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Pic of me - Craig

I always thought I’d end up in a really exciting place, a metropolis like, say, New York, or Paris. Instead, I ended up in the smallest place on earth, in Stanford, not in the USA, but the tiny little speck near Hermanus, marginally bigger and world famous as a whale watching destination. It has a population of 3 000 and with my arrival, I have boosted the population figures by one.

I have been writing it seems all my life, and my writings include a published short story in a collection (Firetalk) radio plays, stage plays and, perhaps most importantly, feature writing for magazines. I focus on wine and food, and am doing a regular column on food for the new publication Life in Balance. I am by no means restricted to writing on wine and food, and have done profiles, on many people and places as well as some feature articles on African history for DEKAT magazine and the Sunday Independent. I have written, and continue to write for both local and international publications. Some of the topics I have covered has been on Orania, the Afrikaner homeland in the remote part of South Africa where I spent time interviewing the so-called ‘Father of Apartheid’, Verwoerd’s son-in-law, Professor Carel Boshoff. Equally remote, and as interesting, was a traditional Herero wedding in the Namibia desert that spanned three days. Hmmm … what else? Yes, a little more about me:

I gained a background in wine-writing when I was a full-time senior copywriter at the advertising agency IMA (International Marketing & Advertising) for ten years, working on mostly wine and liquor accounts. It was great: a regular income, doing what I liked best, which was writing.

But always the lure was there to write feature articles. After all, life cannot always be reduced to a slogan!

So, even though I still do freelance copywriting, I focus mainly on feature articles. I have a number of awards to my name: the Radio-Active Award (a national competition for copywriters); and I scripted a corporate video which went on to win an international Mondivi Award. Then also a copywriting award for a wine ad in Afrikaans. My feature articles have been entered for the highly respected PICA awards by both DEKAT and Good Taste on several occasions. Both of these publications are multiple award winners themselves and highly respected in the publishing industry.

Hey, that’s not all! I am able to provide photographs as well. I have been illustrating my own articles for several publications for a number of years now. Photography? I love it!

What else can I say? Oh, yes, there’s something else. Editors, in giving me references, have referred to my writing as both ‘thoughtful and accessible’. That, for me, is a great compliment; I have always believed that even the most serious subject should be written in a way that is accessible to all, even those who have little or no knowledge of the subject.

Below are some links to my stories on the web that you can follow up on

That’s it for now

Johan

Farmers’ Markets

http://www.goodtaste.co.za/Articles/How-Green-Was-My-Market.html

The Famous Wild Flowers of West Coast

http://www.travelafricamag.com/content/view/201/56/

Cape Fishing Villages

http://www.travelafricamag.com/content/view/225/56/

A Home Away (Malays of the Bo-Kaap)

http://africaguide.com/features/trvafmag/026.htm

And here is my website where you will find more articles, most of which have been published in magazines.

http://cafe.evereden.com/2.html

Enjoy!