A Milnerton-based author and photographer has released his third Afrikaans fiction novel, Ivoor – terug op dodelike spore.
Jaco Wolmarans’s latest work was inspired by his first book; Bos – die snykant van verraad, which is an Afrikaans novel around the fight against rhino poaching by former SADF recces.
Ivoor follows up on characters in the Bos, Tex and Carlos, and the revelation of an ivory smuggling network that almost claimed their lives at the time. It deliberately sweeps into the present and takes them back on deadly tracks to where it all began – after a final, deadly settlement.
His second novel, Skag – sand verberg alle euwels, is based on the South African nuclear bomb programme in the 1980s and how it “almost went wrong”.
Mr Wolmarans is working on a fourth novel; he does not have a name for it yet but is already five chapters ahead, he said.
Mr Wolmarans said he enjoys writing in a quiet space where he can really “get into the characters.”
He said his favourite part of writing the novels has to be doing the research. Although the books are fictional, he prefers having correct dates, times and places detailed in the book.
He said the books involved digging into a lot of old documents and information that he received from sources he did not want to reveal.
“I have been collecting contacts in the intelligence and special forces fields and they help me with a lot of the information,” he told Tabletalk.
He first started writing short stories 20 years ago; he has never tackled a novel until Bos.
Mr Wolmarans said he is not a full-time writer as it does not pay that well but likes to call his writing a “labour of love.”
Ivoor – terug op dodelike spore, published by NB Publishers, sells for R320 and can be found in book stores and online.
For more about author Jaco Wolmarans and a glimpse of what goes on behind his writing processes, visit his website at www.jacowolmarans.co.za
