Lost in Austen (DVD)
Pride and Prejudice time travel shenanigans
Tomorrow night, ABC1 will screen the first part of Lost in Austen, a British mini-series in which a 21st-century reader swaps places with Elizabeth Bennet and finds herself inadvertently changing Jane Austen’s story. It sounds fabulously fun, and the SMH provides some background to the series. Lost in Austen has become one of Britain’s best selling DVDs, with talks of a film adaptation. Click here to watch a preview of the show.
Ebooks in Australia
Thinking of buying an ebook? David Frith at Doubleclick has a good round-up of ebook options for Australians. The BeBook seems to be the cheapest option, although Frith seems to have missed the products sold by DA Direct (which, according to a reader at ARRC, will be selling more ebook readers through their Melbourne store).
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This is a round-up of ARRC09 and is not in chronological order. If you want to read more anecdotes, check out the liveblog. Click here for a list of ARRC09 posts and liveblogs .
Ebooks
I missed the speeches on Sunday morning because we had an informal Cellie breakfast at the cafe next door. It was a lovely way to start off the day, and I was told of a ubiquitous photo on the Lora Leigh forums that I must go and check out, but NOT while I’m at work. The search term is “King Neptune”, in case you’re curious.
The morning panels all sounded really good, so I had a difficult choice to make. In the end, I opted for the ebook panel since I had friends going to the others. The session was sponsored by Torquere Press, and the panelists were Helen Woodall, Jordana Ryan and Jess Dee. Most of the discussion was around the benefits of ebooks and the publishing process. It kind of felt more author-focused than reader-focused, but it would’ve been useful for readers who were thinking about writing for an epublisher.
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This is a round-up of ARRC09 and is not in chronological order. If you want to read more anecdotes, check out the liveblog. Click here for a list of ARRC09 posts and liveblogs .
Gala dinner
I wasn’t sure what to expect at the gala dinner, but there had been some discussion in the ARRC Lounge as to what people were wearing. Opting for a little black dress, I arrived just as the entrees were being taken away. Oh, well. I didn’t have much time to nibble, anyway, because as soon as I sat down I was immersed in book conversations left, right and centre.
I was seated with Vassiliki, my librarian and my fellow blogger Marg from Reading Adventures. Also at our table were authors Jess Dee and Lexxie Couper, two readers from Sydney, one from Malaysia, and another lady who was too far away for me to have a proper conversation with. Obviously, we mostly talked about books. I was seated next to an erotic romance reader, so I asked her for recs. I think she said Anya Bast, and possibly a few others that I can now no longer remember.
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King of Sword and Sky by C. L. Wilson (Tairen Soul, Book 3)
I love this series. I’ve always loved high fantasy, but I’ve often longed for more (and happier) romance in them. When I found C. L. Wilson’s Tairen Soul series, I was hooked.
King of Sword and Sky picks up the story where Lady of Light and Shadows ended. Ellie Baristani, truemate of the King of the Fey, travels to the Fading Lands where she hopes to find a way to save the tairen—fierce magical creatures—from extinction. But far from being welcomed by the Fey, Ellie is treated with increasing suspicion and hostility, and Rain finds himself constantly negotiating small but significant political battles, indicating that the Fey haven’t forgotten the years Rain spent on the brink of madness.
Meanwhile, the evil High Mage Vadim Maur dispatches minions to find weaknesses in the Fey’s human alliances and magical defences while he continues his breeding experiments to produce powerful creatures of magic whose souls are bound only to him.
When Ellie finally discovers what she must do to save the tairen, she knows that the solution will not only cast further suspicion on her and undermine Rain’s political standing,
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MOO cards (see Flickr for more)
I totally forgot to announce this before I left for ARRC, but we had some MOO cards made to give away to people we met. Wandergurl was very good at handing hers out, whereas I kept forgetting. So anyway, here they are in case you missed out. (If you want one, let me know!)
ARRC Round-up
More ARRC round-ups are appearing on the blogs, and I’ve collated links that I know of:
Gnomeangel — Adventures with a bleeding heart
Reading Adventures — Reminiscing about ARRC09 – Saturday
Tez Says — Tez in the City, Part II
Bronwyn Parry — ARRC09
Desirabelles — The Australian Romance readers conference 2009
Erica Hayes — tha kikass convenshun, we haz it
Paula Roe — Aussie Romance Readers Convention ‘09
Publishers Weekly — This, that and the Other Thing Monday
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This is a round-up of ARRC09 and is not in chronological order. If you want to read more anecdotes, check out the liveblog. Click here for a list of ARRC09 posts and liveblogs .
I’d love to say that ARRC09 started off with a bang, but true to form, I had barely brushed my teeth when Maggie Nash made her welcome address. I had hoped that Wandergurl would be there–particularly since we were supposed to be liveblogging the event–but she sent me an SMS to say that she registered then went back to bed. We are not morning people. Wandergurl did catch the tail end of MaryJanice Davidson’s keynote speech and said that she was funny.
What do academics really think about romance fiction?
I was eager to hear the panel discussion on what academics think about romance, but I only caught the tail end of the Q&A. The panel included Karen Simpson Nikakis, author of the Kira Chronicles and Head of Program of NMIT’s new Bachelor of Writing and Publishing degree.
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This is going to be a very short Bizzo because I’m still in Melbourne and hotel Internet plans in this country are prehistoric. Might have to duck into Maccas for free WiFi. Anyway…
Book Thingo guest blog
I’m a guest blogger over at Erotic Horizon, so please check out the post and say hi to EH. She gave me some great questions and I had heaps of fun answering them. I’ve just discovered her blog, but I’m enjoying it a lot.
ARRC Round-up
ARRC09 was a rousing success, and we’re doing a round-up of posts here at Book Thingo over the next few days. For a full list of ARRC posts, including the liveblogging, click here.
You can also read other bloggers’ experiences at The Good, The Bad and The Unread
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This is a round-up of ARRC09 and is not in chronological order. If you want to read more anecdotes, check out the liveblog. Click here for a list of ARRC09 posts and liveblogs .
Welcome Reception
I was late to the Welcome Reception and was a bit scared I’d have to stand around on my own, tweeting furtively on my mobile, but there were so many other people either on their own or with only one other friend, that it didn’t seem to matter. Registration took no time at all, and I was given a bag with free books in it. That immediately put me into a good mood!
I didn’t find my friends until the end of the reception, but I did meet a couple of new people. I met a closet romance reader, who said she would be looked down upon if she ever told her colleagues she read romances. That made me sad! I can only hope the weekend was a great outlet for her. The other person I had a long chat with was an artist from WA. She was lovely and I think she was wonderfully surprised at the level of nerdiness enthusiasm on display.
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We’re liveblogging ARRC09 via Twitter. Come follow us at Twitter and check out the photos at Flickr.
Click here to view the liveblog of the ARRC09 Day 2 Morning sessions.
Click here for a round-up of ARRC09 posts.
If you’re interested in participating in the liveblogs, please let me know via Twitter or grab me at the convention. I’ll be mobile all day and may not get to my e-mails on time.
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We’re liveblogging ARRC09 via Twitter. Come follow us at Twitter and check out the photos at Flickr.
Click here to view the liveblog of the ARRC09 Day 2 Morning sessions.
Click here for a round-up of ARRC09 posts.
If you’re interested in participating in the liveblogs, please let me know via Twitter or grab me at the convention. I’ll be mobile all day and may not get to my e-mails on time.
Read the rest of this post.
