Book written in 3½ months after its 26-year incubation
A Great Brak woman has written in three and a half months, a book that had a 26-year incubation period.
Marina Lamb (70) says she was given the “skeleton” of the story many moons ago, but each time she tried to write it, nothing gelled.
Suddenly, it seemed the timing was right and the book, Forgiveness: Glue for fragmented families, “flowed”.
The book is described as: “The journey of one family torn apart and brought together by the forces of faith and fate.”
A young Swede, Bjorn, journeys to South Africa in 1950 and meets a beautiful woman, whom he marries. They have three sons. When Bjorn departs for Sweden with his children, his wife is left in despair. In an attempt to cope with her pain, she marries her counsellor and has three more sons. When a coincidental meeting between her sister and a stranger leads to the tracing of her sons in Sweden, the family is reunited.
Malherbe Publishers describe this fiction work as an “emotionally-charged story of pain, forgiveness and faith”.
Marina, tell us about your book.
It is based on a story I was given. The lady gave it to me in 20 minutes. Once you begin writing a story, you have to start colouring in. You have to make it up and embroider it. It only takes one a day and a bit to read this book.
Is this your first publication?
No, I have self-published before. The last book I self-published was, Understanding being chosen by God, in 2019, before Covid and of course before the Israel issue.
In that book I mention these things.
At the time I “argued” with God and wondered why I should write about these things.
I did not know at the time of writing. It's difficult to promote my own work, but proof readers and the editor of Malherbe Publishers read Forgiveness and said it had the “wow factor”. This is my very first fiction work.
Explain your writing process with Forgiveness.
The short time it took to write the book - three and a half months - eventually was amazing. Everyone said: “Marina, write it.” Now it flowed like a river. I tried to write it before. I had different titles for it, different names, different genealogies for people, but it just was not gelling.
I was writing other books in the meantime and doing research for projects.
What we don't realise is that people tell us about events in their lives and about their families. It's almost like a church sermon and the minister is rambling on and nothing “sits” and then suddenly something he says impacts you and it “sits” on your heart and it does not want to disappear.
How long have you been writing?
Since I was a little girl. I was at boarding school from a young age, so letters were my first writing projects. My mother encouraged me to be descriptive and take note of my surroundings.
Are you new to this area?
I have been living here for 14 months. I come from Zambia originally, but I have lived mainly in Johannesburg.
What has been your vocation?
I've been a business owner my whole life, since the age of 23. The largest business I owned was in corporate clothing. Also, I was a partner in a bio-security company - the food industry, chicken farming specifically.