20 July 2008

Sunday Salon #18 - 20 July 2008

I'm travelling again today, so I've set this to auto publish, which is a nice feature that Blogger offers. I'm off to Hobart today to deliver some workshop sessions on Monday. On Tuesday morning I aim to commute from Hobart to Adelaide.

Last time I tried to do this Melbourne had a blanket of fog that prevented my plane from landing, and we eventually returned to Hobart to refuel, after circling Melbourne like a chicken hawk for about an hour.
About 4 hours after we originally set out, we flew out of Hobart again, and returned to hover in the air above Melbourne as the backlog of delayed flights eventually managed to land. Got into the Melbourne airport to find that flights to Adelaide were all booked out and finally got back to Adelaide about 7 pm. So much for commuting. Let's hope everything goes to plan on Tuesday.

This week's posts
  • Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award
    At the dinner prior to the Harrogate Festival, which would be a wonderful event itself to attend, the winner of the Old Peculier Award was announced: a debut novel that has already won the 2008 COSTA Book of the Year. The Yorkshire Post has interviews wth Stef Penney, Zoe Sharp, and Peter Robinson too.
    Both longlist for this award, and the short list, are worth your attention. They make a reading syllabus in crime fiction where you can't go wrong.
  • Crime in the City
    A set of interviews you can read and listen to with 9 well known crime authors. The text interview is a part transcript of the audio. You can also read an extract from their books online. I haven't read them or all, or listened to all the audios, but the ones I have really whetted my appetite for more. Each audio is about 7 minutes. The interview with Donna Leon is an absolute gem.
  • Don't the organisers of MWF like crime fiction?
    The quick answer - I don't think they do. A disappointing offering.
  • Ned Kelly Shortlists - what we reckon
    This week I closed my polls for what might be on the shortlists for the Ned Kelly awards to be announced at MWF on August 29. Let's see how close we get.
  • A KILLING FROST, Progress Report
    I've spent the week reading R. D. Wingfield's posthumously published novel.
    My final review is here. My rating: 4.7
  • Online audio books
    Late last week I discovered Librivox, which champions "the acoustical liberation of books in the public domain". I was really pleased when I learnt how to burn audio books from the web onto CDs, so I could listen to them in the car on my way to and from work. And then the reader of the one I've been listening to made my day when she commented on my blog.
This week I attended a computers in education conference with the theme of Learning is a Conversation. I gave a session on blogging which I am convinced is not only cathartic but addictive. Every blog posting is the beginning or perhaps a continuance of a conversation. But only if people take the trouble to comment. So, now you've read to here, why not take the next step and tell me what you think? Do you blog? Are you addicted?

5 comments:

Sue Waters said...

Definitely addicted to blogging however it does take time for the addiction to occur. Which is why I try hard to support all new bloggers and leave comments because I remember what it is like feeling like you are talking to yourself.

Anonymous said...

You're right about the Theakston's Long List being interesting reading, but how does it take so long for some novels to reach lists like this? Most of the writers there have far more recent books out than the ones on the list.

gautami tripathy said...

I have been unable to write anything at all this past week. No poetry, no rviews. My mind just refused to do anyhing.

Here is my SS post

Kerrie said...

I'm not entirely sure of the criteria for the Theakston's Old Peculier but they possibly explain the fact that the books have been around for a little while. It is called the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (shortlist voted for by the public, winner picked by expert panel), so presumably the book is published in the previous calendar year

Kerrie said...

Are you saying it is a creeping addiction Sue? Yikes! I've only been blogging 'seriously' here for this year. I think I've already got a serious case of rampant addiction then

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