2013 Aurealis Awards

Ooh, ooh, ooh, the list of Aurealis Awards finalists is out - and, yes, I know it came out about a week ago but, you know, life. I always love this list because it gives me a whole new lot of books to read that I might otherwise have missed out on. I've read some of the works shortlisted - Juliet Marillier's short story By Bone-light (in Prickle Moon, a collection of short stories by her published by Ticonderoga Publications) and one of my favourite reads in that collection, Lee Battersby's horror novel The Marching Dead (Angry Robot) and the anthology Dreaming of Djinn edited by Liz Grzyb (Ticonderoga Publications) - and thoroughly enjoyed them so I'll be looking for the others as well.

Henri le Chat Noir

Here's a link to Henri. Just because. I love Henri and his world weary comments and if you've ever shared your life with a cat you'll see why. Enjoy. You can find out more about Henri here.

Scaredy Cat?

So suddenly Angus, the neurotic scaredy cat, is becoming bolder. This is not a good thing because he's decided that going outside is mighty tempting. The first time - a few nights ago - he strolled outside, realised what he'd done and froze in panic so I was able to pick him up and bring him back in. Last night was scarier - for me, not him - because he had things he wanted to investigate and kept moving. Fortunately nothing spooked him and I was able to follow and scoop him up when he stopped to smell something. 

The thing is - apart from the illegality of letting a cat roam at night - he is still very nervous underneath the bravado. A knock at the door sends him to hide under the bed from which he doesn't emerge for hours so any sudden noise is likely to send him running in panic and there are lots of dangers out there for a cat that has spent his entire, pampered life inside.

Australian Women Writers Challenge 2014

So I've been taking part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge for a couple of years now. The idea is to encourage the reading of books by Australian women writers. They don't have to be contemporary and there are different levels of commitment from reading a small number of books to choosing to read and review a larger number. There are review hints if you haven't reviewed before and   the website has other interesting activities too.

I've enjoyed participating in previous years and I'm looking forward to this year.