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)
Literary Giveaway Blog Hop: Instances of the Number 3 by Salley Vickers'(open to all)
Feature: why are all YA characters so gosh-darn beautiful?
Book Review: Dead Time by Anne Cassidy'(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:
I've Seen the Future and It's Not Terribly Bright: Looking at Near-Future Dystopias in'Fiction'They are not heroes, they have no special skills or hidden powers. There are no aliens to side with or against or immunity they've been granted. They are just average teenaged girls trying to find themselves in the world just like anyone else, only their world is changing faster than they are. Does the world's upheaval represent the changes we go through in our journey from girlhood to womanhood? Well, let's not get too crazy and academic about it, but it's food for thought.
The pros and cons of young adults in YA lit'With none of them being older than sixteen, I expected nothing short of mood swings, chat speak and first kisses. But what I got was so much more than that. While an innocence is maintained, explored, or broken in each, it's their ability to push beyond the stereotypes and immaturity that makes them stand apart.
10 Important Life Lessons We Learned from Children's Books'Above all else, be kind. Also, your dog is never thinking what you think he's thinking.
A new smartphone app is giving Australian poets the chance to immortalise their favourite haunts in words:'Created by not-for-profit poetry organisation'The Red Room Company,'The Disappearing app'is a new, free-to-download app for iPhone, iPad and Android users that allows poets and the public alike to read and upload poems on historic and personally important spaces across Australia. Users of the app are able to navigate through the poems via a virtual map, which they can also use to upload their own poems.
Romance author Rachael Johns on the cover design process:'All these questions, including a few simple ones about story setting and tone were asked of me so that the cover design team can come up with a fitting and marketable cover for my book.
Book Industry Wants Better Metadata for Marketing''What they really want ' publishers in particular, but also retailers and wholesalers ' are things that help people discover, assess and buy books,' said Brian O'Leary of digital publishing consultancy Magellan Media.
A'writers habits: Kaaron Warren'My kids totally understand what I do, but it still doesn't mean they want me to do it when they're around! It's mostly a matter of not wasting time when you have it. When my son was only a few years old, I was finishing work on my collection The Grinding House, which includes a novella. This was one of my toughest times as a writer, because I had an important deadline, and very little time to myself.
How to get your own back on your critics So, the writer tries. He we claim the moral high ground. We walk around for a day or two, looking down pityingly on the poor benighted reviewer, a small smile of amusement at his expense playing around the corners of our mouths. But the trouble with claiming the moral high ground is that a writer who has just claimed the moral high ground doesnt look any different from a writer who is just standing there doing nothing. To the untutored eye, an impervious author looks just the same as an infuriated one.
The internet isn't killing journalism ' journalists are'People will always want to read the news and they will always trust journalists to provide it accurately, quickly, and honourably. The internet changes none of that. Print newspapers are not the only form of journalism, and if journalists don't realise that soon, they'll have nothing left at all.
The Two Conflict-Creating Needs of Every Character
On the rise of iconic covers in YA
Anatomy of Boredom:'What Madame Bovary has to do with MRI and rock'nroll.
Less Than 32% of Kickstarter Publishing Projects Get Funded
Shelleyrae from Bookd Out on library structure and design
On designing the cover for the new YA Novel The Nightmare Affair
7 simple ways to make a good story great'
Andrew Stanton on what makes a great story:
