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Went into the fabulous
Books of Wonder children's bookstore today to drop off an arc of
Scott's Midnighters 3: Blue Noon. (Yup, the final Midnighters book is that much closer to being a real book. Exciting, eh?) We were greeted with effusive expressions of happiness. I believe Sara snaffled the arc for first read. (I've just started my re-read, and, wow, does it crack along.)
It was meant to be a quick visit, drop off the arc, then hurry home to get some solid writing in before
tonight's game. But we ended up having a good old goss about which b.e.a. books we'd read and enjoyed: Totally Joe, Teach Me and Rebel Angels all got dissected (in ...
Posted by Justine at 16:38, June 30th, 2005 under New York City/USA, Reading |
© Getty Images
Posted by Justine at 16:21, June 30th, 2005 under Cricket, Sport |
At last a USian who understands the plight of those from the Southern Hemisphere.
John Scalzi had the gall to
refer to me and my people [scroll down] as "antipodean", but Claire the wonderous (I don't think it's a co-incidence that her name means Clear Light, do you?) pointed out a few truths to the Southern Hemispherist Scalzi:
I'm sure you didn't mean any harm by it, but you should know that "antipodean" is considered outdated and condescending among many people of a southern hemispherian persuasion. to name an entire half of the world "the antipodes" is to claim that that half is "opposite" or "other", implying, of course, that the half from which you speak is the base, ...
Posted by Justine at 23:53, June 29th, 2005 under State of the World |
Should be writing, shouldn't be flibbergibberting all over the interwebby thingie. I think I'm addicted to
spirit fingers. It's my favourite blog eva! What's not to love? Its name is a reference to the
finest film ever made (except for all the other really good ones). Must stop reading through the archive, must stop spraying water over my laptop from laughing too hard. Must do some actual work.
Blogging has eaten my brain. I knew it!
Posted by Justine at 13:38, June 29th, 2005 under Excuses, Frippery, Whingeing |
Yup.
Magic or Madness just notched up its fifth sale, this time to
Amarin Printing and Publishing in Thailand. My foreign rights agent,
Whitney Lee, is amazing, having now sold my book in Taiwan, France and Thailand (the other two sales were to the US and Australia).
I'm particularly exited because this is the first non-English language sale where I've actually been to the country. I adore Thailand. I love the sound and look of the language (
Thai script is just gorgeous), the food (tamarind, mangosteens, steamed salty duck eggs, miang gung, snake beans, fish cakes, green mango salad, banana blossoms, massaman curry, kaffir limes, chilli jam, I could go on and on and on), the ...
Posted by Justine at 15:08, June 28th, 2005 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Mangosteens, State of the World, Vainglory |
I been seeing a bunch of filums lately. Well, okay, two: Batman Begins and Land of the Dead. The first was okay, definitely the best Batman movie thus far (but, frankly, that's faint praise, and I will always prefer the campy tv show), the second was a most excellent zombie film and a perfect end to Romero's zombie quartet (though, I admit it, I hope there's more). I enjoyed it greatly.
However, no matter how far above Hollywood's average these films are (and Land of the Dead really really is) they still had at least one thing that drove me crazy. In Batman Begins it was Batman's whole I-will-not-kill thing, which seemed to only apply to direct killing. Indirect killing? No ...
Posted by Justine at 16:00, June 27th, 2005 under Viewing, Whingeing, Zombies |
It's 4AM and I'm homesick, so I've been browsing the world wide interwebby thingie looking for aussie blogs to feed said homesickness. Possibly not a good idea. Like cheering yourself up by listening to Billie Holliday.
I realise that I haven't heard anyone speak with an Oz accent in days. That makes me sad.
Posted by Justine at 4:13, June 27th, 2005 under Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 23:28, June 25th, 2005 under Writing life |
Remember that recent study that got all the publicity about overweightness and obesity not being such a big deal? Well, fabulous science writer, Rebecca Skloot,
explains it all in a way that makes sense. Thank you!
My maths and science education sort of petered out in about year seven, so I'm always incredibly grateful for anyone who can help me understand such matters.
Posted by Justine at 17:17, June 24th, 2005 under Science |
England have to make 35 runs an over in order to win. They have but one wicket left. I'd call that a pretty difficult situation. Though, they could hit a six off every remaining ball, so it's not technically impossible.
I feel so much better. The world is not spinning out of control. The curse has been lifted. Yes, it's only pyjama cricket, but I'll take it! I just hope this Australian victory doesn't mean the Pistons will lose tonight. Nope, not superstitious, me.
Life is good.
Update: now it's 61 runs an over. Yup, that's impossible. And now it's 73. And now, 120. Now 177. Aren't numbers fun? And then the
match was over. Woo hoo!
Update 2: My superstitious fear was ...
Posted by Justine at 17:18, June 23rd, 2005 under Basketball, Cricket, Sport |
Yup, at long last, after an
epically long search, I'm agented! My new agent is Jill Grinberg of Anderson Grinberg Literary Management. She's fabulous. Fulfills every one of my
perfect agent requirements (which, as I've mentioned, all the other agents I met also fulfilled), and liked and understood my twelfth-century Cambodia novel (which only one other agent was into).
Jill also brought an extra something I hadn't even realised was important to me: she understands the Australian market and its relationship to the UK one. Given that she represents a slew of other Australians---including such wonderful writers as Alison Goodman, John Marsden, and Garth Nix---it figures.
I'm feeling dead chuffed with my decision, but also a little sad about ...
Posted by Justine at 13:57, June 23rd, 2005 under Listening, Publishing business |
Cherie Priest is a very funny woman.
Her latest post slew me. In answer to her question: yes, absolutely. It is not only a writer's job, it is their duty to eavesdrop.
Posted by Justine at 11:56, June 23rd, 2005 under Listening, State of the World, Words & Language |
I thought today I would get back to the new novel. I was so looking forward to it. No such luck. Some more tweaking on Magic Lessons is required. So a slight delay in its journey into typesetting and ARCland. Sigh. And in me returning to the cool fairyland of my new book.
Oh well, mustn't grumble, this is all so much better than my last job! Or any job I've ever had . . .
Updated: finished! This time Magic Lessons truly roolly is off on its way to ARCland. My happiness is big.
Posted by Justine at 11:52, June 23rd, 2005 under Magic or Madness trilogy |
So I spend most of my time in two
top 20 most expensive cities in the world: Sydney at number 20 and NYC at number 13. Tokyo and Osaka top the list.
Of course, it's the real estate prices that do it. Both cities can be damn cheap to eat in, and to buy clothes, and a host of other goods and services. Most expensive leg wax I ever had was in Madison, Wisconsin. Cheapest: right here in NYC. It wasn't very good, but.
via
Vertical Books
Posted by Justine at 3:42, June 23rd, 2005 under New York City/USA, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
Once Daughters was banished from my life, yesterday was all basketball all the time. First up: off to Madison Square Garden to watch the Liberty
make easy work of destroying the San Antonio Silver Stars. We invited two friends of ours who've never seen the Liberty play. I believe we have a couple of converts. Yay!
And then home to watch the final quarter of the sixth game of the NBA finals where the men's San Antonio team was also beaten. Dee-troit! Bas-ket-baaall!
Now if only the cricket would start doing what I want it to!
Posted by Justine at 9:25, June 22nd, 2005 under Basketball, Cricket, Daughters of Earth, Sport |
The
Daughters of Earth manuscript was finished, packed in a box, and posted back to the tender ministrations of its publisher yesterday (only a couple of days late). Magic Lessons is also back with its publisher (on time) and about to be typeset. It should be an ARC in a few weeks. Yay!
Thanks to
Tim Pratt and Pauline Dickinson and the good folks of Sydney Uni library's Rare Books (why didn't I think of them in the first place? [Slaps forehead]) for coming through with the page numbers. And thanks to everyone for being kind during these last few weeks of way, way, way too much work. Now I can go back to writing the new novel. ...
Posted by Justine at 9:11, June 22nd, 2005 under Daughters of Earth, Magic or Madness trilogy, Writing goals & milestones |
I don't have the page numbers for the following stories. If anyone out there has them I'd sure appreciate your sharing said knowledge with me. And, yes, please pass this along to anyone you think might be able to help.
Your reward for helping me out? You get your name in the acknowledgments for Daughters of Earth.
Asimov, Isaac. "Profession," Astounding Science Fiction, (July 1957):
---. "The Mule," Astounding Science Fiction, (Nov-Dec 1945):
Hamilton, Edmond, "The Man Who Evolved," Wonder Stories (April 1931):
Piper, H. Beam. "Omnilingual," Astounding Science Fiction, (Feb 1957):
Reed, Kit. "To Lift a Ship," The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, (April 1962):
Sheldon, Raccoona. "The Screwfly Solution." Analog (June 1977):
Tuttle, Lisa, and George R. R. Martin. "The Storms ...
Posted by Justine at 16:30, June 20th, 2005 under Daughters of Earth, Research |
At least until the
dread curse has been lifted.
Four losses in a row? That's inconceivable! (And, yes, I do know what that word means.)
My sister's Monday just got a whole lot worse . . .
Posted by Justine at 15:50, June 19th, 2005 under Cricket, Sport |
Daphne Lee of The Star (Malaysia) gave me a
wonderful review a few weeks back. Today
her interview with me is online. I'm introduced as the "most exciting fantasy writer to emerge from Australia since Garth Nix." It's not true---Margo Lanagan, anyone?---but it's still pretty bloody cool.
Posted by Justine at 10:39, June 19th, 2005 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Vainglory |
And I don't mean Burma or Bolivia or Bulgaria.
There's some
heavy black magic being worked against our baggy green boys over in England. You lot better take your spells off Ricky and the other lads immediately. If this keeps up I may have to reconsider
WorldCon. Gloating poms? (Yes, I mean you,
Andrew and
Cheryl!) No, thank you!
My sister's living over there and it's not been pretty for her of late. And, oh, the hassling she'll get come Monday! Ouch.
Not that I have lost faith. Once we get rid of the bad mojo, all will be fine.
Posted by Justine at 14:48, June 18th, 2005 under Sport |
I just have to remind myself of that, cause right now, checking over this gazillion-page bibliography for Daughters of Earth, I'm starting to wish that everything was published in New York by a press I know how to spell.
Posted by Justine at 13:41, June 18th, 2005 under Daughters of Earth, Publishing business |
As I'm taking a break from copyedited pages for a moment, I thought I'd report on the other b.e.a books I've been reading.
As instructed I have now read Teach Me, All the Fishes Come Home to Roost and am halfway through V for Vendetta.
They're all amazing. I seem to be blessed by the god of picking up only good books. Yay me.
Teach Me is such a scorching read I thought my eyes would melt and dribble down my face onto the page. The book is so intense, captures so perfectly romantic obsession, teenage monomania (I'm not saying other age groups don't get monomanical, I'm just saying R. A. Nelson captured that particular kind of monomania), and heartbreak that ...
Posted by Justine at 19:18, June 17th, 2005 under Reading |
and I'll write about sports if I want to! So stop emailing to tell me to post about "more interesting things." The very idea!
But there won't be much posting about anything---interesting or not---over the next few days. This is my last day to fix Daughters of Earth and the copyedited Magic Lessons just arrived and has to be back with my publisher by Tuesday morning.
Bye for now.
Posted by Justine at 11:55, June 17th, 2005 under Daughters of Earth, Excuses, Magic or Madness trilogy, Sport |
I love the way basketball makes a second seem like a really long time. The game is so fast it makes time slow down.
I love that tonight seven Detroit players were in double figures. No stars. Lots of sharing the ball. Just like the
WNBA.
Posted by Justine at 23:56, June 16th, 2005 under Basketball, Sport |
That is all.
No, I'm not going to talk about the
Twenty20 match.
On HDTV Ben Wallace looks like a god.
That is really all.
Good night.
Posted by Justine at 0:09, June 15th, 2005 under Basketball, Sport |
Anyone in NYC know where I can buy some really good red pencils that don't break every ten seconds? I've barely been editing with these ones for half an hour and I've already gone through four of the little monsters from hell. Enough!
Posted by Justine at 15:10, June 13th, 2005 under Daughters of Earth, Whingeing |
Gwenda
links this morning to a
new blog set up to discuss sf and fantasy from the safety of annonymity. As Malcolm Reynolds would say, "I got no beef with that." This is a very small genre, everyone knows each other and if you really want to say what you think perhaps annony-mouse is the way to go. I read through all of them, from most recent to first, and as Gwenda point out none of the posts put the boot in. It's mostly when you should be voting/nominating for awards and discussions of stories/books recently read. Then I got to the
first post.
Sigh.
Same old thing: back in the good old days sf was earth shattering . ...
Posted by Justine at 10:45, June 13th, 2005 under Reading |
I adore the way the oz media runs articles on sledging for the sole purpose of repeating some of the choicer examples.
This one's my current favourite 'cause it doesn't bother pretending to be against it, plus it repeats my favourite anti-
W. G. Grace sledge.
What do you reckon my chances are of getting some sledging going on science fiction panels at this year's
WorldCon? That'd liven them up quicksmart, not to mention preventing
Gwenda's death declaration from coming true.
Posted by Justine at 9:19, June 13th, 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Cricket, Frippery, Sport |
I loved
Howl's Moving Castle. I enjoyed all the liberties it took with the Diana Wynne Jones novel. I loved it for all the moves it made that Hollywood films don't, like going in unexpected directions that make sense (unlike Hollywood's much vaunted reversals which almost never do), and having a wonderfully charasmatic old woman as the heroine who was neither Hallmark cute nor a wicked witch, for being heartwarming without being chunderous, and for being genuinely magical.
Thank you. If it's on where you live go see it. Now!
Posted by Justine at 22:19, June 12th, 2005 under Viewing |
Tingle Alley's
posts and
comments on acknowledgements got me all inspired and I wrote a
new musing about it. Enjoy and feel free to comment on it here.
Posted by Justine at 11:23, June 10th, 2005 under Publishing business, Reading |
Whenever I open a book I go straight to the acknowledgements. And then when I finish the book I return to them. For me the acknowledgements are a strange kind of map to the book I've just read, or rather a set of clues to where the book came from, how it transmogrified from a bunch of ideas in some writer's head into a fully-fledged world that I can spend time in.
Acks are crucial. Yesterday, over at Tingle Alley the proprietress posted ...
Posted by Justine at 1:11, June 10th, 2005 under Musings, Publishing business, Writing life |
Interwebby thingies I read and enjoyed today:
Tingle alley has some flittering thoughts about how fascinated she is by other writers' acknowledgments
here and
here. Me too!
Some more
Australian gloating about the coming Ashes series.
A cool review of
David Levithan's Boy Meets Boy.
Lesson learned today: sometimes google is definitely not all that, and a trip to the library is required. My attempts to find out more about the recording, publishing and reception of Bill Broonzy's"Get Back (Black, Brown and White)" inspired by Josh's comment
here yielded close to nothing. Anyone out there got any leads please to let me know!
I finished up with the oz version of
magic or madness---damn it's hard to ...
Posted by Justine at 17:22, June 9th, 2005 under Cricket, Frippery, Listening, Reading, Sport |
A friend recently pulled me up for saying someone was being narky, telling me that the word is
'snarky', not 'narky'.
Uh no, I said 'narky' and I meant 'narky'.
For the friend who still thinks I'm making it up I turn to the
Macquarie Dictionary:
nark
--noun 1. an informer; a spy, especially for the police. 2. a scolding, complaining person; one who is always interfering and spoiling the pleasure of others.
--verb (t) 3. to nag; irritate; annoy: "This made me a little narked, then I realised that I was only young and he wouldn't have thought that I was applying for the job myself." --ALBERT FACEY, 1981. 4. Obsolete to cause (a person, plan, etc.) to fail: he ...
Posted by Justine at 17:07, June 8th, 2005 under Words & Language |
Now there are
two manuscripts sitting on my desk glaring at me, waiting to be checked and made perfect. The pages for the Australian edition of Magic or Madness just arrived. Corrections on it and Daughters of Earth are due the same day. At least morm isn't 800 pages long and full of complicated footnotes and bibliography and other irritating scholarly apparatus. Stupid scholarly apparatus.
There go my fingernails.
Posted by Justine at 12:53, June 7th, 2005 under Daughters of Earth, Magic or Madness trilogy, Writing goals & milestones |
Read
this if you have any interest in women and sports and the lack of coverage thereof. Via
women's hoops.
Posted by Justine at 23:45, June 6th, 2005 under Basketball, Sport |
The only team in the
men's basketball association with brains enough to play like a
wnba team has beaten miami to make it through to the finals and go up against san antonio. What an excellent day this has been.
Posted by Justine at 23:01, June 6th, 2005 under Basketball, Sport |
In amongst all my book expo america booty was
James Howe's the misfits and totally joe. I read them yesterday. Yes, both of them. Wonderful, funny, heart-warming (in the non-chundery way). They had all the merits of fine writing and of shortness (oh, how I love short books!). They made me happy.
Particulary, the misfits on account of how it is influenced-like by the writings of
mister damon runyon who I hear from
a not entirely disreputable party is not without a certain amount of merit. if you haven't already read them do so immediately. Well, except for totally joe which isn't out till September---oh how I love b.e.a. booty!
Hmmm, what should I read next? ...
Posted by Justine at 21:56, June 6th, 2005 under Reading |
Australia is going to win
the Ashes this year, okay? So all you over-excited
pommy journalists and bloggers can just take a deep breath and get over yourselves. No, Australia would not select any of the current Pom players were they available to wear a baggy green. No, not even
Andrew Flintoff.
Right now Australia is---
by a wide margin---the best in the world, with lots and lots of depth. But it wasn't always that way. I'm old enough to remember the horror that was the eighties. I remember the glorious West Indies of that period. I confess that back then I barracked for them (come on, people, Michael Holding was so beautiful, er, I mean, such ...
Posted by Justine at 20:24, June 6th, 2005 under Cricket, Sport |
So to be all author promotery and stuff at book expo america, Scott made up t-shirts for the both of us. Mine had the cover of
magic or madness on the front and on the back quotes from
my starred reviews. Nobody seemed to notice my t-shirt until we were waiting outside the convention centre surrounded by great piles of our book expo booty (yes, many, many books), looking like Penguin books roadies (
Peeps and MorM are published by Penguin). A woman came up to me and pointed to my t-shirt and said, "I loved that book."
"Really? I'm so pleased."
She nodded emphatically. "I gave it a great review for booklist."
"You mean this review?" I asked, turning ...
Posted by Justine at 10:36, June 6th, 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Scott's books |
Scott's book The Risen Empire is now in
Spanish form and in the same post he shares the title for his memoir: I live to Horse: the Scott Westerfeld Story.
We go BEA now.
Scott sign books.
Posted by Justine at 8:48, June 4th, 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Scott's books |
There's an 800 page manuscript sitting on my desk. It's so very big. The biggest ms. I've ever had anything to do with. The enormity of it is paralysing me.
Daughters of Earth, my anthology of feminist sf stories and essays, has to be checked and made as perfect as possible in a terrifyingly short amount of time if we're going to launch it at WisCon next year. I have to photocopy 11 essays to send to their authors to check. Then I have to read through and correct the whole thing.
I have four unsharpened red pencils. I have a sharpener. I have the Chicago Manual of Style. I have
Scott's moral support.
Wish me luck!
Posted by Justine at 13:13, June 3rd, 2005 under Daughters of Earth, Whingeing, Writing goals & milestones |
I've just put up
my first new musing since starting this blog. It's about
mid-career writers and was inspired by conversations at
WisCon. Feel free to comment about it here. That's what this blog's for!
Posted by Justine at 15:44, June 2nd, 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings |
Editions du Panama, a brand new, well-funded, French house run by some of the biggest names in French publishing is going to publish Magic or Madness on the same list as
Scott's So Yesterday! It's going to be translated into French! Woo hoo! This means Magic and So Yesterday are now on the same list in the US (Penguin/Razorbill), Australia (Penguin) and now France. Pretty fab, eh? It's also now been bought by four countires (Taiwan is the fourth).
A friend (hi, Karen H.) who has slightly more French than me (I have none) thinks the title might be something like Magique ou Démence. That sounds good to me. Keep your fingers crossed that a Spanish-language publisher will pick ...
Posted by Justine at 13:40, June 2nd, 2005 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Vainglory |
some thoughts inspired by conversations at WisCon
Posted by Justine at 1:13, June 2nd, 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Musings, New York City/USA, Publishing business, Writing life |
I've had a few puzzled emails wondering
a) why I'm hectoring people into taking the
WisCon survey?
b) what the hell is WisCon anyway?
Funny you should ask.
a) I'm on the convention committee for WisCon. I help put it on, by organising the readings programme and doing some other bits and pieces for programming. I really want to know what people thought of the readings and the general programming and I want to know how we can do it better. This is my favourite convention in the world, we do our best to make it as wonderful as possible, but don't always succeed. The survey form is the best way of letting us know how to fix what's broke, and tell us ...
Posted by Justine at 23:55, June 1st, 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings |
You can find the survey form
here. If you attended WisCon this year please fill it out and be honest--we really want to hear about your bad experiences as much as your good. The survey is all about making WisCon the very best con it can be. Yes, I just filled it out myself. On your bikes!
wiscon
Posted by Justine at 18:21, June 1st, 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings |
