Van Booy makes another appearance at Fifty-Two Stories – As I strive to catch up with them, the reading offerings keep on coming over at Fifty-Two Stories, Harper Perennial’s portal of free short stories. And the latest author to be served up is none other than old favourite Simon van Booy with French Artist Killed in Sunday’s Earthquake, a story taken from his latest short story collection, The Secret Lives of People in Love. This is the third Van Booy story that Harper Perennial have offered up for free public consumption so far. The other two stories are Tiger, Tiger and the first story ever published on the website, The Missing Statues.
Russian writers are as hard as nails – Or at least that’s what Daniel Kalder says in this excellent post over at the Guardian Book Blog. Running through a list of Russian authors who have more than proved their manliness i.e. Pushkin and Lermontov dying in a duel (not the same one 
), Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn serving time in exile, Tolstoy fighting in the Caucasus etc. Kalder concludes that the hardest nut of them all was none other than Avvakum the Archpriest. He’s offers a compelling reason why as well but that’s all I’m saying. You’ll have to head on over to the Guardian website to find out more, but I can assure you mouse-click is worth it. ::discovered via @insidebooks on Twitter.
Caustic Cover Critic interview Michael Salu – Fans of cover art may like to make their way over to the Caustic Cover Critic blog for an awesome interview with cover designer Michael Salu. What do you mean you don’t know the man? Head on over to the interview and see some of the covers he’s designed. I think you may well be more familiar with him than you think you are.
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