Karina

Chasing Marian, the novel co-written by Qarnita Loxton, Pamela Power, Amy Heydenrych and Gail Schimmel, is out from Pan Macmillan

Qarnita Loxton with her first copy of Chasing Marian, the novel she co-wrote with Amy Heydenrych, Pamela Power and Gail Schimmel.

Synopsis

Four strangers, two cities, one chance online meeting.

Jess is a yummy mummy of two whose life is slowly unravelling and who has recently separated from her husband. Ginger is a happily widowed granny with a salty tongue and a wicked sense of humour. The gorgeous and sensitive Matt is an almost-qualified psychologist, who still lives with his parents. And Queenie, a librarian from Cape Town, has an absent boyfriend and a secret writing habit.

What could these four strangers possibly have in common?

They are all die-hard Marian Keyes fans. And when they hear that Marian is due to visit South Africa to attend a literary festival, they are all desperate to meet her. Together they come up with a mad-cap plan. Will they succeed – or will life intervene?

Marian Keyes

Marian Keyes posted this delightful image on Twitter to celebrate the publication of the novel in which she features. It is wonderful to see these five authors connect across continents and celebrate stories and books despite all the lockdown challenges we have faced in the literary community over the last two years.

Karina

‘Up close with Cape Town-based author Qarnita Loxton’ – profile by Joy Watson

Her ‘Being’ series is reminiscent of ‘Sex and the City’, giving that same salubrious dose of feel-good endorphins that comes with a group of women who are there for each other through thick and thin.

Qarnita Loxton’s Being Dianne, launched in 2021, is the fourth book in a series about the lives of four feisty friends (Kari, Lily, Shelley and Dianne) – the stories of their loves and losses, and the way in which they have each other’s backs when the rubber hits the road. It is reminiscent of Sex and the City – giving that same salubrious dose of feel-good endorphins that comes with a group of women who are there for each other through thick and thin.

In Being Dianne, Dianne is struggling to navigate her relationship with her daughters, particularly the elder one, Kate, who has become withdrawn and seems to be harbouring a secret. Dianne’s first post-divorce relationship has fallen apart. She meets a younger woman, Faye, on Tinder. The prickly thing is that the only people who know that Dianne is bisexual are her friends in the awesome foursome group. And while Faye seems to be planning the wedding cake in her head, Dianne, on her side, is nowhere near ready to commit. 

The Being series started with Being Kari, which was published in 2017, a year after Loxton’s mother died. “It was a bit of a midlife crisis. I was a lawyer and when I had my first son, I quit my job to start consulting. I found that I needed more – something challenging and creative. I did an online creative writing course and it opened my mind as to what I was able to do. At the time, I had come to realise that female friendships were a big part of my support system. They told us on the writing course to write about something that would sustain us for a year, so I decided to write about the friendships between women.”

Continue reading: Daily Maverick

Karina

The Most Anticipated Feel-Good Novel of 2022 …

Qarnita Loxton is one of the authors of Chasing Marian.

Four strangers, two cities, one chance online meeting.
What could these four possibly have in common?
Find out in Chasing Marian, a heart-warming and hilarious story about finding connection and friendship.

Amy Heydendrych, Qarnita Loxton, Pamela Power and Gail Schimmel are friends and established authors. When 2020 and 2021 saw all in-person literary festivals cancelled, they decided to channel the disappointment of not seeing one another in real life (IRL) into writing a novel together. For the title and final cover reveal of The Most Anticipated Feel-Good Novel of 2022, Pan Macmillan SA turned the spotlight on the four awesome co-authors of Chasing Marian to ask them some quick questions.

Continue reading and listen to CapeTalk’s Sara-Jayne Makwala King interview the four authors: “The Most Anticipated Feel-Good Novel of 2022 …”

CapeTalk Interview
Karina

Qarnita Loxton writes about the Exclusive Books launch of Being Dianne

“Last week was actually such fun! I was nervous before the event, as I usually am with anything where there is an audience. But the online part of it added an extra layer of nerves. What if I said stupid things and it was recorded forever? And online makes it harder to tell if what you are saying is interesting to the audience, it’s impossible to know if someone has fallen asleep in the front row. Yes, that happened to Pamela and me at the Franschhoek Literary Festival where we first met. It was my first as part of a panel discussion and Pamela saved the day. Nevermind the sleeping woman, Friday afternoon heat and stuffy venue, she had me and the rest of the room laughing. Last Tuesday was no different, Pamela made it so much fun that I forgot to be nervous and forgot that anyone else was watching!”

Qarnita Loxton Blog

You can watch the recording of the launch here: Exclusive Books FB

Karina

Being Dianne – Qarnita Loxton’s latest novel – to be released in September

Dianne is divorced but for the sake of her two daughters she lives next to her exhusband, sharing a joint double garden. Good for the girls but what about her? How can she move on if Alan and his new fiancée are always around?

Her postdivorce romances have stalled: Andile, her lover turned friend, and Faye, her secret Tinder date turned sometimes lover. Both Andile and Faye want more but Di is not sure what she wants. Her daughters were not thrilled with the idea of her with a boyfriend, will they freak out if their mom has a girlfriend? Is it even worth introducing them if Faye might turn out not to be the one for her?

But when Dianne’s eldest daughter deals with homophobia at school, Dianne feels compelled to speak out and be honest about who she is. With the support of her friends Kari, Lily, Shelley and now Shireen, she might just have the courage to do it. But what will the fallout be?

To find out more and to read an excerpt see qarnitaloxton.com!