Zibu Sithole is a journalist and mom to an awesome little boy.  She’s a storyteller with over a decade of experience writing for TV, radio, print and digital media. Zibu is also the secret pen behind some of your favourite romance novels. The Thing with Zola is her first novel published under her own name.

Zibu Sithole (image supplied)

 I grew up in the Eastrand. I lived in Groeneweide for some time, but Thokoza will always be home.

The greatest influence on my ideas of romance and relationships is my parent’s relationship. Unfortunately, it has ruined real relationships for me, they set the bar really high.

Another strong and early influence was soapies. All the older women in my life have at one point or another been dedicated to a soapie and followed all the drama religiously. Days of Our Lives, the Bold and The Beautiful, Sunset Beach, Generations, Muvhango and drama series I first watched as a child like Kwakhala nyonini gave me a taste of how dramatic and tumultuous romance could be. Not as simple as Disney said it was.

My first literary crush was Odenigbo (Chimanada Ngozi Adichie, Half of a yellow sun) I still think of him and strive to write characters someone could feel as strongly about. I read the book first because everyone was or had read it, and then again because even though I have never been to Nigeria, have never been married and have very little in common with the characters I could somehow still relate and be moved by their ‘lives’.

Peace Adzo Media (His only wife), Bolu Babalolo (Love in Colour) and Dud Busani- Dube (Hlomu series), Angela Makholwa (The Blessed Girl) and many others have all moulded my idea of contemporary romance and the context in which our fictional people fall in and out of love.

 This is not your first book but your first published in your name. How are you feeling about it?

Ghost writing is so much easier because as soon as you hit send on the manuscript you can forget about the book. It’s not your story, not your name and what happens to it is none of your business.

This book is actually mine. Seeing my name on the mock covers sent me into an imposter syndrome frenzy which was unexpected, because this isn’t the first book I’ve written, I write books for a living. But this is my book, my ideas, my imaginings and my name on the cover.

It’s a lot like sending your child to school for the first time. You know she’s beautiful, funny and entertaining, but you’re also really anxious about whether people will get her and like her.

Being anonymous gave me the confidence to play with style, experiment and learn along the way without fear of judgement. What I don’t like about it is how limiting it can be. The story is not mine, I can’t let it unfold the way I want it to, there is a formula and a storyline to follow and it can be frustrating.

I have been a journalist for, most of my writing career, but it’s as if as soon as I got into it I wanted to get out of it. I wanted to write, because it’s what I like and because I need to make a living journalism seemed like a no-brainer. Before I realised I could just change direction I always sought out creative ways to make journalism work for me.

While working for a weekly magazine (Move! Magazine) I cobbled soapie teasers into articles which often became the Magazine’s cover stories. It should have been, but wasn’t clear then that I loved fiction. I then worked as a Storyliner for a soapie (7de Laan) and loved it, I was allowed to completely immerse myself the world of make belief unrestricted by reality.

I ended up back in journalism and spent that tense time during the pandemic as the health and food editor of an online magazine. I was miserable and anxious all the time and when the magazine closed down I was so relieved.

While job hunting I saw an advert seeking ghost writers. I had never written romance before let alone erotica, but I desperately needed change and of course to make a living.

I really got into writing romance novels and even though there were challenges I’m finally doing what I actually want to do. I know myself so much better than I did before and I am not as hard-core as I thought I was. I absolutely love love. I am very into softness and those fluttery feelings that come with it.

In summary I chose romance because after the pandemic and thinking the world was ending, I want to do more things that make me happy and I hope at least one person gets a good belly laugh and feels giddy reading this book.

What African Romance authors have done better than other writers around the world is write their love stories in context. It’s never in a vacuum, life is always going on while our characters fall in love.

‘The Thing with Zola’ is set in today’s South Africa and explores the reality of young South African’s falling in love. What sets this novel apart is that it shows a gentle love, it has its issues but it is the soft, feathery love we often see reserved for white characters in movies and books. We are more than ‘imbhokodo’ and there is so much more to black love than suffering and persevering, it’s important that we see it and know it so we can choose it for ourselves.

#Itscomplicated

Although the issues are not the centre of the plot, circumstances relating to youth unemployment, nepotism, corruption and the growing social and economic divide between the haves and the have nots create the circumstances around the plot making it a story that could happen to you or someone you know.

Zola and Mbali’s Romance is, in a way, cross cultural because the political elite and ordinary South Africans live very different lives.

My characters are fictional, but I do borrow traits from people I know or have met. I pick things up from people’s conversations in taxi’s, at restaurants and other public places that sometimes stick with me and morph into an entire story on the page.

– Zola is a little stuck up and has lived most of her life with blinders on, hyper focused on a life in Europe. She is driven and demanding not only of the world but of herself too. She works really hard to build the life she has always dreamed of and just when it is within reach it all falls apart and she has to come back to South Africa, bitter and resentful.

– Mbali is rich, handsome, charming… practically perfect, but he is a mama’s boy. On the surface has always had the easy life, but money has not bought him happiness. He has everything on a silver platter handed to him by his father, but he wants to make his own name. Mbali is rebelling from the perfect life his parents have planned out for him and doing things his own way.

– Okuhle is a princess used to getting everything she wants. Even though she can sometimes be a brat (even as a grown woman) she genuinely wants to do the right thing. Okuhle is a hopeless romantic and doesn’t know when or even how to quit. When faced with adversity she doesn’t know

What particular emotions do you want your novel to evoke in your readers?

11) I hope readers share the mix of excitement and uncertainty that comes with new love. Through the pages I hope to evoke a range of emotions from including the unavoidable cringe.

* Can you share some insights into your writing process? Do you meticulously plan your plot or let the story unfold organically? Did you have a set writing time?

12) I plan the ending first, I decide what I want to happen in the end then work on the sequence of event s that would bring us to that ending. Nothing is set in stone as I work. I often move back and forth because I thought of something new to add or a different direction to take the story.

I write between work assignment and home-schooling my son. I don’t work 9-5 and while it can sometimes seem chaotic my days don’t always look the same. I set weekly deadlines for tasks and arrange and rearrange the things I need to get done during each week. I am happily learning the art of slow living.

* Romance often involves intimate scenes. How did you approach writing those moments with sensitivity and authenticity?

13) With ‘The thing with Zola’ things are pretty much PG, which is what felt right as I was writing. I did not want to steal from the story by going all the way just for the sake of it.

Generally, though I try to write intimate scenes in the most natural way possible. I gently build up to it and make it a part of the story rather than throwing into an unexpected scene that is both uncomfortable to write and read.

Having dabbled in erotica I’ve grown comfortable with building that giddy tension, something that freaked me out in the beginning. The most important thing for me is for everything to happen and feel natural.

Another thing that is important is the difference between intimacy and sex. There are tender moments that can make and even greater impact than a full on explicit scene. Imagining yourself in those situations and putting myself in the character’s shoes and in their mood informs how I write.

* In romance, the “happily ever after” ending is a staple. Without giving away spoilers, can you talk about how you approached crafting a satisfying conclusion?

14) Accepting that women (first) and people in general can be happy and sometimes even happier without the big wedding, and without the partner opens you up to an infinite number of happily-ever-afters. Romance used to be based on the same formula fairy-tales. That’s changed and I think readers look forward to cheering the protagonist on as they choose what’s best for them more than they do for the traditional happily ever aft

* What are some of your favourite romance fiction authors – local and/or international?

15) I am a sucker for the classics Jane Austen with her headstrong female protagonists will always make the list. Beverly Jenkins is a trail blazer in black romance, African romance is more relatable for me and I can super impose myself into the story more easily because of cultural and social similarities, so my list grows by one author with every new novelist I find out about. It’s hard to actually make a list, but this year I have read Paradise by Rosemary Okafor, His only wife by Peace Afdzo Medie and in a bitter mood re-read Bitches Brew by Fred Khumalo and The polygamist by Sue Nyathi neither of which end happily ever after but have the perfect ending all the same.