RIASS stuff:
Due to a site glitch, a whole bunch of my subscribers have been wiped from my database. If you haven't been receiving daily updates in your email, you can subscribe again'here, by filling in the 'subscribe' box to your right, or by clicking the 'follow' button at the bottom of the page.
Q&A with Andrea Kane, author of The Line Between Here and Gone
Interview: author Karly Lane on why we can't get enough of rural romance
Im over at the Walker Books Walk-a-Book blog talking about dreaming big with childrens fiction.
Im always looking to feature guest posts/interviews with writers and bookish people. If youd like to be featured on RIASS, just drop me a line at readinasinglesitting AT gmail.com
Other bookish stuff:
A profile of Aussie publisher Transit Publishing:'Our slush pile is'the primary source of our publishing program. We might curse it at times and be slow to answer but to open a new submission can be as exciting as opening a mysterious parcel. Often it's just too shiny or we've seen it before, already have one, just don't like it or wonder why they don't know our tastes by now, but very occasionally we do fall in love. Lesson No 6: Only publish what you love.
Everyday and Exotic: Australian Asian Writing'Imaginative engagement with the Asia-Pacific region, despite its proximity, has been limited in Australia's literary past. The cultural cringe was about Europe, and that's where literary ambition and creative energy were directed. When Asia was a subject, it was usually to mark distance and difference
Street photos of commuters reading on the subway
Are you a budding science fiction writer? If so, take Bruce Sterlings advice and avoid these cliches
How to get kids reading and writing over the summer:'Whether creative or academic, writing gives individuals the chance to voice their thoughts, opinions, and emotions. Through writing, children and adolescents can develop their unique voices while working through questions that interest them.
Ernest Hemingway rewrote the ending to'A Farewell to Arms 39 times before he was happy with itand now those endings are going to be published: The alternate endings are labeled and gathered in an appendix in the new edition, a 330-page book whose cover bears the novel's original artwork, an illustration of a reclining man and woman, both topless.
The tyrannical world of Thomas the Tank Engine:'Bulgy gets trapped under a bridge, painted green and converted into a henhouse. Thats what you get for being a blow-hard socialist. But in terms of class warfare, Bulgys doom has nothing on whats done to the truculent Troublesome Truck who refuses to learn his place during one of the later stories. Having caused intolerable levels of confusion and delay, the offending blue-collar worker is coupledbetween two engines pulling in opposite directions and yanked until he flies apart.
Thinking of starting your own book club?
The value of the book as communicator:'We have the same problems, the same difficulties, and that's what a book gives the general reader ' knowledge of the other who just might have more in common with him/her than they might first think. People in Cyprus, like people everywhere, hurt, love, bitch, quarrel, 'get ill, make money; are crucified for lack of money. Books manage to convey those facts.
Simon & Schuster is adding QR codes to all its print books'Twenty-six percent of Simon & Schuster's sales are now digital, and the QR codes are seen as a way to link digital and print. The codes 'make it easy for consumers to visit our site and hopefully subscribe to one of our newsletters,' S&S chief digital officer Ellie Hirschhorn wrote in a recent email to employees.
Thomas Gebremedhin'on finding his voice:'People look at me and expect big things from my writing. They see a black gay guy with immigrant parents and think, Here's someone with something to say. For a long time, before I discovered Beattie, I thought so, too. I tried to write about gay hospital visitation and the Eritrean-Ethiopian war'admittedly, in the right hands, possibly great things to read about, but in my hands they were wrong. The characters fell flat'oh, they fell'real'hard'because they were merely vehicles for an agenda that wasn't mine. Still, I knew I had'something'to say, but whenever I tried to locate that inner voice, I heard only silence.
On finding time to write:'Be your own best friend. If you miss a few days, simply resume your good habits, and congratulate yourself. You're making your dream come true, something most people never do.
RMIT fashion students design outfits from paper'(and speaking of paper art, these are worth checking out)
Profile of an indie bookshop: Queen Anne books
On the perils of idiom
Childrens Book Festival 2012: In Conversation with Boori Monty Pryor and Alison Lester'(video)
I really like those photos of people reading. Im always peeking over shoulders with covert glances to discover what another rider has in their hands. Often I recognize the books simply by the color of the spine, but then I worked in a book store for over a year so I have an advantage. :D