Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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Another reason I love my job

This made my day: Get it? E. Kristin Anderson, who works at the fabulous Book People in Austin, is a parking fairy. Just like the one Charlie has in How To Ditch Your Fairy. Only, you know, not invisible. Isn't that superb? Coincidently, me and Scott will be hanging out at Book People on 19 November at 7:30PM. Can't wait! Happy Halloween!

Posted by Justine at 20:41, October 31st, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Travelling | 5 Comments »

Too interesting

Posted by Justine at 7:50, October 31st, 2008 under Liar, New York City/USA, State of the World, Writing life | 15 Comments »

All fixed

All the problems of the past two days appear to have been resolved. Sorry for the inconvenience. Especially to those of you who had your comments eaten. Thanks for chiming in on last post. I no longer feel like I have lost my mind. Just my website for a couple of days. And, praise Elvis, may it never happen again. We can now resume normal blog activity. For those who missed the post that was only visible to a handful of you for most of the day there's a sneak preview of my latest published effort. Thanks to everyone who wrote to share their concern about the absence and/or weirdness of my site today. It's nice to know you care.

Posted by Justine at 18:15, October 30th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery, Love is Hell | 3 Comments »

Can you see this post?

If you can could you comment? And tell me what browser you're using. I'm getting lots of reports of posts not showing up and people not being able to comment.

Posted by Justine at 16:45, October 30th, 2008 under Admin | 12 Comments »

Love is Hell

Posted by Justine at 8:30, October 30th, 2008 under Love is Hell, Reading | 1 Comment »

Yes, the site was down

Posted by Justine at 20:46, October 29th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery | 9 Comments »

Quick note

Posted by Justine at 14:09, October 29th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery, Excuses, Fans & readers | 3 Comments »

Signed books in Toronto

Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 29th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Praising, Travelling | 3 Comments »

It’s just wrong

Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 28th, 2008 under Liar, Whingeing, Writing life, Zombies | 6 Comments »

Lots and lots of fairies

Posted by Justine at 11:54, October 27th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Sport, What's your fairy? | 7 Comments »

Dream Sequences

Riddle me this: Why do I so often think that a dream sequence will solve my plot problems when as a reader I hate dream sequences? Gah! Yeah, I just deleted the dream sequence.

Posted by Justine at 12:23, October 26th, 2008 under Liar, Whingeing, Writing life | 9 Comments »

This is awesome

Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 25th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Research, Science, Sydney/Australia | 4 Comments »

You does not have to read my books + interview + assorted other stuff

Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 24th, 2008 under Fans & readers, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Travelling, Vainglory, Young Adult literature | 13 Comments »

Some questions

Posted by Justine at 6:07, October 23rd, 2008 under Fashion, New York City/USA, State of the World | 15 Comments »

Word stuff

Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 23rd, 2008 under Words & Language | 38 Comments »

Voting

One of the biggest culture shocks for me as an Australian living (some of the time) in the USA is voting. Every election year I've been here there have been voter intimidation and fraud scandals. Maybe I missed it, but that does not happen at home. Not every single election. Seems to me that the aim in the US is to make voting as difficult as possible. Why? I don't get it. I've had friends disallowed to vote because the official said they had the wrong ID. It didn't exactly match the name on the voter rolls. As in, their driver's license had their middle name spelled out in full, "Rachel", but the voter roll had just ...

Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 22nd, 2008 under New York City/USA, Praising, Ranting, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Zombies | 25 Comments »

Money, writers don’t have none, Part the millionth

Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 21st, 2008 under Book tour, Publishing business, State of the World, Writing life | 21 Comments »

Oh Canada!

I have neglected to let all you fabulous Canadians know that I will be in Canada next week. Toronto to be precise and, yes, there will be an appearance. Me and Scott will be here next Monday: Monday, 27 October, 7:00PM-8:00PM Indigo Bookstore Yorkdale Mall 3401 Dufferin Street Toronto, Ontario Here's hoping some of my Torontonian readers will be there. I promise to tell really gross vomit stories. Or, you know, not, if that grosses you out. They're really great vomit stories, but.

Posted by Justine at 0:21, October 20th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Travelling | 5 Comments »

All those with a crush on Rachel Maddow raise your hand (Updated)

Posted by Justine at 1:00, October 19th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Praising, State of the World | 18 Comments »

Alien Onion

Allen & Unwin, my Australian publisher, has a blog: Alien Onion. (See if you can figure out why it is thus named.) And they has written a post welcoming me. I is dead chuffed. Thank 'ee! There's also a preview of the Oz cover of How To Ditch Your Fairy. See if you can spot what's different to the US cover. Do check out the rest of their blog it's the most lively fun publisher's blog I've seen. With lots of excellent guests and pictures of cake. I think it will give you an inkling of why I am so ecstatic that Allen & Unwin is my new Australian home.

Posted by Justine at 10:49, October 18th, 2008 under Bloggery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Praising, Sydney/Australia | 10 Comments »

Happiness is . . .

Posted by Justine at 0:15, October 17th, 2008 under Admin | 11 Comments »

In which I agree with a commenter

Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 16th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Publishing business, Ranting, Reading, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature | 39 Comments »

Best News Ever!!!

Posted by Justine at 12:54, October 15th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Praising, Young Adult literature | 1 Comment »

I was wrong

Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 15th, 2008 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA | 3 Comments »

HTDYF in Australia (Updated)

Many of you have been asking, "When is How To Ditch Your Fairy going to be published in Australia?" I apologise for not answering. For ages I did not know if it would be or not and then it sold and I was not allowed to tell you. But now I can! How To Ditch Your Fairy will be published in Australia in late February by the fabulous Allen & Unwin. That's right I am now published by the same house that publishes Ursula Dubosarsky, Margo Lanagan, Garth Nix, Penni Russon and Lili Wilkinson amongst many other fabulously wonderful Oz YA writers. What's more A&U are not only publishing HTDYF, they're publishing the liar book too! Keeping this news to myself has ...

Posted by Justine at 15:46, October 14th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Sydney/Australia, Vainglory | 8 Comments »

Another moment of clarity: copyeditor edition

I finally figured out why I always often get into mega fights disagreements with my copyeditors. Eureka! Thus far all my novels have been in first person or limited third. I view these as the colloquial points of view and write them to mimic the character's speaking voice as much as possible. That way, if I do it right, the reader will feel like the protag is talking to them because the language I use is conversational. And there I fall into arguments with many copyeditors (not all of them---certainly not YOU). They wants everything to be gramatically correct and conform to house style. I wants for it to be colloquial, flowing, rhythmic language. Sometimes that means flouting conventional grammar rules and house ...

Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 14th, 2008 under Words & Language, Writing life, Writing process | 8 Comments »

Questions authors always get asked

Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 13th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Ideas, Writing life | 7 Comments »

Strange maps

Posted by Justine at 0:02, October 12th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Reading, Research, State of the World, Toilets | 9 Comments »

Ethical dilemma

Posted by Justine at 14:50, October 11th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Research | 42 Comments »

Thank you!

Posted by Justine at 13:53, October 10th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Fans & readers | 3 Comments »

Justine’s Last Gig

Posted by Justine at 18:46, October 9th, 2008 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA | 3 Comments »

Scalzi was right

Posted by Justine at 9:25, October 8th, 2008 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA | 6 Comments »

Awards question

Posted by Justine at 8:58, October 6th, 2008 under Writing life | 27 Comments »

Off to various parts of Ohio and Kansas City, Missouri

Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 5th, 2008 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA | 3 Comments »

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist

Posted by Justine at 13:32, October 4th, 2008 under Praising, Viewing, Young Adult literature | 9 Comments »

I wish

Posted by Justine at 14:08, October 3rd, 2008 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Praising, Viewing, Whingeing | 5 Comments »

HTDYF contest!

Posted by Justine at 23:21, October 2nd, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy | Comments Off

On the road again

Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 1st, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Food, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA | 7 Comments »

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