Still Gifted & Talented

A Working Title Project

The Backstory

A recent graduate and new to the commuters life, I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands. The journey between home and the office twice a day offered me 4 hours of uninterrupted me-time. What was I to do with it?

I gradually fell back into my childhood love of reading, somehow eclipsed by homework and academic research between the beginning of high school and graduating university. Suddenly racing through multiple books a week - truly embodying the colloquialism of 0 to 100 in 60 seconds - I’ve found myself with a lot of thoughts and few places to express them. There are only so many hours my friends will tolerate book-talk at the pub though, especially when I also bring my knitting with me. (Hi Maya and Clare!)

Along with this rekindled love of reading was an old draw to writing: not only the intrigue of social commentary nurtured during my anthropological degree, but the pure fun of creative storytelling I’ve had since childhood.

Still Gifted & Talented harbors both of these feelings: not only the innocent intelligence of a self-admittedly smart child, but proving to myself that graduating university was not the death of my critical intrigue.

The Objective

I have no strict outlining of what I want to achieve with Still Gifted & Talented, but I know I want to dedicate myself to something that is borne truly of myself. Develop my brand, if you will. Get a foot in the door, perhaps. Put myself out there, dare I say.

I know I want to develop a Voice. Who is Nathalie? What do I stand for, and what can I not stand at all?

I know I want to read good books. What genres do I enjoy, who do I think is brilliant? What is the formula for a theoretically favourite book?

I know I want to practice my writing. What is my style, do I have any at all? What can I do with it?

Although not disasterly ambitious, I think these are some relatively sound objectives to have.

Me, as a Reader

I will not lay claim to any sort of superiority when it comes to reading: what’s good is good, and that will change from person-to-person. The fact is known, the law is writ. I will, however, talk your ear off about what I think is good. Those things just so happen to be the following (in no particular order):

1) Jonas Jonasson: beyond the lyrical name, JJ has a way with creating connections where there rationally should be none. Taking place in Sweden to some capacity, his stories follow delightful characters, whose antics are hilarious, and always feature someone falling in love.

2) Ecological Science Fiction: I want a terrible near-future breakdown to be handled by a mix-matched crew of loveable, yet fallible, characters. RE: The Swarm (Frank Schätzing, 2004) and Venomous Lumpsucker (Ned Beauman, 2022).

3) A TikTok Sensation Romance: the ‘exactly what it says on the tin’ genre of romance taking social media by storm has me kicking my G-damned feetsies (I am just like every other girl and I love it). Extra points if the first book sets up a sequal with the MCs’ best friends.

4) Epic Fantasy: I am as succeptible to the charm of a quest as anyone is. You mean to tell me I can ready about magic, adventure and perhaps a companion creature as well? Sign me up.

5) Morally Grey Women Who Do Disgusting Things For the Sake of Their Sanity: breaking up the humdrum of everyday life with the internal monologues of self-destructive and simultaneously oblivious woman as she navigates the internal cyclone of the feminine body, being, behaviours and overall experience? I’ll have that to go, please.

6) Cape Town: going into a book for one thing and halfway through finding myself in the setting of my childhood - removed and foreign to me now - is an instant tear jerker.

7) Ultimtely, I Love a Smart Author: the ability to not only create these alternative universes through storytelling, but to elaborately utilise beliveable scientific theory, be incredibly funny or just have a way with words and narrative, will always leave me shaking my head in awe.