Whether you're Katniss Everdeen's biggest fan, or just waiting for the whole franchise to fade away, you can't help but be amused when Jennifer Lawrence opens her mouth. If it comes to a choice between watching Angelina Jolie's latest piece of self-important tripe, or watching Jennifer Lawrence talk about her cat for five minutes, I'd go for J-Law every time.
Dystopian novels are enjoying something of a renaissance. According to Goodreads, the number of dystopian-themed books is currently at its highest since the 1960s. Women writers seem to be leading the way.
Does it take a controversy for an Indie novel to become a bestseller in today's crowded electronic era? Of course if your novel is provocative enough, and both the above are extremely so, it will rub many the wrong way, sufficiently enough to generate that much-needed word-of-mouth buzz, which any marketer worth his/her salt will tell you is invaluable.
In the lead up to Sunday's Olympic hunger event, my head kept inadvertently dubbing the event 'The Hunger Games'. On the surface, an event to call on world leaders to step up efforts to reduce child malnutrition doesn't appear to have much to do with a post-apocalyptic novel/blockbuster movie. Low and middle income district children risking their lives to feed their families and being made to fight each other to the death, as those from the high income district watch dispassionately on television while tucking in to piles of cream cakes?