Recently on Radio National's The Book Show: Fan fiction – the creative and legal pitfalls, and Peter Ackroyd and the mystery of Edgar Allan Poe. Available for streaming or download for a limited time.

Carissa's Weblog

Conflux Blog is this month's host of the Australian Speculative Fiction Carnival. Also, don't forget about the Mini-Con which starts this Saturday.

Carissa's Weblog

Paul Haines, both an extraordinarily talented writer and a much-loved member of the Aussie specfic community, is going through a tough time. After being diagnosed with bowel cancer, having sections of his bowel removed and enduring six months worth of chemotherapy, he has recently discovered he has spots on his liver.

Paul has met this news by “reloading his guns” and is going to fight it with two other forms of chemotherapy for this kind of cancer, combined with a monoclonal antibody called Avastin. Unfortunately Avastin is not currently covered by Medicare or the Australian government’s private health system’s funding. The course of Avastin medication alone costs $20,000, which is beyond the Haines family’s already overextended finances.

The Australian speculative writing and fan community are pulling together to try and help Paul raise funds for his medication. Over the coming days, a fundraising plan of action will be formed – in the meantime, you can make a donation via paypal using this button:

Large or small – every donation counts!

There's been a lot of comment out there about Parallel Importing. Follow the links and trackbacks from this post by Justine Larbelestier and you'll get a good overview of the situation, as well as an education in the publishing industry.

Carissa's Weblog

Here's the link for ALL the free ebooks and wallpapers from Tor in their "Freebies Bonanza". Available through to Sunday.

Carissa's Weblog

Gary Kemble interviews Shaun Tan for Articulate. Includes some examples of the artwork in Tales from Outer Suburbia, including one large, lovely image from "The Water Buffalo".

Carissa's Weblog

We have a temporary RSS feed available for "Carissa's Weblog" items, should anyone be interested. This is really just a trial, and the feed address could change at any time. Go to http://feeds.feedburner.com/AurealisXpress to subscribe.

Carissa's Weblog

Conflux will hold a "Virtual Mini-Con" in their forums on the 2nd and 3rd of August. Check out the official announcement on the Conflux blog for the (very) full list of guests.

Carissa's Weblog

Wendy Waring is host for June's Australian Speculative Fiction Carnival. There's three posts, which you can find here, here, and here.

Carissa's Weblog

Found this a bit late, but SF Revu has a long interview with DM Cornish from March.

Carissa's Weblog