The Extinction Gambit, book one of The Extraordinaires, kick starts the next series by fantasy / sci-fi author Michael Pryor. Michael has published more than 25 fantasy books, including the Laws of Magic series, The Chronicles of Krangor and several of the Quentaris Chronicles.

Equal parts adventure, mystery and witty repartee, The Extinction Gambit is the intriguing beginning of a brilliant new fantasy trilogy. Kingsley Ward’s dream is to be a famous magician and escapologist but it all goes horribly wrong in front of a packed theatre when Kingsley’s hidden wolfish nature bursts free…

Michael will launch the novel at Northcote Library on December 7th. Find the details, and book a place, at the Darebin Libraries websitehere.

Michael has also recently overhauled his website (which has always been the place to find an overflow of fascinating ideas and reflections). Fans of Michael’s will know he is fairly keen on posting videos and his latest is a blast — Michael Pryor as interviewed by Michael Pryor!

Congratulations to James Moloney for taking out the 2011 Gold Inky award for Silvermay.

Run via The Centre for Youth Literature and insideadog.com.au, theInky Awards are voted on by young people aged 12-20. The Gold Inky is awarded to the most popular novel by an Australian writer with the Silver going to the most popular international title – this year Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel.

The end of the year is fast approaching. Year 12 students are beginning to chew their nails with the thought of exams and I’m counting the days until Christmas (we’re under the 100-day-mark, it’s not unreasonable).

One of my favourite things about the end of the year when I was at school was the end of year activities – letters to Santa, macaroni Christmas ornaments and those paper lanterns with cellophane panes. Now that I’m older and have run out of room on the tree for macaroni decorations, I have a new Christmas tradition, which is a 12 days of Christmas movies countdown, ranging from the whimsical (Home Alone) to unusual (Nightmare Before Christmas).

Had my high school teacher booked Tim Bain to run a horror themed filmmaking workshop I may have beaten Tim Burton to the post and created the Nightmare Before Christmas myself. Tim (Bain not Burton) is available now to run filmmaking workshops with secondary students (and specialises in spooky).

If you’re a teacher looking for a fun way to end the year, an unusual workshop is it (and will potentially encourage students to buy you a lovely Christmas present). Anthony Lawrence (of plasmotv fame) can make an animated short in a workshop with students. If you’re not convinced, check out his works here.

Or HJ Harper, one of Booked Out’s latest additions turns book trailers into something else with her haunted horror puppet theatre. These handmade creations are given plenty of stagetime as they act out shorts from all the latest releases in scary fiction. To make your own haunted theatre and book trailer contact us for more info on booking HJ.

• Bec Kavanagh, Booked Out.

Steven Amsterdam, whose fantastic Things We Didn’t See Coming is going strong on the VCE English reading list, has an article in today’sThe Age Education Supplement.

Steven discusses his experience of school visits, and muses over the two-way street that is education. He explains why talking to students has taught him as much as it has taught them, and more importantly, why this is a good thing.

“So what do I say to 10 rows of keen students, looking to me for comprehension? I start out by telling them that a book is a dream and I don’t have all the answers. I only wrote the thing. They’re the ones who’ve read the book, so they have a certain authority on it, too.

This probably agitates the more concrete thinkers in the crowd, but I like to think it starts to explain the strange co-operative work that is fiction. Then I trace the various strands from outside and inside my head that led me to write the book. These titbits may not be so useful for those cramming for an exam, but again, I hope they provide more insight into the creative process and ease the way towards understanding the book.“

You can read the full piece online at The Age.

Steven’s latest novel, What The Family Needed, will be released bySleepers Publishing with a launch at Trades Hall on November 3.

Forget YouTube. If you have a few spare moments at your desk and want to watch some intelligent videos, here’s a list of essential viewing over at SlowTV.

Re-live Sophie Cunningham’s popular Melbourne Writers Festival address, Why We Still Need Feminism.

If you enjoy that clip, you might also like to check out Leslie Cannold and Kate Holden talking about Porn Wars.

While you’re over there, take a look at Alice Pung talking about her new book Her Father’s Daughter.

And for dessert, watch Tony Wilson and Anna Krien talking about scandals and the role of women in football.

Enjoy!

New speakers to Booked Out in September include:

Lauren Burns

Sue DeGennaro

H J Harper

Ian Trevaskis

Najaf Mazari and Robert Hillman (authors of The Honey Thief and The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif) will join Arnold Zable (author of Violin Lessons and Café Scheherazade), Maria Tumarkin (Historian and author of Otherland and Traumascapes) and Ali Alizadeh (poet and author of Ashes in the Air and Iran: My Grandfather) for a discussion on literature, ethnicity and identity.

The evening will also be a fundraiser for the Mazar Development Fund, which raises money for educational and health programs in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.

Date: Thursday 6th October, 6:30-9:00pm Venue: Malvern Town Hall – Cnr Glenferrie Rd and High St, Malvern

Click here for further information or contact Wild Dingo Press: p. (03) 9523 0922 | e. books@wilddingopress.com.au

Booked Out is proud to support one of the most exciting Young Adult Literature festivals in the country at the moment: A Thousand Words. We believe there is nothing else like it in Victoria at the moment!

With the schools program launching today, and events running over this weekend we urge to check out the program online here.

The Festival Director is our very own Bec Kavanagh and the lineup features a number of Booked Out’s most popular authors.

We had a recent discussion in the office about whether or not people actually read horror. The answer for most of us was a resounding “Yes!”.

For myself, I grew up on Christopher Pike and the Point horror series. Even now, even though I’m pathetically frightened of just about everything (spiders, heights, small spaces, large spaces, chainsaw wielding madmen) I love the thrill that comes with a good scare (provided I’m in my house with my dog in the middle of the day with all the lights on).

But any reader will know that only good horror will suffice. Booked Outer HJ Harper loves all things spooky, and the outlet of her obsession is Spine Chills, a blog whose sole purpose is to frighten the customers. Readers will mournfully stand as the eulogy (blurb) is read and then HJ offers her own insightful reviews in the form of an epitaph. Each book is judged on the story, the characters, the world and the level of horror and then awarded a death certificate with either a gold, silver or bronze skull if it has proved its worth. This brilliant system of reviewing, along with the already arresting visuals of the blog make for great reading, and is well worth looking at for anyone who (like me) loves a good fright.

• Bec Kavanagh, Booked Out.

In a year that seems to have been filled with awards congratulations should go out to all Australian authors, who are clearly putting on a jolly good show.

Most recently we’d like to send a special congratulations to Booked Outers Michael Gerard Bauer and Anna Krien for their wins in the 2011 Queensland Premiers Literary Awards.

Michael won the Mary Ryan Children’s Book Award for Just a Dog with judges saying that “Children will understand and appreciate patience and hope more deeply after reading this fine book and discover that ‘a story doesn’t stop being true just because you stop telling it’”.

Anna as always offers food for thought, winning the Harry Williams Award for a literary or media work advancing public debate. After seeing Anna live at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival recently I have no doubt that she is going to be at the forefront of public debate for some time still with her edgy responses to contemporary public issues.

So congratulations to all winners and especially to Anna and Michael (seen here in a cheeky photo we pinched from the Courier Mail).

• Bec Kavanagh, Booked Out