Shauna Bickley's Blog

You've probably noticed I haven't posted much recently and there's a good reason for that - this blog has moved. You can find the latest posts here.

Eventually I'll move the self-publishing and writing related posts to the new blog, and attempt to catalogue them in a more user-friendly way. For now, you can use the Popular Posts and Labels links towards the bottom of the right hand panel.

Thanks for reading and for all your comments. Don't be a stranger, come and visit me on my new website.

I’ve just come back from a visit to Sydney sandwiched with a short road trip along some of the coast north of the city. If you’re a regular visitor to this blog you’ll know that Sydney is my favourite city to visit. It has the spectacular Opera House and Harbour Bridge, and is built on a beautiful harbour. A ferry trip anywhere from Circular Quay gives you stunning views. The city has some beautiful architecture in its older government and cultural buildings, as well as fabulous parks and gar...

I've been challenged by Amy Spahn to join in the Lovely Blog Hop. The blog hop is intended to let you in on a few of the things in my life that have helped make me the person and writer I am. 

If I haven't bored you stupid by the end, you'll find some links to blogs and writers I like. If I’ve nominated your blog, you don’t have to participate, but if you do please include a link back to this post. This is a lovely way of networking writers’ blogs as much as sharing things from our shady...

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Following on from the previous post about where writers get their ideas, here are a couple of pieces of inspiration that came to me from situations recently. 

In a work meeting, I was introduced to someone who looked so like another friend of mine they could easily have been brothers, it was quite disconcerting. This reminded me of the first time I saw a photo of a favourite author, and realised he looks uncannily like an ex-colleague. We do sometimes see people who remind us of others, o...

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Christmas and New Year seem to be the time of year we take stock of our lives, look at what we're doing and ponder whether it's what we actually want to do. It's also the time we often decide to make changes, although whether we actually follow through on them and for how long is another post altogether.

On the professional front, I've set myself some writing and marketing goals, but on the personal front I'd decided to do things a little differently. I had been considering some different ways...

It's holiday season here. The schools are closed for the long summer holidays and most people have time off work from Christmas Eve through to early January, and many take more time off to kick back and enjoy the sunshine and glorious beaches.

Yesterday we took a trip to Rangitoto, the volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf. When I think of Auckland, Rangitoto always comes to mind. 


It's about a 30 minute ferry ride from the central city and dominates the views from the city and North Shore c...

Once again, and far faster than I'd imagined it, here we are at the end of the year. As I write, we have another sixteen hours until we'll all be wishing each other a happy New Year.

I find it interesting and funny that because of the calendar we use, we have this arbitrary date that ends one year and starts another, and because of this we feel impelled to look at improving ourselves and making resolutions, many of which we'll have broken within a few days.

In 2015 I intend to do more of the th...

With just a few days to go until Christmas this may seem like a funny post, but here in the Southern Hemisphere we're enjoying long summer days, and so I thought I'd write down a few of the things I love about summer (in no particular order):


Strawberries (and other summer fruit, but strawberries are my favourite)
Sunshine
Outdoor gatherings with family and friends
Long lingering daylight evenings
Pohutukawa trees in bloom
Ice cream
The luxurious feeling of cruisy days because it's too hot to rus...