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I has one.
Back in May I mentioned that I wanted one on account of all the elecronic documents I read. I tried reading on my iPhone but it did not work out: too small and awkward.
After talking to friends and hearing what youse lot think I wound up getting a Sony 505. While it's not perfect and lacks many features I want, ((It does not produce mangosteens whenever I want them or set off fireworks. Honestly!)) it's made a huge difference. While flying home to Sydney, I did not have to carry the usual 5 books in my backpack on top of the entire suitcase of books. All I carried was the eReader. My back thanks me. ...
Posted by Justine at 18:56, August 31st, 2009 under Admin, Praising, Reading |
Most aspiring writers ask the right questions. I worry that
my last post, which is an
echo of
many earlier posts, gives a different impression, so I feel the need to say it loud and clear: the vast majority of aspiring writers who contact me ask smart, sensible, interesting questions. It's really only the ones who are more in love with the idea of being a writer than with actually, you know, writing who ask the wrong questions. Mercifully, they are massively outnumbered by the people who love writing.
During my events at the
Melbourne Writers Festival I wasn't asked any wrong questions. My audiences were smart and full of excellent questions. The encounter ...
Posted by Justine at 6:42, August 28th, 2009 under Fans & readers, Reading, Sydney/Australia, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Currently I am at the
Melbourne Writers Festival and thus I am fielding many questions about writing and publishing. I noticed again that many of the questions unpublished writers ask are coming at it from the wrong end of the stick. Ally Carter calls this
asking the wrong questions.
For instance, after yesterday's event an adult came up to me and explained that they are an aspiring writer working on their first novel. They said they wanted my advice but the questions they asked really confused me:
What's the best way to get started writing fan fiction?
How do you build up a following?
Should I be using wordpress, livejournal or blogger?
It took me awhile to realise what was going on. ...
Posted by Justine at 3:48, August 25th, 2009 under Publishing business, Writing life, Writing process |
I'm at Sydney airport, on my way to Melbourne for the Melbourne Writers Festival, and since it took way less time to get here than I thought ((10 mins as opposed to 1 hour. Who knew? Other than Scott.)) I figured I'd test this here new application what Stephen Fry recommended. ((As you all know everything Stephen Fry says is golden unless it is about cricket. He supports the bastion of evil the English cricket team. Ewwww!)) I am blogging from my phone without squinting or yelling. I count that as a big thumbs up for the wordpress app.
I'd also like to give a big thumbs up to my Sony reader 505. It's not perfect---I'd prefer a touchscreen and ...
Posted by Justine at 19:28, August 22nd, 2009 under Admin, Bloggery |
In addition to my
Melbourne Writers Festival events---first one is
tomorrow with Scott and Isobelle Carmody *squee*---soon I'll be off on my second US tour. Pretty, exciting, eh?
I just added a few events to the
appearances page. So far I have events confirmed (or close to) for Phoenix,
Nashville, Memphis,
Austin, Seattle, Portland and New York City. I'm especially excited about those first three cities as I've never been to any of them before.
Also: Memphis = Gracelands = Justine hyperventilating. For those of who don't know, yes, I am a daggy Elvis fan. Goes back to
when I was very little.
There will be at least one or two more cities on my tour. ...
Posted by Justine at 21:58, August 21st, 2009 under Book tour, First Kiss, Frippery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, New York City/USA |
Yes, I seem
to have become one of those birdwatching types. What of it?
rainbow lorikeets
sulphur crested cockatoos
crows
flying foxes
magpies
myna birds (alas)
spotted turtledove
pied currawong
noisy miner
white ibis
ducks (!)
pigeons
sea gulls
And a tiny little wee birdie smaller than the palm of my hand that I haven't been able to identify. Zips by too fast for me to even figure out what colour it is. I'd love to hear any suggestions as to what it might be. I am new to this birdwatching caper.
Here's this morning's sunrise:
First bird I heard this morning: rainbow lorikeet. They really do have the happiest-making calls.
Posted by Justine at 20:27, August 19th, 2009 under Praising, Sydney/Australia |
Next week I'll be doing four events at the
Melbourne Writers Festival. None of my events are free, alas. Sorry about that! I will work extra hard on these panels to make up for it. ((Not that I don't give my all for free events!))
My Sunday event is part of the adults programming and thus is
a bit pricey. You can
book your ticket here. However, my other events are part of the under 18 programming and thus are only $6. You can
book the U-18 events here.
Event 1
Day: Sunday
Date: 23/08/2009
Time: 4:00 PM
Venue: ACMI 1
Event Name:
Taking Over the Grown-Ups Table
Panelists: Isobelle Carmody, Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbalestier
Chair: Agnes Nieuwenhuizen
Official Description: Join Justine Larbalestier, ...
Posted by Justine at 18:18, August 18th, 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, Sydney/Australia |
Since
everyone else is professing their love for
Strange Horizons and urging folks to support their
fund raising efforts I thought that I would jump on the band wagon. What can I say? I'm a sheep.
Like Scalzi and Nora,
my first fiction sale was to Strange Horizons way back in 2001. At the time I had been trying to sell one of my short stories for just about a gazillion years. I thought it would never happen. So I would love them for that alone. But that is not even close to the best thing about Strange Horizons I love it and read it because it is a breath of fresh air in the stale ...
Posted by Justine at 22:19, August 16th, 2009 under Praising, Writing goals & milestones |
Laura Atkins recently gave a paper, "
What’s the Story? Reflections on White Privilege in the Publication of Children’s Books," at the
IRSCL (International Research Society for Children's Literature) congress. She's calling for
comments and suggestions from people involved with children's publishing.
Her paper is
here. You can leave comments and suggstions
here.
Please don't go over there to deny that white privilege exists because a) that's simply not true and b) you'll be derailing what's already turning into a very useful conversation. Thank you.
Posted by Justine at 19:01, August 15th, 2009 under Publishing business, Young Adult literature |
Our study is being painted so we had to move the furniture out. This particular couch is a millions years old chesterfield that used to belong to my parents. I grew up with this couch. Curled up on it to read, tormented my sister on it, watched tellie from it, and apparently played jacks on it.
Here's what fell out when we moved it:
I'd forgotten I ever played jacks. Now I'm remembering being a wee bit obsessed with the game. But a Marlon Brando in The Wild One badge? Really?
Update: The hair bobble was my sister's. Sorry,
Niki for forgetting to mention that.
Posted by Justine at 19:18, August 13th, 2009 under Frippery, Sydney/Australia |
My last week in NYC I was invited to visit the studio where the audio book of Liar was being recorded. Even though I had a gazillion million things to do I made sure to get there. I'm so glad I did. It was an amazing experience.
I'd never had my prose read out loud by a talented actor like Channie Waites before. It was a revelation. I know it's a cliche but she really did make my book come alive. Bits that I hadn't realised were funny, she rendered funny. (In a good way!) It was strange and wonderful and gave me chills. And as you can see I'm really struggling to articulate how incredible it felt to listen to ...
Posted by Justine at 2:44, August 12th, 2009 under Liar, New York City/USA, Praising |
Sometimes when people read a book of mine and tell me it reminds them of some other book, especially if I have not read that book, I get in a snit. I am well aware that this reflects very poorly upon me. Please don't judge. ((Well, not too harshly.)) So when I was told that Liar was reminiscent of
Jacqueline Woodson's If You Come Softly ((And I'm very embarrassed by this but I can't remember who told me.)) my first reaction was pursed lipped muttering to myself about the special petal-ness of Liar and how it's not like any other book ever. ((Which is utter rubbish. Any book that was not like any other book ever would be completely ...
Posted by Justine at 1:11, August 11th, 2009 under Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Today's guest blogger is
Neesha Meminger. She is the author of
Shine, Coconut Moon (about which I've been hearing nothing but raves). She was born in India, raised in Canada, and now lives in New York City with her husband and two children. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a BA in Film & Media Arts. She has a fascination with the moon, stars, planets and, strangely, coconuts. She can be found online at
her website as well as
her blog.
From Margin to Center: Writing Characters of Color
This essay was originally meant to be a short comment in response to Justine’s post on
why her protags aren’t white. In one of the comments, ...
Posted by Justine at 0:19, August 10th, 2009 under Bloggery, Guest post, State of the World |
Yes, the new cover means that it is unlikely possible that Liar will may not be available in US and Canadian stores on the announced publication date of 29 September. I don't know what the new pub date is but it will definitely be in October. As soon as I know I'll pass it on. Update: My US publisher says there's still a strong possibility Liar will be available at the end of September as planned. (Note: this is the hardcover first edition of Liar I am talking about. There will not be a North American paperback until next year.)
There is no planned UK edition as UK rights have not sold. The English language editions, both to be ...
Posted by Justine at 0:23, August 9th, 2009 under Admin, Liar |
I rarely delete comments on this blog, ((Truly rarely. I only remember deleting one this year. If your comment disappears, as sometimes happens---especially lately with the veritable storm of comments and hits I've been getting---assume there was a snafu and mail me. I can usually fish it out of the spam filters.)) but one of the things that is most likely to cause me to do so is someone telling another commenter (or me) to shut up.
Now obviously such comments are not always phrased that way. Sometimes they say "I do no think what you are saying is productive" or "I do not think you are adding anything to this conversation". But the unspoken "so you should shut up" ...
Posted by Justine at 0:29, August 8th, 2009 under Bloggery |
As previously mentioned I've discovered a slew of marvellous blogs because of the storm surrounding the cover of Liar. I've already mentioned
Color Online and the
Happy Nappy Bookseller as well as
Reading in Color and
Taste Life Twice, all of them wonderful informative blogs. I'm not sure how I lived without them.
But I also came across some blogs that have almost nothing to do with YA books. My current favourite is
Journal of a Baby Power Dyke in Training---best blog title ever, right? (Why did I not come up with a cool title for my own blog? What was I thinking?)
This post made me nearly combust with laughter. It is currently my ...
Posted by Justine at 7:14, August 7th, 2009 under Bloggery, Young Adult literature |
As you've probably heard by now Liar is getting a new cover for its publication in October. ((No, it's not actually out yet.)) First Bloomsbury considered going with the Australian jacket of Liar and specifically with the black and red version you can see
here because that would be the easiest thing to do. The design already exists after all and the window to make the change was very narrow.
However, given the paucity of black faces on YA covers, and the intensity of the debate around the original Liar cover, Bloomsbury felt really strongly that a more representative approach was needed. Rather than using a stock photo, Bloomsbury went the whole hog and did a photo shoot. The ...
Posted by Justine at 17:41, August 6th, 2009 under Liar, Praising, State of the World |
As you may have already discovered if you read Publisher's Weekly's "
Children's Bookshelf," Bloomsbury is rejacketing the hardcover edition of Liar. My wish came true much sooner than I expected. Thank you to everyone who expressed your concerns. Thank you to Bloomsbury for listening.
As soon as the jacket is final, which should be soon, I'll be posting it here. Yes, I was involved in the cover design process.
I am delighted that my post about the original Liar jacket got some traction. But everything I said there had been said many times before by authors and bloggers of colour. Whitewashing of covers, ghettoising of books by people of colour, and low expectations (reflected in the lack of marketing push behind ...
Posted by Justine at 16:07, August 6th, 2009 under Bloggery, Liar, State of the World |
