Honor, Washe

Honor has been several months in the making, and I am proud to be able to show it off. It was the first publication by Dhafling inc and hopefully there are going to be more issues like it. The vision behind this publication is to celebrate Zimbabwean culture - not all stories are going to be centered in Zim but for the most part all writers are Zimbabwean.
There is so much richness and diverse voices in Zimbabwe and my greatest wish for us as Zimbabweans to tell our stories our way.
For all those interested in getting a copy, leave a comment or email at kudzaimwanza93@gmail.com. Or send a whatsapp message on 0775187605. The magazine is free.

Another of Dhafling publications, Washe celebrates all things Salvation army. In this issue especially we have a special shout out to the General and his wife and very grateful for their visit.

BLOODLINE

The white man in literature

The white man/woman in literature is a topic that has caught my eye of late especially when the white man dates and possibly marries a black woman. It being 2016 in a world that prides itself of equality and global citizens, it was rather intriguing for me to find out that the issue of race is still as tense as ever. People still get judged on the color of their skin, and people still want to separate people based on their race and background.
Intrigued, I decided to include white characters to my stories, and have them date and marry black characters in my stories. In itself, the storyline is dramatic and interesting, but moving away from that I wanted to understand why dating the white man in particular is still a sensitive subject. For my writing, I want to explore the connection between the way we view the white man in generation, in relation to power struggles, colonization and slavery, affects the way we see him, and the way we feel when he starts dating one of our own. To explore this storyline I introduced Carter Grey into A thorn in the Rose.
Carter Grey has an affair with Charmaine Chaire, a married woman and the affair results in pregnancy. Though Charmaine miscarries, her family learns of her infidelity and the whole issue is further complicated by the fact that Carter is white. What ensures is as much of a drama as it is a tragedy.
What was interesting to me was the way in which people responded to Carter Grey and to Charmaine's husband Matt Chaire. Carter was everything Matt was not. He was young, handsome, content, confidence and wealthy. He was someone who could afford to take care of Charmaine in a more respectable manner.  BTW Matt physically, emotionally and psychologically abused his wife. when i was writing, I didnt put into consideration that the way I presented the two men would be analysed along the basis of race.
People appreciated the kind of man Carter was, and just how good he was toward Charmaine, but where bothered that the white man was presented as a saint, whereas the black man was presented as a beast. Again,the way the men acted had nothing to do with their races, but everything to do with their personalities. A thorn in the rose allowed me to better understand how delicate the issue of race is. Whereas I presented the two men as individuals and not representatives of their races, the people who consumed the stories saw past the individual personalities and focused more on the fact that Matt was black, and a savage, and Carter was white and Charmaine's rescuer.

THE BLOODY EPISTLES

i read somewhere about a author who wrote short stories that connected and sort of told one story. Before that, i knew of short stories that shared a theme. I must say, I was very intrigued and decided to try it for myself and I learnt a thing or two about me. 1, I love writing short stories, especially those that tell the same story. writing short stories allowed me to tell the same story but from different angles. in a way, all my characters, no matter how small a part they play in the telling of the story, became 3D. they became real people with flaws and I felt that it added something to my story. For instance, i could now show the family of the victim in  their element, I could show them as people that had lost and that were grieveing.
I would say the fav part of doing this was, i was able to present the victims as people, rather than as a means to tell a murder mystery story.
That was the good part. the bad part, was that I dont think i want to continue writing novels anymore, but at the same time I dont want to be remembered as a short story writer. I am in a bit of a pickle. to date I have written 14 short stories, eight of which tell the same story, but I only have one novel. I am hiding behind the fact that the publishing process is taking too long, but I dont think I will be writing anything abov ten pages anytime soon and that is very worrying to me. on my next posts, I will be discussing the highs and lows, emotionally that is, of writing each and every piece that I wrote.

UNTITLED

I left it untitled , I  really am not sure why. I suppose at the moment I want to worry less about titles and more about the content that I am about to unleash. the first eight posts were me treading lightly. There is that thing where you are afraid of letting out too much too quickly, hence you to tend to pinch data. you could say I was doing that. however, I have gotten to a point where I want to bear it all. my passion for writing and what drives me.
so  the first eight posts were like an introduction on Kudzi the writer. Now I want to explore the work itself. I ask myself so many times why I have this attraction to the macabre.many a time I am able to answer with obvious answers like, I am a fan of  mystery and puzzles. I don't like straight forward books. I want to be scared stiff, and a lot of stuff like that. But I have come to realize, though I hardly want to admit it, that I became a mystery writer in reaction to a traumatic experience I encountered as a little girl.
Back when I was fourteen, I had a close friend of mine and we used to have the best of laughs and the best of everything. We weren't inseparable, but we were close. she had a huge impact on my life, and I would like to believe that I had a huge impact on hers as well.
We were that close, we lived in the moment. In the present.
Then the unimaginable happened. She died after a brief but intense sickness. I remember I cried so hard. I don't think I ever cried like that afterwards. Anyway, I attended the wake, she was buried and life pretty much went back to normal.
At that moment I would like to believe that I pushed everything at the back of mind, and chose to act as if nothing had ever changed. Soon afterwards I began to write murder mysteries, because of the mystery I used to say.
But I suppose I am realizing, its because of my need to understand, maybe to come to terms, I don't know. I just know that when I write and someone dies, I feel a surge of emotions run through me. I weep for them. i experience pain as I put my self in the shoes of those who have just lost.
I started writing at 15, but to date I haven't written anything with those that have lost moving on

SAINTS AND SINNERS

Saints and sinners? More often that note we come across these two words as we try to determine where exactly we are standing. Are we saints? Or are we Sinners? How do we what we are if the world, amd subsequently us, is not black and white but, fifty shades of grey?
I am working on what was originally a short story which is slowly turning into a novel about Saints and Sinners. The story picks up from where Haunted left as it develops the characters, and the conflicts, hinted at in Haunted, as well as show people's true colours, the raw betrayal, pain, misguided intentions as well as the drama that comes with the above.
My aim in writing the novel was to show the thin line between being a saint and being a sinner and how people often cross that line in the pursuit of justice, or whatever it is they are pursing.
Growing up, I liked and often rooted for villains more than the heroes, with the exception of Batman. From my own perspective, most heroes are stuff of fantasy and in now way reflect or try to relate to a human unlike a villain. with this in mind, what I wanted to do, especially in Saints and Sinners, was to show the human side of my heroes.

CURSED BEAUTY

Cursed Beauty came about because of my love of things that are not easily explained. Things that provoke thought. Back when I was in high school I read a short story called the Pomegranate Seed. I loved the story so much, I read it more than once. I don't know what other people took from it, but to me that story began in the middle and ended in the middle there by forcing or rather inviting the reader to think deeply about the piece.
That story was a great inspiration. it tapped into my mysterious side and I decided to pen A Cursed Beauty. The theme came to me as I was reading the bible on the wages of sin. Now I had a theme to explore and an urging to  write a story without a resolution. A story that leaves one hanging, wondering about future events.
Besides that, I also wanted to write a story that would mean different things to different people depending on how they saw the story.
Cursed Beauty is a favorite of mine for a number of reasons. It wasn't easy to write and one too many times I found myself about to quit. But I didn't. I soldiered on and when it was done I was proud with what I had produced. a mystery that made my head spin and my heart skip a beat.  A mystery that showered women in as more than just helpers.