Rachel Watts's Blog

When it comes to reducing plastic, it can sometimes feel like a battle. A battle against the sheer volume of plastic that has crept into virtually every corner of our daily lives. A slog through the immense number of blogs, how-to-guides and #hastags to find good, practical information about why and how to use less […]

Sometimes the only god who hears your prayer is the one who intends to answer it. We have never been able to understand why Ala answered this one, this particular request, in the crush of thousands of others; why she paid attention to this wrap of words. Perhaps the prayer caught her eye as it […]

I was planning to write my Monthly Pep-Talk for my Patreon page (Which, btw, is a new benefit in 2019! Become a patron if that sounds as good to you as it does to me!) and I realised I use the expressions “practice” and “creative practice” all the time in my workshops without really unpacking […]

I’m thrilled to tell you that I will have a piece in Gothic Fantasy: Urban Crime, a short story anthology from Flametree Publishing. The series brings together crime stories by contemporary and classic gothic (and in this case crime) writers, including Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde and more. The anthology will be released in May […]

Now she leaned toward him, guileless as a girl in her confidence. “We are given to live in a remarkable time. When the nuisance of old mythologies falls away from us, we may see with new eyes.” Earlier this year, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a devastating report, and other people were […]

My last workshop of the year is this weekend! The Right Words is all about rewriting your first draft. Usually (if you’re anything like me) your first draft is a bit of a mess. I’ve changed character names mid-paragraph in my latest and in my current work in progress (which is actually more like a […]

Time will heal our heavy hearts, she states. Our freedom and safety are the ultimate goals, and it is men who prevent us from achieving those goals. But not all men, says Mejal. Ona clarifies: Perhaps not all men, per se, but a pernicious ideology that has been allowed to take hold of men’s hearts […]

I’m very excited to be able to tell you that yet another great independent retailer is able to sell you a copy of Survival! Rabble Books & Games is a wonderful indie in Maylands, Perth, and not only sells books but also all kinds of games. It’s got a great community vibe and it’s good […]

Look! It is winter in Prague: night is rising in the mother of cities and over her thousand spires. Look down at the darkness around your feet, in all the lanes and alleys, as if it were a soft black dust swept there by a broom; look at the stone apostles on the old Charles […]

Savinus opened his book on hermetic alchemy. It was covered in a layer of dust. He blew it away, revealing gold lettering that decorated the deep blue cover. Opening it at random, his gaze fell on an illustration of a man in a black robe sitting under a tree, his eyes closed. On the opposite […]