The title of this post might give it away... Yep, another of my Dungeons and Dragons characters has bitten the dust. In fact, three of our party didn't make it through our mega D&D sleepover this past weekend. We're churning through the lower level characters at the moment and it's getting tedious. Meanwhile our level … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Zillah arrives and explores a citadel
I've been writing steadily over the past two weeks. That is, I've been putting in a couple of hours most days, mostly in cafes. I've been treating 'creative endeavours' (including 'cafe writing') as another client in this new freelance/self-employed life of mine; another client with its own timesheet category. Not only does this log the … Continue reading Sunday journal ~ the other client
One of the things I've always loved about fantasy is the JOURNEY. Journey: an act of travelling from one place to another. This can be literal -- epic fantasy is full of tremendous and inspiring journeys from A to B. None is more iconic of course than the journey of Frodo and his companions in … Continue reading A-Z of fantasy: J is for Journey
The past couple of weeks have been a challenge on the creativity front, owing to a few different factors, one of which has been the bad behaviour of my netbook computer -- which is the machine I've been taking to cafes. Basically the battery has more or less died, giving me little more than 1.5 … Continue reading Sunday journal ~ entering the world of Mac
KAE I have made a grave mistake. We came north with such high hopes, Effu and I. We two together were going to conquer the world and make a fortune doing it. "Opportunities abound in the north," someone said. Who said it? I cannot remember. It doesn't matter. They lied. All I have encountered in the … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: More death and some vengeance
On Saturday I attended the inaugural Conflux Writers Day -- a day of short talks and workshops on various aspects of writing, held in Canberra. Organised by the Conflux team, headed up by Australian SF author Nicole Murphy, the Conflux Writers Day was also the prelude to the annual Aurealis Awards, which are Australia's premier … Continue reading Harnessing creativity at Conflux Writers Day
My main creative achievement for this week has been a new opening scene for project WIP. Not precisely what I was planning to do, but fun nonetheless. It came about because I was writing some notes about the middle of the book, sharpening objectives, motivations, stakes and so forth, trying to figure out where and how to … Continue reading Sunday journal ~ new opening scene
With an armful of devilcat (making it hard to type), I am happy to report a strong showing on the writing/revision front this week. I enjoyed reading through my writing journals (mostly) and have been thinking deeply about what needs to be done with this book -- and how I'm going to do it. I'm … Continue reading Sunday journal ~ keep it true
I'm contemplating a regular (semi-regular?) Sunday journal post, in which I muse briefly on recent creative endeavours and/or achievements. If it gets too boring, I'll stop, but let's see how we go... This past week I finished reading through the messy first draft of the novel I've been working on for the past, er, while. … Continue reading Sunday journal ~ rhythm
So. Life after Ash. It's time to meet my new D&D character, Kae. (For those who weren't paying attention, Ash was killed dead a couple of weeks ago. Read the miserable account here.) Kae is also a female ranger with ties to the church of Emrys (god of the forest). She's young (21) and has … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Slaying in the rain
Ellen Gregory 