Some weeks it is a positive breeze bringing you the fun that can be found in and around the Intarwebs, but this week everything seemed a little slow: maybe the holiday season is starting? (Actually, I think it is probably a certain football tournament keeping things quiet in the blogging world – I know for sure that my reading has slowed down while the tournament has been on!) So here are the ten items I want to highlight for you this week, and here’s hoping everything gets back to normal next week.

1) Anywhere But Here, Anywhere But Now

This is the announcement by Terry Pratchett of a new award for aspiring debut novelists: he and Transworld are offering a £20, 000 advance to the winning entry! Check out the link to find out the criteria and what Sir Pratchett wishes to see from the final novel chosen.

2) Minotaurs are the New Vampires!

The Onion brings us the entertaining tale of a publishing executive desperate to find the new vampires – and bringing us minotaurs! To get ahead of the trend, Gavin Smith (a science fiction debut author this year with Gollancz) has decided to tackle the new subject head-on: take a look at his tale of vampire hobbits and minotaur true love (Twilight Eclipse of the Cows)!

3) 10 Fun Days of YA Fiction

The glamorous Carolyn from Book Chick City is spending the next 10 days focusing on some of the quality YA being released at the moment (speculative fiction and other genres).

4) David Gemmell Award

Last Friday the David Gemmell award winners were announced: the surprise winner of the Best Novel prize was Graham McNeill with Empire, Warhammer tie-in fiction. Joe Abercrombie (also nominated) presents us his report on the David Gemmell award.

5) Book Smugglers’ Half Year Report

Since we’ve reached the halfway point in the year, the Book Smugglers have umm’d and ahh’d over their best books so far in 2010 and bring us these lists. I don’t know about you, but my wishlist grew exponentially just looking at what they’ve picked!

6) Voices of the Dead

Sam Sykes doesn’t mind being compared to other authors – but he wants to be judged on his own merits! The comments are just as interesting in this case as the blog post itself, since a few well-known names pitch in.

7) Goodreads – Janny Wurts

Here at FanLit we rather like Janny Wurts, so we’re thrilled that there is a Goodreads project group set up to discuss her long-running fantasy opus! (We also rather like Goodreads – and most of us can be found loitering there in some form or another – check it out and sign up!)

8) Earth’s Children

One of the longest-running series EVER finally looks like nearing completion: Jean M Auel has handed in the manuscript for the final novel in the Earth’s Children series. All those complaining about GRRM‘s rather sluggish pace on releasing books have no grounds for complaint!

9) Alt.Fiction Podcasts

Last week I brought you the news that Alt.Fiction had taken place here in the UK: for everyone who couldn’t attend, there were some podcasts recorded on the day which can be found on the Alt.Fiction Podcast page.

10) Lou Anders

Yep, I checked back and realised it wasn’t that long ago I gave you a Lou Anders interview, but this is a different one and I found it very entertaining (told you it was a slow week!)

Okay, that’s me all done! Do let me know which of these features are of the most interest to you: have you been waiting years to read the last Earth’s Children book? Did you attend the David Gemmell Award ceremony, or have you read Empire by Graham McNeill? We’d love any feedback!