Barking at Dogs arrives September 16

Here is where things stand, for the impatient and the merely curious.

The book is written. It has been written, unwritten, and rewritten more times than I care to admit, every story bled over, read aloud to the wife, daughters, friends, dog, and proofed to within an inch of its life. There is now a glossary at the back, so my American friends will know that a bakkie is not a baked good, and that a dompas was no laughing matter.

The cover is done. The thing has a spine, an ISBN, and delusions of grandeur. As I write this, it is trundling toward the printers like an overloaded bakkie on a dirt road: rattling and coughing smoke, but getting there.

Next stop, pre-orders. After that, an audiobook narrated by my younger brother Evan, who speaks Xhosa and will have you pissing yourself laughing.. Then, on 16 September, just before Heritage Day, Barking at Dogs goes out into the world to fend for itself. There will be a launch party closer to home too. Details when I have them.

If you grew up where I grew up, or left South Africa and never quite left it, you will recognise some of the themes, especially the ache and absurdity of watching a country coming apart.

Leave me your email and I will tell you the moment the book is ready, and shout the date and place of the launch. No spam. I hate spam nearly as much as I hated exams.

See you on the other side.

Leon