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

Available as an e-book on Amazon and other online booksellers.
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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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

Sydney Conservatorium - my old school
Places I've lived: Auckland, NZ

Places I've Lived: Mount Gambier

Blue Lake
Places I've lived: Adelaide, SA

Places I've Lived: Perth by Day

From Kings Park
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

From Kings Park
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Monday, 2 February 2009
Marvel Man


This interviewing on blogs thing is getting to me! I could go on interviewing my friends, both the face-to-face variety and the electronic kind, every day of the week, because they are such an interesting bunch of people.
Writer on comics and blogger extrordinaire Danny Best has kindly volunteered to be today'svictim interviewee.
Q1. You're an Adelaide boy born and bred. Have you ever lived elsewhere?
A1. Definitely. Lived in Melbourne for a while, and have travelled around the country extensively. So much so in fact that my second home is on the Sunshine Coast and the third home is Melbourne. I love travel, this country has almost too much to offer a person, but each time I see those lights from the hills I know I'm home. A great place, is Adelaide.
Q2. Being allergic to bee stings, have you had any narrow escapes?
A2. Narrow? I guess if you call physically dying a narrow escape then sure. When I was 14 I was stung by a bee resulting in a mad dash to the hospital. Unfortunately for me my ma took me to the Lyell McEwan on a Saturday night! While she was arguing with the admission nurses I quietly slid off my chair unable to breath anymore. By the time they finally got me into the emergency rooms my heart had stopped and I was, for all intents and purposes, dead. Loads of adrenalin and other drugs later the prognosis was worse - I got better.
Q3. It's obvious that you're a fan of the comicbook. Who are your favourite characters, writers and artists?
A3. Too many to mention. No real favourite character, although I do have a soft spot for the Phantom and, naturally (being a boy), I do like the iconic figures of Captain America and the like. Personally you could eliminate shit like Wolverine and I'd be happy - very few people have actually written that character right.
Writers? Alan Moore and Alan Grant spring to mind, obviously. With the later stuff, ie: stuff out now, none of them interest me at all. Too many 'events'.
Artists - Norm Breyfogle, Alan Weiss, Armando Gil, Dave Simons - those guys all move me, along with a hundred others.
Q4. Do you enjoy reading other forms of fiction, too?
A4. Here's my confession - I'm not a huge fan of fiction. Never have been. I love non-fiction. History. Bio. Events. I watch TV and scream at it when I see errors.
I have read a lot of fiction but after a while I realised that what I was reading just wasn't as interesting to me as the stories behind the stories. I love 1984, for example, but I wanted to know what was going on behind the scenes, what prompted Orwell to write it. It's why I write not about comic books, but what goes into them. Who wants to read what I, or anyone else for that matter, thinks of a topic? But if I can give you the backstory to a series or an event, then I'm sure that's more entertaining than the event or story itself. I thirst for knowledge and my flaw is that I think everyone else does. As I've found out in recent times, some people prefer to remain ignorant.
Q5. Tell us one of your personal or professional ambitions for the next decade.
A5. To be alive. I'm just happy to keep working behind the scenes and allowing others to get all the credit. If more of my stuff makes it out there, either with my by-line or with someone else's, then that'll be fine for me.
Many thanks, Danny, for sharing a taste of your special interest with us. May your house be forever filled with groaning bookshelves and coffee tables overflowing with comics!!
Writer on comics and blogger extrordinaire Danny Best has kindly volunteered to be today's
Q1. You're an Adelaide boy born and bred. Have you ever lived elsewhere?
A1. Definitely. Lived in Melbourne for a while, and have travelled around the country extensively. So much so in fact that my second home is on the Sunshine Coast and the third home is Melbourne. I love travel, this country has almost too much to offer a person, but each time I see those lights from the hills I know I'm home. A great place, is Adelaide.
Q2. Being allergic to bee stings, have you had any narrow escapes?
A2. Narrow? I guess if you call physically dying a narrow escape then sure. When I was 14 I was stung by a bee resulting in a mad dash to the hospital. Unfortunately for me my ma took me to the Lyell McEwan on a Saturday night! While she was arguing with the admission nurses I quietly slid off my chair unable to breath anymore. By the time they finally got me into the emergency rooms my heart had stopped and I was, for all intents and purposes, dead. Loads of adrenalin and other drugs later the prognosis was worse - I got better.
Q3. It's obvious that you're a fan of the comicbook. Who are your favourite characters, writers and artists?
A3. Too many to mention. No real favourite character, although I do have a soft spot for the Phantom and, naturally (being a boy), I do like the iconic figures of Captain America and the like. Personally you could eliminate shit like Wolverine and I'd be happy - very few people have actually written that character right.
Writers? Alan Moore and Alan Grant spring to mind, obviously. With the later stuff, ie: stuff out now, none of them interest me at all. Too many 'events'.
Artists - Norm Breyfogle, Alan Weiss, Armando Gil, Dave Simons - those guys all move me, along with a hundred others.
Q4. Do you enjoy reading other forms of fiction, too?
A4. Here's my confession - I'm not a huge fan of fiction. Never have been. I love non-fiction. History. Bio. Events. I watch TV and scream at it when I see errors.
I have read a lot of fiction but after a while I realised that what I was reading just wasn't as interesting to me as the stories behind the stories. I love 1984, for example, but I wanted to know what was going on behind the scenes, what prompted Orwell to write it. It's why I write not about comic books, but what goes into them. Who wants to read what I, or anyone else for that matter, thinks of a topic? But if I can give you the backstory to a series or an event, then I'm sure that's more entertaining than the event or story itself. I thirst for knowledge and my flaw is that I think everyone else does. As I've found out in recent times, some people prefer to remain ignorant.
Q5. Tell us one of your personal or professional ambitions for the next decade.
A5. To be alive. I'm just happy to keep working behind the scenes and allowing others to get all the credit. If more of my stuff makes it out there, either with my by-line or with someone else's, then that'll be fine for me.
Many thanks, Danny, for sharing a taste of your special interest with us. May your house be forever filled with groaning bookshelves and coffee tables overflowing with comics!!
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2 comments:
I once nearly got 'sacked' from school for reading American comics (they included Superman) my house mistress was disgusted and asked me if I thought blue hair was good art? The fact that they were send to me by an American friend via my parents seemed to escape her attention. It was my fault!!!!!
Yes, comics were absolute forbidden at my school, too, and I wasn't allowed to read them at home, either. It's only in recent years that the cultural value of the medium has been appreciated and is now studied in universities. I think they have been popularised again by films based on comics so these days even people who have never read a comic are familiar with most of the characters Danny mentions in the interview.