RIASS stuff:
Phew, its been a while since Ive done a bookish links post. Life beckons, Im afraid! The blog might also be a little quiet over the next few days as Ill be up in Sydney catching up with a bunch of lovely publishing peeps. Bear with me. :)
Interview: Ciara Geraghty on her novel Lifesaving for Beginners
Review: The Songcatcher by Sharyn McCrumb'Rating: 
Verseday #8: Note on the Door by Lorraine Marwood
Review: An Outlaw's Christmas/McKettrick's Luck by Linda Lael Miller'Rating:
Review: Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin'Rating:
Review: Penelope by Rebecca Harrington'Rating:
Review: The Physiognomy by Jeffrey Ford'Rating:
Review: The Wish House by Celia Rees'Rating:
Other bookish stuff:
Explore French literary history through a new interactive map
Magazine publishers might be struggling, but Walmarts in-store magazine Delish is doing remarkably well'(I wonder if thats true of the magazines that Coles/Safeway put out here?)
The sales & marketing of multicultural kidlit'A blog series that looks worth following
Diversity in YA relaunched today on Tumblr
An interview with Gillian Flynn (yes, I really need to read'Gone Girl one of these days)We see men like that all the time in fiction, Flynn says. Characters that are flawed, troubled, pissed off and abusive. I really dislike the idea that women are innately good. (spoiler alert)
Steam eReads:'Another ebook romance publisher launching in Australia in March
Skype calls with classrooms help propel author to bestseller status''With Skype, I interact with students and build connections more directly.' It helps build stronger relationships by allowing for face-to face connections, says author Nancy Richardson Fischer.
On teaching yourself editing'Find yourself a mentor. Find the ablest editor and watch what he or she doesby watching [my mentor]'I learned to determine what was practical and desirable to accomplish in the limited time available, to distinguish between the crucial and the less important, to engage the cooperation of writers and other editors rather than getting their backs up.
Oscar Wilde and the making of celebrity
Reading your way through the stomach flu
There is no such thing as a free app'why do we whine about paying 99 cents for an app? Why do we jump through hoops to badger, harass, cajole, and even blackmail app developers into giving us freebies? If I'm happy to spend $250 per year on something as trivial as a cup of non-essential coffee, why will I not spend $1 on an app that is apparently 'essential' for a child's education? Is coffee more valuable than education?
Thoughts on this pay-as-you-read publishing model?
Brain science and storytelling''story, if broken down into the simplest form, is a connection of cause and effect. And that is exactly how we think. We think in narratives all day long, no matter if it is about buying groceries, whether we think about work or our spouse at home.
Barack Obama: president by day, editor by night
The Stella Prize longlist (contains links with info about the books and authors)
You might want to put a spoiler alert on that Gillian Flynn article!
Oh dear. I really do need to be better about this spoiler business. Im not bothered by them, so I always forget that other people are more sensitive to them than I am! :)