This month on The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond invite award-winning UK author Robert Shearman to chat about his recent adventures at the Adelaide Writers' Week and the New Zealand International Arts Festival, as well as his ongoing and insanely impressive -- or impressively insane? -- One Hundred Stories project. Hilarity ensues. Highly personal details about Ian's sleeping habits are disclosed. Rob explains why he writes like an uber-caffeinated monkey. Kirstyn edits none of it out. Mwaohahaha. Around the 27:15 mark, the conversation meanders over to Rob's recommended book, Hope: A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander. Despite the fact that it's quite a new book, the trio are relentlessly free and easy with the spoilers, so skip ahead if you'd rather not hear how the book ends. Or begins. Or what happens in the middle. They then move on to discussing the two official podcast books: Houses Without Doors by Peter Straub (beginning at 1:00:30), picked by Kirstyn, and Queenpin by Megan Abbott (1:31:30) which was Ian's recommendation. Yes, it's another looooong episode. You're welcome! Tune back in around the 01:53:45 point for final remarks (and possibly some out-of-tune singing). Next month, Ian has recommended When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger while Kirstyn has picked The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun! * Vale Paul Haines Paul Haines, a well-known and much-loved member of the Australian spec fic community, passed away on Monday 5th March, 2012. Paul was a generous, funny and all-around amazing human being, as well as being an astonishingly good writer – truly, one of our best. He will be sorely missed by those who knew him and by those who only met him through his words. Paul’s work is dark, disturbing, confronting and, more often than not, piss funny to boot. If you’ve not yet had the pleasure, please track down his collections: The Last Days of Kali Yuga (Brimstone Press, 2011) Slice of Life (The Mayne Press, 2010) Doorways for the Dispossessed (Prime, 2006) Thank you, Paul. Travel safe.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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