Twitter Updates

Places I Live: Mount Gambier

Places I Live: Mount Gambier
Blue Lake

About Me

I'm an experienced writer and editor of both non-fiction and fiction.

Editing - non-fiction

Much of my editing work comes from academics, especially PhD students, but I also research, write and edit other non-fiction work, especially reviews, biographies and family and local histories. I pride myself on having a broad general knowledge, and have edited in areas ranging from the arts (both performing and visual) through to Physiotherapy, Law, Business Studies, IT, Women’s Studies and even an occasional Engineering effort.

Editing - fiction

I am a well-practised beta-reader and critic of speculative fiction and am currently a sub-editor for The Specusphere, an e-zine for the Speculative Fiction community. (You'll find it in my links.) Historical fiction and high fantasy are my specialist sub-genres, but I’m delighted to edit or proof-read books in most areas of fiction writing.

My experience

From a background in the performing arts, principally dance and music, I switched to writing in these areas in 1987. I have written reviews and feature articles for various prestigious publications including ArtsWest, Dance Australia, Music Maker and The Australian. A decade or so back I was bitten by the fantasy bug and I have just about written the million words they say you have to write before you are any good. Any morning now I will wake up to find that I’m as good as some of my favourite authors. (Well, I can dream, can’t I?)

My bits of paper

I hold a BA in Religious Studies, an Associate Diploma in Performing Arts (Dance) and the certificate of the Federation of Australian Astrologers. For what it’s worth, I also have a Certificate in Rural Studies – I’m the only person I know who’s been both a ballet teacher and a pig farmer!

Fun things

In my spare time I enjoy Family History, Astrology, Yoga, Meditation and Belly Dancing. Although I regard these primarily as hobbies these days, I occasionally offer workshops in meditation and I will write astrological reports to order.

Share it

LinkedIn

View Satima Flavell's profile on LinkedIn

For SpecFic Lovers

Places I Live: Perth by Night

Places I Live: Perth by Night
From Kings Park

My Blog List

Places I Live: Perth by Day

Places I Live: Perth by Day
From Kings Park

Sydney Conservatorium

Sydney Conservatorium
My old school

Reading and reviewing

  • *Heir to Sevenwaters Another winner from Juliet Marillier! Reviewed on The Specusphere.
  • *Tender Morsels - an extraordinary first novel from Margo Lanagan, dark and beautiful.
  • *The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. A WOW factor of great magnitude characterises this trilogy, composed of The Blade Itself, Before they are Hanged and The Last Argument of Kings.
  • *The Siege of Arrandin by Marcus Herniman. You will never see such lovingly detailed world-building elsewhere!
  • *Awakening by Lara Morgan. An impressive fantasy from a new Aussie author. Reviewed on The Specusphere.
  • *Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan. An original and intriguing fantasy of Elizabethan England.
  • *Dreaming Again edited by Jack Dann. A fascinating anthology of some of Australia's best spec-fic writers.
  • *Black Ships by Jo Graham; a well-told riff on the Aeneid. Reviewed on The Specusphere.
  • *Hal Spacejock Book IV: No Free Lunch by Simon Haynes. Another screamingly funny story from this entertaining author.
  • *Escape by Sea by L.S.Lawrence. An exciting adventure story for the YA market, set in the era of the Punic Wars. Check out my Specusphere review.
  • *The Accidental Sorcerer by KE Mills. This is Karen Miller in disguise so the writing is top-class. She just gets better and better!
  • *Take Charge by James Hansen. A really neat little book on how to use apostrophes correctly. I loved it! Follow the link to read my review.
  • *Dragonscarpe by Pat McNamara, Michal Dutkiewicz and Gary Turner. A beautifully illustrated, coffee-table sized high fantasy novel. Delicious! Follow the link to my Specusphere review.
  • *Dreamsongs by George R.R. Martin. A fantastic restrospective of the Great Man's work. The link takes you to my Specusphere review.
  • *Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley. A most promising first novel of the blood and thunder variety. Reviewed for The Specusphere.
  • *The Riven Kingdom by Karen Miller. One of the best reads I've had in ages. The link leads to my Specusphere review.
  • *Shakespeare by Bill Bryson. The first thing I've read for ages that I didn't have to review, so I can just relax and enjoy Bryson's vivid, witty writing.
  • *Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier. One of the best YA books I've read in many a long year. Follow the link to my review on The Specusphere.
  • *Warprize and also its sequel, Warsworn by Elizabeth Vaughan. The first two books of a romantic fantasy trilogy, the first from this author. Reviewed for The Specusphere.
  • *The Awakening Book One of The Triumvirate by Bevan McGuiness. An attention-grabbing first fantasy novel. Reviewed for The Specusphere.
  • *The Elves of Cintra by Terry Brooks. The second in his Genesis of Shannara Series. Reviewed for The Specusphere.
  • *Dr Whom by A.R.R.R. Roberts. An amusing spoof not only on the TV series but also on Lyn Truss's classic work on punctuation, Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Reviewed for The Specusphere.
  • *Feast of Souls by Celia Friedman. An intriguing idea underlies this one - what if magic had a cost, and that cost was a person's life force? Reviewed for The Specusphere.
  • *The Illustrated Bede by John Marsden with translator John Gregory and photographer Geoff Green. This work really places the Venerable Bede in his setting and historical context.
  • *The Art of Awareness by Eric Harrison. A superb meditation handbook by one of Australia's leading teachers.
  • *The Weighing of the Heart, an Anthology of Emerging Western Australian poets. I have a sonnet in this one but I am put to shame by some of the other wonderful poets whose work is represented!
  • *Eagle of the East by LS Lawrence. A super historical yarn for the YAs, especially those of the male persuasion. Reviewed for The Specusphere

Followers

Blog Archive

Stat Counter

Shuffling Papers

Sunday, July 29, 2007 | Posted by Satima Flavell | Edit Post
Two weeks have fled the calendar: two weeks in which I seem to have accomplished very little. I find myself discombobulated (is it possible to be combobulated, do you think?) and strangely unwilling to knuckle down to tasks that need doing; an after-effect, I expect, of having spent five months away. There is a mess of papers on the kitchen table that glowers at me when I walk by, so I avert my gaze. Now and then I feel guilty, so I shuffle the components around a bit and divide them into piles, but they keep telling me that's not what's needed. I refuse to acknowledge that they really do have to have Things done to them, so the papers and I are engaged in a Mexican standoff.

When I arrived home, I found several books waiting to be reviewed, largely from Hachette Livre who have recently set up shop in Australia under the Orbit banner. Two of them found homes with other reviewers, and I have just uploaded one of the others, which I reviewed myself. It is Feast of Souls by Celia Friedman, an excellent tale of magic and despair. Now I'm reading Dr Whom (subtitled "ET shoots and leaves"!) by A.R.R.R. Roberts. You will gather from the title that it is a spoof on all things speculative and many things linguistic:-) I should be able to get the review on line sometime this week.

At the same time, I have also been at least a bit active on the Family History front. I received lots of new information from cousins old and new while I was travelling and there were also several requests for information clogging up my inbox on my return. I think I've dealt with most of those now and am a fair way through entering the new info into my data base. I currently have a collection of 21,877 relations, most of them dead. I keep telling myself "Enough, already!" but then someone will send me a new and intriguing line to investigate and I'm off again. It's awful, loving lots of things. I've never been able to give up any of my favourite activities, with the inevitable result that I've become a jack-of-all-trades. I long to get back to my writing, but it will have to wait until I've finished entering the rest of the Dead Rellies. And, of course, dealing with that ominous paperwork:-(

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hallo Satima,
so you are back in Mount Gambier - after a long trip, healthy and in one piece. But I don't say: back home: I can read in your blogs that your heart is still in Perth. I hope and wish for you to learn to call M.G. also "home" sometime in the future.
That it is difficult for you to get back to routine work I can well understand. I expected the same feeling everytime when I returned to office-work after 3 weeks holiday - and imagine, you have been off for 5 months! But in the office I had to start to minimize the heap of papers on my desktop on the spot - so from my experience: best thing is to start with this awful work - the longer you wait the higher this heap will be, at least that is what it looks like.
I am sure you have heard about the floods that hit England at present. Be glad it did not happen while you visited England.
Here everything is fine and we enjoy summer.
Give my regards to your family-members
Love
Elfriede

Monday, July 30, 2007
Satima Flavell said...

Thanks for your understanding, Elfriede:-) Yes, I hope I will learn to call Mount Gambier home eventually. But for the time being, I have enough other things to keep me busy. You're right: that paperwork has bred offspring during the night. I'm certain of that because it looks heaps bigger this morning!

My English friends and rellies tell me that I saw the best of the weather there in April! Indeed it was unseasonably warm and pleasant then and I had to buy summer clothes. But since then weather has not been good and people report that the floods have been terrible. I hope that doesn't happen where you live. The Rhine in full flood would be terrible to see, but not impossible, I'd imagine.

My son Bruce is off to Iran for five weeks, seconded to the University in Tehran. Scott is back from his annual work stint in America - he only stayed five weeks this year!

Love to everyone there, including the ones with four legs!

Monday, July 30, 2007

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Designed by Maneyacts.