"What's hard for you as a writer" and "African writing and the Internet roundtable discussion"

Author Uche Umez asked several fellow writers including me: "What's hard for you as a writer". Read my response (with a slight tongue-in-cheek) at his blog... Read More.

In January I joined several writers in the 6th One Ghana One Voice round-table email discussion about African writing and the Internet. Read the first part of two now published at OGOV and join in the conversation... Read More.

New post at African Writing: ReadSA goes to Pietermaritzburg

"On the 17th and 18th of March I had the pleasure of going to Pietermaritzburg and speaking to students at Orient Heights Primary School, from six primary schools (Orient Heights Primary, Greenhills Primary, Ramatha Road Primary, Springhaven Primary, Ridgeview Primary, and Northlands Primary)..." Read More.

And also Chinelo Onwualu of Cassava Republic Press, asked nine writers "if you had just one African book that you would recommend for the next generation of African readers, what would it be and why?". I chose 'The House of Hunger'..." Read More.

New post at African Writing: A Must-Read African authors books list

"Awhile back there was a 100 must-read books list purportedly (it turned out not to be) from the Beeb doing the facebook rounds, and now its back in the form of an app. What greatly disappointed me then, and now, was the total absence of African authors on that list. So to remedy this dire oversight, and with your help, I’m composing a collective and unlimited African authors only must-read books list..." Read More.

Two interviews at Kubatana "Inspiration is everywhere" and "Inside/Out"

Inspiration is everywhere - Interview with Ivor Hartmann: "As a creative person what inspires you?: I think it’s more a question of what doesn’t inspire me, as I am daily inspired by what I see, read, and experience personally. It could be anything really, the glint of sun off a wet road, the smell of rain, a great line of writing... We live in such an amazing world it’s hard not to be inspired on a daily basis if you are observant." Read More.

Inside/Out with author, editor and publisher Ivor W. Hartmann: "What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?: Realising your dreams requires hard work and persistence above all else." Read More.

New post at African Writing: Seven effective habits of happily unsuccessful people

"A self-help satire that in all probability is never coming to a book-store’s self-help section near you..." Read More.

New post at African Writing: Write what you Don't Know

"I often hear ‘write what you know’ being espoused to new fiction writers as a golden rule, and for awhile as a new writer I heeded it..." Read More.

A New Year and a new Blog at African Writing

It's a brand new year and I have started a brand new additional blog at African Writing. Below is the link to my first post there, comments welcome.

The Sound that Rocked the World

It starts as a lone moan into the crisp winter air of a Johannesburg morning, but it is soon answered by another, and another, until the moans become a proud roar that encompasses the entire city. It was the 9th of June 2010 official Vuvuzela Day in South Africa, and at twelve p.m. everyone who owned one blew one, country-wide.... Full Post

Collected quotes, poems, thoughts, excerpts, and insights.

In August last year I decided to start posting some of my own one-liner’s (well, mostly one-liner's) at my facebook writer's page. They are quite varied in source, some come from my side of conversations (real and digital), some are from my novels in progress, some are thoughts I had about issues or current events, some are personal insights, and some as you will see are even poems. Now over a year later they have accumulated and I thought it might be good to share them in a collection, here, with you, starting at the beginning - I have dated them because sometimes it’s pertinent - to now.


There is a reason not everyone is a good writer; it takes a willingness to eviscerate yourself and use those bloody organs as ink and pen. (27/8/09)

Despair and hope, without either we could know neither. (1/9/09)

I have faith in a natural cycle that occurs with or without belief. (21/12/09)

Sometimes one's heart is the best tool a writer can have. (3/1/10)

Reject mediocrity, embrace discernment. (8/1/10)

Life is about choices, if you don't make them they will be made for you. (17/1/10)

Parents are gods when you're young, devils when you're a teen, and human when you leave their home, but become gods again when you have your own children and experience what they put up with. (20/1/10)

It's a big bad world, online and offline, and understanding it is the passport to true freedom. (23/1/10)

If you are a writer, you are a writer. Anyone can tag on anything to it for all manner of reasons, but the word itself remains inviolable. (25/1/10)

That which we quote is more often than not that which we most need to do. (28/1/10)

Whilst writing is mostly solitary, publishing is a team effort. (4/2/10)

Money can buy many things, but not honour. (9/2/10)

Time is always of the essence, the more you've had the less you have. (18/2/10)

There is no separation of humans from nature, we are a product of nature and still entirely reliant upon the Earth's well-being for our survival. (25/2/10)

Life is truly an absurd comedy of errors and laughter is its best soundtrack. (24/3/10 )

Failure forms the backbone of success. (14/3/10)

If you put everyone else first you'll always be last, but if you always put yourself first you will never last. (31/3/10)

Doubt can be very useful tool, fear the person who has no doubts for either they are a sociopath or lying to themselves. (11/8/10)

Sometimes you: /Have to do the wrong thing for the right reason,/The right thing for the wrong reason./Everything you can even though it makes no difference./Nothing at all and let it be.//One thing only that changes the world.//Laugh when you want to cry,/Cry when you want to laugh.//Forgive but do not forget,/Forget in-order to forgive.//Make no sense to make sense,/Make sense to not make sense./Indulge to not indulge,/Not indulge as an indulgence.//Have friends that are your enemies,/And enemies that are your friends./Trust no-one,/Not even yourself.//Hear only the moans./See only the shadows./Smell only the earth./Feel only the kiss./Taste only the sea.//Love and are still lonely,/Are alone and yet not lonely. (20/8/10)

All writers need editors. There are no exceptions to this simple fact not even to prove the rule. (29/8/10)

Why is there nothing so dangerous as a martyr? Because they are no longer around to make sure what they actually stood for is not corrupted and perverted into something else entirely. (3/9/10)

There is a place for all African writers to write whatever they want; publishers need to take note of this too. It's far past time that we started filling all the wide open gaps currently dominated by first world writers on our local bookstore shelves. (5/9/10)

Burning any books, be they religious or not, is a true sign of insanity and repression. (8/9/10)

If you're holding a pen everything is a story. (11/9/10)

Poem to an Idealistic Vegetarian: While they may not have a head,/Plants also experience dread./They will fear your tread,/When you come to rip them from their bed./So acknowledge without seeing red,/The living eat the dead./The living eat the dead./That much can always be said. (13/9/10)

I wouldn't recommend creative writing or any other art to anyone, unless their passion for it runs very deep; deep enough to sustain them through the agony of it all. (22/9/10)

Never underestimate the importance of building deep and well-rounded lead characters first, that way no-matter what situation you drop them into they will remain true to themselves and thus naturally enrich the story. (16/10/10)

Money is ultimately an archaic system of control and inequitable resource rationing. (24/9/10)

Creative writing regardless of format will always endure, because the mind's eye is more vivid and powerful than any movie can ever be. (24/10/10)

If you want to think outside the box you have to realise there is no box. (3/11/10)

Everyone lies, just some more than others./Everyone cries, alone or together./Everyone complies, in one way or another./Everyone defies, if just to feel alive./Everyone relies, on something or someone./Everyone sighs, in sadness or ecstasy./Everyone buy’s, it’s a trap of our own making./So no need to decry or further imply, as,/Everyone dies./And we all have far more, similarities than disparities. (14/11/10)

Life is what happens in-between writing; almost always a necessary inconvenience. (26/11/10)

Interview with Chika Onyenezi at Grey Scale

"Ivor W. Hartmann is the editor/publisher of StoryTime and the author of Mr. Goop, he one of the few who is gearing African Literature towards new heights. In this exclusive interview with Chika Onyenezi, he goes a long way discussing African Literature: its hopes and survivals. He has this stunning advice for new writer “Thus, like any art or life itself, your passion for writing must run deep, deep enough to sustain your writing”, maybe is time for a literary revolution as he has discussed in the future of writing. Enjoy this interview..." Read the full interview with Chika Onyenezi at Grey Scale.