Adrian Magson Blog Tour

  

Hi everyone. I know I have been absent of late. I will catch up soon, honest. But I wanted to let you know that on 21st October I'll be hosting a Q&A here with the lovely Adrian Magson. He's dropped by before to talk about writing female characters and he's got a new Rocco crime thriller out on 19th October called Rocco and the Nightingale. If you've never read him before, you don't have to have read any of the previous Rocco novels to pick this one up, so please pre-order your copy or buy on the day. Release day sales mean so much to authors. If you have a question you'd like to put to Adrian, you can let me know via Twitter (@AuthorMGW) or Facebook and I'll try to slip it into the interview.

Adam Ruins Everything

I really enjoy Adam Ruins Everything. Some of my favourites include free websites, hospital costs, death, Columbus and tipping (which is a major bone of contention between Brits and Americans abroad).

Emma Interviews George R.R. Martin

In Emma style, for those of you who don't know... Emma Newman is the voice behind the Rosy Hours audiobook. She's also a very successful author in her own right, and runs the Hugo award winning podcast, Tea & Jeopardy. In this special live edition from Worldcon, she interviews Game of Thrones creator, George R.R. Martin.

Musical Interlude: Whatever

What Now?

 

Oh, heck. I can't believe how long it's been since I last updated.  I got swept away on the tide of life. So much has been happening.

We built a piano frame! The first ever in Rwanda.

All hail Samuel, modelling said piano frame above.

Suave. Sophisticated. Very gold.

The rest is causing a bit of brain ache, but we're getting there slowly.

My awesome cousin Tamsin came to visit with her partner, Guido. Last stop on a seven-month tour of Africa. You can follow their onward adventures in Dubai, Asia and India on their blog. We did lots of fun things, including drinking, partying and exploring a creepy abandoned funfair at midnight. Lots of sobering things too, like Kigali and Nyamata genocide memorials.

Mostly what's kept me away is another batch of textbook editing for Rwanda Education Board. I work through an education consultancy as a proofreader. There's a little team of us. It's hard work, but also quite a privilege to think that the words we help to polish will be read by school children up and down the entire country. That's fairly fabulous. I've been doing so much proofing lately: textbooks, children's books and two novels (not mine), one of which I'm due to start working on after I finish this contract.

I'll get back to blogging eventually but, after a heavy day of editing, all I'm really capable of is cracking a beer and watching movies.

Piano Girl

I do apologise for going so quiet recently. It's because I've been making a lot of noise in other arenas. Namely as a piano tuner and repair lady. Busy sorting out my Kigali Keys project. I have done a small amount of writing, but that has rather taken over for now. That, and turning my back shed into a self-contained guest apartment. Lot of builders in the yard from early in the morning until dark. Off tile shopping tomorrow. Hard to get much done with that and a recent spate of internet issues. I have family visiting this weekend, and once the building's finished and things have returned to normal, I plan on returning to writing. Until then, I can mostly be found wandering around Rwanda dressed as a piano. What do you think - new uniform?

2nd Edition

Very excited to read this article in the New Times today:

Activists are pushing for the recognition of sign language as one of the country’s official languages.

This would make it the fifth official language after Kinyarwanda, English, French and Swahili.

The development comes at a time when the country is awaiting a new sign language dictionary, which is expected to be ready later this year.

The dictionary, which would be the second of its kind for Rwanda, has been in the works since 2014.

I first came to Rwanda as a sign language researcher, and was involved with the inaugural dictionary right up to its publication in 2009. We travelled all around the country, documenting regional linguistic variations. It's really great to see it's being updated, and that the fight to recognise sign language is going strong.

 

1st Edition