Founder Llewellin RG Jegels, entrepreneur, writer, poet, software developer, chess player, Scrabble Player, visionary.
I was born near the cradle of humanity in the Drakensberg Mountains in a little town called Kokstad many moons ago. As a family we moved from there to De Aar and then Beaufort West and as a 12-year old boy I moved to Cape Town to do my schooling at Livingstone High. I grew up with the classics, Roman and Greek mythology, the works of Shakespeare due to my father’s influence.
After matriculating from Livingstone High and a brief stint at UCT doing Microbiology I worked as an intern at Red Cross Hospital in Chemical Pathology while studying medical technology at Peninsula Technikon. After the death of my father in that year I left my studies and joined a missionary organisation for a year to make sense of my life and the loss of my dad.
After years spent in the corporate world I finally left and ventured into the entrepreneurial world of real estate, e-commerce and the internet which fascinates me to this day.
Through all this time my love of language and the written word never waned. Not for a second. I read, I wrote poetry and eventually in 2001 had the opportunity to travel to Germany for a short while and fell in love with the country during my travels from Berlin to Cologne, Limburg and finally Baldunstein to visit a spiritual teacher by the name of Mother Meera.
In 2006 I went there again and rekindled my love for the craft of writing.
I lived and worked in Germany for just over 3 years. I also represented Germany at the World English Scrabble Championships in Mumbai November 2007.
In 2008 I attended the Frankfurt International Book Fair in Germany. It was a wonderful experience that led to many new business relationships.
In 2006 and 2007 I toured throughout Europe as a keynote speaker at health fairs in places like Basel Switzerland, Bern Switzerland, Frankfurt Germany, Stuttgart Germany, Innsbruck Austria, Feldkirch Austria, St Gallen Switzerland, Wettingen Switzerland, Thun Switzerlandn and Koln Germany.
In 2007 to 2009 I worked as a Business English trainer and workshop facilitator training at companies like Dresdner Bank Stuttgart, Laepple Heilbronn, Stahl Crane Systems Kunzelsau, Stahl Explosive Protection Waldenburg, Pro7 Munich, Triumph International Heubach, Kaufland Heilbronn, Christ Goema Vaihingen-Enz, Ziehl-Abegg Kunzelsau, USB Duessen Schwabach and Haug-Elektrotechnik Leingarten.
My travels have taken me to places like San Fancisco California, Redding California and Mt Shasta California, Limburg Germany, Baldunstein Germany to visit a spiritual leader viz. Mother Meera, Berlin 2001 and 2006, Munich Germany, Hannover Germany where I won the inaugural German English Scrabble Champs in 2007.
During these years in Germany I worked diligently on understanding the craft of writing. The works of Dwight Swain (professor emeritus at the University of Oklahoma) became my bedside partners with notes inelegantly scribbled on most pages. I also took two courses with Randy Ingermanson viz. Advanced Fiction Writing 101 and 201 while in Germany. James Scott Bell’s Plot and Structure is also a favorite and then Dramatica’s New Theory of Story which is a pioneering work in the field of “story”.