Wheels skate park has been built and is about to be officially opened. It's meant to be an area for skateboarders, in–line skaters, scooters and BMX bikes to share. But now a decision has been made to ban the bikes on the grounds that they are dangerous and cause destruction to the facilities.

Deciding to campaign against this injustice, the freewheelers organize a petition, much to the chagrin of the skateboarders who want them out of the park. Undaunted by a series of dirty tricks, the Freewheelers, supported by Mr Lark, go to the local council to appeal the decision, but their efforts are sabotaged by a rowdy protest from their rivals.

For Mio, it's getting increasingly personal. Mr Lark's precious ID dogtags from the Vietnam war have been stolen while in her care. Someone is sending abusive email from her account, and the school wants to expel her. Her parents are ashamed of her and her best friend in Japan doesn't want to know her after seeing the emails.

Mio must take on the skateboarders and ride the course of her life to uncover the truth and win the park back for the BMX riders.

Age 10 – 14

Jeni Mawter is the author of UNLEASHED! and LAUNCHED!, the first two books in the Freewheelers series, and also the popular So! series. She has an MA in Children’s Literature and is a tutor at Macquarie University. She lives in Sydney with her family

Another enjoyable interview!

Share & Enjoy!

35 new stories celebrating the wild side of Australian fantasy writing

Welcome to the energy, invention and imagination of Australia's finest writers of speculative fiction – from acclaimed international bestsellers to the freshest new voices.

Ten years ago, Dreaming Down–Under captured the excitement of the wild side of Australian fiction and won a coveted World Fantasy Award. Now it's time to start Dreaming Again ...

Includes a previously unpublished story from the late great A. Bertram Chandler

Jack Dann has written or edited over sixty books, including the international bestseller The Memory Cathedral, which is published in over ten languages and was number 1 on The Age bestseller list. The San Francisco Chronicle called it "a grand accomplishment", Kirkus Reviews thought it was "an impressive accomplishment", and True Review said, "Read this important novel, be challenged by it; you literally haven't seen anything like it." His novel The Silent has been compared to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn; Library Journal chose it as one of their "Hot Picks" and wrote: "This is narrative storytelling at its best – so highly charged emotionally as to constitute a kind of poetry from hell. Most emphatically recommended."

Dann's work has been compared to Jorge Luis Borges, Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, Castaneda, J.G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick, and Mark Twain. He is a recipient of the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Australian Aurealis Award (twice), the Ditmar Award (three times), and the Premios Gilgames de Narrative Fantastica Award. He has also been honoured by the Mark Twain Society (Esteemed Knight). His novel, Bad Medicine (retitled Counting Coup in the US), has been described by The Courier Mail as "perhaps the best road novel since the Easy Rider days". The West Australian called his retrospective short story collection Jubilee "a celebration of the talent of a remarkable storyteller". He is also the co–editor of the groundbreaking anthology of Australian stories, Dreaming Down–Under, which won the World Fantsasy Award in 1999, and co–editor of Gathering the Bones, a collection of horror stories from around the world.

Jack Dann lives in Melbourne, Australia, and "commutes" back and forth to Los Angeles and New York.

His website is at www.eidolon.net/jack–dann

One of those nice, fun interviews I do so like doing!

Mia Montrose, archaeological linguist, has discovered that the Black Madonna is a code used by secret societies throughout time for the lost key to an ancient power source: the Sphere of Amenti.

Kali, inter–dimensional Queen of the Anunnaki –now fully merged with the youngest Dragon Queen, Tamar Devere – has less than a year to rehabilitate her Fallen kindred who desire inter–galactic domination. Ashlee Granville–Devere, and the Dragon Queens must pool their talents to open the twelve Stations of the Signet Grid and unlock the Halls of Amenti lest the Fallen succeed in using time–travel technologies to destroy humanity.

From the ancient past to the distant future, from Montsègur to the way–stations of the universe, from the Underworld of the Kali Rift to the Otherworld of the Ranna Time Flow – the inter–time war must be won for the sake of the future.

Traci Harding was born and raised in Sydney. A natural storyteller, she has been writing since childhood. Traci lives along the Hawkesbury River, NSW, with her husband and two children.

What a wonderful person to talk to - I should do more interviews like this!

You can find out more about Traci at: http://www.voyageronline.com.au/traciharding

Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced that global brands are embracing the Adobe technology platform for rich Internet applications (RIAs) to create new types of engaging experiences for their customers, partners and employees. Adobe RIA technologies, including Adobe® AIR™ and Adobe® Flex® 3 software, provide companies with a comprehensive solution for the creation and deployment of RIAs for the browser and the desktop.

“RIAs have moved beyond the stage of early adoption. They are being deployed by organizations worldwide that have recognized and embraced this revolution in Web software,” said Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer at Adobe. “The incredible momentum that we are already seeing with Adobe AIR demonstrates the real need for businesses to engage with customers in more effective ways, extending innovative RIAs as first class citizens on the desktop.”

AOL; eBay; The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc.; The New York Times Company; Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group’s Nick.com; Sharp Corporation and others today launched pioneering applications deployed on Adobe AIR. For more information and to download applications on Adobe AIR, visit www.adobe.com/go/airshowcase.

Mark Blair, Technical Director at Adobe ANZ,took time out to explain just how AIR and Flex work, and what it means for people who use the net everyday. It's all based on Flash technology, and with loads of open source material.

This was a great interview, not only from a technical viewpoint as to how things work, but also from the point of what Adobe is trying to do to help both clients and end users alike!

Do your kids sometimes make you feel like your head is going to explode? Have you ever yelled until you were hoarse? Do you ever have days when all you feel like doing is making a run for the airport? Why is it so hard to be the parent you thought you would be?

For harassed parents struggling to understand why they end up screaming at their kids and tearing their hair out trying to make them understand that bad behaviour has consequences, here's the perfect book to help your family make it through the crucial first decade or so and actually enjoy each other's company.

Practical commonsense answers and examples from actual cases, logical and realistic strategies, and innovative behaviour–modification tools that work in the real world –– all from a parent and family therapist who's seen almost everything there is to see and offers some hard–won battlefield wisdom.

Written in down–to–earth language, this book should be handed out at birth, an essential guide for the struggling parent who knows family life can and should be better.

Clinical psychologist Nigel Latta is the author of Execution Lullaby, and the bestselling Into the Darklands: Unveiling the Predators Amongst Us. Nigel specalises in working with kids in the ‘too hard’ basket and consults with families from throughout the country.

A sought-after speaker and trainer, Nigel is also a regular media commentator. He lives in Dunedin with his wife and two children. Nigel Latta can be heard in the parenting segment of This Way Up each Saturday on National Radio.

Fantastic guy to talk to is Nigel, I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did!

Eighteen–year–old Mumma is pregnant and abandoned on a remote island by her respectable family. Her only company is a neighbour, a youth she calls Mister who brings offerings of fresh fish, and her only consolation is feeding her beautiful daughter Lolly on the recipes her mother taught her.

Yet in her isolation, Mumma spins a haven of light and warmth that beckons Mister (a boy who knows all about abandonment, his mother having run off years before) and allows the two of them to forge an unlikely affection. It also allows Mumma's child, Lolly, to grow unaware of the dark secrets surrounding her ...

Yet Mumma cannot protect Lolly from the world forever. At school there are plenty of people willing to point out to Lolly how eccentric her family is, and that Mister is not her real father. It's a subject she cannot broach with her mother, any more than she can talk about the way her baby sister died at birth, and how she has always felt responsible.

Eventually, Lolly's distress manifests in a desperate effort to exert control in the only way she can –– by controlling her own body.

This richly textured novel weaves the pleasures of cooking and the freedom of daydreams into a story of a young woman's fierce resilience, rending vulnerability, and unexpected love.

Corrie Hosking grew up in the Adelaide Hills, where she now lives with her partner, her children and a collection of animals. The manuscript of her first novel, Ash Rain, was the inaugural winner of the Adelaide Festival Award for an unpublished manuscript in 2002. It was subsequently published by Wakefield Press in 2004. Corrie has presented at the Sydney Writers' Festival -- the result of being chosen as one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelists, 2005 -- and at Adelaide Writers' Week.

Corrie was great fun to talk to, and I hope you can catch up with her at the Adelaide Writers' Festival in March!

What is the most Australian thing about Australians? It’s the Australian accent! But what is it? Where did it come from? And is it under threat? Join us on the fascinating journey that is “The Sounds of Aus”.

How can you tell if somebody is Australian? Can you tell an Australian by the way the look? By what they do for a living? Or even by the way they think? Arguably, the Australian accent is the most Australian thing about us. The cultural DNA in this country is in the way Australians speak.

But what is the Australian accent? Where did it come from? Does the broad ocker accent represent how the majority of Australians sound? Does our accent vary significantly from region to region? Is the accent under threat from the forces of globalisation? Is it even worth preserving? And where is it going from here?

Hosted by John Clarke, and told through an array of illuminating interviews with linguists, historians, social and political commentators, comedians, actors, and plenty of opinionated people with genuinely hilarious anecdotes, The Sounds of Aus is a humorous, informative and uplifting documentary that tells the story of the Australian accent. It tells us how we got it, how to do it, how it has evolved over the two centuries since the First Fleeters first transported the English language to our shores, and what is happening to the accent now.

Lawrie Zion's done a great job with this DVD, and this is a really fun interview!

In Percheron, Zar Boaz is preparing for the imminent arrival of the Galinsean war fleet. Despite the necessity for him to be part of the delicate negotiations, Spur Lazar determines to travel back to the desert to rescue the abducted Zaradine Ana.

Ana is a prisoner of the despotic Arafanz and his fanatical followers, and as it slowly becomes clear what they plan for Percheron, Ana does not know if she is to survive.

Pez – once the palace fool – is now locked in a mighty battle of wills with his nemesis, the charismatic Grand Vizier Tariq ... which may make the threat of war irrelevant as the final confrontation for the region's faith is played out.

Fiona McIntosh was born and raised in Sussex in the UK, but also spent early childhood years in West Africa. She left a PR career in London to travel and settled in Australia in 1980. She has since roamed the world working for her own travel publishing company, which she runs with her husband. She lives in Adelaide with her husband and twin sons. Her website is at www.fionamcintosh.com.

It's always great to talk to Fiona, and this is a great interview!

Les Norton is back, wearing ten-hole Doc Martens …

Les is quite happy resting up after the flu, when Warren has to tip him into an earn. Norton’s mate from the Albanian mafia, Bodene Menjou, is planning to make the most politically correct movie ever made in Australia, Gone with the Willy Willy, and has a script stolen. If Les can find it, a lazy $50,000 could fall in. How can Norton say no?

After almost getting his head blown off in a drug lab, being attacked by crazed women with broomsticks, and beaten up by monstrous drag queens, Les is wondering if it is all worth it. The trip to Terrigal and the magical mystery tour with Marla is good. And Topaz with her chicken soup is an unexpected delight. But apart from that, Les doesn’t find much joy at all in his search for the missing film script. Especially not trapped in a fight for his life with a sadistic giant, where only one thing can save him: the Mongolian Death Lock.

Set in Bondi and Terrigal, Robert G. Barrett’s latest Les Norton adventure, The Case of the Talking Pie Crust, is vintage Les Norton doing exactly what he does best: his worst. And proves once again why Robert G. Barrett is, according to the Australian, the king of popular fiction.

Robert G. Barrett was raised in Sydney’s Bondi, where he worked mainly as a butcher. After thirty years he moved to Terrigal on the Central Coast of New South Wales. Robert has appeared in a number of films and TV commercials but prefers to concentrate on his writing career. Visit his official website at www.robertgbarrett.com.au

'Surely God weeps,' an Australian Vietnam veteran wrote in despair at the memory of the Vietnam War. But no act of God intervened to stop the long years of carnage and devastation in this most controversial of wars.

In Vietnam, Paul Ham (author of the bestselling Kokoda) narrates in compelling detail the full story of Australia's involvement in our longest military campaign, in which 50,000 Australians participated.

This extraordinary, sweeping account, draws on hundreds of unpublished sources and interviews with soldiers, politicians, medical practitioners, aid providers, entertainers and the Vietnamese people to reconstruct the epic history of a campaign that disfigured a country and divided the world, nations, families and friends.

At its heart, this is the soldiers' story –– of being tossed about in politicians' battles. Unlike any previous history of the war, Paul Ham sets the Australian story in the context of both the American and Vietnamese experiences, giving us a true sense of the sheer scale of this tragedy.

Paul Ham is the author of Kokoda and the Australia correspondent for The Sunday Times (London). He has a Masters degree in Economic History from the London School of Economics.

Paul Ham offers us an incredible insight into what the Vietnam conflict was really about - and at the heart, the very core of this book is one key issue... that Australian troops involved were not blindly following the Americans, that they didn't commit atrocities, nor did they deliberately harm the civilian population.

If you only ever read one book about Australia's involvement in this conflict, this is the book to read.

Simply amazing.

It's 1981 and Shelby Sloane gets a canary yellow Mustang convertible as a graduation present. She plans an odyssey to find her mother who left her many years earlier. When Shelby's former best friend Gina asks to come along, Shelby reluctantly agrees.

When they see a young woman hitchhiking on the side of a country road, they don't want to pick her up. They turn their gaze away. But days later, they find her again. Candy gets in. She needs to get to Paradise – that's Paradise, California. But she is beset by dangers on a scale beyond the wildest imaginings of Shelby and Gina. She sucks them into her treacherous world and her own frightful journey.

The ride that began with high spirits and good humour proceeds into the darkest backroads of America, when Shelby, Candy and Gina are forced to make real moral choices that have critical consequences for their future, and by their ordeals they take a very different journey.

Paullina Simons was born in Leningrad, and emigrated to the United States in 1973. Her novels include The Bronze Horseman, The Bridge to Holy Cross and The Summer Garden. She lives close to New York with her husband and four children.

Paullina was once again great fun to talk to, not only about her new novel, but about the ideas and process that went into creating it. We also talked about life before and after her leaving Russia, and the tragedy of the disintegration of the former Soviet Union.

Definitely well worth a listen!

This fifteenth collection of jaw-dropping stories in the bestselling Selby series will give you laughs and thrills with a sackful of sagas and gags to keep you guffawing long after the last Christmas cracker goes pop!

For the last twenty-two years, one character has stood out (on all four legs) above all others in Australian children’s fiction: Selby, ‘the only talking dog in Australia and, perhaps, the world.’ Selby Santa marks this loveable pooch’s fifteenth story collection, bringing the total to date to 197 action-packed, hilarious stories plus poems and plays, not including Selby’s Joke Book, Selby’s Side-Splitting Joke Book and Selby’s Selection.

In Selby Santa, Selby is off on another series of electrifying adventures! Firstly there’s Selby’s hair-raising adventure in Dr Trifle’s Super Santa Sleigh Simulator, then a thrilling spy story, not to mention a terrifying tale with Selby caught in the grips of a huge, hungry python, and there’s even a great Gary Gaggs play for you to act out for your family and friends! And that’s not all…

Twenty years ago, an unknown author, Duncan Ball, answered the phone and was stunned to learn that the caller was none other than a dog called Selby — a dog from an Australian country town who had taught himself to talk. Selby wanted someone to write down all his amazing adventures — from walking in space, travelling through time, falling in love, being trapped in a parallel universe, to risking death at every turn.

Duncan Ball is one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors, well known for his Selby and Emily Eyefinger series. His books have won many children’s choice awards. In 2004, Duncan and fellow author Paul Jennings were voted the first-ever ‘Legends’ by KOALA (the Kids’ Own Australian Literature Awards). Duncan was also the only children’s author included in the Commonwealth Government’s 2004 Books Alive! Program. He has been all over Australia talking to kids about Selby and there is hardly a school he hasn’t visited! Duncan is a full-time writer and lives in Sydney.

Duncan's also an amazing guy to talk to, and in this interview we ranged over topics as wide as children's fiction, the need to children to read, books that influence lives and just how bad a novelist Dan Brown is... and how good an essayist Grahame Greene was!

This is a fantastic interview, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Discover Matt Skinner this November with the publication of his brilliant The Juice 2008. Matt has selected THE 100 wines you should be drinking, in this, the first ever Australian and New Zealand edition.

Matt’s clear, witty and entertaining guide gives you great insight into the best wines available in Australia today. It’s the perfect book for wine lovers of all kinds, for every budget and every occasion – wines for the
table, wines for giving and wines worth blowing the rent on.

Hailing from Melbourne, Matt Skinner is the sommelier for Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurants and is also the wine columnist for The Sunday Telegraph’s Sunday Magazine.

The third edition of THE JUICE is the first edition to be fully tailored for the Australian market. Jamie Oliver's sommelier has travelled the globe to compile his own inimitable selection of the best wines for 2008 available in Australia, mostly for under Aus $30. Recognizing that what we want to drink depends on the occasion, Matt divides up his hot 100 into four sections: Skint, Brownie Points, TV Dinners and Bling. Add to this Matt's Juice Awards for his best wines and producers of the year, a selection of juicy wine topics, plus a guide to grape varieties and you have today's freshest and most accessible wine guide.

An amazingly fun and funny bloke to talk to, Matt's well worth a listen!

Belinda Alexandra returns with a dazzling novel about two exceptional sisters, set in the Australian film world of the 1920s.

In fear for their lives after the sudden death of their mother, Adela and Klara must flee Prague to find refuge with their uncle in Australia. There, Adela becomes a film director at a time when the local industry is starting to feel the competition from Hollywood.

But while success is imminent, the issues of family and an impossible love are never far away. And ultimately dreams of the silver screen must compete with the bonds of a lifetime ...

Silver Wattle confirms Belinda Alexandra as one of our foremost storytellers. Weaving fact into inspiring fiction with great flair and imagination, this is a novel as full of hope, glamour and heartbreak as the film industry itself.

Belinda Alexandra has been published to wide acclaim in Australia and New Zealand, France, Germany, Holland, Poland, Norway and Greece. She is the daughter of a Russian mother and Australian father, and has been an intrepid traveller since her youth. Her love of other cultures and languages is matched by her passion for her home country, Australia, where she is a volunteer rescuer and carer for the NSW Wildlife Information and Rescue Service (WIRES).

Belinda was fantastic fun to talk to, and I look forward to her next novel!

At eighteen months of age, Lucky, a cream–coloured terrier, was dropped off at a vet's clinic in Queensland, abandoned by his owners and suffering from ticks and other terrors. A week from being put down he was adopted by Frank Robson and his partner, Leisa. From the start, the fluffy new member of the household proved an enigma, displaying a twelve–snort vocabulary, an ability to climb trees (the better to chase parrots) and a disdain for suburbia. In this full–blooded account of a friendship between man and dog, Robson puzzles on the sentient being who trotted into his life and taught him about survival, mateship and the joys of an independent spirit.

Born in New Zealand, Frank Robson spent an itinerate, jack-of-all-trades existence in Australia before becoming a journalist. He has worked for numerous publications, from The Melbourne Truth to Time, run a freelance press agency, made documentaries, and written two previous books, Dare to be Different (on Queensland oddballs), and a novel, Food of Fools. Robson has won two Walkley Awards for feature writing and in recent years has been a full-time writer with Good Weekend magazine.

Frank was fantastic to talk, moored on his yacht in the Noosa River. I look forward to future tales of his and Lucky's adventures!

Oh, and you can find out more about Lucky at www.luckyforme.com.au !

'Tim Baker may well be the most brilliant and incisive surf writer working today, or on any givenday for the last twenty years.' worldprosurfers.com

Leading surf journalist Tim Baker has profiled the surfing world's most inspiring characters, encountered over two decades of surf writing, to highlight the life lessons and boundless inspiration to be gained from a lifestyle built around waveriding. From salty old surf legends to modern pro–surf stars, to surfers from all walks of life –– writers, musicians, aid workers, ethicists –– the common theme in all these surfers' lives is how their personal journeys have been shaped and informed by their experiences in the ocean.

'I think one of the most powerful outcomes of surfing is how it creates community and shared experiences across all sections of society. Surfing is a lingua franca of nature. Even dolphins and other sea creatures surf.' Vezen Wu, scientist

'Just the feeling of the water on you, diving and paddling, duck–diving your first wave, seeing a set come, turning around and stroking into it, that initial rush as you drop down the face, the jolts of acceleration as you go through the manoeuvres – there's nothing like it. The only thing that actually comes close to riding waves is sex.' - Mark Richards, four–time world surfing champion

5% of author royalties from this book will be distributed to the following charities: Surf Aid International; Disabled Surfers Association; Life Rolls On; Surfers Healing; Surfrider Foundation

Tim is always great to talk to, and I hope you go out and enjoy his book!

When troubled artist Rachel Kelly dies painting obsessively in her attic studio in Penzance, her saintly husband and adult children have more than the usual mess to clear up. She leaves behind an extraordinary and acclaimed body of work – but she also leaves a legacy of secrets and emotional damage it will take months to unravel.

A wondrous, monstrous creature, she exerts a power that outlives her. To her children she is both curse and blessing, though they all in one way or another reap her whirlwind, inheriting her waywardness, her power of loving – and her demons...Only their father's Quaker gifts of stillness and resilience give them any chance of withstanding her destructive influence and the suspicion that they came a poor second to the creation of her art.

The reader becomes a detective, piecing together the clues of a life – as artist, lover, mother, wife and patient – which takes them from contemporary Penzance to 1960s Toronto to St Ives in the 1970s. What emerges is a story of enduring love, and of a family which weathers tragedy, mental illness and the intolerable strain of living with genius.

Patrick Gale's latest novel shines with intelligence, humour and tenderness.Patrick Gale was born on the Isle of Wight in 1962. He spent his infancy at Wandsworth Prison, which his father governed, then grew up in Winchester. He now lives on a farm near Land's End. As well as writing and reviewing fiction, he has published a biography of Armistead Maupin, a short history of the Dorchester Hotel and chapters on Mozart's piano and mechanical music for H.C. Robbin Landon's The Mozart Compendium. His most recent novels are Rough Music and Friendly Fire.

It's always great fun to catch up with Patrick, he's a really interesting guy to chat with!

MARTIAL ARTS, MAGIC, DEMONS and SCIENCE

The forces of Hell are poised to strike ...

When Emma's relatives come to visit her, they are totally freaked out by what they learn ... Emma's beloved, John Chen, is a 3000 year old Chinese god. Not only that, John is becoming weaker by the day. Demons pursue him relentlessly, hoping to use Emma, and his child, Simone, as bargaining tools against him.Emma battles to defend Simone as John's energy is drained by the effort of both living in the mortal world and protecting them. While Emma is nagged by doubts about her own nature, she must find the courage to go on ...

Kylie Chan married a Hong Kong national in a traditional Chinese wedding ceremony and lived in Hong Kong for many years. She now lives in Queensland with her two children. Blue Dragonis her third novel.

Kylie is probably my all time favourite author to interview, simply because we seem to manage to never actually talk about her books! Well... they're in there somewhere, but because she's just much fun, the interviews seem to cover anything and everything else... from Chinese mythology to equine Flu, this interview was just great fun.

Not as much fun as her books are, though!

You can find out more about Kylie at her website:

http://www.kyliechan.com

Controversial bishop and moral activist John Shelby Spong has been on a lifelong quest to rescue the Church from irrelevance. In 'Jesus for the Non–Religious', he takes aim at the core of the Christian faith: the identity of Jesus himself. He first strips back the myths that have surrounded Jesus for centuries from the virgin birth to his resurrection from the dead. Next, Spong explains how these myths arose because Jesus's followers saw everything he did through the lens of the Hebrew scriptures.

With these new revelations, we are then able to see the true Jesus: a heroic figure who revealed divinity through his humanness and can still guide us today. Spong breaks Jesus free from the idol religion has created and restores for us a revolutionary and life–giving figure we all need to meet.

John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal Bishop of Newark before his retirement in 2000. As a visiting lecturer at Harvard and at universities and churches throughout the English-speaking world, he is one of the leading spokespersons for liberal Christianity. His many books include A New Christianity for a New World; Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism; and his autobiography, Here I Stand.

Bishop Selby Spong - or Jack as he asked me to call him - was a fantastic person to interview, and we covered a wide range of subjects!

Truly a wonderful listen - especially if you're not terribly religious!

Ex-Navy operative Lachlan Fox is now working as an investigative journalist. When a number of European power-brokers are killed he starts to suspect something very big is going on. His instincts are right. Since the forming of the UKUSA (pronounced U-KU-ZA) Treaty in 1948, the five member countries (USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) have developed ever-capable electronic Signals Intelligence services. Put simply, their intelligence agencies currently have the capability to intercept every spoken or written word that travels via telephone, fax, email, radio, microwave, satellite, fibre-optic transmission, etc. in the world.France has been vocal in their opposition—but the truth is, they want in. While military and terrorist communications are targeted, Echelon (the main UKUSA program) spends most of its time and resources targeting political and economic assets around the globe. This information is disseminated to US companies via The Advocacy Centre, set up by the Clinton Administration in 1993, and that year alone added $35B to the US economy through export gains. Lachlan Fox suspects that Echelon is under threat. He is the right man in the wrong place.

James Phelan is a Melbourne-based freelance writer who writes for a variety of publications, including The Age. He holds a Master of Arts in Writing and is currently working on his PhD. He teaches in the Swinburne University Master of Arts Writing program. James also runs James Phelan Literary Services, a business created in 2001 to cater for everything from website content to marketing material and copywriting. He lives in Canterbury, Victoria.

James was great fun to talk to, and I look forward to "Blood Oil" coming out next year!

Meet the blokes who know how engines work, what to do with discarded bicycle parts, how to fix everything from bulldozers to sewing machines to prize–winning hotrods.

Makers, Breakers & Fixers explores the link between creativity and resourcefulness, a powerful Australian tradition forged out of isolation, drought, fire, war and the Depression.

From farm to factory to artist's studio, the shed has come to be treasured as a palace of everyday creativity. It's the place where problems are solved and communities built. More than ever, the answer's in our own backyard.

Mark Thomson, author of the runaway bestseller Blokes & Sheds, returns to lift the roofing iron and peek inside corrugated kingdoms across the nation.

Mark Thomson is the author of the bestselling Blokes & Sheds, Stories from the Shed, Blokes & Barbies and Rare Trades. He has worked as a photographer, newspaper editor, graphic designer and writer. Mark lives in Blackwood, Adelaide, with his daughter.

A wickedly funny account of celebrity, Hollywood and everything in between!

What's it like to be a veteran director up against the machinations of modern–day Hollywood, with its self–absorbed stars, studio executives who think 'Singapore' is a made–up country, destitute producers posing as lords of finance –– the mad, the bad and the downright notorious?

Award–winning film–maker Bruce Beresford takes us through the highs and lows of the screen trade –– from high–powered dinner tables to obscure backlots, from the centres of power to far–flung locations –– with a cast of characters that includes Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Jeffrey Archer, Steven Seagal, and many others. Delightfully literate and sharply observed, this is a highly entertaining insider's account of a rarely glimpsed world.

Bruce Beresford has made some of Australia's best known and most interesting films, including Breaker Morant, Puberty Blues and The Adventures of Barry Mackenzie, and has had international success with Black Robe, Double Jeopardy and Driving Miss Daisy, which won an Academy Award. He lives in Sydney. This is his first book.

Unfortunately the microphone and telephone connection with Bruce was, to put it bluntly, bloody appalling, and this is reflected in the recording quality of this interview.

Which is a shame, because this was one of the most fun interviews I've done in ages, and I really enjoyed myself....

Including a much wider range of words than ever before, the extensive coverage of geographical, scientific, and technical entries has been updated by our team of leading academic experts.

Language notes give advice on using the right word in the right place, and thousands of word histories trace the roots of modern English.

All this has been complemented with a refreshingly clutter–free design, which is easy to use and easy on the eye, taking you straight to the information you need with the minimum of fuss.

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You can rely on Collins: all our definitions, examples, idioms and usage notes are based on the Collins Word Web – our unrivalled and constantly updated 2.5 billion–word database of today's English.

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Accessible brand–new layout that's easy on the eye, guiding you quickly to what you want.

Words are tools for life. And a Collins Dictionary makes them work for you.

Dr Ruth Wajnryb is Collins' Australian Language Consultant, and an amazing person to talk to... especially if you want to be up to the second with words.

In fact, she created one on the spot, just to cover me - phrasist, "One who prefers phrases over words to define meaning".

If you want to know more about the dictionary, or add words of your own, point your browser to

www.collinslanguage.com

So, start collecting today!

Girls, boys, music – great mix! And who hasn't dreamed of being in a rock band? And what could be better than hooking up with your besties and forming an all–girl band. That's what Pip, Irina, Karen and Angie did when they formed their band Not Perfect. These are four different girls lead very different lives, but when they come together and play, they are as one. These girls rock.

Bestselling author Susanne Gervay wrote THAT'S WHY I WROTE THIS SONG, and her musician daughter Tory wrote the lyrics. The book explores the lives of four very different teenage girls and their relationships with their fathers, boys and each other. All this is set around the music scene and the girls' passion for and involvement with it, from rock concerts, weekend music festivals and the girls' own band.
Rock music, girls, guys, love, loss, bullying, life - that's what I write about because it's important, funny, sad and real.

I didn't know I was going to be an author. I just wrote because I had to. Because it helped me work out things like - Why did Mum and Dad argue? How could my son be bullied at school? What was love? Friendship? Why is there war? Terrorism? How come my dog made me laugh? Will I ever look OK? What's it mean being here?

I’m inspired by my kids, parents and the people who touch my life and have a strong commitment to emotional truth. I write about migration and the refugee experience. My parents were post war refugees and really grateful to be able to make a new life in Australia. I write about friendship and love and hate. There's so much to write about.

Being an author is the most fantastic thing. I don’t mean the writer’s block or the stress over publication or media that goes wrong. Why do I love it? My best friends in the world are authors and they are amazing, passionate, funny, loving. My readers are my best friends too. When a fan holds 'Butterflies' close to her heart and says 'I read and re-read 'Butterflies' because it’s important to me', I feel privileged. I write because my kids love it too and we share a unique and special experience through my books.

Writing and life are the same to me. I'm not someone who sits at a desk and writes all day. Writing is here and there, slotted in at night when I'm not too tired. I often get up at four in the morning to write. It's quiet. I work, raise my family, do writing tours. I have to admit that sometimes I go away for a week, so I can finish a book.

Writing filters into everything I do. My family runs ‘The Hughenden’, a small heritage hotel in Sydney’s Paddington-Woollara. Writers and film makers, publishers and artists, drop by for coffee or stay or meet. The literary life of The Hughenden is living arts today. As one of the leaders of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI), The Hughenden is now the official home of SCBWI Australia and New Zealand.

www.sgervay.com
www.hughendenhotel.com.au
www.scbwiaustralia.org

A recording of two songs by Tory will be available to download from the HarperCollins website:
http://www.harpercollins.com.au/promotions/thatswhyiwrotethissong/

Susane was fabulous to talk to, and she's definitely keen on both music and writing - this is a great interview, about a great book!

In the 1970s and 1980s, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese families set out on perilous journeys in rickety boats to escape communist rule and seek out a better life. Kim Huynh's family was one of them. In this unique memoir, Kim traces his parents' precarious lives, from their poor villages in central and south Vietnam, through relative affluence in Saigon, to their harrowing experiences after the American withdrawal and the fall of Saigon in 1975. As Kim explores his parents' stories, he unveils the tragedy, oppression and inner strength of ordinary people struggling to survive in a country beset by colonisation and ravaged by war.

This gripping story is not only an invaluable piece of political history, but a moving tribute from a son to his parents.

Kim Huynh was born in Vietnam in 1977 and arrived in Australia with his family as a refugee in 1979. He grew up in Canberra working in the family bakery, largely detached from his Vietnamese relatives and heritage. In 1999 Kim set out to find out where he came from. He learnt to read Vietnamese, spent many hours interviewing his parents and traveled back to Vietnam on several occasions to speak to family and friends. His findings became the basis for a first-class honours degree and then a doctorate in international relations. Where The Sea Takes Us represents the culmination of Kim’s journey and serves as a symbol of his dedication to his family.

Kim won the Varuna Award for Manuscript Development in 2004. He lectures courses in refugee politics and political deception at the Australian National University.

All royalties from sales of this book are donated to Medecins Sans Frontieres Australia

Kim is an incredible guy to talk with, and I'd strongly, strongly urge you to go out and buy his book - and preferably read it!

Check out the interview at:

http://rastous.podomatic.com

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A captivating, rich historical novel set in nineteenth-century Bloomsbury Unable to find stage work, actresses Cordelia Preston and Rillie Spoons need to find a way of making a living. Cordelia remembers the skills of her aunt and sets out to be a phreno-mesmerist, advising couples on their compatability and enlightening women on ‘The Gentle Intricacies of the Wedding Night’. Cordelia finds that she does indeed possess the gift for mesmerism, and as her popularity grows, she and Rillie are finally living their dream. But events from Cordelia’s past return to haunt her, and the women become embroiled in a scandal that threatens to ruin not only them but those they love …

Barbara Ewing is a New Zealand-born actress and author who lives in London. She has a university degree in English and Maori and won the Bancroft Gold Medal at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Barbara was great fun to talk to, and I really enjoyed both her time and her novel!

Fiona Hall is one of the artists featured in "Untitled. Portraits Of Australian Artists.

Her works are currently on display at Galleries across Australia, and range from bird's nests made from US Dollar bills, to sculptural pieces.

You can find out more about Fiona's work from the Roslyn Oxley Gallery in Sydney.

This lavish, large-format, 400-page book was first sighted in Venice where its appearance coincided with the recent opening of the Venice Biennale. It has also been enthusiastically received at London’s National Portrait Gallery and at Australia House.

The publication’s Australian launch, by Dr Gerard Vaughan, Director of the National Gallery of Victoria, will be celebrated at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square, on 25 July 2007. Thereafter, books will be available from bookshops and at Sonia Payes’ solo exhibition of artists’ portraits at Charles Nodrum Gallery in August, 2007.

As a grand and spectacular statement about Australia’s vibrant visual arts scene and its creative, and often quirky, individuals, Untitled. catches 60 Australian painters, sculptors, printmakers and photographers within the idiosyncratic environments that help to shape their work.

Often this is the artist’s studio, that special space which is so essential to the creative life. Professor Ted Snell’s Introduction to the book provides an historic overview of the role of the studio as it has evolved over time. Another fifty-two leading authors and art world figures who, like the artists, have been selected from across the nation, have contributed the short essays that accompany each artist’s six-page section of the book.

The compilation of 700 or so images, requiring Sonia Payes’ travel across Australia and overseas, are sensitively revealing of the range of identities who inhabit the pages of the book.

Accordingly, the most compelling pages are those devoted to her full-page, sometimes double-page, portraits of the artists. These demonstrate Payes’ uncanny ability to convey insights into the colourful personalities who contribute so much to Australia’s visual arts culture.

Sonia Payes’ exhibition of selected portraits from Untitled runs from 31 July to 25 August 2007 at Charles Nodrum Gallery, 267 Church Street, Richmond.

Truly amazing to talk to, Sonia Payes was vibrant, fun and full of wonderful stories from behind the lens - well worth a listen!

Jane Goodall’s popular leading lady, Briony Williams, is now a detective with the Chelsea CID. She has grown in confidence and rank from when she first appeared in The Walker as a rookie cop. In the fierce English summer of 1976 the Punk movement is on the rise and chaos is the catchcry down in its heartland at the World’s End of London. But things take a darker turn as a new group calling themselves Sudden Deff show signs of wanting to live up to their name. When Briony learns that she and two close colleagues have appeared on ‘Deff Row’ in the group’s fanzine, she is drawn into a fatal game with a set of adversaries who always seem to be two moves ahead.

Jane Goodall was born in England, went to school in Australia and attended university in London during the punk era. She is a professor with the Writing and Society Research Group at the University of Western Sydney, where she conducts research in cultural history and the history of science. She has made programs for the ABC Radio National Science Show and writes on a wide variety of topics. Her fascination with subcultures feeds into her crime novels, which feature Briony Williams, a young detective working in the 1970s before forensics and computerisation came to dominate the work of the CID. The Calling is her third novel. Her first novel The Walker was a Books Alive choice, and her books have been translated into German, Russian and Spanish.

Maximize your productivity with Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 Production Premium software, the total post-production solution available for both Mac and Windows®. Tighter-than-ever integration between Adobe's all-new video, audio, and design tools — now including Adobe Flash® CS3 Professional software — offers a smooth workflow from concept to delivery. Reach the widest possible audience by delivering content to film, video, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, the web, and mobile devices.

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Michael was amazing fun to talk to, and certainly knew his stuff - he used to work on the M&M's ads!

To find out more about Adobe CS3 Production Premium, go to www.adobe.com !

'I don't think Dad had entirely given up on the idea of starting over ... I think he probably decided to struggle on hoping something would turn up, just as he had after his first marriage broke up, and then his second. I just don't think he planned on me being the something that turned up.'

At fourteen, when Sarah Bryden–Brown's family fell apart, she went to live with her father, advertising genius and bon vivant John Bryden–Brown. Trying to establish a stable household against the incoming tide of Sarah's adolescence and her dad's battle with alcohol and a third marriage gone wrong, the two of them formed a lifelong if unorthodox bond that shaped the author's life.

A bittersweet story about an unlikely family unit, Dad and Me will resonate with anyone who has watched parents tumble off their pedestal and become ordinary people – flawed but lovable, and reassuringly human.

Journalist and author Sarah Bryden-Brown has written for The Australian, and was editor of Family Circle and donna hay magazine and a columnist for The Sun-Herald newspaper. Her first book, The Lost Art of Childhood, was published in 2003. She now edits and manages Kidspot Daily, an online business, and lives in Coogee, Sydney, with her husband and two children.

Sarah was fantastic to talk to, and I'd recommend her book to everyone who's part of a family... which is pretty much everyone, when I come to think about it!

You can read her new website at www.kidspot.com.au .

Drabville is a model town, where Milli Klompet lives with her slightly offbeat family and spends her time longing for adventure.

Then one day, along with her cautious best friend and amateur geologist, Ernest Perriclof, Milli discovers 'Hog House'. But the afternoon's entertainment takes a different turn when they are held prisoner by the wacky Mr and Mrs Mayor and a cohort of evil magicians, led by the sinister Aldor.

Aldor is eagerly anticipating the Great Guzzle – a horrifying ceremony during which he plans to swallow the shadows of every citizen in Drabville, absorbing their skills and talents and rendering himself invincible.

Milli and Ernest must evade the Shadow Keepers and outwit the sinister Aldor before the shadows are swallowed and Drabville loses its soul forever.

Alexandra Adornetto was only thirteen when she wrote The Shadow Thief. Now fifteen, Alexandra has won various awards for her writing and in 2006 won the State Legacy Public Speaking competition. Her future aspirations are to work full time writing novels and screenplays, while also pursuing a career as an actor.

She is currently working on the sequel to her first novel.

Alex is one of the youngest people I've ever interviewed - and perhaps one of the best I've ever interviewed! She's amazing, talented, and definitely one to watch in the future!

A delightfully discursive, Bill Bryson-esque and personal journey through the groves and the thickets of the English language, by our foremost scholar of the history and structure of the English language.

David Crystal has been described as a sort of 'latter day Dr Johnson', a populist linguist who has promoted the study of the English language in an academic and broadcasting career that has so far spanned 40 years and nearly 100 books.

Now, in his first book for Harper Press, he has written an engaging travel book of more general appeal. Inspired by W. G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn and by Bill Bryson's books, he has combined personal reflections, historical allusions and traveller observations to create a mesmerising (and entertaining) narrative account of his encounters with the English language and its speakers throughout the world - from Bangor to Bombay and from Stratford to San Francisco.

By Hook or by Crook is an attempt to capture the exploratory, seductive, teasing, tantalising nature of language study.

David Crystal is a very entertaining fellow to chat with, and I'm glad i took the opportunity to do so. This interview is just a small look into the that big world of words that we just generally ignore - so take the time, stop, and have a listen to it.

The ten years of the Cultural Revolution in China tore Chinese society apart - a wound from which it had never fully recovered.

Lee, who owns the Allsilk stores in the Central Market and Glenelg, came out to Australia 16 years ago, and agreed to talk to me about her memories of this turbulent period.

This is the second of an on-going series of interviews about her experiences of this time. This interview looks at her education and experiences during the time of the Big Character Poster Campaign, and the Red Guards.

It was incredibly kind of Lee to share these memories with me, and I greatly appreciate her time and efforts to do so.

The ten years of the Cultural Revolution in China tore Chinese society apart - a wound from which it had never fully recovered.

Lee, who owns the Allsilk stores in the Central Market and Glenelg, came out to Australia 16 years ago, and agreed to talk to me about her memories of this turbulent period.

This is the first of an on-going series of interviews about her experiences of this time. This interview looks at her first experience of the Cultural Revolution, when Red Guards took away her Grandfather because of his association with Madame Mao and the film industry.

Her family was declared "Black", and her home life fell apart.

It was incredibly kind of Lee to share these memories with me, and I greatly appreciate her time and efforts to do so.

I went to the Australian premiere of "The Home Song Stories" the other night, and I'm damn glad I did.

It's a great film.

Tony Ayres has done a magic job of bringing his life story to the big screen, and he's picked a great cast to do it with.

Newcomers John Lok and Irene Chen are fantastic as the young Tony and his older sister, Mei.

Joan Chen's finally found a great role, after a string of awful ones.

She shines as Tony's mother, a former Hong Kong nightclub singer who moves to Australia in 1971 with her two children, after marrying an Australian sailor... who she promptly shoots through on.

I don't really want to tell you too much about the movie