Past Imperfect
Clementine is in a rut. Overshadowed by her indomitable female relatives – her stern, politically correct mother, Claude, her foulmouthed racist grandmother Mac, and her sassy, brassy aunt Maddy — she spends her timing making props for the Drama school (for a pittance) and for her lover Kurt’s art Happenings (for free). Months after graduation, she is still stuck in the Soup Kitchen which she shares gladly with her housemate, Angus, and less gladly with a horde of free-loading ‘guests’. Even her friendship with Jack, her one-time drama teacher, is thrown into jeopardy when a male student accuses him of sexual harassment. When Clem returns early from a visit to her ailing but outrageous grandmother and discovers Kurt and one of his more dangerous disciples ‘locked in earnest discussion, their bodies radiating lust’, she comes to the conclusion that the situation has to change. Homicide seems like a tempting option, but she opts instead for flight. In a moment of bravado Clem books a plane ticket to Paris and accidentally embarks on a picaresque series of misadventures with unsuitable foreigners, which drives her to the brink of insanity and eventually makes her take stock of who she is and what she really wants out of life.Thirty Second World
Alison seems to have life sorted. Despite her high-flying job producing commercials she still manages to keep her infant son on the breast and her daughter in Strawberry Pops. But her texts to her best friend Evie tell a much less glamorous story.
Beth is new to the ad industry and desperate to impress. But the more she succeeds at work, the more things seem to be unraveling at home. And to make matters worse, she’s finding it hard to resist the advances of a sleazy colleague.
Things get really messy when a shoot takes their team to an isolated hell-hole in the middle of the South African bush. Accidents happen and dark secrets are revealed, and soon both Beth and Alison are forced to face some home truths.
Saucy and smart, Thirty Second World is a funny, moving, real-world tale set in the unreal world of the South African film industry.
Threesome – in Touch
Touch: stories of contact was published in 2009 by Zebra Press. The twenty-two stories in the anthology explored “the sensual, emotional and unexpected connotations of the theme of touch”. All author royalties were donated to the Treatment Action Campaign for the fight against HIV/AIDS.
If you’d like to read the story, please click Threesome.
emmavandervliet.com 