Thabeng shares life experiences
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Tuesday February 22, 2022 06:00
Born in Maun, Thabeng is an author and poet who is also aspiring to be a motivational speaker. She decribes herself as an artist because she says she considers herself a creative. "I wrote and published three books. These include a novel titled “From The Ashes”, a story titled “Still Waters” and a combination of poems & short stories called “Silent Voices”. From The Ashes is about how teenagers struggle with life and changing of environment. It is about bullying at school, HIV/AIDS, cancer awareness, parenthood and abuse. To be honest, it is a story that engulfs almost every situation that both teenagers and parents deal with on a day-to-day basis.
On the other hand, Still Waters is a simple depiction about what happened to a lot of people when the corona virus hit our country. How it affected individuals as well as those around them while the short stories and poems were just a challenge that I gave myself. "Growing up without a mother was very difficult even though I was living with a family that regarded me as one of their own and I had the support of my mother's siblings. I felt like there was a piece missing. So I would write in my diary, make up a story about how I wish life would be or how I thought life could be if she was still around. That is when the novel actually came into play.
That was a starting point of me being a writer. Everything came flooding in. I never saw myself struggling with coming up with writing. I picked up a pen, book and let every emotions flow. It was at that moment that allowed my mind to travel into my imaginary world," she said. She further explained that writing fiction was breathtaking for her. She added that she even surprised herself because she did not expect it to turn into a book and neither did she imagine that one day she would be holding it in her hands.
She also explained that her books were more like her love letter to her mother and also her goodbye letter to her. Thabeng also said not having a mother inspired her to write fiction based on real life experiences and gives people hope that no matter what they are going through and loosing loved ones, life still goes on because they might have left but they are irreplaceable and God chose them because He had a plan for you. “Everything He does He does intentionally. God does not make a mistake you”. Furthermore, she stated that she targets almost everyone who is interested her books and passionate about reading.
From The Ashes has 196 pages and 10 chapters, Still waters has 46 pages and four chapters while Short stories and poems book has 55 pages. It has five short stories and five poems. “All three books carry one message which is never give up in life, no matter the circumstances, no matter the obstacles because those are just stumbling blocks that are made to give us strength.” However, publishing the books was not a walk in the park as this young author had financial difficulties and was forced to fund herself. She also pointed out that she struggled with finding a trustworthy publisher because there are a lot of crooks nowadays. Moreover, she pointed out that the fruits of her labour seemed so sweet.