Death Dealing (29 page)

weet
- know (
jy weet? - you know?)

wena
-
you

wena
ungowami
– you are mine

whatchamacallit
- what you may call it, thing,
object, whatever it might be

whoonga
- slang for nyaope

woes
- angry, ‘the hell in’,
incandescent

yebo
- yes

yini
?
-
what
?

yislaaik
-
variation of yissus

yissus
- expression of astonishment, derived
from
Jesus

Ian Patrick writes full-time from his home in the United
Kingdom. After working as an actor, director and teacher in theatre, film and
television, he turned to an academic career and for some years published
scholarly essays in a range of international academic journals.

‘Not particularly page-turning stuff,’ he says. ‘Then one day
the editor of a journal with a slightly more commercial and business-oriented
focus, who had solicited an essay from me based on my scholarly research, asked
me what my fee was. I had never considered the possibility that anyone might
want to pay me for publishing anything I wrote, so I suggested that he pay me
whatever he thought appropriate. He did so. After the resulting pleasant
surprise I considered that there might be another dimension to writing.’

He believes that his years as an actor and director now play a
modest part in his writing, as does his past experience in scholarly research. ‘My
fiction is based to the best of my ability on research and fieldwork. I have to
believe every word my fictive characters say, every action they undertake,’ he
says.

‘I endeavour to make my fiction plausible and authentic. This
requires exhaustive work and detailed research, and friends on occasion express
surprise that it takes me at least a year of full-time work to write an eighty
thousand word crime thriller. In my view, however, although it is clearly
desirable to arrive at one’s destination by bringing a work to publication, it
is the
journey
that is the really exciting and enjoyable part of
writing. I can only hope that readers will also enjoy the journey of
discovering my characters and their foibles, their actions and their
experiences. I hope, too, that they will inform me about and forgive me for any
lapses in my work or any errors of detail.’