About Me
- Satima Flavell
- I am a writer, editor, reviewer and dance teacher 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, and I still teach dance at Trinity School for Seniors, an outreach program of the Uniting Church in Perth.

My books
The first novel of my trilogy, The Talismans, is available as an e-book from Smashwords, Amazon and other online sellers. I do have paperbacks of The Dagger of Dresnia at the low price of $AU25 including postage within Australia. I also have a short story, 'La Belle Dame', in print - see Mythic Resonance below.
Book two of the trilogy, The Cloak of Challiver, will be available again shortly.
The best way to contact me is via Facebook!

Buy The Talismans
The first two books of The Talismans trilogy were published by Satalyte Publications, which, sadly, has gone out of business. Book one, The Dagger of Dresnia, is up on the usual bookselling web sites as an e-book, and I have a few hard copies to sell to those who prefer Real Paper. Book Two, The Cloak of Challiver, will be available soon.
The easiest way to contact me is via Facebook.

Buy 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.

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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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...12 hours ago
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Feedback on my books… - Dual Visions and Vashla’s World have a ringing endorsement and great feedback from a recent recipient of signed copies. His wife gave them to him for a bir...15 hours ago
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The Terminators By L.J. Trafford - In a previous post I examined just how damn dangerous it is being a Roman emperor (click here). You have a whoppingly high chance of an unnatural death and...16 hours ago
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Flog a BookBubber 190: Jana DeLeon—three good story questions in one page - Writers, send your prologue/first chapter to FtQ for a “flogging” critique. Email as an attachment. Many of the folks who utilize BookBub are self-publishe...17 hours ago
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Amber Cowie - Amber Cowie is a graduate of the University of Victoria and was short-listed for the 2017 Whistler Book Award. She lives in the mountains in a small West C...18 hours ago
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Storytelling and Stepping Beyond the Veil - Are you already wondering what I mean by “the veil”? Whether you’ve read my essays before or not, you likely have a suspicion. Do I have a ghost of a chanc...1 day ago
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The Arabian Gulf Digital Archive and the General Maritime Treaty of 1820 - Over the past two years, The National Archives and the National Archives of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been working together to develop the Arabia...4 days ago
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Shelf Help and Reading Well – Northern Ireland - I’m flying to Northern Ireland this evening to give a couple of talks tomorrow to help Y9 and Y10 students manage their mental health and Read the full ar...6 days ago
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How FRIENDS Makes Character Archetypes Look Easy - All About Archetypes The difference between archetypes and stereotypes is subtle, but crucial. Archetypes are frequently mistaken for stereotypes and vic...1 week ago
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Maken Melodye on #WhanthatAprilleDay16 - Goode Friendes and Readeres of thys Litel Blog, Yt doth fill my litel herte wyth gret happinesse to invyte yow to the thirde yeare of a moost blisful and p...2 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
Saturday, 18 January 2014
A spot of reminiscing


Part one of my path to publication -
Since learning that The Dagger of Dresnia, the first book of my Talismans Trilogy, may be published in a matter of weeks, I’ve found my mind turning, over and over again, to how I started to write it. It’s a strange thing about old age – the mind turns to the past far more than it used to!
Since learning that The Dagger of Dresnia, the first book of my Talismans Trilogy, may be published in a matter of weeks, I’ve found my mind turning, over and over again, to how I started to write it. It’s a strange thing about old age – the mind turns to the past far more than it used to!
I started to write my first novel (which is pretty terrible,
like most of them!) back in 1995, and it took me seven years to finish. I still
like reading it for fun, and I might even serialise it on my blog or something
one day, but it was definitely juvenile, if a middle-aged person can be said
write juvenilia. However it was a good way to cut my fiction-writing teeth, and
in 2003, when I attended my first Swancon, I was ready for a new challenge.
Forgive me if I digress for a moment: I should explain that
I’ve loved fantasy and science fiction ever since I was a child. From fairy
tales and childhood graphic novels such as the tales of Rupert Bear,
I worked my way through Enid Blyton’s oeuvre
and the Arabian Nights to Mary Stewart
and old-time SF writers such as L._Sprague_de_Camp and
his friend Fletcher Pratt – and, of course, the Big Three Isaac
Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur
C. Clarke. Of course, I read other authors as well, but I was always drawn,
first and foremost, to tales of wonder. Travel, adventure, history – I loved
all those, and even more so when they were laced with the fantastical. If you
are reading this blog there is a pretty strong chance that those are among your
loves, too.
Even though I was an SF enthusiast, I never became involved
in fannish activities. I guess I was too busy rearing children and teaching
ballet. But when I heard Alex Isle speaking on the
radio about a forthcoming SF convention in Perth, Western Australia, my
interest was sparked. I couldn’t go that year because of other commitments, but
the following year, 2003, was the one when I was introduced to the wonders of
fandom. I went to Swancon for the first time and have been almost every year
since. And when I get the chance to attend other cons, I can’t wait to pack my
bags and go to those as well!
The 2003 Swancon was, in fact, called ‘Trilogy’, so it was
right up my alley. It wasn’t just the state convention, either – it was the
Natcon (national convention) when fans stream in from all over the country. And not just fans,
but writers, artists, film-makers, musicians – the goddess of speculative
fiction numbers folk of all artistic persuasions among her devotees. I wandered
around in a daze, overwhelmed by the realisation that I wasn’t alone, that
there were countless others who loved to read and write about possibilities and
impossibilities rather than the humdrum of everyday life.
Yet, when an SF writer pens a story, s/he is not writing
entirely about imaginary people and events. S/he is drawing parallels, creating
metaphors, showing us, through the fantastical, something about the world as we
know it; something about what it means to be human. To do this well is a rare
gift, and at a good convention one is surrounded by people who recognise and
appreciate that gift.
I knew very few people at the 2003 Swancon. One person I did know was Lee Battersby, a member of a
writing group I’d joined called Stromatolytes. Lee ran a short workshop on the
Sunday morning and asked us to have a piece ready to read out at a later
session. As a trigger, he asked us to think of a building we knew well, imagine
it being put to a different use, and write a short piece on something that
happened there.
Funnily enough, when I started to write my first novel, I
was living-in and working as Executive Housekeeper (a fancy name for
jack-of-all-trades and general mugabout) at The Valley of the Rocks Hotel in
Lynton, Devonshire, England. It was a Neo-Gothic edifice, castle-like and even
a tad creepy. One way to approach it was up a steep, cobbled street. I’d often
imagined horsemen riding up the hill to this ‘castle’, and that was what sprang to
mind when I tackled Lee’s exercise. An old magician was going to warn a
newly-widowed princess who has just given birth to the heir to the throne, that
a rebel lord was coming to storm the castle. This formed the catalyst for the
Talismans Trilogy, and you can read it, pretty much as I wrote it back in 2003
here.
It does not appear in book one, however, because I realised after a few years
work (yes, I’m a slow learner) that I was starting the story in the wrong
place - a typical problem for beginning writers. But it’s not a bad scene for a beginner, although you will notice a few
close shaves with point-of-view, another of the inevitable problems of newbie
writers! I hope, despite my neophyte errors, that you will enjoy reading it.
Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about the surprising outcome of that exercise! And by-the-way, Lee Battersby will be running a workshop at the Perth Writers Festival from 10am-1pm on Saturday 22 February, on how to create a believable fantasy universe. Go and hear him if you can - and who knows? You might find yourself writing a fantasy trilogy, too!
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8 comments:
Unlikely I'm afraid. I am so delighted that your novel is to be published. Didn't have time to read your exercise story, I will return.
Didn't realise you had worked in England.
Yes, I was travelling in the mid-nineties and I lived and worked in the States and the UK for varying amounts of time. The hotels I worked at in England and Scotland were like Faulty Towers, no kidding!
You mind dropping by the U.S. and picking me up on your way to the Perth Writers Festival? I'll make sure I'm ready when you get here. :)
I came across my original draft of my manuscript a year or so ago and was amazed at how different it was, content and presentation both. We definitely learn by doing.
Yup, the Perth Writers Festival is always good value, Jeff, as are the various conventions, such as Swancon, that are held regularly. We also have four writers centres providing workshops and critiquing groups as well, so we're really very lucky.
Yup, we definitely learn by doing, and not just doing writing - reading, movies, workshops and classes all help us to improve our skills, don't they?
You know Jeff, they have a dragon con in Atlanta. I think it's annual but am not sure. Always wanted to go but didn't want to go alone.
Guess you do that all the time Satima.
The first couple of cons I went to I just rocked up alone, but the same people tend to rurn up at every con so you soon get to know people.
Dragon Con is HUGE - over 50,000 people go so it must have a big impact on the retail and hospitality industries of Atlanta. Don't be scared to go alone - there will almost certainly be Facebook friends there.
I wouldn't go now, too far away, but Jeff doesn't live that far from Atlanta so could easily make it. Wish we could get Father Dragon there too.
Yeah, as we get older travel loses much of its appeal, doesn't it? Even if I had the ready cash, I'm not sure I'd want to go travelling again. Too many hassles, too much sitting in planes and buses and trains!