Okay, people, welcome to Wednesday! The middle point of the week – all downhill to the weekend from here *grin*

Time for us to take our customary spin around the Interwebs, where I bring you interesting discussions and articles from some of the best bloggers out there.

1) Is Urban Fantasy REALLY all about sex?

We’re starting out with something a little risque! Philip Palmer (author of Debatable Space amongst others) poses the above question in an article on his blog. It has led to some interesting comments both on his blog and on others, including Gav from Next Read. Gav is certainly making a good point with regards to what constitutes urban fantasy!

2) The Men of Urban Fantasy Week

Since we’re in the genre of urban fantasy, I wanted to highlight the Men of Urban Fantasy Week that Book Chick City is hosting – it is a fine mix of reviews, interviews and guest posts regarding the men who write in the field of urban fantasy. Definitely worth checking out – you might find your new favourite author in that little lot!

3) Novel Survey Results

This is an interesting little article by Jim C. Hines: he has collected information from professionally published authors in order to bust some of the myths about making it as a novelist. The results so far are extremely interesting – take a look here and here for the two part article. Hopefully this will be helpful for all you budding novelists out there!

4) Female Characters in Fantasy Fiction

I’ve noticed this particular discussion coming up in a couple of locations recently, with articles about female characters in all forms of speculative media (films as well as books). The post that prompted much of the discussion was actually dealing with strong female characters in films and was a little controversial! Take a read of that one here, then a follow up article written by Jim C. Hines (yep, him again) here. One last article I want to highlight takes a look at the role of female characters in fantasy literature and can be found here. All three articles are not new this week, but I think they deserve attention.

5) The British Science Fiction Association Survey

Recently the British Science Fiction Association have completed a survey with authors where there are answers to questions such as ‘How do authors perceive their work and how is it received?’ So far Torque Control has published the responses of John Meaney, Kit Whitfield and Paul Cornell, which are fascinating to read!

6) The British Fantasy Society

Sticking with the bodies that are championing speculative fiction over here on the shores of Blighty, the British Fantasy Society has announced the longlist of books for the BFA Award 2010: there are some 94 books on the longlist, recommended by BFA members. Those members will be voting on the longlist up until the 31st May 2010, and then the shortlist will be compiled from their votes. What do you think of the books included? Have you read many of them? Which would you vote for?

7) Fondest Memories of Life as a Writer

Over at SF Signal, some of the giants of science fiction are sharing their fondest memories of life as a writer – I don’t know about you, but I love hearing tales of authors discussing meeting their own heroes, talking about those first uncomfortable book signings, and not knowing what to wear to awards dinners.

8) The Unreliable Narrator

Paul C Smith is relatively new to the world of blogging – I’ve only been subscribed to his site for a week or so – but with articles like this, where he gives us an essay on the unreliable narrators present in Gene Wolfe’s work, I feel we should all be subscribing! I found the article very well-written, and now (dammit!) I have pencilled in some Gene Wolfe to read!

9) Writer on the Verge

No, this isn’t a pointer towards a writer who is about to plunge over the edge thanks to bad reviews, or anything like that! I, in fact, want to highlight a delightful little interview conducted by all round nice guy Blake Charlton, author of Spellwright – he chats with writer on the verge Saladin Ahmed, who has some of his writing on his site. The interview can be found here and I, for one, am extremely intrigued by the work that Saladin Ahmed is producing.

10) A Richard Morgan update

Adam Whitehead, over at the Wertzone, certainly has his finger on the pulse – seriously, he is the guy that most often comes up with the goods before the rest of us even know something has happened! And he was the first to showcase the US cover for The Dark Commands, the long awaited follow-up to The Steel Remains, and the latest announcement concerning its release – check out all the information here.

And that’s a wrap! Please do let me know if you think I’m not covering your favourite blogs, or reaching out to find the information you’d most like to see. Comments always welcome!