Immerse Yourself in the Little Differences! #worldbuilding

Wow, what a wonderful review of my upcoming release When Dark Waters Burn in this month’s The Tawny Frogmouth magazine! The full review is over here (on p44), but here’s how it begins: “When Dark Waters Burn… cements Shapter’s reputation as a master of immersive worlds.” Funnily enough, I love…

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Time Changes Our Interpretation Of Place

We all know that experiences change a person – their outlook on life, how they process thoughts and emotions, how they interpret events and places. But I have personally never felt this as starkly as when I recently returned to Greece after a gap of twenty years. Parts of Athens…

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A Romantic 2025 Manly Writers’ Festival! #ManlyWF2025

This weekend I was at the 2025 Manly Writers’ Festival, talking on a panel, presenting a workshop, enjoying book signings, literary trivia, mingling with readers, and more! It was so much fun! I also learnt a little about myself as a writer. While on the panel, I had the pleasure…

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The Past is Everywhere!

History is all around us. Wherever we walk, someone has walked before. After all, Homo sapiens have been on Earth for approximately 300,000 years, so that’s a lot of feet covering a lot of ground. And I love wondering who might have walked where I now walk, what they were…

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The Literary History of My Hometown, Bournemouth UK

One of the things I miss most about living in the UK is its visual history. Growing up there was a time-travelling adventure – never far from a castle, stately home, strange mound in the ground or stone circle. Here in Australia, I recently bushwalked all around Sydney’s southern Middle…

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Start Your Own Book Club / Writing Group!

Everyone should write. There, I’ve said it. Writing is so liberating and cathartic. It allows you to explore your thoughts and feelings, as well as those of others. With it you can imagine the future, and delve into the trenches of the past. Writing can be an escape, it allows…

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My First Ever Published Short Story – From 1991!

I always knew I’d one day write novels. But first came poetry and short stories. I wrote about my first ever published poems over here. My first ever short story success was with a story about a tortoise, which won me the school writing competition for prose in Year 11…

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