Book Mutterings : 11-17 January 2008

This week we start our tour of the hereabouts with a review and we can find it by checking out Glenn Harper at the International Noir Fiction blog. Glenn has sampled Bad Debts by Peter Temple explaining that he appreciates the complex nature of the first of the Jack Irish books. He also points out that "the Australian setting is vividly drawn". Boy, wait until he read The Broken Shore.

Moving on, we find that the social community site Crimespace is absolutely chock-a-block with members now. In fact, membership has grown to over 1,000 and to celebrate, owner Daniel Hatadi has announced the inaugural Crimespace short story competition - actually it was announced back in October last year - but it's now entering the final few weeks with the deadline of 31st January fast approaching. There is a topic that all stories must adhere to in some small (or large) way and in true patriotic style, Daniel has chosen the theme of 'Australia'. Entries are to be no more than 2,500 words. All the gory details including competition prizes and small print can be found here.

A couple of interviews have come to my notice too, the first is a tad on the old side. Mungo MacCallum has conducted a two-part interview with Shane Maloney which can be viewed by visiting The Monthly website. In the interview they discuss the recent Australian federal election and John Howard's defeat. View Part I & Part II, Maloney's always good value when it comes to interview-fodder.

The second interview comes hard on the heels of the release of Fivefold by Nathan Burrage which has been well publicised already. I'm keen to get my hands on a copy of the book myself. You can catch an interview with Nathan on HorrorScope. Nathan covers a lot of territory from how Fivefold was born to the use of the Kabbalah in the book and has some advice for authors trying to get published before finishing with details of future projects.