The Magic Pudding turns 93!

One of Australia's best-loved children's books - The Magic Pudding: Being The Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum and his friends Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff by Norman Lindsay - turns 93 this year. It's a book close to my heart, as it formed a part of my...

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Sydney Writers' Festival 2011

The program for the Sydney Writers' Festival has been made available via its website www.swf.org.au, and there are some not-to-be-missed opportunities for writers and readers alike. Would-be authors will love the When Preparation Meets Opportunity...

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Stieg Larson's 4th book to be printed?

A close friend of the Swedish crime writer has revealed the plot for what he says is the fourth book in the Millennium Series - and it'll have protagonist Lisbeth Salander's estranged sister Camilla in a key role. Larsson, 50, died suddenly in 2004 before his books The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest were published. The crime...

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Consumers chase ebook titles

Apparently interest in e-readers (Kindles, iPads and the like) has jumped measurably since Borders and Angus & Robertson slipped into administration. Is this signaling a new chapter (pardon the pun) in publishing? Data from web traffic tracking...

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Self-Published author gets contract

St Martin's Press, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, has secured a four-book deal with US author Amanda Hocking, who shot to fame by selling more than a million copies of her self-published books. Amanda's best-selling works include the Trylle trilogy...

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JJ Cooper's back with Deadly Trust

I don't know how this one slipped under the radar, but JJ Cooper has a new book out! Deadly Trust is the second book in the jay Ryan series, Australia's newest action hero. I wrote about JJ Cooper's thrilling debut with The Interrogator,...

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Psychic self-publishes a sure hit

How could you not self-publish your book if you knew it was going to be a big hit? If only all potential publishers and self-publishers had that sort of precognition we'd know if it was worth taking the plunge! In this week's Daily Telegraph psychic...

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Liz Byrski's Last Chance Cafe

Australian author and journalist Liz Byrski has penned a new novel, Last Chance Cafe, which follows the lives of several women as they wrestle with the challenges of ageing in a culture that celebrates youth and sex appeal. Margot, Dot and Phyllida...

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Mondrian's real life mystery

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Malla's criminal intent

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Enchanting Angel Creek

I've just finished reading Victorian author Sally Rippin's enchanting Angel Creek. It was such a fresh, original idea I found myself doing a double-take as I walked past the rain-swollen creek near my home recently, eyes searching the waters for any...

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Get thee to Stonewylde!

UK author Kit Berry had a dream, and it involved getting published at some stage, so what a joy that dream has come true not once but twice - as a self-publisher and soon, as a mainstream published author. As a long-time fan of Ms Berry's work, I can enthusiastically recommend her Stonewylde trilogy - well, actually there will be five books in the series, but the first three are floating around and...

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Lion Whisperer champions big cats

Zoologist Kevin Richardson became a Youtube sensation when footage of him swimming and frolicking with lions in his native South Africa went viral. Now the ‘Lion Whisperer’, as he has been christened by South African media, has written a book about...

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Bad Behaviour - and life after 50

I had a chance to speak to the amazing Liz Byrski the other day, author of the new novel ‘Bad Behaviour’. A former journalist and now successful author, Liz is currently touring Australia promoting her work, which deals with women at the ‘richer’ end...

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Real life interrogator's debut

At last Australia has an action hero we can proudly call our own – Jay Ryan. Ryan is the protagonist of JJ Cooper’s The Interrogator, an accomplished debut thriller about an Australian soldier whose life is turned upside down by a betrayal from within. A...

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Confessions of a female PI

Reading Tiffany Bond’s racy self-published read Confessions of a Female Private Investigator could very well make you paranoid. She does, after all, spend much of her time following cheating spouses, and her case files are bulging with accounts of unfaithful...

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Anything but normal

Julie Catt’s refreshingly honest memoir ‘Normal’ is of course anything but, with a storyline more suited to a wacky soap opera. Adopted at an early age, the Sydney psychologist and ex-pat American was a self-described wild child who revelled in the...

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AC/DC - the deluxe edition

As Acca Dacca fans geared up for Australia's Black Ice tour in 2010 – the first time rockers AC/DC had toured Australia in eight years – they entertained themselves reading the band’s re-released in-depth biography, AC/DC Maximum Rock & Roll. Unlike...

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Wounded Guardian's exciting debut

Redemption looms large in Duncan Lay’s debut novel The Wounded Guardian, in which an orphan and a desperate queen thwart the retirement plans of a traumatised war veteran. Martil is a soldier who in company with his fellow Ralloran countrymen has committed...

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