Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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Yes, I’m blogging. Real blogging . . .

So apparently it’s de rigeur for the first entry of a brand new blog to feature the cover of the blogger’s latest book. I mean, if the blogger in question happens to be a writer with a brand new cover to display to the masses, which this particular blogger does. To wit the cover for the second book in the Magic or Madness trilogy:

Colour me very happy indeed. Aside from anything else, that photo of the tree there? I took it! It’s a moreton bay fig. In fact it’s the fig tree just past the front gates of Camperdown Cemetery in Sydney, which cemetery makes an appearance in both Magic or Madness and Magic Lessons. The photo on the back cover was also taken in the cemetery by Scott. And the fabulous mjcdesign turned those images into a cover of genius. Thank you, Marc J Cohen.

Hope you all like. Hope you also enjoy this my brand spanking new blog. Welcome!

As some of you know I’ve already had a blog of sorts for the last two years. Some people have dubbed it my not-blog blog. Given the classificatory problems of my musings, I decided to be done with it and start an actual blog blog. Here’s how you’ll be able to distinguish it from my musings:

the entries will be completely free of capital letters. That’s right, this is solidly e e cummingsland. even in the comments. and ha ha! nothing you can do about it. I may even do away with full stops and commas (irritating things anyways).

there’ll be discusssion of books, cricket, movies, elvis, basketball, tv and such. opinions will be expressed, but rarely substantiated. there will be no lit crit. i was once an academic and my days of lit critting and footnotes are far behind me (anyways i was always more of an historian). this is a blog damn it! my blog! if I say so then it is so!

There’ll be comments, but disagreement will not be brooked, unless, you know, it’s funny, or well written, or in some other way cool and interesting. Hmm, come to think of it the same rules apply to agreement.

Enjoy! I plan to.

Posted by Justine at 0:09, 25 May 2005 under Admin, Bloggery, Magic or Madness trilogy | 30 Comments »

Comments

  1. John Scalzi Says:

    What a lovely cover. You’ve been really well served by your artists and art directors so far.

    May 25th, 2005 at 12:30 am

  2. Helen Says:

    Excellent cover, and excellent layout! Welcome to the wonderful world of bloggin’ …

    May 25th, 2005 at 12:34 am

  3. 3. Justine Says:

    Why thank you–both of you. I’m dead pleased with the cover. Penguin/Razorbill have been very very very good to me!

    This bloggin thing isn’t going to eat my brain, is it?

    May 25th, 2005 at 12:38 am

  4. bo Says:

    yes, I think it is going to eat your brain. but not nearly as much as email has already eaten your brain:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1465973,00.html

    (uhh, yep, that link’s been on every other blog all month, but you wouldn’t want this new blog to feel left out would you?)

    May 25th, 2005 at 12:57 am

  5. 5. Justine Says:

    Good point, Bo, actually the whole point of the blog is to not answer anyone’s email ever again and thus regenerate my broken brain. I’m glad I have the institutional weight of the Guardian backing me up on that!

    How’s the tennis?

    May 25th, 2005 at 1:03 am

  6. Shelly Rae Says:

    So, if we turned to email to avoid talking on the phone, and to blogging to avoid email, how do we stop blogging? Use the phone? It’s a vicious cycle I tell you!

    By the way, I like capital letters. Preferably ornate capitals with curliques, demons, tiny monks fighting off snails with sorts and vines. I guess it’s just that medievalist in me.
    Et Anon,

    May 25th, 2005 at 1:52 am

  7. jonathan Says:

    i don’t think blogging will eat your brain, but it just might eat your life. still, i look forward to your lowercase insights.

    May 25th, 2005 at 1:53 am

  8. ben peek Says:

    i haven’t used capitals for years. i used to blog without capitals, but now i do. nowadays i just use it to signal a shift between public speaking and private speaking, weblike.

    May 25th, 2005 at 3:41 am

  9. niki Says:

    mmm – yes it is nice layout – this venture into web design is not going too bad – you’re overcoming your design challengness quite well ….

    May 25th, 2005 at 4:38 am

  10. ron Says:

    can just about cope with the lack of caps – e.e.cummings is an old fave after all – but if you ever ditch the commas and full stops then you will be dead to me :)

    love the jacket! but some weird sort of scandewegian spelling seems to have crept in to your explanations. note that the tree in question is the resolutely australian “moreton bay fig”.

    nitpickingly yours

    the moreton bay fag

    May 25th, 2005 at 6:12 am

  11. Cheryl Says:

    “disagreement will not be brooked”

    so absolutely no suggestion that the dastardly poms might actually win a game or two in the ashes series then? :-)

    May 25th, 2005 at 6:25 am

  12. Nalo Says:

    good luck with never having to use email again. I still get people saying, “so, what’s going on with your life?” and when I reply, “read my blog,” they say, “well, I did, but I want, you know, more detail.”

    May 25th, 2005 at 7:57 am

  13. Chris McLaren Says:

    Congratulations on the getting WP up and running (for the second time–you set up Scott’s too, didn’t you?).

    And that cover looks great.

    May 25th, 2005 at 9:02 am

  14. Ray Davis Says:

    Author photos on the front of the book? Tsk, tsk, what is the publishing industry coming to?

    Much nicer looking result than the usual stamp-it-out designer twitch. “UNCORRECTED PROOF – NOT FOR SALE” goes good with the title, too. (Loses a little something without the caps, though.)

    May 25th, 2005 at 9:13 am

  15. elad haber Says:

    welcome to the wonderfully distracting world of blogging, justine.

    i’m looking forward to your next book! just finished magic or madness this morning, actually, and loved the ending.

    May 25th, 2005 at 9:50 am

  16. Shara Says:

    I love your cover Justine and you get extra cool points for having taken it yourself! Now there’s a practical girl. John, couldn’t you take a picture of an old guy for yours?

    Best of luck on the birth of your blog!

    May 25th, 2005 at 10:23 am

  17. Mely Says:

    i mock you and your not-blog pretensions.

    i like punctuation, especially semicolons; maybe we can compromise and you can get rid of every form of punctuation except the semicolon.

    ;

    May 25th, 2005 at 10:37 am

  18. Stephanie Says:

    Yes! A blog!

    That is a delicious cover.

    May 25th, 2005 at 10:40 am

  19. 19. Justine Says:

    Thank you, everyone, for the kind welcome!

    Shelly: there is no solution, we are all trapped in an eternal hell of overcommunication.

    Jonathan: not to worry about my losing my life, my next novel isn’t due till, like, January. I can fritter away . . .

    Ben: the dirty secret is the lower case design drives Scott crazy. hee hee.

    Niki: why thank you, sister, for the kind words. I can’t take credit, however, the design is called zen minimalist and is by Joni Mueller . All I did was change the colour. I haven’t even figured out how to make the font normal and not all lower case which is the true dirty secret of the ee cummings thing.

    Ron: panic not, the punctuation will stay if only to stop Scott from divorcing me. C’mon, how long have you known me? You know I can’t spell! I shall correct it forthwith.

    Cheryl: suggest away! No disagreement is allowed, but I’m totallly cool with delirium-induced mad dreams. I promise not to mock your country’s “cricket” team at worldcon. Oh, hang on, my fingers are crossed. Woops.

    nalo: they just want to know about the sex. Delete all their emails. Reply only to business emails. except my emails, of course, feel free to keep telling me about the sex.

    chris: thanks! It was relatively easy especially with your excellent advice. Sadly, I’m yet to master css. Working on it!

    ray: the publishing industry is clearly in a state of total decadence and thus on the brink of collapse. we should all run while we can!

    elad: thanks so much for reading the book. Glad you liked it! you don’t review for anyone do you? If you do I could see what I could do about getting you an ARC when they come out in July.

    shara: ta. Razorbill have been amazing about how involved they let me be with covers. Just amazing!

    mely: what are you doing here?! don’t think you can waltz off and get tickets to see firefly and boast about it and not suffer the dark dire consequences of my raging jealous. you best watch your back at Wiscon. That’s all I’m saying.

    Hmm it’s 11AM and I haven’t done any work yet. Ooops.

    May 25th, 2005 at 11:08 am

  20. Lisa Bouchard Says:

    So, I’m checking out your new blog and my 9 year old son walks in and sees the cover for _Magic Lessons_.

    “Is it out yet?” – he’s salivating over my keyboard as he strains his eyes to read the copy on the back cover.

    I had to break his heart and tell him not until next year. Poor kid.

    May 25th, 2005 at 11:56 am

  21. jason erik lundberg Says:

    welcome to the blogosphere, justine! i look forward to hearing about your daily mundanity, your results for silly quizzes, and your answers to time-eating memes.

    and that’s a beautiful cover.

    hope to meet you at wiscon!

    May 25th, 2005 at 2:29 pm

  22. 22. Justine Says:

    That’s adorable, Lisa, and exactly the response we’re hoping for! Thanks for stopping by.

    May 25th, 2005 at 2:31 pm

  23. 23. Justine Says:

    thanks, Jason, but there will be no quizzes. i don’t hold with ‘em. hmph.

    looking forward to meeting you too which reminds me I should post my wiscon schedule . . .

    May 25th, 2005 at 2:33 pm

  24. Tonya Liburd Says:

    Love the cover!

    Good photos, both!

    I don’t know if I can take ones that well…

    -Tonya

    May 26th, 2005 at 10:21 pm

  25. Patrick O'Leary Says:

    Dude.

    What. A kick-ass cover.

    May 28th, 2005 at 8:50 am

  26. 26. Justine Says:

    Tonya & Patrick–

    Thanks heaps! obviously, I adore the cover, but it’s fantastic to hear that I’m not alone. So far everyone seems to be into it! yay!

    May 28th, 2005 at 10:18 am

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. [...] if they could see the original photos Scott and me took that were used for the cover ...

    Pingback from Justine Larbalestier » cemetery photos on 31 May, 2005 at 6:40 pm

  2. [...] 221;) Friday 2:30pm Reading I’ll read some stuff. Maybe from Magic or Madness, or Magic Lessons (the sequel ...

    Pingback from Justine Larbalestier » My World Science Fiction Convention Schedule on 28 July, 2005 at 12:59 pm

  3. [...] the final at right, several agonizing weeks passed in cover limbo. Razorbill always gives Justine and me a ...

    Pingback from westerblog » Blog Archive » Peeps Week! on 21 August, 2005 at 7:00 pm

  4. [...] rs to keyboard—gulp—I’m re-reading the first book as well as the sequel, Magic Lessons, (out next March) and taking ...

    Pingback from Justine Larbalestier » Some Questions for Those Who Have Read Magic or Madness on 29 August, 2005 at 1:44 pm

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