Blog – This is Jotham

August 4, 2025

The Blended Cures – Short Story

This is an illustrated story that comes with a set of cards, depicting the green medicine bottles with the letters of the alphabet. Mrs Bloomfield was a crusty old hypochondriac. She loved being ill and if she did not have a real illness, she invented one to get attention. “Help! Help!” Mrs Bloomfield called from…

August 1, 2025

Prediction: Spotify Superseded in 5 Years!

OK, maybe not by us old fogies who know which side our CD is burned on, but my prediction is that the next generation will be editing MIXES of viral tunes created by real musicians instead of listening on streaming platforms. The joy of AI music, for people who are not musicians, is the ability…

July 29, 2025

The Salamander’s Furnace – Short Story

This short story was written as part of a series of “Neurodivergent Primers”. It’s aimed at lower high school, I guess. It’s just over 3000 words. Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?Look! I see four men walking around in the fire,unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like…

July 22, 2025

The Big Tantrum

…And the creative streak has returned!!! After a hiatus while my personal life has been shouted a complimentary ride on The World’s Second Largest Roller Coaster (TM), I’m back!! Check out the link for a completed book called The Big Tantrum, in a set of neurodivergent primers that I wrote over the weekend as a…

May 6, 2025

Surfer character?

He was tall, tanned, shirtless, with long blonde dreadlocks. “For sure,” I overheard him say to his companion. Sure. Shore. For sure. Foreshore. When I talked with him, I discovered his name was Sunny. Would you believe it? Made me think: Wouldn’t it be cool to have a surfing beach character that constantly uses beach-flavoured…

April 28, 2025

I ran into ‘Old Paisley’!!!

I ran into my Grade Four teacher a couple of days ago at a conference. Turns out he has moved from Melbourne to NSW. “Thanks for making yourself known to me,” he said at the end. When I was ten, it seemed this guy was ancient. He was larger than life and we were a…

April 21, 2025

Research Trip Part 3 – The Sharehouse

How cool is this! Here is the house we found in Surrey Hills, In the book I won’t be specific about the address or the street, but it pays to have something in mind to base the fictional description on. When she turned into the tree-lined street, she could not believe her good fortune. A…

April 18, 2025

Research Trip Part 2 – The Universities

This was a surprisingly interesting post to write. Remember that I’m using this blog primarily as a writer’s notebook, and this one’s about my impressions of the universities – more specifically, about Em’s impressions. You can see that the buildings become metaphors for people, so please forgive me if the critique of the architecture sounds…

April 7, 2025

Research Trip – Part 1 – The Fish and Chip Shop

Miss Pepper and I left mid Sunday morning and cruised down to Sydney. It’s about a 4-5 hour run from the mid-North Coast. The Take Away shop When Em’s life is almost at rock bottom, she flees the inner city, selecting a road with no consideration of where it will take her. She’s just driving…

April 3, 2025

Holding On News – Meeting the Elephant Page Publishing team

I was so pleased (and nervous!) to meet the team at Elephant Page Publishing via video link today. I felt honoured and special to be “believed in” by a bunch of people that I don’t even know. (I was so nervous that I forgot to get a screenshot of the meeting.) Per, Soraya, Daniel, Kel,…