Friday Finds

I totally adore Sara Bareilles, so watching her sing Cee-Lo Green's Fuck You is basically the perfect end to a week. She's so great!

- Readings has compiled a pretty awesome list of 20 Australian Books to Read in Your Twenties.

- 10 Historical Female Military Leaders from History.

- These girls on motorbikes are giving me life right now. Also totally making me want to write things about bikie girl gangs!

- This portrait of a South African family is also beautiful. I love the styling and backdrops.

- I'm a total sucker for SF Girl by Bay's Separated at Birth feature. This Mad Men one is particularly great.

- I would also like 10 of these Earl Grey Tea Cake's with Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting.

- This is my life.

Friday Finds

- So, in awesome ladies being recognised for writing awesome things news, the Stella Prize winner was announced and the shortlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize) was also announced. Huzzah!

- Granta has also created a list of exciting new, young novelists. I want to read them alllll.  

- Seizure has just released their crime issue, and I'm really feeling the cover a lot. Photographer Matthew Venables talks about it over here.

-106 Notorious Celebrity Mugshots! Mick Jagger is kind of babin' in his? Or is that weird to say? (Al Pacino is too). Also, there's something really off about people with great, big grins on their faces in their mugshots. It's like. Time and a place, peoples.

- I'm a bit in love with this tumblr, Movies in Color, which matches stills from classic films with their colour palette. Really neat stuff.

- I'm also feeling the Japanese mail-order fashion brand Nico and... The website is testing my limited Japanese comprehension though.

- This food blog! Spoon Fork Bacon! Noms.

- Also, is everyone touring Australia at the moment? Between Martha Wainwright, Tegan and Sara, Matt Corby, Amanda Palmer, Ballpark Music, The Kooks, I can really feel my bank account taking a hit (although I am combining a bunch of these acts by going to Townsville's Groovin the Moo festival which, seriously, I am so excited for. Anyone else heading out for it?)

- As a total aside, I'll be heading to Supanova at the Gold Coast this weekend and working the Queensland Writers Centre stall in Artist's Alley.  If you're there, you should come say hi!

Friday Finds

After the internet-explosion over the last few days, how could I not start this FF with Julia Gillard's address? There is a lot to love about this, and whilst people are (rightfully so) pointing out her hypocrisy regarding the  GLBT community, this still means so, so much politically in Australia right now. This is a balls on the table take-down of a pretty nasty man, and given the recent influx of misogynistic attitudes politically and socially, this was an owning well-deserved. There's a really great round up of all of this stuff (and a whole lot more) over at The Wheeler Centre site by Clementine Ford, and it's definitely worth checking out. 

- On a completely different note, the most recent AWM Speakeasy interview is with literary agent Sophie Hamley. It's a great insight into where agents see themselves in the industry and what she herself looks for in a work and, maybe more importantly, in the authors she chooses to represent. Things to take away seem to be a) don't be too precious and b) don't be too crazy.

- 10 Tips for Generating Killer Science Fiction Story Ideas. I'm always a fan of io9's writing tips, but this list is a particularly good one. Tip 7 is especially great:

 7. Get into a fight with a famous science fiction author

Not literally. Do not go punching Vernor Vinge in the face and then claim I told you to do that. But sure, get into a fight with Vernor Vinge with your stories. Find something about how Vinge depicted cyberspace everting in Rainbows End, and write a story that shows how you think he should have done it. Don't like how Max Barry depicted cybernetic enhancements in Machine Man? Stick it to Max Barry by writing your own take on the subject. A lot of how science fiction has advanced, as a field, is authors trying to one-up each other and responding to each other's takes on the same basic ideas. Even if you don't prove everybody else wrong, you might get a really great story out of it. (Again, do not actually get into a fight with anybody.)

 - I'm basically in-love with this article on Angry Nerds & Sex, written by Siobhan Rosen.

- This really cool infograph on revealing the business of ebooks. 

- Another great list (I swear this is the last), a woman in my crit group mentioned this, and it really is the best. The Different Kinds of People There Are

- Also, I am contemplating making these Saffron-Vanilla Snickerdoodles over the weekend, because holy shit, saffron-vanilla snickerdoodles. 

- Just to take you out, my most recent column is live on LipMag Online. It's on nudity in television. You can check it out over here.

Friday Finds

- The Speakeasy blog is continuing their wonderful series with the editors of a variety of Australian lit journals. The most recent is with Zora Sanders of Meanjin, who I had the pleasure of hearing read at NYWF (she is seriously so, so funny). She has her professional hat on in this interview, but it's a great reflection of Meanjin and a good piece to read even if you're not a writer (but especially if you are). You can check it out here.


- Kill Your Darlings online contributions continue to win at life. One of their more recent ones, written by Stephanie Van Schilt talks about the phenomenon of Bitchface and argues the case of Smugface as a kind of dastardly and more sinister alternative. It's a pretty great post, full of awesome links, so you should check it out.

- Visible Ink has made a great post entitled 'Five Thoughts on Submitting to Journals'. It's a good article and one definitely worth the read if you're looking at submitting your work on a one-off or ongoing process.

- I am totally in love with Eat this Poem, a food blog where each recipe is inspired by a poem. It's really, really beautiful stuff. This coconut one is my favourite so far.

- These stylish cover designs of Harry Potter textbooks are super great too. I've been a huge fan of the series since I got the first book for my eighth birthday, and I get awfully inspired by the degree to which the fandom engages with the series, and this is such a great and beautiful example of that. The fact that the series can inspire such creative output from its readers is awesome.

- To take you home this weekend, check out these 15 topics to get you writing.

Five Food Blogs

I've been on a total food blog kick lately. A part of me is timing it with Master Chef Australia being back on my TV, but really, I've always been pretty into cooking. I've been compiling a lot of recipes over at Pinterest at the moment, but figured I'd share some of my favourite food blogs here too.

i am a food blog.

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. A part of the fun of a good food blog is the photography, and this one is pretty close to being pornographically wonderful.  It's one of my favourites at the moment, and I'm pretty keen to try out some more of the recipes on there.Also, it's got some pretty great typography and a great tagline - after all, who doesn't want to celebrate the awesomeness that is food?

(the pic is Spot Prawns with Cilantro & Lime. Yum.)

Raspberri Cupcakes

Pretty dessert-skewed, but it does include some tasty-looking meals too. This is again, just a gorgeously designed blog with some gorgeously designed food. She's a Sydney-sider too, which is the icing on the cake. (Sorry for the bad joke)

(the pic is her Green Tea & Raspberry Trifles.)

Eat Make Read

Also great on the photography side of things, this is wonderfully diverse in terms of the types of food she makes. The writer also publishes a magazine which I'm pretty keen to get my hands on at some stage. Being me too, I'm pretty keen on her Happy Hour tag.

(pic is her Raspberry, Lime & Gin) 

Food Coma

Not strictly a food blog, Emma's pretty awesome for craft, style and photography posts too, but it's the food that got me there in the first place, so here she is. I've tried a few of her recipes, and they've all turned out pretty wonderfully. I especially love her Recipe Box filing system on her blog. It's a lot of fun to check out the photos for all the recipes without having to go through the tags.

(Pic is her Upside Down Coconut Cream Pies)

Sprinkle Bakes

Both the best and worst part of my health is that I'm allergic to cocoa. The good being that if I wasn't, I'd probably be the size of a house, the bad being that looking at blogs like Sprinkle Bakes is a certain kind of torture. Her blog is beautiful though, and she makes a mean dessert. She's also got such a sense of colour in her baking. It's something really special. I've ordered her cookbook online, and I'm pretty excited to get it! 

(Pic is her gorgeous Mint-White Chocolate Mousse Cake)