My association with Porcupine has introduced me to a lot of fascinating people

David Robbins

Writers mostly. I have never known very many. For various reasons I've lived in isolation for long periods of my life. Over the years, though, I've accumulated some acquaintances who were writers and publishers, and a few of them have become my friends. So for me the Porcupine experience is quite new. The sheer volume of manuscripts that I look at, each one with a complete life behind it, talks not of isolation but of shared aspirations and potential friendships. Often the manuscripts encourage me to meet with the authors. I don't think these meetings have ever failed to be mutually beneficial. So much so that I've decided to offer one-on-one writing courses, specially designed to fit with each writer's special interest, be it fiction, non-fiction, travel, biography, memoirs and institutional histories. I'm preparing to learn from these encounters just as much as I can teach. 

Go to the Porcupine Press website to find out more.

Meanwhile, in the future, I'll be blogging briefly about some of the new friends I've made and what they are attempting to achieve. Come and join the Porcupine family.

David Robbins

Women's Month Celebrations Event: Empower Women to Read and End Poverty

Author Sandy Goulding delivering her keynote address

Sandy Goulding, former educator and published novelist, delivered her keynote address at the Kempton Park Library gallery as part of Women’s Month Celebrations today [16 August 2012].  The theme was Empower Women to Read and End Poverty.

Sandy, author of Grief’s Bounty, spoke about the importance of mothers not only reading to young children to prepare them for school, but also how to empower women as life-long learners. Reading, she says, will expand their interests in life, human nature and other cultures. Literature is not only there to entertain us —books are teachers, mentors and life-coaches.

SEARCHING AFRICA: Review in July Getaway Magazine

GRIEF'S BOUNTY: Review on Media Update Website, 04 July 2012

Grief's Bounty a story full of philosophical awakenings and layered meaning

Published: 4 July 2012

The first thing that grabbed me about Sandy Goudling's latest book was the title: Grief’s Bounty. How can grief be bountiful, I thought to myself. And so began my quest to discover the meaning of the title, which for me seemed such a contradiction. Delisile Mthethwa took time out to read and review it.

 

As I started turning the pages of this moving, beautifully-crafted novel, I discovered that it was a story layered in philosophical meaning about Sophie.

Sophie is a middle-aged woman wanting to grab the gift of life with both hands and then life throws her not one, but two irrevocable curve-balls – the deaths of both her father and her brother.

Sophie feels that her life has been torn apart by grief, however it is this very journey through the process of grieving that allows her to experience a range of emotions and gives her the opportunity to make choices she would never have previously made and as such embark on experiences that allow her to feel alive.

Author Sandy Goulding is clearly a player of words and the novel is a gentle, easy read, yet it is layered in meaning and philosophical awakenings. I found that, like having an easy conversation with a good friend, the novel keeps very good company. The writing has a sensibility that made me feel like I was very much part of Sophie’s world.

Goulding has created a detailed interior world that allows the reader room to think, reflect, breathe and respond. She deals with the theme of death and grieving, subjects that can be depressing and gloomy, with sensibility and lightness. She is to be commended on her treatment of grief and middle age – she has turned many clichés around these themes completely, and refreshingly on their heads.

Grief’s Bounty is available through Porcupine Press at www.porcupinepress.co.za.

 

Please follow link to view actual review http://www.mediaupdate.co.za/?IDStory=48060 

 

RAINBOW'S END by Jake van der Wilden

AVAILABLE SOON:

468 pages

Publication date: July 2012

ISBN: 978-0-9870346-0-1

Recommended retail price: R190

This novel is about the journey of an ordinary South African caught up in the collapse of modern South Africa. Sitting on a hillside above a ruined Johannesburg, he is forced to make a choice – to go back to the pioneer spirit of the past, or to end his life alone amid the wreckage. He chooses the former, knowing that to survive he would, quite literally, have to start again from scratch; ‘going back’ to where South Africa was some 350 years ago.

He builds a primitive cart and embarks on a journey, not only to try to reach Durban where friends may have survived, but also to apply his mind, within the limits of his knowledge, education and background, to the circumstances that had brought him – and his country – unwittingly into this catastrophe.

Although the book is fiction, there is no guarantee that what is described cannot happen.

About the Author:

Jake van der Wilden, was born in 1941. His parents were Dutch immigrants, who initially settled in Pretoria. He was educated in the Western Cape, and has lived in many South African towns and cities. He has been married to his wife Pat for 41 years.

His career has wandered through the legal field, wholesale and retail selling, HR, training and development, owned a petrol station, and currently a small maintenance business. He loves to read, is fluent in English and Afrikaans and is a keen golfer.

He has visited five continents, and believes that South Africa is one of the best countries in the world when all concerned work to keep it that way.

REVIEW ON SEARCHING AFRICA IN GO! MAGAZINE: 01 July 2012, Page 153

Grief's Bounty Launch in Tame Times

LIVE AND LEAD: By Coen Bester

Available Soon:

LIVE AND LEAD by Coen Bester

‘Coen started his first company at a young age and through applying the principles described in this book mentored and nurtured his staff to build a successful company. His approach is practical, implementable and logical. It is all about being positive, doing the right things, living your values and working on your strengths. This book confirms that there is a bright future for anyone who is prepared to learn and be guided.’

Allen Swiegers, Chief Operating Officer, Deloitte Southern Africa

Short Description:

Please don’t put this book down if you think that it may not be for you because you don’t think of yourself as a leader. The one thing that keeps people from becoming better at leadership is this exact belief. You may simply have not bought into or accepted this idea yet. For some undiscovered reason, we so easily accept the leadership of others, but don’t really buy into our own. Hang on to the book; I will convince you otherwise.

On the other hand, if you do see yourself as leader, I humbly invite you to consider an approach to leadership that could be of value in assisting you to develop your own personal philosophy of leadership. Unless your leadership is grounded in your own authentic leadership beliefs, you will remain vulnerable to the curved balls that the world throws at leaders. We cannot afford to lose one more leader to the challenges posed by uncertainty, hopelessness, greed, power and sex.

An investment in leadership is an investment in yourself. So whatever you decide you are, read this for your own sake. Life is short; we should not allow a single day to go by without having had, or having brought joy.

About the Author:

Coen Bester spends most of his life in fast-growing business; either as angel investor, mentor or non-executive. He has successfully founded, grown and exited his own business along the way. His passion is the mentoring of next-generation leaders and he has spent the last ten years researching and consulting in this field. His academic career includes two engineering degrees and one business degree.

Second Edition of Grief’s Bounty Launched

On the temperate evening of May the 31^st, the air at LoveBooks in Melville was thick with the anticipation of Sandy Goulding’s second edition of her novel, Grief’s Bounty.

The who’s who of the media world, fellow authors and avid readers attended to listen to Sandy in conversation with clinical psychologist and Associate at AllAboutWriting Pierre Brouard.

For Sandy, the process of writing the novel helped her deal with the emotions and grief surrounding the loss of her father and her brother in a very short space of time. What ensued was a journey of growth and healing as well as the realization that often an end is the start of a new beginning, a new horizon, so to speak.

The audience was captivated by the discussion as Sandy explained to Pierre the catalyst for writing the novel, the process of writing as well as the journey experienced through the written word.

Porcupine Press are proud to represent Sandy and wish her every success.

For those who would like to buy a copy of Grief’s Bounty, please visit http://www.porcupinepress.co.za

Above: Grief’s Bounty

Above: Grief’s Bounty launch at Love Books

Above: Pierre Brouard chats informally to some guests after his discussion with author Sandy Goulding at the launch of her novel Grief's Bounty at Love Books last night.

Above: Pierre Brouard and author, Sandy Goulding

Above: Kate Rogan of Love Books sets the scene for discussion between Pierre Brouard, clinical psychologist and Associate of AllAboutWriting at the launch of Grief's Bounty.

Above: Sandy Goulding with Lindsay Breytenbach, associate publisher of Move, Real and True Love

Above: Writer Anthony Ehlers, Sandy Goulding and Tom Learmont of Drum