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
Buy The Talismans
The Dagger of Dresnia
The Cloak of Challiver, Book two of The Talismans
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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How to Get (Sort Of, Maybe) Murdered By Me – For Charitable Purposes! - The folks at Locus magazine are running an auction of interesting stuff in order to help fund the (non-profit) organization for another year, and among the...10 hours ago
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Elyse Watches The Bachelor–S28 E9: Thanks Leslie - Tonight’s episode of The Bachelor is Fantasy Suites. This is where the host (Jesse Palmer) gives the couples creepy AF handwritten notes inviting them to s...11 hours ago
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Book Review Tiny Timmy #1- - Jill Smith’s Reviews > Tiny Timmy: Soccer Superstar! Tiny Timmy: Soccer Superstar! (Tiny Timmy #1)by Tim Cahill Jill Smith‘s review copyright Mar 16, 2024 ...12 hours ago
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Big Truths in Fiction - Last month while in Florida during multiple stops on book tour, I wore my “I survived reading banned books and all I got was smarter” t-shirt. How could ...17 hours ago
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Explore the history of Asia in ten stops [interactive map] - Explore the history of Asia in ten stops [interactive map] Embark on a captivating journey through pieces of the rich tapestry of Asian history with this...19 hours ago
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Chris Nickson - Chris Nickson is the author of eleven Tom Harper mysteries, eight highly acclaimed novels in the Richard Nottingham series, and six Simon Westow mysteries....23 hours ago
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1 Weird Trick To Avoid Using The Passive Voice In Your Writing - What Is The Passive Voice? The passive voice is a grammatical construction in which the subject of a sentence is acted upon by the verb, rather than perf...1 day ago
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Just Finished Reading… Of Judgement Fallen by Steven Veerapen. Edinburgh: Polygon, 2023 - This is the sequel to Of Blood Descended, in what I am guessing is the second of a duology, so… probably no more Anthony Blanke mysteries. Which woul...1 day ago
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"An '80s Tenement Love Story' from Bourbon Penn 31 an Aurealis Award Finalist - It's humbling to see my latest story "An '80s Tenement Love Story" recently announced as a finalist for an Aurealis Award. This is the second time I've ...3 days ago
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In which I can now worry significantly less about something terrible happening to 126 things... - I spent yesterday in Dallas, at the Heritage Auction headquarters -- I had decided to auction off some artwork and memorabilia to benefit two charities ...3 days ago
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Stories in Flowers by Caroline K. Mackenzie - Spring is on its way. It has been a long winter (or, at least, it feels that way) and the bursting of buds and arrival of flowers bring welcome signs of ...4 days ago
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How to Schedule Time for Writing - The post How to Schedule Time for Writing appeared first on ProBlogger. Maintaining Momentum in Blogging Series I find it is very easy to get distracted ...5 days ago
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The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 11: Reaper Man - As I said in the last entry in this series, it was more than a year before I was able to read a new Discworld novel after buying the hardback of Moving Pic...6 days ago
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A home: feels like a whirlwind - We’ve been home exactly one week. I was telling Matthew that I haven’t found my groove yet. I’m currently grooveless. Last post was from London. I don’t th...1 week ago
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A home: feels like a whirlwind - We’ve been home exactly one week. I was telling Matthew that I haven’t found my groove yet. I’m currently grooveless. Last post was from London. I don’t th...1 week ago
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Filling in the gaps: acquiring legislation from the Controller’s Library - In late November 2023, we uploaded to legislation.gov.uk the first batch of 7,000 items of historical legislation digitised from the Controller’s Library...1 week ago
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‘The Noble Salvidge’ in conversation with Will Yeoman at York Writers’ Festival - On April 13th I will be attending the York Writers’ Festival and appearing in conversation with WritingWA’s Will Yeoman. It looks like a really interesting...2 weeks ago
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Trip to Brazil 2024 - Landing in the Megalopolis of Sao Paulo On February 7th I flew to Sao Paulo, Brazil to start a 17 day teachi...2 weeks ago
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#2 - WEP Get Together - March 2024 - Hello fellow WEPpers and friends! Welcome to the second WEP Get Together! *Starting in April, we go bi-monthly. * The WEP team decided to keep in to...2 weeks ago
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Book Excerpt - 'From Superman to Spawn: How Hollywood Got Rich While Creators Got Poor' - The following is a work in progress. It is a chapter from my forthcoming book, From Superman to Spawn: How Hollywood Got Rich While Creators Got Poor.The b...3 weeks ago
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New chat on the Lovecraft Ezine - I had a great chat with Mike Davis of the Lovercraft Ezine. We talked about about social media for creators, about small-town horror, about my books, and...3 weeks ago
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3 “Easy” Steps for Cutting Words from Your Manuscript - *By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy * *Deleting words from your novel is easier than you think.* *Before I dive in, I'm guest posting at Writers in the Storm ...4 weeks ago
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Royal Travel: Two Months at Edward II's Court - Unlike later centuries when the monarch spent most of the year in and around London, and went on progresses in the summer when the city got too hot and sti...1 month ago
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Photo Parade 2023 - A bit of fun at the beginning of the new year. I’m following several German travel blogs, and that way came across the annual Photo Parade (Fotoparade) on ...2 months ago
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Happy Public Domain Day 2024, the end of copyright for 1928 works - My annual reminder that January 1st is Public Domain Day, and this year copyright has ended for books, movies, and music first published in the U.S. in 192...2 months ago
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The White Horse Band - Live Blues/Rock - 31 March 2023 Hi All, Time for some LIVE Video Music from me… (as opposed to my original stuff)…. I got into a blues/rock band for a one off gig at ...3 months ago
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Konrath Thanksgiving - Black Friday - Cyber Monday Kindle Bundle Sale - *Get all of my ebook box sets on Amazon Kindle for 99 cents each, November 23 - 28.* *THAT'S 33¢ PER BOOK!* Almost my entire backlist of fifty-four ebooks...4 months ago
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Questions from year 9 students - Recently – actually, not very recently but I somehow forgot to write this sooner – I did what has become an annual online Q&A with the Year 9 girls at Bedf...4 months ago
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On Ohio, and the novels, and the new class - Just small news here. The new class is finished in first draft, and I’m now (and for the first time ever) doing the complete course bug-hunt and clean-up B...5 months ago
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Big disruption hit book publishing before AI showed up - Publishers Weekly recently hosted a stimulating and smart online session about AI and publishing, thanks to the organizing and moderating skills of Peter...5 months ago
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Flogometer 1180 for Christian—will you be moved to turn the page? - Submissions sought. Get fresh eyes on your opening page. Submission directions below. The Flogometer challenge: can you craft a first page that compels me ...7 months ago
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Storny Weather - I've just been out fixing up the damage from last night's storm. This is pretty much the first time I've been able to spend much time outside and do any...7 months ago
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#347 - I've been querying agents for the last 6-months and have over 50 rejections. I'm not sure if my novel isn't very interesting/sellable or if my query let...7 months ago
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Parody - The other day, for the first time in a very long time, I heard the Barbie Song. So, being me, I decided to parody it, in hour of Alianore Audley and *The...7 months ago
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Parody - The other day, for the first time in a very long time, I heard the Barbie Song. So, being me, I decided to write a parody. Hope you like it! *Hiya, Ali...7 months ago
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To Live and Love - To live and love for the both of us Ten years ago today I made that vow I've struggled in the decade since Not always knowing exactly how Ten years you've...8 months ago
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“It’s Random” – a random scribble - “Why am I even here? It’s random. No Divine Thing. No actual “purpose” except what we make of it. I haven’t made anything of it except to be restless, to a...8 months ago
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#MemorialDay, remembering a female patriot ancestor - *© 2022 Christy K Robinson* We are taught stories about heroic men who gave their lives to bring independence and liberty to their families, friends--and...9 months ago
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Mother’s Day Celebration (for a week!) - Originally posted on IFWG Publishing: We publish a fair bit of horror in many sub-genres, and celebrating Mother’s Day shouldn’t be exempt from our itinera...9 months ago
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A tale of two titles - I have done something notably foolish. Which is perhaps nothing new, though the circumstances on this occasion are unusual. To whit, I am publishing two bo...11 months ago
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Poem: If Wishes were horses - A team of horses racing toward me Brown like the uniforms of soldiers fortressing me around Speckled like a found family, salt of the earth Whit...1 year ago
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another review for the Christmas Maze - *The Christmas Maze by Danny Fahey – a Review by David Collis* Why do we seek to be good, to make the world a better place? Why do we seek to be ethi...1 year ago
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Children’s Rights QLD Ambassador - Children’s Rights QLD appointed Karen Tyrrell (me) Ambassador for Logan City, ahead of Children’s Week, 24-29 Oct 2022. I’m an award-winning child-empowe...1 year ago
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ANWERING THE CALL: LESSONS FROM THE THRESHOLD - NEXT STORY SANCTUARY "Anwering the Call: Lessons from the Threshold" Sept. 20, 7 pm eastern $30 Online Whether you're starting a project, a school year, ...1 year ago
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The Green House, Chapters 1-4 (Revised) - [Dear Reader: Having refined my intentions for this novel based on a lot of recent thinking about life and art, I have restructured and revised the first f...1 year ago
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Publishing Contracts 101: Beware Internal Contradications - It should probably go without saying that you don't want your publishing contract to include clauses that contradict one another. Beyond any potential l...1 year ago
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Tara Sharp is back and in audio book - SHARP IS BACK! Marianne Delacourt and Twelfth Planet Press are delighted to announce the fifth Tara Sharp story, a novella entitled RAZOR SHARP, will be ...1 year ago
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Website Update - My website www.stephendedman.com has been updated, with details of my latest books; please check it out!2 years ago
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Non-Binary Authors To Read: July 2021 - Non-Binary Authors To Read is a regular column from A.C. Wise highlighting non-binary authors of speculative fiction and recommending a starting place fo...2 years ago
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ATTENTION: YOU CAN’T LOG IN HERE - Hey YOU! This isn’t the forum. You’re trying to login to the Web site. THE FORUMS ARE HERE: CLICK THIS The post ATTENTION: YOU CAN’T LOG IN HERE a...2 years ago
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I'M INSIDE A SHORT STORY!! - Ok everyone, you have to read this very short short story. Firstly because it is good, (check out the Bligh story within it too), but also because I'm ...2 years ago
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Grandmother Dragon Forever - It feels like centuries since the last time I wrote something for the Dragon Cave. Only something of great importance would drag me out of my retirement...3 years ago
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What communicates power? - Well, I have to say, I wasn't expecting to get this far behind on my reports on the show, but the launch month was very busy, and then the next month turne...3 years ago
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The Legendary Game Pac-Man Has No Meaning. - [image: The Legendary Game Pac-Man Has No Meaning.] The Legendary Game Pac-Man Has No Meaning. Let's take a look at how this word came about. Actually, P...4 years ago
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Readers Notice and They Care - Readers care about story details and they care about characters. Both last night and this afternoon I had conversations with readers upset about the way au...4 years ago
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Review of Verdi's MacBeth (WA Opera) - *Our president, Frances Dharmalingham, has written a critique of a recent visit to the opera: Verdi’s ‘Macbeth’.* At Christmas 2018, my family’s gift to ...4 years ago
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Breakout 3: tips for engaging your audience - Tips for engaging your audience: how to improve presentation, public speaking confidence and presence on stage, no matter how small the stage is. Present...4 years ago
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The Trains Don't Stop Here - It's been a long, long time since my last blog post. One of the main reasons for this – apart from life being way too busy in general – is that, in my dwin...4 years ago
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Portrait of a first generation freed African American family - Sanford Huggins (c.1844–1889) and Mary Ellen Pryor (c.1851–1889), his wife, passed the early years of their lives in Woodford County, Kentucky, and later...4 years ago
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Revisiting the Comma Splice - One of the difficulties as an editor, particularly when working with fiction, is to know when to be a stickler for the rules. For some people this is not a...4 years ago
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New releases - SFFBookBonanza - StoryOrigin - SciFi and Fantasy Book Sale - New Releases – Jul 2019 The latest and greatest new releases in Science Fiction and Fantasy books! New releases July 2019 99 cent sale - July 22nd - 28t...4 years ago
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Assassin’s Apprentice Read Along - This month, in preparation for the October release of the Illustrated 25th Anniversary edition of Assassin’s Apprentice, with interior art by Magali Villan...4 years ago
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STOLEN PICTURE OPTIONS TELEVISION RIGHTS TO BEN AARONOVITCH’S RIVERS OF LONDON - *STOLEN PICTURE OPTIONS TELEVISION RIGHTS TO BEN AARONOVITCH’S * *RIVERS OF LONDON* *London, UK: 29April 2019*: Nick Frost and Simon Pegg’s UK-based ...4 years ago
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A Movie That No Writer Should See Alone - Really. REALLY. Trust me on this. particularly since this film, ‘Can you ever forgive me?’, is based on a ‘True story’ – and too many writers will see too...5 years ago
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Review: Trace: who killed Maria James? - [image: Trace: who killed Maria James?] Trace: who killed Maria James? by Rachael Brown My rating: 5 of 5 stars Absolutely jaw-dropping, compelling readin...5 years ago
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Dance Photo Shoots - Photo Session Planning & Preparation Have you ever wanted to do a photo shoot for dance but have been a little unsure about how and what really happens? ...5 years ago
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On Indefinite Hiatus - (Which I pretty much have been from this site for a while already, but for real now.) You can find most archive content through the On Writing page, and li...6 years ago
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2017 Ditmar Winners Announced - Over the Queen’s Birthday weekend, spec fic fans gathered for Continuum 13: Triskaidekaphilia. Continuum is always a great convention, and this year it was...6 years ago
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Writing about the Crusades and talking about a "meddlesome priest" - The Middle Ages are in the news again, so here is a roundup of recent news articles. We start with three good reads from historians talking about the crusa...6 years ago
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The One and the Many – every Sunday - My first serious girlfriend came from good Roman Catholic stock. Having tried (and failed) to be raised as a Christian child and finding nothing but lifele...6 years ago
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A Shameless Plug Ian Likes: Bibliorati.com - A little-known fact is that I once had a gig reviewing books for five years. It was for a now-defunct website known as The Specusphere. It was awesome fun:...7 years ago
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Book Review - Nobody by Threasa Meads - Available from BooktopiaThe subtitle for this work is *A Liminal Autobiography*. Liminal: 1. relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process. 2...7 years ago
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A whole 'nother year-and-a-bit - Well, we have let this blog slip, haven't we? I guess Facebook has taken over from blogs to a very large degree, but I think there is still a need for blo...7 years ago
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2017 Potential Bee Calendar – & ladybirds and butterflies - Bees on flowers – all sorts of flowers (& bees) – and lady birds and butterflies. There were hundreds (literally) of photos to choose from. This is a small...7 years ago
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What is dyslexia? - *" **The bottob line it thit it doet exitt, no bitter whit nibe teottle give it(i.e ttecific lierning ditibility, etc) iccording to Thilly Thiywitz ( 2003)...8 years ago
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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
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
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What is Success?
Another post copied over from my old WordPress blog.
Over at her Year in America blog, my friend Fiona Leonard posed the question, “If you knew you could not fail, what would you do?”
I thought for quite a while about this before posting a comment, trying to identify how I define success and what anchors me in my undertakings. I came to the conclusion that it’s not the lure of success that motivates me, but my passion for the thing I’m doing.
I’ve had many interests over the course of my life: in fact, in a post about a year ago I described myself as being “artistically promiscuous” as a girl, since I loved so many things. I studied piano, singing, speech and drama and several forms of dance as well as a full trencher of school subjects and all the peripherals that go with being a music student – theory, harmony, aural training, history and form of music…my days were full from wake-up time at 6.00am until I collapsed into bed at about 9.30pm. I loved all those activities (or at least most of them, most of the time!) and did not want to give any of them up.
Until, of course, they became too difficult. This happened first with piano. I was a student at Sydney Conservatorium, and I was well aware that although I had above average ability in music, I was never going to be much better at it than I was then. It had become a hard grind. I pushed myself through the required two hours of practice each day, but each session was a struggle. My teacher, Raymond Fischer, told me I was at least three years away from being ready to sit even the simplest diploma exam, and I realised I just didn’t have the enthusiasm to last the distance. Possibly, with a lot of effort, I could have done what my parents hoped and expected I would do – go on to Teachers’ College and become a specialist music teacher in a high school. But the prospect of having to face four or five classes a day for the rest of my life, trying to interest a mob of teenagers in a subject that had already lost its juice for me, was utterly unthinkable.
After a year of Arts at Sydney University, I took a year off study to work in the public service and make a rather unfortunate early marriage. It didn’t take long for me to realise that working in an office environment was not my thing, either, and in 1962 I entered the National Institute of Dramatic Art to try my hand at acting. However, during that year I had my first baby and in those days there were no creches at universities, and as I couldn’t find suitable child care, I had to give up my scholarship and quit the course. I was sad, but not devastated, because at heart I’d already realised that this was not my path, either. I loved Shakespeare, but opportunities for specialist Shakesperean actors in Australia were virtually nil at that time, and the thought of spending my time preparing for auditions for TV commercials didn’t exactly fill me with enthusiasm. Several of my fellow students did indeed become professional actors — two of them, John Bell and Anna Volska, even became specialist Shakespereans! — but many more became bartenders, teachers and insurance agents.
I continued to be involved in amateur theatre and to teach dance for another twenty years, while rearing my five children. Along the way I furthered an interest in astrology that had started in my teens, and tried my hand at farming, even gaining a Certificate in Rural Studies to give myself a theoretical base for milking cows, drenching sheep and mucking out pig pens. Actually this was one of the happiest times of my life in many ways, and not the least happy-making part was watching my children growing up close to nature, seeing first-hand the cycles of life that as urban dwellers we see only dimly, as when someone has a baby or an elderly relative dies. In farm animals these cycles play themselves out far more quickly.
Dance was the one thing that never lost its appeal for me, despite my short legs and hockey-player’s build that rendered me unsuited to classical ballet. In my forties I returned to study at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, where I completed an Associate Diploma in Performing Arts (Dance) with the intention of “updating my expertise” so that I could catch up with the latest doings in the dance world, especially in teaching. My forty-odd-year-old body complained terribly and it took three years for me to complete the two year course, but complete it I did, and I was quite proud when I walked across the platform to receive my scroll. Concurrently, I’d started a BA in Religious Studies, which I loved. I complemented it by converting my Associate Diploma to a Dance minor, and also started another BA in Languages. This was in those heady days of the 1980s when all tertiary education was free, so I was merrily undertaking units in French, Italian, English Literature, Linguistics, Psychology and Journalism. However, when I was part-way through this second BA, my second marrriage broke down and fees for university courses came back, so I could not afford to finish it, much less go on to do the masters in Religious Studies that I’d hoped to do. Of course, none of those transcripts actually qualified me to do anything, and I was getting older and becoming less and less employable in a country that has always valued youth above almost everything else. So I turned to my other interests to put bread on the table, and these are the things I still do today – writing, editing, astrology and meditation. And I still love all of them.
Writing fiction, however, is just as heartbreaking as music, dance and acting. The chances of any individual “succeeding” at it are very low indeed. For every thousand manuscripts that are started by hopeful would-be authors, only one or two, at best, will eventually be published by one of the major commercial publishing houses. I frequently become discouraged, and talking to my fellow writers, I realise most of them do, too.
Nevertheless, I will keep up the battle until writing loses its juice for me. And when might that be? If my past experience is any guide, it will be when I know that I’ve reached the limits of my ability, which to me isn’t failure; it’s just a fact of life. I have the good fortune to have better-than-average talents in a lot of directions, but I have never proved to be outstanding at any of them.
But is this a bad thing?
I think not. If it were, I wouldn’t have had the chance to do so many wonderful things because I would have spent my life focussing on the prospect of success in just one of the things I love. I worship all the muses, and while, perhaps, none of them loves me quite as much as she loves her dedicated votaries who have just one talent in abundance, I can nonetheless bathe in all their sacred pools and come away refreshed. And that may be the best gift of all.
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