Patricia Leslie

Strong relationships between mothers and daughters and sisters are a theme in much of my writing. I’ve been surrounded by strong women my entire life—mums, grandmothers, aunties, great aunties, sisters, daughters, and friends. Stories that are passed around these circles, traditions passed down the generations, make great story fodder for historical fantasy writers. Women’s talk, secret women’s business, is the core of many of the myths I explore and magic I draw upon. With M

From Pearl Harbour to Sydney, a forgotten secret could unite a family - or destroy it.

Review of The Stars in the Night by Clare Rhoden Harry Fletcher is a confident young man. Harry’s sure that he will marry Nora MacTiernan, no matter what their families say. He’s certain that he will always be there to protect Eddie, the boy his father saved from the gutters of Port Adelaide. Only the War to End All Wars might get in the way of Harry’s plans… From the beaches of Semaphore to the shores of Gallipoli, the mud of Flanders to the red dust of inland South Australi

Welcome to my strand of the World Wide Web. Subscribe to receive articles and tips every week in your inbox This week's article: What I've been reading My "to read" pile never goes down. As soon as I've ticked one more book off the list, I add several more. It's quite possible that I'm a #bookaddict (and also a #hashtag addict, but that's another article). In the last few weeks, I've finished reading An Unlikely Occultist by Isobel Blackthorn (read my review) and War and Resi

Welcome to my strand of the World Wide Web. Writing Toolbox: tip #8 Instagram for Writers Subscribe to receive articles and tips every week in your inbox This week's article: Crossing the Line Book 2 Image source: Pixabay / congerdesign Book two of Crossing the Line is coming along at a cracking pace with lots of travelling around the country, more magic, even more mayhem and as much insight into Australian social history as I can pull together. One of the reasons I became a

Welcome to my strand of the World Wide Web. Writing Toolbox: tip #7 Books on Writing Subscribe to receive articles and tips every week in your inbox This week's article: History Repeats - The Historical Novel Society Australasia Conference I do a lot of social media work: for my writing, for my day job, and now, for the Historical Novel Society Australasia, in particular their upcoming conference. #HNSA2019 is the official hashtag and if you search on Facebook or Twitter, you

I use a lot of traditional hearth magic in my stories. It's often recognised as witchcraft, but to an outsider who doesn't understand or who has differing beliefs, witchcraft is more an accusation hurled to belittle, alienate, and hurt. Looking around at various belief systems it seems that contemporary religious types often refer to pagan or indigenous practices as witchcraft: placing them on the primitive, or worse, ignorant superstition shelf. Primitive and tradition do no

I sat down at my computer to write a witty and profound blog post and was faced with this… Blankness. Sometimes writing on demand just does not activate creative free flow of thoughts and ideas. In the interim, let me share with you what I as a writer have been up to. It’s certainly not blankness. I’m busy writing an essay on Relative History, which is scheduled for publishing in late September. I’m scratching my head a bit with it because it took me awhile to come up with a

Some people only ever read one genre, others might have two or three, yet others will read absolutely anything they can get hold of (like me). So, I asked my captured... I mean, friendly group of readers whether or not they read across genres or were loyal to the core readers of one genre and one genre only? Catherine Donald is a lover of challenges! She says, I love reading across genres. The last couple of years I’ve undertaken reading challenges to widen what I read and ex

Heart of Brass is a fun, historical steampunk fantasy set across London and Australia in the 1850s. Author, Felicity Banks has managed to combine all the elements of a great story in such an innovative way, the series as a whole is destined to take pride of place in everyone’s family fantasy collection. Emmaline Muchamore is a well-bred young woman from an eccentric London family. Determined to move past the stain on their reputation (and economic status) brought about by the