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
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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
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Favourite Sites
- Alan Baxter
- Andrew McKiernan
- Bren McDibble
- Celestine Lyons
- Guy Gavriel Kay
- Hal Spacejock (Simon Haynes)
- Inventing Reality
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- Joel Fagin
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- Phill Berrie
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- Satima's Professional Editing Services
- SF Novelists' Blog
- SF Signal
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- 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
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Sunday 4 October 2009
New ideas
Sunday, October 04, 2009 |
Posted by
Satima Flavell
Do you like the new look of this blog? It's an experiment - part of a scheme to combine my blog and two websites in one location. I would love to get feedback from you on these factors:
Whether you like the new look of the blog or not. Tell me what you like and what you don't like!
Would you read the blog if it was incorporated into a private website rather than being hosted on Blogger?
Do you think it's a good idea to combine all my interests, both paid and unpaid, in one place? I've blogged about most of my favourite things: reading, writing, editing, music, dance, astrology, yoga, family history, history generally...so it wouldn't make a big difference to content. I might be a bit more organised about it, thats all!
In other words, what do you think makes a good blog? Do tell - I'm open to new ideas!
BTW, if you're reading this on Facebook, please take a minute to visit the original site - http://satimaflavell.blogspot.com/ - and give me your opinion!
Whether you like the new look of the blog or not. Tell me what you like and what you don't like!
Would you read the blog if it was incorporated into a private website rather than being hosted on Blogger?
Do you think it's a good idea to combine all my interests, both paid and unpaid, in one place? I've blogged about most of my favourite things: reading, writing, editing, music, dance, astrology, yoga, family history, history generally...so it wouldn't make a big difference to content. I might be a bit more organised about it, thats all!
In other words, what do you think makes a good blog? Do tell - I'm open to new ideas!
BTW, if you're reading this on Facebook, please take a minute to visit the original site - http://satimaflavell.blogspot.com/ - and give me your opinion!
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14 comments:
My main problem is that the font is too small so I have to increase the page size to read it at all. I prefer your original and maybe the page is a bit too busy now.
Thanks, Jo. I think I should be able to change to a bigger type and I'm fiddling with a two-column version. Watch this space:-)
I rather like the layout, and a good idea to advertise what you do across the top of the page - after all, so do the agent blogs, usually!
Btw I keep meaning to say how LIKE B-J is the photo of Jane in the following post.
It looks more professional. I might change the font of your blog posts, to arial and make it bigger. Rather than centre the about me section, perhaps use justification.
I prefer blogs that limit themselves in theme, ie, writing, but it's okay to chuck some stuff in about other things, just to get to know where the person is coming from, like I know from literary agent Nathan Bransford's blog that he is no high minded snob as he watches American's Next Top Model.
Thanks, guys; all comments noted. If I go ahead with the new site it will be hosted elsewhere but will probably use a template similar to this one, but most likely two columns rather than three. I'll keep you posted.
Satima;
I like it very much. It looks professional and very neat. And I like the colours. I will say that it's great!
Wow, Marilyn, you can crit my work any time you like!:-)
Alas, this doesn't work for me as well as your previous layout. The mixture of fonts at the top looks too busy, and I need to scroll down waaaaaaaaaaay far to get to the most frequently updated content (the blog). Two columns would solve that, though.
Thanks, Laura. The problem with asking for feedback on anything quickly reveals you can't please all of the people even some of the time:-)Will keep fiddling.
I like it a lot but I'd like to see your day's post further up on the page. Linked in, blog archive, stat counter...could be placed below.
Maybe it's my browser but the page is very wide. Have to do a lot of scrolling to see everything horizontally. If someone prints it out, would sections be cut off or not print?
-C
Carole and Laura have both suggested that the blog needs to be farther up the page. As with the old layout, however, it's right underneath my profile. Are people having to scroll down because the banner is too deep? I'd have to ask my son how to fix that as he designed it and it's on his computer, not mine.
I hate scrolling sideways, too, Carole, but these templates seem to be set up for big screens. I think it's possible to adjust them and if it is I'll see what I can do next time around:-)
I'd be interested in knowing if Laura uses Google Chrome as her internet browser?
If you need to scroll down a long way, it seems to me that there are no columns and all the links are placed above the actual "Blog"
In Google Chrome, it plays silly buggers with Blogspot and the design software I use. It works on Internet Explorer, Apple Safari and Firefox OK. (for me!)
In the new 2 column layout, it will be a lesser width. Probably set ofr 1000 pixels. That way it will suit most current computer video card settings (1024X768 is now the normal minimum) This will fix any left to right scrolling.
I'm using Safari, and no, I'm not getting columns at all. (Or rather, I'm getting just one column, with the blog waaaaaay after the other stuff.)