About Me
- Satima Flavell
- Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- I am based in Perth, Western Australia. You might enjoy my books - The Dagger of Dresnia, the first book of the Talismans Trilogy, is available at all good online book shops as is Book two, The Cloak of Challiver. Book three, The Seer of Syland, is in preparation. I trained in piano and singing at the NSW Conservatorium of Music. I also trained in dance (Scully-Borovansky, WAAPA) and drama (NIDA). Since 1987 I have been writing reviews of performances in all genres for a variety of publications, including Music Maker, ArtsWest, Dance Australia, The Australian and others. Now semi-retired, I still write occasionally for the ArtsHub website.
My books
The first two books of my trilogy, The Talismans, (The Dagger of Dresnia, and book two, The Cloak of Challiver) are available in e-book format from Smashwords, Amazon and other online sellers. Book three of the trilogy, The Seer of Syland, is in preparation.I also have a short story, 'La Belle Dame', in print - see Mythic Resonance below - as well as well as a few poems in various places.
The best way to contact me is via Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/satimaflavell
Buy The Talismans
The first two books of The Talismans trilogy were published by Satalyte Publications, which, sadly, has gone out of business. However, The Dagger of Dresnia and The Cloak of Challiver are available as ebooks on the usual book-selling websites, and book three, The Seer of Syland, is in preparation.
The easiest way to contact me is via Facebook.
The Dagger of Dresnia
The Cloak of Challiver, Book two of The Talismans
Mythic Resonance
Mythic Resonance is an excellent anthology that includes my short story 'La Belle Dame', together with great stories from Alan Baxter, Donna Maree Hanson, Sue Burstynski, Nike Sulway and nine more fantastic authors! Just $US3.99 from Amazon.
Got a Kindle? Check out Mythic Resonance.
Follow me on Twitter
Share a link on Twitter
For Readers, Writers & Editors
- A dilemma about characters
- Adelaide Writers Week, 2009
- Adjectives, commas and confusion
- An artist's conflict
- An editor's role
- Authorial voice, passive writing and the passive voice
- Common misuses: common expressions
- Common misuses: confusing words
- Common misuses: pronouns - subject and object
- Conversations with a character
- Critiquing Groups
- Does length matter?
- Dont sweat the small stuff: formatting
- Free help for writers
- How much magic is too much?
- Know your characters via astrology
- Like to be an editor?
- Modern Writing Techniques
- My best reads of 2007
- My best reads of 2008
- My favourite dead authors
- My favourite modern authors
- My influential authors
- Planning and Flimmering
- Planning vs Flimmering again
- Psychological Spec-Fic
- Readers' pet hates
- Reading, 2009
- Reality check: so you want to be a writer?
- Sensory detail is important!
- Speculative Fiction - what is it?
- Spelling reform?
- Substantive or linking verbs
- The creative cycle
- The promiscuous artist
- The revenge of omni rampant
- The value of "how-to" lists for writers
- Write a decent synopsis
- Write a review worth reading
- Writers block 1
- Writers block 2
- Writers block 3
- Writers need editors!
- Writers, Depression and Addiction
- Writing in dialect, accent or register
- Writing it Right: notes for apprentice authors
Interviews with authors
My Blog List
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Rai stones - *(Paraphrased from Wikipedia)*: Rai stones were, and in some cases are still, the currency of the island once called Yap. *They are stone coins which at th...10 years ago
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Cherries In The Snow - This recipe is delicious and can also be made as a diet dessert by using fat and/or sugar free ingredients. It’s delicious and guests will think it took ...11 years ago
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Al Milgrom’s connection to “Iron Man” - Via the Ann Arbor online newspaper - I felt it was worth repeating as a great example of Marvel doing the right thing by a former employee and without the ...13 years ago
Favourite Sites
- Alan Baxter
- Andrew McKiernan
- Bren McDibble
- Celestine Lyons
- Guy Gavriel Kay
- Hal Spacejock (Simon Haynes)
- Inventing Reality
- Jacqueline Carey
- Jennifer Fallon
- Jessica Rydill
- Jessica Vivien
- Joel Fagin
- Juliet Marillier
- KA Bedford
- Karen Miller
- KSP Writers Centre
- Lynn Flewelling
- Marianne de Pierres
- Phill Berrie
- Ryan Flavell
- Satima's Professional Editing Services
- SF Novelists' Blog
- SF Signal
- Shane Jiraiya Cummings
- Society of Editors, WA
- Stephen Thompson
- Yellow wallpaper
Blog Archive
Places I've lived: Manchester, UK
Places I've lived: Gippsland, Australia
Places I've lived: Geelong, Australia
Places I've lived: Tamworth, NSW
Places I've Lived - Sydney
Places I've lived: Auckland, NZ
Places I've Lived: Mount Gambier
Places I've lived: Adelaide, SA
Places I've Lived: Perth by Day
Places I've lived: High View, WV
Places I've lived: Lynton, Devon, UK
Places I've lived: Braemar, Scotland
Places I've lived: Barre, MA, USA
Places I've Lived: Perth by Night
Search This Blog
Sunday 10 February 2008
The countdown continues...
Sunday, February 10, 2008 |
Posted by
Satima Flavell
Only twenty more sleeps now, and I’ll be on a journey that will involve my participation in some wonderful events. First, the Adelaide Writers Festival, which runs from 2-7 March. We are lucky in Australia to have several excellent Arts Festivals, and they tend to have free “Writers Weeks” associated with them. This will be my first time at the Adelaide one, courtesy of my friend Annalou, and I’m looking forward to hearing some of the panels and talks by authors and publishers. I especially have my eye on sessions involving Margo Lanagan and Lian Hearn, two fine Australian Speculative Fiction writers, and the panel on “Directions in British and Australian Publishing”, with representatives from Scribe Publications here in Oz as well as three British houses. Another panel is called “Germaine’s Legacy”, with Germaine Greer herself on the panel. Still another is entitled “They Fuck You Up”. I must hear that one to find just who it is that’s causing all the problems in my world.
Then a few days with my daughter Billy in Adelaide before heading off to Perth (plane trip courtesy of another kind friend) where I’ll spend a week catching up with groups and individuals before the second highlight of the trip, Swancon, where I expect that, as usual, I shall be informed, entertained and embraced by the lovely SpecFic community. One of my favourite Aussie SpecFic writers, Glenda Larke, is one of the guests of honour. There is an excellent academic stream at Swancon this year as well as the usual discussion panels (they are always very good) book launches, demonstrations and social events. And books! I always go determined to buy only one book but it's impossible. I don't eat much in the week that follows a convention:-)
After Swancon, there should be three weeks house-sitting if all goes to plan and something else if all doesn’t, then another highlight – the Vipassana meditation retreat organised by Perth Insight Meditation Group. Insight meditation, I have found, is one of the best possible tools for the acquisition of self knowledge and the development of tolerance and compassion. We will spend twelve days in almost total silence, each meditator or "yogi" watching the mind's silly chatter and the body's reactions to thoughts and emotions as they arise. Many people are horrified at the thought of twelve days without talking - no mobile phone, no TV, no radio, no MP3 - but believe me, a Vipassana retreat is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. I have been honoured with a scholarship for this retreat, which will be under the care of Patrick Kearney, an excellent teacher.
I have been very lucky in my meditation teachers. I toyed with meditation, on and off, for perhaps twenty years before I did my first retreat. That was with Chime Shaw in Perth in 1988. I studied with Eric Harrison at Perth Meditation Centre for several years on and off eventually completing his Teacher Training course. The "on and off" was due to the three and a half years I spent overseas, sitting with many fine teachers in Nepal, England and the USA. It was at the Bhavana Centre in West Virginia where I was given the name Satima, which means “mindful”, and it is indeed a good reminder, every time I hear it, to stay present in the moment and to be as aware as possible of the fluctuations of the mind and body and of the world around me. Later, I moved on to the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where I had the privilege of sitting with world renowned teachers such as Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Stephen Armstrong, Kamala Masters and many others. I was on staff at IMS for about a year and a half and it was one of the happiest and most contented periods of my life. Even now, ten years later, I sometimes go to the IMS website to look at pictures of my beloved teachers and workmates there, and every time my heart is filled with joy. It’s a painful joy because I am no longer there, but all the same, a joy like no other to think of them all and send them lovingkindness.
Over the years I was away, “dharma-bumming” I learnt more about my mind than I ever discovered in a university or the many self-help books I’ve read. And Vipassana can help you with mundane things, too. It was at my last retreat with Patrick Kearney that I found the beginnings of the trilogy I’m writing – you know, the one that I can’t get right and am always complaining about! Maybe this time I’ll find out how to get it out of the unconscious and onto the page!
Then a few days with my daughter Billy in Adelaide before heading off to Perth (plane trip courtesy of another kind friend) where I’ll spend a week catching up with groups and individuals before the second highlight of the trip, Swancon, where I expect that, as usual, I shall be informed, entertained and embraced by the lovely SpecFic community. One of my favourite Aussie SpecFic writers, Glenda Larke, is one of the guests of honour. There is an excellent academic stream at Swancon this year as well as the usual discussion panels (they are always very good) book launches, demonstrations and social events. And books! I always go determined to buy only one book but it's impossible. I don't eat much in the week that follows a convention:-)
After Swancon, there should be three weeks house-sitting if all goes to plan and something else if all doesn’t, then another highlight – the Vipassana meditation retreat organised by Perth Insight Meditation Group. Insight meditation, I have found, is one of the best possible tools for the acquisition of self knowledge and the development of tolerance and compassion. We will spend twelve days in almost total silence, each meditator or "yogi" watching the mind's silly chatter and the body's reactions to thoughts and emotions as they arise. Many people are horrified at the thought of twelve days without talking - no mobile phone, no TV, no radio, no MP3 - but believe me, a Vipassana retreat is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. I have been honoured with a scholarship for this retreat, which will be under the care of Patrick Kearney, an excellent teacher.
I have been very lucky in my meditation teachers. I toyed with meditation, on and off, for perhaps twenty years before I did my first retreat. That was with Chime Shaw in Perth in 1988. I studied with Eric Harrison at Perth Meditation Centre for several years on and off eventually completing his Teacher Training course. The "on and off" was due to the three and a half years I spent overseas, sitting with many fine teachers in Nepal, England and the USA. It was at the Bhavana Centre in West Virginia where I was given the name Satima, which means “mindful”, and it is indeed a good reminder, every time I hear it, to stay present in the moment and to be as aware as possible of the fluctuations of the mind and body and of the world around me. Later, I moved on to the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where I had the privilege of sitting with world renowned teachers such as Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Stephen Armstrong, Kamala Masters and many others. I was on staff at IMS for about a year and a half and it was one of the happiest and most contented periods of my life. Even now, ten years later, I sometimes go to the IMS website to look at pictures of my beloved teachers and workmates there, and every time my heart is filled with joy. It’s a painful joy because I am no longer there, but all the same, a joy like no other to think of them all and send them lovingkindness.
Over the years I was away, “dharma-bumming” I learnt more about my mind than I ever discovered in a university or the many self-help books I’ve read. And Vipassana can help you with mundane things, too. It was at my last retreat with Patrick Kearney that I found the beginnings of the trilogy I’m writing – you know, the one that I can’t get right and am always complaining about! Maybe this time I’ll find out how to get it out of the unconscious and onto the page!
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8 comments:
I am afraid I don't really understand the term specific fiction. I have read Glenda Larke's Glory Isles trilogy which you term spec fic, so what is it - to me that's just fantasy.
Sounds like you have a very full time coming up, say hi to Glenda for me, if she knows who I am, I comment on her blogs a lot. As I said before, hugs to Annalou.
Not 'specific', Jo. Spec fic is short for speculative fiction. Unfortunately, spell-checkers tend to 'correct' this term if it's written as a single word. That's what has happened in Satima's blog post.
The term speculative fiction covers science fiction, fantasy and horror.
I'm sure Satima would have told you this! Maybe she could blog about the differences between sf, fantasy and horror, which are many.
Oh drat! I wrote that in Word and it did indeed change my SpecFic to specific. I changed it back in the first instance but missed the second one - sorry! Yes, it would indeed be worth blogging on sometime. It's one of those catch-all terms that tends to mean different things to different people.Some would stretch it to include things like, forex, magical realism and alternative history: others wouldn't. If I blog it I'll have to do some research:-)
Jo - and any one else reading this - are you familiar with Juliet's work? She has written nine or ten superb books in the historical fantasy mould. If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliet_Marillier you'll find a bio and a listing of all her fantastic books, many of which have won awards.
Satima -- It's good to know I have a friend who's going to be doing such wonderful things the next few weeks. Think of me ... working ...
Marilyn
Hey Marilyn, I'll be thinking of you all right and envying your view over Paris and the fact that you're actually editing your deathly doctor for a real live publisher! I hope all goes well with you and the book and the spring weather:-)
Hi, I'll try again - came here via Australian Writers Online, Satima. I hope you enjoy the Adelaide festival and get time to blog it - I would have liked to go see Paul Auster, but left it a bit late.
Hi Genevieve - thanks for visiting! Have you got a current blog? Your name takes me to an old one, but I notice in your links there are some you contribute to.