About Me

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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 Dagger of Dresnia

The Cloak of Challiver, Book two of The Talismans

The Cloak of Challiver, Book two of The Talismans
Available as an e-book on Amazon and other online booksellers.

Mythic Resonance

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.

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Blog Archive

Places I've lived: Manchester, UK

Places I've lived: Manchester, UK

Places I've lived: Gippsland, Australia

Places I've lived: Gippsland, Australia

Places I've lived: Geelong, Australia

Places I've lived: Geelong,  Australia

Places I've lived: Tamworth, NSW

Places I've lived: Tamworth, NSW

Places I've Lived - Sydney

Places I've Lived - Sydney
Sydney Conservatorium - my old school

Places I've lived: Auckland, NZ

Places I've lived: Auckland, NZ

Places I've Lived: Mount Gambier

Places I've Lived: Mount Gambier
Blue Lake

Places I've lived: Adelaide, SA

Places I've lived: Adelaide, SA

Places I've Lived: Perth by Day

Places I've Lived: Perth by Day
From Kings Park

Places I've lived: High View, WV

Places I've lived: High View, WV

Places I've lived: Lynton, Devon, UK

Places I've lived: Lynton, Devon, UK

Places I've lived: Braemar, Scotland

Places I've lived: Braemar, Scotland

Places I've lived: Barre, MA, USA

Places I've lived: Barre, MA, USA

Places I've Lived: Perth by Night

Places I've Lived: Perth by Night
From Kings Park

Inner Peace Blog

Inner Peace Blog
Awarded by Joanna Fay. Click on the image to visit her lovely website!

Versatile Blogger Award

Versatile Blogger Award
Awarded by Kim Falconer. Click on the pic to check out her Quantum Astrology blog!

Fabulous Blog Award

Fabulous Blog Award
Awarded by Kathryn Warner. Click on the pic to check out her Edward II blog!

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Wednesday 19 September 2012

A place to call home



Ever since mid-2005, I’ve been on the move. It all started when the Boom hit Perth, and I learnt from the estate agent who managed the block of flats I lived in that the owner was going to kick everyone out at the end of the year so he could renovate the block (and, of course, re-let the flats at a grossly inflated price).
People were pouring into Perth from the eastern states, lured by the prospect of work in the booming mining industry, so rents were on the up and up. I couldn’t complain – my second husband and I had moved to Perth with our family in 1985 so he could take up a position as a Training Officer with the Argyle Diamond Mines. For the first time in our lives one of us was earning good money! I was able to go back to uni, first to do an Associate Diploma at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and later to do a BA in Religious Studies at Edith Cowan University.
But then the marriage broke down and I was forced into rental accommodation. In my late forties I found myself looking for a job – and couldn’t get one: Australian employers, by and large, do not like employing older people. By running a market stall at weekends and taking what casual work I could get in between, I was able to scrape by. But pretty soon the pathetic amount I got from the joint resources of the marriage almost ran out, and I decided to use the last of it to fulfil a life-long ambition to travel.
And travel I did, for three and half years. By living and working in religious institutions and hotels, I again scraped by and did a bit of research for a master degree that I hoped to undertake when I got back to Oz.
But when I did get back, three and half years later, I found the course had become one that required fees up front, so I couldn’t afford it. Once again I found myself running a market stall and doing casual work, and struggling to pay the ever-increasing rents in Perth. The last straw was having to leave the comfortable little flat I had in a cosy, leafy suburb only five minutes by train from Perth city so the owner could renovate. The Boom had arrived and rents were skyrocketing.
I undertook a three-month house-sit for friends of relatives in South Australia, then to my relief I was offered a flat back in Perth for only $120 per week. However, it was only temporary – the lady who owned the block did not really want to rent the flats, preferring to keep them for herself and her numerous goods and chattels. In 2006, accommodation in Perth being well beyond my means, I was obliged to move to Mount Gambier, South Australia. That was when I started this blog.
About then, I had a stroke of luck. Kind relatives in England and Germany paid for me to visit them, and I had a wonderful time exploring the old country and the Rhine Valley. (I covered this period in my early posts to this blog.) When I got back to Australia, I was offered several house-sits in Perth, and thus my peripatetic lifestyle of recent years began. If you follow the above link and keep clicking on 'Newer post' each time you can read about my travels in England and Germany.
I really preferred Perth to Mount Gambier (a pretty place, but very cold and wet for many months of the year) and I missed my friends and activities in the West. So every time I was offered a house-sit of any length I would head back to Perth. As luck would have it, I got a lot of house-sits, varying in length from ten days to three months. I was spending almost as much time in Perth as in Mount Gambier, and finally, early in 2011, I decided to cut loose and rid myself of my worldly goods, because I had a full year’s house sitting lined up in Perth.
It hardly seemed worthwhile to pay rent in one town while living in another, so I packed my bags and took to the road. The year stretched to eighteen months and included two six-month sits, so I wasn’t quite as unsettled as I might have been.
Actually, I’ve been lucky. Apparently some people in Perth are living in their cars because they can’t afford the crazily elevated rents of recent years. These days, a flat like the one I had in Daglish would set me back several hundred dollars a week!
I've come to realise, however, that I will not be able to continue this lifestyle for much longer. With one hip dicky enough for the doctors to be mumbling about a replacement, walking dogs and looking after gardens are not nearly as much fun as they used to be. I put my name down at two retirement villages, but was told I would probably have to wait up to two years to get rental accommodation.
But now the house-sits have run out, and to be honest, I am tired of being on the road. Last week, I rang one of the retirement villages and begged them to find me somewhere to live, since within the fortnight I would be homeless! And I don’t even have a car to sleep in. I was starting to have bad dreams about having to sleep in shop doorways.
Miraculously, the village had a bed-sitter vacant. I went to see it and was pleasantly surprised to find it was self-contained with a nice kitchen and bathroom, and in a clean and neat apartment block.
So I am packing for what I hope will be last move for some time! I move in on Saturday and will let you know how things pan out. Believe me, I shall be so happy to put my feet up in a place to call home I will not mind that it is barely big enough to swing a cat!
Sunday 9 September 2012

Another great little minicon!


Well, as usual, the KSP Minicon was a fun day with lots of lovely guests. We enjoyed the launch of Lee Battersby's new book, The Corpse Rat King, and it was great to have Lee as well as Amelia Beamer, Cathy Cupitt, Stephen Dedman, Elaine Kemp, Pete Kempshall,  Martin Livings, Dave Luckett, Juliet Marillier, Ian Nichols, Anthony Panegyres, Guy Salvidge, JB Thomas and other local writers on panels. Nice to catch up with Michèle Drouart, Marian Foster and Annette Backshall, too. Many thanks to organisers Carol Ryles and David Kitson, and to  Lynda Donovan and the rest of the team for a great meal, as well!

It was fun being on a panel about critiquing and editing with Amelia, Juliet and Pete. All the panels were worthwhile - I always learn something new at these events!

There were about 60 people there, which is just a nice number for the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre to hold comfortably. The weather gods smiled and the sun shone. It couldn't have been a nicer day!
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