Ask the Author: T.M. Clark
Answered Questions (8)
T.M. Clark
Hi Li'l Owl,
My last book Nature of the Lion (Nov 2018) is available worldwide as an ebook released through HarperCollins (so Amazon i-books and all the normal places), however, the others have not sold world rights, so they are only available in Australia and New Zealand. If you want copies I am always happy to send directly to you, but postage to the USA from here is a killer...
The new book Cry of the Firebird (Nov 2019) will release worldwide as an ebook too - and the same thing, happy to send anywhere in the world for you, but postage can make it costly.
Thank you for reaching out to me.
Bye 4 now
Tina
My last book Nature of the Lion (Nov 2018) is available worldwide as an ebook released through HarperCollins (so Amazon i-books and all the normal places), however, the others have not sold world rights, so they are only available in Australia and New Zealand. If you want copies I am always happy to send directly to you, but postage to the USA from here is a killer...
The new book Cry of the Firebird (Nov 2019) will release worldwide as an ebook too - and the same thing, happy to send anywhere in the world for you, but postage can make it costly.
Thank you for reaching out to me.
Bye 4 now
Tina
T.M. Clark
Hey Beatrix,
Apologies for the time taken to answer you - I was not aware readers could interact and ask questions on here - and just saw it - you learn new things on Goodreads everyday!
I hope #3 Tears of the Cheetah is just as exciting or I'm not doing my job as an author....lol
Thanks for the question.
Bye 4 now
Tina
Apologies for the time taken to answer you - I was not aware readers could interact and ask questions on here - and just saw it - you learn new things on Goodreads everyday!
I hope #3 Tears of the Cheetah is just as exciting or I'm not doing my job as an author....lol
Thanks for the question.
Bye 4 now
Tina
T.M. Clark
Cross fingers and toes and everything else... have not had to deal with this yet. Because I had written multiple books before I got published, that dreaded 'second book block' was avoided. And at the moment I have the opposite problem - so many stories building and cooking in my head, I can't write them down fast enough...and I don't want to forget them, so I jot down ideas, snippets to come back to another time...
So 3 years later..I am coming back to this question... I have now had to deal not so much with a writer's block, but with a challenge of self-worth as a writer. Having gone through a health issue, I developed a disbelief in myself as a writer. So the stories were still there - I just suddenly thought they were no good. Admitting this problem went 3/4 to the way of solving it, and then additional plotting and continued writing sorted out the rest. The support of many other writers along the way, saying that they too suffered this was nice knowing about, and I learnt that each person has to face themselves in the mirror and deal with these inner demons in their own way. Lucky its a phase and it passed.
So 3 years later..I am coming back to this question... I have now had to deal not so much with a writer's block, but with a challenge of self-worth as a writer. Having gone through a health issue, I developed a disbelief in myself as a writer. So the stories were still there - I just suddenly thought they were no good. Admitting this problem went 3/4 to the way of solving it, and then additional plotting and continued writing sorted out the rest. The support of many other writers along the way, saying that they too suffered this was nice knowing about, and I learnt that each person has to face themselves in the mirror and deal with these inner demons in their own way. Lucky its a phase and it passed.
T.M. Clark
Not having to get dressed for work and put on makeup :) Oh and using peoples names, then killing them in fiction because you can't go around doing that in real life! LOL
T.M. Clark
Sit your butt in your chair, and write. Make time to achieve your dreams because no one will write your story for you!
T.M. Clark
Child Of Africa, is my December 2017 book...I am working on the next already - WIP name is Concerto for the Flamingo, and its set near Kimberley, in South Africa. I am learning so much about the area as I do the research and write this story - and about the lesser flamingo's too.... hope my readers love this story as much as I do.
T.M. Clark
I do make Pinterest board for all my books. I listen to African styled music, including sounds of the Bush ( Yes like lions roaring, bird calls, and Champaign Frogs croaking etc...) to ensure that I layer my work with natural bush sounds. I sit down at my desk and I write.
T.M. Clark
Most recent book - Child Of Africa...This book began forming in my head in 2010/11 when I took my boys home to Zimbabwe for a holiday. My overprotective husband and dad-in-law were against me driving from Durban, South Africa to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (the lone white women in a car is an easy hijack target thing). My cousin (okay not blood-related cousin but as close as…) British Royal Marine Alistair Burton, had just arrived home in Zimbabwe, from his final tour in Afghanistan, and he flew to South Africa, collected the bakkie from my dad-in-law, and met me in Johannesburg. That way, I was still independent and had my own wheels while travelling around, but I had an able ‘male escort’.
Thankfully Alistair was not hurt when he was serving in the Royal Marines, but my overactive imagination began writing the story. Enter Joss, my hero in the book. Loosely based on Al.
This was not an easy trip for either of us, the black sense of humour of Africa was forever present while we were in Zimbabwe, and then for a long time afterwards. The ‘cougar’ older women travelling with the younger man. Also the ‘weaker women’ syndrome everyone assumed I had suddenly developed. But it got me thinking – despite our relationship, this was a stigma to a man there, having an older woman as his partner, that needed to be addressed in one of my books!
During this holiday, we were staying at Ivory Lodge just outside Hwange National Park. (Yes, its family again – real blood ones this time.) We had the unexpected privilege of attending to an elephant within Hwange, that had a poacher’s snare around its leg. We were part of the team who along with the vet and his volunteers work their miracle of darting it, removing the wire and treating the wound, before bringing it around again to go live free. I got to chatter to the vet for a little while, and the passion and dedication that this man showed to the animals within that park, despite the politics, and the lack of resources stuck with me. Enter my heroine, Peta.
Bongani's character started as a smaller role, but in the end, this is also very much his story. For him, I took inspiration from every article I have read about the BaTonga people and how their lives and culture have been so disrupted, by the building of Kariba Dam, and I asked my self the questions, what would my hero Bongani do, and why?
My villain... Tichawana. He isn't based on anyone, and I want to wish there was no one quite like him in the world, but that would be a waste of a precious wish...
Thankfully Alistair was not hurt when he was serving in the Royal Marines, but my overactive imagination began writing the story. Enter Joss, my hero in the book. Loosely based on Al.
This was not an easy trip for either of us, the black sense of humour of Africa was forever present while we were in Zimbabwe, and then for a long time afterwards. The ‘cougar’ older women travelling with the younger man. Also the ‘weaker women’ syndrome everyone assumed I had suddenly developed. But it got me thinking – despite our relationship, this was a stigma to a man there, having an older woman as his partner, that needed to be addressed in one of my books!
During this holiday, we were staying at Ivory Lodge just outside Hwange National Park. (Yes, its family again – real blood ones this time.) We had the unexpected privilege of attending to an elephant within Hwange, that had a poacher’s snare around its leg. We were part of the team who along with the vet and his volunteers work their miracle of darting it, removing the wire and treating the wound, before bringing it around again to go live free. I got to chatter to the vet for a little while, and the passion and dedication that this man showed to the animals within that park, despite the politics, and the lack of resources stuck with me. Enter my heroine, Peta.
Bongani's character started as a smaller role, but in the end, this is also very much his story. For him, I took inspiration from every article I have read about the BaTonga people and how their lives and culture have been so disrupted, by the building of Kariba Dam, and I asked my self the questions, what would my hero Bongani do, and why?
My villain... Tichawana. He isn't based on anyone, and I want to wish there was no one quite like him in the world, but that would be a waste of a precious wish...
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