Ask the Author: Jayne Bauling
Answered Questions (15)
Jayne Bauling
Thank you for getting in touch. Script-writing for movies, television and stage is a different technique from novel-writing. There are some good online courses on writing for the screen such as one offered by www.writerswrite.co.za There are also other free online courses, but if you prefer not to take a course, check out the internet for free scripts you can download, to get an idea of the structure - this is what I did when I once set out to write a stage play. I wish you success.
Jayne Bauling
Hi Aziza. Soccer Secrets is set somewhere on the Cape Flats in the Western Cape, RSA. My publishers and I made the decision not to be too specific about the setting, so that readers could use their imaginations and picture a place they knew or had heard of.
Jayne Bauling
Hello Guri, Thank you for getting in touch. It's great to know an excerpt from my story is being read by school students. Cebo is an Nguni name, so the "C" is usually sounded as a click consonant, but those who don't speak any Nguni languages struggle with that, so many South Africans simply pronounce the name with the "C" as a "K" sound, as in "king", "E" as in "pen", and the "O" short, as in the English word "corn". Thus - "Kebo". I hope this helps. I see you asked your question seven days ago, although I only received the notification today, so my apologies for the delay.
Jayne Bauling
Any time after the end of July. My publishers Cover2Cover Books have sent Soccer Season #3 to some high school learners to read and comment on during the current school holiday. Once we get their feedback, we're good to go. By the way, the book's title is Game Plan, and I'm really excited about it.
Jayne Bauling
Well, it's a winter list down here in the southern hemisphere. Among many others, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, The Scattering by Lauri Kubuitsile, and Tannie Maria & the Satanic Mechanic by Sally Andrew.
Jayne Bauling
Driving through a rural village, essentially a hamlet, in South Africa, I noticed a quaint little church in the only proper road through the place. I promised myself I'd return and have a look at it the next day after spending the night in a nearby town. Next day - no church. Not in the road, not along any of the lanes and tracks leading out of the village ... So, what genre? Paranormal, with a 'ghost' church? Or psychological, with a writer no longer able to distinguish between her fiction and the real world?
Jayne Bauling
As a YA author and fan, I'm going with Katniss and Peeta. I loved how that relationship was developed, and the suspense of knowing Peeta was right for her, but Katniss not knowing it!
Jayne Bauling
Absolutely! Soccer Season Book #2, Offside, is Mondli's story, and will be available very soon. Ginelle will also be getting her own book - I can't wait to start writing it.
Jayne Bauling
Only insofar as it's from the same publisher, Cover2Cover Books, and that it was the popularity of Soccer Secrets that prompted the idea of a series of books about the members of soccer club. But Soccer Season is a completely new series, and all the characters are new.
Jayne Bauling
I don't think it's writer's block in my case; it's just that sometimes it's harder to come up with ideas than at other times. A trick that works for me is simply to get started. The most insubstantial wisp of an idea begins taking on life, becoming an actual plot and developing multiple strands the moment I start writing. Fascinating research into whatever subject I might want to write about also starts the ideas flowing.
Jayne Bauling
Being able to share the characters and situations I've created, letting them exist for others too, instead of keeping them hidden in my head.
Jayne Bauling
It's the old one; read as much as you can, and write as regularly as you can.
Jayne Bauling
Following Soccer Secrets, the same publisher (Cover2Cover Books) and I conceptualized a trilogy which will be called Soccer Season. I've been busy with the first book which has the working title of Playmaker. It is actually finished, save for some tweaking.
Jayne Bauling
My inspiration comes from everyone, everywhere and everything: people met or heard about, places I've been or even just driven through, things glimpsed or overheard, stories in the news.
Jayne Bauling
My country South Africa's national women's soccer team is frequently more successful internationally than our men's team, and yet girls and women are still often mocked or worse if they play what is perceived as a 'male' sport. This attitude, and overcoming it, seemed a good theme for a YA novel; the novel's other themes, such as sexual abuse of learners by teachers, and difficult family dynamics, were issues which have always concerned me. Soccer Secrets was the result.
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