Welcome! While I hate introductions, icebreakers, and tell-me-a-fun-fact-about-yourself’s sometimes a basic introduction cannot be avoided. My name is Francesca Sleet, and I am twenty three years old, currently completing an English Honours degree at Stellenbosch University. I moved to South Africa at age eleven, and have lived in Stellenbosch ever since. English people tend to keep to themselves and personal interactions with strangers are rare to say the least. Because of this, I have a habit of keeping things close my chest. However, South Africa has pretty much the exact opposite idea when it comes to personal information, which I found incredibly awkward and horrifying at first. Now, however, the strange culture seems normal and the idea of putting myself out there is becoming less difficult.
I know all too well that it is cliché to say that I’ve been writing since I could hold a pen, but sometimes clichés exist for a reason. I started writing (terrible) plays when I was about five or six, usually awful adaptations of Disney stories, which I then proceeded to force my siblings to act out for my parents. Luckily, I realised that playwriting was not my forte and moved on to half-filling hundreds of notebooks with stories, most of which I have to admit were blatant plagiarism of books I loved. In high school I finally found my writing style and wrote a 65k fantasy novel. Of course, looking back on my sixteen-year-old self’s writing makes me want to burn my computer, but it’s a testament of growth I guess. Writing a travel blog for my two year ‘gap year’ (read as: had no clue what to do with my life) helped me write quickly and personally, and showed me a little taste of where writing online can get you. While overseas on said gap year I interned at a PR agency in London, and learned how to write for clients and brands even when you do not believe what you’re writing. This opened a lot of doors for me professionally, and now I work in social media and digital marketing, writing blog posts and social media posts for a handful of brands. It might not be the writing that I want to do, but it is writing nonetheless.
In any case, the real writing happens behind the scenes, at home, in the dark, with a bottle of red wine. Make that a case of red wine. Currently, I’m attempting a murder mystery novel, a far cry from my default gothic short story. If you’re interested in a quiet little town, interconnecting stories, and one very twitchy detective, stick around! I will be posting updates on my work, the writing industry, probably the wine industry, and how my procrastination is going.
Francesca Sleet 