Family writing leads to writing career

Nico Moolman recently launched his first children‘s story book, The Cloud Fairies, in Tsitsikamma. Nick lives in Vanderbijlpark with his wife, Naomi, and their Border Collie, Ling loi. The characters in The Cloud Fairies are based on people living in Tsitsikamma. Coldstream Mountain is Cloud Mountain in the book. Sarah Floors is portrayed in the book as Nana Love, a fairy who treats kids to cookies and teaches them to make clouds. The gates in the book that lead to the fairyland, Sparkle, are the gates of Petrus and Sarah Floors' home. The colourful book is illustrated by Stanley Grootboom, an art graduate and a law student from the Tsitsikamma area. Nick started writing in 2004 when he started looking for Christmas gifts for his children. He collected old recipes and wrote short stories about the family members who had used those recipes. His effort was spotted when he took the books to be bound and it was submitted to a publisher. Kuier in the Plaaskombuis became his first book. He is currently writing a book for the National Parks Board about why children should not fish in the reserve. The book has a new Big Five - the Awesome Five - whale, galjoen, otter, oyster catcher and firefly. He is also writing Fantasy and Legends of Khoisan and old tribes.