Ginny Stone was born in Zimbabwe way (way way) back in 1962. She grew up in Malawi, then moved to South Africa, finished school and started adult life in Somerset West. Her first real job was as a secretary at a nuclear research institute, which her family found hilarious, considering she had “Hope Abandoned” written on her high school science report. Stone eventually ran the outreach department for iThemba LABS—a multi-disciplinary research laboratory, until she and her husband, a materials scientist, moved to Springs in Gauteng, South Africa in 2007. (Stone is fond of saying that she has a Ph.D. – she married him!)
Although she’s been scribbling for most of her life, this proved to be the real start of Stone’s writing career. Since then she has had seventeen books traditionally published, three of them have been translated into seven different languages and another has recently won an international award. She has also self-published twelve books, two of which are a direct result of having written a weekly column in a local newspaper for over eight years – A Dog’s Blog.
When she’s not writing, she develops and designs educational games, for both schools and industry, which are being used around the country.
Stone adores reading, fabric painting, gardening, mosaicking and walking in nature. She currently lives in a rambling old house in Pretoria East with her husband and a variety of extended family members—aged mother, anxious arty daughter, 3-month-old baby and boyfriend and her step-son. In addition to this human zoo, they also have two rescue cats and a very neurotic, yet adorable, sausage dog. Stone has a lovely elder daughter who is a teacher, happily married and lives in Cape Town with her delightful little troll of a seven-year-old, Isabella.
LQ: What does your writing process look like?
GS: I’m a pantser. No doubt about it. I do however, like to base most (not all) of my writing on things that I have experienced . I sit down and write.
LQ: What was your favorite book to write so far?
GS: Jack, the Hooligancat – although it still is in the editing process. It’s about our rescue cat (who is really a Warlock from Planet Og who was banished to Earth as a kitten), that I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2019 – it just flowed and was such fun to write. Although I enjoy writing all my books – and Out Damned Spot was cathartic.
LQ: Who is your favorite character to write about?
GS: I’d have to say, Fudge. She was our rescue dog and I wrote a weekly column on her behalf for more than 8 years. I’m in the process of turning those into a series of books. I loved that dog so much. (Sound like an animal nutter – don’t I?). But now that she’s gone I don’t really have a favourite. I love all my characters equally, although Granny Catty (Imaginaeries) is a real snarky cow sometimes, just like her creator.
LQ: Who are your favorite authors? Have any of them influenced your work?
GS: I love so many authors, but top of my list is Bryce Courtenay. Raul Dahl and Dr. Seuss – probably influenced my writing for kids.
LQ: How are you doing during the current pandemic?
GS: We’ve been locked down in South Africa for 19 days now and our original 21 days just got extended by another 2 weeks.
Mostly fine. I live in a small village, remember—so there is no such thing as getting lonely. Although luckily we all have our private bits of the house. Usually, I work from home, so that’s nothing new. But now my quiet work time is filled with other people and it is slowly starting to get to me. This morning I had a meltdown because one of the family members ate the last piece of pizza that I had stashed in my don’t-touch box in the fridge. I sobbed like a baby. Normally I would have marched into his room and yelled at him. Seriously, we are so much better off than so many people, I would not dream of complaining.
LQ: What are you currently working on?
A couple of things –
(a) the sequel to Wizard of Wigwash: The Adventures of Johnny the Penguin—called Promises and Lies.
(b) Finishing up Jack, the Hooligancat – my NaNoWriMo novel.
(c) Working on a Sibo title on the topic of staying safe as far as viruses are concerned – will make it the 15th in the series.
(d) Writing the 4th novella in The Imaginaeries series – Down at the Heel – it’s the back story of Madame Shews – the famous shoe designer .
(e) I’m also updating Sibo’s website often with free fun stuff for kids to do – https://sibo.co.za
LQ: Anything else you would like to share?
GS: I’ve also put together 5 little anthologies for children on different values – Kindness, Gratitude, Trust, Mindfulness, and Recycling. These are short stories, written by writers around the world. The 5th on Recycling came out just before Easter. There are all also available on Amazon – any profits that I make I recycle into printing the books for kids who don’t have books – of which there are way too many in South Africa.
When I’m not writing (or sneakily playing Spider Solitaire) I love to work in the garden and I’ve recently discovered a cool method of making stuff that involves landscaping material (made out of recycled plastic bottles) and cement. This is enormous fun. I made very sure to stock up on both before we got locked down and all non-essential stores were closed.
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