ZILLAH I’m staring into the fire in Climber’s camp of outlaws, searching desperately for light in the depths of my shattered soul. They want me to tell the tale of our recent adventures. They want it to be full of heroic action and rousing arse-kicking. They want me to banish their despair and replace it … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Tale of the Dark Tree
Once again celebrating Australian Women Writers, today's review is focused on the Red Dirt Heart sequence from N.R. Walker. It comprises four m/m romance novels set on a massive cattle station in the Northern Territory (north-east of Alice Springs), and deals primarily with themes of 'being gay in outback Australia' and family. I love this … Continue reading Book review: Red Dirt Heart sequence by N.R. Walker
It's been a while since I've posted. Three and half weeks. The longer it went on, the more apathetic I became. Did anyone notice, I wonder? Instead, I have been reading. It's much easier than writing blog posts at the end of a brain-intensive working day, don't you know? As is my wont, I got … Continue reading Journal ~ Spitting out sand
ZILLAH We camp a few hours upstream from the goblin village. I have the goblin chief's dirt map memorised -- the all important directions to the troll lord we seek, and the Dark Tree as well. We will likely face at least one of them tomorrow. I try to mentally prepare myself for the task … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Triumph over the troll lord
Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat leapt to the top of my to-be-read pile the instant I heard about it last weekend, because it ticks three of my current preferred boxes: It’s a secondary world fantasy, written by an Australian woman (meaning I can review it for the Australian Women Writers challenge), and it’s centred on … Continue reading Review of Captive Prince and Prince’s Gambit by C.S. Pacat
Words... Despite my indecision a month ago, I've managed to get back into a good creative routine. The second half of July was work-frenzied as predicted, but August has been a delight. Lots of cafe writing sessions and I've started the run to the end of this novel. So I feel as though I'm getting … Continue reading Journal ~ Update on words, Spring, bad habits
ZILLAH Trees. The stream wending silent on my left. My companions spread out in front of me, talking in low voices, stepping on twigs. This is all I see. All I hear. They are making tough going of it, but I don’t care. I don’t care that none of them are likely to see the … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: The fireball and the goblin chief
ZILLAH -- The Broken Forest I'm on watch with Squirrel in the dead of night when the tree moves. It's a massive tree in a loop of the stream. We've camped here because it seemed safer to have the water on three sides. We've been attacked so many times at night. But now it sounds … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Death of an animal companion
Earlier this year, I pledged to participate in the Australian Women Writers Challenge — essentially a commitment to read, review and generally plug published works by Australian women. It’s taken me a while to get my act together, but here — finally — is my first official review towards this challenge. I selected Dreamer’s Pool … Continue reading Review of Dreamer’s Pool by Juliet Marillier
Before I went to Mongolia, my aunt said to take a torch. Well, doh! I'm camping... "No, not for the camping. For the footpaths in Ulaan Bataar. They're really dangerous at night! You could hurt yourself." I thought, yeah, right. But, well... Ulaan Bataar is many things. Well-maintained is not one of them. We spent … Continue reading The treacherous footpaths of Ulaan Bataar
Ellen Gregory 