RIASS Stuff:
RIASS is being redesigned! The site is currently in the hands of a graphic designer, and I should have something more beautiful and user-friendly for you soon.
Book review: Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter, which I thought sacrificed plotting for the sake of pacing.'(Rating: 
)
A giveaway of'Barry and the Fairies of Miller Street'(Aus only, ends 20 May)
Other bookish stuff:
RIP renowned Mexican author Carlos Fuentes
A Twitter bot that tweets in iambic pentameter (now why didnt my computer nerd husband come up with that?)
John Updike Society buys the authors childhood home
The Bookseller Awards (UK) have been, er, awarded.
Are these the best-read cities in the USor merely those who spend a lot of time shopping online?
Hilarious and mostly accurate (needs more drinking) infographic of how a book is born
Megan Burke sums up the brilliant Jeffrey Eugenides event we attended last night courtesy of the Wheeler Centre. My take home gem? That a work is finished when further edits make it worse, not better. My own wrap-up to come later today.
Ian Irvine blogs about the inspiration and process behind his new fantasy novel Vengeance: Why am I writing a brand new epic fantasy series when my long-suffering readers are constantly asking for the next episode in the'Three Worlds'saga?'I've spent two-thirds of my writing life on that 11-book sequence, and by the time I finished the last book,'The Destiny of the Dead, in 2008, I was creatively exhausted. I didn't want to grind out another series, full of reluctance and angst, and let my readers down with a story that wasn't good enough. When I do write the next episode ' the one that finally tells what fate befell Karan and Llian after'The Way Between the Worlds'' I want to be white-hot with enthusiasm.'Also, at the end of each big fantasy series I like to write something completely different, so as to freshen and rejuvenate my writing.
Getting up close and personal with food with crime novelist Quentin Bates: Food is a hugely valuable device for a writer. There are few better ways than evoking those aromas and to nail down a sense of location.'You can understand why crime writers set their work in exotic locations; India, France, Italy, South Africa, Turkey, South-East Asia. It's warm pretty much all year round and the food is great.'Britain, well' there are chips, sausages and pies, spotted dick, custard, warm beer. That's not quite true. We Brits do see decent food, contrary to what the rest of the world believes and laughs about, but you have to search it out.
On adapting books to the big (or small) screen: All novel-to-screen adaptations engage in the act of condensing narrative. Any book is going to have more room to depict the interior lives of its characters than any film or TV show, and books also aren't going to be hemmed in by the pesky constraints of budgeting. This usually means that incidents are shorn off from the narrative, or two or three characters are combined into one in the adaptation.
Jobs and opps:
Have no qualms about skewering some of the worlds greatest literature in the name of fame and fortune? Corrupted Classics wants you!
Heading to RWA in Brisbane in August? Time to get that elevator pitch ready.
Audio:
Anne Sebba, author of That Woman, interviewed on ABC Radio National's Late Night Live
An interview with Jonah Lehrer about Imagine: the science of creativity
Jeanette Winterson on the Bat Segundo show
Book chat with feminist writer, commentator and tweeter Clementine Ford
Videos:
An interview with Lev Grossman (link via Jami @ Absurdly Nerdly)
The official trailer for Lauren Kates Rapture:
Alison Booth discusses A Distant Land:
Animated Shakespearean Insults:
OK that Twitter bot is hilarious. And I would love to see Amazons list pitted against library usage. Is it really those cities that read the most, or as you said, those who can afford to buy books on line the most.
Or even those who just have a habit of buying online rather than going to libraries etc. Aussies would register low on Amazon purchases due to the shipping costs, and the fact that rights limitations means that we cant purchase a good deal of the e-book stuff.