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Thanks to everyone for
all the photos. You are all the bestest and most wondrous people EVER! As Jeff Fenech would say, "I love youse all!"
It was kind of weird to see how many photos there are of me and Scott I never knew existed. Eerie even . . .
I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologise to my sister,
Niki Bern, as well as my good friend,
Cat Sparks. I'm sorry I'm always so recalcitrant about having my photo taken. You were both right that some day I would be happy you both insist on documenting everything.
That said, I now no longer need to have my photo taken ever again. Hallelujah! I shall keep ...
Posted by Justine at 0:01, January 31st, 2008 under New York City/USA, Praising, Sydney/Australia, Travelling, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 17:36, January 30th, 2008 under First Kiss, Vainglory, Young Adult literature |
I'm hurting and upset on behalf of ghouls everywhere. Surely someone can find it in their heart to vote for them?
Yes, in the poll on your right.
Posted by Justine at 11:20, January 30th, 2008 under Frippery |
Hilary!
asked the following:
I have a VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION ABOUT BOOK WRITING!!!!!!!!! My Friend Weslie is writing a book and I’ve been helping her, but she won’t exactly tell me what the plot is, but i feel that since I am helping her with it anyway, she SHOULD tell me. What’s your take on it? PLEASE ANSWER PROMPTLY!!!!!
When you say you're "helping" her I'm assuming you mean you are critiquing her work. Right? If so then, yes, it's really difficult to make constructive comments when you have no idea where the book is going.
For instance, say she's writing a vampire love story (judging from my poll opposite my readers are VERY into vampires) but she only slowly reveals that ...
Posted by Justine at 11:46, January 29th, 2008 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 13:19, January 28th, 2008 under Ideas, Praising, Publishing business, Ranting, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 0:04, January 28th, 2008 under Writing life, Zombies |
Me and Scott did not have a proper wedding on account of eloping but I'd like to think that if we had done the full-blown thing we'd've got our shit together to pull off the now traditional surprise wedding dance a la:
or
But I suspect not. I'd settle for attending a wedding where the couple pulled off something like it. How very fabulous.
I never get tired of these vids. I love youtube.
Posted by Justine at 10:58, January 27th, 2008 under Frippery, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 11:55, January 26th, 2008 under Frippery, New York City/USA, Praising |
The death of Heath Ledger got me thinking about all my favourite teen movies seeing as how he was in one of my faves: Ten Things I Hate About You. And because thinking about fabby teen movies is more fun than thinking about talented people dying. I love 'em---almost as much as I love YA.
Here are my off-the-top-of-my-head favourites:
Bend It Like Beckham
Better Off Dead
Bring It On
Clueless
Dirty Dancing
Drumline
East of Eden
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Flirting
Ginger Snaps
Gregory's Girl
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love
Looking For Alibrandi
The Lost Boys (added because of reminders in the comments)
Mean Girls
Rebel Without A Cause
Saved
Say Anything
She's All That (mostly for the dance sequence at the end)
The Sure Thing
Ten Things I Hate About You
The Warriors
The Year My Voice Broke
You ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 25th, 2008 under Praising, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Viewing |
I will confess that I was nervous about going to
High Voltage ConFusion. There were several reasons for this:
I'm afraid of cold places. And Detroit in winter is COLD. ((How cold? Minus a million cold! That's how cold. So cold that I'm back in NYC and it's freezing and it seems warm in comparison.))
I'd never been a guest of honour before and was worried I'd be crappy at it.
I was aware that most of the people at the con would not have heard of me or Scott and was worried that they would feel dudded of a proper author guest of honour what wrote adult sf and fantasy.
I need not have had any concerns at all. I was right ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 24th, 2008 under Basketball, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Sport, Travelling, Vainglory, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 10:50, January 23rd, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Travelling, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
The reason for which are posted most indiscreetly on
Scott's blog.
I'd just like to share with you my favourite photo so far:
Kevin Dunn (science guest of honour) plus me and me old man at High Voltage Confusion in Detroit.
Why pirate hats you ask? If I told you I'd have to kill you.
And, yes, if you have any other photos of us we'd love to see 'em.
Thank you so much everyone for all the photos you've pointed us to. We REALLY appreciate it!
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 23rd, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Travelling |
We are in desperate need of photos of me and Scott together---preferably with other people, but no worries if you just have the two of us. If you have such photos online please include the link in the comments. Or you can send them to me at jlATjustinelarbalestier.com (replace the AT with @). If you could say where and when they were taken that would be extremely helpful.
You'll be doing us both an enormous favour.
Thank you!
Posted by Justine at 15:56, January 22nd, 2008 under Admin |
I will have more to say about the fabulous
High Voltage ConFusion when my brain and body are in the same place. ((All the usual disclaimers apply about why I haven't responded to your emails, comments etc. Sorry!))
In the meantime what song is stuck in your brain right now? I have Suzanne Vega's "Blood Makes Noise" on high rotation.
Posted by Justine at 17:56, January 21st, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Travelling |
Because we're on a juvenilia panel at
ConFusion, Scott is in the next room making strange noises. Some of it is laughter, most of it is groans. He's reading through stuff he wrote when he was a teenager.
Because all my juvenilia is back in Sydney, my wonderful mother transcribed some of the earliest stuff to send me. Bless you, Jan. I just read through it.
Oh, dear.
Sad to say, but there is not an inkling of genius in either of our earliest writings. Wow. We must have worked pretty hard in the intervening years learning how to, you know, construct a sentence or two that don't completely suck.
I might put some of it up on our sites to ...
Posted by Justine at 8:46, January 17th, 2008 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Frippery, Travelling |
My first appearance in a YA anthology is now on the shelves: First Kiss (Then Tell): A Collection of True Lip-Locked Moments edited by Cylin Busby. I'm stoked to be in this collection. It's dead funny and there's not a dud story in sight. How could there be when they're penned by the likes of Cecil Castellucci, Shannon Hale, David Levithan, Sarah Mlynowski, Laren Myracle, Robin Wasserman and Scott Westerfeld? ((Though, Scott cheated and wrote a haiku.)) If you don't believe me about the fabulosity of this anthology then would you believe Booklist?
This entertaining collection of true "first kiss" stories by popular YA authors arrives just in time for Valentine’s Day. The risk of veering into groan-worthy, "when-I-was-your-age" territory always ...
Posted by Justine at 17:17, January 16th, 2008 under First Kiss, Praising, Vainglory, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 16th, 2008 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Mangosteens, Whingeing, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Congratulations to
all the Printz honorees and winner. What a fabulous line up! Can't wait to read 'em all!
I'm especially pleased to see
Geraldine McCaughrean and
Elizabeth Knox on that list. They're two of the best writers in the world right now. Regardless of genre.
I'm a little disappointed by some of the whingeing I've seen from people who are upset that they've never heard of any of the Printz honorees. Isn't that one of the points of literary awards? To draw our attention to books that might otherwise be overlooked? Every award jury is devoted to finding the best books they can that are eligible for their particular award. Eligibility is not determined by copies sold or ...
Posted by Justine at 16:06, January 15th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Praising, Ranting, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 15th, 2008 under Frippery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Ideas, Writing life |
Some of you have expressed surprise and dismay that I abandoned my
archy and mehitabel policy. They wants to know why and if it's merely a bout of temporary insanity.
The why is easy: I was bored. It was get rid of the no-caps or find a new template. The one takes seconds, the other days. Not a difficult choice.
The no-caps rule lasted quite a long time. To be precise: from 25 May 2005 up till 8 Jan 2008. More than two and a half years. That's AGES.
I don't think the no-caps will return. Been there, done that. By all means continue to eschew them in your comments as homage to the way Things Used to Be. I'm all for ...
Posted by Justine at 11:13, January 14th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery |
Regular reader, Danica, just wrote to ask me a series of excellent Oz related questions. Unfortunately I'm running around like a chook with its head cut off so I turn to youse lot, my Australian readers, to help her out. Here's what she has to say:
So for my Comparitive Civilizations class, we need to plan a minimum three week trip to another country. Well guess what? My friend and I chose Australia. We figured the best way to get information on Australia would be to talk to a true Australian. So now here I am, using my spare block to sit in the library and write you an email. Should I be working on that ...
Posted by Justine at 0:18, January 14th, 2008 under Bloggery, Sydney/Australia |
Some are saying that the poll is rigged because I'm only showing pictures of dresses. So in the interests of fairness here are what the other
High Voltage ConFusion clothing options look like:
The mighty zoot suit
Who can not love it's exaggerated shoulders? The lurid colours? The delicious saxophone wail that you are sure to hear everywhere you go?
I will admit that this is not the best example of the zoot, but I am trying to get books written, you know! I have a vivid memory of Kid Creole (of Kid Creole & the Coconuts fame) attired in a lime green and black one. Exquisite!
The purple jump suit
Because what other colour could a jump suit ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 13th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Fashion |
The voting says I should definitely get a new dress. Take that, Scott!
The first dress is
here. But how about this one:
Marc Audibet for Vionnet
Or maybe this (look! black gloves!):
John Galliano for Christian Dior
Thinking about dresses is
something else that's much much easier than writing . . .
Posted by Justine at 10:49, January 12th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Fashion |
Next weekend Scott Westerfeld and yours truly will be guests of honour at the
2008 High Voltage ConFusion science fiction convention. It's our very first time being guests of honour and we are stoked. TOTALLY stoked. In fact I'm so very stoked I'm thinking of celebrating with the purchase of a new dress. Surely, being guest of honour requires new clothes, right? I gotta look pretty, don't I? If you have an opinion on this Very Important Matter please to express it in the poll to your right.
I'm thinking this one, though with black gloves not white:
Vivienne Westwood's Watteau ball gown
Here's Scott and mine's schedule. Because we are joint guests of honour we are doing everything together:
FRIDAY 18 ...
Posted by Justine at 12:26, January 11th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Fashion, Travelling |
All three volumes of the
Magic or Madness trilogy will be out in Germany in the next few months. Here's what they look like:
These may well be my favourites out of all
the trilogy's covers.
Talk about eye-catching! She even looks a little bit like I imagined Reason looking. Though the nose is wrong, the face too narrow, and Reason doesn't have facial tats or elf ears or blue-black hair and eyes . . . details, details.
Here's the first page in German:
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 11th, 2008 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Vainglory |
Thanks so much for all the responses to the
grandmother question. Fascinating! Plus I might use some of your responses in my next book, which has surprised me by being set entirely in the US of A with no Australian characters. Gulp.
I just read the first few chapters to Scott and he reckons my only misstep was the word "posh", which I had my teenage protag use to describe a super-expensive private school. Which left me wondering what word you'd use instead. What's the USian equivalent of "posh"?
I've had "classy" suggested but it doesn't work for me because "posh" also has connotations of being a bit stuck up, and hard to get into, not merely expensive. Something can be ...
Posted by Justine at 0:01, January 10th, 2008 under Liar, New York City/USA, Words & Language |
In the vociferous arguing about the ins and outs of who behaved worst over the second test etc etc there are people implying that criticising the Australian cricket team is unAustralian and whingey. ((Though what's more Australian than whingeing?!))
Please! I love my country, I love cricket, but when the men's team behave like dickheads they should be called on it.
People who play sport at a professional level are not exempt from the social contract. No one is. Writers (to pick a random example out of the air) shouldn't behave like dickheads either. Recently I was at an award ceremony where the speeches of the winners were generous and moving. All but one. This one person got up to accept their ...
Posted by Justine at 0:01, January 9th, 2008 under Cricket, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 10:59, January 8th, 2008 under Bloggery, Excuses, Frippery, Writing life |
I've had a few people writing to ask why I'm not commenting on the disastrous second test between Australia and India. There are several reasons. I've not been able to follow any of the cricket as closely as I'd like. I haven't had time.
But mostly because I'm embarrassed. And, well, I think
Greg Baum and
Mike Coward have expressed what I feel about it so well that i don't really need to add anything.
I will though: I'm sick of Aussie sportsmen (and, frankly, it's the blokes, not the women) behaving like dickheads. I'm not Indian, so the bad behaviour of the Indians doesn't make me ashamed, and, you know what? We're the host country here. We should be ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 8th, 2008 under Cricket, Sport, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 0:22, January 7th, 2008 under Bloggery, Writing process |
I'm from Sydney and I called my grandmother "nana"; Scott's from Texas and he calls his "mee-maw".
To be honest, when I first heard him say it I thought he was making it up. He has more than once tried to convince me something was USian or Texan that was merely Scottian. He likes to trick the dumb foreignor. But then I heard his nieces calling his mother "mee-maw", so unless he briefed them ahead of time and they're amazingly good actors, I'm ready to believe some Texans really call their grandmothers "mee-maw".
Scott's convinced that calling your grandmother "nana" is an Eastern European thing, but I know plenty of other Aussies with no Eastern European background who call ...
Posted by Justine at 13:32, January 6th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia, Words & Language |
On New Year's Eve, thanks to regular reader, Marrije, I was surrounded by palm trees. Okay, just the one palm tree. A palm tree that required a certain amount of assemblage:
before it was fully grown:
How can it be cold when there's a palm tree in the house?
Thanks, Marrije!
Posted by Justine at 0:14, January 5th, 2008 under Frippery, New York City/USA |
Posted by Justine at 0:18, January 4th, 2008 under Bloggery |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 3rd, 2008 under Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:16, January 2nd, 2008 under Best of Blog, Reading, Scott's books, Viewing, Writing process |
My dad continues to send me photos from home. These two are taken from Bicentennial Park which is just round the corner from my parents' house:
Yes, that's the Harbour Bridge in the background there---that teeny arch.
I loves me some Rozelle and Blackwattle Bay . . .
Homesick, me? Don't be ridiculous.
Posted by Justine at 2:41, January 1st, 2008 under Sydney/Australia |
