About Me

My name is Damaria Senne and I'm a writer based in Phokeng, a village in the North West province of South Africa. I created this blog as a way to share some of the children's stories I write. 

The stories are all freely available for you to read to your children or class. However, should you wish to use them for a profit-making venture, you need to contact me directly to discuss. Also note that some of the stories may in future be removed to allow for publication elsewhere.

My Background

My writing career began in the late 1980s while I was a student at the University of Bophuthatswana (now called North West University). I was studying for a Bachelor of Science degree because I was told to study something practical as one could not make a living as a writer. 

While studying, I fulfilled my need for creative expression by writing children’s stories that I mailed to local educational publishers. One of my children’s stories, The Doll That Grew, caught the attention of a Macmillan Boleswa editor and was publishers in 1993. By then, I had decided to pursue a career as a fulltime writer.

Most of the work I landed when I left university was in the non-profit sector, where I wrote educational materials, brochures, pamphlets, newsletter copy and when the Internet became more mainstream, website and blog content. Organisations I’ve worked/written for include the Soul City Institute and Charities Aid Foundation Southern Africa.

I also worked as a senior journalist for a national IT business media house (www.itweb.co.za) and published on a variety of national consumer magazines including Tribute, Femina and Cosmopolitan. While freelancing keeps the wolf from the door, that original hunger to write fiction is still riding me.

In the past two decades, I’ve published short stories, poetry, children’s books (in print and Kindle) and a short book for newly literate adults. I have yet to publish a full length novel and this is the territory I plan to conquer in the coming years.

Meanwhile, I’m exploring that great adventure that is life while based in Phokeng, a village in the North West province of South Africa, where I write, grow my own food, volunteer for local NGOs, tinker with tech gadgets and apps and blog about it all.