What sets The Disappointed Diplomat apart from the other things you have written?

It is a novel. My metier is poetry and short stories. I had too much to say. The long form was also a challenge and I had to push myself further

In what way is it similar?

Good question — from the short form to the long form was the mission — and finally I had to employ the same writing technique, spare writing. I was not inclined to do that in the beginning and the first number of drafts were pedestrian and unprofessional.

It was a learning curve to be able to spill out as much as possible for the story, then realise that the same techniques of short story could be used as well to convey meaning and narrative. I started by putting too much into the story, overwriting and making basic errors. Re-reading ensured that I had to edit and make it more professional.

What will your next book be about?

An action and cruel novella about the undercurrents of life and the questionable morality of living in Dubai. Drug importation, pimping … the list goes on and on … despite the maxim of the prophet. A man would be married and have two boyfriends for sex. The more rules you impose on a people, the more they seem to want to break them. I would come home to my house and find blocks of pure resin being sliced up for sale in the market as unadulterated coke and dagga. Wrong?

Who can say? But it does beg many questions — and perhaps I saw the similarity of the corruption of soul in our country to what the Arabs are doing in this plastic Dubai where western society has taken over their sleepy life and left them feeling disassociated.

Related article: Literature in Zimbabwe, The Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala.