RIASS stuff:
A'giveaway of ten (yes, ten) book packs consisting of a copy of'Catch Up with the Sun'and a Book Seat!'(Aussies only, please)
A'review of'Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion'(Rating: 
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A'review of'An American Family'by Peter Lefcourt'(Rating: 
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A'list of Robin Hood retellings.
Are you a nerdy type? My husband is looking for a top-notch web developer to join his company.'Details here.
Other bookish stuff:
Rachel Hartman on Dragons, Comics, Art and Grief'I have an amateur fascination with neurology. I love reading books about how the brain works. Its spongy and fallible and sure of itself when it shouldnt be. When the brain gets injured, different parts of the brain can be repurposed to make up for the part that was injured. Its not a perfect system, but different parts can be used in their place.'So the idea is that the mother, because dragon brains are different than ours, can put a copy of the memory in a different place, like a second copy. You cant access it unless you know the way to access it.
and also on writing:'Like everything I do, I came to writing backwards. I believe the usual order is to write first, and then, once you've written enough, you are a writer. I, on the other hand, decided I was a writer when I was eleven years old. A beloved teacher liked one of my poems and wrote in the corner of the page:'Rachel, you're a real writer!'I liked her way of thinking and adopted the title at once. Mrs. C. would not have lied to me, surely?
Hermione Granger vs Bella Swan: hardly a fair fight.
An interview with Kristin Cashore:'I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I'm not up on current trends in YA Fantasy. I tend not to read it while I'm writing it, because reading fantasy while writing fantasy can create a kind of interference ' it can become difficult to keep a fresh mind. And I've been writing fantasy nonstop for years! I could talk a lot about the mystery genre if you asked, because I've been reading plenty of those. But I don't know what's hot in YA Fantasy.
Why Crowded Coffee Shops Fire Up Your Creativity: instead of burying oneself in a quiet room trying to figure out a solution, walking out of ones comfort zone and getting into a relatively noisy environment may trigger the brain to think abstractly, and thus generate creative ideas.
Joshua Henkin on the impulse to write'I think about characters more than about subjects or events. Kids are the most natural storytellers and their stories are about people or animals, not necessarily about events. Stories all start and end with characters. When starting a novel, you cant see the forest for the trees or even if it is a novel at all. The challenge for the novelist is in ceding control and letting it happen.
A Conversation with Authors Laura and Tom'McNeal'I just keep slogging ahead with the idea (often delusional) that maybe tomorrow, when I come back to it, there will be'something'there worth saving.
An interview with Bernadette Foley from Hachette Australia'My taste is very catholic ' I enjoy a strong story that tells me what I didn't know before, takes me somewhere I haven't been before; leaves me thinking about the characters or the subjects well after I've finished reading. I relish writing that touches the senses; a well-crafted (but not self-conscious) sentence can equal a breathtaking artwork. It can ripple across your mind.
Q&A with Jodi Picoult and her daughter, who have co-written a YA novel
A teacher librarians discusses 5 conversations about libraries she doesnt want to have any more'I'don't want to talk about eBooks replacing print books any more.'I don't believe this is going to happen. And it's not because I'm a romantic who believes nostalgia will win the day. Rather, it's because I understand that once the dust settles and the 'new gadget' effect has worn off, schools will ultimately spend their limited monies on the resources that most impact student learning.
Writing Behind Bars: Publishing House Launched in an Argentine Women's Prison
Fiction and imagination as an act of empathy says Miles Franklin winner Anna Funder'(audio)
The 'Heteronormativity in YA Dystopians' panel from WisCon 36 (audio)
China Mieville discusses his new novel, Railsea:
Books and feelings, by the Hachette Australia team:
