By Michelle Gonsalves
SHARON Maas was born into a prominently political family in Georgetown, Guyana in 1951. Her mother, Eileen Cox, was one of Guyana’s earliest feminists, human rights activists and consumer advocates. Her father, David Westmaas, was Press Secretary for then Opposition Leader and later President of Guyana, Dr. Cheddi Jagan.Maas started her education and dreaming at St. Margaret’s Primary on Camp Street. An avid reader, books by Enid Blyton fuelled her imagination. A tomboy who soon outgrew her backyard, she made the wards of Cummingsburg and Kingston her playground.
In 1961, when she was only ten years of age, she went to Harrogate Ladies College in UK, travelling all the way there on her own. In 1964, she returned to Guyana and attended Bishops’ High School; and then, in 1967, it was back to Harrogate.
After leaving school, she worked as a trainee reporter with the Guyana Graphic in Georgetown, Guyana. She later wrote feature articles for the Sunday Chronicle as a staff journalist. At the Chronicle, she wrote the ‘Agony Aunt’ column, where she created complex questions to replace normal, predictable ones, another step towards her entry into the world of fiction.
Maas has always had a great sense of adventure and curiosity about the world we live in, and Guyana could not hold her for long. In 1971, at the age of twenty, she set off on a year-long backpacking trip around South America — Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia — with two friends. A wicked twist of fate forced her to abort the adventure. Robbed of her money, she returned home.
Her travel articles were published in the Guyana Chronicle. In 1973, she travelled overland to India through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. India became a source of inspiration, and a second home for her in body, soul and mind. Her first visit to India expanded into two years of living in an ashram in Tamil Nadu.
Her first novel, ‘Of Marriageable Age’, is set in India and Guyana, and was published by Harper Collins in 1999. Subsequent novels were published in 2001 and 2003. India led her to Germany, and it was there that she met a German-born cellist who was to become her first husband.
After their divorce and a year in Paris, Maas returned to Germany, where she studied Social Work in Freiburg, and met her second husband while working as a Probation Officer in Mosbach, South Germany.
In Switzerland, she gave birth to a baby boy named Miro, meaning ‘Peace’. Completing the circle, the year 1999 found her back in Guyana, and marked the publication of her first novel.
Sharon is also a contributing writer for German magazines and newspapers, and blogs about her books on the site, Good Read.
Sharon has written four novels: ‘Of Marriageable Age’ (2000); ‘Peacocks Dancing’ (2002); ‘The Speech of Angels’ (2003); and ‘Sons of Gods’ (2011); and a book of short fiction, ‘Stories of Strength’ (2005).
Her first three novels focus substantially on their respective protagonists’ coming-of-age experience and struggle to find their own unique identity and place in life (“Bildungsroman”). They are chiefly set against Indian and Guyanese backgrounds, though other countries (most notably Great Britain and Germany) feature prominently as well. Her fourth book, ‘Sons of Gods’, (published under the penname, Aruna Sharan) is a retelling of the Mahabharata.
Her work has been translated into German, Spanish, French, Danish and Polish. In September 2012, the Polish edition of ‘Of Marriageable Age’ was published.
Sharon’s advice for new or unpublished authors is:
“Ask yourself the question: Do you want to be a writer? Or do you just want to be known as a writer? If it is the former, then put aside the thought of getting published; forget about name and fame and success and the millions you will make and what-have-you, and just write the very best book you are capable of. When you have produced that book, then who knows? All these other things may be given to you.” And her secret to successful writing? “Don’t talk about it, just write.”
Coming soon is a new, revised and IMPROVED edition of ‘Of Marriageable Age’, as an e-book. (After ten years at it, Maas says she’s now a better writer.)
Sharon divides her time between England and Germany, with her husband and two children. At present, she works as a Social Worker in a hospital in South Germany. You can learn more about Sharon from her website and interviews.