Archives
Or, you know, Bologna Blisses. Truffle grated on top of everything---even the gelato. Blood orange juice with breakfast every morning. Lots of sexy, stylish people walking around ciaoing one another. Lots of vespas. And so far every one of our foreign publishers has turned out to be lovely. Just as well cause that's the main thing we're doing here: meeting and eating.
The Bologna Book Fair is all business all the time. No swags of free books which means it's not really the place for authors! Each booth is full of tables where the rights people sit and conduct meeting after meeting after meeting til their eyes look ready to dribble out of their skulls. If anything the agents in their ...
Posted by Justine at 21:41, March 29th, 2006 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Travelling |
And I'm not talking about the World Cup, though I totally want them to win. Viva Brasil! I don't even mind if they beat Australia in the finals. Now, that would be a World Cup! Nope, I'm talking publishing, as in:
I just got an offer from Editora Record, one of the biggest and best publishers in Brazil, to publish the entire Magic or Madness trilogy. Am I happy? Yes I am. Very very.
We are in Bologna with very dodgy internet access hence my non responding to email or comments on this blog. Okay, posting this before the connection blows up again!
Posted: Bologna 10:32AM, 27 March
Posted by Justine at 19:33, March 27th, 2006 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Vainglory |
Here are some of the things I have learned about the
publishing biz in the last few years:
Never quote song lyrics in your work. Organising permission is an expensive pain in the bottom. In fact, never quote anything that's still copyrighted. Stick to public domain quoting."My luve is like a red, red rose . . . " Permissions, on the other hand, are like a deep, dark cesspit.
Assistants, be they in editorial, publicity, marketing or wherever almost always know more than you do.
A good agent is worth their weight in
mangosteens.
Vampire books are sure fire winners. Especially when there's love in 'em. Also monkey knife fights work well in any genre. And girl books with pink covers. Everyone ...
Posted by Justine at 11:50, March 23rd, 2006 under Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 11:36, March 21st, 2006 under Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Young Adult literature |
The Misadventures of Maude March by
Audrey Couloumbis is the best western I've read in years. I'd tell you stuff about the plot, but it'll be a lot more fun if you just read it and don't peek at the cover flaps. I will tell you that it involves (not always successful) cross dressing and bankrobbing, and that it made me giggle quite a lot, and I cried at the end. I should point out, however, that I cry easily. So my crying at the end of a book indicates that
a) the book had a sad ending, or
b) the book had a happy ending, and/or
c) the book was really, really good and I was bummed that it ended.
The Misadventures ...
Posted by Justine at 15:14, March 20th, 2006 under Reading, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 13:22, March 19th, 2006 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Cricket, Listening, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Reading, Scott's books, Young Adult literature |
Today is the day! The official publication date of my second novel:
Magic Lessons the sequel to
Magic or Madness! Yay!
And if that wasn't enough it's also the pub date for the paperback version of Magic or Madness. That's right, MorM is now affordable.
Aren't the covers of both books gorgeous? They were designed by
Marc J. Cohen. Bless him.
I've mentioned before that both me and Scott have photo credits for the cover of Magic Lessons. The original photos we took are
here. Scott talks about it
here. Our first photo credits. Yay us!
Oh, and because people keep asking, here's how I pronounce my surname: Lar-bal-est-ee-er. It can also be pronounced Lar-bal-est-ee-ay. ...
Posted by Justine at 4:46, March 17th, 2006 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Praising, Vainglory |
Rather than thinking about all the people I'm not seeing here in NYC because I'm home in bed, I'm focussing on the upside of this endless flu: reading. In the past few weeks I've read scads and oodles and many, many more books than I normally do. Here are the ones I most enjoyed:
Wild Seed and Fledgling by Octavia ButlerWild Seed was one of the first Butlers I ever read. It made me a fan for life. I was little worried it wouldn't stand up to my memories of it. Shouldn't have. Doro is still the
creepiest villian ever. Butler makes you understand why he does what he does. You almost want him to succeed. Ack! This book is ...
Posted by Justine at 18:50, March 15th, 2006 under Reading, Young Adult literature |
No rest for the wicked. Here are the details of the NYC leg of the Justine &
Scott world tour shamelessly promoting our latest books,
Magic Lessons and the third Midnighters Book,
Blue Noon. If you're a teenager you can find us in the Bronx on Thursday. On Saturday we'll be at Books of Wonder where teenagers and non-teenagers alike can attend.
Hope to see you there!
Thursday 16 March, 4:00 PM
Meet the Authors
Justine Larbalestier & Scott Westerfeld
Bronx Library Center Teen Advisory Group
Bronx Library Center
310 East Kingsbridge Road
The Bronx, New York
Saturday 18 March, Noon-2PM
Great Teen Reads!
Sarah Durkee, Linzi Glass, Justine Larbalestier,
Scott Westerfeld and Markus Zusak
Signing at
Books of Wonder
18 W. 18th St
New York, ...
Posted by Justine at 4:12, March 13th, 2006 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA |
Sorry for the silence. My excuses are many and covered in mucus and jetlag. Which led to my inadvertantly consigning a number of thoughtful posts to spam purgatory. My apologies. Please comment again. I hope to be non-mucus laden and competent any day now and am much less likely to nuke future comments.
While I lay sweating, coughing, swelling and dripping mucus, the wonderful
Deborah Biancotti was making additons to my website to accommodate the imminent (and in San Francisco, at least, actual) arrival of my second novel,
Magic Lessons the sequel to Magic or Madness. Feast your eyes
here and
here. You can even read the
first two chapters. She's also created a new section ...
Posted by Justine at 18:33, March 10th, 2006 under Admin, Cons & Other Gatherings, Daughters of Earth, Excuses, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Praising, Scott's books, Whingeing |
The clock is ticking down on the official release date for the sequel to Magic or Madness. The 16th of March is just around the corner. Yay!
While the book isn't quite out yet, the first review is (be warned: if you haven't read MorM this is loaded with spoilers):
Magic Lessons Penguin/Razorbill
Sequel to Magic or Madness (2005), this second in a proposed trilogy continues the story of 15-year old Reason, an Australian girl who has spent much of her life running away from the magic that dominates her family. She now understands that running won't help her, it will only bring her closer to a terrible choice . . . use magic and die young, or stay away from magic ...
Posted by Justine at 8:19, March 4th, 2006 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Vainglory |
I know I'm a
teeny bit obsessed with
search terms that lead to my website (especially when deadlines loom), but today's list was a truly bumper crop. Here are my faves:
Q:
does euphoria mean something bad?
Dr Justine says: It can. It really really can. Over-the-top happiness can lead to all sorts of injuries. I broke my toe that way once.
Q:
where does andrew symonds lives 2006?
A: Ya know, I have a feeling it's prolly better that you don't find out. Leave the poor bastard alone. He's injured and in South Africa. Stalk someone else!
Q:
what genre do first time novelists publish easiest?
A: What now?! There is no answer to this question. There is ...
Posted by Justine at 0:38, March 3rd, 2006 under Cricket, Search Terms, Sport, Words & Language |
How's about that for a post title to put everyone off?
I've been hearing some complaints about writers who are too self promotery, who go on panels at cons waving their book around, saying,"Look at me! Look at me! I'm a published writer! Buy my book!" There are also complaints about certain writers' blogs which only talk about their books and their latest publishing news with links that only lead to places that sell their books. As well as whinges about the folks who relentlessly campaign for awards.
Accusations of being too self promotery make me a bit jittery. Promoting your books is part of a writer's job. If no one knows the book exists how is it going to sell? A ...
Posted by Justine at 1:53, March 1st, 2006 under Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, Bloggery, Excuses, Feminism, Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Ranting, Writing life |
