Welcome
Welcome to my blog, where I publish insight into my writing and editing experiences as a speculative fiction author. HereContinue Reading
Latest Posts
The Search for Good Art and Good Taste (aka Everyone’s a Critic)
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky I recently saw a post from editor and literary agent, Arley Sorg, about the realities of rejection.Continue Reading
What in the Weird?: A deep dive into weird fiction
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky So, by now, if you’ve been following this blog for a bit, you would have realised thatContinue Reading
Unsettling Fiction: The weird, the horrifying, and the terrifying
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Humans are strange creatures – in a world where we can choose from an abundance of comfortContinue Reading
The Terror and the Sublime in Tim McGregor’s ‘Lure’
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky I was recently lucky enough to score an Advance Reader Copy of Tim McGregor’s upcoming release, ‘Lure’.Continue Reading
The Sublime and Subliminal: Pushing boundaries in Gothic fiction
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky One of the most interesting characteristics of Gothic fiction has to be its veneration of the sublime.Continue Reading
The Gothic, the Grimdark, and the Grotesque
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky In my last post, I shared the results from putting Tasmanian Gothic through Chris Angelis’ Gothic Meter.Continue Reading
The Gothic Perspective – a Q&A with Gothic scholar Chris Angelis
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Keeping with the deep-dive into all things gothic in the lead up to Tasmanian Gothic‘s release (AugContinue Reading
So, just how gothic is Tasmanian Gothic?
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky As you might have realised, I fell down a wondrous rabbit hole of gothic and weird scholarshipContinue Reading
A Gothic Future – the case for gothic science fiction
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky When I was first drafting my latest release, I knew I wanted to call it Tasmanian Gothic.Continue Reading
The Peculiar Path to Publication
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky This week I released my latest novel, Tasmanian Gothic. I first started drafting it back in 2016,Continue Reading
In the Editing Trenches: Refuse to Be Done
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Recently, I committed to making 2022 a year of editing. As part of that commitment, I’m readingContinue Reading
You’ve finished drafting your novel – now what?
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky And so another year draws to a close. If, like me, you spent November writing or finishingContinue Reading
He said, She said – when the words outside the speech marks aren’t working
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky I’m currently slogging away at NaNoWriMo – the first time I’ve genuinely attempted it since my disastrousContinue Reading
Revolution (Divided Elements #3) available for pre-order!
The wait is over! The final book in the Divided Elements is now available for pre-order. Four years since theContinue Reading
Hitting it out of the park: Understanding the four act structure using sport
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Everyone loves a good sporting idiom, metaphor, or analogy – “A game of two halves”, “throwing aContinue Reading
Writing the final act: a step-by-step guide
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky In some ways, the fourth and final act in a novel (somewhat confusingly titled Act 3 (sinceContinue Reading
Speculative Fiction – a new approach to genre and subgenres
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky As my portfolio starts to expand (the complete Divided Elements series is published next year, and myContinue Reading
How to ‘just write’ – Newton’s First Law and Finding Your Writing Mojo
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Man, I’m on a writing roll at the moment. This blog was getting a little dusty and thenContinue Reading
The Quick Six – with S. Breaker
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Welcome to The Quick Six – an ongoing series of posts, where I interview independent authors on their self-publishing stories, using sixContinue Reading
Writing in a time of pandemic: Understanding your head space and terroir
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky It’s been a while since I’ve written a post for this blog. To be honest, it’s taken allContinue Reading
Is your plot skeleton showing?
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky I started writing short stories eighteen months ago. Seduced by the competitions and submission opportunities, I thought itContinue Reading
War, Revolution, Memory, Gender, and SciFi – An interview with Kameron Hurley
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky As many of you already know, I am a big fan of both reading and writing about complexContinue Reading
Energising your plot – working with narrative energy to improve pacing
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky I’m in the second act doldrums of my current WIP (but not for long, because the break intoContinue Reading
Divergence and Convergence – the curse of the second act
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky It seems that every time I reach the middle of a WIP, I start musing on the problemsContinue Reading
Play like a girl: Challenging gender stereotypes in spec fiction
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Today, I’m launching a dystopian anthology with eleven other indie authors. On the Brink features some amazing storiesContinue Reading
Indie Author Spotlight – Emma Pullar, author of ‘Avian’
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky For long-time readers of my blog, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of dystopian narratives and indieContinue Reading
How does this ‘conflict, not goals’ thing work anyway?
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Recently I wrote a post about character needing conflict, not goals. I received a great question fromContinue Reading
The 15 Minute Four Act Structure
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Over here, in my part of the world, it is winter. Which means flu season. Which, when youContinue Reading
Forget the Goal – Your character just needs conflict
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Everyone has seen them – the pithy pieces of writing advice that can fit on a 940×780 pixelContinue Reading
Women of SciFi
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky A few years ago. author and blogger, Foz Meadows , wrote on the HuffPost blog: Science fiction isContinue Reading
The evolution of a visual identity – Cover design, branding and marketing
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Writing a book is a mammoth task. Editing, re-editing, revising, polishing, revising, (did I mention revising), and pouringContinue Reading
Writing and Editing a Sequel – Lessons of an Indie Author
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky It’s been almost five months since my last blog post. In previous years that would have been aContinue Reading
Editing Your Sequel – Step 3
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Welcome to my blog series on how to edit your sequel. If you’re new to the series, youContinue Reading
Editing your sequel – Step 2
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Recently, I wrote about my experience in drafting the sequel to my debut science fiction novel, Resistance (Divided ElementsContinue Reading
Editing your sequel – Step 1
by Mikhaeyla Kopievsky Recently, I wrote about my experience in drafting the sequel to my debut science fiction novel, Resistance (Divided ElementsContinue Reading
Mikhaeyla Kopievsky 