This might be a little different to my usual posts, as I want to talk about the Nudge. If you’ve ever experienced the Nudge you’ll know exactly what I mean, but if you’ve not, please allow me to explain. A university friend of mine almost got himself into a lot of trouble. The kind of […]
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Saying Goodbye and Looking Ahead
As the festive season really begins and 2019 draws to a close, I wanted to make my last post of the year about goals and challenges. I’m not always very good at seeing the “bigger picture”, I usually tend to focus on what’s immediately ahead of me and what I need to do to tick […]
When the Universe Calls Out To You, Answer It
It was a glorious, sunny day in Wellington yesterday. I had planned to spend most of it writing and editing, but common sense told me that I should make the most of the pleasant weather before it changed again. Locals may say, “You can’t beat Welly on a good day,” but equally, you don’t really […]
Journey Tree
I had been plagued for weeks by a recurrent dream involving a tree, but of what species I could not tell. Its branches were long and its leaves were wide, and its trunk was smothered in patches of green moss and layers of loose bark. As I got closer to it, it reached out to […]
Things I Didn’t Do…
This weekend ended up being the One Where I Didn’t Do Things. I didn’t go to a social meet-up I had been planning to go to due to feeling unwell. I didn’t send off a story before a submission deadline because I realised it needed a lot more work to properly shine. I didn’t work […]
Don’t Self-Reject!
Have you ever felt super excited about doing a Thing, only to suddenly find yourself crippled by unexpected anxiety, uncertainty and a strong urge to run away and hide? I don’t just mean a physical Thing, but also a creative or artistic one. Self-rejection is the nasty little brother of the Imposter Syndrome Gremlin, and […]
Even The Best Can Get Better
There is a sign on State Highway 2 near where I live in New Zealand aimed at motorcyclists. It says: “Even the best can get better.” Each time I drive past it, it makes me smile, because it speaks to me not as a motorcycle owner, but as an artist and writer, passionate about what […]
Why Write Horror?
“Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead.” My nana, a small and quiet yet resilient Scottish woman, used to regularly say this phrase to me. My mother often echoed the sentiment as she got older. I’ve been told it’s a Scottish proverb of sorts. Regardless of where it comes from, it […]
Finding My Way Back
My regular readers and followers will know that I frequently write for mental health. I’m also aware that this often turns people off too. “Oh great, she’s going on about depression again.” “Why does she always focus on the serious stuff?” “She must be pretty unstable if she has to keep focusing on all that.” […]
The Journey of a Self-Published Author, or How I DIY’d It and Learned a Lot About the Other Side of Writing a Book.
Image credit @Kiwihug via Unsplash I published my debut collection of short fiction in March of this year — “Dark Winds Over Wellington: Chilling Tales of the Weird & the Strange.” The title itself, while a bit of a mouthful, is a nod to both some of the overly long titles used in the 18th […]