By Chisomo Phiri

A third-year student in Business Management and entrepreneurship at Malawi College of Accountancy ( MCA), Blantyre campus Shailene Patmos has published a crime mystery novel book called Hunting Rhino.

Speaking at the book launch on Friday at coffee culture in Blantyre, a 21-year old Shailene explained that Hunting Rhino is a crime mystery novel about an ambitious detective named Jerry Wota who teams up with a female murder convict to track down the untraceable serial killer, Rhino.
” It is a nice novel and worth reading. It is about an ambitious detective named Jerry Wota who teams up with a female murder convict to track down the untraceable serial killer, Rhino. But the closer they get to unveiling the truth, the more predicaments rise, the more deadly the case becomes”, she explained.

She said, she is a young girl who likes to stand out and challenges herself by doing something different from her fellow writers who are writing similar things, hence coming up with a novel which is quite different from other people’s published books.
” I like to challenge myself by doing something different. I used to be known for writing romance stories and I needed to do something out of my comfort zone, yet still in line with my passion. So I have been a fan of my mysteries for a very long time. I remember, I used to read the seven series by Enid Blyton when I was in Secondary School, and it has been always a dream of my to stories of that kind.
” I don want to settle on just one genre. I want to explore many genres, specifically, science and adventures. I want to challenge my fellow writers to have miscellaneous imaginations.

We should write think outside box and bring out stories that would amaze people,” she said.
Shailene encouraged her fellow writers to fight for their gifts. She said, a lot of people are reluctant towards pursuing their dreams because they feel like the industry is flooded so that there is no room for them to put out their ideas there, whereas others just feel scared, things she said are not worth to be followed by writers.
” Well, I am encouraging my fellow writers to pick up the pen or turn on that computer and that draft, script or poem, no matter what a challenge as this is how we writers learn and grow. I know it is easy to come up with a story but it is hard to get it all done. Nonetheless, it is worth and satisfying when you finally finish the project. So let us not throw away good stories before they are even appreciated by the world,”said Shailene.

Responding on how best the government is doing in the promotion of writing industry, the young writer said, the government is performing well in the promotion of writing industry, citing the introduction of various platforms for writing promotions.
” I can say, we are getting there. Platforms are being introduced for promotions, writers are being recognized and we are getting a lot of support than before, so this is good progress,” she said.

The young writer said to come up with her book, she has passed through a lot of heavy challenges, and the one being lack of financial support to host events for her book.
” The challenges were a lot , for instance, we did not had any sponsors, so as to pull off events like this one of book launch. It was not easy. At time it was getting emotionally and psychologically stressful because it really seemed possible at first. But I thank God for he has been there though it all and we are finally have a launch of the book,” she said.

She called on government and other related stakeholders to continue investing much in writing industry and take the industry to the top level.
” I wish the government and stakeholders not stop investing much in writing industry and book projects. They should continue doing that so as to move the industry to the other level.
There is a lot of potential here in Malawi and I love the fact that we writers are very united and we will ultimately achieve so much for this country,” said Shailene.

In his remarks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Innov8 MW Peter Banda congratulated Shailene for coming up with a nice book which he said will change lives of many in Malawi and abroad.
He said, Shailene has proven to be a courageous young writer who regardless of any challenge people fear to meet, still knows how capable she is in the art industry. He said, youths should stop having a mindset to take industry they are in being tough and not easy to achieve.
” This is amazing that we are today here witnessing the ” Hunting Rhino” book launch by our fellow youth Shailene. This is a very nice book which I believe will change lives of Malawians and even those who are abroad. Let me tell those who say they cannot achieve things in their industries. Had it been Shailene was thinking like that, she could have never written this amazing book. Always work hard and do everything you are good at with your all heart. Nothing is impossible and tough as you put effort, ” said Banda.

Apart from being a writer, Shailene is also an artist, actress and advocate for financial literacy. The ‘Hunting Rhino’ novel is currently being sold at an affordable price of K5,000.