Sylvia A. Winters's Blog

Way back in August I wrote a bit about the prep I was doing to travel. Since then, I haven’t written anything about my actual travels. Probably because I’ve been so busy, you know, travelling.

In the last two months I’ve visited four of Australia’s states, making my way from the very top to (almost) the very bottom of the country via plane and, mostly, campervan.

In November, I said goodbye to my best friends and travel buddies as they returned to the UK, and struck out on my own. Since then...

Next week my book, Keeping it Together[image error], is released into the wild! To celebrate, I’ll be cropping up with guest posts, and running a giveaway. More details on that in a minute.

First, I want to share with you all a short extract of the story, and as I’m currently waiting out a storm, what better extract that one where the heavens open?

The sky was beginning to grey, and both of them had slipped their outer layers back on. Their shoulders were touching, the pair of them settled against one an...

Keeping it Together is getting a re-release!

First published in volume 3 of LT3’s Rocking Hard anthology, Keeping it Together is now a standalone book. You’ll be able to buy this as an ebook come the end of this month (official release date 28th of November, preorder here).

And I have to say, the cover art, designed by Aisha Akeju, is absolutely stunning.

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Look at how beautiful it is!!

Now, to tell you a little more about the book, Keeping it Together is a contemporary f/f novella of approxim...

Preparing to travel is stressful, I’ve discovered. Maybe not if you’re already well-travelled, already have the fine art of packing a bag or two down, but I’m not and I don’t. I’ve already moved house once, and in a couple of weeks I have to move again. This around things like working overtime, driving lessons, and of course taking my two remaining rats over to Ireland (sad to see them go, but they’ve an amazing home lined up). Despite clearing out probably half of my stuff and storing anothe...

Today I want to talk about my rat, Loki. Loki is the reason I even still have rats at this point. I heard about two martens (a rare colouring involving a black/grey coat and red eyes, aka ‘black devils’) who’d been rescued from a pet shop with a bunch of other rats. All the rats were underweight and had patchy fur from mites. When I got Loki and his brothers, they definitely weren’t underweight any more. They were the biggest rats I’d ever seen! And although Loki isn’t a particularly good mar...

Squirrels leapt across the grass and up into trees. Daffodils were in bloom and blossoms were just beginning to unfurl from their buds. It was warm, with a cool breeze that played across the back of his neck.

He meandered through the park at a leisurely pace, taking in the view of the river that divided the park from the luxury flats with their floor-to-ceiling windows. Nate had always loved this park. Especially in the morning, before anyone else got to it.

It was short-lived, though. It t...

Tidying is just. so. hard.

Okay, so maybe I’m realising that I am a horrible hoarder and pretty much have been all my life.

Lately, I’ve been watching lots of lovely minimalists’ videos talking about how nice having less stuff is and god damn it I want that. But!

I’ve gotten rid of a lot of easy things (mainly size-too-small clothes and literal rubbish) and now I’m looking around and it’s still no better. I just have so much more stuff than I even realised. I’m moving out in a few months. I’m...

2017 has lately been feeling like kind of a nothing year for me. Or at least the last half of it was. Most of 2018 will most likely be about the same as I’m working hard to save money to visit friends on the other side of the world. It’s easy to forget how much I actually did last year, when the last half of it was so quiet. Still, there were adventures to be had in 2017, and I’d like to reflect on those.

For one, I finally got to visit Ireland, a place I’ve wanted to see for most of my life...

I watch a lot of TV. Like, a lot. I love finding good shows and getting really into the world and the characters, and I watch a lot more TV than I watch film and even more than I read books. If you’re the same and you’ve run out of shows to watch or are feeling the cold and want to hibernate under a bundle of blankets for a spell, then have a read and try checking out some of my favourite shows from 2017.

This show has absolutely beautiful music and cinematography. Set in a German[image error] woodla...

What better way to celebrate the fullness of winter than with a fayre? [image error]Glastonbury Frost Fayre is an annual event that draws visitors in from miles around. We spent two hours on a bus to get to Glastonbury (thanks Bristol traffic), but it was so worth it.

Glastonbury is one of my favourite places in the UK, and it was the place I’d always ask to go if I ever got a choice of day trip location when I was younger. If you’ve never been, it’s basically a small witchy town, steeped in myth and reli...