Your Mid-Week Art Break: Adrian Tomine

I've always been pretty in love with the stylistic design of The New Yorker, given, you know, it's gorgeous. A fair bit of the illustration tie-ins comes from Adrian Tomine, who's work gives me more feels than it probably should. Really lovely stuff. Check him out over here.

Orla Kiely AW13


I am obsessed with the Orla Kiely AW2013 collection and accompanying shoot by Kris Atomic. Like, I want to live in this world and roll around in these clothes. The chic, new-school, old-school sensibility to it all is pretty special. Check it out below.
















Friday Finds

- I am entirely in-love with these boxsets from The Period Store. There's nothing I'd love more than to wake up morning-of to one of these at my doorstep (well, minus the chocolate. Stupid cocoa allergy). Introduce international shipping please!

- Vampire Weekend have some new songs out! *chinhands*

- These gorgeous photographs.

- Top 10 girl gang movies!

- These flawless bookends (I want them alllll).

- 20 embarrassingly bad book covers for classic novels! (hahahahahaha, oh dear).

- In writerly resource news, Chuck Wendig has another great post on 25 Turns, Pivots and Twists to Complicate Your Story. Krissy Kneen also wrote a really tremendous blog post on the novella over on the QWC website which ticks all the reasons the novella is one of my favourite mediums to write in. Lovely, lovely stuff.

Your Mid-Week Art Break: Joe Todd Stanton

Joe Todd Stanton! There's something about his work that makes me really, really happy.The level of whimsy, narrative and outright strangeness to it all is basically awesome. You should check him out.

It's Okay My Dear


I am entirely, headily in love with new, Brooklyn-based designer, Ashley Cheeks, otherwise known as It's Okay My Dear. The name alone is pretty brilliant, but her collections and lookbooks are close to divine. Also, cat boobs! They are so great.










Friday Finds

- I am obsessed with this fashion editorial inspired by Game of Thrones titled 'Dame of Thrones'. There is literally nothing wrong with it.

- Author Natasha Lester has an excellent post over on her blog on how to get published.

- Another excellent post on who pays when writers write for free. On that note too, Going Down Swinging has one on how to make a buck in the henhouse.

- Pulp! The Classics! I need the Gatsby on my bookshelf.

- National Geographic has a new tumblr! And it is glorious.

- And to give you something to think about over the weekend - Clementine Ford talks about the two ways to dismantle rape culture.

Bad Behavior (1988) by Mary Gaitskill


It's weird to think this book came out the year my sister was born. That's probably an odd thing to launch a review with, but there you go. It was the thing I kept thinking as I read it - that these stories of blunt and damaged and messy women have grown up with my sister, that they haven't aged, that these stories are equally as true and hard as ever. That they're older than me and yet could be written today to similar impact.

I read it for the first time earlier in the month, sitting up in bed on a particularly rainy summer's day. A glass of wine on my bedside table and a cat sprawled behind me on, his tail curled around my neck. Bad Behavior is a short story collection set really prominently in the cities of America - mostly New York. From foolish men inventing relationships with prostitutes, the codependency and disillusionment within friendships, kinks and power through sex in professional relationships, each story delves into the psyche of some pretty broken people, dissecting sexuality, motive and relationships finely. There were stories I struggled to read, stories I wanted to crawl up and around in for a while, stories I wanted to end.

But that's the thing about Gaitskill's writing. You're never comfortable. You certainly feel for the characters, for what they feel, but never in a way that is explicit, never a way that has been shaped specifically to garner a certain reaction. Gaitskill puts characters on a page like a child traps an insect in a jar. For a brief moment you catch a panic, an experience, a surge of emotion before the story ends. The insect escapes. It's pretty remarkable and a book I think worth reading when you're young. Flavorwire listed it in their 20 Books Every Woman Should Read in Her Twenties and I think I agree with that.  

There's a pretty brilliant interview with her over on the BOMB Magazine website which you should check out, especially if you're interested in writing short fiction. It's a really interesting take on process and character. You should check it out.

Your Mid-Week Art Break: Zach Montoya

Zach Montoya's work is pretty incredible. With a focus generally on women in would-be adventures, he creates some amazingly dense narratives in textured and character-heavy illustrations. He seems to draw quite a bit of influence stylistically from James Jean who does the ever-brilliant covers of Fables (not a bad influence to have at all). They're pretty great. Check them out.

Friday Finds

- The annotated wisdom of Louis CK! Love him.

- frankie has an awesome non-fiction book guide over on their website.

- 10 redesigned book covers that are better than the iconic versions. Yes to both One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest covers!

- 7 sentences that sound crazy but are actually grammatically correct (Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo).

- Guys Read Gals! Four for you, Glen Coco. You go, Glen Coco.

- To take you out for the weekend, check out this tumblr the burning house. A selection of really beautiful photographs from people all over the world of things they'd save if their houses were on fire. It's pretty great. 

As an aside too, I've relaunched The Oscars Project - that hilarious thing that I'm doing where I'm trying to watch every Oscars film ever and like, blog about it? You can follow it over on tumblr here. Which is cray.

Friday Finds

- 20 highly sexy photos of highbrow authors (NSFW). Simone de Beauvoir! Be still my beating heart.

- The Wheeler Centre has a great interview up on their blog with the incoming Meanjin editor, Zora Sanders. Read it. Do it.

- Chuck Wendig has a great piece on how to edit your novel.

- 25 fascinating photos of famous writers at home. Edward Gorey is my future.

- Continuing on with great links from FlavorWire, these 12 Great Videos of Famous Authors Giving Advice are amazing.


- Karen Walkers Fall 2013 runway! Hearts in my eyes, guys.