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I love the Festival of Perth in all its manifestations - the Festival proper, the Fringe Festival, and the Writers Festival. However, I ...

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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Speculative Fiction Showcase: Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for April 20... - Speculative Fiction Showcase: Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for April 20...: It's time for the weekly round-up of interesting links about speculati...1 hour ago
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A To Z Blogging Challenge 2018: R Is For Gillian Rubinstein - Gillian Rubinstein writes for children and teens. You may have heard of her under her pen name of Lian Hearn, under which she wrote the Japanese-themed T...2 hours ago
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The complexity of medieval Soberton (1) by Carolyn Hughes - When, several years ago, I embarked upon writing the first of the " Meonbridge Chronicles", I read a lot of books in preparation. Most of the books were fil...3 hours ago
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View From a Hotel Window, 4/19/18: Minneapolis - It’s a very vertical view today, because I’m downtown in a major American city. I like it! Tonight: 7pm in the Har Mar Barnes & Noble! Be there! Or don’t b...9 hours ago
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Books by Tessa Bailey, Sabrina Darby, & More! - *The Vixen and the Vet* *READER RECOMMENDED: The Vixen and the Vet by Katy Regnery is $2.99 at Amazon! Several books in Regnery’s Modern Fairytale series...11 hours ago
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Teresa Dovalpage - Teresa Dovalpage was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1966. She earned her BA in English literature and an MA in Spanish literature at the University of Havana, an...14 hours ago
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Rome: the Paradise, the grave, the city, the wilderness - The following is an abridged extract from The Rome We Have Lost by John Pemble and discusses how Rome, the eternal city, the centre of Europe and, in man...15 hours ago
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Flog a Pro: would you pay to turn the first page of this bestseller? - Trained by reading hundreds of submissions, editors and agents often make their read/not-read decision on the first page. In a customarily formatted book m...16 hours ago
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Cover Reveal: Bookburners Season 4 - In which we showcase the cover of Bookburners Season 4, the latest season of the critically acclaimed urban fantasy serial about a secret team of agents ...16 hours ago
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Easy Ways to Sell Signed Copies of Your Novel Online - *By J. Kathleen Cheney, @jkcheney * *Part of the Indie Authors Series * I’ve been in this author game for a while, and it still surprises me when someon...17 hours ago
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Digital archiving: ‘Context is everything’ - What’s the difference between an archive and a data warehouse? How are digital archives different from other collections of data? Perhaps the most signific...18 hours ago
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“I want my time with you” – and quite right, too - Tracy Emin’s new art installation at St Pancras station has hit the news, as her work always does. I have no expertise with which to Read the full article...20 hours ago
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To Move Is to Live Is to Move - I walk five miles every day, using a Fitbit as a pedometer to keep myself honest. People praise me for this, telling me how virtuous I am to get all this e...21 hours ago
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Marion Deeds - We were very pleased to have author Marion Deeds join us on the show to talk about her work and her interests. I started by asking her what her favorite th...22 hours ago
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Victorian Home, Climate and Weather, Salmonella - I guess I didn't check properly, and it appears that what I was watching on Tuesday evening was Part 2 of Hidden Killers of the Victorian Home. Which I am...22 hours ago
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Ready Set Discover Logan now available at Bookshops - Ready Set Discover Logan now available I’m thrilled to pieces Ready Set Discover Logan received *5 STAR Reviews and is now available at Bookshops in Bri...22 hours ago
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Flogometer 1051 for Danielle—are you compelled 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 ...1 day ago
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How to Write a Series for Your Blog (and Why You’ll Want To) - Have you ever written a series of posts for your blog – a set of posts that are deliberately linked together? If you haven’t, I hope I can convince you t...1 day ago
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Preview- First chapter of Skyfire - Hi all This might be of interest to some of you. This is a preview of the first chapter of Part Five of the Dragon Wine series, called Skyfire. I thought t...1 day ago
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Preview- First chapter of Skyfire - Hi all This might be of interest to some of you. This is a preview of the first chapter of Part Five of the Dragon Wine series, called Skyfire. I thought t...1 day ago
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Urban Fantasy tab added… - In a similar vein to The Book Review Directory, I’ve been sent freebies from authors in this genre. I’ve downloaded one and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve dec...2 days ago
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New Medieval Books: Suger and Blood - Looking for something medieval to read? Here are five new books about the Middle Ages to check out...2 days ago
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Another talk with Laurie Anderson - One of the people I love talking to most in the world is Laurie Anderson. Laurie Anderson is an experimental musician, avant-garde composer, storyteller, ...3 days ago
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SFTV 101 - SFTV 101: 1952 to 1980 For anyone interested in the history of science fiction, fantasy and horror on television, here is a list of episodes recommended...4 days ago
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#305 - Question: The pivotal scene in my manuscript is the rape of the main character. My last beta reader said she had nightmares for two days about the story and...4 days ago
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The Abduction of Elizabeth de Burgh, February 1316 - The third and youngest of Edward II's de Clare nieces, who were the daughters of his second eldest sister Joan of Acre and her first husband Gilbert 'the R...4 days ago
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Top 5 Concept Mistakes Writers Make - Concept IS Story Concept aka ‘premise’, ‘controlling idea’, ‘seed of the story’. Whatever you want to call it, that concept is the FOUNDATION of your sto...4 days ago
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Publishers Weekly Includes Two Vanity Publishers in its List of Fast-Growing Independent Presses - *Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware* Once again, Publishers Weekly's annual overview of fast-growing independent publishers features not only in...6 days ago
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Me, Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, Tongue Cancer, and Jason Fung, MD - Something you might not know about me. Back in the early 2000’s, I was fat. Not chubby. Not “just need to lose a few pounds.” Morbidy obese. The point at w...1 week ago
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THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ME AND A PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE - What's the difference between me (and other professional writers) and a professional athlete? You know, like those talented young folk now showing us their...1 week ago
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Unpublication - I’ve been slow to provide purchase links for my new hard-SF short story collection, Wide Brown Land: stories of Titan. There’s a reason for that: two days ...1 week ago
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A Hike on the Wild Side by Gail Gaymer Martin - Sometimes it’s hard to face that certain times of life, we can’t do what we might have done ten years earlier. Living in the beauty of Arizona and surrou...1 week ago
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Normans, Angevins and Britons - The History of the Honour of Richmond, Part 1 - Richmond Castle, situated on a cliff above the river Swale in northern Yorkshire, is one of the finest examples of Norman architecture since it has not be...1 week ago
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When a Comma Isn’t Enough - Punctuating interrupted dialogue is a confusing topic for both writers and editors, but there is a definitive answer to the question, "how do you punctuate...1 week ago
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Review: Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening - [image: Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening] Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie M. Liu My rating: 5 of 5 stars Absolutely stunning combination of artwork, ...1 week ago
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Selling Your Original Art? Get Ready For These Comments...And More - John Buscema, Hulk preliminary. Not my art, so don't ask me if you can buy it. Selling, and buying for that matter, original comic book art shouldn't be di...1 week ago
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Steampunk Fly Girl - This is another one of my vintage digital photos, I call her Steampunk Fly Girl. I suspect she was actually dressed this way for riding in a motor car, but...2 weeks ago
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Suspended in Dusk 2 - My story in the first Suspended In Dusk anthology was called “Shadows Of The Lonely Dead” and it won an Australian Shadows Award, and was reprinted in a ...2 weeks ago
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Free Farseer Poster - I know why you are here. You want to pre-order the Farseer coloring book from the Dabel Brothers, and get the free poster. The free poster is different fro...2 weeks ago
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April Fool's Day - I'm not a fan of pranks. In my opinion in general they tend to be cruel and hurtful and I really have no wish to watch someone being embarrassed. With the ...2 weeks ago
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Welcome to WEP - Write...Edit...Publish APRIL challenge -- ROAD LESS TRAVELED - Of course the classic Robert Frost poem, *The Road Not Taken*, comes to mind with this prompt which went some little way in inspiring our choice. *What ...2 weeks ago
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What we are seeing today is actually the second renaissance of indie bookselling, not the first - Publishing and digital change consultant Bill Rosenblatt — always worth paying attention to — pointed his contacts last week to a podcast from NPR celebr...3 weeks ago
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The Despenser Inheritance - This link will take you to an interesting (but complex) article by Professor Hicks about the Despenser inheritance. You will see from it that Warwick "the ...3 weeks ago
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Despenser Inheritance - This link will take you to an interesting (if complex) article by Professor Hicks about the Despenser Inheritance.3 weeks ago
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Hummingbird Cake Recipe - This recipe brings together a few recipes I found online and combined/tweaked. It has a lot of ingredients, but it’s pretty easy to make, and fun. I migh...5 weeks ago
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Edward III - *Frances, our Fearless Leader, has written an appreciation of a little known play, Edward III. Now accepted as having been written at least in part by our...1 month ago
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New Yoga demonstration video - Hi Friends, I just returned from Sri Lanka where I attended the 3 day Global Mindfulness Summit. During the conference part of my participation was narrati...1 month ago
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Writers [on Writing]: Hilmer Wolitzer - This is from the final page and final paragraph of the collected essays of *Writers [On Writing]* from *The New York Times*; and seems a fitting way to end ...1 month ago
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Buying my books - So I have taken to Lulu - who originally assisted with the publication of The Woodcarver's Son . Anyone wanting to buy a copy of either the Woodcarver's S...1 month ago
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Taking (off) the Pith - I’ve reached a quiet decision. Steampunk is marvelous; I love it, and I have greatly enjoyed my many and various excursions therein, both fantastic (e.g. m...1 month ago
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Interview: Kevin Craig - Novelist, poet and playwright Kevin Craig, long known as KTC on Absolute Write, set some time aside for an interview, just days after release of his sixt...1 month ago
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We're all living in the wound. Here's a way we can begin to heal together. - Never in my life have I felt such an urgent need for Something Good to happen for America. This is my contribution to a visionary discussion: I am consta...1 month ago
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Here's an article based on an exercise I led in Active vs. Passive Writing course - https://novelrocket.com/2018/02/inhabiting-the-prose.html/ FEBRUARY 5, 2018 BY NOVELROCKET Inhabiting the Prose [image: author prose tips]by Patricia Brad...2 months 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...2 months ago
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Amazon Ranking and Bestseller Lists - What's the Deal? - It's really hard to draw conclusions in the self-pub marketing game. After almost ten years of self-publishing on Amazon, I still don't know why some ebook...2 months ago
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Coming Events In Germany - *Q and A* Tuesday 27th February 8.00pm DTK-Wasserturm Kopischstraße 7, 10965 Berlin, Germany *Lunebuch Bookstore* Interview Thursday 1st March 8.00pm Ba...2 months ago
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Writer brain is back! - So, there’s this thing I call writer brain. That’s where, out of nowhere, characters start chatting with each other in my head … or plot solutions pop up w...2 months ago
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Slave owners in the family tree - My mother, Judith Anson Robinson, did much of the family interviewing, letter writing, ordering of books and microfilms from genealogy libraries, and tra...3 months ago
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More Regular Dance & Gymnastic Blog Posts - Although I am very active on both Instagram and Facebook uploading and sharing images from photo sessions, my poor website seems to be neglected. I am goin...3 months ago
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A Decade of Reading: 2008-2017 - I’ve been a voracious reader my whole life, but it wasn’t until 2008 that I started cataloging my reading journey. Ten years later and I’ve just ticked ove...4 months ago
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Review: Corpselight by Angela Slatter - Verity Fassbinder might have gone up against Archangels and Weyrd murderers before, but now she’s on a course that might just see her out of her depth – mo...4 months ago
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Interview for Annie Douglass Lima's new book The Student and the Slave! - Take a look at this exciting new young adult action and adventure novel, *The Student and the Slave*, now available for purchase! This is the third book i...5 months ago
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Poem (2): For Fear - For Fear As I fear to bend and break The grass upon which I walk ... As I touch not the lustrous bubble For fear of ending its fragile life; As I fear to t...5 months ago
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Literary Executors: Why you don’t want to be one, and how to know if you need one - So. A writer friend asks you to be their literary executor. You’re not exactly sure what a literary executor does, but you know you should feel honoured: a...7 months ago
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Promo for a promo - Check this out - it's my crowdfund campaign to fund an extra scene in my Cyrano film. The film is based on my novel *Pyrotechnicon: Being a True Account of...7 months ago
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I’m teaching a fact-checking workshop in Seattle on November 4th - I’ll be teaching a fact-checking workshop in Seattle on Saturday, November 4th for the Northwest Independent Editors Guild. This will be a practical how-to...7 months ago
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First comes painting, Then comes sketching - While enjoying my new acrylics hobby, I started a painting and decided I wanted to include a dragon statue in one of them. There was, though, a hurdle I ha...8 months 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...10 months 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...10 months 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...10 months ago
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The ancient parish of Aghallow and the territories of Muinterbirne and Largie in county Tyrone, 1609/10 - My main objectives for studying the Manors of Kinard [later known as the Caledon estate] and Ballymagran are to determine the geographic extent and to tr...11 months 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:...1 year ago
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Recommended reads of 2016 (part two) - Following on from my previous blog post about my favoured reads from the last year or so, which was my first blog post for some time, here is part two. I h...1 year 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...1 year 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...1 year 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...1 year ago
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And Father Dragon said "let there be a planet...." - *Lo and behold, Dragon made a planet!!* Oh, I'm so very proud of myself so forgive me if I brag a little bit - way too much. I'm in the process of learni...1 year 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)...2 years 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
Monday, 28 December 2015
Message for blog followers from Google


The following info comes via Michael Goddard, Software Engineer for Google:
In 2011, Google announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. They made an exception for Blogger, to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. However, over time, they’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks Google will be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs.
As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, Google will remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs.
So if you don't have a Blogger account, now is the time to set one up! It's quite painless, I promise you!
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Friday, 11 December 2015
A very busy day


In fact, it's been a very busy week! The weeks that lead up to Christmas are invariably busy for nearly everyone, so I don't expect the busyness to ease up for another fortnight. I've also had an influx of editing work lately. I've had to tell people that I'll try to get onto the work between Christmas and New Year, but let's face it - some might not get tackled until January.
Busy-ness abounds from all directions. Last Sunday, for example, was the annual Open Day at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre (aka KSP) in Greenmount, a suburb that is almost a sleepy country village about a forty-minute drive from my place. Seeing as I don't drive, it's actually a one-and-a--half hour trip by bus-train-train-bus. If I lived closer I would spend more time there, since it is, in a sense, one of the cradles that rocked my writing ability. They have great workshops and talks from local and visiting writers, and several competitions every year that attract entries from all over Australia.
One event for the Open Day was the presentation of prizes for the poetry competition. My good friend Jo Mills was one of those shortlisted for the poetry competition, so early in the morning I girded my loins (I always gird my loins before leaving the house) and headed for the hills. KSP was packed with visitors. There were also interesting talks about the Centre and about Katharine and her family, and plenty of people to catch up with and new acquaintances to make.
The busiest day of the week, however, was yesterday. After an early chiropractic appointment, I hastened into Perth. It’s a bit hard to hasten a journey dependent on a bus arriving on time to meet a train. It didn’t, but thank heaven the next train was only a few minutes away. I arrived at my usual Thursday destination – the Citizens Centre on Perth Railway concourse, where our belly dancing class was gathered for its annual party. It was a happy-sad event, because our teacher of many years standing, Ayesha Watson, is retiring. I had promised to perform, but silly daft me hadn’t brought music. Thanks be to heaven for the resourcefulness of Lissa, our teacher–to-be, who just happened to have a version of the tune I wanted on her phone. I got up there and jigged about for five minutes, and no one actually booed so I guess I must’ve done OK! Anyhow, we all had a great time and went away full of food and champagne.
Then last night, joy oh joy! My dear son Bruce (please note that they are all dear, all four of them, and I have a dear daughter as well) took me to see
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Florence-Leroux-Coléno-and-Dancers-of-West-Australian-Ballet-in-Cinderella.-Photo-by-Emma-Fishwick |
the WA Ballet performing Cinderella, choreographed to the Prokofiev score by Jayne Smeulders. It was a simply lovely performance, and the score was beautifully executed by the WA Symphony Orchestra. I was deeply touched by Bruce’s generosity because, like all my children, he had to take ballet classes as a child whether he liked it or not, otherwise I would have had to pay for childcare! None of them was especially keen on ballet, and as far as I know, attending performances is not generally among their hobbies. However, all of them except Bruce have artistic interests: the eldest plays guitar and sings; the second also loves music and used to sing with a band; the third is a sound guy and a very competent heavy metal guitarist, and the youngest is also a sound guy – and a dance photographer as well. I am much blessed in my children and grandchildren.
So yesterday was a busy, but very happy-making day. May we all have many more such days this holiday season!
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Wednesday, 18 November 2015
Complaints from a dilettante.


I've just been looking, as I often do, at my list of Facebook friends - all 1,177 of them. By anyone's standards, that's a lot of friends.
Why do I have so many 'friends'? It's because I love too many things. I love ballet. I love belly dance. I love Yoga. I love fantasy. I love history. I love reading, writing, reviewing and editing. I love genealogy. I love music. I love poetry. I love Shakespeare. I love animals. I love environmental and political concerns. (On those and related issues, I'm an armchair activist!) I love hanging out with friends, solving the world's problems over coffee - and like the rest of Facebook, I love pictures of, and stories about, animals. I reckon there must be more pictures of cats than of humans in the Facebook world.
Some friends I have only 'met' online, and many I only see at conventions and conferences. Some are old friends from days of yore, many are my relatives. Some I see regularly in meetings, classes and workshops: others I have never met in the flesh and am never likely to do so.
I know that only a very small percentage of my friends will get to read my posts - Facebook only shows each post to a tiny selection of people on our friends lists. I guess they have to keep the octopus that Facebook has become caged somehow! But I can 'drop in'
on any of my 1,177 friends and leave a few 'likes' on their timelines. I
can do the same on pages devoted to the things I love. I can take side
trips to other sites such as Goodreads and that Great Big Firm that
sells books, and report back to Facebook if I find a good review or a
book I want to read.
Yes, I spend far too much time on Facebook, but why not? It has to be the best means ever devised for keeping people in touch.Whatever did we do before it was invented? Not that Facebook is our only choice: however, I'm sorry, Mr Google, but I've never really taken to Google+, and nor am I very interested in Pinterest and other social media sites. I set up my Facebook status to be tweeted for folks who can cope with thousands of messages an hour, but I seldom actually visit Twitter.
Many thanks to Mr Zuckerberg and his friends for their wonderful invention!
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Tuesday, 27 October 2015
Recent reading in fiction



In recent weeks I've vanquished a couple of fantasy novels by favourite authors. Glenda Larke's The Dagger's Path continues the story started in The Lascar's Dagger. It begins with a murder, and thus the tone of the book is set. Yes, there's plenty of violence, but as usual, Larke gives us a tale full of exotic places and intriguing characters, which, as she says in her endnotes, pays tribute to her love affair with South-East Asia. The Dagger's Path ends with hints that book three will bring a whole new variety of magic into play. I'm looking forward to it already!

Second only to fantasy in my preferred reading are historical novels. Good historical novels: the kind that display the writer's knowledge of the chosen period as well as telling a good story. Of all the people writing in this genre, perhaps my top favourite is Bernard Cornwell. I've recently read his novel called 1356 - a story that pays tribute to the Hundred Years War: the people who lived through it and the people who died because of it. George RR Martin is on record as saying that Cornwell writes 'the best battle scenes of any writer ... past or present'.

Right, that's run-down of my recent reading in fiction. I've read a couple of excellent non fiction books, too, which I'll save for next time!
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Sunday, 25 October 2015
A little giveaway


With the help of my good friend Robert Denethon, I have created a sampler of scenes from the first two books of The Talismans trilogy. The sampler is free to dowload in mobi, epub and .pdf versions from Dropbox.
Sampler for Kindle readers
Sampler for epub readers
Sampler for .pdf readers
I hope this tempts a few people to buy book one, The Dagger of Dresnia, and, of course, to stamp impatiently while waiting for book two, The Cloak of Challiver, which is due for release early in the new year.
Happy reading, friends!
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Saturday, 10 October 2015
Book review: The Shattered Sea trilogy by Joe Abercrombie


Half the World, Half a Sea and Half a War make up The Shattered Sea, another excellent trilogy from Joe Abercrombie. Not, perhaps, as gripping as the author's First Law trilogy, but a good read with a story full of ups and downs and well-drawn characters.

The shining light in book three is another female - Skara, a young woman who defends her destined role and learns how to deal with opposition on all fronts, and at the end there is a hint that she might also find the fulfillment that most illusory of dreams - true love.
The story overall is a complex one, made up of many threads. To make any sense of the trilogy one should sit down and read the three books in order within a few weeks, at most. The complexity of the story grows out of the complexities of the characters and their supporting circumstances, so there are lots of twists and turns.
This trilogy's main theme is, to my mind, ambition and how dependent success is on character and circumstance. Every character finds his or her own level in life - sometimes moving up, sometimes down, depending the strength of their ambition, their characters and their supporting circumstances. It's a bumpy ride, but it does end on a note of hope for the future - not necessarily a thing we expect from an Abercrombie tale! I'd be interested to read a fourth book, featuring Skara ten years later, when love's young dream has had a chance to turn sour. Now that would be true Abercrombie style!
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Sunday, 6 September 2015
Travel and Triage


Today my karma apparently called for a journey. Mercury was on my midheaven and the north node of the moon was conjunct my natal Neptune, but I don’t think I can blame them for the cause of the excursion. The fact is I lost a contact lens. And I lost it in my eye.
Anyone who’s worn contacts knows how ornery they can be. I find them exasperating, but I do prefer exercising in contacts rather than spectacles, which have an evil habit of flying off one’s face during turns or other fast movements. On Friday, after my usual exercise class, I took out the right lens successfully, but the left one refused to cooperate. First it folded in half, then when I tried to take it out, it made a beeline for the underside of my eye and lodged there, no doubt laughing at my frustration. I went to the optometrist, but she couldn’t coax it out and as it was knock-off time on Friday she was understandably unwilling to waste any more time on it. Very often, a lost contact will find its own way back into place, and I could always go to the outpatients if it didn’t.
And it didn’t. On Saturday, the eye became sorer and sorer, so this morning, Sunday, I decided to pay a visit to the lovely new Fiona Stanley Hospital. Thank heaven for the circle route bus, which passes my door and also that of the hospital, although it was about a forty minute bus ride. Once there, I sought out the Emergency Department, where a couple of ladies – obviously on staff but it what capacity I don’t know - asked me where I was from, and when I mentioned the name of my suburb, they asked why I hadn’t gone to Royal Perth Hospital, which is marginally closer to home. My explanation was that RPH is always packed with people waiting in outpatients. I didn’t add that on a Sunday morning at RPH I could expect to fall farther and farther down the queue as people hurt in drunken brawls overnight and kids injured at sports practice filled up the waiting room. Besides, Fiona Stanley Hospital is beautiful, and very new.
Dr Stanley is an Australian epidemiologist noted for her work in the arena of public health, especially her research into child and maternal health as well as birth disorders such as cerebral palsy. The hospital that bears her name was opened only last year, and it is magnificent. What’s more, they have magic-workers on staff.
As I approached the triage desk, my sore eye started to water. By the time I sat down I was actually weeping! The young lady whom I took to be a reception clerk asked what was wrong. ‘I’ve got a contact lens stuck under my eye ball,’ I replied.
‘Would you like me to get it out?’ asked the bright young lady. I was doubtful. After all, she was behind a narrow window, seated at a desk. I didn’t think she’d be able to get hold of it. Besides, wasn't she an admin person rather than a medical one?
‘Yes, I can!’ was her cheerful response. ‘It’s washed itself into the corner of your eye’. And reaching across the desk, she removed the offending lens and handed it to me with a smile.
I told the two ladies on the way out that the young lady was brilliant and should be a doctor, and one of them confided that my little heroine was a prize-winning, multi-certified nursing sister, certainly bright enough to be a doctor, but she loved being a triage nurse.
My eye is now fine, and I’ve decided I love Fiona Stanley Hospital!
Anyone who’s worn contacts knows how ornery they can be. I find them exasperating, but I do prefer exercising in contacts rather than spectacles, which have an evil habit of flying off one’s face during turns or other fast movements. On Friday, after my usual exercise class, I took out the right lens successfully, but the left one refused to cooperate. First it folded in half, then when I tried to take it out, it made a beeline for the underside of my eye and lodged there, no doubt laughing at my frustration. I went to the optometrist, but she couldn’t coax it out and as it was knock-off time on Friday she was understandably unwilling to waste any more time on it. Very often, a lost contact will find its own way back into place, and I could always go to the outpatients if it didn’t.
And it didn’t. On Saturday, the eye became sorer and sorer, so this morning, Sunday, I decided to pay a visit to the lovely new Fiona Stanley Hospital. Thank heaven for the circle route bus, which passes my door and also that of the hospital, although it was about a forty minute bus ride. Once there, I sought out the Emergency Department, where a couple of ladies – obviously on staff but it what capacity I don’t know - asked me where I was from, and when I mentioned the name of my suburb, they asked why I hadn’t gone to Royal Perth Hospital, which is marginally closer to home. My explanation was that RPH is always packed with people waiting in outpatients. I didn’t add that on a Sunday morning at RPH I could expect to fall farther and farther down the queue as people hurt in drunken brawls overnight and kids injured at sports practice filled up the waiting room. Besides, Fiona Stanley Hospital is beautiful, and very new.
Dr Stanley is an Australian epidemiologist noted for her work in the arena of public health, especially her research into child and maternal health as well as birth disorders such as cerebral palsy. The hospital that bears her name was opened only last year, and it is magnificent. What’s more, they have magic-workers on staff.
As I approached the triage desk, my sore eye started to water. By the time I sat down I was actually weeping! The young lady whom I took to be a reception clerk asked what was wrong. ‘I’ve got a contact lens stuck under my eye ball,’ I replied.
‘Would you like me to get it out?’ asked the bright young lady. I was doubtful. After all, she was behind a narrow window, seated at a desk. I didn’t think she’d be able to get hold of it. Besides, wasn't she an admin person rather than a medical one?
‘Yes, I can!’ was her cheerful response. ‘It’s washed itself into the corner of your eye’. And reaching across the desk, she removed the offending lens and handed it to me with a smile.
I told the two ladies on the way out that the young lady was brilliant and should be a doctor, and one of them confided that my little heroine was a prize-winning, multi-certified nursing sister, certainly bright enough to be a doctor, but she loved being a triage nurse.
My eye is now fine, and I’ve decided I love Fiona Stanley Hospital!
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Sunday, 30 August 2015
Buddhists confer #2


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The Venerable Robina Courtin, one of the many fine speakers at the conference |
Once again, the audience was challenged and entertained by a variety of speakers. Unfortunately, public transport could not get me there early enough to hear the first session, in which Peter Fitzpatrick, Dr Eng Kong Tan, Dr Chien Hoong Gooi discussed depression and suicide, topics that touch many of us personally or tangentially.
The second session, Buddhist Journeys, involved Lhakpa Tsamchoe, Sarah Napthali, Bikkhu Buddharakkhita and Ven Miao You. If you saw the film ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ you will know the actress Lhakpa Tsamchoe, who spoke cheerfully and confidently about her journey. As a Tibetan layperson, her spiritual practice was entirely devotional, and it’s only in the last few years that she has started to meditate. However, she made up for the late start by undertaking a three year retreat, after training in the Goenka method of meditation practice. She showed us many fascinating slides of her career. It was almost a travelogue, showing us scenes from the USA as well as Tibet and India.
Sarah Napthali talked about emotional honesty and authenticity. These are hard lessons for all of us, and many of us do not learn them until mid-life, if we learn them at all. She learnt to meditate in order to cope with a difficult workplace. She learnt to judge her day by considering how much she remained in the present moment, rather than by how much she achieved.
The Venerable Miao You spoke on her transformation from corporate woman to Buddhist nun. At work she was known as ‘the dragon lady’ and freely admits that she is by nature a control freak who never said ‘sorry’. After a close shave in an accident she took counsel from a psychologist, who helped her to learn mindfulness through cognitive behavioural therapy. She realised that the practice of the six paramitas – generosity, morality, tolerance, energy, contemplation and insight – was a key factor in learning to live a wholesome life.
Bikkhu Buddharakkhita from Uganda had a conflicted path into Buddhism. Brought up as Roman Catholic, he only arrived at Buddhism after a journey through Bahai, born-again Christianity and Hinduism. He met the Dalai Lama, and like many who have met this amazing man, was deeply touched by his presence. He first encountered Buddhism in 1990 while living in India and was ordained at the Tathagata Meditation Center in California. I was very interested to learn that he spent eight years at the Bhavana Society, West Virginia, since I also went there in 1995 to study meditation under Bhante Gunaratana. (Believe it or not, I was seriously considering taking robes myself, but quickly realised that I did not have anything like the necessary degree of humility!) Bikkhu Buddharakkhita has also spent time at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where I worked for over a year as their registrar. He has founded a monastery in Uganda.
The third session was fascinating. Dhammaruwan (who, like Bikkhu Buddharakkhita, has 'done time' at IMS and the Bhavana Centre) Dennis Sheppard, Prof Bernard Carr and Ajahn Brahm spoke on ‘past lives, hypnosis and psychic phenomena’. Sheppard pointed out that while hypnosis involves dissociation, meditation requires unification. Professor Carr, who studied under Stephen Hawking at Cambridge, spoke on the interface of science and Buddhism. They both, he said, involve the mind, and psychic phenomena link the two. The panel agreed that psychical research is the scientific study of unexplained interactions between mind and matter. Certainly many serious meditators report psychic phenomena arising spontaneously in their practice.
The final session of the conference involved Ajahn Brahmali, Ajahn Brahm and all the speakers with a final short concert from the Laura Bernay Jazz Ensemble! Ajahn Brahmali gave us a quick resume of the conference and its theme, with particular reference to the concept of ‘robots with consciousness! And, of course, the necessity to continually refer back to the basic teachings of the Buddha.
Whew! Congrats to any non-Buddhists who've made it through to the end!
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Monday, 24 August 2015
Sci-Fi and the Buddha dhamma


Let’s get back to the Global Buddhist
Conference, held in Perth over the second weekend in August. As promised, here is my take on the final
panel of Day One.
It was a
Lulu of a panel, especially for a conference concerned primarily with matters
spiritual! To me, as a writer, it was the dhamma taught by means of science fiction.
What is a cyborg? When does science
fiction become science fact? Where does the physical stop and the spiritual
start? Where does humanity stop and technology start? Where does imagination
stop and reality start?
As the
opening speaker on this panel, Bhante Sujato, reminded us ‘Jedi Knight is just
a subset of Buddhism’. The Jedi Knights, of course, are characters in the Star
Wars movies, and the concept of Jedi as a religion was probably seized upon first by people who resented
the census question on religious preference. The idea took off: at last count,
over 60,000 people in Australia chose to state ‘Jedi Knight’ as their religion
in the census. Jedi-as-faith took off in other countries, notably Canada and
especially New Zealand, where, if census figures are to be believed, it was the
second largest religion in 2001! Where does sci fi stop and religion start? It
will be interesting to see what the numbers are in next year’s Aussie census!
Can we
bring science and wisdom together to create the future? Neil Harbison, a real
live cyborg, suggests we can. He was born with vision that only recognises
grayscale: he cannot see colours at all. As he explains with a rueful smile, to
him, France, Italy and Canada all have the same flag!
A musician
as well as an artist, Harbison persuaded a surgeon to set him up with an
antenna that would enable him to ‘hear’ colours. The antenna sprouts from
within his occipital bone and is now a permanent part of his anatomy. He can
now ‘hear’ colours of all kinds, and can compose music just by observing the
world around him. Red comes out as the musical note F, blue is heard as C
sharp. He can even hear ultraviolet and infrared. And he can ‘listen’ to
people’s faces!
The next
speaker, Stelarc, is an artist with an interest in science, especially in
regard to the human form. He performs with mechanical and electronic devices
that through external stimuli program repetitive movements. Having seen Stelarc
perform before, I knew what to expect. It is quite eerie. Through movement, he
can activate a model of his head, complete with vocals. He looks forward to the
day when it will be possible to replace an ailing heart with one that works by
the same method and doesn’t even need to beat. Only a man who has had himself
strung up by metal hooks though his back and has a cartilage ‘ear’ implanted in
his arm could have that kind of imagination.
GuyBen-Ary, Artist-in-residence at the Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts at
the University of Western Australia, was the next speaker. Most of what he said
was beyond my comprehension, but I understand that he does really strange
things such as growing his own cells in a petrie dish then connects it to a
synthesiser to create abstract-sounding jazz. Check out his website to learn more.
Damith Herath
obtained his Ph.D. in robotics from the ARC
Centre of Excellence in Autonomous Systems
(CAS) at the University
of Technology, Sydney, having earlier completed his BSc Eng (Hons) degree
in production engineering from the University of Peradeniya,
Sri Lanka. He has worked as a researcher, academic and consultant in fields
related to Robotics, Automation and Manufacturing (and Robotic
Art).
What does intelligence mean in regard to machines? Date and
power do not add up to sentience or consciousness, Herath says, and we are a
long way off being able to create truly intelligent machines. Perhaps it is
actually impossible. But who knows? It has long been realised that SF
anticipates science and always has, ever since the days of HG Wells and Jules Verne. In response to a question from the
floor on the wisdom or otherwise of taxpayers’ money being spent on the arts, Herath assured us that Intel employs a writer to create sci-fi stories for the company’s
engineers to turn into reality.
Overall, this was, to a speculative fiction writer, the most
intriguing panel of the conference. It left me wondering, ‘Where does spec-fic
stop and the dhamma start?’
Next time, I'll write about day two of the Global Buddhist Conference.
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