Bookish News & Publishing Tidbits 13 May 2012

RIASS stuff:

A giveaway of Barry and the Fairies of Miller Street'(Aus only, ends 20 May)

A review ofThe Bay at Noon'by Shirley Hazzard, a lush, dreamy novel set in Naples'Rating:

Other bookish stuff:

Last day to enter to win tickets to see Jeff Kinney at the Sydney Writers Festival

Rick Riordan to write Norse mythology-inspired series

A massive book giveaway courtesy of Harper Collins Canada

The LA Review of Books has a spiffy new site

Diane Chamberlain will be chatting on Booktrib on the 31st of May at 3pm EST. Well be reviewing her latest book soon, so stay tuned!

Jeff Kinney on the books that changed him: I could mention a book by Beverly Cleary or several other writers in this slot but that would be disingenuous. Nobodys writing reached me in my elementary-school years more than Blumes.'Blubber'stands out because it was about bullying and the kind of cruelty kids visit on one another that usually flies under the radar. Blume wrote with unflinching honesty and, to a young reader, that was both novel and scary.

Sue Moorcrofts letter to her unpublished self: I'm really glad that you finally decided that you needed further education in order to get published and, to be truthful, you'll be really happy writing fiction. You're used to working in a big buzzy office but sitting alone in a room and making stuff up? Nothing beats it. But maybe that decade or so that you spend working in a bank, working part-time when the kids were little, is all good life experience. Meeting great people and hearing a lot of interesting/touching/funny stories is fantastic training for a storyteller.

Nounsy Nouns and Verbsy Verbs: What makes nouns and verbs sound real? According to psychologists Thomas Farmer, Morten Christiansen, and Padraic Monaghan, some nouns and verbs are perceived to be more nouny and verby than others. When Thomas Farmer and his colleagues considered more than 3,000 English nouns and verbs, they found that nouns have a different (but overlapping) set of probabilistic phonological features than do verbs. That is, when plotted in multidimensional 'sound space' (where the dimensions are phonological features, as well as where these features occur within words), nouns tended to cluster with other nouns, and verbs tended to cluster with other verbs.

Justine Larbalestier on what you dont have to read her books: Just because I am a writer does not mean you have to read my writing. I have friends who are lawyers who I do not hire, editors and agents who neither edit nor agent for me. I have friends in all sorts of different sectors with whom I rarely have conversations about their working lives and vice versa. Yes, writing's a big part of my life. But it's not the only part and it's not all I am. You don't need to read my books to hold a conversation with me.

An interview with Miriam Parker of Mulholland Books: [Social networking]'is essential! One thing that publishers were never able to do in the 20th century was connect directly with consumers. We were a B2B business exclusively. But knowledge of the consumers for your products is key and social networking allows us to connect directly.

An interview with Tansy Rayner Roberts: [My PhD]'bleeds into everything.' I like to think that it's a conscious choice, but it's not ' as with any other deeply important cultural influence and the writer it owns, Ancient Roman History is a part of me and there's no shaking it.' The'Creature Court'trilogy has some overt associations with Ancient Rome, such as the design of the city, and particularly the religious festivals that are so much a part of its culture, but there's a bunch of other references and snippets, some of which are deliberate and some which aren't.'It gets a bit much sometimes, and I have to rein it in.

A Ned Stark decapitated head cake pop (you know, as you do)