Kathryn's Inbox

NOWHERESVILLE, AUSTRALIA--After years of speculation, local resident Irene Moore was allegedly "shocked" to learn that the characters from television's Sesame Street  do not have sexual identities and are, in fact, puppets designed to help preschoolers learn basic, age appropriate lessons such as counting and all of the letters in the alphabet. Moore had spent many afternoons with her friends around at the local cafe, speculating on the personal lives of each of the muppets. "I would have said that it was obvious that Bert and Ernie were meant to represent a gay couple," Moore sighs. "The girls from the cafe agree with me as well. After a lot of discussion, it was also decided that Cookie Monster was meant to represent people with unusual fetishes and that Mr Snuffleupagus was masturbation fodder for Big Bird, with Snuffleupagus' trunk representing the penis that Big Bird wished that he had. We also felt that Zoe was a bit of a slut, but we changed ou...

This weeks Friday Funnies comes courtesy of Faux Retro band, Ming Tea, whose song BBC inspired the hit film Austin Powers International Man of Mystery . Originally, Ming Tea would perform on Saturday Night Live, however Mike Meyer's character Austin Powers eventually went on to star in his own feature film and the band re-recorded their hit and it was included on the Austin Powers soundtrack. 

The Fabuland House, as featured on Brikipedia Like many kids born in the early 1980s, I had a Fabuland set (okay, I actually owned several,) and spent many happy hours building the sets and coming up with new creations. Made by Lego, Fabuland was first released in 1979 and was intended to be a kind of bridge between Duplo and the smaller and more complex regular Lego sets. Fabuland featured characters with animal heads and humanlike bodies and the instructions came in the form of an awesome booklet that included pictures of the figures putting the sets together. Fabuland proved to be quite popular and in 1986, a television series based on the sets Edward and Friends was produced. (This was later developed into a series of books.) Lego stopped making Fabuland 1989, though some Duplo sets have figures that look similar and many of the same pieces were included in the Mickey Mouse Lego sets in the early 2000s.  Edward and Friends has never been released on DVD (despite the fa...

Welcome to another fine edition of Writers on Wednesday. This week I am talking with the brilliant writing duo, Shiriluna Nott and SaJa H, co-authors of The Arden Chronicles ... Tell me a bit about yourself … Shiriluna: I am an (almost) 30 year old girl living in the southwest US. I grew up in a (tiny) town in upstate New York, a skip away from the Canadian border. I live with my amazing, supportive boyfriend and our four “fur babies”, three dogs and a cat. I’ve always loved reading and writing—the fantasy genre in particular. There is something about being swept away to an entirely new world that enthralls me. SaJa: I am an aspiring author who hopes to lend my voice to the many equal rights movements across the world. I live with my spouse and children and hope that one day the world will no longer need ‘heroes’ to fight battles for something as basic as human rights. We are all human and we should all be treated as such. Tell us about your most recently publishe...

How well do you really know the people that are closest to you? Your mum? Your dad? Your boyfriend? Your best friend? When seventeen-year-old Kath McKenny uses the internet to get sweet revenge on her ex-boyfriend who dumped her for the local mean girl Laura and who humiliated her in front of the whole school, she ends up uncovering a lot more than she intended to. It turns out that everyone she knows is keeping some surprising secrets ... Fake is an absorbing YA novel that has a surprising amount of depth. Although marketed as a tale of sweet revenge, this one also has a lot to say about human nature and the ways that we sometimes, quite willingly, choose to deceive ourselves and others. It was also wonderful watching the relationship between Kath and Sebastian develop, despite some interference from Laura and the fact that both of them were keeping some pretty big secrets. There is also some subtle themes of forgiveness and redemption that I found quite lovely. And each of th...

Do you remember to always validate your metrocard, or to buy a ticket when boarding a bus, train or tram? If so, Adelaide Metro like you and in this series of ads, which have been posted at various tram stops, train stations and bus stops around Adelaide, they want to call you a "fare player". (This poster pictured above hangs on a fence at Noarlunga Interchange, looking east toward the railway line.) Presumably, the thumbs up means that they think you are doing a good deed, but I would not be surprised if a tourist or two may have been a bit offended by that signal. Apparently, the opposite of a fare player is a "fare bludger" and they too have their own poster, which comes completely with a small, white figure giving the thumbs down signal.

Charming the Outback is a lightweight romance, set against the backdrop of the Australian outback that will be sure to please fans of both new adult romance and rural romance. (I suppose you could call this one a crossover and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.) Maddy McIntyre is an Adelaide girl, who is tired of the city and limited employment opportunities for graduate primary teachers. To further her career, she takes up a post in Broken Hill. But is that the only reason why she has moved to the small, mining town? Or could Luke White, the man who broke her heart several months ago and left Adelaide for his hometown be the real reason that Maddy is so interested in moving to the outback ... This one is a lightweight romance that works as a perfect companion novel to Bow's previous Destiny Romance title, Winning the Player. It is what it is and it is difficult to say too much about the novel without giving away the very elements that made me want to keep ...

Source: Go Comics Today's Friday Funny is another weird, Jon-themed Garfield comic. We are, of course, only led to assume that it is Garfield who is using that saw ...

Well, it looks like another trailer for the upcoming Peanuts movie has arrived! I'm cautiously optimistic about this one, looks like it could be a lot of fun ...

Below is the cover and blurb for my next novel  Everybody Hates Abigail  which I am currently in the process of preparing for publication. I hope to have the novel ready for release in December. This one is very special to me, as not only is it a prequel to Being Abigail (my favourite of all of my published works,) but it is based on some short stories that I wrote when I was in my teens. The editing process has been quite rigorous, though a couple of original paragraphs made it all the way to the final edit.  Anyway, without further ado ... Abigail Carter may be daughter of a chart-topping rock star who is taking the world by storm, but that does not mean that her life is interesting in any way, shape or form. Expelled from a prestigious Adelaide boarding school, Abigail is sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Maripaninga Valley, South Australia's most boring small town. There, Abigail spends her days fighting with her classmates and wondering why t...

This bronze chap, who I believe is named Oliver, has lived in Rundle Mall along with his three  piggy companions since 1999. Currently located near the City Cross Arcade (like nearly all works of art in Rundle Mall, the pigs have recently been relocated,) the pigs initially copped a lot of criticism, though in recent years they have become regarded as a beloved and unique Adelaide icon. They are also remarkably popular with kids--nearly every weekend or during the school holidays, you can be guaranteed to see a child playing on or around the pigs. 

The 2014 Miles Franklin Literary Award winner, All the Birds, Singing is a slow, unsettling and quietly menacing tale of an isolated woman with a terrible past. Someone is stealing the sheep from Jake Whyte's farm, but who? It could be foxes, kids, the mysterious man who has arrived at the farm or something more sinister entirely. Interwoven with this story--which is set on an isolated English isle--is that of a young, Australian woman who is living a life on the run. The parts set in England are in present day, while the Australian parts of the story move backward in time, describing Jake's life on the run until we eventually learn how she got the scars on her back and how her entire life has been shaped--and perhaps ruined--by one silly, teenage mistake. All the Birds, Singing does not always make for light or easy reading. Much like Tim Winton's In the Winter Dark we are left guessing about some of the sinister forces at work and the author makes some interesting...

Source: Go Comics This is another weird Jon Arbuckle moment that did, quite legitimately, appear in the Garfield Daily comic strip, in July 1987. Frankly, I think that the store owner is just as stupid as Jon, but hey, that's the comics pages for you ...

Just as action-packed as its predecessor  Crash (published outside of Australia as Crashland ,) opens directly where the events of Jump (or Twinmaker ) left off. Clair has betrayed her friend Q (an AI with some very humanlike qualities,) and the D-Mat network (a teleportation operation system, similar to what was used on Star Trek ) is broken, leaving many people around the world stranded. A number of groups with conflicting philosophies want to work with Clair, and the peacekeepers want to use her to track down Q who may hold the key to fixing the d-mat network. There are a number of dupes who want her killed. And then, of course, there is Clair's budding relationship with abstainer Jesse. But who can Clair really trust? As I said, this one is just as action-packed as the first book in the series. The narrative is a little confusing at times as Clair tries to navigate her way safely through this new world and attempts to track down Q. The answer to who is responsible ...

Welcome back to Writers on Wednesday. This week, I'm chatting with Adelaide-based debut author Rowena Holloway. Welcome Rowena! Tell us a bit about yourself ... I’m an Adelaide writer of short stories and novels. It took me a while to be able to claim the title of writer. When I left school I apprenticed as a hairdresser, then decided to move into a more corporate world and studied marketing and business. I gained a clutch of degrees, decided the corporate world was not for me (apparently, I’m ‘too nice’) and became a tenured lecturer. All of this convinced me that the fictional world is preferable. So after years of dreaming about it, I finally took the plunge and committed to becoming a published author. Of course, I did everything I later learned not to do (like quitting my day job), but I’m happiest when writing. Tell us about your most recently published book? Pieces of a Lie has just been released and I have to admit it’s exhilarating to see it out in t...

Thank you.

Who would have thought that Dog from Footrot Flats would make it on to a New Zealand postage stamp? Then again, who else could the New Zealand post office even consider putting on the stamp, which forms part of the A to Z of New Zealand series. In any case, I love it ...

NOWHERESVILLE, AUSTRALIA--Dave Smith, owner of a store selling vegan cakes to the public is being taken to court for refusing a request for a cake that featured a picture of Daffy Duck and the slogan Support Duck Shooting.  Smith, an avid animal rights campaigner, declined the request on the grounds that he personally found such a message to be abhorrent. "As a private enterprise that supplies non-essential goods to the public in exchange for money, I feel that I should not be forced to support causes that I personally find upsetting," Smith explains. "Now, it seems that I am being sued for discrimination and will probably lose my business for refusing to decorate a cake that makes a mockery of my feelings about duck shooting." The cake, which has a value of approximately $40 was requested by the Legion of Duck Shooters of Nowheresville and was to have been consumed at their annual meeting. "Duck shooting is legal in this part of the country," a repr...

Source: Go Comics I stumbled upon this one a few days ago was amazed to discover that this weird Garfield strip was not a piece of fan made artwork, or part of the Garfield Minus Garfield series but, in fact, an actual Garfield Daily Comic strip that ran in July 1987. It is actually one of the few strips were Garfield does not appear at all and Jon's actions seem somewhat out of character. 

Colby and Caitlin are quite an unusual couple. He's a wealthy, Wall Street based businessman that enjoys a predicable but high flying lifestyle and places a great deal of importance on loyalty. She is from a remote part of Australia, is young, attractive and seemingly innocent. The pair meet just before the dawn of the new millennium when Colby takes a trip to Australia with some friends. They marry in the aftermath of September 11 and eventually adopt a child from Russia. Caitlin notes the family's adventures on her blog, but it soon becomes clear that she may not be all that she seems ... Can You Keep a Secret is a page-turner with a real surprise twist at the end. It examines the idea of toxic relationships, toxic personalities, and the level to which people are willing to deceive themselves--in Caitlin's case self-deception goes as far as presenting an idealised version of her family life on her blog, a version that goes a lot further than offering the odd white...

What's your story? A few weeks ago Colleen, this delightful teapot shaped caravan stopped outside the Grote Street entrance to the Central Markets and passersby were asked to talk about their favourite places to go in Adelaide. The project forms part of Picture Adelaide , an initiative intended to help shape the future of Adelaide.