Author lives in two worlds

Author Chanisse Kara in marketing mode with her book Riding Wolf telling a story she found in a dream. Picture: Duncan Guy

Author Chanisse Kara in marketing mode with her book Riding Wolf telling a story she found in a dream. Picture: Duncan Guy

Published Jul 6, 2022

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Durban’s water crisis gives author Chanisse Kara flashbacks to some of her writings.

Water is the theme of her 2019 novel “13 Hours to Baghdad”, a story in which public money is misused, supposedly to fund a water sanitation project.

Kara’s writing journey has taken her on the self-publishing route, as well as promoting and selling her books and finding a clientele in libraries, at schools and in book stores.

Signing copies of “Riding Wolf”, at Exclusive Books in La Lucia Mall, finally not needing a mask, Kara told The Independent on Saturday she had mastered delivering presentations and interviews wearing one, during the pandemic.

After the initial hard lockdown, she was never sure how much marketing she would be able to do but, in the end, found herself giving presentations and interviews, while masked, at libraries, schools and book stores.

She launched her first book eight months before the pandemic hit.

“We were in level four, level three. I didn’t expect it. I thought everything would be closed but I was just so happy to be selling through the pandemic.”

“Riding Wolf” is a spin-off of Little Red Riding Hood and in the fantasy genre and focuses on the character, Scarlet, who is a shy and vulnerable girl that does a deal with a wolf, which cures her of her inhibitions.

Kara said the story came to her in a dream.

“I had a dream of this girl who has an illness and was victimised by everyone in her village.”

The Independent on Saturday

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