Christa Biyela on her book Getting Dirty: How to get dirty

Activist, teacher, writer and mother, Christa Biyela says we can prevent the spread of HIV, protect our partners and children through honest conversations. After living with HIV for eight years she has written a book, Getting Dirty, Sex is Great, but lets be honest. Christa joins us now from our Durban studio...

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Zombie Apocalypse hits South Africa

Lee Herrmann’s new novel is a gripping tale of a new South Africa that you can really sink your teeth into.     

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Some Exciting reviews on Getting Dirty by Christa Biyela

Some exciting reviews on Getting Dirty by Christa Biyela

Follow the following links:

http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2014/07/30/abbygail-zwane-reviews-getting-dirty-by-christa-biyela/

http://www.tametimes.co.za/articles/articledetails.aspx?id=168652

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global%5B_id%5D=122875

http://www.mediaupdate.co.za/?IDStory=68352

Order your copy here: http://www.porcupinepress.co.za/shop/distributed-books/getting-dirty-detail.html

SIGNS OF A LITERATE SOCIETY

SIGNS OF A LITERATE SOCIETY. Pavement booksellers in Mumbai, India. Gail Robbins from Porcupine Press took this photograph in August 2014. Is South Africa heading in the same direction? Porcupine, through its African Narratives programme, is working towards the fulfillment of that dream.

Caption for image DSC 0214

Industry Expert by David Robbins - African Mining & Resources Magazine July/Aug Issue

Review - The Rugby Fan by Rosemarie Lodewick - August Issue Joburg North Get it....

'Zenzele' Guides Youth to use their Talents by Don Makatile (Sowetan)

Writers 2000 Competition Winners

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The Changing Face of Self-Publishing by allaboutwriting.

Click here to read full review

New Young Adult August Title - Journal of aa South African Zombie Apocalypse

South Africa has been infected. The army and police were overrun. Government has fallen. And now the dead roam the streets.

 

A mysterious outbreak has ravaged the country turning most of the rainbow nation into mindless, flesh-eating zombies. After two years hiding in their Pretoria home, 16 year-old Kon, along with his brother and father make the decision to journey across the country to Robben Island, rumoured to be a safe haven. Along the way they befriend other survivors, and face an unrecognizable new world filled with new dangers: Raiders, religious zealots and lots and lots of zombies.

Journal of a South African Zombie Apocalypse is a coming of age story in a very different kind of South Africa, and chronicles one family’s fight for survival against the walking dead.

 

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About the Author:

Lee Herrmann was born and raised in South Africa. He has always had a fascination with zombies and has numerous contingency plans for the eventual apocalypse. Therefore, while he waited, it made sense to write a book about zombies in South Africa.

Lee lives in Pretoria with his wife Dina, and two sons, Max and Nik.  Every Saturday night he can be found going to the movies with his best friend Steve-Dave.

 



Cape Times Review Getting Dirty by Karin Schimke

Tricks of the Trade for effective self-publishing

Carl Bates talking about Traversing the Avalanche in South African Warehouse issue Aug/Sept

Book Available Soon

Article in South African Warehouse Aug/Sept Issue Traversing the Avalanche

Book Available Soon

Review on Dick Mawson's The Gods who Fell from the Sky by Abbygail Zwane

 
Dick Mawson's The Gods who Fell from the Sky makes for inspiring reading

 

Published: 15 July 2014

Dick Mawson’s non-fiction debut is nothing short of inspiring. Titled The Gods who Fell from the Sky, it outlines his adventurous life including the loss of both his legs during two separate incidents.

By Abbygail Zwane

Sometimes life is stranger than fiction and Mawson has certainly gone out of his way to prove it. Mawson presents a memoir of a man who proves himself to the world, not just once, but many times.

Born in England, Mawson and his parents crash-landed in southern Africa during the 1940s. It was a few years later, at the age of eleven, that Mawson lost his right leg in a farm accident.
A few years after that Mawson experienced another life-altering trauma when a 100 mile per hour boat accident left his other leg badly injured. With an amputated right leg and the left badly damaged the young Mawson’s outlook was bleak, but he continued to live with tenacity and did not allow his disability to cripple his life.

This book outlines how the author managed to defy the odds and break the boundaries of the norm to live not only a normal life but a life of largesse. He was enticed into a world of speed and competition on water and ultimately on the race tracks of southern Africa and Europe, competing against and defeating his fellow drivers on a level playing field.

As I read the memoir and the story unravelled, I was reeled in by Mawson’s charm, his lust for life and his love of women. I finished the book feeling inspired. Here is a man, who against many odds, made a success of himself and of his life. He was never a victim, but a survivor and not just a survivor but someone who was willing, and still is, to not only chew on the meat and bones of life, but suck the marrow.

Mawson’s story is not without struggle; often he tries to ignore his disabilities in order to simply get on with it. He also finds inspiration in Douglas Bader – a World War Two pilot who lost both his legs in a plane crash, but taught himself to fly with artificial legs and went on to become a RAF squadron leader.

Dick Mawson’s The Gods who Fell from the Sky is proof that how we live our life is our choice. More importantly, how we choose to see ourselves is our choice.

 

Go to the Review

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Review on Mediaupdate for Christa Biyela's Getting Dirty



 

 

 

 

 

 

Christa Biyela’s Getting Dirty doesn't shy away from gritty issues

Published: 16 July 2014

Christa Biyela’s latest book, titled Getting Dirty, is all about the gritty issues around sex, HIV and AIDS. She believes that the positive way forward is by having open and honest conversations with not only our partners, but also our children.

By Abbygail Zwane

There are instances, in fact whole chapters, when the book offers a bit too much information and I had to ask myself “when it comes to saving our children from HIV and AIDS how much is too much information?”

The voice inside my head would answer: “surely all of us need to be as informed as we possibly can be.”

In this respect (and in many others too numerous to list) I take my hat off to Biyela who has completely opened up to her reader, exposed wounds, scars and horrifying memories to ensure that our children will not need to endure what she has endured.

Biyela herself is living with HIV and is proof that you can still live life to the fullest. Through her book she outlines how the spread of HIV can be prevented and this starts with the education of our children.

Getting Dirty is provocative, candid and tells it like it is. She says “As adults we need to learn to be open-minded about sex. Let us have an open discussion about HIV whether we are married, dating, heterosexual or homosexual. If one is in a relationship let it be based on trust so we also act in a trustworthy manner thereafter. I believe HIV has come to our lives to better us, our relationships and motivate us to explore safer ways of making love. Nowadays having sex without a condom, being uncircumcised and not knowing one’s HIV status should be despicable.”

With Getting Dirty, Christa Biyela takes you by the hand and guides you through her life. At times it is traumatic, at times it is funny and poignant and at other times it forces you to stop reading for a moment and think. Getting Dirty is a book that should be read by everyone. In the words of director and playwright Clinton Marius, Getting Dirty offers “precious words of wisdom and advice that may save a life; hopefully more than one…”
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About the Author:

Christa Biyela is a writer and motivational speaker whose career includes being a producer and co-host of Sihlomulelana Ngolwazi previously on Ukhozi FM. She is now the head writer for Kusa Kusa, Ukhozi FM’s first soapy.

Go to Review
Review from Tame Times

Order your copy of Getting Dirty Now

 

Review in the July Issue of Sarie by Lydia van der Merwe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 Julie 2014

Gesondheidstories

Span só jou breinboodskappers in vir gewigsverlies

deur Lydia van der Merwe

As die brein-oordragstowwe GABA en dopamien albei laag is, gaan jou kosdrange (cravings) jou oorrompel, sê dr. Hannetjie van Zyl-Edeling. Volgens haar werk Tim Noakes se hoë-vet-lae-koolhidraateetplan juis daarom vir baie mense. Proteïene voorsien die aminosure waarvan brein-oordragstowwe (veral dopamien) gemaak word. En as jy koolhidrate grootliks uitskakel, kry jy beheer oor jou wisselende bloedsuikervlakke.

Dopamien

’n Tekort kan onder meer lei tot gewigstoename, moegheid en die onvermoë om stres te hanteer. Jy het ’n drang na nikotien, koffie, soetgoed of ander energie-opkikkers.

Vul dit aan

• Eet proteïenryke kosse soos hoender, maaskaas, eiers, laevet-kase, melk, jogurt, kalkoen, wildsvleis, okkerneute.
• Oefen met gewigte, speel ’n potjie skaak, doen asemhalingsoefeninge.
• Kyk ’n snaakse fliek of vertel grappies.

GABA

Dis betrokke by die maak van endorfiene – natuurlike pynstillers wat jou goed laat voel. ’n Tekort gooi jou van balans af en maak jou angstig, geïrriteerd en vol skuldgevoelens. Jy kan ’n binge-eter wees.

Vul dit aan

• Vermy witmeel, -suiker en ander verfynde stysel, want dit laat jou bloedsuiker wipplank ry, vererger angs en is ’n sneller vir kosdrange.
• Eet amandels en ander boomneute, piesangs, broccoli, bruinrys, lensies, sitrus, aartappels, spinasie, heelgraan (verkieslik nie koring nie).
• Doen aërobiese oefeninge, loop in die natuur en drink kruietee vir angs.

Belangrik

Oefen minstens ’n halfuur per dag om jou brein-oordragstowwe te balanseer, bloedsuiker en depressie te beheer en jou metabolisme flink te hou.

Click here for Review

Order your copy of Over the Moon Now 

 

SOWETO BURNING Review: Saturday Star; 03 May 2014

Get your copy now click on http://www.porcupinepress.co.za/shop/history/soweto-burning-detail.html

Review: ZENZELE by Sandile Memela in Sunday Tribune news & views; 25 May 2014

To pre-order your copy, contact Clare-Rose at Porcupine Press: 011 / 791-4561

Jozi Gold in GET IT Joburg West Magazine; 26 May 2014

Jozi Gold    

Rialien Furstenberg / 26 May 2014

A woman with a past, a city with a future, a soccer team chasing glory …

Amidst the tension surrounding the run-up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, one woman discovers her husband is having an affair, another meets up with a university sweetheart and a third heads for a nervous breakdown. Who is the man at the centre of the drama, and does he get to keep his gold?

Who the book is for:
Are you toying with the idea of reinventing yourself but haunted by the thought that your life could end up tasting like a failed casserole or looking like a bleach job gone wrong? You’ll relate well to Jeannie Parker. Where your relationships have worn tired, you seek ways to revitalise them. When you’re not scrambling to meet work deadlines, helping the kids with applications for car licences and college, or looking after the needs of elderly parents, you’re dreaming big dreams… Because you firmly believe that, if others have found happiness, so can you.

Book distribution by PSD Promotions.
For orders email orders@psdprom.co.za or phone 011 392 6075 or visit www.porcupinepress.co.za

Retail price: R189 (including VAT)