Friday 13 January 2012

Infection


Years ago I wrote a story. It was the first time I tried to write anything after our return from Ghana. We had moved into a frigid old house in the middle of fields, the fog low upon us, rudimentary heating and the occasional country mouse. It was hard. If I thought living in the tropics was hard - malaria, thieves, power cuts, no water - I had no idea.

Eventually I pulled myself together and started to write. I was inspired by a postcard I had for some reason attached above my bed. It showed the Princes Town Fort along the Western Region coast, originally built by a Brandenburg Prince with stones imported from Prussia. It would have been the last construction seen by many a terrified slave sent across the Atlantic.

Along the sea there are several of these forts, evil bastions set among the coconut palms. Though they are frilled with fishing boats and market mammies and gleeful children, they are cruel to the core, chilly inside, burdened with enraged and frightened souls.

I don't know why I kept the postcard. We only visited that area a few times, and there were other more extensive structures at Cape Coast and Elmina where we took visitors to see the museums. This was a smaller, quieter place. But mouldy and dark; cruel. Deep down I suspect that is why I put that postcard on the wall in those early days. I had just been through a long period of cruelty, a grave injustice, a situation I never thought I would escape.

My story was originally long. Too long, too loaded. A failed son of the old regime comes back to Ghana to his hometown near the fort to witness his half-sister's last days. Her body is devoured by AIDS. His cranky mother wants the young woman's shame banished from the house. Eugene, my character, does not know how to act in this contemporary African society whose traditions he has not absorbed from birth. He is British-educated, a visitor here, only able to see so far.

Now, 'Infection' is up for publication with a prestigious magazine next year, and is part of my collection Pelt and Other Stories, the contract for which I excitedly signed this week.

Somehow, that story is my escape.
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Read my interview on http://womensfictionwriters.wordpress.com

13 comments:

  1. I really look forward to seeking out Pelt - and congratulations again!

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  2. Thanks Helen (I feel silly calling you Schietree as I don't know what it means!)

    It is a momentous thing for me and I am thrilled to share it. I hope to read some of your work this year too. ciao cat

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  3. Congratulations. It does my heart so good to see a fellow blogger has been successful. It's an inspiration to keep me going. What a wonderful year you're having already.

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  4. Thanks so much Valentina. It makes me wish that everyone would land a book deal! Writing can make one feel terminally useless so the gratification is really hitting base. Share the lurv!

    The only problem is that I can't tear myself away from work, and work/blogging/promoting now spills into everything. It is wonderful, but I think I need to resurrect my secretarial organisational skills or I'll go nuts!

    Good luck to you in 2012, I hope everything goes fantastically for you.

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  5. Great news Catherine ... so thrilled for you. You've obviously worked hard for a long time at your writing so it's great to see you getting some recognition and exposure.

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  6. Thank you WG and yes it's been endless! So many times when I wished I'd stayed in art school and stuck with graphic design. I even had a friend's small daughter tell me she wanted to be a writer and I shuddered!

    The important things to remember are many: keeping your belief and your sanity and your bank account in order are paramount. And the rest? Zadie Smith wrote ten points to remember when writing fiction in the Guardian last year and the one that stayed with me was something like: Don't expect to be satisfied, ever.

    Wise but despairing words.

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  7. Oh dear ... I'm sort of glad I'm the reader not the writer!

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    1. Gosh I do make it sound bad, don't I? But I guess every path or profession has its awful tedious moments of lack of belief, no? And writers do tend to go on a lot.

      Maybe we were quieter when there was no blogging - less whining and more rugged torture?

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    2. There's a PhD thesis in that --- I reckon

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  8. I am thrilled for you! I was so happy to see that you'd linked to Pelt.

    It's interesting how stories evolve. Too long, too short, the point of view. This is on my mind as I've set aside my work in progress to rethink the elements.

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    1. Do you know I am still thrown off when my editor talks about point of view? Totally confused. I've always written by the seat of my pants, just wanting to get there, you know, THERE. Must google this one!

      Hope the rethinking is productive.

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  9. Wow, congratulations! It's so interesting to learn the story behind the story.

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    1. Thanks Talli and have a blast in Cairo! I stop-overed there a dozen times when we lived in Somalia but never once went out to investigate. Have some fun for me - I am a big Naguib Mahfouz fan and would love to go to Alexandria. ciao cat

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