What started as a fun challenge between friends who had never met in person has become a fully-fledged novel.
For their debut book, Bound by Fire, Eleanor Douglas-Meyers (37) and Faziela Harris-Davids (34) challenged themselves to co-author a book despite not meeting in person, until the manuscript was finalised.
The duo formed a strong bond during the Covid19 pandemic and found out that apart from a love of art, mindfulness and K-pop they both had a dream of writing a book.
“Both of us had an unrealised goal of writing a book but it seems we needed someone to be accountable to, to finally make it happen,” said Eleanor who has spent the last 17 years working in the media field, as a journalist.
Based in the Eastern and Western Cape respectively they became friends while communicating over social media as bloggers, and used this distance as inspiration for their book. They also slipped in their other passions including their support for the K-pop group Stray Kids.
Faziela, a small business owner says, “we wanted the story to showcase that sometimes friendship and family are one and the same”.
The book follows two young South African women who meet as roommates at University. After a falling out, they end up on different sides of the world and communicate through email.
The unlikely pair are each looking for a connection to their families, one in a physical sense and the other in an emotional one.
While Jen, a free spirit with a heart for charity work tries to find independence from her wealthy overbearing parents, Zin, orphaned in infanthood, tries to locate her family.
Zin’s search becomes even more important as she comes to terms with magical powers which can only be explained through her heritage.
Jen on the other hand finds herself bound to Zin through these powers, grappling with the question, “Just how deeply are we Bound by Fire?”.
The book was a labour of love for the duo who wrote,edited,illustrated and even created accompanying artwork for the novel themselves.
“Collectively we write, sub-edit, sketch and design things for other people all the time and although it is a little more difficult to have yourself as a client, we are happy we went the self published route,” said Eleanor
Touching on love, self-discovery, mystery and magic, Bound by Fire is a light read for those looking for a little escapism.
The book sells for R180 and is available through their website www.firebound.co.za
