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I hope my continual references to my schooldays aren't boring everyone to tears, but as the celebrations of Sydney's Conservator...
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
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
Share a link on Twitter
Follow by Email
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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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...25 minutes ago
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Librarians on bikes: cycling through US libraries - After working for 26 years as academic librarians, we have reached a point in our careers where we are right-sizing professionally and personally. This y...1 hour ago
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100neHundred: dancing to remember the fight for the vote - Emily Wilding Davison is one of the most remembered figures of the women’s suffrage movement, iconic in her ultimate sacrifice of walking out in front of t...2 hours ago
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Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Perez - Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Perez is a YA retelling of Tristian and Isolde, and while it contains romantic elements, it is not a romance. If you know the...3 hours ago
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5 Things I Learned As A Writer From Unexpected Source Material - Great source material and inspiration is everywhere for writers … But sometimes we just didn’t look hard enough! This is why I found Oscar’s article abou...5 hours ago
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Bullshit Jobs - My favorite passage from David Graeber’s latest book, Bullshit Jobs, came in his description of normal human work patterns: [M]ost people who have ever exi...5 hours ago
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Useful Tip - I came across this the other day. When cooking ground meat, i.e. beef or chicken, the instruction is usually to make sure the meat is cooked through and b...
6 hours ago -
X Marks the Story: July 2018 - Finding excellent short SFF can often feel like hunting for buried treasure. Sometimes it takes a guide to help fill in the map, connecting readers with ...6 hours ago
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You Deserve A Flower - Hey everyone, you all deserve a flower! What for? For whatever you think you did well on this week! Maybe you cleaned your room for the first time in month...9 hours ago
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West Words Fest Book Marketing Masterclass - West Words Fest Book Marketing Masterclass Want to maximize your income and optimize book sales and distribution? Come to West Words Fest Karen Tyrrell...10 hours ago
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Richard III and the Woodville Faction: The Events Surrounding 1483 - This paper examines the Usurpation of Richard III in 1483 and the events leading up to it.11 hours ago
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The Men Named Epaphroditus by L.J. Trafford - Large stone inscription found on the Esquiline Hill. The name Epaphroditus is visible Roman names are annoying. All those Gaiuses, Luciuses and Marcuses. ...
12 hours ago -
Flog a BookBubber 160: Jane Steen—plucky character, good writing - Writers, send your prologue/first chapter to FtQ for a “flogging” critique. Email as an attachment. Many of the folks who utilize BookBub are self-publishe...19 hours ago
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Seven Sure-Fire Ways to Annoy a Blog Editor (and What to Do Instead) - The post Seven Sure-Fire Ways to Annoy a Blog Editor (and What to Do Instead) appeared first on ProBlogger. This is a post by ProBlogger writing expert A...21 hours ago
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The Single Mother and the Law: Romance novels making room for female voices in patriarchal spaces - Publishes as Michelle Douglas, also a PhD Candidate (University of Newcastle, Australia) Session 6.3 Power and Patriarchy Abstract: Single mothers are rou...21 hours ago
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Zoje Stage - Zoje Stage lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Baby Teeth is her first novel. Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:I just finis...
22 hours ago -
#30 #31 #32 #33 52 WAYS to WELL-BEING - All schools will have broken up for the summer holiday by tomorrow and many already have. Hooray! I recommend you go outside to a green Read the full arti...22 hours ago
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4 Signs You Might Be Confusing, Not Intriguing, in Your Opening Scene - *By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy * *The opening scene of a novel walks a fine line between piquing curiosity and confusing the reader.* Opening scenes are ...
23 hours ago -
The Dying Rain and Other Forays into the Bramble Noir is on the Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award longlist - Meet Tyler Bramble, the grimy future’s answer to Philip Marlowe. Armed with what he considers to be a razor-sharp wit and what his supervisor considers to ...1 day ago
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Hello Again World - I have been sick and not just any old sickness, the kind you're over in a few days. No, this was the really, truly flu, much worse than the bad colds that ...3 days ago
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#318 - Questions: The first person viewpoint character of my novel is blind but the story is not about her blindness. It’s just something she happens to be. I know...3 days ago
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A public account of a private matter - This has been a difficult post to write. It is possible you’ve recently heard personal things about me, and about someone else, which show me in a bad ligh...4 days ago
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Skyfire is published - Oh happy day. Skyfire: Dragon Wine Part Five is published. It is currently available on Amazon and Kobo and will filter through to other stores like Google...4 days ago
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Skyfire is published - Oh happy day. Skyfire: Dragon Wine Part Five is published. It is currently available on Amazon and Kobo and will filter through to other stores like Google...4 days ago
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What to Consider As You Purchase a Toaster or a Novel. - Whenever we shop, we study or research the product before we purchase. We look at the item we want to buy through newspaper and TV ads or literally head ...4 days ago
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A Shakespeare Resource from Cambridge Press! - *Shakespeare Club member Peter Medd has created a post about a publication possibly unknown to most of us. Here is what Peter has to say --* Amongst my lat...5 days ago
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The Great Drought of 1326 - Most of northern Europe has been going through an unusually long dry warm spell for the last few weeks and months, and everywhere I go at the moment I see ...5 days ago
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Fulbright Scholarship and Colonel Thorn - So today I pressed send on my Fulbright submission to write the book about Colonel Thorn. It’s been almost a year since I began to put it together. Whateve...6 days ago
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Vanity Publisher Alert: Novum Publishing, United P.C. Publisher - *Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware* Novum Publishing is an Austria-based publisher that has expanded into several countries, including the UK ...
6 days ago -
Cyril And Pat by Emily Gravett. Sydney: Pan Macmillan, 2018 - *Cyril is the only squirrel in Lake Park, and he’s very lonely. Until one day he meets Pat – Pat the big, grey . . . other squirrel. Cyril and Pat have lo...
1 week ago -
My day at Somerset – Part Five - It’s July and I’m posting the last entry of my day at the Somerset Literary Festival in March 2018. Thank you, readers, for bearing with me, (I’ve started ...1 week ago
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Dance - Dance is so much fun, and such a cool topic. One of the main things you may run into in fiction is how to make it relevant to your story, but fortunately, ...
1 week ago -
Vipers’ Nest bug-hunts: DONE! - What I thought would take one day has instead taken over two weeks and more than six butt-in-chair fully focused hours a day each day of those two weeks. A...1 week ago
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The departing CEO reminds us that Barnes and Noble is of interest and a source of concern for all publishers - When Barnes & Noble interrupted Holiday week day-dreaming to announce that recently elevated CEO Demos Parneros had been abruptly dismissed for a contrac...1 week ago
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NEXT STORY SANCTUARY: LIFE THROUGH A HEALING STORY LENS - VIA 4 Powerful Ways to Use StorytellingLIFE THROUGH A HEALING STORY LENS Monday, July 16 8-9:30 eastern Free and online The one gift I can see in these horr...
1 week ago -
#WEPff UNRAVELED YARN - Winners! - When we set the prompt, UNRAVELED YARN, the team wondered how it would be received. We needn't have worried. Your posts explored 'yarn' from many and varie...
2 weeks ago -
Robin Hobb at Legoland Discovery Centre, Birmingham, England - So this is a lovely snapshot of me, signing a book for Daniel Squirrell, in the Legoland Discovery Center in Birmingham, England. As you can see, I have q...2 weeks ago
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Word Choice, Word Order, and Word Placement Can Matter - English is a forgiving and accommodating language. And that means that writers have a whole lot of leeway when it comes to deciding how to word phrases an...2 weeks ago
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Did your Irish ancestors worship in a church like Clonfert? - *© 2018 Christy K Robinson * My maternal grandmother told my mother at some point in the 1960s that their ancestors were "Scotch-Irish." My mom did years o...
2 weeks ago -
Harlan Ellison - I was in LA two weeks ago, to record the person who is playing the actual Voice of God in *Good Omens*. I had hoped for a long enough trip to see old fr...
2 weeks ago -
Devouring Dark cover reveal! - It’s a busy week in the BaxCave! My new novella, Manifest Recall, is now officially a living book in the world, launched on Tuesday. Early buzz has been ...3 weeks ago
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Review: Mr. Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O'Donoghue - [image: Mr. Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O'Donoghue] Mr. Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O'Donoghue by Dennis Perrin My rating: 4 of 5 stars An e...3 weeks ago
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The Earldom of Richmond and the Duchy of Brittany - The History of Richmond, Part 2 - The Earldom of Richmond and the Duchy of Brittany were still connected during the rule of Henry III, which led to problems because the duke of Brittany ow...
3 weeks ago -
A Dance or Gymnastic Photo Booking - What’s in a Photoshoot and what’s it all about? I thought I’d write this rather long blog to clarify a number of questions I receive and hopefully answer a...3 weeks ago
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What's Tunguska? - Taiga of Far East in Russia *Tunguska *is the name of my work in progress. Today it has just bust the 60,000 word mark, though as usual at this stage in ...
3 weeks ago -
Her Quail Cuteness - It’s Rover at home. Such a cosy quail! This is my latest upload to RedBubble, because I think she’s too cute to not share. Installation by Jazz and photogr...3 weeks ago
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Interview: Cameron Johnston - Cameron Johnston lives in Glasgow, Scotland, with his wife and an extremely fluffy cat. He is a swordsman, a gamer, an enthusiast of archaeology, history...5 weeks ago
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Loving Our Leaders? - 'Loving our leaders' is not a condition with which we are much afflicted in Australia. For the most part, they are regarded somewhere below used-car salesp...5 weeks ago
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Original Art Stories: Frank Chiaramonte's $20 X-Men Pages - Frank Chiaramonte might not a household name amongst comic book fans, but he should be. Much like Don Newton and Gene Day, Chiaramonte had a relatively sho...
1 month ago -
Can’t Start a Fire without a Spark…. Creating that Spark when You Think You're Burnt Out - *Can’t Start a Fire without a Spark…. Creating that Spark when You Think You're Burnt Out* *by Alicia Rasley* You can decide what to love. You can spark ...
2 months ago -
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...3 months 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 months 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 months 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...4 months 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 ...4 months 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...4 months 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...4 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...5 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...
5 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...5 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...
8 months ago -
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...9 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...10 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...10 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...
11 months ago -
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 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...
1 year ago -
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...1 year 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 year 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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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
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
Inner Peace Blog
Awarded by Joanna Fay. Click on the image to visit her lovely website!
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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Friday, 15 May 2015
Guest Post on Kim Cleary's blog
Friday, May 15, 2015 | 
Posted by
Satima Flavell
Check it out at
http://kimcleary.com/high-fantasy-and-satima-flavell/
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2 comments:
Will try and get there later. Time seems to have disappeared lately. Never have any.
Yes, I'm finding the older I get, the shorter the days become!