This Q&A with the wonderfully talented Futhi Ntshingila first appeared in our newsletter. If you’d like to see more things like this, and find out about giveaways, and events, and new releases, and lots more, you should subscribe to our newsletter. We’re fun, we’re nice, and we promise not to flood your inbox. Interested? Subscribe here.
We Kiss Them With Rain by Futhi Ntshingila was released on March 13, and this emotional story of hope and resilience has had quite the ride. It earned starred reviews from Kirkus and Shelf Awareness; Literary Hub included it in its list of “15 Books You Should Read This March” (and if you didn’t listen to them the first time, it was also included on the site’s list “5 Books You May Have Overlooked in March“); and it earned high praise from both Booklist and School Library Journal. It’s fair to say that her book has been making quite an impact, and we couldn’t be happier. We chatted with Futhi recently to talk about her book, her writing process, and what’s next for this talented author.
Can you talk about the process of writing We Kiss Them With Rain?
I mostly wrote the book in the evenings after work and on my off days from work. The main idea and plot carried in it had been percolating for some years starting from a news story I had followed during floods years back. This is when I was working as a journalist. The impression I got from watching humanity struggle against nature was so strong, it stayed with me.
I wasn’t a journalist by the time I started writing this book. I had no mind maps or cue cards in the process. I simply put down what was on my mind; I listened to the characters and wrote. It was only after I felt it was all down that I started to maneuver and make sense, adding and cutting out other stuff.
I got a few people to read and give me feedback. Then there was editing prior and after approaching publishers.
What’s your writing process like? Do you have a writing routine?
This is the second book I have written using the same method of an idea and impulse. Some days there is more, other days not so much. I don’t rush my writing which is to my detriment sometimes because I can easily be lax until a considerable amount of time has passed. I like not being in a rush though. I find that I write best when I feel I am in the zone and the narrative is flowing.
How do you approach writing your characters?
On initial stages I try to tell on the characters immediate to me, the ones whose story just seem to want to come naturally without me applying tricks of writing. I draw from life experience, journalism days and my listening to what it is and where it is the main character wants to go. I do research not so much on the character but on the conditions surrounding the story. Some of the main characters [in We Kiss Them With Rain] like Zola and Mvelo felt so real to me without much of my maneuvering. I think the strength of the women in the books attest to the strength of women I have observed around me in real life. The aim was not to deliberately make them seem strong; it is just what it is around me. Women on the fringes of society put up with a lot of adversity, and they keep at it without having to be cognizant of their strength.
What do you hope that US readers are taking away from your book?
I hope the readers enjoy the experience of reading a story that I think will be removed from their immediate experience but also so familiar because human experience connects us no matter where we are. The socio-economic class set up in my book is dissimilar to the conditions of most US readers but the feelings of love, loss and courage are similar to any human.
Last year, you mentioned that you were working on an isiZulu translation of We Kiss Them With Rain. How’s that going? Is it available yet?
The translation was done and sent to my publisher. It is a waiting game now.
Speaking of translation, your book has also been translated into Portuguese. Are there any other translated editions on the horizon?
There may be but nothing solid yet.
What are you working on now?
I have been having a lot of starts and stops with nothing hooking me enough to focus on one thing. I have a few half-written bits that I think are not to the level that I can confidently talk about. I gave myself till end of the year to come up with something solid.
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