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'The Secrets of the Tides'by Hannah Richell'(Rating:'
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A review of The Ghost at the Point'by Charlotte Calder (Rating: )
Are you a nerdy type? My husband is looking for a top-notch web developer to join his company.'Details here.
Other bookish stuff:
What makes a book gay lit? Looking at these lists side by side, I began to wonder: If Grishams book had a gay character in it, would that make his book gay? Harbachs novel has several gay characters. In fact, you could accurately characterize both'The Art of Fielding'and'The Fall'with the following description: A coming-of-age campus novel in which two thirds of the main characters are college athletes and one third of the main characters are gay (and some are both). And yet,'The Art of Fielding'is found nowhere amidst the abs and pecs adorning the Gay Fiction best-seller list.'Maybe my books gayer than Grishams and Harbachs because Im gay.
Becoming the characters you read: In a study published by the'Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers at Ohio State University report the results of six experiments that tested the degree to which people found themselves feeling the emotions, thoughts, behaviors, goals, and traits of the characters in fictional stories. Overall, the authors report that this phenomenon, called 'experience-taking,' can lead to real changes in the lives of the readers, albeit temporary.
How to survive your first book launch: Dont'speak with too much animation.'Try your hardest to be boring and slow. Because otherwise you will look like a crack addict on hyperdrive when your interviews screen on television. Why didn't someone tell me that I talk a hundred words a minute and that I keep throwing my head and hands around like I've got a serious attention deficit disorder?!
Ebony McKenna on 50 shades of hype: People love to pour scorn on romance. Its shooting fish in a barrel. I deeply love romance of all kinds and in any broad genre like romance (inspirational, urban fantasy, sci-fi, contemporary, historical, young adult, erotica) youre going to get some really good crack and some absolute shite. Every genre has it. But heres the thing, I dont think anyone is reading 50 Shades for the quality of the writing, at which point people who disparage romance will use this one trilogy as an example of how all romance is crap.
and Gabrielle Prendergast on why shes okay with 50 Shades of Grey: My reader friends and I have oft decried the poor quality and questionable messages in the'Twilight'books. From what I understand the sexual politics in'Fifty Shades'are even worse. Well, that's a shame, but what are you going to do? They get people reading.
Can e-textbooks be both free and profitable?'The open license allows us to be both student and instructor-centric, and offer users what other publishers and content companies cannot: core content that can be freely edited, no copy protection, device independence and consistently affordable prices. There's also a free online option. While students love free, more than 40 percent purchase a digital or print format or personalised study guide.
Should colouring books for kids contain political messages? Dr. Walfish says that children are particularly susceptible to activist messages disguised as fun drawings. Coloring books like Tea Party II, she said, could raise a young child's anxiety rather than provide a healthy realm for exploration.
In which s/he is eschewed in preference of a singular they: That we are not exaggerating the continued'and increasing'use of they is evidenced by the range of examples in these pages. They all come from written'not speech'texts and from a wide variety of sources.
Cute pic: The Prolific House of Weasley
Want to be a Melbourne Writers Festival Live Tweeter? Heres how
Book houses!
Bloomsday fans celebrate as James Joyce scholars do battle
Another indie author whose book went viral signs big deal with big publisher
YA marketing tips from publishing professionals
Dr. Seuss World War II cartoons reflect authors politics and imagination
The winners of last nights David Gemmell Legend Award for fantasy fiction
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