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Read, Write, Dance
Read, Write, Dance . Those three words could almost be my epitaph. Certainly (bearing and rearing children aside) they are the three activi...
About Me
- Satima Flavell
- I am a writer, editor, reviewer and dance teacher based in Perth, Western Australia. 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. You might enjoy my books - The Dagger of Dresnia, the first book of the Talismans Trilogy, is available at all good online book shops. Book two, The Cloak of Challiver, will be available again shortly. Book three, The Seer of Syland, is in preparation.
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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How to Smash Your Blogging Goals in Just 5 Days - This post is by ProBlogger expert Ellen Jackson of Potential Psychology Have you ever uttered the phrase, ‘One day I’ll…’? Of course you have. We all hav...1 hour ago
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When Your Muse is Missing in Action - *By Jana Oliver, @crazyauthorgirl Part of the Indie Authors Series * In every writer’s life there are days when the words flow like a raging river over ...
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Alternative music classes: why not guitar? - The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) formerly known as MENC is the world’s largest arts education association. Amongst its many roles, NA...1 hour 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...3 hours ago
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Sounds Like Halloween - What does Halloween sound like? Is it all thrills and chills and spooky sounds that make sleep impossible in the dead of night? Or is it something more q...4 hours ago
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‘The black man and his party’: William Cuffey, Chartist leader - Black History Month offers an opportunity to highlight the significant but often overlooked contribution of black people throughout history. William Cuffey...5 hours ago
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The Rec League: Mary Stewart - Our community at the Bitchery is full of warm & fuzzy moments and as the person who puts together the Books on Sale posts, sometimes we get some kickass, b...6 hours ago
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Roman women in Late Antiquity by Alison Morton - Helena, mother of Constantine the Great (author photo, Naples Museum)I set out to write about women in the late Roman period – ambitious for a blog post, ...
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Believe Women Matter - A lot of the discussion – the angry discussion – accompanying the much-applauded fall of Harvey Weinstein focuses on believing women. The argument is that ...8 hours ago
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Meanjin Writers Camp created Superhero stories - Meanjin Writers Camp created Superhero stories. And I, Karen Tyrrell author taught talented young writers how to write them. ALEA (Australian Literacy Ed...8 hours ago
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Pandas, Doctor, Bowling. - Sorry I missed a blog yesterday, no real reason except I hadn't written anything by bed time and was feeling tired and lazy plus my IBS had been playing m...
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THUMBNAIL THURSDAY FIND YOUR FANTASY JIMINY CRICKET IN THE SKY FUNNY - God's a psycho. The Bible is the greatest fictional work ever to feature an unreliable narrator. And Jesus is a member of the cartooning Death Panda fra...15 hours ago
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Quick Check-In - Hello fellow humans! I am not dead. I am slowly making my way down the length of California toward my high school reunion. Life is good. I hope also that y...15 hours ago
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Mystery, Mayhem & Magic adventures for young readers! - Source: Mystery, Mayhem & Magic adventures for young readers! Advertisements16 hours ago
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Asterion's birth: - Instead of the two mothers on their knees, the cold marble floor indifferent to their grief, as their hands clasp the babe and each claim the maternal rig...17 hours ago
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Temperature check from two US CEOs at Frankfurt 2017 - It is no surprise that the public remarks at Frankfurt by Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle and Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy contain gems worth p...17 hours ago
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Skellig by David Almond - Skellig holds a special place in my heart. It (or the paperback anyway) was published in 1998. My older daughter, H, was eleven. We were going on our first...20 hours ago
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Flogometer 1033 for Tara—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...21 hours ago
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Anne Leonard and Moth and Spark - It was a pleasure to have author Anne Leonard come on the show to talk about her worldbuilding! She told us that her favorite thing about worldbuilding is ...
22 hours ago -
Top 6 Escape Clichés That Will Kill Your Story - Flight Over Fight As every Bang2writer knows, I spend a lot of reading specs and unpublished novels through The B2W Scriptreading Consultancy – but I also ...1 day ago
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Abeer Hoque - Abeer Y. Hoque is a Nigerian born Bangladeshi American writer and photographer. She has published a book of travel photographs and poems called The Long Wa...
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Book review: The Man Who Died, by Antti Tuomainen - Antti Tuomainen is a Finnish crime novelist and former copywriter. He’s written seven novels to date, each one (so far as I know) a standalone, and has won...1 day ago
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Back to the grind - I’ve been back from Europe just over two weeks now. I’m over the jetlag, I think. I went back to uni and started working on things. I sent out newsletters ...1 day ago
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Back to the grind - I’ve been back from Europe just over two weeks now. I’m over the jetlag, I think. I went back to uni and started working on things. I sent out newsletters ...1 day ago
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An Interactive Look at a Printed Masterpiece - Thanks to the British Museum, you can get an up close and personal look at one of the most elaborate prints ever produced.1 day ago
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Seven B&W photos of my life. - I don’t often join in with the memes and stuff that fly around social media, but this one caught my eye, so I decided to have a go. The premise was elega...1 day ago
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John, Lord Beaumont (1317-1342) - John Beaumont was an English nobleman of partly French, partly Scottish origin, who married into the great Lancastrian dynasty. Here's a post about him. A...2 days ago
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Best Bug Contender: Midnight Rain Bug-Hunt - There’s no actual prize for finding the “best bug” because a “best bug” in a manuscript is purely subjective. There would be no just, objective way to awar...3 days ago
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Vintage sailing ship - It is always hard to create cards for male recipients for some reason. I like to do vintage style cards because the colours and designs can work. I love ...3 days ago
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We Haz Frogs - As you may or may not remember I have a cat. Now Mr Puss is 'special' and not only because he has potentially life threatening health condition which means...3 days ago
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Interview: Elizabeth Bonesteel - Elizabeth Bonesteel is the author of Breach of Containment, just out from HarperCollins. Breach of Containment is the third book in her Central Corps SF tr...3 days ago
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Premiere of the short film 'Coffee' on the 20th October at UWA - My brother, Matthew Nicholas Phillips is a physiotherapist by trade, but acts in plays, music-videos and short films. He decided to adapt the first story ...
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Review: The Inkblots: Hermann Rorschach, His Iconic Test, and the Power of Seeing - Review: The Inkblots: Hermann Rorschach, His Iconic Test, and the Power of Seeing by Damion Searls - Hardcover: 416 pages - Publisher: Crown; First Editi...
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A Belated Friday 13 Post - I have written about Friday 13 before, so won't go into the background. Go check out my earlier post here. Yesterday I cheerfully mentioned it in class. On...5 days ago
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The Myth of the Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle Ban - The Myth of the Fatty Ban The 1920s had barely begun when a real life situation developed that would lead to the first officially announced ban in Australi...
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Confession of a Traditional Author turned Small Press - As a traditional writer for 20 years, I worked under contract with deadlines, often pushing myself, neglecting friends and family and missing out on a grea...6 days ago
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Scam Alert: Fraudsters Targeting Freelancers With Fake Job Offers - *Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware* Fraudsters are reportedly conducting a phishing scheme aimed at freelance writers. Individuals using the n...
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ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE -- A PUPPET STAGE - Eminem put out a fantastic and bombastic video directed at the President this week, who challenged his Secretary of State to an I.Q. duel while fires rage...
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My Favourite Shylock - *A post from one of our keen members, Peter Medd, on one of Shakespeare’s most intriguing characters.* In 2016, I heard an ABC interview of Warren Mitchell...
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Time is running out! - Just a reminder that if you want to get a hardback copy of The Book of Swords signed by me, you had best pre-order it now. This is an anthology edited by G...2 weeks ago
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The Marble Bar – a poem - The Marble Bar Talk-weary, smiled out. A retreat to the Marble Bar. Speak-easy and sombre warmth. Thoughts adrift towards a new life and one past quiver ...2 weeks ago
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A Virtual Tour through Mediaeval Erfurt - I had been to Erfurt, the capital of the county of Thuringia, back at the time of analog cameras, and only for a few hours. But it takes more than a few h...
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My predictions for this week in US politics - Wayne LaPierre will blame the audience at the concert in Vegas for not carrying high-powered sniper rifles. A congressman voting to allow everyone to buy...2 weeks ago
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How I research my history and genealogy books - Saturday, 30 September 2017 Diana Milne talks to Christy K Robinson - author, editor, organist and jam maker extraordinaire! *© Diana Milne 2017 © Christy ...
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Overdue Update - The new improved Sambodhi Meditation Center in Ladakh Hi Friends, Sorry for the delay between posts. I was Ladakh, India from July 19-September 20th an...
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Nightmare Alley vs Nightmare Alley - I’ve been reading a lot of classic noir fiction in recent times, as well as watching a host of noir films of the 1940s and 50s. I hadn’t heard of William L...2 weeks ago
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The orchid has flowered - It’s taken years, and there have been many other plant-deaths along the way, but my Aussie Parade Carrot Splash Orchid (that’s what the label says) has fin...2 weeks ago
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#WEPFF - OCTOBER 2017 CHALLENGE – DARK PLACES - *Welcome to the WEP - Write...Edit...Publish DARK PLACES Challenge. * *As the season changes it seems creativity calls to us.* *In October, the WEP dedica...
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A Little Poetry - I have not posted anything on here for several months now. I thought I might use it to occasionally air some poetry. Like most of my writing, this doesn't ...2 weeks ago
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Parse Writing Advice - Even the best writing advice might not work for every circumstance. Remind yourself that some advice won't fit your story or a particular circumstance.4 weeks 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...4 weeks ago
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NEWS UPDATE - FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN ASKING... My four first published books (two of which were shortlisted for the Aurealis Award Best Fantasy Novel of the year...
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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...4 weeks ago
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Making Plans for (Nuclear) Nigel. - There’s an elephant in the room. SHH! don’t look at him. (His name is Nigel.) I just made that up, but hey: let’s at least give him a name. Let’s personali...4 weeks ago
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The Oxford Comma, Robert Frost, and Comma Suicide - *This will start out boring for non-punctuation-lovers, but then I'll quote Robert Frost, which is always a great benefit to society. So slog through the ...4 weeks ago
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Maneyacts Photography Changes - Hi everyone. As I had previously mentioned on social media, I had decided to do an overhaul of what I do. Photography to me is a hobby, not a business, not...1 month ago
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New story at Giganotosaurus - “The Wanderers” – the furry fantasy I wrote for my kids about a couple of fox people who go off in search of the end of the earth (and then have to find th...1 month 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...1 month 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...
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#291 - Questions: Will beginning each part of my book with a stanza be a total turn-off for agents? Not including it in a response to a request for pages would be ...2 months ago
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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 ...4 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...4 months 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 ...4 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...
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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 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...5 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...
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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:...7 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...
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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...8 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...
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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...9 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...9 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...
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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...10 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...
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)...
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
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!