Mpho Otukile - Author Blog

The Lion’s Deceit is #2 on the Winnipeg Bestsellers

Mpho — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:31:46 +0000

The Lion’s Deceit makes it into the Winnipeg Bestsellers list for the week of September 2011. Thank you very much everyone for your support. I’ll be visiting schools to share The Lion’s Deceit. If your school or library is interest in an author visit, please contact me.

You can buy copies at McNally Robinson (Winnipeg Grant Park), or order at any online book retailers Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, CreateSpace Estore, etc). You can also order signed copies from the author at Village Life Books.

The Geek In Me

Mpho — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 05:26:33 +0000

Last week I was busy revising my short story for the second round of possible consideration in a children stories magazine when all of a sudden my computer screen went blank. I knew it was a matter of time before my 7-year old laptop gave way. Luckily, I was able to complete and submit my revisions to the story.

I found myself spending the rest of the evening looking at a wide range of laptops. My old laptop was a Sony Viao and I absolutely loved it but this time I was attracted to Dell as they had a huge sale going on. I wanted something that was not too expensive but had high performance and fast. Windows XP Professional was a must to have (to run my Windows XP applications) and because of this, I ended up having to customize everything I wanted in my computer. This gave me the flexibility to choose exactly what I want in my laptop: an HD wbcam for Skyping, 8GB of RAM, 750 GB of hard drive, Blu ray dvd player,etc.

As you can see, its been a while since I bought a new computer. So buying a new one now seemed to unleash the geek in me. I am a big fan of DIY projects and I found myself thinking about what to do with all this new powerful machine while not side-tracking my current publishing projects. Then it hit me. Why not make a game app for one of the children books I am working on. The first draft of the manuscript is complete. In the draft I have all the details and rules about playing the game. I do not have all the details right now but I am sure I’ll post again as I make progress with my plans.

Let the journey begin…

Blog Reviews Tour

Mpho — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 14:18:44 +0000

I am excited to be a part of the MamaBuzz Blog Tour this weekend. MamaBuzz is owned by Mel Lockcuff, who also runs MamaBuzz Media. They have a team of over 200 blogging moms who test out anything that’s kid, home, or family related (books, puzzles, green toys, DVDs, shoes and clothes, tech travel, etc).

MamaBuzz has just reviewed The Lion’s Deceit. Follow the rest of the MamaBuzz bloggers below for all the great reviews.

MamaBuzz is also giving away 2 copies of The Lion’s Deceit, one each to 2 MamaBuzz readers. Visit MamaBuzz to learn more.

Big Thank you to Mamabuzz and to all the reviewers for helping us setup the tour.

Book Review – The No.1 Car Spotter

Mpho — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:27:37 +0000

No. 1 Car Spotter by Atinuke

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There is No. 1 in the village, his name is Oluwalase Babatunde Benson. He is the number one car spotter. He can spot cars and tell the make of a car just by listening to their engines sounds. The No. 1 car spotter comes to the rescue when the village cart breaks and there is no way to get products to the market. He uses his knowledge of cars to convert a Corolla to a Cow-rolla.

Reading this book brought back memories of when I was growing up in my village. There weren’t many cars in the village and if someone owned one, they were considered rich. If a car was spotted arriving in the village everyone stood to see and it would be the talk of the day. Good old times.

Atinuke did a great job in conveying African village life. She showed the sense of community when villagers get together to help each other. Even though they might be poor (less material things), they are rich in other ways (helping each other and lots of laughter).

I wasn’t crazy about the names of his family. I would have preferred to see more traditional names instead of Nike, Emergency, Go-Easy, Tuesday, Sunshine or Smile. We know the No. 1 car spotter has a traditional name Oluwalase.His friend Cola Cola used to have a traditional name and we read later in the book how he got his Cola Cola name.

Overall, this book is fun to read and entertaining. I highly recommend it.

View all my reviews

Book Giveaway

Mpho — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:39:23 +0000

I am giving away 2 copies of my book, The Lion’s Deceit, on Goodreads.com

Click the link below for more details and to enter the contest. Good luck and happy reading !!!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Lion’s Deceit

by Mpho Otukile

Giveaway ends July 31, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Where to find me on May 14, 2011

Mpho — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:46:37 +0000

I’ll be attending the Elementary, My Dear Writers: Demystifying the Publishing Process conference on May 14, 2011. The keynote speaker is Mary-Ann Kirkby, best-selling author and journalist whose first book, I Am Hutterite, chronicles her childhood experiences of life on a Manitoba Hutterite colony, and the aftermath of leaving community life.

For more information about this conference visit the Manitoba Editors’ Association website.

Welcome To My Blog

Mpho — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 04:19:17 +0000

I have decided to set up this blog to chronicle my journey as I learn about children book writing and publishing. I must admit,three years ago I didn’t know anything about children books. Being an Engineer by profession, all I ever did was read technical books. It’s only after I had my daughter that I started reading children books. My daughter’s love of books and my desire to teach my daughter about my culture inspired me to start writing children books.
After a year of fighting fear of rejections and a polished manuscript in my hands, I am ready to take the next step to getting published. I am now working on my first query letter.