With Kaylie Seed
Photo by Stephanie van Gelderen
The Down Days parallels the current worldwide outbreak of COVID-19. What emotions did you experience during this time given that your debut novel is also about a pandemic?
It was a very surreal experience to have this world, in which I’d been living in my head for quite a few years, partly come to life. In the beginning I kept catching myself noting and filing away small details, like how your glasses fog up when wearing a mask, and berating myself for not putting them in the book. Or getting chills when I experienced things that I had dreamt up in the novel play out in real life. The first time I had to drive through an army roadblock really spooked me, and for a moment, the parallels between real life and my imagined world seemed just a little too close for comfort. There were also one or two moments of completely irrational guilt, a part of my over-active imagination telling/asking whether my dreaming up this reality had in some way willed it into existence. I consider myself quite a rational person, but this kind of magical thinking made me really relate to Faith (one of my main characters) in a way that I hadn’t thought possible before. Because of her urge/compulsion to see patterns in random data and the need to connect the data in some way, to make things fit, I’d always seen her, as a character, as very unlike me. But on closer retrospection, I believe I do have Faith-like tendencies. I think we all do. I think humans have an inherent need to make sense of things and put disparate things together, to find patterns in life, to find meaning, and sometimes the things/facts we put together in our search for order/sense don’t end up fitting like we think they ought to. And so, conspiracy theories are born…
Where did your inspiration come from to write The Down Days and what kind of research did you need to complete for this novel?
The first seed of an idea was sown when I visited a medical museum in Cape Town that had a display on the history of disease and the relationship between disease and culture. The exhibition set my brain on a path that would eventually, after quite a few years, become the starting point for The Down Days. I read a lot on the history of disease, particularly how disease shaped culture and societies as well as how various diseases shaped the landscape of Cape Town. The work of South African historian, Dr. Howard Phillips, was particularly useful to me. I also read up on the history of Cape Town and the history of slavery and colonialism in the city, as well as books about everything from the nature of truth to why we hallucinate. I read other pandemic novels. I read news articles about the Ebola epidemic which was happening in West Africa. I also read up on various other topics that I touch on in the novel – Venezuelan data dealers, Nigerian hyena men, digital sangomas, amakhosi possession, the South African occult police, how and why fake news spreads, conspiracy theories and why people believe them, etcetera.
The Down Days is a heavily character-driven story. Why did you decide to tell this story through multiple narrators? Specifically, Faith and Sans seem to be the main characters. Where did your inspiration come from for their voices?
It was very important to me to have multiple narrators for this story. One of the main themes I wanted to explore with the novel was the impact of disease/epidemics on culture. I wanted to focus on how what is happening in this city is a kind of microcosm of the problems/ailments that existed in the larger society before the epidemic and how an epidemic manages to magnify these issues. Another theme is how different people react to the same situation and how the different characters interpret and understand the same situation. I’ve always been interested in how something that seems to be a fact to me can be interpreted as fiction by someone else. For example, how something that seems black and white to me, such as the benefits of vaccination and the science behind it, can be interpreted so differently by someone else. Using multiple narrators was a way for me to look at the same situation from different angles, without being judgemental. It was a way for me to get a grip on how people can look at the same set of facts and interpret them so differently. And then, of course, the effect that this has on the spread of misinformation, particularly during times of crisis. Linked to this is the idea of how history is shaped by those who have the most power and therefore the loudest voice. I think in a sense the two main characters in the novel, Sans and Faith, are two different parts of my own personality. But they are also their own people entirely. Sans appeals to my more science-minded, fact-based, rational, and somewhat pessimistic side, while Faith is more of a humanist, more of an optimist who believes (or tries to believe) in the goodness of people. She does hold some dodgy beliefs at the beginning of the novel and is drawn to conspiracy theories, but I think if you are living through a crisis situation in which it feels like there aren’t any clear-cut answers and your government isn’t open and clear in its communication and has essentially abandoned you, it is natural for people to grasp onto conspiracy theories and alternate facts. We have seen it during the Covid-19 crisis and in every epidemic throughout history. Pandemics are the perfect breeding ground for conspiracy theories. When people feel at a loss for answers they will grab at all sorts of straws.
What was the most surprising thing that you learned while going through the process of creating and writing The Down Days?
I guess the most surprising part for me was just the fact that I had managed to write a novel until the very end and managed to get an amazing agent and an amazing editor who connected with the book and were willing to take me on and publish it. Or the idea that there are people out there in the real world who are reading the book and connecting to it in some way, however small. When a reader reaches out to me through Instagram or Twitter to say that they connected to the story in some way it’s an absolute delight every single time. Now I just have to figure out how to do it again.
With such a wonderful debut novel, I have to ask, will there be another book from you soon?
I am about 30 000 words into a second novel that I’m hoping to finish by the end of this year. Wish me luck.
Now that you’ve come to the end of this process of publishing your first novel, what advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Don’t give up. I know, it sounds cheesy, but that really is the hardest part of writing a novel and getting it published. Also: don’t believe people who tell you that being a writer is an impossible dream. Don’t be afraid of rejection. It’s part and parcel of the job. Don’t give up when you receive 1, 5, 10 or even a 100 rejections. Being a writer is more about perseverance and having a thick skin than anything else. Never take criticism personally, see it as an opportunity to learn and grow and look at your work from a different angle. Read! Widely! Read, read and read some more. And then some. Writing is ninety percent editing/re-writing. I think a lot of first time writers fail to get published, because they send out their work too soon.
What is your “must-read” book recommendation and what book has had the most impact and influence on your writing?
Some fantastic books have been coming out of Southern Africa lately. Some that I can recommend are: Triangulum by Msande Ntshanga, Intruders by Mohale Mashigo, The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, Apocalypse Now Now by Charlie Human, The Zulus of New York by Zakes Mda.
It’s tough to say what book has had the most impact on my writing. I read quite widely in different genres and I think everything I read has an impact in some way. I think The English Patient by Michael Ondaatjie is one book that really inspired me to be a writer. The book is not only a joy to read and an old fashioned adventure, but it’s packed with layers of meaning and has so much to uncover. It is a bit like a puzzle inside a puzzle and you get more out of it from every read. Another author who does this is David Mitchell. I loved Ghostwritten especially. And how there are so many Easter eggs and hidden connections and layers of meaning to uncover that the book feels a bit like a scavenger hunt and a great story rolled into one. I also love books that are a mash up of literary and genre fiction, providing both an enjoyable read and lots to learn and ponder on. And children’s books for their pure, unadulterated magic: His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman is amazing. And also anything that’s just a crazy, absurd, and unusual. Fun, literary roller coaster rides like the Library at Mount Char by Scot Hawkins or Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson.