WHY ZAMBEZI? We are occasionally asked why we called our business Zambezi Publishing. After all, as a pair of astrologers who are well dug
into the mind, body and spirit scene, something like Pisces Publishing or Pluto Press might have been more appropriate. Naturally, there is a story behind the name, and the odd thing about it is that
we didn’t actually choose it, it chose us! So now let me (Sasha) tell you about it.When Jan and I first got together in 1996, we took a trip down the Zambezi River on a houseboat, and
then spent a couple of weeks camping along the river’s north bank. In effect, we started our life together on and by the Zambezi. As soon as we settled in the UK and started to find work
as writers, we got ourselves connected to Compuserve on the Internet. While trying to choose an Internet address, we discovered that anything astrological or spiritual had already been taken. One
day, Jan was sitting at the computer pondering the problem when I casually suggested, “What about something African?” Jan answered, “Let’s give Zambezi a try”. After all, he was born in (then) Northern
Rhodesia – now Zambia. Zambezi was available, which meant the name was born as our Internet address. About 18 months later, we were asked to submit one of my out-of-print books to a company in
Israel, which wished to purchase the rights. When the Israeli firm eventually paid us, they sent a check for a peanut amount in the name of Zambezi Publishing! Rather than send the check back and
spend even more time and money messing around, we opened an account for it. The triangular Zambezi logo came one day when I happened to be cooking our evening meal. I looked down at the
black plastic knob on the saucepan lid that I was holding in my hand and noticed its rather pleasing triangular shape. I promptly left the spuds to boil lidless while I grabbed a pencil and drew in the
double Z shape, right there on my saucepan lid’s knob! Jan worked on the fonts and the rest of the logo design, putting an illustration of the ancient Egyptian goddess, Maat, in the little box at the
bottom of the logo. Maat is the goddess of the night and of dreams, but also of honest dealings, fair play and decency. Perfect! One Z is an eight in numerology, two add up to a
seven. Eight makes for hard work but eventual success in business, while seven is a number of spirituality and inspiration. Rather than fighting against the name, we accepted the wishes of the
gods and went with the flow. So now you know. And for the record, Jan and I are married, but for professional reasons I’ve kept my previous surname (Fenton)... anyway, the
thought of learning a new signature based on “Budkowski” was just too much... I prefer to keep things simple!
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