Interview with Phangisile Mtshali

Published 2013-10-22.
What are your five favorite books, and why?
The SAGA of the Seven Suns series 1, 2,3,4,5,6,7 - Science fiction at its best.
Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donell kept me through my teenage years and gave me love of reading and writing,
Describe your desk
cluttered to the visitor, organized chaos to me.. there is a system in that clutter I know every piece of paper and every scribble
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew-up surrounded by the rolling hills of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa where there was always music in the air and a tale to be discovered underneath every stone, on the banks of our rivers and around every family's fireplace. My mother, an under educated domestic worker and neglected wife lived her life through Mills & Boons, James Bond and James Hadley Chase novels. So we had more books than food in the house. My late brother Jabulani started writing poems and radio play scripts in our mother tongue, IsiZulu, at the age of 12, not to be out done by my hero-brother I wrote my whole imaginary life story in my head at the age of 10.
What's the story behind your latest book?
I am a lover of science fiction and fantasy books and I could not find many drawing on South African mythology. Then I got married and it seemed as if wherever and whenever I met with my new peers, new and old brides, they had stories to tell about the situations they were finding themselves in their marital homes. It always came back to the fact that when you get married as a bride you are suppose to take on the identity of you marital home and as elders say in kitchen parties and bridal showers ``adopt their customs and practices even if they practise witchcraft".
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Books by This Author

Makoti Enters the Kraal
Price: $1.99 USD. Words: 16,690. Language: English. Published: October 21, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Plays & Screenplays » African, Fiction » Cultural & ethnic themes » Cultural interest, general
(3.00 from 2 reviews)
Ndiwe is Makoti - a new bride of the Mantshinga family. Madly in love and excited for her new life, she soon realises that not all is as it seems, in particular the strange, menacing family cat, Madevana. Just what role does the feline play in the family? And why is she treated with such respect and awe?