I’m currently reading a great book by Gail Carriger, called The Heroine’s Journey – for Writers, Readers, and Fans of Pop Culture. What is the heroine’s journey, you ask? You’ve heard of the hero’s journey, so this must be the female version, right? It’s a little more complicated than that. For precise details, I recommend you read the book for yourself, as it explains very succinctly (and quoting some great examples) the difference between the hero’s journey and the her

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how a person’s early childhood experiences can shape their personality later in life. Not only that, but the goals they set, their hopes, wishes, dreams and desires, their motivations, aspirations, habits, and coping mechanisms. Nearly everything about how we are as adults has been influenced by one or more factors of those early years. For example, my mother has always appreciated art and items of beauty, and surrounded herself with

So here we are entering the third decade of the 2000’s. Wow, that’s enough to make you feel old! Still, I feel it’s a really great time for me, because this is the era in which the culmination of all my previous learning about the craft of writing is being presented to the public forum. That process began in earnest last year, when I published the first book in my Humorous Historical Fantasy trilogy, Atomic Goddess – Isis Reborn. And so the saga continues as I prepare to

So here we are, at the end of another year… and another decade. We’re probably all hoping 2021 will be better. A LOT better. And hopefully, all the 2020 years. It seems to me that the end/beginning of a decade often brings about some kind of major change/s in life. When we look back on the last ten years, what do we remember? Do we define that particular chunk of our lives by the enormity of its events, the great challenges, calamities, upheavals, changes, or losses we’v

One of the common questions that authors face – certainly authors of speculative fiction, at any rate (myself included) – is ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ A similar, related inquiry is ‘How do you get your ideas down on paper (or computer, as the case may be) and get them to make sense?’ These are queries that most authors face at some point or other in their writing career (if they’re fortunate enough to have fans to ask them!), and there are as many answers to t

Well, what a year it’s turning out to be. For some of us, everything has changed. For some, very little. A famous line comes to mind… “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities Well, i

Well, it’s the pointy end of the thingy – nearly time to release my first novel to the world. I’m still gathering feedback, and still working on the cover, but I’m aiming to make it available on Saturday 27 June, in digital format at least. Which has certainly been a long time in coming! I had the initial idea that has become Atomic Goddess: Isis Reborn in 2008. I started the first draft in November, in my first attempt at National Novel Writing Month, which I suc

Most people might consider life to be a wee bit of a worrisome drag at the moment, with all that’s going on in the world. Not so much me. But then, I guess I’m not most people. For, as far as I can see, there isn’t a lot that is more important, when times are tough and spirits are low, than simply getting on with things. Is that a murmur of discontent I hear in the background? ‘What,’ do I hear you say, ‘would you know about it? How can you give advice when the whole wo

A lot of media attention has been given to the negative aspects of what is going on in the world today, especially with us all enduring the enforced social distancing/isolation. I’m sure many people are going stir crazy at the moment, not only because they can’t go out socially and get together in person with friends and family – or even go to work, but also the added stress of financial insecurity topped off with having children at home twenty-four/seven. Even for peop

I am often asked when I decided to become a writer, and why. I’ve told the story many times, of how I knew all my letters and numbers before starting school, of how I took to reading and writing by Grade 2, how I was producing my own hand-written and -illustrated story books by Grade 4, and then a play by Grade 6 – that my class performed before the whole school. Add to that the wonderful input and encouragement of a very special school teacher, the voraciousness with w