It was always my intention that this weblog should concentrate on the Australian side of the literary scene, if for no other reason than to keep the workload down to reasonable levels. I can't for the life of me figure out how some weblogs maintain their output. Burnout seems a likely outcome. At least it would for me.
So I've tried to keep the boundaries tight. Though, occasionally, the edges get a little blurry. I reviewed a website based outside Australia a while back and have mentioned prizes for which Australians are only vaguely eligble and managed to fudge it enough so as not to worry too much. But sometimes some things come up that strike me as outstanding examples of what weblogs can do. And it is at those times that I think this weblog should just salute the innovation and not be too worried about parochial geographic boundaries.
The first of these has been taking place over at Ron Hogan's weblog Beatrice. Ron has moved away from the tradition nodding-head interview to get two authors to basically interview each other about their respective work, and to frame the "interview" as a conversation between the two. Not so great you reckon? Well, give it a try and see what you think.
I guess the whole concept could fall completely flat if Hogan chose his participants unwisely. So he has chosen carefully and picked authors who are lively, informative, interested in the other's work and who come across as someone you'd like to read. Haven't heard of any of them? Doesn't matter. The whole point of the exercise is to give these authors a forum to discuss items of mutual interest and for us to sit back and eaves-drop. Great stuff.
The second innovation comes to us from the Largehearted Boy weblog. The Boy has created a new feature, title "book Notes", in which "authors whose work I admire will create mix CD's based on their latest book. There are no ground rules, I plan to just let these creative masters work their own magic with words." The first one he has persuaded to participate is Tom Bissell, and the work is God Lives in St Petersburg and Other Stories. It's early days yet but I see good things ahead for this idea.
