Stingers is being taught in High School

It's been quite a while since I last spoke about how Stingers is going to be taught at Bracken High School.

Well, the time has come. This week and next, the Grade 9 English pupils will be reading it.

On Saturday, I happened to meet with the teacher spearheading this. She showed me her lesson plan for the term, and gave me permission to share it all with you (Sorry if it's a bit blurry; my photography skills aren't the best):

Winter Reading

Winter's really snuck up on us here in South Africa. Just last week, we were saying that we couldn't believe it was supposed to be autumn; daytime temperatures were still peaking at thirty degrees. Then, Good Friday comes along, and boom! We're lucky to hit twenty.

I don't mind, though. Winter's snuggling weather. And what better way to snuggle, than with a good book. Just at this moment, I'm reading A Dance With Dragons, the fifth instalment of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. And it's winter, so it's very appropriate.

What's your favourite book to read in winter?

Meet Hilda, of the Alberton Public Library

A few weeks ago, I donated some of my books to the Alberton Public Library, and I'm very proud to announce those books have now been included in their catalogue.

I took a trip to the library on Saturday to meet up with Hilda, the wonderful lady who made this possible. She's in charge of taking on new stock for the library, and this woman is passionate about South African authors!

She agreed to pose for the photo you see above, holding up two of my books: Heritage of Deceit and A Petition to Magic. I'm holding Stingers.

We're standing in front of the South African authors' display at the library. The brainchild of Hilda, it's going to be a central place where works by contemporary SA authors are showcased... and mine will of course be on those shelves.

I also snapped a pic of the inside of Stingers, now that it's been catalogued, stamped, and is ready for borrowing. How cool is that?

Do you have a book-buying budget?

Over the past few months, I've come across a few readers who have a dedicated budget each month for buying books, and when that budget is done, it's done.

On the one hand, I think that's a great thing - as are all budgets - because I also know quite a few readers who happily spend their "bread and milk" money on books, and are completely broke by the end of the month.

I run Hotjar on my website (if you run a website, you need Hotjar!), where on each of my book pages, I ask users one simple question: "If you didn't buy this book today, what stopped you?"

Last month, I got a surprising response to that question. It was from a user in New Zealand, who said "I will be buying this book, as I really want to read it, but my budget for this month is up. I'll buy it next month."

Whether she's bought it or not, I cannot say, but I thought that was a really interesting answer.

Do you think she's going to go back and buy my book, if she hasn't already? And more importantly, do you have a monthly budget (and do you stick to it) for buying new books?