Fellow author-blogger Sue Burztynski — https://suebursztynski.blogspot.com.au — has honoured me by nominating me as one of her Mystery Blogger awardees. The award was founded by Okoto Enigma — https://www.okotoenigmasblog.com/my-greatest-creation-yet/ — It’s intended to be an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts, and it’s a great way to get our readers to check out more blogs! Are you one of my ‘followers’? (Scroll to the very bottom of the page) Or are you listed in the ‘Blogs I follow’ at left? If so, you are welcome to join in.



Here’s how to do it:
1. Put the award logo on your blog.
2. List these rules.
3. Thank whoever nominated you and link to their blog.
4. Mention the creator of the award (Okoto Enigma) and provide a link as well. (See the first para of this post)
5. Tell your readers three things about yourself.
6. Nominate roughly 10 – 20 people for this award.
7. Notify your nominees by commenting on their blogs.
8. Ask your nominees five questions.
9. Share a link to your best/favourite post that you’ve written.

 OK, three things about me:
1 I was born in Manchester, England, and lived there for the first five years of my life. (My mother used to say that all her children were born during thunderstorms, but I had to have an air-raid as well!)

2. I have lived at well over sixty different addresses in five different countries: England, Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Scotland.

3. I have tried several different lines of work over the course of my life: mostly I’ve been a dance teacher, but I’ve also tried retail, clerical work, farming, dancing in cabaret and clubs/hotels and in a small contemporary dance company (we actually performed before the Queen and Prince Phillip in 1963!) In my old age I have taken up writing and editing, and have had many reviews and articles published as well as two novels and the odd short story.

Want to join in the fun? I do think Helen Venn http://imaginemeatclarion.blogspot.com/ and Jo Wake http://henderson-jo.blogspot.com.au/ are good sports and might give it a whirl, but all followers (see the very bottom of this page) are invited to join in if they wish, as are all the bloggers I follow.

Here are my questions for my nominees
1. Your favourite book of all time?
2. Where would you rather live, and why – Alice Springs or New York?
3. If you could marry a famous person from history, who would you choose?
4. First two lines of your favourite poem?
5. List five authors who specialise in historical fantasy.

And here are my answers to Sue’s questions to me:

 • Three desert island books?
 #Well, let’s not count Robinson Crusoe, but there have been plenty of others: Cocos Gold (Ralph Hammond), The Swiss Family Robinson (Johann David Wyss), Lord of the Flies (William Golding) spring to mind. And while it’s a play, not a novel, I can’t resist adding The Admirable Crichton (J. M. Barrie).  Since I uploaded this, Sue Burztynski — https://suebursztynski.blogspot.com.au — has  reminded me that a 'desert island book' is one you would like to have with you if you were abandoned on a desert island. I would like a book on 'how to survive on a desert island'. Any suggestions?

• You have been offered your choice of place, money no object, (a fictional place is fine) to write your new book. Where is it?
#The French Riviera, of course. All the best writers go there, don’t they?

• Which three fictional characters would you invite to your New Year's Eve celebration? Why?
#Jerome K. Jerome and his two mates in a boat. Their bumble-footed actions would keep the entire party entertained all night.

• Favourite book-to-film adaptation/s?
#Not a film, but Game of Thrones, the HBO adaptation of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, is brilliant.

 • Reincarnation exists! What will you be reborn as? Or, who would you like to have been in a previous life? (Doesn't have to be someone famous. For example, you might want to have been a cat in ancient Egypt, they had a great life and people could get into huge trouble for killing them.)
#Marie Curie. She was a woman who saw what needed doing and did it without a qualm, despite the obstacles and difficulties.

My favourite post on my own blog? It has to be the one that gets the most hits, but it’s a bit annoying that people aren’t googling me and my deathless prose. They are looking for a translation of a German saying: http://satimaflavell.blogspot.com.au/2007/04/hopfen-und-malz-gott-erhalts.html

All yours! Have fun!

A rather exciting day, what with one thing and another. On my way to keep fit class, I stopped off at the clothing shop attached to the Senior Cits Centre, and wow! — the recycling gods had saved two garments that must have had my name on them. One is an utterly lovely, brand new, pink jacket: the other, a delightful long red skirt which I bought just in case anyone suddenly decides to hire septuagenarian belly dancers. (If no such gigs are forthcoming, I can wear it out to posh dinners, although there aren't too many of those on my agenda these days, either.) And I paid — you won't believe this — seven dollars for the two garments. Not each, both! The jacket alone would have had a price tag of well over $100 new, I suspect. It was definitely new - the pockets were still stitched, as expensive garments are often sold, and the maker's labels had been carefully cut off. There is a story there, I'm sure!

Keep fit was strenuous, as usual — I rather think that our fit, enthusiastic instructor sometimes forgets that he is coaching a bunch of senior citizens. A quick glance around the gathering suggests that many attendees aren't working to capacity and I can't blame them, but neither can I take leaves from their books. From force of habit I work as hard as I can, with the result that I sometimes have to sideline myself for part of the time. Only the advent of old age has taught me to do that. Old-style ballet training taught one to grit one's teeth and keep going, with no leniency for tiredness, sore muscles, bleeding toes or puddles of sweat on the floor. (No, I ain't joking!)

Then, on the way home, the bus driver had to hit the brakes and horn. I was sitting in an area where the seats face each other, and I had, heaven be thanked, the presence of mind to grab the safety rail to my left with my right hand, with the result that I was thrown and half turned so that I wound up sitting in the (fortunately empty!) seat opposite. The first thing I did was to grab the bag containing my precious new purchases in case they got tipped out onto the floor. (Vanity, thy name is Satima ...)

No, I wasn’t hurt, but I downed two cups of coffee in quick succession once I got home!

(No news on the rebirth of The Talismans yet. Soon, I hope!)

Swancon 2017 was just as enjoyable as previous years. I was only on two panels - the focus was not, for the most part, on writers and writing, but that meant there were many enjoyable talks and panels on topics as diverse as Wayfinding by the Stars and Should Women be Freemasons? My favourite, I think, was a talk by Guest-of-Honour Sean Williams on his time in Antarctica!

My two panels were  Writing: from Idea to Page (with Glenda Larke, Luke Kendall and Meg Caddy) and Publishing: Where to Begin? (with Amanda Bridgeman, Glenda Larke, Luke Kendall and Heidi Kneale). All my fellow panelists are practised and published authors, several having many works under their belts.

The incredibly gifted Cat Sparks took a great many photos, as did several other camera enthusiasts. Most of the ones below are Cat's work. Cat also launched her first novel, Lotus Blue - but it sold out before I could grab a copy! I did buy lots of other books, though, including Meg Caddy's Waer and Luke Kendal's Wild Thing.

Two awards were on the program - the nation-wide Aurealis Awards and Perth's 'Tin Ducks'.  In the pic below you will see Glenda Larke with her award, which is definitely a Swan, not a Duck! She won it for 'Best Long Written Work'. I was invited to present two of the Aurealis awards - Best Fantasy Novella and Best Fantasy Short Story. You can find a full list of Aurealis winners at https://aurealisawards.org/

Glenda's  lovely Tin Duck!

Luke Kendall, Glenda Larke, Satima Flavell and Meg Caddy

Me trying to look glam, Juliet Marillier succeeding!

Three elegant ladies: Juliet Marillier and Glenda Larke with Guest-of-Honour, long-standing fan Davina Watson

Terri Sellen shares a joke with Yours Truly. (No, I don't think that's a  real sword...) Hurrah - fellow fan  Grant Watson has put the Tin Duck winners up on Facebook, so I've copied them and here they are! Best WA Long Written Work: Fall of the Dagger, Glenda Larke (See pic above) Best WA Short Written Work: To Take Into the Air my Quiet Breath, Stephanie Gunn Best WA Production: Australian SF Snapshot project   Best WA Artwork: A Matter of Scale, Alicia Smith Marg Hughes Award: Samara Morgan All over until next year! Now I'm starting to feel post-con blue-ish!

This Easter, as usual, I am attending Swancon, WA's annual speculative fiction convention. Great guests-of-honour, including, inter alios, Traci Harding, Sean Williams, Alan Baxter, and Davina Watson. I'm not on any panels for the first two days, so I'm free to roam into other panels, go the restaurant for coffee, or to visit the Traders' Room to buy BOOKS!

I'll come back to this post later, and meantime, you might like to betake yourselves to Swancon 42's Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/swancon 

Or go to their website:
https://sites.grenadine.co/sites/swancon/en/swancon2017 

I'll get back to you later with a proper report and news of all the new BOOKS! (I won't mention the state of my credit card, though, after buying all those BOOKS!)

Did I mention that I like new BOOKS?

No further word on the publishing front. Not being very techie myself, I have to rely on others to get the books back on the market and of course that means waiting until they have time to do the job.

Meantime, I continue with other activities. Keeping fit is my main priority, given that I am now seventy-four years old. I still teach my adult class in Theatrical Dance on Mondays, and most other days I go out to attend Yoga, Bellydance or Keep Fit classes. And, of course, the usual problems of old age demand fairly frequent visits to a medical doctor, chiropractor, dentist or one hospital department or another. I hardly ever seem to be at home for more than a few hours at a time, at least in the daytime. So - nothing to report on the writing front. I'm having trouble finding an ending for the novella that follows The Cloak of Challiver, and the proposed final volume, The Seer of Syland, exists only in my head.


Anticipation keeps me optimistic. Next month comes Easter, and with it, Swancon, Western Australia's speculative fiction convention. It's always enjoyable for many reasons, not the least of which is the opportunity to catch up with fellow writers and fans. I've been asked to sit on two panels on writing and publishing, in company with several other authors, mostly better known than I am. If you're in Perth, Western Australia, do consider attending the convention. Further details - cost, venue etc - can be found  at https://2017.swancon.com.au/

The guest of honour list is like a who's who of spec-fic, including Sean Williams (right) one of our best-known and loved SF writers. And the draft program will make your mouths water!

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 published author. However, my friend the Dragon is in the process of publishing The Dagger of Dresnia under his own label, and hopefully The Cloak of Challiver will soon follow.

I have purchased the remaining copies of The Dagger of Dresnia from Satalyte Publishing, and I'm happy to sell them for $AU25 per copy, including postage within Australia. Or, if you prefer e-copy, the Dragon will be offering that format for sale shortly. If you want to buy a copy from me, you can always find me on Facebook!

I have just uploaded a new 'page'. It's a genealogy paper I wrote a couple of decades back on the FLAVELL (et var) surname.

It's quite a long paper, and I know it won't interest many people, but I'd like to make sure it's available for other FLAVELL researchers to access. In one incarnation or another, it is already up on a couple of different websites, but I thought it might be a good idea to have it here as a backup. It's OK to quote from it, but please do the right thing and list the source in your appendices.

I had an email this morning, as did all Satalyte authors, telling me that the enterprise is closing down. It was always a brave venture and maybe a forlorn hope. People are reading fewer books, it seems, and maybe some prefer to borrow from libraries rather than paying out for books they can keep.

Most books are ephemeral. Maybe a complete works of Charles Dickens shelf is a nice-looking addition to your lounge room, but most contemporary works will be read once then passed on to someone else or to the local op shop. Very few books come out as hardbacks these days: soft covers and even ebooks are the way modern publishing has gone. I think maybe I'll go down the e-book route. I have several friends who've done that and are doing quite well out of it. After all, the writer gets to keep the money if s/he does the work alone.

I'm still feeling confused, let down, and sad for Satalyte. They set out with such  great ideas three or four years ago, but they've gone the same way as many small press outfits - five years is the limit for many of them. By that time they are probably exhausted and possibly out of pocket.

I am still working on a novella that is a spin off from book two, and I might wind up serializing it on the blog. Watch this space - I'll keep you posted on developments.

British author Kevyn Howe has been writing fantasy novels for many years, ever since he suffered an illness that rendered him unable to work at his normal occupation as an electrical contractor. In 2014 he made a decision to begin writing stories professionally and he has never looked back. Kevyn enjoys writing in all genres, most particularly Sword and Sorcery. He's even moved into the publishing world - he has written three fantasy novels which are on Amazon Kindle.  At present he's actively writing the fourth fantasy novel, aiming to get it published in printed format.  Kevyn reports that he’s also currently writing a Fantasy political spy thriller and is enjoying every minute.