I could not be more excited about having an author interview with Sally Andrew, the creator of the South African icon: Tannie Maria. Read on, read on to discover loads of secrets behind the scenes of our local cosy crime best sellers.
Meet Local Author: Sally Andrew
Meet Her Main Character: Tannie Maria
By way of introduction, Tannie Maria first appeared in Recipes for Love and Murder, as the agony aunt, in a small South African town in the Little Karoo. Tannie Maria is an obsessed foodie, and recipe writer for the local newspaper, when the newspaper decides to do away the recipe column, Tannie Marie keeps her apron on, and becomes and very special kind of Agony Aunt… every problem is solved with a recipe. And the Tannie Maria books are packed with wholesome local recipes and comfort food is loaded between the pages, from cover to cover. Meanwhile, the books are of the cosy crime variety, there is always a murder in town, a mystery to solve and someone with criminal intent, usually directed at our hero Tannie Maria, who inadvertently finds herself at the heart of the town crime scene.
Interview with Sally Andrew
- Tell us a little bit about your writing journey. How did you become a writer? Did you always want to become a writer?
- Who or what do you think had the biggest impact on you becoming a writer?
- Tell us about your work style: Are you compelled to write when inspiration strikes or disciplined, or do you just squeeze it in whenever you can?
- Where do you work best? On the couch at a desk?
- Tell us about your dream workday.
- Your characters are so real, so full of life, where did you find them? Where do you get your inspiration to create them?
- What made researching for your books great, did you get to do any interesting interviews or visit any unusual places? This book is full of fabulous food… did you try a lot of recipes?
- Do you have something to tell our followers who think that they might have a book inside of them, a word of encouragement or some advice?
I left school as an activist, determined to save the world and that led to a Masters in Adult Education. I became ill and was unable to do the necessary workshops so I started writing books, educational books for adults who spoke English as a second language, and writing about current issues. It wasn’t until I was gravely ill that I started to take my fiction writing seriously. Childhood influences would have to be Winnie the Pooh and Mary Poppins, and their quirky characters have emerged in my own writing.
Recipes for Love and Murder: (Book 1 in the series) and the most borrowed book on my bookshelf. In this book we are introduced to our culinary agony aunt, and her colleagues… as well as friendly folk from her local town and well less friendly folk. There is of course a murder and as always, in a Sally Andrew mystery, an issue is raised and in this first book in the series, the issue is domestic violence. Despite that it is a comforting read packed with solutions to the townsfolk problems and glorious food descriptions from cover to cover.
My English and Afrikaans teachers at school were very supportive and encouraging, and we were encouraged to read a lot. As my career took me towards writing non-fiction works, it was always with a creative bent, either plays or poems and such like. The more non-fiction I wrote the more publishers asked me to bring them my fiction writing. I enjoyed the Agatha Christie genre, and wanted to write a murder mystery, with healing themes. I took an online Murder Mystery Writing Course, with Gotham Writers Workshop, and Tanie Maria was born.
Each book is packed with delightful recipes. Classic South African flavours, and loaded with lovely twists. If you are looking for more Tannie Maria recipes, the Daily Maverick ran a column… and it is loaded with all things Tannie Maria.
I don’t believe in writer’s block, or writer’s inspiration. I see writing as my job, I sit down and do it in the time allotted. If it is a struggle then I push through.
My partner created this amazing workspace, Sall se Hoek in the Karoo, for me. It has a beautiful view of the veld, the sound of birds, frogs from the local water spot and a mongoose that likes to wander in from time to time. This is my happy place, and where I work the best. I do need to write wherever I am, so even a café works. But the Karoo is my happy place and it seeps into my writing.
Tannie Maria and the Satanic Mechanic: (Book 2 in the series) All the flavours of the Karoo and the associated wildlife, and small town politics thrown into the mix. The local San people have won a land claim against diamond magnets, Tanie Maria is trying to resolve her traumatic past, and add to the mix a murder mystery…
My best days begin with some exercise in a wild place: down to the sea, or a walk or a run in the Karoo. And then I typically sit down to write, either a thousand words or a chapter. After writing I do a bit of admin and that takes up a lot of time. Followed by a healing session with tuning forks. And by then it is usually time for dinner.
Death on the Limpopo: (Book 3 in the Series) In this instalment, Tannie Maria gets to go on a roadtrip across the country with an up and coming young journalist, called Zaba. The two of them start off on the wrong footing but the further they go and the more incidents that happen to the them… the closer they become.
I develop my characters from the inside out, starting with their personality, it takes a while before I can figure out what they look like. Characters are completely invented, but I do borrow names from my surrounds. Weirdly, from time to time the names do overlap with real life, for example a name from a book might appear as a neighbour’s builder’s cousin. And in a café I came across Tannie Maria’s Buttermilk Chocolate Cake, after I had written about it. While the characters and location names are all invented, they do overlap, because I have tried to embrace the “gees of the region.”
The Milk Tart Murders: (Book 4 in the Series) Back in the small town and the local eccentric antique dealer, Oom Frik, is worried that someone in town is after his antique collection. He is right of course, and Tanie Maria once again finds herself in the middle of a murder most curious. It is only her brilliant baking skills that she uses to connect with locals, that get her out of her fix.
Fiction is a contract with the reader, where you suspend the truth… I have to research details to present a believable reality. I research specifically, and always rely on my imagination. I like the research to fit my story, so often I write the story and then do the research. But sometimes it has to be the other way around. For book 5, coming out soon, I did a lot of research on succulent theft before I even thought of the story. This story hit too hard, succulent poaching is a big problem, leading to the extinction of species. Before I could commit to writing I had to find an internationally politically viable solution to the problem, that I could believe in… before I could commit to writing the story and developing a happy ending. I would rather do my research over lunch with friends, from all walks of life, than asking google, which doesn’t always tell the truth.
Recipes to Live For? A recipe book created for the series… and it is one of the most beautiful cookbooks that South Africa has created, this cookbook has been brought to life by artefacts, letters to and from Tannie Maria, quotable quotes, stunning photography of all the bits and pieces that one would find in Tannie Maria’s kitchen. This book is genuinely a work of art… not to mention somewhat of a heritage collection of South African recipes.
And Recipe research? Sally Andrew whispering, “While Tannie Maria is a foodie of note, I am not an actual foodie, and so I have to do a lot of recipe research.” The cookbook has been nominated for two Gourmand awards. One award for this cookbook is for the fascinating acknowledgement page, because so many recipes and a diversity of chefs have been referenced and referred too. So much research goes into the recipes and tasting parties and getting chefs involved. I use hundreds of recipe books as resources and I get a lot of professional help with recipes, because I am not actually Tannie Maria, but each Tannie Maria book requires at least fifteen recipes.
Recipes for Love and Murder, the TV Series: I recently had a weekend sick in bed, so I downloaded the series… you have to understand I am not a screen girl, and very rarely watch TV, well I loved this, all of it… I loved the Local is Lekker vibe, I loved the characters and all the South African-isms. If you get the chance, watch this!!!
Do it or don’t do it, it is a lot of work. You need to decide if you are doing this for your own journey or to become published. Professional writing is very different to writing your memoirs. The career of writing means that you have to be willing to be rejected and edited, it is a journey of tenacity. You may just want to have the act of writing, just to rewrite your own story, is a fantastic therapy, and an active creation. There are plenty of courses to learn online, like All About Writing Courses. There are so many ways to share your writing and explore your own truth, but whatever you write it will always be in your own voice.
A Recipe: Tannie Maria’s Buttermilk Cake
serves 10–12
You can hold the idea of the best chocolate cake in your mind like a memory from childhood; but when you eat a real cake it’s often a bit of a disappointment. Not this one.
- 1⁄4 cup water
- 220 g butter
- 1⁄2 cup (60 g) cocoa powder
- 13⁄4 cups brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 13⁄4 cups buttermilk
- 1 t vanilla extract
- 2 cups (240 g) cake flour
- 1 t bicarbonate of soda
- 1 t baking powder
- 1⁄2tsalt
- 11⁄2 cups (200 g) sifted icing sugar 1⁄2 cup (125 g) butter
- 1⁄4 cup (40 g) sifted cocoa powder 1⁄4 cup buttermilk
- 1⁄4tsalt
- 1⁄2 t vanilla extract 1Trum
Icing
- Preheat your oven to 180 oC. Line the bottom of a 28 cm cake tin with baking paper and grease the paper and the sides of the tin with butter.
- Put the water into a saucepan, and then add the butter and cocoa powder. Heat until hot but not boiling.
- In a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs together, and mix in the buttermilk and vanilla extract. Then add the hot cocoa mixture and mix well.
- Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt together and add to the cocoa mixture. Mix well again.
- Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 50–55 minutes. Let it cool in the tin.
- Heat all the icing ingredients, except the rum, in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring
all the time and whisking out any lumps. Bring to the boil and remove from the heat, then
add the rum. - Let the cake and the icing cool completely before icing the cake.
Notes
- If you don’t have rum, you can use brandy, but rum and chocolate do make a special magic.
- Make the icing when the cake is in the oven so it has time to cool completely.
- The warm icing makes a delicious chocolate sauce for ice cream.
Massive thank you to Penguin Books South Africa for enabling this interview, and thank you so much to Sally Andrew for her time and attention to all the details.