RIASS stuff:
Book Review: Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May'Rating: 
Book Review: Unearthly Asylum by PJ Bracegirdle'Rating:
Excerpt and Giveaway: Big Sky Mountain by Linda Lael Miller'(open to US/Canadian readers
Young Adult Giveaway Hop: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry'(open to all)
Other bookish stuff:
Are you up for a Googlemaps tour of famous authors homes?'Ah, stalking from the comfort of your desk chair.
An essay on the use of gendered language in English'For over two centuries, in both the education and publishing spheres, human beings 'were to be considered male unless proven otherwise.' And honestly, this is the case. In western culture at least, male is the default or unmarked gender. If I describe someone as a person, people will assume that the person in question is male unless given the information that theyre female. Im a fan of pluralising where sense allows, but Im also happy to use they as a plural pronoun. Whats a lame grammatical rule in the name of equality?
Natasha Lester discusses the process of getting a book through the drafting process.'(video)
Michael Earp from Walker on the sheer delight of words'Earp talks about collecting words and quotes as he reads in order to make sense of the words themselves, but also the world in which we live. There are some brilliant quotes in this piece, as well, including this one: Maybe, thought Ben, we are all cabinets of wonders (from'Wonderstruck by'Brian Selznick, which Ill be reviewing soon)
An interview with author Tony Robinson'My initial reaction was, 'I can't write a book. I left school at 16 with four O levels, I can't make a significant contribution to English literature ''
On GIFs and journalism, or why I use fiction to get my news these days. Just dont do it. Ever. Please.
On reading snobbery and the thriller genre'The author argues that slagging off popular pulpy authors is nothing new, and that the thriller genre in particular has been at the butt of criticism at years. He notes Andy McNabs argument that its often people who find reading a challenge that enjoy the high-action, simple plots of thrillers, and that its good that theyre reading at all. This is certainly an arguable point, but what I do find interesting is his point that authors who have achieved large sales numbers and are therefore influential in the publishing scene should receive more critical attention (with the obvious caveat that attention is not necessarily the same as acclaim)
OMG, this letter from 1917 uses the term OMG. And a letter to Winston Churchill no less. Well, I suppose he was into brevity.
Would sell a copy of Anne of Green Gables worth $18000?
An interview'Ben Bova'on the topic of writing alternate histories.'First, you have to have a pretty good grasp on the real history of the era you're writing about ' which often means weeding through conflicting versions of the 'actual' events.
Libraries to Acquire Large Collections of Smashwords Ebooks
Emilia Bresciani on magic realism'and the role that it can play in writing a memoir: magic realism can offer a way to open up new horizons for the memoir writer. Our dreams can add colour to our narrative. Our feelings give meaning to our life allowing us to interpret it, she says.'For another memoir that does this, check out Barry and the Fairies of Miller Street
Short on listening material? Check out these recordings from and about the State Library of Victoria
Awesome alternative book covers (alternatives to existing book covers, that is. Not punky books)
Texts from Nancy Drew. Even better is Texts from Sweet Valley High.
The importance of book bloggers to a books success'*dusts fingernails on shirt, blows on them* But honestly, Im not a huge fan of this article. It treats book bloggers as a commodity, and frankly, its damn patronising. Book bloggers arent some cheap promotional service you can just capitalise on like this. We can tell when youre not being genuine.
These book coversyay or nay?
Oooh, the Review of Australian Fiction is looking spiffy (and also cheap. Price-wise, I mean)
Win a place on a Bloomsbury book'cover!
On the influence of celebrity and television on the creation of bestsellers'(or, hey Oprah, want to read my book?)
Of course, if Oprahs not enough, you can always try Russell Crowe, whose influence has helped this multi-platform transmedia narrative Kickstarter project meet its goal.
The finalists for this years Deadly Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature
Graphic novel panels that will make your reader squint. Illustrators, dont try this at home.
Are you a Tassie author? A whole bunch of awards for 2013 have just opened
Magabala books (Aus) is looking for a marketing assistant
A fascinating collection of links as usual! Thank you especially for Dana Levins article about gendered language in English. I will need to reread it to absorb it more deeply, but the discussion of Waites prose poems moved me.
Regarding western culture, you certainly make a good point in male being the default gender, but perhaps that mark does not carry quite the same weight in every western language? As you probably know, several less prominent European languages are more or less gender-neutral, among them Georgian, Turkish, and Basque, as well as the languages mentioned by Levins article Hungarian, Estonian and the closely related Finnish. Thus in Finnish, for example, not only are 'she' and 'he' both 'han' but the language does not have grammatical gender at all.
Of course a genderless language does not automatically indicate gender equality. Historical domination by males can still be reflected in the languages of even the least sexist or most egalitarian of these societes, too, for example in the terms employed for professions which traditionally were held by men, or in words or idioms that describe qualities that once were thought to be masculine, or in optional suffixes added to gender-neutral nouns in order to indicate female gender. That said, I would be curious to know more about how and in which areas of society a gender-neutral language affects culture and women's self-image differently than a gender-specific language!
Hi Danielle, good point regarding my inappropriate use of the western umbrella term: I should have used English-speaking cultures, as this is certainly the case for any English-speaking western cultures with which Im familiar.
Though I see your point about grammatical gender marking, Im not sure that the (usually) arbitrary application of grammatical gender to a given object necessarily implies gender in the male/female sense, so I think were talking about two different things in this instance. For example, if the word for chair was grammatically masculine, it wouldnt necessarily follow that the chair was of masculine gender, although there *may* be in some instances to some small degree a latterly applied masculine association. There may also be the case in some languages that certain objects/concepts more typically associated with feminine or masculine norms may (whether coincidentally or not) happen to have a gender-appropriate suffix applied, thus perhaps to some degree reinforcing the association between gender and concept. Id argue that this would be on a small scale, thoughthe weak version of the controversial Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
Where your case does, however, apply is exactly in those contexts that youve outlinedoccupations and titles and so on. I certainly dont think that merely nixing the suffix -man from various occupations is going to usher in equality by any means, but I do think that the very unfamiliarity of it at present is enough to get people thinking about their choice to use particular gendered words. I wouldnt argue that using non-gendered language is going to stop people from being sexist (similarly, the mandated avoidance of racist terms does not stop someone from being racist), but I think that the very unusualness and therefore markedness of these terms do provoke food for thought that hopefully over subsequent generations will be channelled into something approaching normativity rather than mere inclusion.
Anyone who has studied French and learned that the grammatical gender of uterus is masculine is well aware that grammatical gender and sexual gender can be quite different things! As Stephanie said, I think the important thing isnt that linguistic changes happen, but that people can think critically about what their language and actions do.
Having said that, the Swedes are generally known for their advanced gender equality and a new gender-neutral pronoun appears to be gaining ground in Swedish.
(Ive got links to more information about these and related matters here: http://www.superlinguo.com/post/24533757499/language-and-gender-link-o-rama)
Thanks for your input, Lauren, and for that great linky roundup!