About Me
- Satima Flavell
- I am a writer, editor and reviewer based in Perth, Western Australia. I specialise in historical and high or epic fantasy. If you have a manuscript in preparation, don't waste money on editing too early. Instead, let me help with a mini-assessment of your work, based on careful reading of your synopsis and first 20 pages. Then, when you've worked on the manuscript in line with our discussions, I will be happy to do a full edit before you send it off into the big wide world. My fees are very reasonable - for more about my editing work, CLICK HERE
Buy Mythic Resonance
Got a Kindle? Check out Mythic Resonance,
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 $3.99 from Amazon.
Prefer hard copy?
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
- Writers block 1
- Writers block 2
- Writers block 3
- Writers need editors!
- Writers, Depression and Addiction
- Writing in dialect, accent or register
Interviews with authors
My Blog List
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Nebula Award Winners! - The winners are in bold. Also noted: The Norton and Bradbury awards, as well as the Solstice and the Kevin J. O’Donnell Service to SFWA Award. Novel: 2312,...1 hour ago
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April 2013 Roundup: Classics and Literary - First, I apologise for the tardiness of my April round-up. I’ve been on the road and am only now settling back to routine. April was a special month for Li...1 hour ago
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Margo’s Aurealis Night! - It was a great night at the Aurealis Awards – I was on the return trip from two weeks travelling north doing Song of the Slums school visits, but even my d...3 hours ago
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A few words on Purbeck Marble - *Today's research snippet.* *Purbeck Marble - in brief* Purbeck columns at the Temple Church Purbeck marble was a highly prized building material in the 11t...5 hours ago
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PR and Marketing for Self-Publishing: Do’s and Don’ts - It (finally) appears the stigmas once associated with self and indie-publishing are disappearing, or at least waning – though in some cases there are new o...5 hours ago
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Alan Kupperberg: Rejected and Censored - You would be forgiven for thinking that, after a long career in the comic book industry, including stints in advertising, magazine work and general illustrat...7 hours ago
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Story Inspiration Sunday - My writing process has evolved and changed over the years. I anticipate it will continue to change. Currently, I write everything out by hand, first, then ...10 hours ago
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Laura E Goodin wins The Kris Hembury Award for Encouragement - Our heartiest congratulations to Laura for winning the *Kris Hembury Award*at last night's *Australian Aurealis Awards* held at the Independent Theatre in N...10 hours ago
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Beth Hoffman - Beth Hoffman is the New York Times bestselling author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt and Looking for Me. Recently I asked the author about what she was reading....10 hours ago
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Infant Burials and Christianization: The View from East Central Europe - This was the second paper in the Early Medieval Europe I series given at KZOO and another fabulous archaeology paper. It contrasted infant grave sites in e...11 hours ago
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Serendipity - For many years I had a pair of heavy, black wellies. They served me well until gradually they developed cracks and crazes. Then they got hard and brittle -...12 hours ago
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Aurealis Award winners and lessons learned - Last night was Australian speculative fiction’s night of nights, with the Aurealis Awards Gala presentation. The third and final time in Sydney (next year ...12 hours ago
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Sunday Surfing - The Importance of Strategic Goals and How To Reassess Your Personal Goals Gini Koch: Why I Like Traditional Publishing (Use the "Find Posts By" dropdown to...12 hours ago
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Writers [on Writing]: Gish Jen - Writers [on Writing]: Gish Jen *One must live in order to have something to write about....Still the bulk of everyday life comes as an interruption. Some p...13 hours ago
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Colour Blindness test … - I thought this is really interesting, I got every one right, so did my son but my dear hubby only managed to see one of the plates. Perhaps that’s why when...16 hours ago
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Aurealis Awards 2012: A Link For You - Let's face it, Sean Wright does it better than I would in his post this morning, using Twitter posts, including one of mine, to describe Australian SF's an...17 hours ago
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I am stunned and grateful. - Tonight at the Aurealis Awards, I received the very great honor of the Kris Hembury Encouragement Award. I didn't know Kris I think I may have met him br...1 day ago
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On the Smugglers’ Radar - “On The Smugglers’ Radar” is a feature for books that have caught our eye: books we have heard of via other bloggers, directly from publishers, and/or fr...1 day ago
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Real Life Diagnostics: Internal Dialog and Pacing: How Much is Too Much? - *Critique By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy * Real Life Diagnostics is a weekly column that studies a snippet of a work in progress for specific issues. Rea...1 day ago
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On Friendship with kings and gods - I think today my examiner article will be about friendship with Christ, God the Son. Maybe even friendship with God the Holy Spirit. Friendship with God t...1 day ago
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Wallpaper, All Shook Up. - I get an email regularly from National Geographic showing me pictures of the month. Some of these can be used as wallpapers (backgrounds) on one’s computer...1 day ago
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Results of the “Help I’m Looking For” Writers’ Survey - I did a survey of folks on my Writing Tips newsletter, many of whom have dropped out of regular readership. Many of whom have a good reason for doing so. T...1 day ago
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How To Use Auto Responder Emails to Boost Your Blogging Efforts - This is a guest contribution by Asher Elran of Dynamic Search. I thought emails were a waste of time and that they are ignored, but then I learned how to d...2 days ago
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Flogometer for Laura: would you turn the first page? - I'm off to do my Killer First Page workshop at Write on the River in Wenatchee this weekend. It should be an interesting session--34 people submitted first p...2 days ago
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BITTER SEEDS – Editorial Love-In… - We’re bowled over to see such fantastic support from the editorial team at Orbit Books for Ian Tregillis‘s superb Milkweed trilogy. Over on the Orbit Books...2 days ago
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Tagging our past - A little over a year ago, we developed a new feature in Discovery (our catalogue) that allows our users to add their own tags to our records. Tags are a wa...2 days ago
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Friday Facts - A post with some random and interesting facts about Edward II, his life and his family. :-) - Edward's mother Eleanor of Castile was half-Spanish and half...2 days ago
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Physical Attribute Entry: Chest - *Physical description of a character can be difficult to convey—too much will slow the pace or feel 'list-like', while too little will not allow readers t...2 days ago
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Why BITTER SEEDS blew me away - [image: Bitter Seeds]As an editor, there’s no better feeling than reading a submission that blinds you with its sheer brilliance. It doesn’t happen often...2 days ago
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A Book A Week - Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Jamie Ford I've been waiting a long time to read this book. Well, not this book exactly, but rather a well plo...2 days ago
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It’s A Outrage! - “It’s a outrage!” my plumber Sam bellowed through the phone. I held the phone as far from my ear as I could. “Um, Sam, what’s this about? I paid that inv...2 days ago
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Creative writing prize – Larbert High School - As part of my work as Patron of Reading for the wonderful Larbert High School, I recently judged the best creative writing examples from the Higher English...2 days ago
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Forum Writing Challenges! - Who out there likes to write short stories?! Over in our Notepad Forum we’ve revived one of our old website’s popular ideas- a writing challenge! The idea ...2 days ago
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The Past Future of Publishing. - When most writers think about the future of publishing they think about a world where the ease of e-publishing leads to the market being flooded by m...2 days ago
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Among the Beautiful Living Dead – the movie - If I had to nominate which of my short stories has generated the most questions from fans, it’d have to be “Entre les Beaux Morts en Vie” (“Among the Beaut...2 days ago
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Short Story Competition Win - My short story, “The Silence of Clockwork”, picked up third prize in the Conflux 9 short story competition. I’m especially pleased about this as the story ...2 days ago
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Nebulas! and Baycon! So come and see me... - I'm having a busy two weeks. This is a good thing. This weekend I'm attending the Nebula awards, which is in San Jose this year. This is a great event for ...2 days ago
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Outrageous French Copyright Grab: ReLIRE Goes Live - *Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware* Just over a year ago, I wrote about a new French law that, under the guise of dealing with the pressing is...3 days ago
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Tweet Smarter with FollowerWonk - FollowerWonk is a powerful tool that can help authors tweet smarter. We explain what it does and why you should use it. [image: Writer]3 days ago
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Tweet Smarter with FollowerWonk - FollowerWonk is a powerful tool that can help authors tweet smarter. We explain what it does and why you should use it. [image: Writer]3 days ago
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You keep using that word - Almost every “how to write” book I’ve ever seen has a section devoted to style. Or sometimes voice. Or sometimes one for each. Frequently with vaporous dec...3 days ago
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Character Column: Meet Emma Lane and her ‘three sisters’ - Today, we are joined by romance author, Emma Lane, and not one, but three of her favourite characters from her Regency Romance series, The Vicar’s Daughter...3 days ago
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Dakota FitzPercy & the End of the World - Ever wondered why the world didn’t end last December? Now, for the first time, the whole story is made public. Well, more public than Dakota’s facebook pag...3 days ago
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Compare My Manuscript to a Famous Book—A Writer’s Question - A reader's asks whether or not to compare a manuscript with other books in query letters and elevator pitches.3 days ago
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THUMBNAIL THURSDAY GETS HITCHED - Ah, wedding humour. It's quick, it's easy, and it's infinitely variable. This is one of them. *What do you mean, "What are the options?"?*3 days ago
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Mediaeval sex and stoats. - Hail, Please let me bang on at great length about something I know sod all about. And notice the not two but three sexual terms pressed close together in ...4 days ago
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More Christian than you can poke a stick at - In response to some recent silly and strange claims on the net regarding the history of the Golden Dawn, I recently reposted to Facebook an old post, A Pag...4 days ago
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KSP WRITERS’ CENTRE 2013/14 RESIDENCY PROGRAM - KSP WRITERS’ CENTRE 2013/14 RESIDENCY PROGRAM Applications closing soon 2013 Young Writers-In-Residence Applications for 2013 Young Writer-In-Residence...5 days ago
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Tuesday Fiction: “Synchronicity” by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo - Today’s Tuesday Fiction is by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo. Victor is from the Philippines, and his work has been published in the Philippine Free Press and t...5 days ago
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A giant TOUR catch up. Also, we wear the same boots. - I need to get back to blogging. Too many things are stacking up, and I'm paying attention over on Twitter and Tumblr and such, but not here, and really, th...5 days ago
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ME & HIM: A Guide to Recovery aids Suicide Prevention - Living is So BIG, an international suicide prevention website published ‘From MADNESS to Recovery’ the story behind my tell-all memoir ME & HER: A Memoir...5 days ago
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Update from Rio - *The renovated staircase leading up to the Buddha Vihara* Hi Friends, Namo Buddhaya, I have been in Rio De Janeiro staying at the Rio Buddha Vihara for th...5 days ago
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Unbundling in the book business: the fourth big trend - A few weeks ago, I wrote that there are three big forces driving the future of publishing: scale, verticalization, and atomization. I was wrong. I had forg...6 days ago
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And then there was cake... - We have an announcement. A very important announcement. We have a new cake-maker in the House! Yes, it's true. A new cake-maker. And she has certainly wo...6 days ago
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Spam poetry never sleeps - Cynthia’s offering du jour: Je suis un débutant à ce forum, by Cynthia Mershark I ultimately stumbled upon 2 types of people: well-informed people I don’t ...6 days ago
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MtLawleyshire’s Hyde Park in Autumn - I took a break from my studies and risked it – I went down to Hyde Park yesterday – a sunny day after days of rain & storm. We had more rain in 2 days tha...1 week ago
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Pilot Boat - Just a little something today. Pilot boats were a constant feature during last year's cruise since pilots were required to navigate the harbours, rivers, ...1 week ago
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The Great Gatsby - There was a competition that I entered this week, to create an artwork inspired by the Great Gatsby. No images or stills from the new movie could be used....1 week ago
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Haunted House - *Now available on Kindle for $3.99.* *BEYOND AFRAID...* It was an experiment in fear. Eight people, each chosen because they lived through a terrifying e...1 week ago
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A blog about stuff - I’m back at work. I’ve uploaded everything I need to this semester in the Masters yesterday. I went to Veronica Parsons’ book launch for Murder in the Moat...1 week ago
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Japanese Cover! - *Jyo-ou Heika no Majyutu-shi* *Wizard of Her Majesty* Boy Nightingale is well Bishōnen ain't he?1 week ago
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Book Review: Marlo Can Fly, by Robert Vescio - Marlo Can Fly is a new Australian picture book by Robert Vescio, illustrated by Sandra Temple and published by Wombat Books in 2013. Marlo Can Fly is a lo...1 week ago
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Editing today - I was asked for advice on becoming a book editor, and of course, as a young friend calls me, I'm the dreamkiller. I go around being "realistic" and/or "neg...1 week ago
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Book Promotion Tip of the Week #12: Get Lucky, and Live with the Guilt - To Warn Prospective Buyers or Not To Warn: That Is the Question This week, the outstanding American novelist Claire Messud published her fourth book of fic...2 weeks ago
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Interview with upcoming author Ada Slowe! - I am extremely pleased to share this interview with you from upcoming author Ada Slowe! Her debut novel, The Power of Love, launches August 15th, 2013. Be ...2 weeks ago
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Catalina's Choice. - Today I finished the third edit of Catalina's Choice! 114,000 words. I shall leave it for a time, like a cake, baked, now let it settle, and then the feast...2 weeks ago
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The Lascar's Dagger - I made this big announcement at Conflux, the Australian National Convention, and I believe the news has also been sent to Locus, so I am making it public. ...2 weeks ago
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Much Ado About Nothing finds Aussie distributor. - Sharmill Films has acquired Joss Whedon’s adaptation of Much Ado. It will be released in Australia later this year. Click here to read the details and watc...2 weeks ago
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The Ursuline Experience of Slavery - A zealous commitment to social justice and human rights has not always been an attribute of the Catholic Church. Although Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote in th...2 weeks ago
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A Series Ian Likes: The Dragonriders Of Pern - They’re fantasy’s most beloved megafauna. Feared for their deadly flame, famed for their miserliness, they have somehow come to be a symbol for the magical...2 weeks ago
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Still life with exotic jug (102) - Sticking with the still life theme, this one of an exotic jug with fruit is my first water colour painting. Again, I painted it at my friend Sue’s house. ...3 weeks ago
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Post-Swancon post - One of the best presentations at Swancon 2013 was Gail Simone's Guest speech, where she asked us what spec fic had given us... So I thought it was worth wr...3 weeks ago
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Edward de Grazia, the lawyer who fought book censorship & wrote Girls Lean Back Everywhere - In a 2008 post about Banned Books Week, I recommended an excellent 1992 book about literary censorship and obscenity prosecutions in the United States, Edw...3 weeks ago
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Proceeding as per usual and nothing to report - Time travel would mess up nearly everything. Without strict controls there could easily arise a situation where the natural progression of things precludes...4 weeks ago
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What day is it??? - A writer’s life can be a strange ephemeral world in which we waft about finding meaning in the sound of the wind or a blade of grass…..or in reality we won...5 weeks ago
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It's PR, darling! Branding an author, and other interesting pastimes - ** *All-new, value for money, always satisfied...* *Why do I feel like I'm...well, you know - SELLING myself?** * * -----------------------------------...1 month ago
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The Age of Play - Paul Klee, "Love"How to Set the Stage for a Creative and Compassionate LifeLiving happily and successfully requires a rich fantasy life, the ability to ima...1 month ago
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Finalist BBC Wildlife Artist of the year 2013 - I am delighted to be able to report that I have had three of my paintings accepted into the finals of the BBC Wildlife Artist of the year competition 2013....1 month ago
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#242 - Dear QueryShark: His code name: Kangaroo. His special ability: The Pocket--a unique portal into an empty "pocket universe," which Kangaroo can use to smug...1 month ago
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E-book vs. Traditional Publishing: Pros and Cons - by Annette Lyon With the huge boom of e-book publishing, particularly self-publishing, writers today have more options than ever before. What to do? Are th...1 month ago
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Are you a Freelance Copy Editor? - Are you an experienced freelance copy editor who has an interest in working with self-publishing writers? We (BubbleCow) are currently looking for two co...1 month ago
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One Publisher’s Journey - Guest Post by Benjamin LeRoy I’ve been a steady lurker on the Absolute Write forums since 2005. Every now and again I jump into a thread if I feel like the...1 month ago
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This Blog has moved to www.gailgaymermaritn.com - This blog has been moved to www.gailgaymermartin.com Please visit my Writing Fiction Blog there filled with the same comprehensive information and many mo...2 months ago
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So much happening, so little blogging... - I called my blog The Best Audience Award because, as well as feeling "not good enough" as a maker (writer, photographer, whatever I might otherwise post) I...2 months ago
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Query letter #10: Mitch H - A monastic trained orphan with a talent for Sorcery, Caldan's entire world dissolves when he learns his family was murdered, almost kills his friend's bro...2 months ago
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Can you use my Word book cover design? - Using word to design a book cover Microsoft Word is not appropriate software to use for an actual book cover design, however it is great if you've cre...3 months ago
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Incredible article on Photographer Joel Grimes - I was having a chuckle at the first two minutes of this video and got to thinking how similar it sounded to me growing up. From pulling things apart and no...3 months ago
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Tinye gifte for Valentynes Daye: Amour Ys Lyke a Potel of Wyne - O gentil rederes of my blog, how grete the peynes smerte that come to me whanne Ich thinken upon my lakke of updatinge. Swich grete busynesse hath fallen u...3 months ago
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Just writing & associated thoughts - What sets me writing? I know people ask this of writers & now I'm asking it of myself. I'm pulling out of a long de-motivated block of time and getting s...3 months ago
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Tarnished Crown #1 is done - sort of! - Insofar as it has a beginning, a middle and an end. So now people with less mushy brains than me can rip it to shreds so I can rewrite it and make it bette...4 months ago
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Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville - An evil fairy almost made me include 'supposed', 'bigamous' or 'purported' in that title. After all, in a world where at least one author has put Richard I...4 months ago
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Messenger Feast - * Kivgiqsuat, Messenger Feast, Inuit of Alaska* *"After the separation of the summer months the villagers begin socializing with other village groups. Durin...4 months ago
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Defining the Target Audience for Your Fiction - So you’re writing a novel and your critique buddies want to know who your “target audience” is. What do you tell them? Nee posted this question on my “Ask ...5 months ago
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"It is only a Black Dog, I am a wolf" - Hail, I have not been writing much lately, now I will try to write about why I can't write, and why I actually think it is possible I am going a little b...8 months ago
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Rev. Johann Polhemus' deadly scrapes - *© Christy K Robinson* He survived war, bubonic plague, trans-Atlantic travel, 20 years in the equatorial rainforest, two pirate attacks, two years' separa...8 months ago
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LoNoWriMo - LoNoWriMo is local novel writing month, and this is my second in a row. LoNoWriMo is where you sit down at your computer and write a novel in a month, with...9 months ago
Favourite Sites
- Bren McDibble
- Celestine Lyons
- Guy Gavriel Kay
- Hal Spacejock (Simon Haynes)
- Jacqueline Carey
- Jennifer Fallon
- 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
- The Specusphere
- Yellow wallpaper
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Guest posts at The Great Raven
Over at The Great Raven blog, fellow scribe Sue Burstynski is running a series of guest posts from people who were involved in writing and/or producing the Mythic Resonance anthology. It was my turn earlier this week - you can read my post at http://suebursztynski.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/saga-of-short-story-by-satima-flavell.html - and while you're there, stay and check out some of the other guest posts! Collectively, they give quite a bit of insight into how such an anthology is put together.
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