Some people write books because they need to share their story with the world, and that story teaches us all something important. Wendy Alexander wrote “Chocolate and Vanilla”, a book about her experience transcending apartheid in South Africa, building harmonious relationships with people from all cultures, and a journey of healing and forgiveness.
This is an excerpt from an interview with her – the full audio and transcript are at the end of the post.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your book.
I’m 41 years old, was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa. Migrated to Australia at the age of 20. And so I’ve spent the last 21 years in Melbourne, apart from the two years I lived in Los Angeles. I think the book was really a kind of catharsis, I suppose of looking over where I’d been, what I’ve lived through and how I came through the challenge of that experience. And the aim of writing the book was to use my own journey to convey a message of healing and a way of moving forward.
How did you get started in writing? Did you have any training?
I’ve been writing since I could hold a pen and paper. So my journals, my notepads and my pens—when I look back now, they were my constant companions through my childhood and I think, in many ways they were my coping mechanism, through a time and an environment that I didn’t understand.
This book in particular, was very different in that I decided to do it on an interview process. I interviewed people and/or couples in cross-cultural relationships. The book involved some kind of research with people and then actually sitting down and putting the whole thing together. So that’s the difference between journaling and actually writing that kind of autobiographical book.
Did you have a ritual or a certain time of day to write? Because I know you’re quite busy.
I try to write every day. I tend to do this mostly at night, usually when my daughter’s in bed and the day’s activities are behind me.
There’s times that I write in the morning, and that will usually be on the weekends because I’m the early riser in the household, so when it’s quiet, I like to do some writing.
But yeah, I write when I feel like. And I also have certain disciplines around it, so it’s a combination of actually inspiration and loving the process and then just jaw-hard discipline.
I do have a full-time job, yes. I work in IT as a project consultant. I work full-time hours. Nine to five or nine to six. —“Chocolate and Vanilla” was written between the hours of 8:00 p.m. at night and one or two in the morning. Over that five months that I actually wrote the book, once I had done all the research, had the interview sessions and had the transcripts and everything, the writing process took five months and it was usually done between 8:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. in the morning. So I got very little sleep during that time.
I wrote full-on, solidly, for those five months. But I felt compelled to finish it. And yeah, I am very busy, being a single mum and a full-time consultant takes a lot of time. I’m also involved in a lot of recreational stuff and community stuff and self-development work.
But writing is my one true passion, and I think that we must make time for our passions in life. We must make time for the things that stir us. That motivate us and make us feel connected to ourselves, so, what I say to people who say they’re too busy to write, I can only think that they either don’t have the passion for writing, and they’re writing for a different reason—like some people might write because they want to become an expert in a topic and they want to market material and so on.
Why did you self-publish your book?
This one I self-published because it was such a personal journey for me. My heart and soul is in the book. And so, my experiences, my thoughts, my opinions, are all in that book and I wanted to own the book in its entirety.
So, I don’t know. It sounds a bit of a first-born child, and I wasn’t good at or keen on the letting go process, I think. And so I felt like I had to nurture it all the way through.
Did you get a professional editor at any point for your book?
Yes, I do have a professional editor. She’s a wonderful woman who works in Tasmania but she came to Melbourne a couple of times and I met with her. We just caught up for coffee, but yes, it’s all done through email, online and then printing out the final draft and actually mailing it to her and then her sending it back.
How long did your book take you to write?
The book took five months. The actual writing of the book took five months to write. The research and the interview process with the participants took about eight months, so it was a total of just over a year.
Your cover is gorgeous. I love it. Can you give any tips for cover design for self-published writers?
Well with the cover for “Chocolate and Vanilla,” I wanted the cover number one, to have shades of chocolate and vanilla in it. I also wanted the map of the world because somewhere in there I was promoting global and cultural harmony.
And I somehow wanted some racial integration or mixing represented, and so I communicated this to the Accounts Manager at Bookpal, and about within a week or two they came back with that cover and it absolutely blew me away, because I didn’t envision that. And I described what I wanted and he obviously got it. Really clearly. Because I was thrilled with their cover.
My tips for cover design is be clear about what you want and then choose something that really represents the core message. I mean, all I said to this guy, I said, “I need to see chocolate and vanilla shades and I need to see a map of the world and I need to see something that tells me interracial mixing.” And he came back with that.
How are you currently marketing your books?
Mostly through a Web site. I mean, if you self-publish, that’s mandatory. So that’s one of the first things I had done. I also started to try to find out about cultural events, and news events, and so I’ve been sending out just a little bit of information about myself and see if there was an interest in me just sort of talking. And I have spoken at a couple of corporate places, and a couple of cultural events. I’ve also recently sought assistance on something I know is a lot better at market research than I am, and this is the lady I was telling you about, the lady that did my Web site, and now she’s done all the background work for me to get the book onto Amazon.com.
So my recommendation to new writers is to figure out what you’re good at and focus on that. Figure out what others are good at, and enroll them in helping you, if you can get them to. And if you can afford it, get a personal or virtual assistant to help out with the stuff that could easily distract you from writing or even dampen your writing process.
What are your top three tips for new authors?
Tip number one is write. Develop the discipline for writing. If it’s not an ingrained passion, but you have the desire to see your ideas or your experiences or your thoughts in print, then you must write. There is no other way around it.
Tip two—read and research the genres you want to write in, to see what type of style actually made it into print? I think that’s important.
My tip three is develop a sense of humor about everything to do with writing. The process. Because it’s a profession, it’s a hobby or it’s an interest, it often brings a lot of rejection with it. And you have to have a sense of humor about it. Otherwise you’ll be crushed.
Is it worth all the hard work?
Absolutely. I mean, I guess I can say that because I have a passion for writing. So for me it’s worth it. You know, just the fact that I actually write and then when I see something of mine in print or when I see it making a difference, or when I see it being read out or I hear people talk about it—well yeah, it’s worth it to me.
If someone hasn’t got an ingrained passion for writing, to them it might not seem worth it. It might seem like a long slope, but I think if you have a goal and your goal is to be successful in whatever career and if part of the career is you want to become an expert in a topic, then yes, it’s worth it.
***********
You can download the PDF transcript of the whole interview here. Right Click and Save As. PDF_Interview_Wendy_Alexander_Nov_2008
You can get more interviews with new and established authors on the Resources page.
Thanks for coming back to the blog. To get the latest on writing, publishing, internet sales and marketing for your book, please subscribe to receive email updates from The Creative Penn blog. Just click here and enter your email address to subscribe.. Thanks for visiting!
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
*************************************Thank you for visiting The Creative Penn! For more top posts, try the Articles page or Podcasts for free audio. Like this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed by email or in a RSS reader.
Follow me on Twitter. Become a fan on “The Creative Penn Facebook page”
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }