The club is guided by Mrs James and Tremaine Brislin. And also Patricia Devenish, the club’s founder, was present to enjoy the contributions made by the five learners who represented the club.

Twelve highly motivated clubs came from as far as Hluhluwe, Tugela Ferry, Bamshele in the Ilembe District, Colenso and Ladysmith. Pietermaritzburgh and Harrismith in the Free State. Four clubs from the eThekwini District were also represented.

Mr Nathi Ndlovu from the Uthukela district  Department of Education,  who is passionate about Dancing Pencils Writing Clubs, spoke to the full audience on the value of the published work of young authors.

A full programme gave all clubs the opportunity of being on stage to read parts of their stories from their new anthologies. Parkvale Primary’s students did two dance items as entertainment.

The girls are members of two clubs at their school, Dancing Pencils and toastmasters. They are finding the skills they acquired as public speakers and as writers very much to their advantage.

Their successes culminated with a graduation from Toastmasters and contributions to the 2014 Dancing Pencils Durban secondary Girls School Anthology which will be launched in the Durban City Hall on the 3^rd of September, 2014.

Note by Felicity Keats, publisher, umSinsi Press.

In 1998 Engen sponsored a project for 13 primary schools on Durban’s Bluff where every child in every school learnt the right brain method. 95 small books were published as a result. One book, George the Cat, written by Peter van Zyl, obtained sponsorship from Old Mutual for a 2000 print run. Books in sets of 50 per school were given to 40 rural schools, 20 down the South Coast, and 20 up the North Coast.

Peter van Zyl’s book that was given to disadvantaged schools was filmed by SATV as the school chosen up the North Coast was one which was on British TV when a member of the Department of education had to swim across the river with the matric papers as the river was in flood and there was no other way to access the school. This is the cover of the book that Peter wrote and illustrated.

Now, 16 years later, Peter van Zyl writes to Felicity of umSinsi Press and Dancing Pencils as under:

July 2014

Hi Felicity,

I hope this mail finds you well.

My name is Peter Van Zyl and I was part of the Creative Writing Project that took place over 10 years ago. At the time I was a student at Austerville Primary School and wrote the book titled George The Cat.

I am now based in Johannesburg and am a father to 5 beautiful children aged between 5 and 11. I am in the process of getting married to the love of my life, Lerato, who is from Johannesburg.

I would really love to get back into writing as I believe that my life has quite a story to tell since being part of that initiative which saw me meet the likes of then Minister Of Education, Mr Kadar Asmal and being on TV for the first time in my life. I would go as far as saying that I was always intended to be a great achiever and certainly, my life has shown those signs.

I am currently in the export and import industry, dealing with Chinese manufactured goods, which is not my only point of interest and am involved in a few upcoming projects, one being media distribution i.e television and broadcasting and online marketing being my current career path.

Anyway, I do not want to bore you further with my life happenings and am sure your time is very limited to be even reading this mail.

I have a few friends who are also interested in getting their pieces and stories published and have told them about the wonderful work that you and your organisation do for schools and instilling the values of writing and education for underprivileged and needy schools as well. I myself am interested in republishing my work and perhaps even getting an adventure series out for Young George The Cat.

Up until now, I had not been able to put a name to the technique which was taught to us way back then when we first started writing. The creative flow that is opened up by the Right Brain technique still amazes me today because I use it whenever I need to be creative. I do write ups including product descriptions for products that we have on our site, www.magicinthebox.co.za and it certainly has helped me get out of very sticky situations in my customer service role on the same site and previous site www.wicount.co.za.

To be able to be republished and further published what is it that I would need to do? What would be required of me?

If i wanted to acquire a copy of my book, how could I go about doing that?

Felicity Keats Replies:

Hi Peter!

Of course I remember you and it gives me cold shivers to read your brief history of achievements! Do you mind if I put up what you have just written me in our “Success Stories” on ://www.dancingpencils.co.za?

If you look at this website you will see a few young people from the Engen project with amazing careers!

An adventure series of Young George the Cat sounds amazing! And republishing it sounds wonderful!

I can publish you but not someone who hasn’t done the right brain method … you had a lovely story!

Congratulations on all your achievements and maybe your young family will one day become young published writers! But we have to train them in right brain methods; using left brains doesn’t work!

I’m sending you a copy of your cover!

(And Peter wrote in reply: My insides are tingling with anticipation! I haven’t seen the cover in over 10 years!)

Organizied by Mthoko Lembethe and with the kind permission of Mr Padayachee,  the Principal of Reunion Secondary School, Felicity Keats Morrison ran a right brain training for 60 learners and their English teacher on Tuesday 6th of May.

The cherry on the top was the presence of Themba Mthethwa, an ex-offender from Westville Men’s Maximum Security prison, who has published short stories because of his right brain training in the prisons. He also has his first book in isiZulu which we are hoping to launch at the South African Book Fair in Cape Town in June.

The learners had 3 right brain sessions of writing to Vivialdi music. Two learners had a chance to read out what they had written. The one young lady with a poem got a thunderous round of applause from her peers.

She will be interviewed on radio on Friday, together with Mthokozisi Lembethe, Felicity Keats Morrison and Themba Mthethwa.

Khulekani Magubane

A huge honour for Khulekani Magubane (and Umsinsi Press and Dancing Pencils) is his selection to be part of the illustrious “Time of the Writer” held each year in the Sneddon Theatre.

The authors selected to be part of the programme come from the United States, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Botswana, Togo, South Africa, Kenya, and India.

Khulekani has been involved, during this week, in school visits. On Friday evening, he has a slot in the programme and he is also being interviewed by SABC radio on Friday afternoon.

A Bit of History

In 2011, the programme Mother of all Professions, which is on  the SABC channel 1 came to Durban to do a weekend of interviews on Dancing Pencils. Besides filming at the BAT Centre, they went to Umbumbulu to interview and film rural learners whose school achievements had turned around after starting a Dancing Pencils Writing Club in such rural conditions.

When Mother of All Professions came to Durban they also asked to interview a writer from the rural areas who had developed substantially, and they wanted to interview his mother as well.

I selected Khulekani Magubane from Estcourt whose love of writing has encouraged him to write many book for children, the latest being Racers Rats And Rubbish Bins, published in 2012.

Khulekani is now a qualified journalist who graduated after studying at the Durban University of Technology. He is often on television and interviewed in magazines and newspapers.  He started his writing career at age of 16, 10 years ago, in the Bubbles Dancing Pencils Writing Club in Estcourt which was mentored by his mother,  Stembile Magubane.

Estcourt Mentor Stembile Magubane

Stembile recently received a 10 year framed certificate from Dr Zweli Mkhize,  the former KZN Premier,  for her work as a mentor. She started her  Dancing Pencils Writing Club in the township school of Emmashini in Estcourt and  now teaches at the prestigious Drakensview Primary school in Estcourt.

In her early days of being a mentor, she ran a private writing club and from it, several very talented children wrote stories that were published.

Zekhi Zondo making her speech

Last February Dancing Pencils held a party with the theme “paradigm shift to success.”  This February, the theme for the party was “success stories.” About 100 people attended the party, held at the SABC head office in the Blue Moon venue, on February 2nd.

The wingspan of Dancing Pencils is huge.  Representatives of organisations that Dancing Pencils works with who were in the audience included Tape Aids for the Blind, Early Childhood Development, the KZN Department of Education, the Deaf Association, the Office of the Premier, and associated Dancing Pencils Writing Clubs. Members of the DPLDP board were also present and the team.

The theme of success stories included 10 speakers, all very different. First we showed the video we made with Zekhi Zondo, now aged 8, as the heroine. This video was shown at her township school, and she is now the school Idol.  She also did well academically, and after the video, she spoke to the audience.

This was followed with  talks by teen and adult authors. Ladysmith Senior Education Specialist spoke about the work she is doing in her district with nearly 500 schools, in which she aims to get Dancing Pencils Writing Clubs as she has seen the improvement in both writing and thinking that comes from involvement in a writing club. Councillor Sam Kikine from the eThekwini Muncipality spoke on the benefits of the right brain which he had discovered for himself. He also had brought  Kwela Special Entertainers who played the guitar and danced for us.

Sindi Dlamini spoke of the better world we aim at where we all work together in harmony without petty differences that divide people.  Bonga Zondo concluded with an overall view of the benefits of Dancing Pencils and umSinsi Press.

We thank our caterers for lovely breyani and our DJ for good music. We had many accolades for a pleasant evening that brought together so many different people all interested in a peaceful world where people achieve their potential and help others to do the same.

Zithini Dlamini

Zithini Dlamini took an Internet Mentor training course with Dancing Pencils that consisted of 12 lessons. She completed the course, is a trained Mentor now, ready to start training others in her area in right brain writing.

This is what she writes :
For as long as I can remember I have always loved writing and public speaking.  When I was in Standard Six (Grade eight) I entered a Debate Competition and I won a trophy for the school.  This encouraged me as I took part in debate competitions for most part of my high school life.  I used to have a small notebook where I would write down all the difficult words and their meaning to improve my English vocabulary.

There was another competition back then, where we had to read 30/31(depending on when the month ended) short books and give a presentation to the teacher on what the books are about.  The prize was a t-shirt and recognition from teachers as an avid reader.

After matric, I followed my interest of public speaking and writing and enrolled for a Diploma in Public Relations Management.  After completion, I did another diploma on Introduction of Web designing.  I went on to register for a qualification in Project Management and I have also completed a course on the Fundamentals of Graphic Designing.

When I signed up with Dancing Pencil Writer’s Club I didn’t know what to expect.  I knew I wanted to be published and I thought by merely becoming a member I can submit my manuscript and get published.

The length of the Online Individual Course for Mentors didn’t bother me.  I was determined and I had made up my mind that I was going to give it my all.  It only dawned on me as I began the course how much I didn’t know.  Right brain writing was a new thing for me.  It excited me and caused me to write as often as I could.

Now that I’ve completed the course, I can tell you I have a new perspective on what writing is about.  It’s about allowing a free-flow of ideas as GOD deposits them in my mind.

Now I write often and I seize every opportunity I get to write.  Over the past few months, I’ve written a number of short story books, poems and I’ve noticed improved performance even at work in terms of my writing skills.  I am doing communications for the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and I’m expected to write press releases, successful stories, produce reports and a whole lot of writing material as required of me.  Now I carry out this task with little to no frustration at all.  I’m more confident and I express myself better when liaising with our internal and external stakeholders.

This course has allowed me to unlock my right brain – a part of me that was lying dormant.  Going forward, I want to help someone to be as passionate as I am about writing, such that it begins to yield the desired results.  As my point of entry, I’m targeting the Barberton Correctional Service and I’ve already forwarded a request which is receiving attention.

I’m not there yet but I’m determined to go all the way.  I’ still want to get published and I hope that as I form a Writing Club I will assist the group to get published.  That will mean a lot to me.

Thank you Dancing Pencil, I’m becoming a better writer each day.  I’m determined to pass on the skill to others so we can become a community of successful writers.

Genevieve Lanka-Govender

Writing has always been my saving grace. Since the first time I was able to string a sentence together, I knew I wanted to be a writer…to tell stories…to express thought and feeling that would often leave many speechless.

I wanted to be the person that could put words to passion, that could describe the inner churning of a personal soul…that could echo in vivid explanations the deepest fears within hesitant hearts.

Writing became my prayer, where I spoke to my God, it was my gift, my ministry…it became the essence of me.

So, when at 11 years old, Felicity Keats came to my school with her revolutionary thoughts and descriptions and methods…I felt as if, ‘finally, someone understands!’… And with her guidance, I penned my first book. A simple story, but it set me on a journey that would eventually lead me to the SABC.

I studied journalism, learning how to tell stories that would reverberate well after the last line was read. This skill I use everyday, by the Grace of God, as a Producer and a Presenter for a current affairs programme called Newsbreak, on a national radio station called Lotus FM.

Today, writing and telling stories isn’t just my passion, its my vocation. I go to work, doing something that I love beyond expression. And it all started in a tiny library in a public school, when I learned from Felicity Keats to let go and simply….write.