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I'm certain this is one of the most exciting blog posts I'll ever write. Over the last few months, I've written a lot about writing as an art form, I've given advice on what to do and what pitfalls to avoid to achieve the goal of a completed manuscript. Today, I get to speak about my own completed manuscript and it's very, very exciting.
Perhaps the most exciting part is that I literally remember every stage of the very long process that it took to get here. I remember thinking of my title (always my first step because an exciting title gets me amped up enough to get through the first few chapters). I remember getting lost in the first draft, first excitedly crafting the characters, and then finally just urging myself to get through it. I remember revision, rewriting, and more revision. I remember letting my first reader (my husband) see it and gingerly awaiting his feedback.
I remember entering it for the Dinaane Debut Fiction Award and freaking out when it was longlisted. I remember the disappointment of not making the shortlist. After weeks of wallowing over the manuscript I was letting collect dust on my drive, I remember the tiny voice that said, 'Dude, you can publish this by yourself. And now there's a real, tangible book baby. Birthed through my late nights, deep laughs, and very real tears. The characters in this book are some of the realest people I know and it's my joy to share them with the world. Finally. I published this in August so it's taken me quite a while to do that. At first, I wanted to just celebrate it by myself and then later with a small inner circle. Then I suffered from imposter syndrome and all the while there was Covid-19 because...2020. It certainly has been a year, but I couldn't let it end without properly celebrating one of the greatest highlights it held for me. I PUBLISHED A BOOK!! And not just any book, a beautiful novel.
I'm extremely proud of this book I hope you're moved to get it and read it.
'So what is this novel about?' I hear you asking from way over there. I'm glad you asked.
The Pots is an adult novel, centered around the coming of age story of sixteen-year-old Makhosi Mthethwa, whose typical village life in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa is disrupted by her mother’s acquisition of a potter’s wheel. When her mother teaches herself how to use the wheel to make pots, Makhosi must help her fulfill her goal of selling them. The two will have to face Makhosi’s increasingly abusive father, who is threatened by his wife's potential independence. Makhosi will also have to confront her seemingly unbothered older brother as the turmoil builds in their home, in a society where male dominance is the norm. Mama must take all the shame and the abuse, her price to ensure that Makhosi pursues her education and has a different life, even as it kills her. As Mama slowly dies, the three of them must break past the stereotypes that have always governed them and figure out how to be a family without the glue that kept them together.
That is the exact blurb on the back of the book, a summary I spent a ridiculous amount of time writing and revising so I know I couldn't have possibly written it better than that. Outside of what's in the blurb, I'd say that The Pots is a story about family. It's a story about the intricate relationships within our homes, that define us if we let them. It's a story about courage and pushing past the boundaries of the norms that we've always known. It's about wanting better, imagining better, and striving for better even if you don't know what that looks like and have never been given any reason to hope for it. It's about sacrifice and ultimately, most importantly, it's about love. From the title, you can tell that it's centered around mothers and daughters (a theme I love), and that relationship is certainly pivotal in the story. I would even go so far as to say that The Pots is an ode to womanhood. Perhaps most interesting (and heartbreaking or upsetting) is the limitedness of that celebration of womanhood when the story is set within the confines of a patriarchal society. I enjoyed every character in this story and I am grateful for what they were able to bring to it.
If you're so inclined, you can buy the book here. Thank you to everyone who's bought, read, and shared feedback with me. It's difficult to articulate what it all means to me, just know that I truly appreciate all your support.
Sending you my best,
Noni
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