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There are many Australian writers in town at the moment and there has been much socialising to celebrate. ((And, yes, that plus deadlines plus the blah blah blahs being out of control has put a crimp in my bloggery. Sorry!)) I can't tell you how much fun it is to be in NYC and not be the only Aussie in the room. ((Also for once it's all of them who are jetlagged while me and Scott are perfectly fine. It's usually the other way around.)) Especially when the other Aussies are fabulous folks like Deb Biancotti, Rob Hood, Margo Lanagan, Garth Nix, Cat Sparks, Trevor Stafford, and Jonathan Strahan. Much fun has been had. ((Though it's making me ...
Posted by Justine at 11:33, October 31st, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 1:11, October 29th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Titles & names, Whingeing, Words & Language, Writing life |
If you're in San Francisco, Seattle, or New York City you can find signed copies of my books here:
Borderlands
866 Valencia St
San Francisco
415.824.8203
They not only have the Magic or Madness trilogy but also Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction and Daughters of Earth
Books Inc Opera Plaza
601 Van Ness
San Francisco
415-776-1111
All For Kids
2900 N.E. Blakeley Street
Seattle
206.526.2768
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York
212-989-3270
If you're hankering for a signed copy of one of my books but don't live anywhere near those shops---they all do mail order.
And because I'm curious how many of you like to have all your favourite books signed by the author? Do any of you collect signed books even if you've not read the book in question?
Posted by Justine at 13:12, October 28th, 2007 under Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, Daughters of Earth, Magic or Madness trilogy |
Over at
Maureen Johnson's blog she's busy answering punters' questions in a vastly entertaining way. ((The trick to entertaining answers, apparently, is to make stuff up. Why didin't I think of that?)) Yay, Maureen!
If you haven't already go over and ask her a quessie. Make it curly though. The most difficult question you can think of. Then make it more difficult than that even. Frankly, I don't think she's being stretched enough. We all need to really put her through her paces.
I wish Maureen would tell me how to write six things at once without my head exploding.
Posted by Justine at 15:54, October 26th, 2007 under Bloggery, Frippery |
Posted by Justine at 13:58, October 25th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Fans & readers, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 21:31, October 23rd, 2007 under Ideas, Science |
Posted by Justine at 18:32, October 22nd, 2007 under Praising, Reading |
Cedarlibrarian, a major Harry Potter fan,
doesn't care about spoilers. Her arguments are smart and convincing.
And yet.
I'm really not a very evolved consumer of texts cause spoilers bug the crap out of me. I want my first experience of any narrative---be it book, manga, graphic novel, TV show, movie, play, whatever, to be untrammelled by knowing stuff about it. I don't read reviews unless there of something I've already read/seen or it's something I don't care about.
Frankly, I'd almost prefer not to know what genre it is.
I don't want to know if people liked it or not. All the spoilery grumbling about the latest series of TV shows I haven't seen yet drives me spare. ((And I almost ...
Posted by Justine at 22:51, October 21st, 2007 under Ranting, Reading, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 12:52, October 20th, 2007 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Scott's books, Travelling |
She
says my man ain't pretty:
At 44, Westerfeld isn't just another pretty face. With his cropped, sandy hair, furrowed brow and somewhat lumpy nose, he's not "pretty" at all, but he understands the calculus of beauty and fame that wields increasing power in young-adult lives.
His nose is not lumpy! I love that nose! He is too pretty! ((Okay, not "pretty" as in the pretties of his Uglies series because, you know,
ewww!))
That Ms. Goodnow better not cross my path any time soon. Grrr!
If you skip that one evil and wrong paragraph it's actually
not a bad article. I spose.
Posted by Justine at 13:18, October 19th, 2007 under New York City/USA, Scott's books |
We're two Saturdays away from an all-Aussie (+ one permanent resident) fantasy explosion: the Printz-honour genius
Margo Lanagan, editor extraordinaire
Jonathan Strahan, bestselling author of the Sabriel and Keys series
Garth Nix, not to mention Aussie-by-marriage
Scott Westerfeld, oh, yeah, and me!
Has there ever been such a line up?
No, there has not.
Saturday, 27October 27
3-5PM
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY
Stick it in your dairy. Tattoo the details on your little brother's cheek ((Okay, don't really do that. That would be wrong.). Carn out and see us!
We'll read (a little), answer all your questions (almost), and teach you how to talk Australian (maybe).
Posted by Justine at 0:01, October 19th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature |
Several people have been bewildered by
my enjoyment of
this article about the Frankfurt Book Fair. Don't you get depressed by how it's not about the authors? they ask. How it's about books as product? How there are so many, many, many books?
Nope.
Books are products.
That's not all they are, but it's a pretty bloody important aspect, especially for those of us who are trying to make a living writing (or editing or selling) them.
Publishing is an industry. Part of what it's about---and has always been about---is making money. For most of its history most of that money has been made by people other than writers. ((Most editors and publicists and sales reps and booksellers don't make ...
Posted by Justine at 0:09, October 18th, 2007 under Publishing business |
Photo taken by Scott from the window of our plane in Chicago
Posted by Justine at 19:37, October 16th, 2007 under Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 9:34, October 15th, 2007 under Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 20:25, October 13th, 2007 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, Food, New York City/USA, Toilets, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 13:26, October 12th, 2007 under Ranting, Reading, Travelling, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 15:10, October 11th, 2007 under Bloggery, Fashion, New York City/USA, Praising, Travelling |
Day 11 of the tour:
Tonight's appearance at Books Inc (Opera Plaza) was fabulous. Lots of rabid, smart, enthusiastic Scott fans and passionate arguments about David/Zane. For the record I like Zane better than David but prefer Shay to either one of them.
The most wonderful part of the evening for me was meeting London, who's a guy from Sacramento, who drove all the way to San Francisco (which is at least two hours!) to tell me how much he loves my books. Isn't that awesome? Also turns out he's a Sacramento Monarchs fan and has even met their big star Yolanda Griffiths. I was deeply impressed and we got to talk women's hoops which always makes me happy.
Equally happy making ...
Posted by Justine at 2:49, October 10th, 2007 under Basketball, Fans & readers, Scott's books, Travelling |
One of the fabulous things about this tour is seeing how popular so many of my friends are.
At a book shop on the outskirts of Chicago I saw this:
I pointed it out to Scott. "Look! Someone here loves Cassie's book. And they have a tonne of copies!" (There were more in piles above and below this book shelf.)
The bookseller who wrote that shelf talker overheard me:
"You know Cassie Clare?! Oh. My. God. I LOVED that book so much!!! She is a genius! I have loved her ever since I read her Secret Diaries!"
At a school in Walnut Creek, California lots of the kids had painted posters of their favourite books. The room was full of ...
Posted by Justine at 2:21, October 9th, 2007 under Bloggery, Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Travelling, Young Adult literature |
Everything on the book tour has very short margins. The driver taking you places in traffic-laden cities has to calculate the odds of getting you to your next gig on time and allow for potential disasters so you often arrive with tonnes of dead time or with barely seconds to get up and start charming.
You have a one-day turn around on getting your clothes laundered. If you drop it off in the morning it has to be ready in the evening or you're wearing dirties to a gig. One hotel forgot to return the dry cleaning. And we stupidly didn't check till it was too late leaving Scott struggling to put a clean ensemble together. Aaargh!! (Fortunately the ...
Posted by Justine at 11:34, October 8th, 2007 under Bloggery, Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings |
Kadie-Wa needs to know the answer to
this question:
I’m still wondering about gathering the extra part of your shirt up at your side. would that look good, or weird? i mean, when you take your shirt, and pull it over to your side and pull if off with a rubber band/pony tail. okay, or not? thax!
Personally, I think it's a DREADFUL idea, but I am deeply conservative about clothing that reeks in any way of the 1980s. I did it as a teen and it was not pretty.
What do the rest of you think?
Maybe,
Cecil Castellucci, who actually thinks footless tights are a good idea (!) is down with it?
Posted by Justine at 10:17, October 7th, 2007 under Bloggery, Fashion |
If this is Sunday it must be Oakland. What do you mean it isn't Sunday?! But this is Oakland, right?
Today has not been one of my better efforts. Let's see:
I almost broke one of Scott's toes,
Put the "signed by" sticker on several of his books upside down (worst
jacket monkey ever),
Left my bag with our passports in it behind at a restaurant and then managed not to hear the poor waiter sprinting after me and shouting with said bag in hands (but we got the bag back! yay most excellent waiter!),
Fell asleep in the middle of Scott reading me this thingie he's working on. (He is a most excellent reader. I have ...
Posted by Justine at 23:11, October 6th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Scott's books, Travelling |
At the book shop appearances Scott keeps being offered a free book as a reward for his hard work and charming-ness. We keep choosing mass market paperbacks because we're travelling and running out of spaces. Last choice: the latest Naomi Novik. (I started it last night and it rocks.)
If you were asked to choose one book from your favourite book shop what would it be?
Posted by Justine at 8:52, October 5th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Reading, Travelling |
To the person who got to my site by googling "is it bad to wear a long t-shirt with footless tights":
Yes! It is very very very bad indeed. Burn those footless tights immediately. And long T-shirts should only be worn to bed. Not out on the streets! What were you thinking?
Posted by Justine at 12:52, October 4th, 2007 under Fashion, Search Terms |
Guess what? The entire Magic or Madness trilogy just sold to the Japanese publisher, Hayakawa Shobo. That's right! I'm going to be in Japanese! I can't tell you how over the moon I am. Woo hooo!!!
Ever since I first heard about the whole foreign-rights thing there were two languages I've been desperate to be translated into: Spanish (cause I speak it un poco) and Japanese on account of my Japan obsession (oh, okay, mostly Kurosawa movies, Kimba, and now manga).
I screamed when I got the email. And started entertaining fantasies of a manga adaption following on from the straight translation. How cool would that be?
Now we just need to get a Spanish-language publisher to pick up the books and ...
Posted by Justine at 1:10, October 4th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Manga, Praising, Travelling, Vainglory |
Last night we went to
Anderson's books in Naperville, Illinois. Much fun was had. Scott explained the origins of the Uglies series and of Extras. The first is all about our society's beauty obsession; the second deals with
the fame thing. There was lots of Q & A. The questions were ridiculously smart and interesting and there didn't seem to be a single person who hadn't read at least three or four of Scott's books so he didn't have to worry too much about spoilers.
During the hours and hours that he was signing for the smart and very appreciative crowd I got to hang out with some fabulous folk who ...
Posted by Justine at 12:45, October 3rd, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Manga, New York City/USA, Praising, Reading, Scott's books, Travelling |
Internet access at last! And, sadly, I have to use it to work. While Scott is off entertaining littlies in schools all over Chicago to celebrate the official publication day of Extras I'm stuck in our hotel room slaving away. Le sigh.
The tour has been brilliant thus far. I've met many fabulous booksellers, authors, and sales reps---hey, Michelle & Anne!---and generally had a grand time. Running into
John Scalzi &
Liz Gilbert was a definite highlight. Liz is in Chicago too. Right now she's at Oprah's studios. That's right, she'll be on Oprah on Friday! Liz is one of my favourite people in the universe so if you get a chance do watch her on Friday's ...
Posted by Justine at 12:10, October 2nd, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Praising, Reading |
