The Team

MEET OUR TEAM

FOUNDER, AUTHOR AND BOOK MENTOR

Sarah Bullen

Sarah Bullen is an author, storyteller and much loved international writing mentor with a unique brand of humour and heart. She runs writing mentorships, mystical storytelling retreats and women's rites of passages around the world. Her books include Hey Baby! The Hip New Mom's Guide That's All About You and Write your Book in 100 Days! Stop Mucking About & Just Write. She is a cancer survivor and a former journalist and magazine editor.

Sarah's own story is inspirational. She was just 34 with a young family when her husband discovered he had a brain tumour. As he pursued a shamanic path to fight the cancer, they were both catapulted into a strange and magical world of ritual and ceremony. Alongside hospitals, surgery and treatments, fear and uncertainty came another wilder journey of spiritual searching. Then the impossible happened. As he entered his last weeks of life - Sarah ended up fighting for her own life, in a coma on life support. She was to remain in the coma for four weeks and travelled through near-death and into other realms and worlds. This journey is the story in her book Love and Above: A journey through shamanism, coma and joy.

Sarah has worked with authors and publishers for over 17 years. She is a frequent keynote speaker, guest on talk shows and literary festivals and a contributor to magazines internationally. As an agent she represents authors of non-fiction, commercial fiction and celebrity or breathtaking memoirs.

She was the former personal finance editor at the Mail & Guardian, radio news editor at Business Day radio and had a 10 year career as a magazine publisher and editor. She lectures in personal narrative fiction at MA level.

Publications Sarah has been featured in include:
Elle Decoration (UK, Greece, Germany, South Africa), Women’s Health, Men's Health, Marie Claire, House and Leisure
House and Garden, Business Day, Business Day Wanted lifestyle supplement, New Media Publishing (freelance lifestyle writer and reviewer for a few of their custom titles), The Guardian (UK), Mail & Guardian, The Times, The Good Weekend, Fair Lady, Femina, Your Baby, Horizons, CNBC, eNCA, Cape Talk, SABC.

RETREAT LEADER AND COACH

Kate Emmerson

Kate Emmerson, The Quick Shift Deva helps clients to stop playing small and mucking about by creating a life they love by following steps to STEP IN, STEP UP and STEP OUT. Her motto is LIVE LIGHT, LIVE LARGE and she offers her enLIGHTening ideas globally, as a best selling author and international speaker. She shares her obsession with productivity, leveraging and de-cluttering through location-free online coaching, unique mastermind groups for entrepreneurs,business decision makers & CEO’s, as well as travelling globally for speaking engagements and working internationally with the YPO. She was hand picked to star alongside the world top self development leaders in an award winning USA movie, “The Secrets of the Keys”.

She has taken her message to the next level with THE MINIMALIST MANIFESTO and has been living location free since Jan 2016.

Kate and Sarah facilitate once-in-a-lifetime international writing retreats and the Writing Mentoring Groups together.

WRITING MENTOR AND COACH

Vicki Mac Callum

Vicki is a Radio Personality, Entertainment News Reporter, MC, DJ and Voice-Over Artist. You can listen to her traffic reports and blitz entertainment news segment, "The Fix With Vix", on the Afternoon Drive Show every Mon-Fri from 3-6 PM on Good Hope FM.
After school, Vicki studied Media at UCT, but dropped out during 2nd year due to unforeseen financial reasons. Despite this, Vicki picked herself up and won 5FM's 2013 Birthday Bootcamp 3 years later. 5FM rebranded to VickiFM and made Vicki Station Manager for a day. Vicki then attended 5FM's mentorship programme where she learnt from the likes of Gareth Cliff, Roger Goode, DJ Fresh, and Tim Zunkel.

Vicki’s fast-moving career caught the eye of radio veteran, Nigel Pierce, who pushed to have her on his weekday breakfast show. Soon after, the blitz entertainment news segment “Quicki with Vicki” was launched.

Since then Vicki has appeared on SABC3’s Expresso Show and as MC for the official relaunch of the Cape Town Marriott Hotel Crystal Towers, 2017 and 2018 Say Cheese Artisanal Cheese Fair, and other corporate events.

Vicki advocates for equal rights and supports charities that fight against discrimination (gender, race, etc.) and human trafficking.

WRITING MENTOR, COACH AND GHOSTWRITER

Barbara Adair

Barbara Adair is a writer with published experience in the following areas: fiction - novels and short stories, travel articles, book reviews and academic articles.

She writes, and also works part time at the University of the Witwatersrand Writing Centre and in Nairobi and Lamu, Kenya, teaching and assisting students in critical thinking.

She previously practised as an attorney litigating on human rights issues, and thereafter taught at the Wits School of Public and Development Management.

Qualifications: BA (Hons.) LLB (university of the Witwatersrand, PhD (University of Pretoria)

Barbara has published the following Novels:
In Tangier We Killed the Blue Parrot, Jacana, 2005.
END, Jacana, 2009.
WILL, the Passenger Delaying Flight ….., Modjaji Publishers, 2020.

She has also been featured in Newspaper and Magazine Articles including:
Sunday Independent (South Africa), Sunday Times (South Africa), Weekender (South Africa), Horizon (British Airways), Selamtra (Ethiopian Airways)

Short Stories in: New Contrast Literary Journal (South Africa), From the Great Wall to the Grand Canyon (US publication), Queer Africa – New and Collected Fiction: A collection of Southern African short stories. (Winner of the LAMDA (USA) prize for collected stories.), Queer Africa 2, a collection of queer Southern African short stories (finalist for the LAMDA (USA) awards 2018), Walking the Tightrope – Poetry and prose by LGBTQ writers from Africa.

Legacy Work: My Book of Life for Stefanie XXXX, Veronica’s Baby for Cyril XXXX, Monty Mahobe – The Story of a Life for Artists Proof Studio, Please can You tell Me What is Happening for Sylvestre XXXX, A Rwandan Genocide Survivor, My Life for Cynthia XXXX.

Collaborations: The telling and writing of personal stories with Murray Nossel, the director, of Narativ Inc. (New York, USA)

WRITING MENTOR AND GHOST WRITER

Sue Adams

Sue Adams has a passion for all things writing and reading. This combined with her love of travel has allowed her to work in the travel writing industry for the last 20 years. She has written and photographed for magazines such as Country Life SA, Endangered Wildlife Trust, Lowveld Living, Kulula and other airline magazines, as well as newspapers such as Sunday Times and Daily Maverick. Sue’s inspiration comes from the stories she researches, and she has written 2 books for Middle Grade readers as well as an adult historical fiction novel.

Sue is a qualified personal coach and course developer and facilitator, and she combines this with her writing skills to mentor other writers. Her biggest kick is to see another writer with a finished manuscript in their hands.

GHOSTWRITER

Lauren Shapiro

Lauren Shapiro is a journalist and author with a master’s degree in Creative Writing and more than two decades of writing experience. Lauren loves telling people’s stories and helping others birth their stories into the world. As a coach, Lauren will encourage, support and assist you throughout the writing process. As a ghost writer, Lauren will treat your story with sensitivity and passion to get it onto the page. Lauren prides herself on personalised, quality service and content. Book a session with Lauren today.

ASSISTANT AND WRITERS SUPPORT

Nokukhanya "Noks" Mnisi

Noks lives in a small town just outside of Johannesburg with her family. She is often found with a cup of tea (usually a Chamomile tea or a Chai Latte) and a cover of the latest Cosmopolitan Magazine.

She enjoys travelling; has travelled around The People's Republic of China and Thailand. When she's not travelling, or catching up on sleeping, she enjoys working with small businesses and entrepreneurs with their social media.

Noks believes that successful writing is rooted in a community of support. It truly takes a village to write a novel.