Drive-By Love – iJusi album cover

Today, Zoo City’s iJusi, a fictional Afropop band got their album cover featured in a real-life Afropop design magazine, called, naturally, iJusi. 

It’s by designer/illustrator Will Krüger on assignment for the magazine’s new issue,  to create fictional album artwork.

I love the witty details; the record label logo, the emergency exit glass, the iconic taxi, super-souped-up, the scaly infinity loop around the twins, the shout-out to cover designer Joey Hi-Fi, the terribly painful pun which also sums up one of the novel’s major themes: “what comes surround, goes surround”. Genius! (Click here to see it full size)

This isn’t actually a coincidence. Zoo City’s very first iteration was as the blurb for a “fictional novel”, a design brief put out by iJusi magazine in 2009.

My illustrator friend Simon Villet asked me to come up with something for him to illustrate. I wrote 300 words of story from the book that was developing in the back of my head like a polaroid and he illustrated a beautiful dark whimsy of a cover.

I’ll dig it out and put it up after the jump, because the title of that work is VERY SPOILERIFIC. [It's on my old hdd, give me a day to get it up]

Anyway, when I was casting around for a good teen twin singing sensation band name, iJusi hit all the right notes of fun South Africana, so it’s a homage to the mag. And now it’s come full circle.

This is stuff that makes me super-happy. It’s lovely when people riff off your stuff in interesting and creative ways (see also: the Zoo City art exhibition)

Huge thanks to Will Kruger for the gorgeous and clever interpretation.

Now all I need is a band to record the actual song.

Africa as Science Fiction

One of my favourite blogs, Africa Is A Country has a great post up on the  Superpower: Africa as Science Fiction  exhibition at the Arnolfini gallery in South London til July 1st, including short films and photography by Neïl Beloufa, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Wanuri Kahiu and Neill Blomkamp among others.

“Fictions are only theoretically placeless, and fantasies which seem to depart from the world invariably happen within it. Fictions are only theoretically placeless, and fantasies which seem to depart from the world invariably happen within it.” [READ THE REST HERE] 

Cheryl Morgan also wrote a piece in response to the exhibition, specifically on SF in African literature. 

I’ve been working on a upcoming radio documentary on the same topic for BBC World Service with producer Deborah Basckin, so it’s intriguing to see other takes on it.

(Follow Africa Is A Country on Twitter @africascountry. And for more great pop culture tweets from the continent, follow @sa_poptart)

Poisonous Tree

Ruckus on Twitter today over FW De Klerk’s interview on CNN ”in which he admitted that apartheid was “morally indefensible”, but appeared to defend the homeland system”.

I already said pretty much everything I have to say on this in a guest column I did for The Big Issue in 2011.

“…Because let’s not kid ourselves. Apartheid really was that bad. Torture and disappearances, letter bombs and necklacings and covert poisonings, secret police and assassination squads, insane censorship and insidiously everyday violence– and that’s just the icing on the cake. The actual cake was institutionalised racism, systematic oppression, human rights violations…

We may have cut down the poisonous tree, but the roots are deep and tangled and treacherous. The legacy is going to be tripping us up for decades to come.”

[Read the rest here]

Outgoing Clarkelord

A year ago, more or less, today, I was sitting in a pub across the road from the Clarke Awards, nervously eating a packet of crisps (because I knew if I had anything more substantial I would inevitably spill it on myself) writing a just-in-case acceptance speech on bits of paper torn out of my brother’s notebook.

I never expected to actually win. And a year later, it still feels surreal and bloody weird, as I discussed with tireless Arthur C Clarke Award administrator guy Tom Hunter.

Tonight, I’m watching the proceedings unfold on Twitter, sitting in the dark surrounded by candles in my dressing gown with a glass of red wine and my laptop linked to my phone, because there’s been a bloody blackout. (Yeah, that’s a little sad).

I’m guessing it’s going to be Jane Rogers, for her bloody excellent and harrowing The Testament of Jessie Lamb.

But I’m kinda hoping for Charlie Stross too, who wrote a wonderful blog today on what his novel, Rule 34 is actually about (and it’s not just weird Internet sex, as I cheekily suggested).

I particularly loved this quote which resonates with all the reasons I love writing and reading: “Fiction is the study of the human condition through the medium of interesting lies.”

He said some other great stuff too and it’s worth checking the blog in full.

Both books were two of my favourites of late (for some of the others, including Embassytown, see the short-list for that OTHER great genre prize, TheKitschies.com which I was honoured to serve as judge on this year).

Anyway, it was suggested that in my last hours as outgoing CLARKELORD that I issue some official edicts while I still have the power.

So here they are:

Hear ye:

1) Raisins are now illegal because they are disgusting shriveled-up grape corpse mummies that have ruined, among other things, apple crumble, rusks and muesli.

2) The Interwebs will campaign as loudly and articulately against social injustices as online censorship. (Especially if they’re not clear-cut issues and full of moral complexities)

3) Today everyone must buy someone else a gift copy of a book that blew their minds, SF or otherwise. (I’m going to buy someone a copy of Jesse Bullington’s The Enterprise of Death).

4) Someone must come up with an alternative txtspeak term for LOL that actually means ”laugh out loud”. Because I often do and can’t use it because the meaning has been so diluted and bastardised and we need to reclaim it, dammit!

5) it is traditional to pelt the new Clarkelord with a rain of desiccated grape corpse mummies and upload this to the Tube of Yous.  Don’t disappoint me.

Here’s the speech I prepared for the ceremony including a very special ghostly cameo.

Can’t wait to see the results!

Although I’ve been trying to convince envelope-opening guest-of-honour Jeff Noon to say “Patrick DeWitt” instead of reading the winner’s name, just cos The Sisters Brothers totally should have won The Booker.

If you’d like to support the Arthur C Clarke Award and get awesome fiction by various fantastic writers, including South Africans SL Grey, Charlie Human and Sam Wilson, buy the ebook of Pandemonium: Stories of the Apocalypse. A portion of proceeds goes to supporting the award.

And in the meantime, can someone turn the power back on so I can carry on writing the new book in between watching the awards play out online?

UPDATE: And the winner is Jane Rogers!  Who apparently gave a short and sweet and surprised speech (and was not pelted with raisins). Huge, huge congratulations.

Here’s Jeff Noon’s wonderful envelope-ripping speech which talks about science fiction being the literature of the margins and Jane Roger’s really lovely acceptance, which for some reason I can’t embed here.

Now go read The Testament of Jessie Lamb

(Pornokitsch.com review here)

Descriptive Camera

This made me happy today.

A descriptive camera that prints out text descriptions of photographs written by people taking microjobs through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.

It’s by an artist called Matt Richardson. Read more on BoingBoing.net

Insanely beautiful new Zoo City cover (Hungary)

I LOVE the new Zoo City cover for the Hungarian edition of Zoo City, put out by AdAstra.

Here’s cover designer Kira Santa and editor Csilla Kleinheincz.

And here’s the detail on the cover, that Kira says she’s designed a game for, already built-in? Can’t wait to hear more details. So ridiculously pretty.

Research Trips

I find that real life is often more surprising and inventive than fiction, which is why I really like being able to visit locations in person for my research on a new novel. It’s why I spent a week in Hillbrow for Zoo City. And it’s why I spent  the last two weeks in Chicago doing location scouting and fact-checking and interviews for my new novel about a time-travelling serial killer, The Shining Girls (out in 2013). It’s those little couldn’t-make-it-up details that resonate.

I hung out with cops and lawyers and ghost hunters, sneaked around creepy back corridors of creepy hotels, went to gypsy swing jazz at the Green Mill, drank bacon bourbon and got very, very cold. (Yes, I know, March weather is nothing by Charm City standards.)

I missioned through various neighbourhoods, checked out architecture, scouted out a murder scene with one of my best friends and her toddler (little awkward) and a ballpark with a favourite Twitter friend (who turned out to be as cool and lovely and interesting in RL as he is online) and his kid. (No children were hurt in real life or fiction).

Huge thanks to everyone who took the time to meet with me and talk me through their particular angle on the city, including Katherine and Kendaa Fitzpatrick, Geoff Lowrey, Alan N aka @gammacounter , historian, YA author and ghost tour guy, Adam Selzer, Joe The Cop (who is available as a consultant to other novelists), criminal lawyer and not-a-foodie Ava George Stewart, paedophile-busting hero journo guy (and host of one of the best rock ‘n’ roll podcasts around)Jim DeRogatis, Chicago History Museum volunteer Ed Swanson, especially for his personal memories of Seneca, Ward Miller, who has the most extraordinary book on Adler & Sullivan’s architecture, 90s counterculturati Daniel X O Neill, architect Claudia Mendelson, sportwriter Jimmy Greenfield, super-connected Harper Reed, Adrian Holovaty of gypsy jazz band Swing Gitan, Nell Taylor at the Read/Write Library and the staff at Ray’s B&B who made the most insane breakfasts every day.

Huge apologies to the people I ran out of time to meet with or missed altogether because I didn’t realise you lived in the city. It was frenetic and amazing and I got some good photos, but even better material, especially in those cases where the stuff interviewees told me totally derailed my plot, only to make it more interesting.

For all the pics go to my Instagram grid

New things in March

First off, the awesome new Moxyland cover by the awesomely talented Joey Hi-Fi (aka Dale Halvorsen) hits UK shelves this month. SA edition to follow sometime in the future.

Joey’s been knocking it out of the park recently with covers for Richard de Nooy and Chuck Wendig among others, so it’s actually quite nice to have him revisit Moxy. I’m always amazed he’s available at all. His work is just gob-smackingly good.

I also have two short stories out this month with easter eggs for Moxyland fans:

“The Green”, an all-new story which features a familiar dubious biotech company, appears in excellent company in Armored, the SF military anthology about power armor (or armour, if you prefer) edited by John Joseph Adams. Other contributing authors include friends Alastair Reynolds, Dan Abnett, Tobias Buckell and Sean Williams among other very talented writers.

And a reprint of a news-style story (when it appeared in the Mail & Guardian originally some readers hilariously, disturbingly, appropriately (?) thought it was real) is coming out in Africa Inside Out, edited by UKZN’s Michael Chapman. And yes, the head of the Mongoose squad is called that for a reason. (I like to think of it as a slightly alt. version of Moxyland).

The anthology, linked to fantastic Time of the Writer festival also features stories by Doreen Baingana, Elana Bregin, Marie Darrieussecq, Max du Preez, Ronnie Govender, Oscar Hemer, Deon Meyer, Kirsten Miller, Kagiso Lesego Molope, Kobus Moolman, Andile Mngxitama, Sally-Ann Murray, Patrice Nganang, Kole Omotoso, Zachariah Rapola, Albie Sachs, Angelina Sithebe and Chika Unigwe.

Oh and there’s also two new lovely reviews of Zoo City.

Hadrien Diez writes at Africa Book Club:

“The book’s hard-headed plot carefully blends ambiguous heroes and juicy villains, dragging the reader along a half reinvented Johannesburg plagued by crime, superstition and bad teen pop music. The author’s sparkling style and ferocious humour – “traffic in Jo’burg is like the democratic process: every time you think it’s going to get moving and get you somewhere, you hit another jam” – alleviate the gloom of a dodgy underworld made of derelict buildings, despaired refugees and non-existent social justice; all themes that might well be the novel’s real topic.”

(WARNING: Pretty big spoiler in this review)

And Jess Hyslop writes at her blog The Lightning Tree (spoiler free):

“Zoo City’s plot… wasn’t what I expected – and was the better for it. I won’t go into detail, as I don’t want to spoil the surprises that Beukes springs upon the reader. I’ll just say that if you combine magic, murder, and the music industry; sift in crumbling blocks of flats and street gunfights; mix with dread of a strange, black ‘Undertow’ waiting to claim the ‘animalled’; add the blood of a shavi… Well, then you get at least a flavour of what Zoo City is. But to get the full, strange, bursting taste, you’re gonna have to read it.”

Glitterboys & Ganglands in official competition at the Atlanta Film Festival

Glitterboys & Ganglands, the documentary I directed on Cape Town’s biggest female impersonation beauty pageant won Best LGBT Film at the San Diego Black Film Festival and now it’s in competition at the 36th Atlanta Film Festival 365.

The Atlanta Film Festival takes place from March 23rd to April 1st and Glitterboys & Ganglands will be screening on Thursday, March 29, 9:30pm at Landmark 8.

Here’s the trailer:

(Huge thanks again to everyone who helped make this documentary possible, including the organisers of Miss Gay Western Cape, the contestants who invited us into their lives, Exec producers Okuhle and the fantastic crew, DOP Nick van der Westhuizen, editor Izette Mostert, assistant editor Dene McLeod, assistant director/production manager William Patterson, Barry Donnelly, Matthys Pretorius, Joy Sapieka, and especially my husband and producer, Matthew Brown at Sea Monster. 

Hillbrow photos

I’ve just been reminded that I promised to put up my Hillbrow photographs to show the participants in the writing class I did in Perth, that I couldn’t show them at the time because I managed to destroy my laptop.

Then I realised that they’re actually all in the Zoo City trailer (plus two CC-licenced ones of the cityscape). So I’m posting that.

And also a link to the Big Idea post I did for John Scalzi’s Whatever blog on How I Research My Novels.

If you like the music, check out the official Zoo City soundtrack from African Dope (half price if you bought the book: use the discount code “marabou&maltese”)

This particular track is by my friend Markus Wormstorm who just dropped his new album, Not I, But A Friend , which you can download here free.