Monthly Archives: April 2009

BEDA 30: Author Interview: Jenny Downham

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: JENNY DOWNHAM


Jenny Downham's novel Before I Die is simply one of the most amazing novels ever written.

As I said in a previous post, this gem kept me up until all hours crying! And I never cry at books!

From the site:

"Tessa has just a few months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It's her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is sex. Released from the constraints of 'normal' life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up.Tessa's feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallized in the precious weeks before Tessa's time finally runs out. ...

BEDA 29: I am published in mX!

I had this great blog planned (on the CBCA talk I went to in Bendigo tonight) but something more pressing as come up and I can't even think straight.
I AM PUBLISHED IN MX TODAY!!!!
MX is a free daily newspaper that is on the trains of Melbourne. The readership is somewhere around the 313,000 mark!!!

OMG I can't believe it!!

SO - ALL YOU MELBOURNIANS, GO GET A COPY!!!!

It's in the "For What It's Worth" section and it is on communication. Sounds boring but it's totally not :P

This is the first proper time I've been published! I've been in a 'zine, as I said in my profile, but this is BIG!!!

ARGH I am walking on AIR!!

CBCA post will come tomorrow:)

♥a very EXCITED Megs

BEDA 28: Interview with Lovers Electric

SONG WRITING INTERVIEW: LOVERS ELECTRIC

Eden Boucher and David Turley (aka Lovers Electric) are two musicians from Adelaide.

I first came across their band on iTunes: they were the free download of the week. Normally, there are pretty bad bands but in Lovers Electric I discovered something special.

The free download song was Start Again (which is one of my favourite songs, and one of the most played on my iTunes), and quickly I was hooked.
I have been referred to - by friends - as a stalker, as I've seen them live three times. But I can't help it - they are fantastic live.
They supported American Colbie Caillat on her tour, and have done their own boutique tour, where they travelled Australia playing in boutique fashion stores. They also played at The ...

April Blogging: Day 27

The Lemonade Award
Thank you to Diane from The Book Resort for giving me The Lemonde Award!

It is given to blogs that show great attitude and/or gratitude.
Here are the rules:
1) Put the Lemonade Award logo on your blog or post.
2) Nominate at least 10 blogs that show great attitude or gratitude.
3) Link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let the nominees know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5) Share the love and link to the person from whom you received your award.

Firstly, for attitude the first blog that comes to mind is HELSINKI'S HEADSPACE by Madame S. Helsinki Black.

Secondly, for gratitude I will thank Steph from Hey, Teenger. It's been really nice getting to know her, cross-promoting, and, of course, starting ...

April Blogging: Day 26

Book Chat with Steph & Megs

Welcome to the first ever Book Chat!
Today's book: Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell
Hope you guys enjoy it - stay posted for Book Chat number two, which will be happening over on Steph's blog.

Steph: So... Everything Beautiful.
Megs: What did you think of it? Did you like it?
Steph: I loved it. Probably even more than Notes from the Teenage Underground – Simmone's first novel – and I thought that was fantastic.
Megs: Really? I liked Notes from the Teenage Underground more
Steph: Simmone Howell's (the author) writing is so raw...
Megs: Yes that’s true. I think she captures the teenage mind brilliantly. What did you think of the tag line, "A love story about the broken and the broken-hearted"?
Steph: I loved Bird in Everything Beautiful. There ...

April Blogging: Day 25

Today there is a very interesting post on Justine Larbalestier's blog.

The long of the short of it is she is debating when it is too much self-promotion - ie, are you allowed to tell readers - via your blog - that you have been nominated for an award (so go vote)? Are you allowed to post your book covers on your blog? Have links on where to buy?

It was very well written and certainly made me think.

I've been trying to get this blog out there.

Some things I've been doing include:
1) I have a nifty footer on my emails, which whenever I send an email (from any of my four email addresses) it comes up. It looks like this:

----------------------------------------
be sure to check my blog......
http://bookworm-megs.blogspot.com/
----------------------------------------

Obviously, if ...

April Blogging: Day 24

The end is in sight!

It's almost the end of the month which means "BLOG EVERY DAY IN APRIL" (aka BEDA) is almost over!

I can't believe I've almost made it! I can see the light in the end of this tunnel.

I just had word that Dan Brown's new novel is out September. As you can all surely remember his novel The Da Vinci Code? It was a best seller for two Christmases - which is a pretty good effort! - has sparked the movie, there are tours, various knock-off books, everything. As an author, if you can create that kind of stir fantastic!

However, I refuse to read the book. I've kept off since it came out, I doubt I'm going to read it now! There are a ...

April Blogging: Day 23

Twas the launch of the Emerging Writers' Festival program tonight! And can I say how awesome it looks?! It's a little black book about the size of a wallet, and oh the wonders it contains! And it looks so pretty with the silver designs on it! And it feels pretty too :D


My friend and I spent the entire train ride home discussing events and picking what ones we're going to.


Because - and this is ground-breaking news! - we won a FREE PASS TO ALL EVENTS!!! YAY!!!

So basically we're now going to a lot more events that originally thought (or could afford, more to the point).

It's going to be so fantastic. The line up and workshops listed are brilliant, and going to be so helpful. All you emerging writers from Melbourne, ...

April Blogging: Day 22

Well hello there!

I have a few bits of literary news:
I was invited by Tara Marinello to join a citizen journalist site, Allvoices! I had my first work meeting with Melbourne Writers Festival! It's going to be very full internship trust me! And shhh, top secret information on the authors attending! YAY! Let me just say the festival is going to be better than ever!I am going to the Emerging Writers Festival program launch tomorrow night! Should be a great night.I am currently reading "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon for one of my classes. I'm not that far in yet (don't tell my teacher!) but its....going okay so far. Some of the writing is annoying me, but I feel Haddon's doing a great job of capturing the essence of a child ...