I am an avid kickboxer and train five times a week. My
trainer is Carlos Andrade, former WKA European
Light-Heavyweight Kick Boxing champion and every Friday
morning at eight he gets to kick me around in a full-on
sparring session. Sadly, I broke my ankle a few months ago when I managed -- much to my surprise -- to kick his leg out from underneath him. For details of this heroic battle, please check out my blog entry: 'Broken Bones'.
My other great love is music. Without
it, I would not be able to write.
Music
I am passionate about music, so much so that I wrote a novel about it. Titled The Other Side of Silence, it tells the story of three friends trying to solve the riddle of The Pythagorean Comma – one of the oldest mysteries in the science of sound. But this is a mystery not meant to be solved...Read more about it on my website: www.natashamostert.com.
Who do I like? A few favourites:
Nina Simone: voluptuous sophistication and crystalline purity. Leonard Cohen: Super sexy poet. Shahin and Sepehr: My favourite background music when writing. David Hykes and The Harmonic Choir: They do things with their voices that is not humanly possible - every time I listen to Hearing Solar Winds it takes my breath away. Opera: My mother is a voice coach for opera singers and I was fed baby food while Casta Diva was playing in the background. That kind of indoctrination is hard to shake. Loreena McKennit: She sings the way I wish I could write. Tori Amos: Strange (wonderful) little girl. Bruce Springsteen: He's the boss. Dragonforce = Metal poets. Borodin's second string quartet. Pachelbel's Canon – the Leppard/English Chamber Orchestra rendition. I'll take any Bach I can get. And any Mozart. Vanessa Mae playing Classical Gas. Ottmar Liebert Francis Cabrel The Killing Floor Seal'sKiss of a Rose.
Any Hans Zimmer soundtrack.
The soundtrack to the Inspector Morse series New Order. Crystal is best. Razorlight Incubus R.E.M Cengiz A personal friend. A cool guy making great music.
When I'm homesick I listen to Splash, Patricia Majalisa and the Dalom Kids - all great performers of South African Mpantsula jive.
Movies
Too many to mention. Old favourites that relax me: Gattaca, Lawrence of Arabia, Stakeout, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, Tootsie, Manon des Sources, When Harry met Sally, Children of a Lesser God, 84 Charing Cross Road, What's eating Gilbert Grape, Pride and Prejudice (with Keira Knightly). John Sayles movies. Alan Parker movies. Michael Mann movies. Kathryn Bigelow movies. Jackie Chan movies!
Television
Inspector Morse, Battlestar Galactica, Ultimate Fighting Championship (I'm a huge Randy Couture fan – his first fight with Lidell is one for the ages – and the fight against Sylvia - Randy, you beauty!), Simon Schama on Power of Art, Firefly, Numb3rs, Shark - if only for James Woods. Best timing of any actor around.
Books
Too many to list. A few favourites: Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea. Donna Tart's The Secret History (but not The Little Friend). I am fascinated by Cormac McCarthy's use of language, if sometimes perplexed by his narrative. Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris – how is it possible for any one to be this clever and erudite without being irritating? Neil Gaiman: imagination to the square Anything by Jorge Luis Borges. William Gibson's Neuromancer. Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje. The Apothecary's Daughter by Patricia Schonstein. Sports books: Robert Twigger's Angry White Pyjamas. Dark Trade by Donald McRae. Suspense writers: Barry Eisler, PD James.
Horror: Stephen King.
Heroes
People who manage to face up to everyday drudgery and routine with humour and determination. The nine-to-fivers whose lives may not have much heroic content but who stick it out for the sake of their families and still manage to see the funny side. The ones who, as the Neil Young song says, "never get to fall in love, never get to be cool," but who keep the faith.
Likes to take midnight rides on horseback and practices levitation twice a day
OK, the part about the levitation and the horses is made up. The 'raven-haired psychic'
description might be slightly over the top as well. And I haven’t seen a ghost yet, but I
plan to. The bit about the suspense novels is true.
I live in London and I write dark, psychological thrillers with a strong dash of mysticism and
the paranormal.
My fourth book, Season of the Witch, is a modern gothic
thriller about techgnosis and the Art of Memory and is
now available in the UK and the US.
It received a starred review in Kirkus, which describes it as a 'brain-
squeezing thriller' and another starred review in Publishers Weekly, which
calls it 'goth SF at its finest'. The novel has also garnered praise from
writers such as Mo Hayder who describes it as 'a mesmerising blend of alchemy and
sexuality'.
I have lived in South Africa, New York City and London. Previous jobs include selling shoes,
teaching Afrikaans at a South African university and moonlighting as a project coordinator in
the publishing department of a public television station in New York City. I now write full-
time.
To read an excerpt from Season of the Witch,
click here
.
Note for book clubs: Please visit my website at www.natashamostert
.com for discussion questions on Season of the Witch.
Season of the Witch launch party in NYC. The lovely lady in blue is my editor, Julie Doughty.
NEW! I have added a discussion board on my website and would love to
hear your ideas. This is a free-wheeling discussion board, which is not just about my books
but is open to anything that excites your imagination. You are welcome to start your own topic
or add your voice to some of the other threads. Please jo
in us!
More praise for Season of the Witch:
'Renders suspense, an atmosphere fraught with eroticism, and compelling characters. Fans
of Anne Rice and Joyce Carol Oates should appreciate Mostert's take on mysticism, magic and
the ancient art of memory.' Booklist
'saturated in beauty, with wonderful observations, insights and eroticism...a
bewitching book.' Ian Watson, author of The Jonah Kit and the
screen story for AI.
If you'd like to know more about me and my work, please visit my website:
www.natashamostert
.com
Memory game: Try it out!
To promote my new novel Season of the Witch, my website includes an interactive memory
game with prizes to be won. The game is now live, so please visit my
site and check it out. It won't work on your Playstation 3 or X Box and there is no fake
blood or things that blow up but it's a pretty cool game anyway...:)
The site also features a synopsis of the novel and I have posted notes that will give you a
behind-the-scenes peek at how I plotted this book. Click here to visit the site: www.seasonofthewit
ch.com.
Why mysticism?
My interest in mysticism started in early childhood when I was growing up in South Africa. My
aia (nanny) was a Zulu woman who introduced me to African legends and the world of the
insangoma (witch doctors). For many years I thought she was the coolest person on the
planet and tried to emulate her in every way. I remember exasperating my mother by insisting
on stacking several bricks below each corner of the bed to keep out of reach of the
tokkelosh – an evil gnome with an enormous head but very short legs! Years later I
would write about this in The Midnight Side. The concept of witches and witchcraft
would surface again in Season of the Witch.
A different kind of woo woo
Even though I write about subjects, which many people consider far-fetched and fey, I always
embed them firmly within a realistic, every-day framework. The ghost in The Midnight
Side does not drag chains or howl outside windows - she finds it more amusing to
manipulate the stock exchange. My witches in Season of the Witch do not use boiling
cauldrons as their tools, but computers and code. By carefully blending hard fact with
paranormal conjecture, I hope to seduce my reader not into a 'willing suspension of disbelief'
but into accepting unquestionably the veracity of the world I build in my books. My research
for my novels is intensive and rigorous.
Praise for Natasha Mostert's novels
'Bedtime reading for the brave' The Times (London)
'A unique, wild imagination' Bangor Chronicle
'Classy psychic thriller...original, unsettling...
kicks the usual preconceptions into shape' The Literary Review
'absorbing psychological detail...
climactic surprise, a humdinger' Kirkus Reviews
'hauntingly elegant' Booklist
'a brilliant tale in the thriller genre
with little dots of spirituality here and there' Cape Times
'Highly accomplished' Toronto Globe and Mail
Who I'd like to meet:
Oscar Pistorius: fastest man on no legs
Aung San Suu Kiy
Thomas Friedman
Neil Gaiman
Joyce Carol Oates
Archie Moore if he were still alive (imagine still being the world light heavy weight boxing champion at age 49.)
Hello, still busy? Hope it's going well. If you get a minute could you take a quick look at my latest blog and tell me what you think. Cheers, keep well.
I haven't been by in a while and thought I'd stop in and say hi. Hope you're having a relaxing Sunday. The Pats and Red Sox are playing, so I know I will.
A Demon Awaits will be out on October 14th. I'm excited for the release, the screenplay and the new book I started about a month ago.
I don't know if I'd describe myself as a female martail artist. I used to do pro wrestling as well as martail arts but can't much now as I am always at work when my classes run. I will be interested in your new book after finishing reading Season of the Witch.
It is funny that you say Morgaine would have been a great name for a third witch sister as I keep thinking I would probably make a good basis for a character in a book based on my own life. I follow an egyptain influenced style of witchcraft, but as my ancestors are mainly Scottish and Irish I feel the pull of the celtic gods. However the egyptain Bast made it clear early on in my path that I was to follow her. I also live near a community of orthodox jews. A branch of my family were jewish and as it is from my mam they consider me jewish so keep trying to get me to join them. I should get writing about me in a fictional context. Lol.
Thank you for adding me. I love Season of the Witch because it was so original. I read so much and it seems I can always find a book simmilar to the one Im currently reading. Thank you for keeping it original and writing such a wonderful story.
Hi Natasha! Touching base here... Been busy with purchising a house etc, etc. Closing's coming and up and all the "fun" things that go with moving. I'm trying to get back to the daily life. The only thing holding me back is the flu. LOL Hope you're doing well.
