Some really interesting Tassie events coming up (some of which I’m involved in!):
Tasmanian Writers’ Festival – 16-24 March, 2013 (over two weekends).
Book Launch: A Trifle Dead by Livia Day (from Deadlines, a Twelfth Planet Press imprint), Hobart Bookshop, Thursday 28 March, 2013 (more details to follow).
Get Published! Hints on avoiding the pitfalls to success – Saturday 13 April, 2013 (yep, I’m presenting at this one!).
Filed under Work
My photo of Garth Nix giving the “unicorn salute” (Zombies vs Unicorns) at the Aurealis Awards in 2011.
A discussion on Twitter yesterday saw a bunch of cool people weighing on on what defines YA (in the face of a new designation, New Adult, which I think is a bit blech, but anyway…!). Whenever I see this discussion take place, I’m reminded of my favourite definition of YA (Young Adult) fiction, which was penned by Aussie author Garth Nix as a comment on a blog post by editor Jonathan Strahan. Every time I want to reference the quote, I have to FIND it, and I worry that one day it won’t be there, so I’m noting it here, hoping Garth won’t mind!
To my mind, YA is a subset of adult fiction, not of children’s fiction, and should be considered as having an entry reading age rather than an age *range*. The entry level is probably 13 or 14, but there is no upper level because the books are also for adults. Saying YA is 13-21, or 13-18 or whatever misses the point, because it suggests that the books are not for older adults, whereas I would say that in fact the core audience of people reading YA (and YA SFF in particular) are in fact 16-35. But this is only the core and the readership extends more broadly upward in age and down as well.
Garth Nix, originally posted here (and he adds more to it as well, so worth checking out!)
… then you must.
You’re welcome 
Filed under Books
The books listed here were not necessarily released in 2011, but read in 2011. You can read reviews of many of the books I’ve read over at ASif! or sometimes on Goodreads, which is where I keep track these days. I read over 400 books during the year – many of them for children or young adults, but if it weren’t for Goodreads, I don’t know how I’d remember them all!
So, which did I like best?
Marvel Runaways (graphic novels) – read on Tansy’s recommendation, and really great stuff.
The Vorkosigan Saga (reread and blogged with Alex)
Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts (a Twelve Planets collection)
Eona: the last Dragoneye by Alison Goodman
The Shattered City by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Teeth: vampire tales edited by Ellen Datlow
Happy as Larry by Scot Gardner
Treachery in Death and New York to Dallas by JD Robb
The Fitzosbornes in Exile by Michelle Cooper
Deadline by Mira Grant
Toppling by Sally Murphy
Henry Hoey Hobson by Christine Bongers
Chicks Dig Timelords edited by Lynne M Thomas and Tara O’Shea
Songs of Love and Death edited by George RR Martin
Debris by Jo Anderton
Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti (a Twelve Planets collection)
Steampunk! An anthology of fantastically rich and strange stories edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J Grant
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
This is a pretty long list, derived almost entirely from cross-checking those books I gave five stars to on Goodreads in 2011. However, if you check out my Goodreads, you’ll note that there are hundreds of unstarred books – these are CBCA judging books and I have not included my favourites from those here, because it’s an ongoing judging process. There are some VERY excellent books in the mix though, and I look forward to starring them later this year!
Filed under Books
Just in case you wondered, I stopped doing mini-reviews here because I started using Goodreads. Goodreads is cool. I love Goodreads now.
Oh, and yes, I recently started watching Doctor Who
Reminder that I’m not really blogging here any more – I’ve moved over to thebooknut.wordpress.com – RSS me!
Filed under Uncategorized
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