Featured post
A new lease of life for my books
As you know, I was bitterly disappointed when Satalyte shut up shop as it might have meant the end of my admittedly short career as a publi...
About Me
- Satima Flavell
- I am a writer, editor, reviewer and dance teacher based in Perth, Western Australia.
My books
Buy The Talismans
The Dagger of Dresnia
Want a copy? Contact me at satimafn(at)gmail.com
The Cloak of Challiver
Available again as an ebook soon!
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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The life and work of Alan Turing - Alan Turing was one of England’s most influential scientists of the twentieth century. He is best remembered as having cracked the codes used in the Enig...1 hour ago
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TV, Bowling. - I don't normally watch much TV but I decided to watch Poldark Thursday night and saw two episodes, really enjoyed it. Also watched an episode of Father Br...5 hours ago
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Creek Adventure - Jasmine and I enjoyed a beautiful creek adventure today. It was our last day together before Rohan is on holiday, too, so I wanted to do something special....6 hours ago
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Book review: The Iron Tactician, by Alastair Reynolds - Alastair Reynolds is a British SF author and former ESA space scientist most strongly associated with the ‘Revelation Space’ novel sequence, though he has ...9 hours ago
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The Apothecary's rose, by Leslie Wilson - It is in flower in my garden now, and on warm days and evenings it fills the air with scent. It is a healthy, beautiful rose, flowering only once, but pro...
10 hours ago -
FIVE FOR FRIDAY: VISUAL ARTISTS - Full disclosure: if I could play guitar the way I wish I could, I probably wouldn't be a writer. If I could act as well as I wish I could, I probably would...11 hours ago
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BVC member Marie Brennan joins LEGEND OF THE FIVE RINGS! - Book View Cafe is delighted to announce that Marie Brennan has joined the fiction-writing team for the relaunch of the game Legend of the Five Rings! Set i...14 hours ago
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On That GOP Health Care Bill, and Tax Breaks - First, my initial thoughts, as rendered on Twitter. I know folks who'll likely die if this GOP health plan passes. But I guess the big tax cut I'll get out...16 hours ago
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The Medway Raid and 17th century maritime warfare - The Medway Raid was the final and decisive major operation of the Second Anglo-Dutch War…19 hours ago
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Evaluating Your Blog’s First Year: 12 Great Questions to Ask - Firstly … congratulations on making it through your first year. A lot of bloggers don’t get that far. During this evaluation, we’ll take a look at key me...20 hours ago
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River of Teeth: Sarah Gailey on Inspirations & Influences - “Inspirations and Influences” is a series of articles in which we invite authors to write guest posts talking about their Inspirations and Influences. In...20 hours ago
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Hooray! - We haz rain - and what a lot of rain it has been. It was enough to cause a massive morning rush hour traffic jam on the freeway because the rain was so hea...21 hours ago
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Ask Us! What Do You Want to Know About Indie and Self Publishing? - *By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy* *Part of the Indie Author Series* With Angela exploring the wilds of Scotland for her next book (lucky gal), I figured t...
22 hours ago -
Failure is a Four Letter Word (in Writing) - Failure is a four letter word. We fear it, we dread it, and we try to avoid it at all costs. It’s one of those sneaky words that writers tend to despise be...23 hours ago
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Medieval Dog Tricks - Can your dog dig up rings, dance to music, or tell if a lady is pregnant? Find out what strange tricks dogs could perform in the Middle Ages.1 day ago
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1923: Douglas Fairbanks & Mary Pickford Move To…Adelaide? - Douglas Fairbanks & Mary Pickford Move To…Adelaide? It may sound like a joke now, nearly 100 years later, but, in 1923, there was a strong possibility that...
1 day ago -
Tristan Donovan - Tristan Donovan is a British author and journalist. His books include Replay: The History of Video Games and Fizz: How Soda Shook Up the World. His writing...
1 day ago -
Flogometer 1027 for “Ima”—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 t...1 day ago
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5 things I Learned From DOC MARTIN Screenwriter Julian Unthank - In a world of Game of Thrones, Big Little Lies & endless choices on Netflix, TV offers far more to the sophisticated audience who in turn EXPECT a certain ...2 days ago
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Supanova, giveaways and deep discounts! - Three things really quickly and they’re all great! Firstly, I’ll be at Supanova in Perth this weekend. Supanova Perth – June 23rd, 24th and 25th. I will ...2 days ago
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This Morning I Caught My Brain Doing Something WEIRD! - I woke up this morning from one of those dreams that seem to go on forever, where there were international spies and murders and I was a writer working on ...2 days ago
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Body image – for boys (girls, please listen, too) - I was sent this phenomenal free resource from MediaSmart for educating boys and young men about problems with body image. With today’s obsession about how ...2 days ago
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Deathwings: Dragon Wine Part Three is published - The title of this blog post says it all really. I still feel a bit of trepidation putting more Dragon Wine out. I guess is it because the series meant a lo...3 days ago
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Deathwings: Dragon Wine Part Three is published - The title of this blog post says it all really. I still feel a bit of trepidation putting more Dragon Wine out. I guess is it because the series meant a lo...3 days ago
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My Edward II Study Day at Sutton Hoo - This coming Saturday I'm giving a study day about Edward II at the Wuffing Education Centre at Sutton Hoo - please do come! Details here: http://wuffingedu...3 days ago
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Six Duchies Map from German editions - I always take great pleasure is seeing how artists visualize not only the characters, but the world in general. This lovely map is from the German edition ...4 days ago
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What I Was Doing At 4.20 am this morning... A radio interview! - The interview was on the ABC radio program Overnights, about my book *Crime Time: Australians Behaving Badly*. I have to take my hat off to those folk w...
4 days ago -
Dick McCullough was a great client for me, a great boss for many, and a great guy for everybody - I hadn’t seen Dick McCullough, who was my most-fun-to-work-with client of all time and the best leader I ever met in the corporate world, for at least a fe...4 days ago
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Border Castle and Forester's Lodge - The Altenstein at the Werra - There are several castles named *Altenstein* or *Altenburg* in Germany. The one I'm writing about here are a few ruins hidden in a forest near Bad Sooden-...
4 days ago -
For James Vance, and his family - I read James' Vance's work before I met the man. He was a playwright who had discovered comics and wrote a graphic novel called KINGS IN DISGUISE, set in ...6 days 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...1 week ago
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New podcast story out! - My story “Monster’s Exist” is free to hear online at Pseudopod. The reading by Ron Jon is absolutely fucking brilliant. Go listen for the quality of the pe...1 week ago
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ABC Radio interview Karen Tyrrell Author - ABC Radio will interview me on my children’s eco fantasy , The Battle of Bug World (Song Bird 2). I’m thrilled ABC Radio will interview me … but I’m nerv...1 week ago
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Site Restored - Yeah! The problems with the blog seem to be gone. However, if you have trouble with any area of the site, please let me know.1 week ago
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Time traveling… - Tregothnan Estate is where quality tea is produced. We had a walk around the gardens then had a tea tasting. Then we went onto Charlestown and after that o...1 week ago
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Children of the Shaman Goodreads giveaway! - I am giving away three paperback copies of my first novel, Children of the Shaman, in the new edition by Kristell Ink, absolutely free! The giveaway opens ...1 week ago
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“They Paved Paradise …” - Somewhere in the world, there are some actual car parks that are beautiful. Absolute stunners. Picturesque. Ecological. Perfect. Here’s one: I jest. But as...1 week ago
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Writers [on Writing]: John Updike - Updike refers to a favourite novel and protagonist of mine here in the whisky priest from Greene's classic *The Power and the Glory*. I've read plenty of...
1 week ago -
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...
2 weeks ago -
#289 - Question: So in my end paragraph as you'll see that I included comments about the representation that's in my story. And yes, I'm trying to think of a less...2 weeks ago
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WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS - IN AUSTRALIA... PRINT VERSIONS Should be available off the shelf at specialty bookstores -- like *Stefan's Books*, or *White Dwarf* in Perth. *Galaxy* in Sy...2 weeks ago
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Upcoming Perth events at the Fremantle Arts Centre and Rockingham Writers Centre - I’ll be appearing at a couple of writerly events in the next few months in the Perth region. Firstly, I’m conducting a crime writing workshop at the Freman...3 weeks ago
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Write...Edit...Publish - June Challenge - BRIDGES - Welcome to the Write…Edit…Publish June 2017 Challenge *BRIDGES* This is one prompt that can take you anywhere – just follow your imagination – maybe you...
3 weeks ago -
The Lion of Wisdom Meditation Center - The new Meditation Center on the hill Hi Friends, Since leaving Brasil I have been staying at the new, Pannasiha, 'Lion of Wisdom' Meditation Center, a f...
3 weeks ago -
Interview: Alice Loweecey - Baker of brownies and tormenter of characters, Alice Loweecey recently celebrated her thirtieth year outside the convent. She grew up watching Hammer horro...3 weeks ago
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A New Hobby - Painting - Wow, ten months have simply vanished since I last blogged and this place here is *dusty*! (And I'm sneezing--for real!) Alas, I've not been idle all this w...
3 weeks ago -
The Pain and Joy of Moving - In the beginning of September 2016, this huge moving van pulled in front of our new house with our life in boxes. We moved 2000 miles across the country le...3 weeks ago
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Marianne’s gunna be a Gunna! - Gunnas Sci Fi Writing Masterclass With Marianne de Pierres Date: Saturday, June 24th, 2017 Time: 10am-4pm Venue: La Luna Bistro Interested in writing scien...4 weeks ago
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Contranyms: Words that mean two opposites - I asked for examples of "contranyms"-- a word with two opposite meanings. Here are some friends contributed: Fast= quick to get away/ Fast like "he was ...4 weeks 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...4 weeks ago
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Poem: Mother's Day - Mother's Day -- bitter sweet. Thinking of mothers -- on earth or in heaven, blessings and lost blessings. Sick children, children in heaven. Once on my mot...5 weeks 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...1 month ago
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The Law Finally Catches Up With Tate Publishing & Enterprises - *Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware* Today, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter filed eight felony charges and one misdemeanor charge agains...
1 month ago -
Film Review: The Royal Shakespeare Company’s film of The Tempest. - (Reviewed by Frances, president of the Shakespeare Club of Western Australia.) The importance of special effects in *The Tempest* was certainly recognised ...
2 months ago -
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (by Henry Fielding): Not quite a review - I've finally finished this. Although it took me a long time, it was surprisingly easy to read. Bear in mind that it was published in 1749, and I expected t...2 months ago
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Goodbyes: - Star-man sits securely strapped, the weight of no weight pushes him upwards as if his mother’s aged and firm hand still held its familiar place in the sma...2 months ago
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Amazon Author Pages: Build Your Presence in the USA, the UK, Germany, India, and beyond - Let’s Get Visible (IV) How to Sell Your Book No Matter Who Published It (7) . Through its Author Central program, Amazon provides a great opportunity to ex...2 months ago
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Ebooks Sales Slowing? Yes and No - *Joe sez:* This blog originally appeared in 2010. It's extremely prescient about the future of ebooks, but that isn't the reason I'm reposting it. I'm repo...
2 months ago -
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:...3 months ago
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New Gymnastic Photography Video - Just a quick 50 second video clip of photographs I’ve done recently with gymnasts. Want a gymnastic photography shoot? Contact me now!3 months 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...
3 months ago -
Just when you think the world couldn't get any madder... - CAMRA, the highly successful consumer organisation that has for *decades* promoted Real Ale has decided that it needs to be 'revitalised'. The project grou...4 months 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...
5 months ago -
What is a 'Wapentake' - English counties were divided into smaller administrative units. Normally, these are called 'Hundreds' but in the former Danelaw, they are called 'Wapentak...5 months ago
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Goodbye and good riddance, 2016 - Yup, it’s been dead air for a while around here. Let me share with you the round-up for 2016. In the last 12 months I’ve finally recovered from 2 herniated...5 months 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...
5 months ago -
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...6 months ago
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My talk about fact-checking - The Editors Guild recorded my talk about fact-checking last night and posted it to their YouTube channel, so you can watch it here: Unfortunately, there we...7 months 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...
9 months ago -
Gaming and selling cards - Over the Easter weekend I held a card stall at a gaming convention, an alternative to running a game as I had been unwell and didn’t have time to write it....10 months ago
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Surviving a deadly forest fire in 1910 Minnesota - *1910: Edith Hall beforeshe married John Stone.**© 2016 Christy K Robinson* While casually googling my maternal great-grandparents, I discovered a *1912 ...
10 months ago -
The future of Australian higher education - From GetUp! "The Turnbull Government is inviting students, parents, employers, higher education providers and peak bodies to consult on its proposed change...11 months ago
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Moving to a new site - visit Dive into Worldbuilding, the Blog! - New Blog Address: http://dive-into-worldbuilding.blogspot.com/ Friends, I've now been running Dive into Worldbuilding as a show for five years (!), and f...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)...
1 year ago -
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...1 year ago
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Our Love is On the Right Track- Song & Video from my new "solo" project - *Our Love is on the Right Track**A great sentiment for Christmas, **but also a romantic song & video for you all, the first from my new "solo" music and v...
1 year ago -
THE WINTER CROWN and a bit of news. - I am hoping to get back to proper blogging soon. There have just been so many things going on and so many deadlines to make that I have let it lapse for a...
1 year ago -
Cooking the Books – Susanne Bellamy - Welcome to Cooking the Books! Today’s guest is author Susanne Bellamy whose new release, Second Chance Love, is the third standalone book in the Bindarra C...1 year ago
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Review: Angelfall - During my …hiatus, while I didn’t blog, I did conduct *ahem* research for future blogs… lots of research. In the process I got somewhat accidentally obsess...3 years ago
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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
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Places I've lived: Auckland, NZ
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Places I've lived: Adelaide, SA
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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
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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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