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i love my iphone. I hug it to my chest but it is not great to blog from. (or answer email from either.)
We are in Ann Arbor. It is pretty.
Posted by Justine at 21:06, September 30th, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings |
I am a jacket monkey which totally works for me as those are two of my favourite things. I love beautiful jackets and I love monkeys. What could be better than putting them together? (If I weren't pressed for time there would a picture of a monkey wearing a jacket here. You'll just have to imagine it.)
Today me and Nicola from
Nicola's books in Ann Arbor opened many many copies of Extras to the signing page for Scott to scribble all over. We were his jacket monkeys. I want a Jacket Monkey t-shirt. I've already earned it. So many copies! So many jackets! So many pages!
In other news I am regretting that I learned on an earlier trip never ...
Posted by Justine at 1:20, September 29th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Fashion, Frippery |
Not my tour but
Scott's tour for his latest book Extras. It pubs on the 2nd of October and is deeply awesome. In fact, it's my favouritest of the Uglies series. Aya is my new hero.
I'll be along at most of the
public events. If you're around come and say hello.
I plan to keep blogging everyday. You know, on account of I'm addicted. I managed it every day we were away at Dragoncon so I don't see how a little tour will stop me.
Hey, does anyone who's been on a book tour before have any survival tips? (Other than
bring lots of shoes?)
Update: I'd be delighted to sign books. I may have to skip a few of ...
Posted by Justine at 6:25, September 28th, 2007 under Bloggery, Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, Praising, Scott's books, Travelling |
A friend of mine, who doesn't blog or read blogs, asked me why I blog. "Don't you feel weird sharing your personal life with total strangers?"
Their question surprised me because I don't blog about my personal life. This isn't that kind of a blog. I explained that to my friend. They didn't believe me. "You talk about your writing, don't you? That's personal."
Um, no. Writing is my job.
"But what about when your writing's not going well? Aren't the bad times personal?"
First of all, I don't blog about when the writing's going really badly.
Second, when I blog about the harder aspects of writing I do so to let people know that the writing life is not as glamorous as ...
Posted by Justine at 6:16, September 27th, 2007 under Bloggery, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 8:00, September 26th, 2007 under Bloggery, State of the World, Writing life |
I recently had a
conversation with Oyceter about the conventions of romance in which I confessed that I love books where a girl has to pass as a boy. I've loved them ever since I was little. The book that set me off was These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer.
I don't think the appeal of these books is mysterious. First of all, almost all of the books I loved were historicals. Most were (in one way or another) about how constrained the girls' lives were. About all the things they couldn't do and all the things they had to do, like marrying someone erky just because their father ordered them to. So for a girl character to be able ...
Posted by Justine at 11:47, September 25th, 2007 under Bloggery, Manga, Praising, Reading |
Posted by Justine at 11:21, September 24th, 2007 under Bloggery, Writing life |
So, I'm hearing lots of very negative things about
Second Life. Does anyone like it? Anyone at all? Please speak up!
In other news the
Matildas are
doing way better in the Women's Soccer World Cup than anyone predicted. Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi! Or in their own words: NOICE!!!
Posted by Justine at 21:58, September 22nd, 2007 under Praising, Sport, Sydney/Australia |
People keep asking why I'm so against uni***ns. I think this picture explains everything:
Photo taken by me of the creepy bus always parked around the corner on sixth street. Avert your eyes!
Posted by Justine at 0:04, September 21st, 2007 under Unicorns |
Posted by Justine at 11:33, September 20th, 2007 under Bloggery, Whingeing, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 13:59, September 19th, 2007 under Bloggery, Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, Fans & readers, Publishing business |
A most enjoyable
opinion piece in yesterday's New York Times by Mike Males concludes:
What experts label "adolescent risk taking" is really baby boomer risk taking. It’s true that 30 years ago, the riskiest age group for violent death was 15 to 24. But those same boomers continue to suffer high rates of addiction and other ills throughout middle age, while later generations of teenagers are better behaved. Today, the age group most at risk for violent death is 40 to 49, including illegal-drug death rates five times higher than for teenagers.
Hah! So I move that we start looking closely at what baby boomers are reading. Time to start banning Tom Clancy, John Grisham and Ken Follett books. Clearly ...
Posted by Justine at 10:45, September 18th, 2007 under Praising, State of the World |
Phoenix won the
WNBA finals. I am so very happy. I LOVE their style of play. I love Penny Taylor and Cappie Pondexter and Kelly Miller and Diana Taurasi. They are awesomeness personified. They SO deserved to win.
And Detroit totally dogged it. They have not looked that good these playoffs. They barely got past the New York Liberty. Same against Indiana. They did not deserve to win overall. Plus Bill Laimbeer drives me insane. That said Deanna Nolan is probably the most gorgeous shooter I have ever seen. I'd happily watch her play all day long. And Cheryl Ford is crazy strong and brave.
Next year the Liberty are going to knock Detroit out. Oh, yes, we will!
Posted by Justine at 7:58, September 17th, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Praising, Sport |
Do any of you play World of Warcraft or similar games? Do you have a Second Life? Wanna tell me about your avatar? Is it like you? Not like you? Do any of you have an avatar of the opposite sex? Anything else you want to tell me about your avatars?
Thanks!
Posted by Justine at 12:38, September 16th, 2007 under State of the World |
Libba Bray ((and since I'm mentioning Libba I should also mention that
Maureen Johnson is not the only one to have already read The Sweet Far Thing. That's right! Me too. It is deeply awesome. The best of the trilogy.)) is the best friend a girl could have. Look what she done gived me:
I screamed.
Do you notice the choking hazard warning? And that the evil uni***n is call "Destructicorn"?
Happy sigh.
Have any of you seen High School Musical? I think it may be the most conflict-free movie I've ever watched. Quite astonishing. I admit I was a tad disappointed by the choreography. The dance sequences were much better in She's the Man. Also how ...
Posted by Justine at 13:45, September 15th, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Sport, Unicorns, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 3:27, September 14th, 2007 under Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Remember when Scott and me were blogging at
insideadog? Well, this month it's Jack Heath's turn. We met him last time we were back home and were charmed and impressed by his wit and elan and the fact that he's published, like, a hundred novels all before his (approximately) fourteenth birthday. His first US publication will be out some time in 2008 (I think).
Go say hello and tell him I sent you.
Posted by Justine at 23:13, September 13th, 2007 under Bloggery, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 19:08, September 12th, 2007 under Publishing business, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:08, September 12th, 2007 under Ranting, Reading, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
The comments now have a live preview. Just start typing your comment and you will see.
I guess I should now find a proper footnote plugin since so many of you have whinged about my jerry-rigged ones. Some day . . .
Thank you,
Mr McLaren.
Posted by Justine at 0:07, September 12th, 2007 under Bloggery |
A warning: this is one of those stumbly thinking out loud posts.
I just read a dead interesting essay by
Jim Huang reflecting on twenty years of selling books. Most of his comments have to do with mystery books but a lot of it applies to other genres. I've been thinking about this comment:
When I think about the center of gravity of the mystery genre, I still believe that it lies in series. Seventy percent of the titles on the bestsellers lists of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association in 2007 year to date are part of a series. Seventy percent of these series titles belong to long-running series of five or more books. Sales in IMBA member stores ...
Posted by Justine at 11:45, September 11th, 2007 under Bloggery, Manga, Praising, Reading, Viewing, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 14:47, September 10th, 2007 under New York City/USA, State of the World |
Why did no one tell me about Kathleen T. Hornig's blog
Worth the Trip? She takes a witty informative look at GLBT books for kids and teens. It's my new favourite. Thanks for the heads up,
Literaticat.
For those who don't know
Kathleen Hornig is one of the
best librarians in the universe.
Posted by Justine at 13:10, September 9th, 2007 under Bloggery, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:52, September 9th, 2007 under Bloggery, Words & Language, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:01, September 8th, 2007 under Publishing business, State of the World, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 8:39, September 7th, 2007 under Bloggery, Publishing business, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 11:24, September 6th, 2007 under New York City/USA, Reading, Words & Language |
The worst book ever written is so very bad that there are warnings on Amazon to not even glance at the cover in case it infects you with its badness. Those warnings are true!
Holly Black LOVES this unspeakably bad book. So much so that she has many copies of it. So much so that she made us all read chapters out loud on the DragonTrain, which made us all laugh so hard we wept. I threw up I was laughing so hard.
The book is THAT bad.
Remember I was rambling recently about how you
can't include all details when you write? This book attempts to do that. It takes a kajillion chapters for the protag to cross a steet. All ...
Posted by Justine at 0:03, September 6th, 2007 under Frippery, Reading |
Because I have friends who insist on proper con reports I thought I'd talk about some DragonCon panels. Most of which were excellent and peopled by knowledgable and entertaining folks.
First I must rant:
Hey, Author People, yes, you lot, who respond to every question with deeply tedious plot descriptions of your own books and never mention anyone else's work---I have written down your names and the names of your books. And I will NEVER EVER EVER buy them or recommend them to anyone. You are boring and the death of many a potentially good panel. I am filled with hate for you and your kind.
Okay. I feel much better now. Now onto the good panels which were all part ...
Posted by Justine at 10:56, September 5th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Young Adult literature |
Maureen put together a vid of hers and Scott's DragonCon footage:
It is fabulous in all ways!
Well, except for one way: Maureen promised me that she would edit me out. She did not. I am unhappy to realise that her promises are WORTH NOTHING.
Other than that everything is good. Watch, enjoy! DragonCon and DragonTrain were teh awesome. When I'm less knackered I'll tell youse all about it. Especially our dramatic readings from the worst book ever written.
Posted by Justine at 20:50, September 4th, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA |
The worst thing about DragonCon---other than the way too many people thing---is that it's on the exact same weekend as the WNBA conference finals. I missed seeing Phoenix sweep San Antonio (woo hoo! Amy---sorry, Rebecca) and will miss all the Indiana-Detroit games (please Indiana win tonight!)
Seeing all those insanely brilliant costumes is some compensation I suppose. Riding on the train with Holly, Theo, Cassandra, Maureen and Scott ditto. Sitting around in a hotel room with them telling ghost stories also not too foul.
Which reminds me what are your favourite urban legends? Feel free to leave a link in the comments if you don't feel like telling the whole thing. So far we've done the finger nails one, the hook, the ...
Posted by Justine at 8:47, September 3rd, 2007 under Basketball, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Whingeing |
According to Scott these two didn't know each other---they were just grouped together by photographers:
Photo by Scott.
Posted by Justine at 19:02, September 2nd, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Viewing |
I'm not quite sure what to make of DragonCon. It's way bigger than any other con I've been to ever and, I gotta be honest, large crowds of people freak me out. And this place is nothing but huge crowds. On the other hand, the costumes are incredible.
Say hello to Mr Resident Evil 2:
Photo by Scott
Posted by Justine at 22:02, September 1st, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings |
And Theo Black is some peace keeper person from Farscape. He tried to get me to teach him an Australian accent. But, ya know, you're either born with one or you're not.
As usual Scott Westerfeld took the photo.
Posted by Justine at 1:16, September 1st, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Fashion, Frippery |
