Monthly Archives: May 2011

Review: The Comet Box by Adrian Stirling

Review: The Comet Box by Adrian Stirling


It's 1986 and Halley's Comet is hurtling towards Earth. Everyone is talking about what the comet will bring - wishes could be granted, people might go mad, great disasters could happen...
When Andrew is asked to write down his greatest wish for the Comet Box, he can think of only one thing – that his runaway sister Amelia will finally come home. As the comet draws nearer he begins to learn the reasons why she left in the first place and the more he learns, the more he wants to forget.
When Amelia is captured and brought home she reveals a shocking secret that makes Andrew's once safe world begin to unravel. As the ...

EWF: YA Panel

Tonight was the YA panel at EWF and after hearing the running almost-rivalry between that session and the spec fiction session in terms of ticket sales, I was expecting a lot more people than what turned up. Half of The Wheeler Centre was block off, and the front half was maybe two-thirds full?

Despite a mediocre turn out, the panel definitely was not mediocre, with a great lineup and fantastic conversation.

Fiona Wood, Tim Pegler and Adele Walsh, led by Andrew McDonald, talked about all things YA for an hour.

Both Tim and Fiona said they 'stumbled' into writing YA by 'accident'.

Adele said she likes to escape into another ...

The Emerging Writers’ Festival

Another day, another festival!

And speaking of festivals, BEA is on in America and some lovely person has uploaded several of the speeches, including Sarah Dessen's - check it out!

This morning I groaned and rolled around in bed, not wanting to get out. Still tired from yesterday at Reading Matters, I eventually got up at 8:24am... for a 8:41am train!

I went to three panel discussions today at The Emerging Writers' Festival before Steph and I disappeared to the warm arms of two stationary stores: Typo and kikki.k. Steph was quite restraint and didn't buy anything; I, on the other hand, got so many cute note pads and pens. Plus a little white owl photo ...

Reading Matters: Conference Day Two

I do this thing where I buy books in different goes. Like I'll buy one book, then wander back in fifteen minutes and buy another.

As if that makes it cheaper.

Mental note, Megan: it doesn't.

On the plus side, check out my stash from Reading Matters:


If you can't see, that's:
1) This is Shyness by Leanne Hall
2) Violence 101 by Denis Wright
3) Gift of the Gab by Kate Burridge
4) The Golden Day by Ursula Dubosarsky
5) A Pocketful of Eyes by Lili Wilkinson

Quick Links in a Literary Week

Hola!

This has been such a literary week already and it's only Thursday.

Tonight is the kick-off of The Emerging Writers Festival and tomorrow Reading Matters. And, of course, Michael Cunningham and Cassandra Clare earlier this week too.

I'm not going to Reading Matters tomorrow - but Steph from My Girl Friday is. To help with the costs of the conference, we decided to spilt the ticket. After getting permission from SLV, we registered as one person and so Steph is going tomorrow and I'm going Saturday. I'm really looking forward to it and am so happy that we were allowed to.

Cassandra Clare at Westgarth Theatre

Hello! Another day, another literary event!

Tonight's was American YA spec-fic author Cassandra Clare.

I went with Miss Friday, aka Steph.

When we got to the theatre, it was fairly empty and we were both surprised.

But as we sat, it filled up.

First up was a theatre group who performed a scene out of one of Clare's books:




I would tell you who's who but I haven't actually read any of Clare's work so I'm not entirely sure.

Michael Cunningham at The Wheeler Centre

So I was almost jumping out of my skin tonight - Michael Cunningham at The Wheeler Centre?! It's like all my dreams come true.

He's probably my favourite author (and yes, I know I don't like ranking people, but he's definitely right up there!) and The Hours is one of my favourite books.

So to say I was kinda excited is an understatement!

Actually, I first saw that Michael was appearing at Sydney Writers Festival at madly jumped on the QANTAS website, ready to book tickets.

Yes, that's out much I love him!

I decided for once in my life to calm ...

Review: Abandon by Meg Cabot



Review: Abandon by Meg Cabot

The Myth of Persephone, Darkly Reimagined
— Book One: Abandon —
She didn't fall into his world. She was taken.

Seventeen-year-old Pierce knows what happens to us when we die.

That's how she met John Hayden, the mysterious stranger who's made returning to normal life—or at least life as Pierce knew it before the accident—next to impossible.

Though she thought she escaped him—starting a new school in a whole new place—it turns out she was wrong. He finds her.

What does John want from her? Pierce thinks she knows... just ...

Longhand versus Computers


Via Sarah Wilson, the last manufacturer for typewriters had closed its doors.

Meaning no more (new) typewriters floating around the world.

This got Sarah pondering on different ways to write, and I've been pondering on that lately too.

The other day in class a teacher made a reference to writing, and when she said the world "writing" she made keyboard movements with her fingers, simulating her tapping away on a keyboard.

I thought that was incredibly sad.

You're not writing, I wanted to tell her. You're typing on a keyboard.

Time/Good Blog Reads

I'm feeling as if I'm loosing sense of time.

Time in a real sense (days, weeks, months, years).

I tell people, oh yes, I used to do pilates, a few months ago.

No - that was more like two years ago.

And I just found a book that was signed, and dated 2010. It left me shaking my head - surely it was signed earlier this year?

Time seems to escape from you. It's an odd thing.

I've been at my computer since about two pm today. That's seven and a half hours, for those ...