Things have been a little quiet over at KYD headquarters this past week – or at least on the blogging front – because we’ve been super busy organising our first public outing, the Kill Your Darlings Literary Trivia Night, held at The Pumphouse in Fitzroy last night. It was a huge success, with a healthy portion of funds raised towards our inaugural print run and a good night had by all. Next stop, Adelaide. Watch this space …

We’ll be posting photos and an official wrap-up of the event in the next few days, but in the meantime (while we’re recovering), here’s some online reading I’ve recently enjoyed:

Over at 3000 Books, Estelle Tang is taking a ground-up view of the publishing industry with her series ‘Hello Interns’, interviewing the APA publishing interns, starting with Stephanie Stepan, publicity intern at Text and Belinda Leon, publishing assistant at Oxford University Press (not actually an intern, but kinda, sorta, near enough). It’s pretty interesting to read about how different people get started and why they work in the industry. (Hint: it’s not the money.) You may remember Estelle from previous roles such as Melbourne Writers Festival Official Blogger 2009.

Leanne Hall, my fellow Readings bookseller, won the Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing this year for her unpublished manuscript, This is Shyness. On her blog, she writes about the experience of sitting down with her publisher to talk about where to go next – and finds it pretty exhilarating. I’m pretty stoked about Leanne’s win, not just because she’s lovely, but because she’s a fantastic writer. I fear Leanne is destined to achieve cult internet status before her book comes out though, thanks to her Friday hobby of dressing up in bizarre themed outfits and posting them on Facebook and later, the blog. I confess that I find myself looking out for her Friday posts – and I know I’m not alone. I don’t know why they’re so awesome, but they just are.

And Kerryn Goldsworthy, a very fine book reviewer indeed, has some pretty sensible sounding guidelines on her blog what makes a good good review, a good bad review, a bad good review and a bad bad review. Recommended reading for anyone who writes or is interested in reviewing culture.