Castle News

There is an alignment that settles over me when I get up early in the morning compared to sleeping in. I feel as though sleeping in equals missing out on so much. Normally it isn't a dramatic sleep in. But a sleep in none the less makes me feel like I didn't do what I was meant to. I think this is something that I need to work on. I was riding every day in the mornings but that fell through after a time and I didn't even get a chance to see the sunrise. I would get up with h

I was really excited to put out this interview because I was the guest! It was a little topsy turvy to come in as a guest on my own show, but I really enjoyed the experience. Izzy, the sound girl was gracious and patient with me. I was focussed on limiting my nervous ticks throughout the interview as I am aware of how challenging that is to edit.

Ian is a kind and generous person who was one of the organisers of the Indie Author Bookfair event, and this is not the only one. Leschenault Press and The Book reality experience were front of mind during our conversation and it was so nice to hear what he had to say.

I was so excited to talk to Heather, not only because she is an incredible creative, but because she one of the squires for the Otherworldly Emergence Speculative Fiction Novella Series. I had been meeting with her on teams and discord for some time before we met in person. So talking about her creative process and the full stories she has released to the world was awesome. I hope you enjoy the chat.

At the end of February I thought that is would be a fabulous idea to undertake a mindfulness challenge for March. I didn't want to over complicate it. The activities had to be completed within 5 minutes a day. I wanted to highlight the multiple techniques that would calm the mind and help reframe your mindset when in stressful situations. After alll, the best way to learn a different technique is when you are calm. Practicing something new may help add that skill to your ment

I thought that it would be fun to start and daily post within the Bushland Pages community. Something that will help people try mindfulness for at least 5 minutes a day. These activities are short and things that you most likely already do every day. I am just writing it down and suggesting people give it a go. People have been sharing their reflections with me and it has been great to hear some of the creative interpretations of these different activities.

When you start a project sometimes it seems like there are so many moving parts that you have to start putting in the right order. I know for the Otherworldly Emergence series there have been many aspects that I had to pull into order to make it make sense. Every creative project deserves a moment of your time to put together a general plan.

The creation and development of a book is more than just the story. The front and back matter relates to all the material included inside the covers before and after the prose. This includes but is not limited to the cover pages, the copyright material, acknowledgements, thank you pages and glossaries. Depending on how you choose to publish your book your choice in what is included may vary.

Who would have thought you could incorporate a beer can into a raffle? Pete made sure that he published his collection of short stories 'Read my shorts' before the Indie Author Book Fair so that he could bring it along to the event. Small items from within the short stories were culminated into a raffle that he utilised on the day as an incentive to sign up for his email. I thought it was brilliant. The excerpt that I read for the minisode was one of his tales from this serie

Leading into the Otherworldly emergence we need to start raising awareness of the series and provide little teasers about what is coming with the series. The hooks for each of the stories and the development of the covers. At BCP we are trying to be transparent about out process and keep people who are interested in the loop with what we are putting together to share with the world.

Within the buddy writing sessions and write-ins on discord, we run writing sprints. This is a way to help people get their drafts down fast without having the pressure of the perfecting their prose. Or they can be used as focussed editing time. Or in my case, blog writing, while I am in the process of building a backlog of content during the Indie Author Book Fair Minisode Series

Have you ever considered writing about something that you are uncomfortable with? Something that challenges your balance and makes you rethink the world as you see it? That is something that you do in literary fiction.

The way that you approach the job on any day can impact the outcome. I am not so certain that you can have 100% control of your moods and emotional weather through out the day, but you can take stock and course correct if you veer off track.

With the commencement of a new year and the optimism that often surrounds this fresh start, we have a chance for people to reset their goals and expectation. I like to choose a word that will encompass my personal ambition for the year. I don't want it to be a word that I choose lightly. There are several areas of my life that I want it to align to and how do you fit one word to cover everything? A few years ago, while I was still working away I made several words and it was