Archives
Posted by Justine at 1:02, June 30th, 2007 under Excuses, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 18:34, June 29th, 2007 under Bloggery, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 6:22, June 29th, 2007 under Ranting, Reading |
Read
this article over at Newsweek by Susanna Schrobsdorff. It's excellent and freaked me out. All about wrinkle injections and ideas of beauty and youth and clinging to it. It made me shiver and go, Ewwwww! Go read!
Posted by Justine at 10:36, June 28th, 2007 under New York City/USA, State of the World |
Posted by Justine at 9:14, June 28th, 2007 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Whingeing, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 15:44, June 27th, 2007 under Bloggery, Reading |
Posted by Justine at 11:27, June 27th, 2007 under Bloggery |
Judging from your comments here and those over at
Cassie Clare's lj the following are what you look for in a romance:
tension
conflict
verisimilitude
external obstacles
geek love
banter
painful misunderstandings
Gender-bending mistaken identity
super competence
baggage
equal partners
witty banter
wish fulfillment
restraint
chemistry
little things
vulnerability
choosing happiness
Character development
lots of witty banter
no internal thoughts
verbal sex
brooding
unrequited love
undying love
enemies in love
slow, lengthy build ups
humour
context
best friends falling for each other
lots and lots of witty banter
i just love this list! Makes me so happy. I agree with almost everything on it (especially gender-bending mistaken identity These Old Shades I go weak!). Thanks, everyone. Your comments were witty, thought provoking and wonderful.
So why was I asking?
Because I've never written a romance.
I've never started a book and known that one of the major plot arcs was going to be ...
Posted by Justine at 13:06, June 26th, 2007 under Bloggery, Praising, Reading |
Posted by Justine at 11:15, June 25th, 2007 under Bloggery, Book challenges, Praising, Unicorns, Words & Language, Young Adult literature |
What's your favourite romance? I mean that in the broadest possible sense. It doesn't have to have been published as a romance. (I think most books are romances in some way or other.) What is your favourite book where a love relationship is a big part of the story?
And what was it about the way that relationship was written that so appealed to you?
What writers do you think do love stories particularly well?
Feel free to give me examples from Young Adult, Adult, mystery, romance, science fiction, mainstream, or whatever. Don't care. Oh, and don't forget about manga and graphic novels. I've been reading
Emma by Kaoru Mori and it's currently one of my favourite romances of all time. Because ...
Posted by Justine at 16:16, June 23rd, 2007 under Reading, Sydney/Australia |
Anyone know where I can buy preserved lemons (Morrocan style)? (Yes, I know I can get them online, but I like to shop in real life with actual people. I also know I could make 'em but I ain't in the mood for sterilising jars.)
I'm also looking for Thai herbs like pak chii farang and pandanus leaf. And, yes, I've tried Chinatown. Couldn't see 'em anywhere and no one knew what I was talking about.
And how about plain old chervil? (The places round here haven't even heard of chervil. Is there some strange USian word for chervil I don't know about? I googled and came up with chervil being chervil. So how come no one knows what it is?)
I'm ...
Posted by Justine at 12:28, June 23rd, 2007 under Food, New York City/USA, Ranting, Sydney/Australia, Whingeing |
It's a heady batch today. Don't miss
Ysabeau Wilce over at Gwenda's. Or
Cecil at A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy. And then there's
Bennett Madison and
Holly Black. Not to mention
another one with me. This time at HipWriterMama. Oh hell, you should
read them all!
Congratulations, Colleen, for organising the best blog tour ever. The interviews were wonderful and inspiring. I feel all giddy from keeping up with it all week. There were a few blogs in there I'd never read before. I'll be keeping up with them from now on. Thank you, Colleen!
Posted by Justine at 11:31, June 22nd, 2007 under Bloggery, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 1:21, June 22nd, 2007 under Publishing business, Sydney/Australia |
So I just noticed that of the
25 authors being interviewed this week as part of the summer blog tour only 3 are Australian (me,
Sonya Hartnett and
Shaun Tan).
Excuse me? That's only 12%. It's an outrage, I tell you!
On behalf of my compatriots I am now sulking until I get a firm promise of fair representation of Aussies next year. I reckon 50% would do it . . .
And there are
many more interviews today, including
this one with Cecil Castellucci and, um,
one with me. (Eek! Enough already!)
Posted by Justine at 11:21, June 21st, 2007 under Bloggery, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature |
Just so as you know: that erky error you were getting when you tried to make a comment? It wasn't just you. Twas everyone who attempted to comment here in the last couple of days. But now it is fixed.
Thank you so much, Malcolm Tredinnick! You are my new hero. Without you and Chris McLaren I would be carving my thoughts on lumps of coal and mailing them to people.
Posted by Justine at 17:38, June 20th, 2007 under Bloggery, Praising |
The
wonderful speech that
David Levithan gave at Reading Matters is now
available as a podcast. You all should listen to this passionate, galvanising call to arms that left most everyone wanting to go out and slay vampires right that very minute. Or, you know, get the books that kids need into their hands.
I'm still mulling over my response to David's call to arms. On the one hand, I think he's totally right. On the other, it's so annoying to have a foreignor come in, spend a few minutes in the country, and then tell us Aussies what to do! We hates it, we do. Especially when they're right . . .
Posted by Justine at 0:12, June 20th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Praising, Ranting, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 1:01, June 19th, 2007 under Bloggery, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
My first interview for Colleen Mondor's summer blog tour went up this morning. Twas conducted by the lovely Liz B of
A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy.
Bored with reading about me? (Elvis knows, I am!) Then check out
all these other interviews with folks like Gene Yang who won the Printz for American Born Chinese.
This whole week will be awash with
interviewy goodness.
PS This is the post I was trying to put up when everything went down (again) this morning. It's post number? 666.
Posted by Justine at 23:14, June 18th, 2007 under Bloggery, Vainglory, Young Adult literature |
Yes, my site has been down on and off since Friday. Ditto my email. Yes, it has driven me insane.
My apologies to anyone who's been sending me urgent emails. I now have close to a thousand unread emails waiting for me.
Brave new world of faster and better technology, eh?
Bah, humbug.
Posted by Justine at 22:59, June 18th, 2007 under Bloggery, Excuses, Ranting, Whingeing |
Next week the denizens of blogland what care about kids and YA literature will be interviewing many amazing writers such as Sonya Hartnett and Holly Black and Ysabeau Wilce (and, um, me). Check out the
full schedule of interviews. If the smart questions I was asked are any guide I reckon they'll be corkers.
Next week is also the annual summer
American Library Association conference. I sadly will not be attending. Waaah! I went to the one in New Orleans last year (or was it the year before?) and it was just incredible. I had such a wonderful time I'd even contemplate going to the midwinter ALA conference. And youse lot know how I feel about winter.
To make me ...
Posted by Justine at 10:58, June 15th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Reading |
I do not rant here; I rant
there.
Posted by Justine at 14:52, June 14th, 2007 under Bloggery |
Unlike
Mr Scalzi and a scary number of others, I am not a zombie. The flesh is still pink and I'm craving miso soup, not brains. (At least not unless they're lamb's brains lightly sauteed with lots of garlic.)
I suspect that the
apocalypse has not hit New York City yet. Figures that it would ravage the midwest first.
We have a reinforced steel door and enough food to last . . . Hang on a second.
Oh. Okay, enough food to last a few hours. But there's lots of booze. So I'm good.
And, frankly, I can think of no better way to spend the apocalypse than holed up with
me old man and two cases of really ...
Posted by Justine at 13:34, June 13th, 2007 under Zombies |
The wondrous creator of the
Mary Sue T-shirt has
gone into mass production. Go forth and order your very own.
Posted by Justine at 8:34, June 13th, 2007 under Bloggery, Praising |
Posted by Justine at 13:44, June 12th, 2007 under Bloggery, Praising, Publishing business, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 14:29, June 11th, 2007 under Publishing business, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 17:12, June 10th, 2007 under Bloggery, Excuses, Whingeing, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
Thanks to Sean and Tole, I just found out that Daughters of Earth has won the
William Atheling Jr. Award. Woo hooo!!!! This is the award given by the Australian science fiction community for the best criticism.
I'm stoked beyond stokage.
Posted by Justine at 12:40, June 10th, 2007 under Daughters of Earth, Vainglory |
Posted by Justine at 22:24, June 9th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Magic or Madness trilogy, Travelling, Vainglory, Young Adult literature |
Thanks so much for all the warm yummy wishes. I'm bubbly and bouncing!
I've been getting some questions about my next book. I figured it would be most efficient to answer them all here:
Q: Will it be in hardcover or paperback?
A: Hardcover first and then later (don't know how much later) paperback.
Q:
Penni asked: Are you signing a contract for a book you haven't written yet?
A: It's like this: Bloomsbury have bought two books from me, the already-written UFB + an unwritten second book. Yes, that means I'll be writing one novel of the contract to deadline. I know
I said I wouldn't do that anymore. But the writing-a-book-at-my-own-pace thing (which resulted in the UFB) was an experiment. I ...
Posted by Justine at 11:02, June 8th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Mangosteens, Vainglory |
My big news is that my next two books are going to be published by
Bloomsbury USA. That's right the great Aussie cricket mangosteen monkey knife fighting fairy YA novel has found a home! Not to mention an actual title: The Ultimate Fairy Book.
I am so excited I cannot sit still. I'm bouncing as I type this. I am all over with yays!
My new editor is Melanie Cecka who is wonderful. We had a three-hour lunch last year where we learned conclusively that we are each girls after each other's heart. Hot sauce! Mexican food! Dessert! Love of many of the same books!
The whole team at Bloomsbury are incredibly impressive and seem to be almost as excited ...
Posted by Justine at 11:39, June 7th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Praising, Vainglory, Writing goals & milestones, Young Adult literature |
New York has a sports team that's opened its season with a five game winning streak, despite not even making the playoffs last year and no longer having its
best and most popular player. How many column inches has the New York Times given this remarkable performance?
Pretty much none. Unless you count the teeny tiny AP reports.
This is because the team is the
New York Liberty and it's a women's team. The New York Times is incapable of covering women's basketball unless it's a profile of a male coach. Especially if that
male coach is ex-NBA and coaches a non-New York team.
The New York Daily has no problem covering the Liberty nor does the ...
Posted by Justine at 11:06, June 6th, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Ranting, Sport |
Posted by Justine at 15:31, June 5th, 2007 under Admin, Magic or Madness trilogy |
Posted by Justine at 18:14, June 4th, 2007 under Publishing business, Writing life |
On Saturday I ran into wondrous super-librarian Carlie Webber at Book Expo America (BEA). She was wearing the best T-shirt of all time. Check it out:
And how about the back:
I laughed and laughed.
For those who do not know what a
Mary Sue is or have not read any of the
Harry Potter books---where have you been?
Update: The T-shirt of greatness was created by Amy
Tenbrink of
Narrate Conferences.
Posted by Justine at 10:38, June 4th, 2007 under Frippery, New York City/USA, Praising, Viewing, Young Adult literature |
Today at the New York Liberty versus Phoenix Mercury game (we won!) the
Rutger's women's team stood in the middle of the court during one of the breaks. We gave them a standing ovation, stamping, and clapping and yelling for them. At every timeout thereafer they were beseiged by well-wishers and autograph seekers. They may not have won last years' finals but they definitely won the battle against racist radio announcers. Yay!
Kay Yow one of the greatest coaches of women's basketball ever and
Vivian Stringer the fabulous coach of Rutgers were also there. So was Teresa Weatherspoon the best pointguard the Liberty has ever had. All were applauded and mobbed for autographs. It made me so happy. ...
Posted by Justine at 20:41, June 3rd, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Praising, Sport, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 5:25, June 2nd, 2007 under Manga, Praising, Publishing business, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 4:53, June 1st, 2007 under Frippery, New York City/USA, Praising, Travelling, Vainglory, Young Adult literature |
