Good morning, friends and fans!
Welcome to “A Peek At My Week”, a behind the scenes look into the (I hope) interesting events occurring in my daily life!
May 02, 2021. So here we are, on a lazy Sunday and I thought it would be nice if I started telling you about some of the things that happened over the past week – things that somehow just don’t seem to belong in a monthly newsletter! Sundays are usually the only time of the week I have time to sit and lazily recount my activities of the previous week, so it’s the perfect opportunity, right?
For the most part, my week was the usual ensemble of dreary routine events – work, book marketing, tinkering on Dolly (my 1962 Beetle and daily transport), arguing with my wife about dinner, and rearranging the furniture – but just occasionally something interesting happens, interesting enough to want to tell someone about!
Here, for your enjoyment, is my recollection of noteworthy events in my past week!
Thursday: My Quintennial Visit To The Traffic Department
For non-South Africans, here in SA we’ve been forced into a system of renewing our driving licenses every 5 years – for no other sane rational purpose other than for the government’s financial benefit of course. Still, if I want to not rack up traffic fines or lose my vehicle insurance, it’s what they refer to as a necessary evil.
I’d booked online using the TD’s new NATIS website online booking facility (findable via the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality website) and I arrived carrying my application for renewal form (printed from their website and filled out at the office) together with my proof of address and copy of ID – and R216 in cash, ready to face the onslaught!
My skepticism appeared validated as soon as I got out of my car and was accosted by a car-guard eagerly trying to shepherd me to one of the small caravans parked on the sidewalk outside the gates of the traffic department, to have ID photos taken!
“No thanks, I don’t need them today!” I reassured him confidently.
“Are you here for license renewal?” He asked.
“Yes.” I replied, harboring a sudden onset of doubt. I’d read the instructions on the website and on the form very carefully, and both confirmed the only reason I’d need ID photos was if I was applying for a temporary license, which I was not. Ergo, or so I thought, I didn’t need them.
“No, you still need ID photos, ma’am! Jus’ forty rands!” The fella told me, pointing at the caravans.
By now we were almost at the gate, and I decided to confirm this with the guy standing guard with a clipboard. I asked him. He confirmed that I needed ID photos. Why weren’t they specific about this on the website and in the forms, I fumed. He apologized and said it wasn’t his fault… I apologized and wondering if I had enough cash on me, took out my wallet and brazenly rummaged inside. If I didn’t have enough, that would’ve scuppered the whole thing – there weren’t any visible ATM’s in the area, and well – Korsten being what it is, I’d even slung my laptop bag over my shoulder rather than leave it hidden in a cranny inside my car! Fortunately I had fifty bucks extra on me, and had ID photos taken in the closest caravan occupied by an attractive young Indian lady.
“Forty bucks,” I grumbled, “Last time I was here, it was twenty!”
With the four ID photos in a little plastic sleeve pinned to my forms, I dashed back to the gate, hoping I wouldn’t have missed my spot in the queue. I gave my name to the chap guarding the gate and he quickly found it on his clipboard. “Engela, 2:15?” he said, and ticked me off. He directed me to a cluster of people standing around in the center of the otherwise vacant parking lot – which has been closed to the public for the duration of the pandemic – filling out forms in assorted colors! I groaned! More forms!
But when I arrived at the cluster of form-filling people, some of whom were milling around and mooing about not having brought pens with them, I discovered that these were forms (for whatever purpose of their visit) being given to people who hadn’t brought those with them either. There seemed to be a sort of race going on between them, with their eyes darting furtively from one competitor to the next, to see who would finish first and claim that sought-after next place in the queue! Sighing, I rummaged in my bag to find a pen.
The assistant supervising the cluster of form-fillers asked me what I was there for and I told him. I eyed the bale of forms banefully, wondering which color one I would get, ranging from bike learners license applications to who knows what the beaurocratic mind had dreamed up!
“Relax!” He smiled, “All you need to fill out is this COVID-19 form!”
He handed me a single sheet of white A4 paper with a handful of questions about symptoms and visiting infected areas, and check-boxes beside them, and two spaces for my name and mobile number! That took me about a minute to complete – while I stood second in the queue! Remember, I’d made an appointment – for quarter past two – and I wondered how long this was going to take!
Not long as it turned out, because before I’d finished filling out my COVID form, the chap in front of me was called by a lady who popped into view in the front door alcove. About two minutes later, it was my turn! The lady took my form, performed a quick temperature check and sprayed my hands with sanitizer, and directed me to a row of chairs with barely any people sitting in them! Chairs were marked as such to ensure people left two seats vacant between them, and I took my first seat. I barely had time to send my wife a message on Facebook chat before I had to get up and move three seats up again.
To be frank, I’d expected at least an hour’s wait in the queue and delays, and a lot of unpleasant time-wasting! However, from the moment I arrived, I noticed that everything was well-organized and running very smoothly. Staff were courteous, friendly and professional. There were enough operators at all the desks and counters (unlike the Home Affairs office in town that had one teller on duty all through December of a year or two ago!). Things appeared to be running like clockwork.
Those of us waiting in the queue (seated on comfy chairs inside the building) all had a good laugh as one of the operators at the testing counter tried to talk an old man through using the eye testing device… telling him which way to tap the joystick in tune with the direction of the legs of the “E” that appeared on his screen…
“The what?” He baulked.
“The legs of the ‘E’! If they’re pointing left, you tap the joystick left!”
“An ‘E’… with legs?” The old man repeated, bemused. Apparently he’d left his glasses at home. Oops.
In the end, the lady got up and fetched a poster off one of the walls to explain the system clearer than she could, apparently. The old man muddled through it, and must’ve passed the test at the end, but the banter was amusing.
As it turned out, the ID photo snaffoo was just about the only thing I could complain about! And I wasn’t the only one to turn up under the impression that I didn’t require any. The operator lady was surprised when I showed her the booking form which failed to mention the universal need for ID photos, and said she’d bring it to someone’s attention, and hopefully not the janitors!
Also, I was a bit miffed about the R50 I was forced to spend on 4 ID photos, 2 of which went back in my bag as they didn’t need them – the other 2 got stapled to my form… R50 to save the municipality about R1 (if they’d printed the photo of me they took with the digital camera on their counter which actually goes on my license)… added to the R216 for the license renewal itself (which is a complete waste of time, money and energy in any case)… plus, sadly – because of the extra expense – I had only R1 left to tip the car-guard with!
Aside from that, though, it was a good experience that reminded me of the swift efficient service you find at SARS to tell you how much you owe them (even quicker), and I was quite impressed for a change. At least I didn’t spend the whole day standing in a queue. Well done, #NMBmunicipality.
Friday: How I Got Signed Up With A Local South African Publisher!
Wait… what?
First, I’m very, very excited about this… so I have to slow down and start at the beginning – also, I can’t tell you too much just yet… You might not know my current circumstances, so let me give you a quick background, and then jump into the actual point here. I’m a self-published author, and have been all my writing career – in spite of being with another US small press “traditional publisher” between late 2014 and early 2016 (essentially a year) – which was a bad, though educational process I’d rather not talk about here.
Since 2016, once freed from aforementioned entity, I struck out on my own again and revelled in the creative freedom and independence that being indie brings. Unfortunately, there’s only so much you can do as an indie, especially if you’re not a rich indie – and worse, a not-rich indie living in South Africa. Marketing costs in dollars and with the awful exchange rate… well, you get the picture. By now I’ve already used every single free channel to promote and market and sell my books, and although money has been coming in, it’s still only a trickle compared to what I could be earning.
Face it, as writers, we write for the love of it – but we publish for the fame and the fortune!
In late 2019, Brandon Mullins (founder and CEO of Moon Books Publishing, based in Indiana, USA) offered to help me expand my reach. We talked. And we chatted. We laughed. We talked some more. By September, Moon Books took on all my titles (by then over 30 including the five books of my late parents) and re-released them via Amazon & Kindle in paperback and eBook formats. Key to our arrangement were the following: I would still market and self-publish my books via other online platforms like Smashwords, EBooks2GO etc, while Moon Books would handle Amazon, in particular paperbacks as well as work to release them as audiobooks.
Audiobooks were a hassle you see, being in South Africa meant I couldn’t engage narrators on profit-sharing deals – but Brandon could! During 2020, five audiobooks were released, and now in 2020, auditions for the first title in the Quantum series have just concluded!
In the meantime, I’ve continued marketing and looked at ways to get my books into SA in paperback form easier and cheaper than local people buying off Amazon! After all, it’s extremely expensive these days, not so? I mean, on top of the seemingly affordable R150 for a book on Amazon, you still need to factor in the cost of postage (which is usually more than the cost of the book!!) the chances the book will probably get stolen when it arrives in South Africa (either at the airport or while in the care of the Post Office) – and now with COVID-19, transport and customs delays that take months! No thanks!
Sometime last year, I stumbled across a local company that ran its own book selling shop website – catering to local buyers. They also offered publishing, editing and cover design services to self-publishing indie authors… but what I needed was marketing and a place to display my books. “Interesting!” I thought, and looked around a bit before sending them an email to ask them whether they might be open to listing my books on their site.
They were – and I was happy to send them the cover files, epubs and “about” blurbs, and they duly uploaded them. In the meantime, things have changed. It seems this company has ambitions and plans – and motivation!
It was in the midst of an unrelated email chat – delayed over several days due to work pressure on their side – that the following came about! The lady I was chatting to confirmed that they’d been interviewed several times on SABC in the past few weeks about entering into a contract with the Dept. of Education, and another contract with SABC itself. What for? Well, to sum up, they will be sourcing and supplying books to government schools… and stories suitable for filming to the SABC! “Well, that’s great, congratulations…” I thought, wishing something like that might come my way…
And then…
She offered me a publishing contract! It looked quite standard in most aspects, but it was also a very generous one, not in terms of upfront finances, but in the sense that I could publish through them formally, traditionally IN South Africa, with the probability that some of my books would be supplied to SA government schools, and possibly earmarked for serial development for TV – all while maintaining my existing self-publishing presence as well as the titles I already published through Moon Books! I was completely blown away!
It’s not every day one is offered a tasty publishing contract – and with all the wherefores and whatnots that come with book contracts, I wanted to be sure how it would affect my books being with Moon Books. The last thing I want to do is betray or let down a friend (I’m very loyal and particular about things like that) 😉 , and so I’ve made certain that I can sign with the local company while leaving all my books with Moon Books as is, so I won’t need to take them down!
Basically nothing will change on the Moon Books side of things as the local company doesn’t deal with Amazon at all, and I was assured they won’t object to Moon Books doing audio, paperback or ebook versions of the books already listed with them. The only caveat is that if I want to publish any new stuff in any of the series they take on, I’ll have to give them first choice (right of refusal). That doesn’t mean I can’t still publish other titles with Moon Books – or independently.
Brandon is ecstatic over my news, as me not being based in the US (or in the same country as my publisher) has been quite a challenge as far as making progress in my writing career is concerned. We are still working on new audiobook titles!
I thought carefully about this – the pros of this deal are they’re local, in my own country, they’re going to put out paperback versions of my books here – which will be much, much more affordable for my South African readers. They’re also connected to the Dept of Education which means my books will find their way into SA schools! (I wonder what my haters with the tight underpants will have to say about that! ) Also they’ve got a contract with the national broadcaster for series and movie deals, so it’s possible that I might get lucky in that department as well!
Of course, with my books becoming available here in paperback form, it opens new doors for me in terms of marketing – book signings, launches and so on, which were out of my reach previously. I’m looking forward to meeting my readers face to face!
I’m simply brimming over with excitement, and now that I’ve signed and emailed them the contract (Saturday morning early) I can’t wait to hear back from them about what happens next – at which point I will probably make some kind of formal announcement!
Saturday: An Intermittent Windshield Wiper Upgrade For Dolly!
Considering the rainy weather lately, I asked a friend to help me out making an electronic intermittent circuit to give Dolly an intermittent wiper setting.
Why would I do this? Well, for several reasons. One, Dolly is a 6 volt car I upgraded to 12 volt, meaning I replaced the bulbs, generator and battery with 12 volt items – as far back as 2015, roundabout the time I decided I was fit enough and there wasn’t much of a view bent over pushing Dolly every other day! This change meant that some items were still 6 volt – the starter, several relays which weren’t affected by the change, and the wiper motor.
Dolly’s wipers are single speed – which basically means they have two settings: on, and off. Because of the resistor I had to install in the feed line that supplies power to the wipers, the wipers start off slow, then as it warms up, faster. In PE sometimes it rains so hard I could swear I have to dodge fish and cetaceans – I had to swerve to avoid some crayfish that ignored a red light the other day! Other days, it’s light drizzle that goes on all day long – light enough that if you leave the wipers on, they dry the windshield to the point where the blades drag across the glass and make that familiar rubber-dragging-on-dry-glass sound!
So then I turn them off. And then, less than two minutes later, the windshield is full of rain droplets again… and so I pull the wiper switch on the dash for one wipe, turn it off again. And again, a minute later. And repeat.
So I had enough of wondering whether I could improvise a sort of intermittent wiper circuit like I had in some of my other cars, and decided to make it happen. I spoke to a friend who is much more into electronics than I am, and cajoled him into building one for me – which he very kindly did, and I received it on Wednesday morning!
On Saturday morning I fitted the completed intermittent wiper relay to Dolly, at the back of the dash out of sight ! It had been built into a small plastic box with just the necessary wires sticking out, and it was easy to figure out and install (albeit with a little swearing)! To give you an idea of the complications involved, the wiper motor is an original 6 volt unit running on an upgraded 12 volt system with resistors fitted to drop the motor voltage to prevent burn-out!
Photos: (1) That little white project board lying on top of the tester circuit in the photo is the actual device (2) the rocker switch to select between intermittent timer/normal wiper speed and (3) the box in place behind the dash. The relay attached to it in front is part of it.
Cheers!
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All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2021.