Cirrus@Austlit

'Television has always been a medium that brings people together. Even when watched alone, it is simulcast into millions of locations, bonding far-flung audiences in a shared zeitgeist. The idea of ‘water-cooler TV’ captures the sense in which we’ve understood TV as a medium experienced simultaneously and reflected upon immediately, among people whose social ties are otherwise loose.'  (Introduction)

'Juvenilia is frequently bad, but charmingly so; it seems emotionally lucid and unembarrassed of its own literary shortcomings.' (Introduction)

'Books are solitudes in which we meet,’ writes Rebecca Solnit in her 2013 essay collection The Faraway Nearby. But in a crowded literary marketplace, thousands of potential solitudes are jostling to be met in, and it’s easy to choose only the ones that call to us most loudly.'  (Introduction)

'It's reality TV, but is it real love? Talented tradie Rose lands a job on reality TV show, Mansions in the Sky, where she aids contestants in turning shells of houses into glorious mansions. Despite this glamorous gig, she struggles to make friends, and her artistic parents are disappointed with her practical career choices. The only person making time for her is one of the attractive, but married, contestants. But will their stolen moments off-camera put them in danger? A contemporary rom-com that hilariously and lovingly exposes the unreality of reality TV.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'When I was sixteen, I wrote a romance short story by stringing together clichés from Jean Kent and Candace Shelton’s The Romance Writers’ Phrase Book, a kind of thesaurus for expressions such as ‘his strong hands roamed like carefree mustangs over the melting softness of her body.’ Now, as I reread ‘The Dark and Stormy (And Writhing with the Raw Sensuousness that Pressed Them Together like Soldering Metals) Night’, the story sings with supercilious delight at my own cleverness. You can tell I felt no stake in this story. It was not about me, or for me.'  (Introduction)

'The field of ‘writering’ – writing about writing – conceptualises the uncertainty before writing as a hostile territory to be hacked through as efficiently as possible using either mindfulness or careful planning. The pedagogues would have you approach writing with the ruthless efficiency of an army invading hostile territory.'  (Introduction)

'The English language isn’t what it used to be.

'Migration, colonisation and trade encourage the borrowing and stealing of foreign words and phrases; internationalised stylistic choices seek common ground with speakers of multiple dialects. New technologies require new ways to discuss them, rendering older terms irrelevant. Moral standards change, meaning some euphemisms are no longer needed, while new ones arise.' (Introduction)

'I find the craft of writing drearily effortful, and both yearn for and resent the fluent, ecstatic altered states of consciousness that the ‘writering’ industry holds up as peak experiences. Leaps of imagination. Synaptic flashes of intellectual connection. The feeling that a story is ‘telling itself’, or that characters show up, fully formed, to narrate their own plots.' (Introduction)

'When The Lifted Brow announced its prize for experimental nonfiction in late 2014, the fact I wondered what 'experimental' meant was probably a sign I am not very experimental. A bad sign. The literary industry so often valorises experimenting with form, genre and voice as something bold and revolutionary that I felt small and conformist for finding the whole field of 'experimental writing' intimidating, and not knowing how to enter it.' (Introduction)

'Literary audiences can’t help asking, ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ It’s as if an idea is a magic bean: something precious from which stories grow. A thing that can be got, somewhere. Neil Gaiman says people don’t like it when he reveals, truthfully, that his ideas are made up in his head. ‘They look unhappy, as if I’m trying to slip a fast one past them.’' (Introduction)

'Adam, a serious cinema nerd, has no idea that he is the Hot Guy. A man so ridiculously attractive there's a Facebook group dedicated to seducing him. Cate, a sports publicist who loves to crack a joke, is feeling down about her newly single status when her friends suggest the perfect pick-me-up: a night with the Hot Guy. But that one night leaves both Cate and Adam wanting.

'Is a genuine connection possible with a guy this phenomenally smokin'?

'Written by film critic duo Mel Campbell and Anthony Morris, and packed with movie-related humour, The Hot Guy is a funny, warm, savvy, and genuine romcom, with characters you won't want to kick out of bed.'

(Publication Summary)

'In this article, the author discusses the use of epithets by poets, and politicians, philosophers and others in spoken culture. Topics include use of epithets by classical and medieval poets for characterisation and scene setting; how epithets enable politicians and philosophers to appeal to audiences; metaphorical vocabulary in romance fiction to communicate interactions and emotions; and author Amy Boesky's ghostwriting of books for author Francine Pascal's novel series "Sweet Valley High."' (Publication abstract)