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
Buy The Talismans
The Dagger of Dresnia
Want a copy? Contact me at satimafn(at)gmail.com
The Cloak of Challiver, Book two of The Talismans
Available as an e-book on Amazon etc!
Mythic Resonance
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. 
Follow me on Twitter
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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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Mindy Kaling, Historical Romance, & More - *The Widow* *The Widow by Fiona Barton is $1.99! This is a thriller that Elyse really enjoyed! It earned an A grade as a Lightning Review: I don’t want t...1 hour ago
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Top 9 Time Management Secrets To Help You Write More - Time Management Secrets There’s not a writer alive who feels they have all the time in the world to get their next piece written. It’s a constant battle ...3 hours ago
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Idioms: the American heritage - Idioms, especially if we add proverbs and familiar quotations to them, are a shoreless ocean. Especially numerous are so-called gnomic sayings (aphorisms...4 hours ago
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Why, Why, Why? Interrogating Characters About Their Motivations - Why, Why, Why? Interrogating Characters About Their Motivations Do you remember that news clip of US figure skater Nancy Kerrigan’s long, drawn-out “Whyy...6 hours ago
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The Perils of Not Knowing What Happens Next in Your Story - *By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy * *Getting stuck in your writing doesn't mean you've got writer's block.* At some point, we all hit a wall in our writing....
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Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse (The Medieval Way) - [image: zombie medieval]This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle shows how useful medieval history can be in helping us survive the imminent zombie apoca...11 hours ago
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Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think - The mild Western Australian winters have always appealed to me more than the harsh summers and I’ve often done my best writing at this time of year. As a h...12 hours ago
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Heather Child - Heather Child's experience in digital marketing has brought her into close contact with the automation and personalization technologies that herald the "bi...
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"WITH A CANDLE, A CHAMBER POT AND A BEDROLL . . ." Visiting the Dennis Severs House by Penny Dolan - By chance I was to be in London with an empty Monday morning to fill and the Dennis Severs House (built in 1724) crossed my mind. I had heard about the pl...12 hours ago
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Laptop - I am writing this on my new HP laptop. It arrived today and I am endeavouring to set it up and get used to it. This won't be much of a blog I don't think....12 hours ago
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Book Blogger Hop: Self Published Work - This week’s Book Blogger Hop asks what you like or dislike about self published books. Okay, to start with, I don’t review self published work here unles...15 hours ago
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Cadwell Turnbull and The Lesson - We were all really excited to meet Cadwell Turnbull and talk to him about his new novel, The Lesson. This is a first contact novel featuring aliens in the ...
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DMP Revision Monday, and Not Too Early for the Halloween Listener Episode - I did four hours of work on Dead Man’s Party yesterday. I got one page of manuscript done. HOWEVER, I finally got the chance to do the thing I used to do f...1 day ago
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View From a Hotel Window, 7/16/19: Aviles, Spain - Here I am in Aviles, Spain. It’s very pretty here. Also, I’ve been up for 24 hours, so I am very tired. I’m going to have a nap now.1 day ago
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Over at Kirkus: THE HUNGER by Alma Katsu and Other Cravings - We are over at Kirkus today for our regular column! It’s Thea’s turn today, with a list of recommended summer reading: the Horror Edition. Largely inspir...1 day ago
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Body Brilliant and Haggerston School, Hackney - Last Thursday, on publication day for Body Brilliant, I had a lot of fun launching the book in Haggerston School, Hackney. You may or not Read the full ar...1 day ago
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Flog a BookBubber 225: John W. Mefford—uninviting character, no real trouble - Writers, send your prologue/first chapter to FtQ for a “flogging” critique. Email as an attachment. In your email, include your name, permission to use the...2 days ago
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#WEPff Winner Pat Hatt Talks About the New - Hi! L.G. here! The WEP team would love to offer Pat Hatt a hearty congratulations for winning the WEP/IWSG June Challenge, Caged Bird. We offer all winners...
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Story Goal, Story Question, and the Protagonist’s Inner Need (Story Structure Part 1) - This is the first article in a series exploring the elements of story structure. Part 1 looks beyond the topics of three-act and mythic structure to a revi...4 days ago
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Penry - My dog is gone. Penry, my best friend for over a decade, died in my hands. He was diagnosed with incurable cancer in December last year. They gave him 3 ...4 days ago
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#astoryadayjuly Facebook challenge - For those who haven’t caught up with my challenge, it’s day 13 and my next scheduled post will be published at 7.45am. It’s handy that the Jill Smith Aussi...4 days ago
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A Settler Reads the Report of the National Inquiry into MMIWG (1) - The Preface The Preface of The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls includes forewords from the Commis...4 days ago
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From Writer Beware's Files: The Six Most Prolific Vanity Publishers (Plus Two Honorable Mentions) - *Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware®* Vanity publishers, unfortunately, are not in short supply. Writer Beware's files include hundreds of them...
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Summertime at LOW - Summertime greenery in Maryland Hi friends, We are now in the middle of summer here in Maryland, and we have had a series of visitors, our longest retr...
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Exploring Data, Investigating Methodologies - In February 2019, King’s College London’s Department of Digital Humanities, together with The National Archives, the Digital Curation Innovation Center a...1 week ago
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Assassin’s Apprentice Read Along - This month, in preparation for the October release of the Illustrated 25th Anniversary edition of Assassin’s Apprentice, with interior art by Magali Villan...2 months ago
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A Press Release; NZ, just because: - New Series by NZ writer Ged Maybury Once described as “our county’s leading writer in this field”*, Christchurch sci-fi writer Ged Maybury effectively disa...2 months ago
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Was our Will a French scholar? - *This interesting post is also from the pen of club president, Frances. The picture of Marguerite de Valois comes from Wikimedia Commons.* Shakespeare us...
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#329 - I broke the rules...unapologetically so. I rhymed, alliterated, lyricized, used big words, topped it off with an adult narrative. And yes, my word count ...3 months ago
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It's the End of the (Fringe) World As We Know It... - I didn't get to the Fringe World Awards because I was volunteering at another venue at the time, which is also the reason I saw almost none of the shows th...4 months ago
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Annie Wilson Patterson, Mus.D., composer, teacher, author (1864–1934) - [image: annie-patterson-feis-ceoil-1897-2] *Source: * *Full Report of the proceedings at The Oireachtas;**or, Irish Literary Festival*, held in the Round...6 months ago
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Happy Public Domain Day 2019! - Today is Public Domain Day 2019, which means (finally!) the end of copyright for works first published in the U.S. in 1923. You are now free to use, reprin...6 months ago
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A Movie That No Writer Should See Alone - Really. REALLY. Trust me on this. particularly since this film, ‘Can you ever forgive me?’, is based on a ‘True story’ – and too many writers will see too...7 months ago
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We Were Strangers, edited by Richard V. Hirst - Two things I love so much – short stories and Joy Division. What could be better? "We Were Strangers" is a very well presented collection of 10 short stori...
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Dance Photo Shoots - Photo Session Planning & Preparation Have you ever wanted to do a photo shoot for dance but have been a little unsure about how and what really happens? Pe...11 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...1 year 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...
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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:...2 years 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...
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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...
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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...2 years 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...
2 years ago -
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)...
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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
Places I've lived: Manchester, UK
Places I've lived: Gippsland, Australia
Places I've lived: Geelong, Australia
Places I've lived: Tamworth, NSW
Places I've Lived - Sydney
Sydney Conservatorium - my old school
Places I've lived: Auckland, NZ
Places I've Lived: Mount Gambier
Blue Lake
Places I've lived: Adelaide, SA
Places I've Lived: Perth by Day
From Kings Park
Places I've lived: High View, WV
Places I've lived: Lynton, Devon, UK
Places I've lived: Braemar, Scotland
Places I've lived: Barre, MA, USA
Places I've Lived: Perth by Night
From Kings Park
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Versatile Blogger Award
Awarded by Kim Falconer. Click on the pic to check out her Quantum Astrology blog!
Fabulous Blog Award
Awarded by Kathryn Warner. Click on the pic to check out her Edward II blog!
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Monday, 2 March 2015
Around in circles I go
Monday, March 02, 2015 | 
Posted by
Satima Flavell
I’ve vowed not to undertake any new editing jobs
for the next few months. I am too easily seduced into doing more and more
things and winding up a nervous wreck.The past month has been incredibly busy, particularly on the reviewing front. We've had the Perth Fringe Festival, the Perth Festival proper and the Writers Festival – all within a few weeks, with overlaps! I was a bit greedy and took on a lot of reviewing – but who could resist, especially with the Writers Festival, which was chock-a-block with talks and panels from an impossible number of fine authors.
My colleague Ilsa Sharp and I managed
a fair spread of the Writers Festival between us, but seeing as there were
generally four things on offer in each timeslot, there was no way we could
cover everything! You can read the results of our endeavours on Artshub. Just
follow the links.
Day
one: in which we encountered love, biography, and Man Booker Prize-winner
DBC Pierre.
Day
two: in which we focused on writing for young adults, gender and fiction,
the quest for inspiration and the value of creativity.
Day
three part one: in which the spotlight fell on diverse matters including tales of history and survival, language and human rights
Day
three part two, where we found matters pertaining to politics,
personalities - and roses.
In the Festival proper, I saw only Mozart
Dances and Cut the Sky, both very fine shows indeed. But I got a bit carried
away by the Fringe. The amazing ladies of Divalicious, Penny Shaw and Fiona Cooper-Smyth, were in fine fettle. They are versatile opera singers par excellence, with a fabuous flair for comedy and glamour. Actress and all-round showie Penny
Smith showed her wit and wisdom in an enormously entertaining take on Pride and
Prejudice, and a fine parade of comics had us in stitches, night after night. You
can read the reviews on Artshub – just Google!
What's more, I have signed up for French and Italian classes this term as well as continuing my various keep-fit and dance commitments, so this will be a busy year, if I don't collapse in the meantime. You can see why I haven't been blogging - or writing book three of The Talismans. Back to the workspace, Satima!
What's more, I have signed up for French and Italian classes this term as well as continuing my various keep-fit and dance commitments, so this will be a busy year, if I don't collapse in the meantime. You can see why I haven't been blogging - or writing book three of The Talismans. Back to the workspace, Satima!
Pic courtesy of https://myfinalchanceforlife.wordpress.com/
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