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Off to Paris today. I'm not sure what my intramanet access will be like while there, plus I'll be busy, so I figured I'd best leave you with a slightly meaty post given as I'm not sure when I'll be posting again.
For your delectation some thoughts on the efficacy of spreadsheets for novel writing:
A while back I posted a tongue-in-cheek guide on
how to write a novel in which I suggested using a spreadsheet. I'm still getting letters from folks telling me what a revelation that was, how it's transformed the way they write, solved all their plotting problems, and made their teeth whiter.
And I'm still coming across comments from those who are appalled and outraged ...
Posted by Justine at 13:20, April 30th, 2007 under Bloggery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, Writing process |
So I just realised that I'm going to be in Paris on Monday. Tomorrow! Or at least on my way there.
Paris!
I've never been there before. I know about the Eiffel Tower and Versailles and all that stuff, but those of you who've been to Paris---what would you recommend that's not in all the tourist guides? And which of the famous touristy stuff is really really really worth a looksee?
We may not have a lot of time cause of the crazy schedule, but, c'mon, it's Paris! One of the most famous cities in the world. We have to sneak out and do some cool stuff.
But what cool stuff?
What are your fave Paris restaurants, cafes, shops, whatevers? I needs to know.
Also what ...
Posted by Justine at 9:49, April 29th, 2007 under Travelling |
I have a confession to make: I was mean to
John Green.
I was scathing about his
whole Brotherhood video blogging thing. This was mostly because I am a fan of his
ye olde written blog. I missed it. I resented that he'd stopped proper posting to make stupid videos. In my defence at the time I was staying somewhere with less than fabbie bandwidth so even if I'd wanted to watch his videos, I couldn't.
But the fact remains that I didn't want to watch them. I even intimated to John as how his video blog was not nearly as interesting as his written blog when I had not watched a single one. How mean was that?
I also ...
Posted by Justine at 16:10, April 28th, 2007 under Bloggery, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 18:31, April 27th, 2007 under Book challenges, Daughters of Earth, New York City/USA, Praising, Ranting, Reading, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
Diana Peterfreund has just written
a smart piece about authors reviewing. In it she quotes me claiming to be a "book evangelist". I've decided to own it big time over here.
My name is Justine Larbalestier and I'm a book evangelist.
I call myself that because it's a more accurate term than "critic" or "reviewer". I rarely go into detail about books I love. I don't analyse, or critique, I don't even give plot summaries, I just say, "I love this book! Read it!" If I hate a book I rant about it with friends, I don't write about it here.
Why?
Lots of reasons. Firstly, writing a serious critical analysis of a book is very hard work. I don't have the ...
Posted by Justine at 0:06, April 27th, 2007 under Reading |
I get back on an airplane on Monday. It'll be barely a week since I was last on one.
Gah! No matter what airline I'm on, no matter whether I've been upgraded or not, whether it's short-haul or long-haul, very little fun is had.
Today I had an epiphany: I must stop expecting air travel to go smoothly. I must lower my expectations. In the last few years of constant travel the vast majority of my flights have been awful. So it is reasonable to expect that will continue.
From now on I will expect the check-in person not to be able to find our reservations, and the flight to be delayed or cancelled, our luggage to not get on the ...
Posted by Justine at 0:06, April 26th, 2007 under Travelling, Whingeing |
I seem to have rolled out of the ranty side of the bed every morning this week. First I was peeing on the eighties and now I am cranky on account of a particularly stupid thing that was said to me about basketball.
Viz, "I can't stand basketball. It's just a bunch overpaid genetic freaks running around with a ball. Who cares?"
As I had just been talking about the joys of my season tickets to the New York Liberty, I clearly care, and you, Mr Shorty Bald man, were being very rude. I poke my tongue out at you!
But that's not what's raised my ire, nope, it's the phrase "genetic freaks".
So, what are you supposed to do if you're naturally good ...
Posted by Justine at 0:03, April 25th, 2007 under Basketball, Ranting, Sport |
When did bookshops start sorting their books by category? Does anyone know? Or have any theories? Did they model themselves on libraries?
All my life they've been sorted that way. Some of the categories (manga) are newer than others (literature) but I don't remember ever seeing a book shop without sections. Does anyone remember a time when they weren't organised that way?
And when were the very first bookshops? I know libraries have been around since forever but bookshops haven't.
I'm thinking of Jane Austen and not remembering a single bookshop and yet her characters have books. Were they from libraries? Or did they own them? And if they did where did they buy them? At a general store?
Posted by Justine at 0:02, April 24th, 2007 under Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 11:09, April 23rd, 2007 under Bloggery, Reading |
Posted by Justine at 0:01, April 23rd, 2007 under Ranting, Reading, Young Adult literature |
On the plane back to NYC from Dallas I read E. Lockhart's latest book, Dramarama. Once I started I couldn't stop. All Scott got out of me for the next three hours were "Yes, dears", "uh huhs", and "laters". I'm a big E. Lockhart fan. I've enjoyed every books she's written but Dramarama is by far her best. And that's saying a lot.
It's about kids who are obsessed with becoming actors/dancers/singers. They've all been bitten with the performing bug so hard that it has eaten their brains. They meet at a performing summer camp which is the kind of intense hothouse that brings out the good, the bad and the ugly. There are spats, ...
Posted by Justine at 10:53, April 22nd, 2007 under Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:05, April 21st, 2007 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Vainglory, Young Adult literature |
The last ten days were bloody AWESOME. I don't have words. I met so many wonderful librarians, writers, students, teachers, booksellers, readers, and other peoples. All the appearances went splendidly. Texas rocks! I loves it! More details soon.
I plan to blog ever day for the next ten because after that we bugger off to Paris, Singapore and then three weeks back home in Australia and blogging opportunities are probably going to be thin on the ground. I read some wonderful books that I want to tell you about. I also have some writing theories I want to share. Not to mention all the appearances I'm doing this week.
There's been a micro kerfuffle while I was away because ...
Posted by Justine at 23:03, April 20th, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Scott's books, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 22:45, April 20th, 2007 under Bloggery |
Very flaky internet access---the wifi keeps dropping to one bar so I'm keeping this short. Also I don't seem to be able to reply to emails, but I'll be back in NYC by Saturday and will catch up then. If it's urgent call me on the mobile.
We're doing two more Texas appearances.
Details here. Come say hi.
Also I'm getting a lot of people asking me the same questions about the ending of the trilogy so I've started a
SPOILER FAQ over here [scroll down]. If you have questions about the trilogy that aren't already answered you can ask them on
the comments thread over there and I will respond. But please don't ask spoiler questions ...
Posted by Justine at 23:59, April 15th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Magic or Madness trilogy, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 12:44, April 14th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Excuses, Praising, Ranting, Scott's books, Travelling, Unicorns, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 17:52, April 11th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Travelling |
Today we leave for San Antonio where we'll be attending the Texas Library Association annual conference. I'm dead excited. We went to the ALA conference last year and it was fabulous. I met so many cool librarians and student librarians and writers and publishing people I thought my head would explode. Talk about over-stimulation! I look forward to more of it.
Unfortunately, we won't be doing any public signings in San Antonio. So if you're not signed up for TLA we won't get to meet you. Sorry!
Our one public appearance of the trip will be in Austin:
Monday, 16 April 2007, 7PM
Justine Larbalestier &
Scott Westerfeld
Book People
603 N. Lamar (at Sixth)
Austin, Texas
This Texas trip is also a chance for us ...
Posted by Justine at 7:18, April 10th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Travelling, Vainglory |
Courtesy of
Marrije, I now know what happens to Reason after the Magic or Madness trilogy:
She's now working advertising coffee in the Netherlands!
See the eerie resemblance?
It's a huge relief to me to know that at least one of my characters is not going to starve just because I've stopped writing about them. Phew!
Posted by Justine at 9:40, April 9th, 2007 under Frippery, Magic or Madness trilogy |
Posted by Justine at 18:24, April 8th, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Cricket, New York City/USA, Scott's books, Sport, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 13:16, April 6th, 2007 under Scott's books, Writing goals & milestones |
Apparently "doobalackie" is not a universal word for "thingamybob"---you know, that thing for which you do not have a name, that "doohickie". I had no idea it was just us Australians who reach for doobalackies.
Is it just us? Any South Africans or New Zealanders or Jamaicans or English or Welsh or Irish or Scottish people care to weigh in? What do you call the thingie for which you do not at that moment have a name?
I learned the non-Americanness of doobalackie from the
the livejournal devoted to Megan Whalen Turner's fabulous Attolia trilogy which
recently discussed my worship of said trilogy ((Are there still any of you who haven't read Megan Whalen Turner's Attolia trilogy (The ...
Posted by Justine at 16:59, April 5th, 2007 under Bloggery, Sydney/Australia, Words & Language, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 10:08, April 5th, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Vainglory, Whingeing, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 9:38, April 4th, 2007 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business |
Right now there are not one but two competitions to win a copy of Magic's Child.
Go to
Diana Peterfreund's blog and make a comment and you're in the running. She promises that she will ship the book anywhere in the world. I signed it and all! Or you can to the
Teenreadstoo site to win a copy. The intermanets are positively dripping with free copies of Magic's Child!
Posted by Justine at 22:16, April 3rd, 2007 under Magic or Madness trilogy |
John Hinde was one of my favourite film critics of all time. He was a wonderfully warm and funny man. He could give charmingly negative reviews to sucky films without a hint of rancour, reviews that made you want to see the crappy film just to see what he was talking about. I always wanted to meet him. When he died I cried.
Now he's made me cry again by setting up an
extraordinary literary prize in his wife's memory. It's the "Barbara Jefferis Award for the best Australian novel that empowers the status of females or depicts them in a positive light." The award goes to an Australian writer, but isn't restricted by setting or genre, ...
Posted by Justine at 10:23, April 3rd, 2007 under Reading, Sydney/Australia, Unicorns, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 14:23, April 2nd, 2007 under Daughters of Earth, Magic or Madness trilogy |
A bunch of youse have been asking why I'm suddenly using capital letters for some of my posts. Blame, Scott. ((Oh, okay, and some other aged friends who also whinged mighty loud)) He claims that he can't cope with no caps on long posts. He whinged and pouted and generally carried on until he prevailed.
So there you have it: For longer posts I'm bringing back the caps, unless, of course, I don't actually want any of the crumblies to read that particular post . . .
Posted by Justine at 10:42, April 2nd, 2007 under Bloggery |
Posted by Justine at 13:05, April 1st, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, Sydney/Australia, Writing life |
