The New year introduces some changes to the Big Red Chair on Mesmered. Rather than limiting it to just indie writers, I have decided to extend it to people I meet in real life and virtually who fascinate me, in the belief that something of their choices and their activities will interest you as well.
Whilst its summer here in my country and we are lying around on the beach or on chaises under the willows, Cheryl Shireman is staring out at a snow white scene on the edge of a iced-over lake in the middle of a blizzard. Cheryl is the person who conceived the idea of a group of indie writers putting together an inspirational anthology about their writing life. She’s a grounded person with a huge heart and the idea that we are all in this world to help one another as best we can. To say I admire her seems ordinary but I do. To say I wish I had her energy to enact those things in which she believes is an understatement. To say I wish I could have one more day with my children as children is a truth… read on and see what I mean.
The above line is from Banjo Paterson‘s great poem, The Man from Snowy River and whilst it is about a horse (the colt from Old Regret), it describes my day.
(NB: A station in Australia is another name for a farm or a property. )
The Chronicles of Eirie:
Elegant stories with dark reflections…
Stories that rated consistently in the Top 100 for Kindle on their release in 2011.
The Stumpwork Robe, The Last Stitch and A Thousand Glass Flowers all available for the fantasy lover for Christmas at 99 cents U.S.
One of my fellow Indies Chicks is a woman after my own heart. She’s a late bloomer… just like me. We’ve reached ‘a certain age’ and I think the whole age thing empowers you. You realise that there is so much yet to achieve and come hell or high water, you going to have a go at achieving it. Linda Welch says it’s …
Most readers know of the power of the phoenix, its ability to re-create itself out of flame in a dire situation. 
Lizzy Ford’s life has been filled with such darkness but her unerring strength is her ability to be reborn, to struggle on, to reinvent… better and stronger ever time. Lizzy is one of my fellow Indie chicks and I leave her to tell you her story.
In the past, I’ve done a couple of posts on old books that are in my home library. I went waaaay back the other day and opened the bottom of the cedar bookcase to look at my children’s books and found my first ever cardboard book
, a brightly illustrated Golly and Teddy story with obligatory spiral binding (circa 1951). It’s actually coped with the rigours of usage quite well, perhaps due to the thickness of the cardboard (NB: and of course Gollies are now politically incorrect.)
I first met Jennifer Stevenson
in a Bookclub online… she’s always made me smile with some of her witty comment and when I asked if she’d jump in the Red Chair for interrogation, she agreed. Her early life in swamp country in the USA brings archtypical images to mind and I needed to know more.
Danielle Blanchard Benson, Author of The Vamp Saga and The Beautiful People series, is a fellow Indie Chick and brings her story to us with a no-holds barred look at her life.
“Write or Die”
2010 was the worst year of my life.
On House…
There is a little place by the sea that we call House.
Those who know me know that it is the place in which I feel most comfortable. That it is where I am content.
How is it that a place can make you feel so? Those who study the human psyche say that one should feel confident and happy anywhere, that being anchored to one place is unhealthy and shows lack of resilience and strength.
