Zoë Scholtz

'Never judge a book by its cover...' (English idiom), I can't recall how many times I've heard this. Except...  I   do. There I said it, I absolutely judge a book by its cover, in particular when its   my  book!  The next phase of my writing adventure started out well enough, I emailed the final draft of my manuscript off to the publishing team, attended the introductory meeting, and then thought (hoped?) I could sit back and wait for the finished product to arrive. Ha! How wrong I was, I came to realise that my hard work had only just started! The writing aspect,  pffft  that was a walk in the park compared to this next phase. Strike one  I have always maintained that sometimes it's better to not know what I am getting myself into, and rather just take whatever process I am in as it comes. This was a prime example of such a situation, and only served to reinforce my belief. I started to appreciate the requirement for active involvement when I rec...

Early in January 2020, it was a weekday, a day like any other. I was at the office minding my own business, working away at a spreadsheet. My phone vibrated, signaling incoming email. I glanced at it, but since I didn’t recognise the sender (Renate from  The Writing Room , something about not mucking about …?) I assumed it was spam and ignored the mail. When I finally got around to checking the many notifications on my phone later that afternoon, I realised that the email seemed to require my attention: Apparently, my mom had signed me up for a book writing mentorship and I had to complete and submit forms. Wait… What? Incredulously I started at the screen, rereading the email whilst I wondered what on earth my Mom was plotting this time around. There had to be some mistake. Writing a book was something that proper authors did, not a task to be tackled by a bean counter with a full-time job. There was no way that I had the talent or the time to spend on such a gargantuan projec...

Did you ever think you would live through a global pandemic?   I sure didn’t.   It started out as a weird virus in China towards the end of 2019.   Hubby and I watched it all unfold from afar for a while, we were particularly concerned since his daughter lived in Beijing.   The sneaky infection allegedly started its rounds in Wuhan, but quickly spread throughout China.   It wasn’t long before the virus decided to broaden its horizons and infected the rest of the world.   South Africa wasn’t spared, registering its first positive case on 5 March 2020.   Lockdown and locked in The statistics and impact were scary enough to mobilise decisive action from government, resulting in the President declaring a Nationwide lockdown, effective from 26 March 2020.   The initial lockdown was referred to as a hard lockdown, one of the most stringent in the world.   Initially declared for a period of 21 days, government ultimately extended the hard l...

  When someone asks me to elaborate upon why I am qualified to do something, my accountant brain immediately starts processing (I know, I know, Mrs. Analysis Paralysis). My first thoughts typically go to the more obvious stuff, such as qualifications and certificates. Should I assess that I fall short in the formal qualification category I resort to whether I have any experience. I went through this process when I was asked to answer the question why I am qualified to write this particular book. Initially, post my assessment, I concluded that I had neither the qualifications nor the experience, I felt very unsure of myself. 'What on earth did I think I was doing? Why did I agree to do this and what could I possibly put on paper to convince someone that I can do this?’ I wondered quietly. Nevertheless, I diligently sat in front of my computer and cranked out a few efforts. Ugh, none of those attempts resonated with me… My first draft sounded idiotic – Not even I believed what I had ...