Blog posts

10 Reasons ‘Creative Spirit’ Might Be for You

Creativity can be one of the most rewarding parts of our lives, but it does not always arrive easily.  Sometimes we have plenty of ideas but struggle to act on them. Sometimes confidence gets in the way. At other times, creativity becomes squeezed between work, responsibilities, expectations, and the endless noise of everyday life. Creative Spirit is a self-paced audiovisual creativity course that brings together creativity, reflection, meditation, and wellbeing. Rather than focusing simply on Read more

By opaltree, ago

How strange fairy-alien artworks, photonic intelligence and the hidden networks beneath a forest became “The Lumenkin”

Microscopic spores made from crystalline structures and photons drift silently into the atmosphere. They fall with the Northern Lights, enter the forests, and bond with the vast mycelial networks beneath the surface of the Earth. The forest begins to change. Trees glow softly in the darkness. Mycelial networks carry strange new signals. Animals begin responding to patterns they could never perceive before. Somewhere in that hidden realm that humans cannot see, a fae healer named Lirien Read more

By opaltree, ago

Who Controls the Future? Inside ‘The Gaia Machine’

I wrote Captive as a dare. As a long-time author of nonfiction, a colleague dared me to write a short story, in the genre of science fiction, and enter it into a competition. I had some time on my hands, so I thought ‘yeah, okay’. I figured I had watched enough sci-fi TV shows and films, and read more novels in the genre than I could count. Surely that would give me an advantage. I Read more

By opaltree, ago

When Science, Nature and Magic Collide: Inside Molly’s Magical Adventures

“I wrote the books for 8–12-year-olds. It began with one opening scene. From there, I could not stop; eager to know what Molly and Michael would discover next. 640+ pages later, I had completed the series, surprised by how many adults told me they had loved reading them. I suspect the reasons this series cannot be pinned into an age-defined category is this: Science is treated seriously The child protagonists are STEM stars in their Read more

By opaltree, ago

Evolution of an archive

The Lumenkin was going to be a short work of eco-sci-fi exploring first contact between the fairy realm on Earth and an alien intelligence that descends through the northern lights. Like so many works of fiction, though, The Lumenkin developed its own opinion about what was happening and I had no choice but to type what it told me. Scenes I expected to last a few paragraphs became entire chapters. Supporting characters I expected to Read more

By opaltree, ago

A Free Guide to the Fiction of V.M. Andrews

Do you enjoy stories that slip between genres? By that, I mean stories where myths are rewritten, landscapes remember who strolled through them, strange beings watch from the edges, and the world is never quite as ordinary as it first appears? I’ve created a free PDF called “Weird Worlds” to offer a visual path to the fictional worlds I write about. So far, they include: alien contact, eco-magic, magical realism, dystopian science fiction, urban fantasy Read more

By opaltree, ago

Creative Breakthroughs Rarely Arrive in Straight Lines

I recently read and reviewed “The Process: Six Mechanics of Achievement: Inner Work for Outer Results”, and one of the things I most appreciated about it was the author’s deep understanding of what achievement really requires. This is not a shallow book about productivity, hustle, or forcing oneself into constant output. It is a thoughtful, well-researched exploration of motivation, discipline, internal locus of control, execution, and responsibility. It looks closely at the inner mechanics behind Read more

By opaltree, ago

Before the Scene Becomes Words: Using Images to Write Atmosphere

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the moment before a scene becomes language. You know the moment, right? When it only exists first as atmosphere, colour, texture, light, or place. This short essay explores how visual inspiration can help fiction writers find the emotional weather of a scene before the words arrive. Sometimes, a writer knows the feeling of a scene long before they know exactly what happens in it. There may be no dialogue Read more

By opaltree, ago

How to Turn Your Expertise into a Nonfiction Book with Shape, Purpose, and Flow

Many people begin a nonfiction book by trying to create a table of contents. They open a blank document, list everything they know, divide it into possible chapters, and hope a book will emerge from the accumulation of their expertise. But a strong nonfiction book does not begin with a list. It begins with a spine. The spine is the central line of meaning that holds the whole book together. It tells the reader why the Read more

By opaltree, ago

A Month of Descent, Memory and Return

It is said that all art is a self-portrait, an expression that resonates strongly as I reflect on the month of June 2026. Across the last four weeks, I have released four articles, each offering reflections on one of the short stories in my ‘Visions to Words’ collection. I began the month talking about The Watchers: A Story of First Contact with an increasing suspicion that stories of alien invasion endure because they dramatise a Read more

By opaltree, ago