sesotho and Portuguese. Also does co-editions.
* Takalane Sesame series (linked to Sesame Street, curriculum based stories, commissioned writers and illustrators only, looking for seasoned professionals) and
* General, where they publish what they like.

The program for the Gauteng Chapter of the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators meeting on the 8 May includes presentations by editors from Jacana Media, Lapa Publishers (Afrikaans Publisher), Pan Macmillan and Heinemann SA

South African children’s writers and illustrators hoping to get published should not miss this event, which takes place at the Sandton Library from 10h00 – 14h30.

Stories Across Africa acknowledged receipt my submissions for their upcoming anthologies. The coordinator says they’ll let me know in October if my story has been selected for publication.

Ho hum! October is so very far off......

“MY-NAME-IS-HARRY” WRITING CONTEST

Aboon Books says it’s is offering cash prizes of $400, $200 and $100 to the best three entries in the My-Name-Is-Harry Writing Contest. Writers must write a story that begins with the following four sentences:

My name is Harry. I try to avoid saying my whole name because everyone laughs, even nice people who try not to. I was born September 1, 1991, seven years before the first Harry Potter book was published in the United States. So my parents, Marc and Brianna Potter were unaware that they were ruining my life when they named me Harry.
Contest rules can be found on the Aboon Books website www.aboonbooks.com.

Not sure if I will enter, but it sounded to me like an interesting writing exercise.