March Into Romance: New Releases to Fall in Love With!
Deon Meyer
Deon Meyer was born in the South African town of Paarl in
the wine region of the Western Cape in 1958, and grew up in
Klerksdorp, in the gold mining region of Northwest Provence.
After military duty and studying at the Potchefstroom
University, he joined Die Volksblad, a daily newspaper in
Bloemfontein as a reporter.
Since those heady days, he has worked as press liaison,
advertising copywriter, creative director, web manager,
Internet strategist, and brand consultant.
Deon wrote his first book when he was 14 years old, and
bribed and blackmailed his two brothers into reading it.
They were not impressed (hey, everybody is a critic ...)
Heeding their wisdom, he did not write fiction again until
he was in his early thirties, when he started publishing
short stories in South African magazines.
"I still believe that is the best way to learn the craft of
writing. Short stories teach you a lot about story structure
- and you have limited spave to develop character and plot,"
says Deon.
In 1994 he published his first Afrikaans novel, which has
not been translated, "simply because it was not good enough
to compete on the international market. However, it was a
wonderful learning experience".
All later novels have been translated into several
languages, including English, Dutch, German, French,
Italian, Spanish, and Bulgarian.
Deon live in Melkbosstrand on the South African West Coast
with his wife, Anita, and they have four children to keep
them busy: Lida, Liam, Johan and Konstanz.
Other than his family, his big passions are motorcycling,
music (he is a Mozart fanatic, but loves rock 'n roll too),
reading, cooking and rugby (he unconditionally supports the
national Springbok team and the Free State Cheetas
provincial team).