Books
Kroo
What it's about
One hundred years after the end of the world, Kroo’s peaceful village is threatened by a ruthless conqueror. Armed with the story of her spirited Khoisan namesake, a diary written by a survivor of the apocalypse, and a group of unlikely friends, Kroo must leave everything she knows to find a secret enclave that could save everyone.
Why I wrote it
While educating myself about different types of neurodivergence, I realised that many of the negative symptoms are only negative because they don’t conform to accepted behaviour. For example, repetitive/compulsive movements, discomfort with eye contact, or verbal outbursts. These are not harmful to anyone; they only make people uncomfortable because they’re not ‘normal’.
What if neurodivergent people had the opportunity to build their own societies based on the behaviour that comes naturally to them or that compensates for deficiencies they might have, such as difficulty understanding social cues or recognizing facial expressions?
Of course, that would require wiping out society as it stands and giving groups of neurodivergent people a fresh start – an opportunity to build their societies as they please.
So that’s what I did.
Easter Eggs/Inside Jokes
- Kroo's favourite flower - the Blushing Bride or Serruria Florida - is my favourite flower too.
- I got the idea for the buried library from my own library growing up. It was built very close to the beach front, and there were always piles of white sand against the exterior walls. Another building in the area was eventually overtaken by the ever-moving dunes.
- Xam is named after an an extinct language formerly spoken by the ǀXam-ka ǃʼē of South Africa. It begins with a click sound.