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To celebrate January, Booktopia's Month of Australian Stories, we asked you just who is Australia's Favourite Novelist. The response was overwhelming, and after tens of thousands of votes were cast, these are the results.
Australia's 50 Favourite Australian Novelists for 2013. If you aren't familiar with any of them, there's no better time than now to get familiar and celebrate Australian Literature this year with Booktopia, Australia's Local Bookstore.
50. Peter Temple
Peter Temple is the author of nine novels, including four books in the Jack Irish series. He has won the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction five times, and his widely acclaimed novels have been published in over twenty countries.
The Broken Shore won the UK's prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger for the best crime novel of 2007 and Truth won the 2010 Miles Franklin Literary Award, the first time a crime writer has won an award of this calibre anywhere in the world.
Temple's first two novels Bad Debts and Black Tide have been made into films with Guy Pearce starring as Jack Irish.
Click here to go to Peter Temple's author page
49. Jay Kristoff
Jay Kristoff was born and brought up in Perth. He grew up reading and collecting books and spent most of his free time playing Dungeons & Dragons.
He graduated with an Arts degree and then spent ten years in the field of creative advertising for which he won several awards.
Jay is the author of The Lotus Trilogy, a Japanese-inspired fantasy series published in 2012.
He currently lives in Melbourne with his wife and dog.
Click here to go to Jay Kristoff's author page
48. Nikki Gemmell
Nikki Gemmell has written the novels, Shiver, Cleave, Lovesong, The Bride Stripped Bare, Wih My Body and The Book Of Rapture, as well as the non-fiction book, Pleasure: An Almanac for the Heart. Her work has been internationally critically acclaimed and translated into many languages.
In France she's been described as a female Jack Kerouac, in Australia as one of the most original and engaging authors of her generation and in the US as one of the few truly original voices to emerge in a long time.
The French literary review "Lire" has included her in a list of what it calls the fifty most important writers in the world – the ones it believes will have a significant influence on the literature of the 21st century. The criteria for selection included a very individual voice and unmistakeable style, as well as an original choice of subject. Nikki Gemmell was selected along with such novelists as Rick Moody, Zadie Smith, Jonathan Safran Froer, Rohinton Mistry, Tim Winton, Colum McCann, Michel Faber and Hari Kunzru among others.
Click here to go to Nikki Gemmell's author page
47. Charlotte Wood
Charlotte Wood is the author of four novels – Pieces of a Girl, The Submerged Cathedral, The Children and Animal People, as well as a collection of short personal reflections on cooking, Love & Hunger.
She was also editor of the anthology of writing about siblings, Brothers & Sisters (2009). Her books have been critically well received and frequently short-listed for prizes.
Animal People was longlisted for the 2012 Miles Franklin Award. She has a background in journalism and has also taught writing at a variety of levels.
She currently lives in Sydney. She is working on a fifth novel. Charlotte Wood also writes about food and cooking at her blog, http://www.howtoshuckanoyster.com.
Click here to go to Charlotte Wood's author page
46. Andy Griffiths
Andy Griffiths is one of Australia's most popular children's writers. He is the author of over 20 books, including nonsense verse, short stories, comic novels and plays. Over the past 15 years Andy's books have been New York Times bestsellers, won over 50 children's choice awards, been adapted as a television cartoon series and sold over 5 million copies worldwide.
Andy has had a long-standing collaboration with illustrator Terry Denton. Their latest collaboration is The 13-Storey Treehouse which was voted ABIA's 2012 Book of the Year for Older Readers, and September 2012 sees the hugely anticipated The 26-Storey Treehouse. Meanwhile Andy and Terry are also working on a collection of inspirational writing exercises called Once Upon a Slime for English teachers and emerging writers and illustrators to be published in April 2013.
Click here to go to Andy Griffiths' author page
45. Di Morrissey
Di Morrissey is one of Australia's most popular female novelists. She grew up in Pittwater, north of Sydney.
She became a journalist on London's Fleet Street, and worked for CBS in Honolulu. After moving back to Australia, she published her first book 'Heart of the Dreaming' which instantly became a bestseller. Since then she has published another 20 bestsellers.
Morrissey is an environmentalist and activist. She has been a longtime supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi and has visited Burma several times where she is now helping raise funds to build a monastery school in Sagaing. Morrissey's latest book, The Golden Land, is set in Burma.
Click here to go to Di Morrissey's author page
44. Christina Stead
Christina Stead (1902-1983) was an Australian novelist and short-story writer acclaimed for her satirical wit and psychological penetration. She wrote 15 novels and several volumes of short stories in her lifetime.
Her first novel, Seven Poor Men of Sydney, dealt with the lives of radicals and dockworkers. Stead's best-known novel, with the ironic title The Man Who Loved Children, is largely based on her own childhood, and was first published in 1940. It was not until the poet Randall Jarrell wrote the introduction for a new American edition in 1965 that the novel began to receive a larger audience.
In 2005, the magazine Time included The Man Who Loved Children in their "100 Best Novels from 1923–2005", and in 2010 American author Jonathan Franzen hailed the novel as a "masterpiece" in The New York Times. Stead's Letty Fox: Her Luck, often regarded as an equally fine novel, was officially banned in Australia for several years because it was considered amoral and salacious.
Click here to go to Christina Stead's author page
43. Christos Tsiolkas
Christos Tsiolkas was born in Melbourne in 1965. Loaded, his first novel, was published in 1995 and later made into the award-winning film Head On. In 1996 he collaborated with Sasha Soldatow on the dialogue Jump Cuts. His novel The Jesus Man was published in 1999.
He is the author of several plays including Who's Afraid of the Working Class?, Dead Caucasians and Non Parlo di Salo, co-written with Spiro Economopoulos.
His critically acclaimed novel Dead Europe was published in 2005 and in 2008 he reached bestselling status with the bold The Slap which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.
Click here to go to Christos Tsiolkas' author page
42. Rachael Treasure
Rachael Treasure currently lives in southern rural Tasmania with her two young children, Rosie and Charlie. Her three novels, Jillaroo, The Stockmen, and The Rouseabout, have all been bestsellers in Australia, selling more than 100,000 combined copies by the end of 2007. in 2008 Random House signed her to a 4 book contract for British release.
A former jillaroo and reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on rural affairs, she is a passionate working dog trainer and in 2007 received Tasmania's rural woman of the year award.
Click here to go to Rachael Treasure's author page
41. Morris Gleitzman
Morris Gleitzman grew up in England and came to Australia when he was sixteen. He was a frozen-chicken thawer, sugar-mill rolling-stock unhooker, fashion-industry trainee, student, department-store Santa, TV producer, newspaper columnist and screenwriter until he wrote his first children's novel in 1993.
He is now one of the world's best-known and loved children's authors. Gleitzman tackles tough subjects in a funny and offbeat way . He has never set out to write "issues books" and says that his writing is as much for himself as for his readers.
Click here to go to Morris Gleitzman's author page
40. Fleur Mcdonald
Fleur McDonald grew up in Orrorroo, South Australia but completed her secondary education in Adelaide.
After school she spent a couple of years jillarooing in South Australia and Western Australia.
Fleur lives with her husband and two children on a station near Esperance in Western Australia. She is highly involved in the daily management of their 8000 acres.
She is the author of the bestselling novels Red Dust, Blue Skies and Purple Roads.
Click here to go to Fleur Mcdonald's author page
39. Jackie French
Jackie French's writing career spans sixteen years, 42 wombats, 120 books for kids and adults, translations into nineteen languages, and slightly more awards than wombats, both in Australia and overseas.
Her books range from provocative historical fiction such as Hitler's Daughter and They Came on Viking Ships to the hilarious international bestseller, Diary of a Wombat with Bruce Whatley, as well as many nonfiction titles such as The Fascinating History of Your Lunch, and To the Moon and Back (with Bryan Sullivan), the history of Australia's Honeysuckle Creek and man's journey to the moon.
In 2000, Hitler's Daughter was awarded the CBC Younger Readers' Award. To the Moon and Back won the Eve Pownall Award in 2005. Macbeth and Son, and Josephine Wants to Dance were both shortlisted for the 2007 CBC Awards.
Click here to go to Jackie French's author page
38. Colin Thiele
Colin Milton Thiele (1920 – 2006) was renowned for his award-winning children's fiction, most notably the novels Storm Boy, Blue Fin, the Sun on the Stubble series, and February Dragon.
Thiele wrote more than 100 books, which often described life in rural Australia, particularly the Eudunda, Barossa Valley, and Murray River/Coorong regions of South Australia. Several of his books have been made into films or television series.
In 1977 he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, the second highest level of the order, for his services to literature and education.
Click here to go to Colin Thiele's author page
37. Colleen McCullough
Colleen McCullough was born in western New South Wales in 1937. A neuroscientist by training, she worked in various Sydney and English hospitals before settling into ten years of research and teaching in the Department of Neurology at the Yale Medical School in the USA.
In 1974 her first novel, Tim, was published in New York, followed by the bestselling The Thorn Birds in 1977 and a string of successful novels, including the acclaimed Masters of Rome series.
In 1980 she settled in Norfolk Island, where she lives with her husband, Ric Robinson, and a cat named Shady.
Click here to go to Colleen McCullough's author page
36. Fiona Palmer
Fiona Palmer lives in the tiny rural town of Pingaring in Western Australia, three and a half hours south-east of Perth.
She discovered Danielle Steel at the age of eleven, and has now written her own brand of rural romance.
She has attended romance writers' groups and received an Australian Society of Authors mentorship for her first novel, The Family Farm. She has followed on from its success with two more novels Heart of Gold and The Road Home.
Click here to go to Fiona Palmer's author page
35. Patrick White
Patrick White was born in England in 1912 and taken to Australia, where his father owned a sheep farm, when he was six months old. He was educated in England and served in the RAF, before returning to Australia after World War II.
Happy Valley, White's first novel, is set in a small country town in the Snowy Mountains and is based on his experiences in the early 1930s as a jackaroo at Bolaro, near Adaminaby in south-eastern New South Wales.
White went on to publish twelve further novels (one posthumously), three short-story collections and eight plays. His novels include The Aunt's Story and Voss, which won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award, The Eye of the Storm and The Twyborn Affair.
He was the first Australian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1973, and is considered one of the foremost novelists of the twentieth century.
Click here to go to Patrick White's author page
34. David Malouf
David Malouf is the author of ten novels and six volumes of poetry.
His novel The Great World was awarded both the prestigious Commonwealth Prize and the Prix Femina Estranger. Remembering Babylon was short-listed for the Booker Prize.
He has also received the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. He won the inaugural Australia-Asia Literary Award in 2008
He has lived in England and Tuscany however for the past three decades most of his time has been spent in Sydney.
Click here to go to David Malouf's author page
33. Tara Moss
Tara Moss is the author of the bestselling crime novels Fetish, Split, Covet, Hit and Siren. Her novels have been published in seventeen countries in eleven languages, and have earned critical acclaim around the world.
Her non-fiction writing has appeared in The Australian Literary Review, Vogue, ELLE, The Australian Women's Weekly, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian, among other publications.
Moss hosted Natgeo Presents and the international crime documentary series Tara Moss Investigates on the National Geographic Channel, and has participated as a guest and panelist on numerous popular TV programs. She has also conducted hundreds of talks at literary festivals, schools, universities and corporate events.
Click here to go to Tara Moss' author page
32. Paul Jennings
The Paul Jennings phenomenon began with the publication of Unreal! in 1985. Since then, readers all around the world have devoured his books.
Paul Jennings has written over one hundred stories and has been voted 'favourite author' over forty times by children in Australia, winning every children's choice award.
The top-rating TV series Round the Twist and Driven Crazy are based on a selection of his enormously popular short-story collections such as Unseen! which was awarded the 1999 Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Children's Book.
In 1995 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to children's literature and was awarded the prestigious Dromkeen Medal in 2001. Paul has sold more than 8 million books worldwide.
Click here to go to Paul Jenning's author page
31. Thomas Keneally
Keneally was known as "Mick" until 1964 but began using the name Thomas when he started publishing, after advice from his publisher to use what was really his first name. He is most famous for his Schindler's Ark (later republished as Schindler's List), which won the Booker Prize and is the basis of the film Schindler's List.
Many of his novels are reworkings of historical material, although modern in their psychology and style.
In 1983 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia. In March 2009, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, gave an autographed copy of Keneally's biography Lincoln to President Barack Obama as a state gift.
Click here to go to Thomas Keneally's author page
30. Juliet Marillier
Juliet Marillier currently lives in Western Australia. While Marillier writes mostly for adults, her recent books have included Cybele's Secret, a sequel to her novel for young adults Wildwood Dancing.
Marillier has said that it takes her about a year to finish a novel and that she is often researching one book while writing another and editing a third. She also says that she usually bases a story on two elements: what the main character learns about herself and her world that makes this adventure personally significant; and the bigger picture, showing this character's role in something outside herself, such as saving a community or forging peace between two warring tribes. The first idea reinforces the second, making the writing both personal and realistic.
Cybele's Secret won a 2008 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel – Young Adult. Her latest release is "Flame of Sevenwaters", a companion novel to the Sevenwaters trilogy.
Click here to go to Juliet Marillier's author page
29. Shaun Tan
Shaun Tan was born in 1974 and grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. In school he became known as the 'good drawer' which partly compensated for always being the shortest kid in every class. He graduated from the University of WA in 1995 with joint honours in Fine Arts and English Literature, and currently works full time as a freelance artist and author in Melbourne.
Shaun began drawing and painting images for science fiction and horror stories in small-press magazines as a teenager, and has since become best known for illustrated books that deal with social, political and historical subjects through surreal, dream-like imagery.
Books such as The Rabbits, The Red Tree, The Lost Thing and the acclaimed wordless novel The Arrival have been widely translated throughout Europe, Asia and South America, and enjoyed by readers of all ages. Shaun has also worked as a theatre designer, and worked as a concept artist for the films Horton Hears a Who and Pixar's WALL-E. He is currently directing a short film with Passion Pictures Australia; his most recently published book is The Oopsatoreum: inventions of Henry A. Mintox, written in conjunction with the Powerhouse Museum.
Click here to go to Shaun Tan's author page
28. Anna Campbell
Anna Campbell has written six multi award-winning historical romances and her work is published in eleven languages.
She has won numerous awards for her Regency-set romances including Romantic Times Reviewers Choice, the Booksellers Best, the Golden Quill (three times), the Heart of Excellence (twice), the Aspen Gold (twice) and the Australian Romance Readers Association's favorite historical romance (four times).
Her books have twice been nominated for Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA Award and three times for Australia's Romantic Book of the Year. She launches her first series, "Sons of Sin", with Seven Nights in a Rogue's Bed in October 2012.
Click here to go to Anna Campbell's author page
27. Sara Douglass
Sara Douglass was born in Penola, South Australia, and moved to Adelaide when she was seven. She spent her early working life as a nurse before completing three degrees at the University of Adelaide. After receiving a PhD in early modern English history,
Sara worked as a Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at La Trobe University, Bendigo, until 2000.
Sara′s first novel, BattleAxe, was published in 1995 and she wrote a further 19 books of epic and historical fantasy fiction, a collection of short stories, and two books of non-fiction.
Three of her novels won the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy and many were shortlisted.
Sara shifted to Hobart, Tasmania, in 2005 and lived there writing full-time until her death in September 2011.
Click here to go to Sara Douglass' author page
26. Bronwyn Parry
International award winner Bronwyn Parry's romantic thrillers set in Australia's wild places have been published in Australia, the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic, with her third novel, Dead Heat, released in April 2012.
The manuscript for her first novel, As Darkness Falls, won a prestigious Golden Heart Award from the Romance Writers of America, and her second novel, Dark Country, was a finalist in the Romance Writers of America RITA awards – the Oscars of romance writing.
Dark Country also won the Australian Romance Readers Association award for Favourite Romantic Suspense in 2010.
Click here to go to Bronwyn Parry's author page
25. Kerry Greenwood
Kerry has written twenty novels, a number of plays, including The Troubadours with Stephen D'Arcy, is an award-winning children's writer and has edited and contributed to several anthologies. In 1996 she published a book of essays on female murderers called Things She Loves: Why women Kill.
The Phryne Fisher series began in 1989 with Cocaine Blues which was a great success. Kerry has written sixteen books in this series and says that as long as people want to read them, she can keep writing them.
When she is not writing she is an advocate in Magistrates' Court for the Legal Aid Commission. She is not married, has no children and lives with a registered Wizard.
Click here to go to Kerry Greenwood's author page
24. Melina Marchetta
Melina Marchetta's first novel, Looking for Alibrandi, swept the pool of literary awards for young adult fiction in 1993, winning the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Award (Older Readers) among many others. In 2000 it was released as a major Australian film, winning an AFI award and an Independent Film Award for best screenplay as well as the NSW Premier's Literary Award and the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award.
Melina taught secondary school English and History for ten years, during which time she released her second novel, Saving Francesca, in 2003, followed by On the Jellicoe Road in 2006, and Finnikin of the Rock in 2008. Saving Francesca won the CBC Book of the Year Award for Older Readers. On the Jellicoe Road was also published in the US as Jellicoe Road, and it won the prestigious American Library Association's Michael L Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature in 2009. In 2008, Melina's first work of fantasy, Finnikin of the Rock, won the Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel and was shortlisted for the 2009 CBCA Award for Older Readers.
Melina's most recent novel, The Piper's Son, was published in 2010 and has been long-listed for the Miles Franklin Award and shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. Melina's novels have been published in more than sixteen countries and twelve languages.
Melina lives in Sydney, where she writes full-time.
Click here to go to Melina Marchetta's author page
23. Garth Nix
Garth Nix was born in 1963 in Melbourne, Australia. A full-time writer since 2001, he has worked as a literary agent, marketing consultant, book editor, book publicist, book sales representative, bookseller, and as a part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve.
Garth's books include the award-winning fantasy novels Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen; and the cult favourite YA SF novel Shade's Children. His fantasy novels for children include The Ragwitch; the six books of The Seventh Tower sequence, and The Keys to the Kingdom series.
More than five million copies of his books have been sold around the world, his books have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian and The Australian, and his work has been translated into 37 languages.
He lives in a Sydney beach suburb with his wife and two children.
Click here to go to Garth Nix' author page
22. Kate Forsyth
Kate Forsyth is the bestselling and award-winning author of more than twenty books, ranging from picture books to poetry to novels for both children and adults.
Since The Witches of Eileanan was named a Best First Novel of 1998 by Locus Magazine, Kate has won or been nominated for numerous awards, including a CYBIL Award in the US. She's also the only author to win five Aurealis awards in a single year, for her Chain of Charms series – beginning with The Gypsy Crown – which tells of the adventures of two Romany children in the time of the English Civil War. Book 5 of the series, The Lightning Bolt, was also a CBCA Notable Book.
Kate's books have been published in 14 countries around the world, including the UK, the US, Russia, Germany, Japan, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Poland and Slovenia. She lives by the sea in Sydney, Australia, with her husband, three children, a rambunctious Rhodesian Ridgeback, a bad-tempered black cat, and many thousands of books.
Click here to go to Kate Forsyth's author page
21. Peter Carey
Peter Carey is one of only four writers to have won the Booker Prize twice—the others being J. M. Coetzee, J. G. Farrell and Hilary Mantel. Carey won his first Booker Prize in 1988 for Oscar and Lucinda, and won for the second time in 2001 with True History of the Kelly Gang. In May 2008 he was nominated for the Best of the Booker Prize.
Carey has won the Miles Franklin Award three times and is frequently named as Australia's next contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In addition to writing fiction, he collaborated on the screenplay of the film Until the End of the World with Wim Wenders and is executive director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Hunter College, part of the City University of New York.
Click here to go to Peter Carey's author page
20. Helen Garner
Helen Garner's first novel, Monkey Grip, was published in 1977, and immediately established her as an original voice on the Australian literary scene. She is known for incorporating and adapting her personal experiences in her fiction, something that has brought her both praise and criticism, particularly with her novels, Monkey Grip and The Spare Room.
Throughout her career, Garner has written both fiction and non-fiction. She attracted controversy with her book The First Stone about a sexual harassment scandal in a university college. She has also written for film and theatre, and has consistently won awards for her work.
In subsequent books, she has continued to adapt her personal experiences. Her later novels include The Children's Bach and Cosmo Cosmolino. In 2008 she returned to fiction writing with the publication of The Spare Room, a fictional treatment of caring for a dying cancer patient, based on the illness and death of Garner's friend Jenya Osborne. She has also published several short story collections: Honour & Other People's Children: two stories, Postcards from Surfers and My Hard Heart: Selected Fictions.
Click here to go to Helen Garner's author page
19. Fiona McIntosh
Fiona McIntosh is a fantasy author originally born in Brighton, England. At the age of nineteen, she travelled first to Paris and later to Australia, where she has lived ever since.
She worked for many years in the travel industry but after her shift to full-time writing she roams the world researching and drawing inspiration for her novels.
Adelaide is her home base, which she shares with her husband and twin sons, but Fiona does most of her writing from the peace of southern Tasmania.
To date she has written 24 adult novels across various genres and seven novels for children.
Click here to go to Fiona McIntosh's author page
18. Keri Arthur
Keri Arthur first started writing when she was twelve years old, and to date, she's finished fifteen novels.
Her books have received many nominations and prizes, including making the final five in the Random House Australia George Turner Prize.
She has also been nominated in the Best Contemporary Paranormal category of the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Awards, received a 'perfect 10' from Romance Reviews Today, as well as being nominated for Best Shapeshifter in PNR's PEARL Awards.
She's a dessert and function cook by trade, and married to a man who not only supports her writing, but who also does the majority of the housework. They have one daughter, and live in Melbourne,
Click here to go to Keri Arthur's author page
17. Dianne Blacklock
Dianne Blacklock was born in Sydney and grew up in the St George area, completed a bachelor of arts degree at the University of NSW, then married, raising four children. She has been a teacher, trainer, counsellor and market researchers.
Dianne was 39 and a part-time TAFE communications teacher when her first novel was chosen from the "slush pile" of unsolicited manuscripts at Pan Macmillan in 2000.
She has since had eight novels published, Call Waiting, Wife for Hire, Almost Perfect, False Advertising, Crossing Paths, Three's a Crowd, The Right Time and The Secret Ingredient.
When she's not writing she goes on rampages through the house, cleaning and emptying out cupboards and making everyone do extra chores. Needless to say, the family prefers it when she's writing.
Click here to go to Dianne Blacklock's author page
16. Geraldine Brooks
Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney, and attended Bethlehem College Ashfield and the University of Sydney. She worked as a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald for three years as a feature writer with a special interest in environmental issues.
In 1982 she won the Greg Shackleton Australian News Correspondents scholarship to the journalism master's program at Columbia University in New York City. Later she worked for The Wall Street Journal, where she covered crises in the the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans.
She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2006 for her novel March. Her first novel, Year of Wonders, is an international bestseller, and People of the Book is a New York Times bestseller translated into 20 languages. She is also the author of the nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence.
Click here to go to Geraldine Brooks' author page
15. Kate Grenville
Kate Grenville is one of Australia's best-known authors. She's published eight books of fiction and four books about the writing process. Her best-known works include the international best-seller The Secret River, The Idea of Perfection, The Lieutenant and Lilian's Story.
The Secret River has won many prizes, including the Commonwealth Prize for Literature and the Christina Stead Prize. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Miles Franklin Award.
Several of her novels have been made into major feature films, and all have been translated into European and Asian languages.
In March 2010 Kate Grenville was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of New South Wales and in November 2012 she was awarded the same honour by the University of Sydney.
Click here to go to Kate Grenville's author page
14. Mandy Magro
Mandy Magro lives in the picturesque country township of Mossman, North Queensland, with her husband and daughter.
She loves writing about the Australian outback and all the wonderful characters that live there, and her own adventures on the land have made her the passionate country woman she is today.
Her previous novels include Rosalee Station and Jacaranda.
Click here to go to Mandy Magro's author page
13. Matthew Reilly
Matthew Reilly is the international bestselling author of ten novels: Ice Station, Temple, Contest, Area 7, Scarecrow, Hover Car Racer, Seven Ancient Wonders, The Six Sacred Stones, The Five Greatest Warriors and Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves.
In 2005, Matthew was the first author to participate in the Australian Government's 'Books Alive' initiative, for which he wrote the short novel Hell Island, featuring Shane Schofield. Over 200,000 copies of that work were given away for free in August of 2005.
Matthew's books are published in over 20 languages and he has sold over 3.5 million books worldwide: over 1 million in Australia alone; over a million in the US; and over a million in the UK.
Walt Disney Pictures have optioned the movie rights to his children's book, Hover Car Racer, while Ice Station was optioned by Paramount Pictures.
Click here to go to Matthew Reilly's author page
12. Nick Earls
Nick Earls writes long, short and medium-sized fiction, so far including twelve novels and numerous shorter works. With the publication of the first installment of the Word Hunters series in September 2012, he is now officially also a writer for children.
Reputable reviewers have compared his work with that of Nick Hornby, Raymond Carver, Martin Amis, VS Naipaul, JD Salinger, Woody Allen and Jeffrey Eugenides, which just goes to show that, if you write enough and publish enough, anything can come your way.
He is the winner of a Betty Trask Award (UK) and Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award. Perfect Skin was the only novel to be a finalist in the Australian Comedy Awards in 2003, and was adapted into a feature film in Italy (Solo un Padre, Warner Brothers/Cattleya). 48 Shades of Brown was a Kirkus Reviews (US) book of the year selection, and was adapted into a feature film in Australia (Buena Vista/Prima). Five of his novels have been adapted into stage plays.
He has also written for newspapers, including the New York Times, the Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald.
He was born in Northern Ireland, but has spent most of his life in Australia, where many of his books have been bestsellers.
Click here to go to Nick Earls' author page
11. Mem Fox
Mem Fox was born in Australia, grew up in Africa, studied drama in England, and returned to Adelaide, Australia in 1970. She is Australia's best loved picture-book author. Her first book, Possum Magic, has sold over four million copies and is still the best selling children's book in Australia, 29 years after its publication.
She has written over 40 books for children among which are the perennial favourites: Possum Magic, Time for Bed and Where Is The Green Sheep?; and several books for adults also, including her best selling book for parents: Reading Magic: how your child can learn to read before school and other read aloud miracles. Her book: Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes was on the New York Times best-seller list for 18 weeks in 2008—2009 and also won best book for young children at the 2010 Turin International Book Festival in its Italian edition. Her books have been translated into 19 languages.
Mem Fox was an Associate Professor of Education at Flinders University in Adelaide where she taught teachers for 24 years until her early retirement in 1996. She has received many honors and awards from various Australian governments and other organisations for services to literature, as well as three honorary doctorates for her work in literacy. She has visited the USA over 100 times as both a consultant in literacy and as an author. She keeps threatening to retire but never quite gets around to it as she is always finding something new to write about or shout about.
Click here to go to Mem Fox's author page
10. Rachael Johns
An English teacher by trade, a supermarket owner by day, a mum 24/7, and a writer by night. That's some of the ingredients that make up one of the most successful Romance Writers in Australia, Rachael Johns. Rachael's army of followers spread the good word relentlessly to take her into the top 10 of Australia's Favourite Novelist.
In a relatively short space of time, Rachael has shown herself a force to be reckoned with, helping to bolster a new movement in Australian Romance writing. At 17 she began writing, enlightened by the thought that she could create whatever ending she liked, and almost a decade later, after many, many attempts at writing different types of novels, she joined the Romance Writers of Australia association.
It was there that Rachael learnt there was more to writing a book than just typing out random thoughts. She learnt about the craft, conflict, consistent characters, etc, and also discovered that she loved contemporary romance.
She lives in rural Western Australia with her husband and their three children.
Congratulations Rachael on coming 10th in the vote for Australia's Favourite Novelist for 2013.
Click here to go to Rachael Johns' author page
9. Craig Silvey
From the moment Craig Silvey's first book Rhubarb hit the shelves in 2004, it became clear Australia had unearthed another incredibly exciting talent. In 2005 Silvey was named as one of The Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelists. Rhubarb was selected as the inaugural book for the 'One Book' series of events at the 2005 Perth International Arts Festival, and was included in the Australian national 'Books Alive' campaign.
And then came Jasper.
Jasper Jones has become one of Australia's Favourite Novels. Recently voted 6th in the Tuesday Book Club's list of Aussie Books to Read Before You Die, it opened the whole world to Silvey and his wonderful writing and thoughts on Australian society, both past and present.
Silvey says of his literary influences that "I've always been attracted to Southern Gothic fiction. There's something very warm and generous about those regional American writers like Twain and Lee and Capote, and it seemed to be a literary ilk that would lend itself well to the Australian condition."
Congratulations Craig on coming 9th in the vote for Australia's Favourite Novelist for 2013.
Click here to go to Craig Silvey's author page
8. Markus Zusak
Markus Zusak grew up hearing stories about Nazi Germany, about the bombing of Munich and about Jews being marched through his mother's small, German town. He always knew it was a story he wanted to tell.
"We have these images of the straight-marching lines of boys and the 'Heil Hitlers' and this idea that everyone in Germany was in it together. But there still were rebellious children and people who didn't follow the rules and people who hid Jews and other people in their houses. So there's another side to Nazi Germany," said Zusak in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald.
At just 37, Zusak has already asserted himself as one of today's most innovative and poetic novelists. Upon the publication of The Book Thief he was dubbed a 'literary phenomenon' by Australian and U.S. critics. Zusak is also the award-winning author of four previous books for young adults: The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Getting the Girl, and I Am the Messenger, recipient of a 2006 Printz Honor for excellence in young adult literature. He lives in Sydney.
Congratulations Markus on coming 8th in the vote for Australia's Favourite Novelist for 2013.
Click here to go to Markus Zusak's author page
7. Bryce Courtenay
From the unlikeliest of beginnings, Bryce Courtenay's sweeping epics found a place in the hearts of Australians everywhere.
Courtenay began writing novels at a relatively late stage in his life after over three decades in the advertising industry.
His first and arguably most well known book, The Power Of One, was first published in 1989 and was adapted soon after into an award-winning film.
His consistency of style and warmth of voice has kept readers enthralled since those early days, and he established himself as one of Australia's most popular novelists.
It was with immense sadness that word came through earlier this year of his passing. He was a truly wonderful man and there is no better way to honour him than to remember the legacy he left on his beloved adopted homeland.
Congratulations Bryce on coming 7th in the vote for Australia's Favourite Novelist for 2013. You will be missed.
Click here to go to Bryce Courtenay's author page
6. Isobelle Carmody
Isobelle Carmody is Australia's most highly acclaimed author of fantasy titles for older readers.
She began her first book, Obernewtyn, when she was fourteen and since then she has written some of our greatest works of fantasy. She is perhaps best known for her Obernewtyn Chronicles and for her novel The Gathering (joint winner of the 1993 Children's Literature Peace Prize and the 1994 CBC Book of the Year Award).
Another of her novels, Greylands, was joint winner of the 1997 Aurealis Award for Excellence in Speculative Fiction – Young Adult Division, and was named a White Raven at the 1998 Bologna Children's Book Fair. She has also written many short stories for both children and adults.
Isobelle divides her time between Prague in the Czech Republic and her home on the Great Ocean Road in Australia.
Congratulations Isobelle on coming 6th in the vote for Australia's Favourite Novelist for 2013.
Click here to go to Isobelle Carmody's author page
5. Ruth Park
Another in a long line of writers born elsewhere yet able to capture Australian life so beautifully, Ruth Park's writing has had a lasting effect on both adults and children for over 60 years.
Born in Auckland to a Scottish father and a Swedish mother, Park moved to Australia in 1942 where she had lined up a job with another newspaper.
Her first novel was The Harp in the South, a graphic story of Irish slum life in Sydney, which has been translated into 37 languages. Even though it was acclaimed by literary critics, the book proved controversial with sections of the public due to its candour. It remains her most popular novel and has never been out of print.
Between 1946 and 2004, she received numerous awards for her contributions to literature in both Australia and internationally including the Miles Franklin Award for Swords and Crowns and Rings in 1977. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1987.
Congratulations Ruth on coming 5th in the vote for Australia's Favourite Novelist for 2013.
Click here to go to Ruth Park's author page
4. John Marsden
A trained educator with a natural gift for storytelling, John Marsden is arguably Australia's foremost writer of Young Adult fiction.
Whilst working at the prestigious Geelong Grammar School, Marsden made the decision to write for teenagers, following his dissatisfaction with his students' apathy towards reading and the observation that teenagers simply weren't reading any more. Marsden then wrote So Much To Tell You in only three weeks, and the book was published in 1987. The book sold record numbers and won numerous awards including "Book of the Year" as awarded by the Children's Book Council of Australia.
In 1993 Marsden published Tomorrow, When the War Began the first book in the Tomorrow Series and his most acclaimed and best-selling work to date. Recently it was selected in the American Library Association list of 100 Best Books for Teens since 1966.
Marsden has won every major writing award in Australia for young people's fiction, including what Marsden describes as one of the highlights of his career, the 2006 Lloyd O'Neil Award for contributions to Australian publishing. This award means that Marsden is one of only five authors to be honoured for lifelong services to the Australian book industry. John Marsden was also nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2008, the world's largest children's and youth literature award, and the second largest literature prize in the world.
Congratulations John on coming 4th in the vote for Australia's Favourite Novelist for 2013.
Click here to go to John Marsden's author page
3. Monica McInerney
One of the stars of Australian fiction, Monica McInerney is the author of the internationally bestselling novels, A Taste for It, Upside Down Inside Out, Spin the Bottle, The Alphabet Sisters, Family Baggage, Those Faraday Girls and At Home with the Templetons. Those Faraday Girls was the winner of the General Fiction Book of the Year at the 2008 Australian Book Industry Awards.
Her collection of short fiction, All Together Now, was shortlisted for the same award in 2009. At Home with the Templetons was shortlisted in the Popular Fiction category of the 2010 Irish Book Awards and in the Romantic Elements category of the 2011 Australian Romantic Book of the Year Awards.
In 2006 she was the ambassador for the Australian Government initiative Books Alive, with her novella Odd One Out.
Monica grew up in a family of seven children in the Clare Valley of South Australia and has been living between Australia and Ireland for twenty years. She and her Irish husband currently live in Dublin.
Congratulations Monica on coming 3rd in the vote for Australia's Favourite Novelist for 2013.
Click here to go to Monica McInerney's author page
2. Tim Winton
One of the novelists of his generation, Tim Winton's literary reputation was established early when his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the 1981 Australian Vogel Award; his second novel Shallows, won the Miles Franklin Award in 1984; and his third book, Scission, a collection of short stories, won the West Australian Council Literary Award in 1985.
Winton's fifth novel, Cloudstreet, the story of two working-class families rebuilding their lives, was a huge literary and commercial success. It has been a best seller since its publication in 1991 and was recently voted the most popular Australian novel by the Australian Society of Authors. Awards include National Book Council Banjo Award for Fiction, 1991; West Australian Fiction Award 1991; Deo Gloria Award (UK), 1991 and the 1992 Miles Franklin Award.
In 2001 his novel, Dirt Music, was published to considerable critical acclaim and impressive reviews. The book was shortlisted for the 2002 Mann Booker Prize and won the 2002 Miles Franklin Award, the West Australian Fiction Award and the Christina Stead Award for Fiction. Film rights have been optioned to Phil Noyce's film company, Rumbalara Films, and Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz are signed to star in the film.
Winton's last novel, Breath, was awarded the 2009 Miles Franklin Prize for Literature.
Congratulations Tim on coming 2nd in the vote for Australia's Favourite Novelist for 2013.
Click here to go to Tim Winton's author page
1. Kate Morton
A huge congratulations to Kate Morton on being voted Australia's Favourite Novelist. After tens of thousands of votes were cast, it became clear that early favourite Tim Winton would be trumped by the international bestseller from Brisbane.
Raised on a healthy diet of Enid Blyton, Morton decided to become a writer after completing a summer Shakespeare course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Putting her dreams of acting aside she concentrated on writing and completed two manuscripts (which may never see the light of day) and began to construct the narrative of what would eventually become the bestseller The Shifting Fog.
Kate Morton's books are published in 38 countries. The House at Riverton was a Sunday Times #1 bestseller in the UK in 2007 and a New York Times bestseller in 2008. The Shifting Fog won General Fiction Book of the Year at the 2007 Australian Book Industry Awards, and The House at Riverton was nominated for Most Popular Book at the British Book Awards in 2008.
Her second book, The Forgotten Garden, was a #1 bestseller in Australia and Spain, and a Sunday Times #1 bestseller in the UK in 2008. It won General Fiction Book of the Year at the 2009 Australian Book Industry Awards and was a New York Times bestseller in 2009. The Distant Hours was an international bestseller in 2010 and won General Fiction Book of the Year at the 2011 ABIAs.
Congratulations Kate on being named Australia's Favourite Novelist for 2013.
Click here to go to Kate Morton's author page
Thanks to everyone for making Booktopia's search to discover Australia's Favourite Novelist such a success. And here's the treat.
Booktopia is a proudly Australian-Owned and Operated business and we want to give something back to the tremendous authors and customers that have helped us grow over the years, so we've created….
Australian Stories.
Who we were, who we are, and who we want to be.
Australian Stories is a database filled with only the best Australia has to offer. Books for Australians, by Australians, and about Australia. Fiction, non-fiction, children's books, you name it, it's there. So step on in and discover Australian Stories with us, Booktopia, Australia's Local Bookstore.
About the Contributor
Andrew Cattanach
Andrew Cattanach is a regular contributor to The Booktopia Blog. He has been shortlisted for The Age Short Story Prize and was named a finalist for the 2015 Young Bookseller of the Year Award. He enjoys reading, writing and sleeping, though finds it difficult to do them all at once.
Follow Andrew: Twitter


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If you want a simple blackjack system but with a professional level of playing, the red 7 card counting system is the one and only strategy to use! This system gives the player about 80% of the normal advanced blackjack systems without the need to increase one's skill sets.
The rules of the red 7 system:
1) Aces are given the value of -1.
2) All cards of 2′s, 3′s, 4′s,5′s and 6′s are given a value of +1. This is due to the fact that when you see them on the blackjack table, it means there is less of them from the deck shoe and the advantage is in your favour.
3) All cards of red 7′s are given a value of +1. But for black 7′s they are given a value of 0. This is to create a critical imbalance to the game so that you do not need to add any more calculations on other variances in the game. This is the key to the simplicity and power of the red 7 system.
4) All cards of 8′s and 9′s are given a value of 0. So you can ignore these cards when you see them.
5) All cards of 10′s, J's, Q's and K's are given the value of 0.
When you sit down at a table and start playing, use a count value of -2 and multiply by the deck number of let us say 3 decks, then the set count is -6.
When you do this, you easily know the advantage has come into your favour when the count is 0, and you can increase your bets accordingly without worrying what other factors might arise. Statistically, you have a 1% edge over the dealer but also remember that the dealer has a good chance of winning against you! Do not over bet your limit!
A few notes when using this method:
- Taking insurance when playing one or two deck games when your count is 0 or higher.
- Stand on 12 when dealer up card is 2 and stand on 15 when the dealer has 10 if your count is +2 or more.
- When your count is 0 or higher, stand on 16 when dealer has a 10 and on 12 when the dealer has a 3 up card.
Although this system is unbalanced, when you try to look at true card counting techniques, you have to second guess how many decks are still in the shoe and also try to round off deck estimation to achieve the true count. In the end, this imbalanced strategy releases the player from guessing or learning extra skills to do other work and only concentrate on the cards themselves.
But again, no matter what strategy you use, your self-control over your money matters is the ultimate blackjack tip and secret to winning this game all the time!
At http://blackjacksecrettips.com -
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Article Source:
Tags: card counting

subset: commoncrawl


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IDSA coordinated a letter,
joined by 47 other health groups, to President-elect Trump urging that federal
efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance be maintained in the years ahead.
IDSA, SHEA, PIDS, Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology vol. 33 no. 4 March 15, 2012 322-327.
Joint position statement of IDSA, SHEA and PIDS outlining recommendations for the mandatory implementation of antimicrobial stewardship throughout health care, including recommendations to monitor interventions and methods to address current deficiencies in education and research, as well as the lack of accurate data on antimicrobial use in the United States.
Boucher et al., Clinical Infectious Diseases vol. 48 no. 1 January 1, 2009
IDSA expresses concern about the lean pipeline for novel therapeutics to treat drug-resistant infections, especially those caused by gram-negative pathogens.
Spellberg et al., Clinical Infectious Diseases vol. 46 no. 2 January 15, 2008 155-164.
A call to action for the medical community from the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Dr. Andy Pavia testified on behalf of IDSA at a September 29,
2010 hearing of the Senate Labor-Health and Human Services-Education
Appropriations Subcommittee examining the Public Health Emergency Medical
Countermeasures Enterprise review recently completed by the HHS
IDSA presented testimony to a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel on April 28 to address the increasingly troublesome issue of antimicrobial resistance.
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© Copyright IDSA 2018 Infectious Diseases Society of America


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If you feel like heading out, check out other movies in theaters.
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Overworked washer for Bonells
THERE'S not much doubt that with 15 children, Jeni and Ray Bonell have one of Australia's busiest washing machines, but they're set to find out for sure.
The huge Toowoomba family has been declared Queensland finalist in a competition run by Panasonic to find the families with the toughest washing loads.
And with an average of 42 loads each week, Mrs Bonell is pretty sure they're in with a chance.
"At the moment I spend a lot of time washing," she said.
"We will easily go through 11 uniforms a day, and with most of our nine boys getting into outdoor sports like touch football, the load just seems to get bigger and bigger.
"We would probably go through up to 120 or more socks a week - just imagine trying to match them all up afterwards!
"I spend at least a few hours doing the washing every night, and at the moment I'm doing close to 2,200 loads of washing a year - I'd hate to think how much time I spend dealing with that."


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Rose B. Drolet, 78
Rose B. (Guerin) Drolet, 78, of North Smithfield, died Jan. 1, 2008 at the Philip Hulitar Hospice Center in Providence. She was born to Jules and Alice (Trottier) Guerin in Woonsocket and had lived in the Woonsocket and North Smithfield area all of her life.
Rose graduated from St. Clare High School, married the late Rene A. Drolet and together they had five children including a son, Rene N. (Tega) Drolet, predeceasing both. She retired from the State of RI with over 20 years of employment as a senior clerk typist with the Department of Human Services. Rose taught physical education part-time at St. Joseph's and our Lady of Victories' elementary schools and was active in the Ladies Sodality at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church.
She deeply loved her children, grandchildren, family and extended family. She loved music and shared this joy with her children and was often heard singing aloud. She was a natural philanthropist; donating to charities, sending many notes and cards to people in need and always having a kind word for others. She kept a "God Box" where she lovingly put her private prayer intentions. While a member of the OLQM Ladies Sodality, she participated in minstrel and variety shows which demonstrated her perpetual sense of humor and million dollar smile.
Rose was a beautiful woman inside and out. She was loved by many and will be missed by all who knew her. Rose's legacy will live on in her daughters and grandchildren.
Rose is survived by her daughters; Francoise Cook, of Jamestown, Sandra Cote, Susan Drolet, Denise Drolet; sisters, Madeleine Morelle, Theresa Drouin, Marie-Aline Scaramella and Andree Jeffords; grandchildren; Sarah and Matthew Bernier, Kate D'Amico, Rene White, Nathaniel, Vanessa and Victoria George, Elizabeth and Brandon Cook, step-grandchildren; Michelle Washington, Michael Cote and Amy Lahousse.
A Mass of Christian Burial was held last Saturday, Jan. 5 at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Woonsocket.


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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Richmond man pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing a truck that contained President Barack Obama's audio equipment and other trappings of the office, including presidential seals and a podium.
Eric Brown, 49, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney, who scheduled sentencing for April 11. The recommended sentence under a plea agreement with the government is seven years.
Brown could have been sentenced to up to 10 years and fined up to $250,000 if he was convicted at trial of the charge, theft of government property.
The 2005 van, owned by the Defense Information Systems Agency, was stolen from a suburban Richmond hotel on Oct. 15, 2011, ahead of a visit several days later by Obama who was to begin a three-day bus tour of Virginia and North Carolina to promote his jobs plan. The van, empty of its contents, was recovered the next day on the other side of town.
While the theft sparked speculation about whether the presidential equipment was specifically targeted, an FBI affidavit later suggested it was part of a series of thefts.
Brown apparently did not know the van contained the presidential equipment, which also included speakers, a microphone, a U.S. and presidential flag and a laptop computer. Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request put the value of the stolen equipment at $150,000.
Brown became a suspect after surveillance video at the hotel showed a sport utility vehicle that was registered to the defendant's wife. Investigators also obtained cellphone records showing Brown was near the truck at the time it was stolen, according to the FBI.
The link to Brown and the thefts was supported by witnesses who said they saw him in possession of the laptop.
Brown transported the equipment to a public storage locker in Hyattsville, Md., less than a week after the theft, and some of the equipment was later recovered at pawn shops at two locations in Maryland.
The government and Brown's attorney, David R. Lett, declined to comment after the brief plea hearing.
Steve Szkotak can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sszkotakap.


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text:
Core economic issues remain to be tackled at NHL meetings
Like the United Nations General Assembly going on across town, the bickering sides in the NHL lockout showed they can put aside differences for a few days of talks.
But the peace doves are nowhere to be seen over Manhattan just yet. A welcome long weekend of meetings has grown out of Friday's chat on health and safety issues, however, core economic issues remain to be tackled with regular-season games about to be chopped.
"I don't want to use the adjective 'optimistic,' but it was a productive discussion," said Steve Fehr, the union's outside counsel, emerging after a total of five hours at league headquarters. "Hopefully, we'll continue."
There will be some elements of hockey-related revenue introduced at Saturday morning's gathering. But league deputy commissioner Bill Daly warned that it's already late in the game and he's yet to get the big concessions he wants from Donald Fehr, the players association executive director. The regular season was scheduled to start Oct. 11.
"You can meet all you want," Daly said, "but if there's no compromise, no movement or no new proposals, I'm not sure at the end of the day what you're meeting about. We can't make them talk about what they don't want to talk about.
"In fairness, we do have to cover (this weekend's) issues if we're to reach an agreement. What we're doing today is important, it's just not the most important thing.
"We've done a lot of abstract and philosophical speaking as to where we are on the economics. Ultimately, there has to be a proposal."
The players don't seem ready to deliver another one yet, even though the league felt it's owed something after twice improving its offer of a revenue split, now up to 49% to start a six-year deal. The players, who held a 53-47 advantage in the expired deal, figure they gave enough last time, swallowing a salary cap and a 24% rollback.
"Bargaining is not ping pong, there are no rules on who has to serve," Steve Fehr said. "We're going to discuss more non-core issues in the morning, do some internal work on some things we did today and continue on Sunday."
Friday's double session — league personnel took a three-hour break to attend to the funeral of Robert Hawkins, group vice-president, general counsel of NHL Media — was the first in 12 days, during which the lockout began. Daly, commissioner Gary Bettman and vice-president Brendan Shanahan represented the league on Friday, while the Fehrs were accompanied by special assistant Mathieu Schneider and reps Ron Hainsey, Johan Hedberg and Craig Adams. No larger group is planned for Saturday or Sunday.
"We started closing off some agreements (discussed in the summer) and obviously had some continued disagreement in others," Daly said. "I wish we could have spent today on what we consider to be meaningful issues, but it is what it is."
Daly said Saturday will cover some HRR "circumvention" issues.
"But this isn't about economics or a proposal," he cautioned. "It's more about the framework we're operating in. These are issues that have to be dealt with. We'd hoped we could have dealt with the more critical, fundamental issues that would help put us in a better position to compromise on these sub-issues. But it didn't happen that way. The calendar is ticking away and we might as well use our time somehow."
Schneider was happy to be moving on some fronts.
"We like to say nothing's agreed to until everything's agreed to, but we certainly made some headway," he said. "In general, in collective bargaining, when you start to have agreements on smaller issues, it can lead to bigger issues.
"But it's still too early to say. You'd hope things progress and catch fire, but right now, we'll take one step at a time."
The idea of hunting out-of-season drug cheats in the NHL could be catching on.
During Friday morning's session on health and safety issues, there was talk of extending the random tests to the summer months and the playoffs. That essentially covers those months of the year when critics of the NHL's policy claim there could be violaters with no fear of detection.
"I don't think we have an issue with drugs and performance enhancing drugs in our sport," said Mathieu Schneider, special assistant to player union executive director Donald Fehr. "We're looking at possibly expanding (testing) to playoffs and the off-season. I think it's in the players' best interest and the sport to close off any time during the year that players can use (banned drugs). But we've had, I think, one positive (test) in our sport and I don't think anyone sees that as a problem."
Defenceman Bryan Berard, winding up his career with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2006, was singled out for a failed urine sample, but since the test was administered by the U.S. anti-doping agency and not the NHL, it resulted in a two-year ban from international hockey and not league action. Defenceman Sean Hill of the Islanders was nailed in the 2007 playoffs and suspended 20 games, but was signed by the Wild who believed he took a performance enhancing drug by mistake.
"I'll leave that (testing), other than to say we're going to make improvements to our drug program," deputy commissioner Bill Daly said. "We had a good discussion. I don't think we're at 100% agreement on everything we need to do. There are different areas we wanted to delve into that they're more reluctant to, but we made strides."
Also on Friday, concern was raised about the pace of the NHL's schedule and the related temptation for some players to use sleeping pills to compensate. That medication can effect next-day performance. However, the players had earlier shot down the NHL re-alignment plan for 2012-13, which would have eased travel for some teams, on the basis it had not been collectively bargained.


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Adjustable Dog Car Safety Seat Belt Harness Leads with Elastic Bungee Leash
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Arrived super fast. HArness was exactly what i wanted. Great service. WOulD buy from them again. Great price and quality
great product and great company. I enjoy using it at my kitchen sink everyday.
My CATS JUST LOVE THIS. I LOVE THAT YOU CAN TURN IT ON AND IT TURNS OFF BY ITSLEF. mY OLDER CAT EVEN STARTED PLAYING WITH IT. great TOY.
Pillow cover with the Sleep Kitty on It looks great in our guest room.
The product is very practical and easy to assemble, but the main thing is that my kittens loved to play with the scratcher.
I recommend.
Vixen just loves this scratcher! More so than another one I recently got her.
My two cats love this!!
The shirt came in a timely manner and i love it. Looks just like the pic on Your site
Fun, amu toy for kit. Also got one for friend-her's Loved it too!
Cat loves this. Spends lots of time playing with this. Keeps her attention.
My cats love this toy glad i purchad it!! My grandda even likes it!
arrive very soon A week even SOMETHING less. Is chest of drawers and perfexta To my.
Super. I was afraid of small for my dog, but it fits perfect. And very fast shipping
loved it
free fast! beautiful! durable. a bargain! i pinscher 4,5 kg and inside is convenient for him
super happy! great product, sewing strong, latch also aparenta be strong, waistcoat and breathable. super indico.
I show it off to everyone. They all ask where did I get it? And I tell them.
I use it for my Embroidery.
Nice customer service!
For european sizes I recommend size 1 up your regular size!
Awesome item :-)
cat is very happy been incredibly fast shipping and quality are very thank you would recommend it to anyone
recommended, Shipping very fast and tal Which description. my CAT Is the happy More
This is a beautiful bag very well made. It is going to be a present for my daughter who runs a Charity shop for Abandoned cats. They take cats mainly but have also taken on a lot of other animals. This beautiful bag is perfect for her. She will be showing it off to all her friends and customers. I am delighted.
much easier than to take two leaches in the same hand, they get entangeld all 10 minutes at least... this double leach is perfect, the length is all right, my dogs love it because they march side by side without making efforts to be the first or the one who marches in front of the other...
This was a gift for our nephew's cat, Zorra, and she absolutely loves it! She started laying in it and playing with the balls almost immeduately! It is so fun to watch her have a fun time!


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HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Sept. 18 (UPI) -- University of Alabama President Judy Bonner ordered changes in the school's sorority system Wednesday, admitting some organizations remain segregated.
After a closed-door meeting with sorority representatives Sunday, the school took the unusual step of reopening the sorority recruiting process, which normally closes in August, before the fall semester begins. It also permitted sororities to increase their membership to 360 each, to provide more opportunities for prospective members, the Alabama news website al.com reported.
The actions followed allegations in the school's student newspaper, the Crimson White, Sept. 11 that two black students had been barred from pledging primarily white sororities on campus.
In a video message released Wednesday, Bonner admitted some Greek organizations remain segregated and some sororities made membership decision "based on race." She also noted media interest in the controversy, saying, "The eyes of the nation are once again on the University of Alabama" 50 years after Gov. George Wallace stood in a school doorway and blocked the path of two incoming black students.
A protest march by students, calling attention to the alleged segregation of sororities and called the "Final Stand at the Schoolhouse Doors," took place on campus Wednesday.
During a question-and-answer period after a speech she gave to the Huntsville Rotary Club, Bonner said she thinks students "are ready if we give them time and space" to diversify the Greek system.
"They are going to reach out to their friends and ask them to be their sisters. I think the young people today have grown up in a diverse world," she added. "I want to empower them to make the changes that are needed."
During her appearance at the Rotary club meeting, Bonner offered no specific plan to accomplish integration in the school's Greek system, the newspaper said.


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Cliffhanger (US - BD)
Gabe passes out from vertigo while watching Stallone dangle in 1080p...
Following a botched rescue attempt, mountain climber Gabe Walker (Sylvester Stallone) leaves his cliff-side rescuing days behind him. Eight months after the incident, Gabe returns to the Rocky Mountains to collect his belongings and ask his girlfriend Jessie Deighan (Janine Turner) to come away with him. Meanwhile, a botched mid-air robbery leaves Eric Qualen (John Lithgow) and his band of evil thieves trapped atop a mountain, and missing three suitcases full of money. Qualen's crew calls the mountain top rescue squad, and Walker is asked to assist one last time. Of course, he's in over his head, and soon has to rescue his mountain top rescue friend Hal Tucker (Michael Rooker), who is kidnapped by the villains, and forced into being a guide.
I'm suddenly struck by the fact that this is the first time I've ever sat and watched Cliffhanger from beginning to end. This is surprising because I was and am such a big fan of vintage Renny Harlin. Harlin may not be a great storyteller, or the classiest guy on the block, but his brand of action film defines the late '80s and '90s, along with the likes of John McTiernan (who also happened to fall apart in the recent history). Few people move a camera, frame a shot, or rhythmically cut an epic scene quite like Harlin, and since the rise of the ever popular shaky-cam, the overused extreme speed cutting, and overabundance of digital augmentations, this brand has all but expired (even Harlin films don't look like Harlin films anymore). Cliffhanger is clearly the director's follow-up to Die Hard 2, his coming out party, and is technically speaking probably his best film. I happen to enjoy Deep Blue Sea and The Long Kiss Goodnight more, but those films benefit from solid scripts, and great senses of humour (most of which I'm sure is intended). I happen to suffer from vertigo, which makes Cliffhanger both a thrilling and a gruelling experience. The opening rescue scene is suspenseful enough to make me shit my pants, and the heights are dizzying enough to make me puke. I'm so happy I never saw this on the big screen. Things never quite add up to the promise of this intro, but it's still an effectively entertaining movie.
The story is pretty much junk, equating all those ' Die Hard on a Blank' accusations that were lodged at such films over the years (the only 'good' story I can recall on a Harlin flick would be The Long Kiss Goodnight), but it hardly matters as long as stuff is exploding, people are falling, and actors are chewing the scenery (sure, Lithgow can't hold his British accent, but isn't that half the fun?). This is effectively an 'Oh No' movie, which is a genre name I think I made up. These films are action machines, and the plot usually exists only to create more problems from the characters. Characters are thrown from the frying pan into the fire, into a bigger fire, into a bigger fire, and so on. Harlin's own Deep Blue Sea is probably the prime example of the practice. Cliffhanger's a little too focused on relative realism to quite get the 'Oh No' job done, but it's a good early example. The R-rated violence (apparently the film had to be pretty substantially cut to avoid the NC-17) helps matters as well. The violence is also definitively early-'90s—it's pure movie violence, with very little emotional impact or genuine pain behind it (save one rather brutal beating). I kind of miss this kind of violence, which has turned into either equally unhealthy bloodless PG-13 violence, or really graphic gore, which has its place for sure, but not in everything.
It isn't perfect, but I really can't imagine Cliffhanger looking much better than it does on this 1080p disc. Having never seen the film in its 2.40:1 widescreen glory (the framing seems to point to the print coming from the 35mm master, not the 70mm blow-up), I'd probably be impressed by a standard definition transfer, but the HD enhancement is definitely a plus. Some of the edges are a little on the soft side, while others are a little edge-enhanced, but despite a few minor instances of print damage artefacts, this is an incredibly consistent transfer that is more or less only hindered by cinematography choices made during filming. It's not a particularly colourful film, and it isn't shot with extreme detail in mind. There are few hard edges, and the snowy landscapes make for a pretty even lighting scheme, so details are never really that sharp (the shots of the red helicopter against the grey and white mountains do pop without bleeding, however). The print is incredibly clean overall, featuring very little in the way of grain, and the colours are relatively noiseless and pure. Blacks are blacks, whites are whites, and the details are sharp enough that you'll probably catch a few more spurts of blood from those healthy squibs (even if the increased detail hurts a few of the effects shots a bit).
Cliffhanger opens with a helicopter wrapping from the left rear channel, over to the right rear, and then around to the right stereo and front. Directionally speaking the effect is extremely realistic, the tone is pitch-perfect, and the bass is punchy and loud without overpowering the score or dialogue. Who knew a movie this old could sound this convincing? I can't wait for Jurassic Park. This DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is extremely aggressive and hyper-active, making every lazy stream a rushing torrent, and every wind gust a practical hurricane. The track is a little light on subtle ambiance, but is rarely not immersive. The second act instigating plane crash is a pretty good spot to work your system out, and is impressive for the small details mixed among the rumbling bass. Trevor Jones' score is too schmaltzy for words, and tries to capture John Williams' magic rather than his own sound, but it's hard to argue with the overall result or the music's presence on this particular track.
The extras start with dual commentary tracks. The first track features director Renny Harlin and writer/star Stallone. Harlin starts things pretty excitedly, but he slows down fast, and there's a lot of blank space here. I've enjoyed Harlin's tracks in the past, but this one is stilted, low on info, and all around pretty drab. Stallone's input is even more limited, cropping up a few times here and there, equating probably a matter of minutes altogether, and obviously recorded separately. The second track features technical crew members giving a more technical insight into the film. Editor Frank Urioste, effects supervisors Neil Krepela and John Bruno, and production designer John Vallone (who sound like they've been culled from three different interviews) keep things moving, and they're relatively fact-filled (sadly more so than the director), answering some interesting technical questions about the pre-CG overload process, but this track is pretty dry tonally speaking.
The rest of the extras continue with a 'Personal Introduction from Renny Harlin' (04:50, SD), a brief talk with the director recorded for the original DVD special edition, and cut together with set interviews, and various EPK items. This is followed by two deleted scenes (08:20, SD), with special edition introductions from Harlin, and occasional behind the scenes footage. 'Stallone on the Edge: The Making of Cliffhanger' (20:00, SD) is a pretty goofy period EPK featuring raw behind the scenes footage, footage from the film, storyboards, and cast and crew interviews (Stallone is dressed in his Demolition Man garb). This is followed by two effects featurettes, ('Sarah's Fall' and 'Helicopter Explosion', 07:30, SD), three storyboard comps (12:00, SD), and trailers.
I can say with little doubt that I haven't heard my own named yelled this regularly in my entire life. I'm guessing those of you with names like John and Michael are used to it, but Gabe isn't a particularly common movie hero name. The DTS-HD quality of this Blu-ray audio makes the whole thing just that much more unsettling. Fans of Cliffhanger should be plenty satisfied with this disc's technical achievements—it sounds perfect, and looks just about as good as it possibly could—but the extra features are the same that accompanied the old special edition DVD, and they weren't very good back then. Definitely worth a look for unabashed Renny Harlin fans like myself (I even liked Driven) that never got around to watching the film in widescreen.
* Note: The above images are taken from the UK Blu-ray release and resized for the page.
Review by Gabriel Powers
Existing Posts
Thanks Gabe. I'll get this when I see it cheap.
Yeah, this is the R1 disc through and through.
Great review Gabe. I remember not buying the UK DVD of this because the R1 DVD had better features or was uncut - I can't quite remember. Is this the same as that R1 disc?
Chris, the copter definitely goes from rear left, to rear right, around to front right, and then onto screen from the right. Seems to make aural sense to me.
scratch wrote: B B wrote: This is Stallone's "Die Hard", except set in the mountains.'Climb Hard'?
and then the sequel "Climb Hard or Die Falling"
and then the sequel "Climb Hard or Die Falling"
B B wrote: This is Stallone's "Die Hard", except set in the mountains.'Climb Hard'?
Gabe Powers wrote: The opening rescue scene is suspenseful enough to make me s**t my pants.
Ummmm, is that Is or Was Gabe????
Good review GP, its been a long time since I've viewed Cliffhanger but I always regarded it as a good action film. I particularly remember being wowed at how realistic and dangerous the climbing sequences were. But for the life of me I never realised Lithgow was playing a British guy (granted its been a while since I've seen it) But what an irony, when the character is actually British they get an American actor to play it.
Damn, forgot to add I also can't wait to see Jurassic Park on bluray. One of my favourite films, maybe this news of a new trilogy will get the first three films on BD.
Ummmm, is that Is or Was Gabe????
Good review GP, its been a long time since I've viewed Cliffhanger but I always regarded it as a good action film. I particularly remember being wowed at how realistic and dangerous the climbing sequences were. But for the life of me I never realised Lithgow was playing a British guy (granted its been a while since I've seen it) But what an irony, when the character is actually British they get an American actor to play it.
Damn, forgot to add I also can't wait to see Jurassic Park on bluray. One of my favourite films, maybe this news of a new trilogy will get the first three films on BD.
This is Stallone's "Die Hard", except set in the mountains. I really enjoyed this one in the theater, lots of fun and I am sure this would look great in HD.
Can you check the rear audio channels on this? They're reversed on the UK release and someone mentioned that the helicopter is supposed to go from right to left, not left to right. Be silly if it was the same on this one...
Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian
Disc Details
Release Date: 12th January 2010
Discs: 1
Disc Type: Blu-ray Disc
RCE: No
Video: 1080p
Aspect: 2.40:1
Anamorphic: No
Colour: Yes
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1French
Subtitles: English SDH, English, French
Extras: Director and Writer/Actor Commentary, Crew Commentary, Personal Introduction from Director Renny Harlin, Deleted Scenes, Making-Of Featurette, Special Effects Featurettes, Storyboard Comparisons, Movie IQ, Trailers
Easter Egg: No
Feature Details
Director: Renny Harlin
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner
Genre: Action and Adventure
Length: 113 minutes
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Peter wrote:http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15686
had a look and its no more or no less that a obe exit to a lucid dream. Have done this a lot and yes its cool and loads of fun but just an dream entry by body exit instead of walking into the dream. Most of my lucids are WILD so this or that - makes no difference and ends up in the same place
Yes, a FA. When Summerlander told me that it happens in 9/10 times, I was like "NO WAY!!". Hahaha.. Because I don't remember myself to have experienced a FA ever again. My doubt didn't stop it from happening! I was very surprised to see it worked
Three times..
Very surprised


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IT'S FRIDAY, and what better way to kick start the weekend than with another of our new live blogs exclusive to the Angler's Mail website.
Every Friday we will be handing over to Carl and Alex Smith – known online as simply Carl & Alex.
Two of the keenest youngsters we've come across, with a passion for making a variety of fishing videos, they'll provide a youth dimension to our new blogging mix.
The lads, aged 16 and 12, are familiar faces to Mail magazine readers for their weekly tips, and also their regular video diaries. Some of their recent videos will now be available to view within the new blog here on the Mail's website.
We hope you enjoy the blog, written this time by Carl, and share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the icons above, or by the "old skool" method of telling fellow anglers! Feel free also to comment by using the special space at the bottom on this page.
WHEN a mate of mine, Michael Wickens, asked if I wanted to join him for a night on a Sussex Ouse weirpool, I instantly said yes as I knew there would be a good chance of catching my first barbel from my local river. The weather looked good too; cloudy with a little rain but plenty warm enough.
I gathered my gear together, making sure I packed both tips for my 30Plus Twin Tip Barbel Rod. But I was not certain how much lead I would need to hold bottom.
On arriving at the river we realised there was someone fishing the pool but headed down to another good swim instead. I spotted a number of barbel in the shallows… but none of them would take my bait. I rolled pellets, meat and bread past their noses but my efforts just resulted in a little chub. Oh well!
At about 9pm we moved up to the previously occupied weirpool and Michael baited his spot with a PVA bag full of pellets and a stone to help it reach the bottom quicker. I used a baitdropper to deposit a bed of 6mm Fish Frenzy Hallibut Pellets mixed withBait-Tech Chilli Hemp. Halibut pellet hookbaits were both our choices.
It didn't take long for something to happen. Just five minutes later Michael's rod tip hooped over. That was quite a shock…. we did not anticipate a bite so soon after casting out!
The fight was nothing spectacular but the fish did dive for a number of known snags on the way in. As the fish drifted into the net I lifted the mesh around a good barbel, especially from the tiny Sussex Ouse. We both jumped up and down with joy as it was Michael's first fish from this pool.
On the scales it weighed 8lb 3oz and Mick, as I sometimes call him, was very pleased.
Shortly after releasing the barbel I caught a small chub. We were getting lots of bites and reckoned the session was going to be a really good one. Unfortunately, such is fishing, my chub was the last fish of the night…
The next weekend we decided to do another night, although the forecast did not look so promising.
As soon as Michael cast out he was receiving slight indications on the rod tip. Just like the last session it took a matter of minutes before his rod smacked over, just like the proverbial "three foot twitch"!
This fish held near the bottom and refused to be moved from there. Constant pressure drew the fish up in the layers until a barbel like tail flicked over on the surface. Yet again I was netsman and a slightly smaller barbel than before was engulfed in my 30Plus Camo Barbel Net.
We did not bother weighing this fish as it was not as big as Mick's previous one. I did my best to do the fish justice in the photos as it was in perfect condition and clearly feeding hard in the slightly coloured water.
Then the rain started. We took cover under our brolly, and just as it was getting dark, Mick managed another fish, this time a quality chub weighing 4lb 1oz. That's a great fish considering the average chub in the river is under 2lb and my biggest from here is 3lb 8oz!
The rain became even heavier as Michael cast his bait back out to his producing spot. To my surprise it was not long before he was in to another barbel but this time smaller. Interestingly, this fish fought pretty much as hard as the one before. And there I was again, taking photos of yet another barbel! Mick was on a roll and I quizzed him on how he was doing so well.
We both fell asleep after that and whilst we were dreaming of 100lb barbel and gudgeon as long as your arm, the rain got even worse.
At about 1.40 in the morning I woke up and switched on my light as the thundering noise of the weir seemed very loud. Only then did I realize that the river had risen three foot and was still rising so fast that you could see it coming towards us.
We packed everything away in double quick time and retreated up the bank, away from the raging torrent. One slip and we could have been washed away. The water was so powerful and I was, just a bit, TERRIFIED!
Luckily Michael has a brilliant brother who came to take us home. We were both drenched but happy that one of us had managed two great barbel. I slept the night at Mick's house, so thank you very much to his family!
The next day I was feeling a bit down as in the two nights at the river I had not achieved my target of a barbel. I picked up my rod and walked across our road to a small pool which holds loads of roach, fish I was confident would be feeding as usual. I tried for about three hours and in that time hooked three fish – the one I lost would have been my first ever carp from the lake!
I was not having much luck. But I will be back! And hopefully a few quality fish on my own here for the next Angler's Mail blog.
Recent Carl & Alex river videos below. See lots more of their videos by using our new TV player (top right of this website), where we have a CARL & ALEX channel.
Here's the list of all our new blogs and when they go live:
MONDAY: Carp crews on rotation – Korda, Fox, Nash and ACE.
TUESDAY: Steve Collett, Mail contributor and ultimate all-rounder.
WEDNESDAY: Angler's Mail HQ – yes, us!
THURSDAY: Specialists from Pike Anglers Club, Korum and Pallatrax, on rotation.
FRIDAY: Carl & Alex, Angler's Mail juniors and video diary makers.
SATURDAY: The Angling Trust – guys at the governing body.
SUNDAY: Colin Mitchell, veteran coarse angler and top journalist
Click HERE to catch up on all bloggers' introductions


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Julie, thanks so much for your thoughts on the use of descriptors in poetry. I always appreciate hearing from poets, as poetry is definitely out of my comfort zone.
And your re-write is one of the best--you took out all of the dead weight, but still made the two admittedly banal paragraphs engaging and fun.
Well done!


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Introduction and Design
The last three years have been great for ultraportables and netbooks. Laptops with displays below fourteen inches in size have exploded in popularity thanks not only to Intel's Atom, but also a wide selection of Intel ultra-low voltage products. Many of the laptops that we've reviewed over the past year, such as the Lenovo IdeaPad U260 and the Alienware M11x, would have been impossible prior to the release of those processors.
Mainstream laptops have enjoyed less progress, however. The 15.6" laptop remains the most popular category with consumers, but while it has enjoyed a boost in performance with the release of the original Core i series processors, issues like battery life and graphics performance remained largely unaddressed. These mainstream laptops have continued to represent a major compromise, as they've been unable to provide great battery life but also (unless supplimented with a discrete GPU) lack the chops to play any but the most basic 3D games.
According to Intel, these flaws could soon be addressed. Intel's Sandy Bridge mobile processors are nothing short of the savior of mainstream laptops. These processors not only offer the typical improvements in speed but also drastically improved integrated graphics and provide much better battery life.
Or, at least, that's what Intel says. They've said such things in the past, however - Intel's IGPs have often promised more than they can deliver. But every piece of hardware deserves a fair shake, and now it's time for Intel's Sandy Bridge to step up to the plate, appearing today in the form of the ASUS K53E. Let's see what is under the hood.
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Maine man convicted in Zumba prostitution case
Mark Strong Sr., 57, convicted on 13 counts
Maine man convicted in Zumba prostitution case
Mark Strong Sr., 57, convicted on 13 counts
ALFRED, Maine —
A Maine jury has convicted an insurance agent on 13 counts in a prostitution scandal centered at a Zumba studio in a small coastal town.
Jurors returned the verdicts Wednesday against Mark Strong Sr., who was accused of helping a fitness instructor use her studio as a front for prostitution.
Prosecutors say he was a business partner who controlled, supervised and managed the prostitution business.
The 57-year-old Strong is a married businessman. He has acknowledged having an affair with Alexis Wright and helping her open the studio but contends he didn't profit from her activities. His attorneys say he was a smitten lover who wanted to help the single mother.
Wright is awaiting trial and has pleaded not guilty.