Comic of the Week: Interview With a Generic Australian Widow

If you enjoyed this comic, you may also like Interview With an Up-and-Coming Australian author and 'An Interview With Wraith Picket'.

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Halloween special: tentative running order

Paula Berinstein from The Writing Show emailed with a tentative running order for the Halloween special:

Day 1, October 25th: Rob Hood
Day 2, October 26th: Kaaron Warren
Day 3, October 27th: Gary Kemble
Day 4, October 28th: Jason Nahrung
Day 5, October 29th: Chuck McKenzie
Day 6, October 30th: Leigh Blackmore
Day 7, October 31st: Stephen Studach

Because The Writing Show is based in the US, the dates are +1 where we are.

Paula says she has selected the music for all the readings and has begun integrating it and the effects into the audio.

Can't wait to hear the readings.

Comic of the Week: Interview with an up-and-coming Australian author

If you enjoyed this comic, you may also like 'An Interview With Wraith Picket'.

To find out more about Fair Trade products, go here.

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Jasper Fforde and R L Stine

My interviews with Jasper Fforde and R L Stine are both now available over at Articulate.

They were both really good to talk to -- and both clearly revelling in their lives as professional writers.

This quote from Fforde really struck a chord with me:

"You write and you want to be published but I think if you write only wanting to be published you're doing it for entirely the wrong reason and it will probably show. I think the thing about writing is to perhaps assume that you won't be published, that there's a strong possibility you will never be published, and if you can carry on writing with that in mind then you're clearly doing it for the right sort of reasons."

Comic of the Week: Literal Man Finds God

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SF in kids' books

I've been thinking alot lately about specfic references in TV ads and kids books. Specifically, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, by Dr Seuss.

I'll give you the short version: the Cat leaves a pink ring in the bath. To get rid of it, he wipes it off with a towel, but then it's on the towel. Anyway, in the course of trying to get the stain off various items and out of the house, he introduces 'Little Cat A', who lives in his red and white striped hat. And in Little Cat A's hat lives Little Cat B.

Eventually, every speck of snow outside the house is pink, and so the Cat calls on his final hope, Little Cat Z (who, of course, lives in the hat of Little Cat Y).

He says: "Z is too small to see. So don't try. You can not. But Z is the cat who will clean up that spot!"

Z doesn't have a cat in his hat. Instead, he has VOOM.

"Voom is so hard to get,
You never saw anything
Like it, I bet.
Why, Voom cleans up anything
Clean as can be!"

Then he yelled,
"Take your hat off now,
Little Cat Z!
Take the Voom off your head!
Make it clean up the snow!
Hurry! You Little Cat!
One! Two! Three! GO!"

Then the Voom...
It went VOOM!
And, oh boy! What a VOOM!

Now, don't ask me what Voom is.
I never will know.
But, boy! Let me tell you
It DOES clean up snow!

Isn't that cool! I think so. But maybe I've just been reading kids' books too long!

Comic of the Week: Interview With Wraith Picket

This one kinda follows on from Interview With David Malouf and Interview With Stephen King. (Also helps if you're familiar with the Wraith Picket Saga and if you've read The Dark Half!)

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