I love starting work on a new novel, mostly
because for me it’s an exciting journey with God. My latest novel has been no
different.
For quite some time I’ve wanted to write a
story set in the winelands of South Africa, but hadn’t given much thought to a
story idea. Getting dressed for work one March morning this year, as per usual
I mused my way through mascara and blush, thinking up story lines (and
discarding them as fast as the next color applied to my face). This particular
Tuesday morning, however, an idea stuck and I realized it had the potential for
a great novel. Soon my story world emerged. The winelands, at last, would be
perfect.
Weltevrede vineyards
As I had recently completed writing my Nano
2012 novel and am still in the editing phase, I didn’t feel up to beginning
work on another manuscript. I decided, however, that I’d do Nano 2013
differently. Being a Pantser, I determined to use the time between March and
November to be more of a Plotter on this story—eight months to plan, plot,
research, do character sketches . . . whatever it is that Plotters do. When I
told my sister the idea for my next Nano novel, her immediate response was: “I
can’t wait so long for you to write that story. You have to write it now.”
I told her I’d think about it. By that
evening I’d discovered Speedbo 2013—set your own writing target for the month
of March. Suddenly I had the perfect excuse to begin work immediately on my
winelands story. I, like my sister, couldn’t wait till November. By the end of
March, I’d have 31,000 words written.
Three days later we visited my sister and her
husband on their farm, ninety minutes from where we live. Her husband kept
asking me when I was going to publish my books, that I couldn’t keep writing
good stories and not doing anything with them. I tried to explain to him that
it wasn’t so simple, that writing the book was the easy part. We were still chatting
about my writing and my new novel, when suddenly he disappeared. Minutes later he
returned with the Landbouweekblad magazine—the Afrikaans equivalent of Farmers
Weekly—that had been published that same day. He opened to an article
titled “Moving Diary of a Strike.” The piece was an emotive glimpse into the
diary of wine farmer, Philip Jonker, and how, based on Christian principles and
a belief in relationships, he tried to solve the problems of the farm laborer
strikes that had led to great uncertainty and fear in the Western Cape in
November last year.
I was so moved by his story, that I went to
the Weltevrede website, got his email address and wrote to him. I admitted to
not being quite finished reading the article because it was slow going for me
as it was written in Afrikaans. Philip immediately wrote back and sent me his
entire journal of this experience . . . in English. It was a fascinating read—a
real David and Goliath story of this humble wine farmer’s unshakeable faith as,
led by God’s Spirit, he walked into an angry, emotionally swept-up mob of more
than five hundred armed with pangas,
machetes and clubs. He shook the leader’s hand and asked to speak to the
people. He spoke hope and encouragement to the crowds that day and in the days
to come.
Philip and Lindelize Jonker
That was when I decided I had to make a trip to
Cape Town in May and spend a night in one of the cottages on Weltevrede. As I
shared on my previous blog, this trip was brought forward a month.
Unfortunately, being the Easter weekend and school holidays when we went down,
their cottages were already booked. I determined not to return home before
paying Weltevrede a visit. So my husband, son and I made a day trip to the
Robertson valley. Not only did my visit
to Weltevrede, meaning ‘Well Satisfied’, yield contact with Philip Jonker and
his lovely wife, Lindelize, I also discovered two intriguing things on their wine
estate.
You’ll have to wait till my next blog on Monday, 29th April though
to read about what we discovered at this hundred year old wine estate.
If you’re interested in reading Philip’s
journal of the farmworker strikes, please send a request with your email
address in a comment below.
