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This time last year I was in Germany for the Women’s World Cup (if you’re not a fan, that’s the pinnacle international footballing—read: soccer-ing—event that happens every four years). Sounds like a dream trip, am I right? And a dream trip it was, except for the low-level, nagging anxiety I had at being out of [...]

Last post I told you a little about the Bayside Literary Festival (check out the post). Today, I’m going to focus on one particular session — Microfiction Workshop: Short and sweet. I co-ran this session with Richard Holt, a man with considerably more microfiction experience than I. In fact, he is writing a blog during [...]

After 14 years in newspapers of which 11 were with Fairfax titles, and seven were online, I have some pretty strong views about recent events in that great newspaper company. As an avid reader and book lover so should you. Newspapers have long encouraged and supported their journalists as they add the writing of books [...]

So lovely to review another Peter Carnavas book, an author/illustrator who has been going great guns with a consistently fabulous book list for New Frontier. Peter’s emotive, subtle and visually beautiful books have enormous crossover appeal, and with the addition of ‘books’ in the title of this newbie, well – I couldn’t get it out [...]

Literary festivals seem to be springing up all over the place these days. I think that is ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT! It’s a chance for people to share their enthusiasm for reading and writing… and you can never have enough of that as far as I am concerned. So today, I’m going to tell you about one [...]

I’ve always enjoyed the acerbic wit of Australian-born critic and writer Clive James, so it saddened me when I recently read that he is soon likely to write no more. Various newspapers reported on James’s struggle with leukemia, quoting directly from an interview he recently gave BBC Radio 4 program Meeting Myself Coming Back, and it seemed [...]

Which genre of children’s books do you like most and why? I love all the genres! No, I guess that’s not answering the questions. I love picture books because they are the starting point for new readers. They are designed for sharing and they give the opportunity for so much discovery in and beyond language. [...]

HarperCollins Publishers is delighted to announce it has acquired the rights to another book written by former Australian Prime Minister, Hon John Howard, OM AC. Mr Howard’s memoir, Lazarus Rising, has sold more than 100,000 copies to date, both domestically and internationally across print and electronic editions, and dominated the Australian bestseller charts in the latter [...]

Darius Bell, the irrepressibly divine hero of Darius Bell and the Crystal Pool (CBCA Book of the Year 2010 winner) is back in this second installment by well-loved Australian author Odo Hirsch. The bees are dying. And not only the bees from Mr and Mrs Deaver’s hives. All the bees in the region are carking [...]

Book two is normally writers’ downfall, but in the case of Andrew Westoll, it was when he found his form. The problem is that I started—and fell completely, rabbit-ravingly in love—with Westoll’s second first. Then I did was any logical obsessive would do upon discovering an incredible author: I ordered up and cracked the spine [...]

Starbucks earned the ire of Irish people worldwide last week with a simple, seemingly innocent tweet: ‘Happy hour is on! Show us what makes you proud to be British for your chance to win.’ It was intended for British Starbucks followers and was accidentally tweeted from the wrong account. No matter. The offence was immediate [...]

You know that awkward moment where you think you’ve had a brilliant idea for a blog then shortly afterwards stumble upon one that’s not only better, it’s already been done? That’s the essence of what happened to me, having decided that while Game of Thrones the series is excellently good, Tyrion Lannister’s actor Peter Dinklage [...]

Ancient China. Buddhist monks. Invading barbarians. And dragons! Carole Wilkinson has done it again — delivering a wondrous blend of history and fantasy with her latest Dragonkeeper novel, Blood Brothers. The first book in Wilkinson’s series, Dragonkeeper, came out in 2003. It follows the adventures of a young slave girl, Ping, and an old dragon [...]

Which genre of children’s books do you like most and why? I love picture book biographies because they breathe life into stories about real people for young people. I recently picked about two beauties; A Nation’s Hope – The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis. The artwork by Caldecott winner Kadir Nelson is exquisite.  And [...]

Banjo is a hoofball star. He loves hoofball so much, he can barely sleep before a game. He practises every afternoon with his friend Bella, and on Saturdays he plays with his team the Whinnies. But one day, Banjo flies too high. He takes a tumble – and is laid up for six weeks. The [...]

If you are the type who likes to put a pen to paper – or fingers to the keyboard, as the case may be – you’ll often find that your first thought after finishing a really excellent book is wishing you had written in. My writer’s envy goes off pretty often; set off by writers [...]

Alex is lounging around at home when his mum tells him not to go outside. Of course, what does a child do when you tell them not to do something? Alex is compelled. Especially as his favourite stuffed toy, Rabbit, has hopped out the window, and of course, Alex has to go find him. But [...]

It has not been a good month for blogging. I hoped that things would settle down after the house move but it was not to be. I have since developed what can only be described as an Epic DeathCold, complete with hacking cough and tonsils of flame, sapping my energy for anything other than sitting [...]

Digital rights management for ebooks is dead. Readers knew it couldn’t last. It was simply a matter of when publishers and retailers would realise it was unsustainable. Cutting edge Australian publishers like Pan Macmillan digital offshoot Momentum Books are leading the way by announcing they will remove DRM from their titles within months. It won’t [...]

Last weekend I attended Continuum 8, the 51st Australian National Science Fiction convention. I had a great time, so I thought I’d share some of my highlights with you. There were a number of book launches held during the convention. I was particularly excited by two of them. The first was for Narrelle M Harris’s [...]

It’s not hard to understand why some book publishers are keen on DRM (Digital Rights Management encryption software which limits the potential uses of the file). They’ve seen the music and film businesses struggle in the face of mass piracy. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimates that some 95 per cent of global [...]

I spent last week working in Melbourne, a city I’ve lived in briefly, that I love, that has incredible things going on in my industry, and that I kind of wish my parents had moved to when we’d moved to Australia. Well Melbourne or Sydney—contrary to everyone’s obsession with choosing a favourite, I’d be happy [...]

Which genre of children’s books do you like most and why? My taste is far reaching depending on mood from realism to fantasy but a recent wonderful read is the novel Jasper Jones and a hum-dinger of a fantasy is The Night Circus. Which books did you love to read as a young child? I [...]

Continuing this weekend’s theme of friend-and-colleague-recommended interwebs-based hilarity* is McSweeney’s monologue, I’m Comic Sans, Asshole. My loathing for the pesky font that just won’t die has been long-ranted and long-written (even on this here very blog). In this instance, however, Comic Sans strikes back at those of us who’ve had it and anyone who uses [...]

I’ll readily admit my love for Twilight but, unlike most Twihards, I’ll also admit I take great pleasure in relentlessly mocking it. Which I why I’ve spent the past day poring over entries on Reasoning With Vampires*, a blog devoted to highlighting and castigating Stephenie Meyer’s ham-fisted writing. It’s a blog by a blogger who [...]

Now, I ask you this. Who would NOT want to live in a thirteen-storey treehouse? Or a treehouse at all, for that matter. And most particularly, who wouldn’t want to live in a thirteen-storey treehouse with a see-through swimming pool? An underground laboratory? A flying machine that shoots marshmallows into your mouth? No one, that’s [...]

This delay in posting this blog is thanks to a sudden and complete lack of internet. We moved house last week and – while our new internet provider promised us we would be back online in moments – as always reconnecting to the net has taken a couple of weeks, countless emails, and approximately 4 [...]

Kisses? Koalas? Butterflies? Always a hit with the toddler set, and this adorable book, illustrated by Karen Hull is bound to be a winner – not only for its truly gorgeous images, but for its Aussie animal content, and lift-the-flap pages. Launching into a tribe of kissing butterflies, scattered across the first double page spread, [...]

If you’re a regular reader of Literary Clutter, then you’ve probably figured out that I’m a wee bit of a science fiction fan. So, of course, each year I attend my local science fiction convention, Continuum. This year they are up to the eighth one. And, this year Continuum is also doubling as the 51st [...]

Can good things emerge—unexpectedly—from the cancer journey? Reeling from the death of her mother, Sally Collings saw nothing positive whatsoever about the disease. But then she read that two out of three cancer survivors and their families consider that something good has come of their experience, and she decided to find out more. She sought [...]

Jack and Raf are good mates. They live in Broome, Western Australia, and have lived there since they were babies. They love their life in the Kimberley. During the dry season, it’s a little cooler  but in the wet season, it’s hot and sticky. That’s when Jack and Raf catch big green frogs on Jack’s [...]

Recently, I had a small taste of what it must be like being a rock star. I went on a four-day tour of country primary schools and was completely unprepared for the response. Excited kids, enthusiastic teachers, heaps of book sales and lots of autograph signing. I was completely overwhelmed! I love talking about writing, [...]

Which genre of children’s books do you like most and why? I’m a big fan of all sorts of picture books and have to fight my 9-year-old daughter for ownership – quite often we have to buy two copies. My favourite author/illustrator is Maira Kalman; she embraces all manner of nonsense in her writing and [...]