Social Space, R block Wintec
Collingwood Street, Hamilton
Tuesday 30 August
6.30pm
Yvette Willemse will be in conversation with local teacher and reader Nicola Jamieson. She started writing her first book at ten. This manuscript went through numerous rewrites until Tina Shaw assessed it when Willemse was seventeen. Pontas International Literary and Film Agency (current agency of Alan Duff and Susan Abulhawa) signed Yvette for a set period of two years when she was just eighteen, making her their youngest ever client. Two weeks before her twenty-first birthday, Permuted Press (a Simon and Schuster imprint) bought the rights to the first four books of The Fledgling Account series, a young adult epic fantasy fiction saga. 2015 marked the release of her first four novels, all 70,000 words or over in length: Rafen, The Sianian Wolf, Servant of the King, and The Fourth Runi.
​
Willemse's books have just undergone a transition from Print on Demand technology to print runs through Simon and Schuster. When the books become fully available through Simon and Schuster Australia, Willemse hopes to get them into some physical New Zealand bookstores. For now, her books are available through Book Depository, Fishpond, Amazon, and Paper Plus as Kindles. They are also in many of New Zealand's public libraries.
​
Tina Shaw has described Y. K. Willemse's debut novel Rafen as "an exciting fantasy story for older children and young adults. It contains elements which I think this age group will enjoy reading about - the dismal coal mines worked by children, from which Rafen escapes; a spunky princess; an evil enemy; sorcery and magic... really well written, with excellent descriptive passages and strong characters." R. L. Stedman said Willemse's writing contains "innovative world-building" and "absorbing characters". Willemse’s Fledgling Account series follows the story of the young protagonist Rafen, as he escapes from a life of slavery only to discover the role that he must play in the salvation of the world of the Mio Pilamùr and the destruction of its two deadliest enemies: the sorcerer the Lashki Mirah and the mind-bending and heart-poisoning force of Nazt. This series is suitable for a readership of intermediate and high school aged children. Willemse has hoped to introduce the genre of realism fantasy to her audience, as she has deliberately avoided the idealism of such fantasy successes as Harry Potter by portraying a darker world with real evil, real responsibilities and consequences.
​
Yvette will have copies of her books available for sale and signing. This is a free event and you do not need to book.
​
Young Adult fiction with Yvette Willemse
