Satima's Blogspot: October 2010

Saturday, 30 October 2010

Fifteen Novellists

Saturday, October 30, 2010 |

Posted by Satima Flavell

Another meme! Instructions: take no more than 15 minutes to compile your list of fifteen authors who’ve influenced you. I’ve put mine in chronological order on the timeline of my life before the age of 40. Other authors have influenced me since, of course, but the works of the names below are woven into my psyche and no doubt always will be.

You don’t have to list your authors chronologically, of course – you can organise your collection however you choose!

I had to leave one author off because he would have been one too many, but let me acknowledge the debt I owe to A.A.Milne, whose Winnie-the-Pooh books formed the basis of my library between the ages of two and six!:-)

1. Enid Blyton: Part of the fabric of my childhood! Between the ages of 6 and 13, I read and re read the Famous Five and the Adventure Series until the covers were falling off!

2. Rudyard Kipling: Likewise, The Jungle Book and Just So Stories were favourites that I read again and again.

3. J.R.R. Tolkien: In grade two our teacher read The Hobbit aloud. It terrified me! I first read LOTR in my teens and have owned several copies since. Don’t tell anyone, but I liked the films better!

4. Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series was much loved, too, although I don’t think I ever owned all of them.

5. Rosemary Sutcliff: I first read The Eagle of the Ninth when I was eleven and have re-read it many times since, along with Sutcliff’s other lovely historicals. I’ve never succeeded in collecting the complete set, however.

6. Elizabeth Goudge: An historical writer with an eye for the mythical and mystical who was my favourite author when I was a teenager. I would like to read her books again. (On the to-do list!)

7. Daphne du Maurier: I read her avidly in my teens, too, but have never re-read her work. I should, because she must have had an influence on my own writing!

8. Anya Seton: Another historical author whose work I relished as a teenager, especially, of course, her famous Katherine.

9. P.G. Wodehouse: another author I should re-read. I spent many happy hours in my teens rolling with laughter over his stories.

10. L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt: As with Wodehouse, it was their humour, typified by The Incomplete Enchanter and The Castle of Iron, that hooked me. Later, I came to prefer Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, but de Camp and Pratt showed me that humour in speculative fiction is not only possible, but great fun.

11. A. Bertram Chandler: The first Australian SF author I read. My favourite was False Fatherland, which won Chandler one of his several Ditmars.

12. Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke: I’m cheating by lumping the “Big Three” together. As for many fans of my generation, these guys were the saints of SF and their work was Holy Writ.

13. Mary Stewart: The first historical fantasy author I read. I re-read The Crystal Cave every few years and still love it.

14. Anne McCaffrey and Roger Zelazny: Another cheat, because I discovered these authors about the same time, and different though they are from each other, they have both influenced my own writing. The first two books about the Pern Dragon riders and the first five books of the Amber series are still among my favourite re-reads.

15. Ursula K. Leguin: The Left Hand of Darkness is one of my favourite books of all time in any genre.

So, take the meme and run with it, if you like. Let me know when your list is up because I’d love to read it!

Labels: autobiography, meme, reading |

3 comments | Links to this post

Sunday, 17 October 2010

Versatile Bloggers

Sunday, October 17, 2010 |

Posted by Satima Flavell

A couple of weeks back, the very wonderful Kim Falconer passed on a meme/award. Now, I’m a sucker for memes, and as for awards – well, who doesn’t appreciate a bit of kudos now and then?

Here’s the meme part: Award Recipients list seven things about themselves that their readers might not know. Here are my seven – the first one is identical to Kim’s!

1. I love dark chocolate
2. Dogs are my favourite animals, followed by cats, sheep and pigs
3. I love language and communication in all forms
4. History is possibly the one thing I love even more than language, and only just behind language follow ballet (and dance generally) Yoga and meditation
5. My musical tastes run to Folk/Ethnic, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Romantic
6. Jobs I’ve worked at include Astrologer/Palmist, Ballet Teacher, Dancer (of the tits’n’feathers persuasion), Database Manager, Editor, English Coach, Housekeeper, Family History Researcher Freelance Journalist and Pig Farmer
7. I have lived in five countries, at a total of over 30 addresses. And that’s not counting house-sits and other temporary places of abode!

And speaking of house-sits, here is my Playmate of the Month, Jayjay. She is a lovely placid puddytat, whose only foible is a spot of tail lashing when dinner is not what she wanted. But she always manages to swallow her pride and eat it anyway! She's my Playmate of the Month because I am house-sitting for her family for the whole of October. This is the longest house-sit I've had this year and comes as a blessed isle of calm after so many moves in such a short few months!

The Versatile Blogger Award is hard to pass on, because most bloggers don’t set out to be versatile. They blog, often very eruditely, on one topic and one topic only. There are heaps of wonderful blogs devoted to exclusively to writing, reading, language, history, music, dance and all the other things I love – and things I hate, too, come to that! But here are some blogs that don’t limit themselves to one topic and so often come up with the odd surprise to keep the reader interested.

First, my friend Jo Wake, who blogs on travel, cooking, reading, current affairs and life's vicissitudes generally.

Then there’s Laura Goodin who can turn her pen to movies, books, fencing (the foils and sabres kind, not the 12-gauge wire kind) as well as fiction writing and topics related thereto.

And my friend and crit buddy Fiona Leonard, who blogs on anything and everything, especially travel and current affairs. Fiona has travelled widely and currently lives in Ghana, so her posts often deal with matters that seem exotic to those of us left behind in Oz! Her posts are often graced by photos taken by her clever partner, Nyani Quarmyne.

Lisa Gold calls herself the Research Maven, and she researches for writers on any and every possible topic. She passes on the gems she mines via the blog.

Author extraordinaire Karen Miller is a woman of many parts, and it shows in her very versatile blog. Karen writes on writing (of course) and also theatre, current affairs, biography, music and more.

Sue Isle is a versatile author as well as a versatile blogger, as she writes both YA and adult stories. And her hobby is keeping rats! If you want to learn about these fascinating and much-maligned animals, Sue’s your woman.

Gillian Polack is another author whose interests are legion. She loves both history and cooking, so the history of all things culinary features largely in her blog posts. But that’s only the beginning. Her blog provides unique entertainment and is often a barrel of laughs, sometimes through tears.

Lastly, a pat on the back for my Egoboo friends, Carol Ryles, Helen Venn, Joanna Fay and Sarah Parker. The five of us together pretty much cover the spectrum of interests and lifestyles, and I like to think this infinite variety is reflected in our posts!

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