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Yup, it's my annual what-I-did-this-year skiting post. I write these mostly for myself so I can easily keep track. Hence the
last day of the year category. Thus you are absolutely free to skip it. ((I would if I were you.))
This year was exceptional. I'm still pinching myself. My first Bloomsbury USA book, How To Ditch Your Fairy, was published and seems to be doing well. I was sent on my first book tour, which was fabulous. It's insane how much fun I had and how many fabulous schools, book shops and libraries I visited in California, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. Thank you to everyone who came to see me while I was on the ...
Posted by Justine at 0:20, December 31st, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Book tour, First Kiss, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Last Day of the Year, Love is Hell, New York City/USA, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Vainglory, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 17:39, December 30th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff |
Posted by Justine at 0:12, December 30th, 2008 under Cricket, Sport, Sydney/Australia |
"Write what you know" is one of the most frequent pieces of writing advice. Problem is, it's rubbish. As Cat Sparks discusses at length in
this excellent post:
We've all heard that old adage 'write what you know'. Well, that's a damn fine idea if you happen to be an articulate astronaut, outback adventurer, brain surgeon, fashionista, rock star, molecular biologist or trapeze artist. But if, like me, you're just another white middle class wage slave, maybe you want to rethink that hoary old chestnut. Because maybe we just aren't that interesting and maybe what we know about is duller than a public service tea break. I have developed a better idea. Find something you don't know much about, learn ...
Posted by Justine at 0:34, December 29th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Praising, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, December 28th, 2008 under Sydney/Australia, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 6:13, December 27th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, What's your fairy? |
Posted by Justine at 5:19, December 26th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Fans & readers, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, Mangosteens, Praising, Reading, Sport, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 18:47, December 25th, 2008 under Cricket, Food, Praising, Sport, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 0:02, December 24th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Praising, Research |
Posted by Justine at 0:02, December 23rd, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Sport, Travelling, Unicorns, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 4:48, December 22nd, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Excuses, Praising, Research |
Posted by Justine at 0:03, December 21st, 2008 under Cricket, Food, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 4:49, December 20th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Praising, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 20:46, December 19th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 4:52, December 19th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 0:06, December 18th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Book tour, Publishing business, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
One of the conversations that I have most frequently with my good friend,
Diana Peterfreund, is about our different writing methods. She's an outliner; I wing it.
Tis most excellent fun talking writing with her precisely because we could not be more different. So different that we frequently wind up talking at cross purposes. Last time we had this discussion we got hung up on the phrase "first draft". Turns out that what she means by "first draft" is not what I mean.
Because Diana outlines she figures out much of the novel before she begins writing. I figure things out as I write the first draft. Thus my first drafts---zero drafts really---are frequently messy conversation spines. A large part of ...
Posted by Justine at 2:52, December 17th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Words & Language, Writing process, Young Adult literature |
I know many of the readers of this blog also drive and I'm quite sure none of you are evil but perhaps you could help explain to me how some drivers develop a pathological hatred of law-abiding pedestrians once they are behind the wheel of their petrol-guzzlers?
Yesterday I was minding my own business crossing the road legally: I had the pedestrian green light about half way across it started to flash. A very angry taxi driver in an unoccupied cab started trying to push his way past me and the other pedestrians in a most threatening manner. Readers, I confess that I and another pedestrian made a USian hand gesture in his direction at which point he turned red and ...
Posted by Justine at 17:13, December 16th, 2008 under State of the World, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 17:11, December 15th, 2008 under Praising, Sydney/Australia, Whingeing |
I am going to go out on a limb and predict that these three titles will be the big debuts of 2009:
Diana Peterfreund's Rampant
Killer uni***ns and the tough gals what fight them. It's funny and exciting and romantic and has amazing action scenes. What more do you need to know?
Carrie Ryan's Forest of Hands and Teeth
Zombie apocalypse, scary nuns, and a girl who's never seen the ocean. You know you want this.
Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Lexicon
I have not yet read this one but Scott has and he keeps bugging me to read it. He loved it. I'm a huge fan of Sarah's extremely
witty and wonderful blog so I have high hopes.
They'll all be out next (northern ...
Posted by Justine at 20:03, December 14th, 2008 under Reading, Unicorns, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 0:25, December 14th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Fans & readers, Praising, Ranting, Writing life |
Taking up blogging is one of the least effective things you can do to promote your book.
There, I've said it.
Don't take up blogging cause your publisher says you should. Or because of John Scalzi. Yes, he's sold tonnes of books and gotten heaps of fans because of his blog. He is the exception. Very few writers who blog have thirty thousand plus hits a day.
Scalzi's been blogging for more than a decade. Ten years ago he had maybe a few hundred people a day reading
Whatever. It took him years of consistently good and frequent blogging to build that audience. ((And all those other authors with insanely popular blogs? Most of them were already popular---like, say, Meg Cabot---before they ...
Posted by Justine at 0:59, December 13th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 20:28, December 12th, 2008 under Food, Sydney/Australia |
It's raining and grey but warm. How about where you are?
Posted by Justine at 16:03, December 11th, 2008 under Frippery |
In response to my
most recent post I've had quite a few adults writing me and pointing out that their job does not end once they leave the office at the end of the day. That they too have vast amounts of homework. The professions mentioned were teacher, lawyer, academic, editor, architect, and engineer.
What other jobs require lots of after hours work?
Are there any well-paying jobs that don't?
Posted by Justine at 14:10, December 10th, 2008 under State of the World |
One more thing that I think some wannabe published writers don't understand. Being a professional writer means having homework ALL THE TIME. (Thanks to Jennifer for
pointing this out.) And when your homework comes back covered in red you have to do it over. Sometimes you have to do it over multiple times. And then your homework gets checked again by several other people (copyeditor, proofreader) and then you have to look at it again.
It's like the worst homework ever. Homework that NEVER EVER ENDS.
I'm just saying . . .
Posted by Justine at 0:28, December 9th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Publishing business, Ranting, Writing life |
A large part of being a writer---whether you're published or not---is working to improve, to perfect your craft. One of the biggest obstacles for many beginning writers doing that is that they sometimes get so obsessed with getting published that they forget about the writing.
It took me twenty years of striving to make my first professional fiction sale. I know how you feel---I felt it. I was desperate to get published and that's part of why it took me so long. I kept getting distracted from perfecting my craft. From writing and writing and writing and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. From reading and studying the best (and worst) writers I could. I was more obsessed with seeing my name ...
Posted by Justine at 0:10, December 8th, 2008 under Ranting, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 13:44, December 7th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Ranting, State of the World, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 14:35, December 6th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Excuses, Food, Frippery, New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia |
Quite a few people lately have been asking me for book recommendations. They want to know what new YA they should be buying for the holidays. Sadly, I am in less of a position to help than usual.
For most of this year I have been solely reading books about (or published during) the 1930s. The only non-1930s books I've read have been manuscripts I've critiqued for friends. This means I have not read Hunger Games yet. Or the second Octavian Nothing or the National Book Award winner, Judy Blundell's What I Saw and How I Lied or Coe Booth's Kendra which I hear is every bit as good as the wonderful Tyrell. Or anything, really. Nor will I be ...
Posted by Justine at 19:13, December 5th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Research, Writing goals & milestones, Young Adult literature |
Well,
yesterday was
crazy. People I know lost their jobs or are now in danger of doing so. Some author friends lost their imprints. It's all scary stuff. But publishing is not the only industry in convulsions. We're in a recession. It's bad all over.
To answer those asking if I still stand by
Tuesday's comments. I do. Things are bad, but they're less bad for children's than for adults'. Publishing is going to change a lot over the next decade.
But here's my main source of comfort: People are always going to want stories.
My sympathies to everyone who had a really bad day yesterday.
Posted by Justine at 11:26, December 4th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Publishing business, State of the World |
The most poignant question
me and Scott were asked at
BookPeople was the following:
What advice do you have for middle school "uglies"?
We rambled on about how middle school/high school (if you're Australian) doesn't last forever etc etc. How we too were unhappy in 6th, 7th, 8th grade. ((Actually I hated all of school from kindergarten all the way to year 12.)) But I'm not sure our answers were satisfying. And we didn't really suggest any survival techniques.
I have been thinking about this question ever since. Do any of you have any ideas for how to survive the dark days of primary and secondary education? If so, do please share.
Posted by Justine at 0:00, December 3rd, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Scott's books, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, December 2nd, 2008 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, December 1st, 2008 under Fans & readers, Praising, Reading |
