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Done packing. Car gets here in 30 mins. Then it's into the big jetplane and across the skies till we get to London where
my sister lives. Can't wait.
Except that it's cold there. Sob. And even colder in Glasgow. Double sob. Just as it was getting to be a proper summer here we go somewhere damp and cold. What were we thinking?
Not sure what my internet access will be. Dunno if I'll post. But I've become a blogging addict so if I can I will.
Enjoy yourselves while I'm gone.
Posted by Justine at 18:31, July 28th, 2005 under Bloggery, Excuses, Travelling, Whingeing |
Yes, like everyone else in the entire sf world, I will be jetting over to Glasgow to partake of science fictiony thingies for several days at the
World Science Fiction Convention. I'll hang out with me mates, meet new people, and spend a lot of time in the bar watching England being destroyed by Australia in the second test at Edgbaston. Can't wait. (I'm just sad that it won't be in an English bar. Fortunately there'll be enough English sf fans around that my gloating enjoyment of their team's destruction will have an audience. In fact I'm going to greet every new person by asking if they're English or not. And if they are, I'll say, "Cricket. Ashes. Ha ...
Posted by Justine at 12:59, July 28th, 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Cricket, Feminism, Liquids, Magic or Madness trilogy, Sport |
How cool is my country?
We provide a
national toilet map.
via the fabulous Cathy Hannan of
lost and frowned.
Posted by Justine at 12:34, July 27th, 2005 under Liquids, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Toilets |
Georgette Heyer books remain most excellent on the umpteenth reread. On this occasion Venetia, Frederica, and Sylvester. Am unable to decide which I like better: Venetia or Sylvester. Right now am tilting towards Sylvester on account of authoress Phoebe's roman a clef, the hero, Sylvester's attempt to "mount" the heroine, and the truly appalling Sir Nugent Fotherby. But the sexy talk between Venetia and her Wicked Duke Damerel is hard to go past.
Can't stop listening to Missy Elliot's latest The Cookbook. Current fave: "We run this".
The latest New Yorker has a gorgeous account of just how much
Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) drank in a day:
At about ten o'clock, he would have his "morning draft"---usually "small" (or weak) beer, but ...
Posted by Justine at 20:12, July 26th, 2005 under Food, Liquids, Listening, Reading |
There were many
responses---thanks everyone---to my
which-form-of-acknowledgments-should-I-go-with question, so rather than respond in the comments I'll do it here. It's
my blog I can do it any way I want to. So, nyer.
I'm so thankful to the respondees that I'm thinking of adding an extra line to the acks:
And finally I'd like to thank
Scott,
Jeremyt, Claire, Barry,
Gwenda,
Ray Davis,
Marrije,
Richard b,
Jonathan,
Stephanie Burgis, the eagle-eyed and amazing Micole,
David Moles, Shelly Rae,
John Scalzi and Parker for telling me what form these acks should take,
Janni for sitting on the fence, and
Patrick Nielsen Hayden,
Lauren and
Jenny D ...
Posted by Justine at 7:53, July 25th, 2005 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Reading, Whingeing, Writing life |
Yes, this is more about sport. Look, I know many of you can't stand sport, but I don't care (feel free to stop telling me about your lack of interest). Sport---and I'm talking watching it, not doing it---has been keeping me from burning down buildings since I was a wee thing. I've a sports brain. I am obsessed. Come the Olympics and I can barely leave the house. (Yes, I like to play some sports too: tennis mostly and not very well. I have a long legacy of sports played and abandoned---largely through injury.) I love following a particular team, knowing its history, the players, the management, the gossip. I love knowing the ins and outs of a particular sport, ...
Posted by Justine at 20:18, July 24th, 2005 under Basketball, Sport |
Stupid English weather with it's stupid rain. The fourth day of the first Ashes test has yet to begin. And Australia with only 5 wickets to bag. Most annoying. Better not rain tomorrow. Better not end in a draw. Bloody English weather!
Getty Images
Especially as
Scott after much diligent googling found a bar in NYC that shows the cricket! Thus earning my eternal gratitude and undying devotion (not that he didn't have it already, mind). That's right, yesterday we watched the last hour of play at
Eight Mile Creek in Soho surrounded by Aussies. Most excellent. They'll be showing all of the Ashes---every day of every test---from the 5AM start till the end of the day's play ...
Posted by Justine at 10:19, July 24th, 2005 under Cricket, Sport, Tour de France, Viewing, Whingeing |
The New York Liberty are gonna make the playoffs. There, that's my money on the table. My team is gonna figure in the postseason.
They're looking absolutely bloody amazing at the moment.
Elena Baranova has come good, blocking, rebounding, being incredible in defence, hell, even
Erin Thorne looked good last night. The Liberty just won two games back to back on the road, and
last night against the
Sacramento Monarchs they were magnificent, never looking like they were going to do anything but win (we'll just ignore the last two shambolic minutes).
On a good day my team can beat any other team in the league; and, yeah, on a bad day they can lose to ...
Posted by Justine at 11:13, July 23rd, 2005 under Basketball, Sport |
Gwenda links to
Emily G berating people for their intensely irritating acknowledgments page and gives a fabulous list of don'ts. Now, I'm on the record as
being all for acks, and I didn't entirely agree with some of her complaints, but I sure was struck by this suggestion: I propose a straightforward film-style list of credits on the last page.
Interesting idea. So now I'm thinking of doing it for my next book,
Magic Lessons. Here's what it would look like:
----------
Publisher & editor: Eloise Flood
Editor & prodder: Liesa Abrams
Fellow pedant & seeker of perfection: Andy Ball
Answerer of annoying questions and all round helpful person: Margaret Wright
Designer of the beautiful interiors: Chris Grassi
Copyeditor of the Gods: Polly Watson
First ...
Posted by Justine at 17:03, July 21st, 2005 under Bloggery, Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Writing life |
Watch the Tour on the tellie while following the cricket through the BBC's online radio and exchanging emails about it with your sister. Apparently I don't multitask well. My head hurts. Thankfully the Tour is finished for the morning and I can concentrate on the cricket.
Am really enjoying the cricket right now.
McGrath is bowling like a demon. He's already gotten fivefer. Ha ha! I knew that Australia getting out for 190 was all about the wicket, not about the bowling. Of course now that Australia is in it's all about the bowling not the wicket. No, I am not one-eyed.
Oh my, I'd forgotten about the BBC commentator---Blofeld's appallingly plummy accent. It is to gag. Ack. Ack. Ack.
Update: ...
Posted by Justine at 11:30, July 21st, 2005 under Cricket, Listening, Sport, Tour de France, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 18:05, July 20th, 2005 under Bloggery, Reading, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature |
An horrific day for Aussie cycling.
Posted by Justine at 3:21, July 20th, 2005 under Sport, State of the World |
I just finished reading
Elizabeth Knox's
Dreamhunter (the English edition is called The Rainbow Opera) and I absolutely loved it. Couldn't put it down. Fabulous worldbuilding, gripping plot, gorgeously realised characters, and, bloody hell, but Knox can write. It's easily one of the best books I've read this year, or last year, or pretty much any year.
But.
Yes, I have a but. And it's a but I suspected I was always going to have about this book, because the lovely
Lili Wilkinson of the
Centre for Youth Literature who sent me the book from Australia (it's not available in the US yet) warned me that is has a cliffhanger ending and the sequel isn't out yet.
No big ...
Posted by Justine at 23:34, July 19th, 2005 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Reading |
I've written 1,500 words today. Bloody fine words, too. Or at least so they seem in the first flush of having written them. Yay first flush!
And Scott just threw together a late lunch of fresh baked rye caraway bread supporting the weight of manchego cheese, sliced perfectly ripe heirloom tomato lightly sprinkled with salt, and a sour pickled tomato. For dessert: two perfect majool dates. Have I mentioned my love of
Russ & Daughters?
Now I and my happy palate will write more words.
Posted by Justine at 18:05, July 16th, 2005 under Food |
Today's Stage ended in an all out sprint with two Aussies coming out on top. I'm happy, even if I was hoping they'd come in the other way around---Stuart O'Grady, and then Robbie McEwen. And it's always sad to see a breakaway mowed down within sight of the finish line. It's gonna be a tight race for the green jersey. Fingers crossed that it winds up on O'Grady's shoulders and stays there till the end. But with McEwen's current form, well, sigh.
Posted by Justine at 11:29, July 15th, 2005 under Sport, Tour de France |
I've had it with online casino spamage, so from now on all comments on this blog will be automatically nuked if they have the word "casino" in them.
You have been warned.
Posted by Justine at 9:22, July 15th, 2005 under Bloggery, Whingeing |
I'm endlessly fascinated by the search terms that lead people to my website. Today these desperate words typed into google led them to some
not-exactly-directly-related pearls of wisdom: inspire me to write my thesis.
Ouch.
I remember those days. I finished my PhD thesis in 1996, having started researching it in 1991 (and taken a year off due to some bone breakage), but it sure felt like it took a lot, lot, lot longer than that. At the time writing my thesis seemed by turns nightmarish, unendurable, hallucinegenic, boring, fun, hideous, never-ending and plain out-and-out pointless. I endlessly procrastinated until, faced with the prospect of no more scholarship, I buckled down and wrote day after day, night after night, barely sleeping, ...
Posted by Justine at 18:38, July 14th, 2005 under Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, Bloggery, Search Terms |
Mely has a
lovely post detailing the future she's sad we haven't wound up with yet. Hint, it's not the oft-touted Gernsback one. I'm with her on almost everything except immortality, which Scott has convinced me is a
profoundly bad idea. Just imagine if certain world leaders never ever died.
I'd also really love a working transmat beam, because while I'm always saying I love travelling, I really, really, really, don't. What I love is being
somewhere else. If I could skip the whole many, many hours in a plane or whatever on the way to the somewhere else, I'd be dead happy.
Also I'd be very happy with food in patch or tablet form. I hate it ...
Posted by Justine at 15:54, July 14th, 2005 under Bloggery, Food, Reading, State of the World |
Working hard thus am not so bloggery as usual. Other than the novel I'm writing here's what's up in Justineland:
Daphne Lee has posted the
unedited (and illustrated) version of her interview with me where I persist in getting the name of Samantha from Bewitched's grandmother wrong (got all that?). Daphne reports that Magic or Madness sold out in Kuala Lumpur the week the interview appeared in
The Star. How stupendous is that?
Last night the
New York Liberty beat the Houston Comets in overtime in Houston. Scott and me, we was screaming at the television like you wouldn't believe. So happy! And as usual when the Liberty win everybody played their part. They are so teamy and ...
Posted by Justine at 11:43, July 13th, 2005 under Basketball, Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Magic or Madness trilogy, Sport, Tour de France, Viewing |
The Tour is taking a rest day today. What's that about? Rest day! What about me and other viewers like me? What are we supposed to do while the riders are slacking, luxuriating in bubble baths and drinking champagne and generally not riding their bikes and cat and mousing one another? It's an outrage! There should be no rest days on the tour. None! Lazy slackers!
If you put the missing rest days back in then the Tour would be closer to 4 weeks long than 3. Imagine it! A whole month of the Tour de France. July truly would be the Tour month, every day of it. How fabulous would that be?
But would it be enough? How about all of ...
Posted by Justine at 9:14, July 11th, 2005 under Sport, Tour de France |
Åka the proprietor of the blog, “läst och tänkt i annien,†dropped into translate:
“läst och tänkt i annien†means “read and thought in annienâ€, where annien is my “idioverseâ€, the universe as perceived through my eyes. It is mostly about fandom, books, physics and strange or peculiar things.
I was reflecting over the fact that annien seems to be inhabited by so many more men than women (i'm a physicist and sf fan), and that maybe the books i read are likewise unequally populated. at the same time I happened to see the link to you from mumpsimus, and threw it in together with the other things. i also liked the first letter, but quoted asimov because it tied in better ...
Posted by Justine at 10:53, July 10th, 2005 under Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, Reading, State of the World |
Over the past few days there's been a remarkable jump in traffic to
this page of my website. The letters reproduced there are from the late 1930s and debate the role of women in science fiction. I adore them. They're funny, warm, silly and just plain gorgeous. A little investigation revealed links from
mumpsimus,
coalscent,
swisstone and
läst och tänkt i Annien (tragically, I don't read Swedish, so I have no idea what that means and I don't share my husband's love of
wacky google translations).
The commentators do seem to be remembering that Asimov was a kid at the time, just eighteen. And, by all accounts, he was a young eighteen with ...
Posted by Justine at 15:48, July 8th, 2005 under Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, Reading, State of the World |
I woke up, as many of us here in the USA did, to the news about the London bombings. I've had a couple of emails expressing concern about
my sister who's working there. I've been emailing with her all morning and she's fine, as are all her friends.
I haven't heard from my friend
Veronica Schaones. My fingers are crossed. Update: she's safe in France. Phew!
I'm hoping that your family and friends in London are fine. I can't imagine what those people whose family and friends aren't are going through. It's too horrible to think about.
Posted by Justine at 9:20, July 7th, 2005 under State of the World |
My friend
Justine (also an Australian) asked me the other day what
colour puce is. I've read a tonne of
Georgette Heyer where it's a colour that pretty much no one looks any good in, so I had always imagined it was a kind of cacky yellow-brown (on a puce=puke or puce=poo etymological model). It had never occurred to me to look it up. But Justine did. And read that it was a non-saturated red (I forget the whole description), but it sounded like terracotta, which is a lovely colour.
Here's what the OED says:
puce [pjus], a. (sb.) [a. Fr. puce sb.:-L. plex, -icem a flea; couleur puce flea-colour (17th c.).]
a. attrib. or as adj. (orig. puce colour): ...
Posted by Justine at 16:55, July 6th, 2005 under Viewing, Words & Language |
Several people have asked what I make of Robbie McKewen using his head and shoulders to try and muscle Stuart O'Grady out of his way yesterday. Stuart O'Grady = Good; Robbie McEwen = not so much. I'm pleased there are
consequences for that kind of behaviour.
That is all I have to say on the matter.
Posted by Justine at 10:18, July 5th, 2005 under Sport, Tour de France |
I've just put up a new musing responding to that much asked question:
How to Get an Agent
The short answer is that there is no one way to get an agent. Luck and hard work both play their part. But first you have to figure out whether you're ready for representation. Don't even think about pursuing agents until you have a finished novel. And make sure that novel is as good as you can possibly make it. Then make it a whole lot better. Rewrite and rewrite and rewrite and then rewrite some more before you send it to anyone. And, yes, this does apply to you. And yes it applies to non-fiction proposals too. Even though you don't need ...
Posted by Justine at 11:16, July 4th, 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Publishing business, Writing life |
Of late I've been receiving quite a few emails asking me how you go about getting yourself one of those mythological creatures known as the literary agent. It's a question frequently asked of most published writers. You should also take a look at Ian Irvine's the
"Truth about Publishing" which explains how the publishing system works (be warned: it's depressing).
The short answer is that there is no one way to get an agent. Luck and hard work both play their part. But first you have to figure out whether you're ready for representation. Don't even think about pursuing agents until you have a finished novel. And make sure that novel is as good as you can possibly make it. ...
Posted by Justine at 1:10, July 4th, 2005 under Musings, New York City/USA, Publishing business, Writing life |
At least there's one epic non-US sports event I can watch live in the USA: the glorious
Tour de France. The first stage began today and the yankee, David Zabriskie, is warming the yellow jersey for Lance Armstrong. I'm not saying Armstrong's gonna win overall, but we all know he's going to be seeing a lot of yellow time. There goes my writing schedule!
This is where I'll be getting my online coverage. Thanks again to
Christopher and
Gwenda for introducing me to the glories of the
daily peloton.
Posted by Justine at 17:10, July 2nd, 2005 under Sport, State of the World, Tour de France |
Posted by Justine at 15:15, July 2nd, 2005 under Cricket, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Sport, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 18:40, July 1st, 2005 under Bloggery, Reading |
The
last two posts at Bookangst 101 are all about writer/agent relations. Fascinating stuff. I must be very lucky because I've only got one ex-agent, and we didn't part for any horrible reasons. So far I'm enchanted by my new agent who passes
the caring test with flying colours, and my
foreign rights agent not only cares, but has been doing a
stellar job. I've never experienced any of
the hassles Lauren Baratz-Logsted (and, by the way, excellently fabby surname) discusses. On the other hand, I've heard some tales that would make your hair stand on end, even worse than hers, but sadly they are not my tales to tell.
I'm so glad I'm still ...
Posted by Justine at 17:01, July 1st, 2005 under Publishing business, Writing life |
