http:\/\/www.nova-sf.de\/html\/en\/index.shtm<\/a><\/nobr> <\/p>\nWith regard to reading, I have currently read Interzone 201<\/i>, with the stand out story for me being Paul Di Filippo's<\/b> Harsh Oases<\/i>. Other than that, I have read a couple of sf novels by women: Octavia Butler's<\/b> Wild Seed<\/i> and Sheri Tepper's<\/b> Grass<\/i>. Both books were very good and I am hopeful the 'feminine' and feminist voice in SF will continue to grow. (Octavia Butler as a black woman writer provides an interesting take on issues central to Africa too, such as the legacy of slavery.) <\/p>\n
I have just returned from Cape Town, (South) Africa, where the issue of slavery in the history of the Cape is being illustrated in such places as the Iziko Museum's Slave Lodge, operative as such between 1679 and 1811. We paid a visit to the District Six Museum - an area destroyed under apartheid's Group Areas Act with the enforced removals of the local so-called 'coloured' population during the nineteen sixties and seventies. We also made a pilgrimage of sorts to a small island in Cape Town's Table Bay, which was a prison 'home' to so many of South Africa's current political leaders up until just over a decade ago. Sobering stuff, but we did also make time to meet up with our 'whanau' (Maori for 'extended family') and to 'hit' the wonderful Capetonian beaches too\u2026<\/p>\n
Having been born and raised in Africa, spending almost 18 months currently in Aotearoa (New Zealand), and with a planned move back to London, England, I've been thinking a lot about places and what constitutes 'home'. I have plenty of thoughts, images and feelings jostling around, which may make their way into a story one day, if they behave themselves and become a little more coherent.:-) And if there's anyone reading this with ideas about what is 'home,' let me know. Till next time, may we all find, create or keep a good home of our own, which is safe and happy. To a special 2006 ahead for all, I hope\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I hope you have all had at least a good, if not a great start to 2006! I have unfortunately not been able to make contact with Jaroslav Olsa, a knowledgeable man with regard to SF in Africa. I will keep trying. I do believe, however, that Internova, a magazine of International SF, may be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2005blogs","category-2006blogs","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}