RIASS stuff:
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Calling all bookish Melburnians! RIASS and some bookish buddies are planning a night out at the Astor Theatre on the 9th of June. All welcome, so if you're a local (or wish to commute), feel free to drop by. Details'here.
A review of Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick, which I thought was glorious, silly fun. With assassins! (Rating: 
)
A giveaway of'Out of Sight, Out of Time'by Ally Carter (ends in three hours!)
Other bookish stuff:
13 punctuation marks you never knew existed. Unless youre a dork like me. Or a lawyer.
Stories you can read in a single sitting (er, sitting on the loo, that is)
An iPad app for all the collaborative writers/illustrators out there
The 2012 Prime Ministers Literary Award shortlists have been announced
On YA ratings and censorship: Ratings are guidelines, not rules.'While ratings systems in other forms of media are often political and controversial, a ratings system for YA books doesn't have to be so. Movies, video games, and TV shows are given ratings to provide explanations of content that might be objectionable to certain audiences. There should be no requirement to show ID when buying books, and bookstores should not be limiting purchases based on those ratings.
Nalini Singh Interviews NZ author Helen Lowe: The earthquakes have been a major influence and a lot of the day-to-day difficulties are still going on. But because I am still very much in it, I think it is too early to say what longer-term effect it will have on my writing. I think it will take time for the experiences to flow through.''The Gathering of the Lost'' the recently released second novel in The Wall of Night series'was completed over the period of all three major earthquakes so there were definitely some interesting times getting it to production ' times I hope we dont get to see again, I have to say!
An interview with Steve Wiegenstein: My working title was Daybreak, after the fictional community where the action is set. I thought it was nice and gently symbolicrising sun, hope, but still with some uncertainty. But then when we did a title search, there turned out to be a bunch of other Daybreaks, so the publishers at Blank Slate Press and I started brainstorming. We worked for weeks on the title! For at least two months I couldnt get title ideas out of my head. But when Slant of Light hit the radar, I knew immediately that we had a keeper. Ive always loved the Emily Dickinson poem that its drawn fromits one of her most mysterious and evocative poems, and it conveys such a sense of something that is both inscrutable and certain at the same time. I think we all know what that certain slant of light feels like, but its almost impossible to articulate.
Are books like Harry Potter and Twilight fit subjects for serious scholarship?'It's also worth asking whether critics of the Harry Potter conference would object to a conference on Alice in Wonderland or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer both books written explicitly for children. Somehow, the passage of a century or more makes them seem weightier, just as it has turned the ladies' entertainments of Jane Austen's time into the literature of today. Who's to say the same won't happen to J.K. Rowling's creation, or even to Meyers? If so, there won't be any lack of contemporary sources to explain how we saw them, the way we argued over the quality of their prose and the examples they set for young men and women.
Reluctant readers? Really?'When I wrote'One Seriously Messed-Up Week''I had no idea I was writing for reluctant readers. I had no idea I was writing for young adults, that I was writing for boys, or that I was even writing a book really (or at least a book that anyone was ever going to read). The term 'reluctant reader' was completely new to me, but the sad thing is ' I didn't need it explaining. In a world where girls continually outshine the boys academically, it seems'depressingly obvious'that boys should also be the ones who don't read for fun.
Did you know that Poe was a bit of a weirdo?
Jobs and opps:
The Mammoth is looking for long-form narrative non-fiction.
Video:
Trailer for The History Keepers: The Storm Begins by Damian Dibbe
Trailer for Peaches for Monsieur Le Cure by Joanne Harris
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