Archives
First I must make a confession: I was very nervous about reading
Zetta Elliott's
A Wish After Midnight despite all the good reviews it's had. I was nervous because it's self-published and I've had some bad experiences with self-published books. Midnight does show a few (minor) signs of not coming from an established publisher such as the margins and line spacing too tight. However, within a couple of pages I stopped being bothered by them, and a few pages after that I stopped seeing them at all because I was lost in the story.
I feel like A Wish After Midnight was designed with me in mind. Because it does so many things I love as well as working ...
Posted by Justine at 12:48, September 30th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Yup, it's finally here. Liar is now officially out in the world in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA! Is it just me or did that take FOREVER?
Also available for the first time today (officially) the audio books of
Liar and
How To Ditch Your Fairy. As well as the gorgeous US paperback of How To Ditch Your Fairy which as I may have mentioned multiple times is
my favourite cover of all time. (Look to your left at the squashed fairy.)
If you can't afford to buy new books right now, but are desperate to read Liar, I recommend getting your local library to buy a copy (if they haven't already) or having a friend who ...
Posted by Justine at 12:49, September 29th, 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Listening |
Pixelfish wants to know what a problem novel is. My own definition until fairly recently was: "a contemporary realist YA novel that I don't like because it's preachy and condescending and defines teenagers in terms of their 'problems' (which half the time I would not define that way) and most teenage readers hate." (Here is a
more useful definition.)
The problem with my definition, other than it's way too personal, is that it's not true. During the past few years of talking to teenage readers and school librarians I've learned how incredibly helpful many find problem novels. Readers told me over and over again that they were able to find someone like themselves in the main character dealing with ...
Posted by Justine at 13:06, September 28th, 2009 under Liar, Young Adult literature |
My wonderful publisher and editor at
Allen & Unwin, Jodie Webster, sent me this pic from her local bookshop in Melbourne, Fairfield Bookshop, (which you'll be shocked to hear is in Fairfield). I suspect it will be the only time that the pile of my books is bigger than Stephenie Meyer's! But, hey, I'll take it while it lasts. Maybe the proximity will rub off on my sales. I can hope, right?
In other news we almost had a NZ winner of the Liar sightings contest. She even had to make them open up a box to get her Liar sighting. Fortunately for my readers in NZ, it was
my sister, who's working in Wellington for ...
Posted by Justine at 10:13, September 27th, 2009 under Liar, Sydney/Australia |
Lately, I have heard several published white writers express their trepidation about the idea of writing non-white characters. Some of them have mentioned that they feel they'll get in trouble if they continue to write only white characters, but that they also feel they'll get into trouble if they write characters who aren't white cause they'll bugger it up.
Damned if you do, they say, damned if you don't.
To which I can only say, and I mean this nicely, "Please!"
What exactly are you risking? Who exactly is damning you? Which of your previously published novels have attracted no criticisms and no damnation? Cause that's amazing. You wrote a book no one critcised? Awesome. Please teach me that trick!
Every single book I've ...
Posted by Justine at 16:46, September 26th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Ranting, State of the World, Whingeing, Writing life, Writing process |
Why do so many people have an obsession with how old people are when they make art?
Hmmm. I think that sentence demands a bit more context. I keep seeing comments like, "OMG, Buffy is amazing and Joss Whedon was only in his early 30s when he first created it." Or Arthur Rimbaud was one of the most influential French poets ever and he quit writing when he was 19!"
There must be something wrong with me cause I think, "So what?"
Either the art is good or it isn't. Who cares how old the person was who created it? Doesn't make it any better.
Not to mention that there's an argument that the only reason people are still talking about ...
Posted by Justine at 15:23, September 25th, 2009 under Ranting, State of the World, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
If you haven't already read
My Life as a Rhombus by
Varian Johnson I'm really going to have to insist that you do so. As usual I won't be revealing too much about the plot mostly because I think any plot summary makes
Rhombus sound like a problem novel, ((I have a huge prejudice against problem novels which I may have to reconsider since the last few books I read that could be considered problem novels were all fabulous.)) which it really isn't. It's a character study of a wonderful, smart, engaging, confused teenager, who's a total maths geek and wants to go to Georgia Tech to become an engineer. ((I kind of wish I'd gone to ...
Posted by Justine at 11:09, September 24th, 2009 under Reading, Young Adult literature |
The winner from the US of A, Carrie, found Liar at the
Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts ((Why, yes, I did have to look up out to spell that.)). Here it is:
Our Australian winner is Emma of Canberra who picked up her copy at her local Borders in Canberra. She reports that she found it on the "Borders Recommends shelf in YA. (Prominently displayed at eye level no less!)" And here is Emma with a copy of Liar:
Congrats to you both!
The
Liar sightings contest is not over yet. Our New Zealand friends still have to claim a prize when they send photographic evidence of Liar in a Kiwi book shop. Sources ...
Posted by Justine at 19:50, September 23rd, 2009 under Liar |
Several months ago, the agent Kristin Nelson got in contact with me via my agent to ask if I would take a look at the debut novel of one of her clients with a view to blurbing it. I agreed to do so, mostly because I love
Nelson's blog, but warned that I rarely blurb cause I only do so when I'm excited about a book. I am picky.
But the book---
Megan Crewe's Give Up the Ghost---hit all my sweet spots. For starters it was a ghost story. I adore a good ghost story. Secondly, it wasn't the same old, same old ghost story. It surprised me. It was fresh, original and sweet and I cried when it ended. ...
Posted by Justine at 10:49, September 23rd, 2009 under Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Back in early August, Doret Canon of the wonderful blog,
The Happy Nappy Bookseller, wrote to thank me for linking to her and ”put in a request for a YA novel featuring girls playing sports. Any sport will do.” I misread her as asking for recommendations for such YA novels when she was in fact asking me to write ‘em. (What can I say August was kind of mental for me.) I was ashamed to discover that all I could think of was Catherine Murdock’s Dairy Queen series and my own How To Ditch Your Fairy. It transpired that Doret knows more about YA sports books than anyone else on the planet. We soon got to talking about books, ...
Posted by Justine at 0:30, September 22nd, 2009 under Basketball, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Young Adult literature |
I've already talked about this a fair bit, basically
pleading for people not to give away any of the
twists and turns of Liar. For the most part bloggers and reviewers for the trades have done exactly that.
I would like to thank them for being so amazing about not spoiling Liar. I'm really astonished by how considerate reviewers have been. Thank you!
Of course, inevitably, there are spoilers out there in the broad, wild intramanets. Not all reviewers feel
the same way about spoilers that I do, which is absolutely their right. I cannot make anyone not spoil Liar I can merely request. ((The blog overlord, alas, only controls this blog with an iron fist.))
But I would like ...
Posted by Justine at 12:07, September 21st, 2009 under Bloggery, Liar |
I have created a
Liar FAQ page on account of I've already gotten the same three questions many many times already and the book isn't even officially out yet. If you have any more questions about the book feel free to ask them
over there. And, yes, I have not answered the third questions in any detail that's because I'm working on a whole post about it.
Some other questions I've gotten lately:
Q: Will you be posting a spoiler thread so that we can talk about Liar without having to be super careful about spoiling people?
A: Only one person has asked for this. If there seems to be a demand of more than one I'll put up a Liar ...
Posted by Justine at 14:42, September 20th, 2009 under Admin, Liar |
Mary Kuna bought her copy of Liar at
Westminster Books in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada but only found out about the
Liar contest after she'd already taken the book home. But I decided to relax the contest rules because Liar debuted in Canada first. As you see this is not a photo of Liar in the book shop:
As someone who really hates having my photo taken I admire her strategy here. It's something I've seen lots of people do with the cover of Uglies. In fact most covers that are faces ((Of which there are many in YAland.)) lend themselves to the face swap out photo. I'm sure this is not the last one with ...
Posted by Justine at 12:35, September 19th, 2009 under Frippery, Liar |
Thus far I've had a number of reports that Liar is available in some shops in Canada. But so far no sightings in Australia, New Zealand or the United States.
I am offering a prize to the first person to send me photographic evidence of Liar in shops. Either post a link in the comments or send me a jpg
here and tell me where the shop was.
I'll give one prize per country. So the first person from NZ gets a prize as does the first from Australia and the US. And, yes, Canadians can compete because while people have told me they've seen the book I've seen no photographic evidence and nothing's real without a photo, ...
Posted by Justine at 14:05, September 18th, 2009 under Liar |
Yesterday I shared the US trailer for Liar, today it's time for the Australian Liar trailer:
Whatcha reckon? It's difficult for me to say seeing as how that's my words and my voice, and me and Scott shot some of the footage. I can say that I think the team at
Allen & Unwin did an awesome job editing it all together. They've managed to make me sound smarter and more coherent than I actually am. Thank you.
Oh, and good news for those of you in Australia and New Zealand. I've been told that Liar's official release day is 28 September but it will probably start ...
Posted by Justine at 1:53, September 17th, 2009 under Liar, Sydney/Australia, Viewing |
Just found out that my US publisher,
Bloomsbury, together with
BookSpots has put together a trailer for Liar:
Pretty good, eh? It kind of reminds me of late 1950s/early 1960s film credits. Feel free to share the link far and wide.
Is it just me or is this the year when book trailers are everywhere? My favourites so far are
Scott's,
Libba's,
Robin's and
Diana's. I also love
Lauren's but it's not live yet. Keep your eyes peeled. ((Or maybe don't. Eyes peeled sounds so painful.))
What do you think about the whole book trailer thing?rty od
Posted by Justine at 0:15, September 16th, 2009 under Liar, Viewing |
T'other day I was gasbagging with John Scalzi as I do when the writing isn't going well and IM calls to me. We got to discussing as how we are frequently annoyed by reviews which dismiss a book because the reviewer did not like it but can give no reasons beyond saying that the book sucked. This is something that annoys many writers. We put in all that hard work agonising over every word and someone dismisses the book like this:
This book is bad. It sucked so much. Don't read it.
Or even more frequently,
This book had golden retrievers in it. I really hate dogs. Also the mother washed her son's mouth out with soap and the book ...
Posted by Justine at 13:12, September 15th, 2009 under Frippery, Whingeing, Writing life |
I have been remiss in mentioning that the US paperback of How To Ditch Your Fairy also makes its appearance on 29 September. ((It's already available in paperback in Australia.)) That's right, finally FINALLY, the fabulous new US paperback cover will be out there in the wild, available for all who want it. ((I do know some of you prefer the US hardcover and Oz paperback version. Madness!)) I have waxed lyrical about
Danielle Delaney's design before. It truly is the best cover any book of mine has ever received. It captures the spirit of the book, it's funny, and I adore the colour scheme. Happiness in my eyes!
To celebrate the new cheaper edition of How To Ditch Your ...
Posted by Justine at 14:01, September 14th, 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Listening |
I now have almost all the dates and times for the
US Liar tour. For the first time ever I'll be doing some tour stops in the South and the Northwest. In fact, my only repeat visits are to Austin, Philadelphia and, of course, NYC. ((I mean, I live here half the year, I'll always do appearances in NYC.))
But first I must apologise. Profusely. Despite
what I said earlier, I will not be visiting Phoenix. I'm very disappointed. Phoenix was one of the first cities mentioned for this tour and the Bloomsbury publicists did every thing they could to make it happen. But alas. If it was down to me I'd spend a week in Phoenix visiting every ...
Posted by Justine at 12:01, September 13th, 2009 under Book tour, Liar, New York City/USA |
Okay, this, I'm really excited about. Remember when I posted about
getting to sit in on the recording of the audiobook of Liar? Well, now you can listen to some of it.
I'm thrilled and delighted with the amazing job Brilliance Audio did. Channie Waites is perfect reading in Micah's voice. But don't listen to me, listen to her, and make up your own mind:
01 Part01-01-Telling the Truth
The audio version of Liar publishes at the same time as the book in both North America (29 Sept) and Australia (1 October). Here are the links to buy the Liar audiobook in North America:
CD and
MP3. And in Australia:
CD.
Hope you like it as much as I ...
Posted by Justine at 16:14, September 10th, 2009 under Liar, Listening |
Maybe I'm being unfair, but Dwight Garner's
New York TImes review of LeBron James' & Buzz Bissinger's Shooting Stars gave off the distinct reek of Eau de Condescension (via
Mitali Perkins):
“Shooting Stars,” a new collaboration between LeBron James, probably the greatest basketball player alive, and Buzz Bissinger, the author of “Friday Night Lights,” is a different kind of book. It avoids speaking about James’s professional career with the Cleveland Cavaliers (he was the National Basketball Association’s most valuable player last season) almost entirely. And since James skipped college, well, ixnay on that too.
"Ixnay"? Seriously?
“Shooting Stars” reads like a better-than-average young-adult novel, “Stand by Me” with breakaway dunks and long, arching three-pointers. I suspect it will find its best ...
Posted by Justine at 12:23, September 9th, 2009 under Ranting, Reading, Whingeing, Young Adult literature |
I have never ever wanted to learn to fly, yet
Sheri L. Smith's
Flygirl almost had me calling up flight schools. ((I suspect you need to know how to drive a car before you move on to planes. Not that I actually want to learn to fly or drive a car for that matter. Nasty smelly things.)) Ida Mae Jones lives to fly. So much so that she passes as a white woman in order to become a
WASP during World War II. The book is about race, class, gender, about friendship, obsession (for flying), love, and family.
Cut for mild spoilerage:
Posted by Justine at 13:12, September 8th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
A while back a bunch of us bonded over
not driving and then about
hating coffee. It was a beautiful thing to be able to share about the annoyingness of our mild oppression. Why is it so many people who love coffee can not cope with those of us who don't and feel the urge to force the stuff upon us?
It's not quite as bad with chocolate. No one feels the urge to force it on me but their horror at my hatred is if anything even more excessive. Chocolate lovers cannot conceive of people who do not share their passion. They look at us as if they have just found out that we enjoy killing babies. They ...
Posted by Justine at 12:47, September 6th, 2009 under Food |
Because of the
jacket change there was a wee bit of doubt that the US edition of Liar would be available on its scheduled release date of 29 September. I'm here to tell you that it most definitely will be available on that date. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it shows up in book shops ahead of schedule.
How do I know?
Because of this:
Yup, those are my author's copies of Liar. They're here and it's only the beginning of September. I'd say we're good to go.
Posted by Justine at 13:28, September 5th, 2009 under Liar |
Enough of youse lot are wondering what's up with me not blogging every day that I am driven to offer an explanation for my blog silence of late. A brief explanation: travel, busy, knackered, bad sport karma.
I have many posts brewing or brewed. More on race, writing and publishing (here's a
few links to
others. I'm especially loving the Writers Against Racism series on
Amy Bowllan's SLJ blog like
this one with Ari of
Reading in Color.); a complaint about Being Human (Why does the woman have to be a timid ghost? Wouldn't it have been much more interesting if she was the werewolf or the vampire? Um, okay no need to write ...
Posted by Justine at 15:21, September 2nd, 2009 under Bloggery, Excuses, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar |
