The illustrious editor of BookSA captured a recording of me reading from The Goblet Club at the Book Lounge on Friday.

I must warn you. It’s gritty, I have a voice that would make small children want to crawl into cupboards and whimper and… I’m wearing a polka dot alice band.

I don’t know if it can get any worse than that.

It’s SA Partridge as you’ve never seen her before.

Unedited and without the aid of a trained team of Hollywood scripwriters… its Youtube at its most raw.

Its…. SA Partridge uncut.
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I just received an e-mail in my Inbox informing me in Caps that we need to pray for our children. The anonymous author of this e-mail was referring to the recent school tragedy in which eighteen year old Morné Harmse killed a fellow pupil in a Krugersdorp high school with a sword.

I heard about the incident this morning as I was sitting in a nurse’s station in Bellville. The rather chatty nurse said my black clothing reminded her of the story and asked if I had heard about it. I said I hadn’t. She told me that Satan made the kid do it. That sounded like clever insanity defence to me.

As soon as I found a computer I made a point of reading up all I could about the case and was very surprised by what I found.
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The new Something Wicked magazine has hit the shelves and theres a lovely full-page interview as well as a review of The Goblet Club. I must say that I absolutely love the mag as it’s full of juicy short stories to keep me entertained well into the midnight hours.

Derick (Muller) and I are going head to head in the forthcoming issue of Boeke Insig. (In Afrikaans Nogal) If you’re intrigued to read our responses to their burning questions then watch this space!
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I’ve been gathering my thoughts recently in readiness to take the plunge into my next novel. I have basically made my home into a nice little hidey-hole filled with random bits of paper and notebooks onto which I have scribbled various parts of storyline and dialogue. When one has resolved oneself to do one thing you often find yourself doing the complete opposite. In my case, instead of writing I have found myself reading a great many books. I would like to mention a few that have stood out for me and that have proven to be a great source of inspiration as well as procrastination.

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For those of you who havent seen the February O Magazine yet, here’s a sneak peak at what you missed in the “Reading Room” section.
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I realised this morning that I am fact, a starving artist.

Ive been living on potatoes and coca cola since the fifteenth. I’m not quite sure at which point I reached the poverty line but my house mate and I had a good laugh about it this morning, after she admitted that she has been secretly stealing my sugar for weeks and we realised that we don’t have enough money between us to buy dish washing liquid or in fact, toilet rolls.

We do however, have an abundance of potatoes. These we have roasted, boiled, fried, mashed and even named. Yes, one lucky fellow survived our fervent mastications by successfully sprouting leaves and making itself far too interesting to be eaten. We put him on a shelf and named him Ned instead.

You can do your bit to help the starving artists of the world and their thieving house mates by purchasing their literary contributions as Christmas gifts for your friends or family or even yourself.

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I start my day by sleepwalking. It’s true. Waking up at six in the morning so that I can catch the early bus is a nightmare and my entire morning passes in a sleepy haze as I blearily plod the streets on my way to work. Waking up early does have its merits though, for one, I can leave early and spend the whole afternoon writing or at least, intending to write. (It still counts!)

I am grateful for Cape Town traffic for one thing though…. I can finally catch up on my reading which I have been neglecting lately. I actually look forward to the slow bus trips twice a day so I can immerse myself in fantasy once again. I read Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko whilst commuting. It makes bus trips a pleasure: the roar of the engine disappears, as does the chattering passengers beside you. All outer distractions seem to melt away as your mind fills itself with the sights and sounds that the characters are experiencing. It took me about two weeks to finish the book this way but I’m finding that I really enjoy anticipating the next installment, rather than hurriedly reading a book in its entirety in one sitting which is what I usually to do.

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It’s exactly a week before the launch and the world is already going topsy-turvy.

I started my day the same way that I do everyday, by sitting on the bus to town and reading a book. Almost everyone on the bus reads something, whether its a book, a magazine or a newspaper. The lady seated to my right, for example, was reading a magazine. Now I’m not an overly curious creature by nature but my gaze did wonder over once or twice and when she turned the page there was an article about me staring back. It was a surreal moment seeing a picture of myself gazing serenely back at me from this commuters lap and frankly, somewhat disarming.

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