-
Author of four suspense novels
Brilliant, raven-haired psychic
Saw her first ghost at age four
Likes to take midnight rides on horseback and practices levitation twice a day
I live in London and I write dark, psychological thrillers with a strong dash of mysticism and the paranormal.
My fourth book, Season of the Witch, is a modern gothic thriller about techgnosis and the Art of Memory and is now available in the UK and the US.
It received a starred review in Kirkus, which describes it as a 'brain-squeezing thriller' and another starred review in Publishers Weekly, which calls it 'goth SF at its finest'. The novel has also garnered praise from writers such as Mo Hayder who describes it as 'a mesmerising blend of alchemy and sexuality'.
I have lived in South Africa, New York City and London. Previous jobs include selling shoes, teaching Afrikaans at a South African university and moonlighting as a project coordinator in the publishing department of a public television station in New York City. I now write full-time.
To read an excerpt from Season of the Witch, click here .
Note for book clubs: Please visit my website at www.natashamostert.com for discussion questions on Season of the Witch.
Season of the Witch launch party in NYC. The lovely lady in blue is my editor, Julie Doughty.
NEW! I have added a discussion board on my website and would love to hear your ideas. This is a free-wheeling discussion board, which is not just about my books but is open to anything that excites your imagination. You are welcome to start your own topic or add your voice to some of the other threads. Please join us!
More praise for Season of the Witch:'Renders suspense, an atmosphere fraught with eroticism, and compelling characters. Fans of Anne Rice and Joyce Carol Oates should appreciate Mostert's take on mysticism, magic and the ancient art of memory.'
Booklist
'saturated in beauty, with wonderful observations, insights and eroticism...a bewitching book.'
Ian Watson, author of The Jonah Kit and the screen story for AI.
If you'd like to know more about me and my work, please visit my website: www.natashamostert.com
Memory game: Try it out!
To promote my new novel Season of the Witch, my website includes an interactive memory game with prizes to be won. The game is now live, so please visit my site and check it out. It won't work on your Playstation 3 or X Box and there is no fake blood or things that blow up but it's a pretty cool game anyway...:)
The site also features a synopsis of the novel and I have posted notes that will give you a behind-the-scenes peek at how I plotted this book. Click here to visit the site: www.seasonofthewitch.com .Why mysticism?My interest in mysticism started in early childhood when I was growing up in South Africa. My aia (nanny) was a Zulu woman who introduced me to African legends and the world of the insangoma (witch doctors). For many years I thought she was the coolest person on the planet and tried to emulate her in every way. I remember exasperating my mother by insisting on stacking several bricks below each corner of the bed to keep out of reach of the tokkelosh – an evil gnome with an enormous head but very short legs! Years later I would write about this in The Midnight Side. The concept of witches and witchcraft would surface again in Season of the Witch.A different kind of woo wooEven though I write about subjects, which many people consider far-fetched and fey, I always embed them firmly within a realistic, every-day framework. The ghost in The Midnight Side does not drag chains or howl outside windows - she finds it more amusing to manipulate the stock exchange. My witches in Season of the Witch do not use boiling cauldrons as their tools, but computers and code. By carefully blending hard fact with paranormal conjecture, I hope to seduce my reader not into a 'willing suspension of disbelief' but into accepting unquestionably the veracity of the world I build in my books. My research for my novels is intensive and rigorous.Praise for Natasha Mostert's novels'Bedtime reading for the brave'
The Times (London)
'A unique, wild imagination'
Bangor Chronicle
'Classy psychic thriller...original, unsettling... kicks the usual preconceptions into shape'
The Literary Review
'absorbing psychological detail... climactic surprise, a humdinger'
Kirkus Reviews
'hauntingly elegant'
Booklist
'a brilliant tale in the thriller genre with little dots of spirituality here and there'
Cape Times
'Highly accomplished'
Toronto Globe and Mail