28 Jan 2019

Once in a while a movie lover stumbles on a series that ends with a cliff-hanger.

The suspense might be that the character one so much loved ends up in trouble and the movie lover had wished a knight in shining armor of some sort could appear and save the former but it ends with no help or respite on the horizon for them.

And this usually leaves the movie lover with a feeling that evil has somewhat triumphed over good and would wish they could do something to change the fate of their favourite character in the story.

As for the 21 year-old Lame Isaac of Lotlhakane East near Kanye, the anxiety and curiosity that naturally comes with movies ending with a cliff-hanger have fueled her passion and creativity to pen her debut book entitled the scent of a woman.

Speaking to BOPA in an interview Isaac said she had always had a flair for writing from a tender age of 14, but her major break came in 2017 when she published a book. She said that her appetite for writing was whetted by a certain Chinese story called “My Golden Life” which she used to follow on Btv in 2014 while she was doing Form 4.

Iaac said the series ended with a cliff-hanger or a situation where it was not clear what would become of her favourite character in the end.

But instead of sitting back, folding arms wishing things had been different for the character, she let her imagination take flight and committed her imaginary ending she had so much anticipated, to paper.

Happy with her piece of work, Isaac later converted her imaginary ending into a short play and never looked back until she wrote the book which revolves around love.

The book chronicles a love story in which a married man left his wife for another woman who as events later unfolded was only interested in his wealth. As fate would have it, the woman used the man and dumped him afterwards.

The man ended up poor, with neither of the two women he had loved.

She explained that the book somewhat warned readers to love but be wary of fortune hunters who might come dressed like true love.

She said love was a beautiful thing that should be allowed to blossom and carry love birds to cloud-cuckoo land without fear.

She said her long standing, burning desire to write was helped by her voracious appetite for reading especially novels when she was growing up.

She said reading a wide range of books strengthened her moral muscles, nurtured her knack for writing, broadened her scope and most of all compensated for what she lacked in terms of formal training as a writer.

With a view to enhance her writing skills, Isaac along the way took a three months course on lexicography in South Africa in 2016. She also entered an essay writing competition in South Africa where she scooped position one and two at different stages.

She has so far printed and sold 300 copies of her book to different vendors both locally and abroad among them, a certain Zimbabwean writer called Thomas Khambuyi, Bala Books and the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development.

Isaac has encouraged young people to support each other and live purposeful lives. “Have a vision, a dream that makes you want to wake up in the middle of the night to achieve it,” she said. ENDS