Elaine Hemingway is a writer with a wide and varied writing
CV. Retired now, she spent many years in Africa and was once a regular contributor
to a local newspaper with a column called Stille
Oomblik, which translates to Quiet Moment.
‘I had to give up the column,’ she says, ‘when we moved to
Natal.’ But clearly the writing bug had well and truly caught her long before
then, and her publications track her progress down Africa, with a short story
in a Zambian newspaper, an article in a car magazine reflecting the
self-sufficient life she and her family had to lead, and her Stille Oomblik column from the
Transvaal.
Elaine has long nurtured ambitions to write a longer piece. ‘As
we moved down Africa,’ she says, ‘I became fascinated by the history, acquiring
the diaries of Johan van Riebeeck and attempting an historical novel based on
his time in South Africa.’
Was the book ever completed?
‘Sadly not, because life continued to intrude,’ says Elaine,
‘and I became more adept at procrastination. But it was my religious values that
brought me back to my writing. I grew up with Christian beliefs, but only after
a particular disaster did I come to full commitment and find my niche. Writing
and studying became a real pleasure, to be indulged more deeply. My Stille Oomblik column was a part of it.’
Elaine ran a Resource Centre which demanded a lot of reading
and presenting of reviews. She also led a home Bible Study group and
Experiencing God courses, all of which left little time for general writing
although she managed a couple of articles in Baptist Today and Christian Living
magazines. After this and after producing a 40th anniversary brochure and
magazine complete with interviews with all the many Pastors, Elaine says, ‘It
seemed inevitable that we would start a writing group and that’s what we did.’
This writing group spawned a self-published novel from one
of the church deacons as well as many other forms of writing including biblical
crosswords. ‘We even started a quarterly Church News mag,’ says Elaine.
Elaine and her husband Dennis moved back to England, after
which the group disbanded but the Resource Centre still continues.
Since her retirement Elaine has
become an active member of the
Faith Writers and has completed the annual
NaNoWriMo challenge which she intends doing again this year. Elaine has used NaNoWriMo to kickstart
an ambitious project, a Midrashim – fiction based on a Biblical account – in
which she interleaves a present-day story of Marla, a young woman struck by
sudden tragedy, with the story of another young woman, Shayna, caught up in the
Babylonian wars of around 600 BC.
And how does it feel to have her
major work well underway? ‘It is really taxing me,’ says Elaine. ‘It’s far more
difficult than preparing Bible studies! Juggling two time frames isn’t making
it any easier so I waver between perseverance and procrastination.’
I have had the good fortune to
have heard some extracts from Elaine’s magnum opus. She has captured her two
time-frames exquisitely, portraying the grief and despair of the modern Marla,
and the terrifying maelstrom of war in which Shayna is swept up.
Don’t procrastinate too long, Elaine, and please come back
here to let us know when the book is finished.
The Accidental Spurrt by Walt Pilcher
