Campfire Tales worth writing about

I have a story in a new charity anthology!

Campfire Tales Worth Writing About is the newest edition in the Worth Writing About series which features short fiction and other bits and pieces around a theme.
Each sale’s profits go to a charity and this month’s charity is The Abortion Access Fund

My story, Which Tree, is a little weird modern bardic tale inspired by the tabletop roleplaying game Sleepaway.

I wrote it quickly, inspired by an incident in the game of Sleepaway I played the year before last. It has some gender diverse characters and something living in a tree. I wrote it longhand first up and typed it up within a few hours, which was a pretty fun and breezy way to write. I’ve been enjoying writing short fiction to prompts and I’m hopeful I’ll be able to share more little publications like this with you soon!

If you want to capture the feeling of sitting around a campfire and telling stories, this is the collection for you. Buy now

Reading log journal

I updated my reading log journal, and ordered myself some copies. They arrived recently and I’m really stoked with how cute they look and how nice the quality is. These are print-on-demand from Amazon which means you can order them from Amazon yourself!

But let’s take a look inside…

There’s a 60 book reading challenge that you can use or not as you choose – it includes different formats of books as well as options that may put you out of your comfort reading zone. There are checkboxes so you can keep track of the ones you’ve done.

Then lots of review pages, with space for various details including dates started and read and why you chose this particular book.

The review pages are broken up with colouring pages every here and there so you can reward yourself for reading and updating the journal and have a little fun. Here’s one example:

Then the back half of the book is dot gridded pages so you can continue to review books, make lists of books to read, draw or do whatever you like, really.

If you’re in New Zealand you can also order direct from my Payhip store.

Get it on US Amazon or on Australian Amazon

Guest writer series: an interview with Elise Smith

Welcome to Elise Smith

Tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Elise Smith, I have over 25 years of experience as a writer, 5 years as a blogger and 3 years as a writing coach. I have written and published two autobiographies in my book series “The New Zealand Dream,” by Sheila my pen name. I wrote these books to inspire and give hope to others. I published my third book in July 2021, called “Johnathan,” I co-authored this book about my father who grew up in Manchester England during the war. My passion is creative writing, I write in fiction, non-fiction, poetry and content. I have published many articles, short stories, and guest posted on various sites. My short story “Stargazing” won a short story award in our local “Writing Sparks” competition.

Writing is a very powerful healing tool, sharing your story can give help others and help yourself on your healing journey. I am a writing coach who can help people write their own stories and with any writing project they are creating. I have mentored students working for Wellington polytechnic. I conduct interviews on my website to help promote my fellow writers and bloggers and host guest writers.

Where in the world do you live, and what do you like most about it?

I live in a little coastal city called Gisborne, in New Zealand.

What I like most about living in NZ is it has the ocean and all its bounty on my doorstep, a hop skip, and a jump and you are in nature surrounded by native bush with breathtaking hikes to experience and camp spots to discover.

Self-care is very important for writers, tell us how you look after yourself?

I too believe self-care is extremely important for writers and everyone.

I write about this topic often, below is what I do to take care of myself;
Spending time in nature🦋🌳🌸
Listen to positive music🎼
Watch positive movies/videos
Time for you/to treat yourself 💅🛀
Spend time with positive people👩‍❤️‍👨,
Set boundaries, say no
Spirituality and prayer/meditation🧎‍♀️🧘‍♀️📖
Feed your body and mind healthy🍇🥦🚶‍♂️🧠📖
Rid your life of toxic people, it is better to be alone than around negativity.
Remember you are responsible for your own happiness, nobody else should be expected to make you happy.
Sit just sit quietly
Pick/buy a bunch of flowers
Take a nap
Do something crafty, colouring
Go to the library and read

Reading:

What genres do you like to read in?

I like to read true stories and memoirs.

What’s a book that you have on your shelf which you’re particularly fond of?

“White thorn” By Bryce Courtnay

Writing:

Creative writing as a teenager, did you do it? Can you remember any stories?

Yes, I did do this, I remember writing about myself and a friend Samanther going on an adventure. She fell into a cave, I tried to save her but a vampire killed her. I got a certificate for this story.

What do you do/where do you go for inspiration?

I do things to trigger memories or feelings such as getting in nature, a smell, listening to music, looking at photos, or art.

Do you prefer quiet, ambient sound or music while you write?

I prefer quiet when I write.

Favourites:

Hogwarts, Narnia, Neverland, or Westeros?

Narnia

What’s your favourite song to sing at Karaoke?

Guns and Roses, Sweet child of mine

Favourite song to sing in the shower when no one else is home?

Bon Jovi, You give love a bad name

Favourite bird?

Bald Eagle

You can find Elise online:

My NZ Dream
Instagram
Facebook
Join us in the group “A journey of transformation.”
Goodreads
LinkedIn

YA novel Onesies and Ouijaboards out now!

Onesies and Ouijaboards

I’ve returned to the world of Young Adult novels!

Onesies and Ouijaboards is a spin off from my Mt Eden Witches series – involving Basil the library witch from Overdues and Occultism and Monsters and Manuscripts. It’s a standalone novel, and you don’t have to have read the other two before this one, but you’ll get a better idea of the world if you do.

So, why did I write another Young Adult novel after all this time?

Honestly, it was because teenagers asked for it. Not like, by spamming my socials or anything, but over the last 16 months or so I’ve been to a few book fairs (not as many as were planned, due to Covid and restrictions), but I’ve learned a bit. I’ve had a lot of varied teens look at the covers to my Witchy Fiction books and been really interested, but then a few of them have asked if there’s romance in them, and been disappointed when the answer was yes. This happened a handful of times, which isn’t a huge survey at all, but it showed that there was a gap in the market.

So I went ahead and wrote Onesies with the plan of including no romance at all. It’s also my first book with a non-binary solo main character. Arrow came to me at the end of Overdues and Occultism – a grumpy, emo teen who came into the library with their family.

The book was delightful to write. Arrow was firm in my mind as a person who loved fantasy and wanted something more, and the events of Monsters and Manuscripts opened up the perfect opportunity for their story.

This book is going to be available over a lot of ebook platforms, although just for the moment it’s only on Amazon, but watch out for it in the next few days.

Gorgeous cover by Jacqueline Sweet

Be careful what you wish for…

Arrow is fifteen, non-binary, and bored.

It’s one thing to read about magic, or watch ghost hunting shows. But Arrow yearns for something more. When they try out a prosperity spell from a magical library book, things start to go very very right.

Until they don’t.

Arrow’s good luck seems to be affecting a lot of the people around them. From A students suddenly failing quizzes to freak accidents, their good luck seems to be double-sided to say the least. Arrow’s best friend Ren knows not to mess with the unknown, but Arrow’s spell might just affect him all the same.

Arrow’s got to learn about how to wield their magic fast when the power they’ve drawn down proves to be beautiful, but dangerous as well.
***

Onesies and Ouijaboards is a young adult novella spinoff of the popular Mt Eden Witches series. There is no romance, but there are tarot cards, best friends, ghosts and bubble tea

Buy it now!

Writing Sprint Live Streams

A few weeks ago, local author and excellent friend Gillian St Kevern contacted me about trying something new. She asked if I’d like to be a co-host on her Youtube writing livestreams. I said yes after considering for maybe two (2) seconds.

Why did I agree so quickly? Well, I’ve been struggling a little lately with motivating myself to write, and this felt like the kick in the pants I might need to get my day’s word count up from 1000 words or so.

It turns out the peer pressure of knowing people are watching/listening to my typing sounds, and perhaps just the structure of someone telling me to sprint again, right now really works for me. We’ve been doing two hour sessions, often getting four sprints in each time along with some gentle chats and interaction with viewers in the comments.

At the moment we’re doing Saturday and Sundays 10am NZ time but in the next month or so we’re going to try and change it up, maybe add some evenings, midweek or try for two different streams in one day.

If you do anything creative and would like some motivation, I highly recommend you join us. You don’t have to comment, although we do like to talk to people – and there’s no pressure to stay through the whole session.

Plus you get to see me fussing with my hair, showing off Mochi and pulling weird expressions to match what I’m writing. Sound like fun? Come follow the channel here.

I might also start doing some more with my own Youtube channel as well, but that’s very much a work in progress, so I’ll let you know when/if that happens.