Archives
This is
my annual post where I sum up what happened in my professional life in that year and look ahead to what's going to happen in 2010. Basically I do this so I can have a handy record that I can get to in seconds. (Hence the "last day of the year" tag.) Do feel free to skip it. ((Cause it will be boring. Don't say you weren't warned.))
This year, though, was less happy than any of the previous years I've summed up here. Thus my summary is brief. I want to get past 2009 and on to the fun of 2010 as fast as I can.
Books out: Liar (hc in US & tpb in Oz), HTDYF (in ...
Posted by Justine at 0:59, December 31st, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Last Day of the Year, Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, Travelling, Unicorns, Zombies, Zombies v Unicorns |
In no particular order here are my favourite new-to-me blogs of the year:
Reading in Color. Ari reads and reviews and discusses and generously gives away YA books about people of colour. Ari was the first person to tell me about
Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith, which was one of my fave books of the year. For that alone I would be her devoted follower forever, but there's way more to her blog than book reviews. If you have any interest in YA and you're not following Reading in Color, then shame on you!
The Intern. An intern's view of publishing. Funny as hell. She even has a nemesis and refers to herself in third person. She's crazy, ...
Posted by Justine at 0:06, December 30th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff |
The first thing that's making me laugh is that Scott is currently making me breakfast. A very happy breakfast:
The next thing is that last night Scott was told about
this gadget and now it is all he wants in the entire world:
The Dyson fan with NO BLADES! But how does it work? Because of AIR MULTIPLIER TECHNOLOGY.
Air multiplier technology. Hahahahaha.
This skit is making me laugh even harder. Via
the fabulous Snazzydee I was introduced to
The Armstrong & Miller Show. Here they are RAF airmen chatting up some fetching gels in Chav speak:
I'm sorry ...
Posted by Justine at 19:37, December 29th, 2009 under Frippery, Viewing |
Much of the fan mail and comments I get from adults includes this phrase "I'm not your target audience" before continuing to say how much they enjoyed one or more of my books in (sometimes) slightly embarrassed tones. As if they're a tad worried to find themselves reading and enjoying a book published for teenagers. How did that happen? they wonder. Does it make me less of an
adult?
I understand the anxiety. Before I became a published YA author, I was unaware of how disdainful many adults are towards teenagers and anything that smacks of teenager-y-ness, such as books marketed at teenagers. Looking back, I now find it weird that I was unaware of this. Firstly, I once was ...
Posted by Justine at 17:44, December 28th, 2009 under Fans & readers, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
I recently tweeted a really
interesting review of Leviathan by
Tansy Rayner Roberts. It's my favourite review so far partly because she puts into words something Scott and I have been noticing:
I find it interesting that so many people are talking about this as the latest Scott Westerfeld novel without really acknowledging that this is such a departure from his more recent work. I would not be surprised if some of the audience for the Uglies and Midnighters and Peeps books (at least the teenagers) were less interested in this new series, even as Leviathan draws in an entirely new generation of readers. It’s always interesting to see an author whose work you admire move on to pastures ...
Posted by Justine at 20:38, December 27th, 2009 under Book tour, Fans & readers, Reading, Scott's books, Young Adult literature |
Searching for something else entirely, I stumbled across
this old post from March 2007 where I asked my faithful readers to help me choose what to write next. I decided it would be fun to do an update. Fun for me, anyways. ((Hey, it's the holidays no one's reading this right now.))
First on the list of possibilities is this one:
The compulsive liar book narrated by a—you guessed it—compulsive liar. Downside: will involve lots of outlining. I hates outlining. Plus it’s going to be so hard! Upside: whenever I mention this one folks get very excited.
Sound familiar? Why, yes, it's the book I wrote next: Liar which published in September this year. As it happens it involved no outlining at ...
Posted by Justine at 19:59, December 26th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Liar, Love is Hell, What to write next, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Writing process |
This year Scott and me hosted the family xmas at our new digs. This is the first time in my entire life it's been held anywhere but at my parents' place. Made me feel very grown up indeed.
Because of our recent Istanbul sojurn we went with a Turkish feast. Here's me and Scott putting the finishing touches on the main course patates bastisi (potato casserole) and çingene pilavi (gypsy salad) and part of the mezze (first course) haveuç köftesi (carrot rolls with apricots and pine nuts):
And here's the mezze spread on the table. The dishes are aci domates ezmesi (chilli tomato paste), yoghurt with garlic and lemon juice to go with ...
Posted by Justine at 20:36, December 25th, 2009 under Food, Sydney/Australia |
This goes out with love to some dear friends of mine. You know who you are.
There's an
xkcd cartoon so famous that many refer to it by its number, 386. It's my favourite and one that is referred to frequently in the Larbfeld household.
"OMG!" I will yell, looking up from my computer.
"Is someone wrong on the internet?" Scott will say, making me feel a wee bit foolish, and deflating my outrage by at least 50%. Thank you, Randall Munroe.
Turns out that it's not as famous as I thought it was. Recently I discovered that
my sister, who makes a living in the visual effects industry, had never ...
Posted by Justine at 20:38, December 23rd, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Liar, Young Adult literature |
I started to respond to
comments on the
last post and realised it was turning into it's own post. So, um, here it is.
Reading all your responses has crystallised something for me that I've been thinking for a long time: That there's a gap between my expectations as a reader and what I do as a writer. The reader me desperately wanted a good ending ((That good ending does not include Lily winding up with that spineless loser Selden, by the way.)) for Lily Bart in House of Mirth and was furious with Edith Wharton for all the misery. Why, Wharton, why?!
The writer me though is unmoved by such readerly desires. I write the books the way they ...
Posted by Justine at 23:39, December 22nd, 2009 under Reading, Writing life |
I recently read House of Mirth by Edith Wharton for the first time and I was gutted. Unlike, most USians, who've at least some inkling of what to expect from a Wharton book I had zero expectations or, rather, zero correct expectations. Wharton is not nearly so well known here as she is in her native country. Those Aussies who do know Wharton tend to know her from the Hollywood adaptations of her novels. I have managed to see none of them. So, I went in to the House of Mirth blind, like a lamb to the slaughter. Let me tell you: There was NO mirth.
I also went in kind of expecting her to be the USA's Jane Austen. I ...
Posted by Justine at 23:57, December 21st, 2009 under Praising, Reading |
Well, that was pure unalloyed pleasure. Though I wish I'd written this post immediately after finishing Persuasion, rather than now, when I'm still in post traumatic stress from having just read House of Mirth for the first time. ((More on that in another post. Complete with a detailed description of just how hard I wish to shake Selden and Lily Bart. Aaargh!))
Heh hem. Persuasion. Love it. Remains my favourite Jane Austen. With Pride & Prejudice only slightly behind. As I'm doing all this (re)reading in order to think about romance and heroines let's start there.
The Romance: This books seethes. It's full of glances, almost everything between Anne & Wentworth is unspoken. Until they get to Bath that is, ...
Posted by Justine at 18:43, December 20th, 2009 under Praising, Reading |
Breakfast is my favourite meal. (Other than lunch and dinner.)
Hope you're having as wonderful and relaxed a day as I am.
Posted by Justine at 0:00, December 20th, 2009 under Food, Sydney/Australia |
Micah, the first person narrator of Liar, is very explicit about music not being her thing:
I hate music. It hurts my ears, my brain. Even the membranes in my nose. Any music. All music. I can’t distinguish between hip hop and hillbilly ramblings, between symphonies and traffic noise. All of it hurts.
So it's a bit weird given that I listened to so much music while writing Liar. I know that she would hate very single one of these, but they were essential for me to get in the right state to be able to write Micah's voice. I needed short cuts to sadness, anger and confusion. Hence the following songs proving to be just the ticket:...
Posted by Justine at 4:14, December 19th, 2009 under Liar, Writing process |
Before I begin I will confess that I have committed many of these sins. I know it was wrong and I will try very very hard never to do it again because it was rude and wrong of me.
I also know that everyone who comes to this blog is good and wise and already knows all this. I'm really writing this post to remind myself. Please to bear with my stating of much obviousness.
So here's my rules of commenting etiquette:
Read the entire post before commenting. Nothing is more annoying to a blogger than to have someone say "But why did you not mention French beanbags?" when you have just spent six paragraphs doing exactly that.
Click through the links in ...
Posted by Justine at 8:29, December 18th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff |
As you, my faithful readers, know lately I've been thinking about
heroines and
reader responses to them more than somewhat. This led me to re-reading Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey because I've never had much of an opinion about Catherine and was curious to see where she fell on the blank page spectrum. I adore Lizzy Bennet and Anne Elliot. I don't like Emma or Fanny Price. Elinor bores me and Marianne gets on my nerves but they both have their moments. But Catherine? I couldn't even remember much about her other than she's a bit wet. Cue re-read.
So what did I find? That Catherine and Henry's pairing is unequal. It's like the anti-Lizzy & Darcy. Catherine has nothing ...
Posted by Justine at 20:28, December 16th, 2009 under Reading |
Well, that was a long break, wasn't it? I return refreshed and ready to resume blogging activities.
First boring admin: I have yet to tackle my mail, given all the totally urgent work on my plate, I won't get to it until the new year. Resend if urgent. I do try to answer all mail so if I still don't answer in January could be my spam filters ate it.
And now
some commentary over at the
Misfits' Book Club on the new covers of
E. Lockhart's Ruby Oliver books. It made me really happy for two reasons:
It's a very interesting discussion of covers. I've been working on a big fat post about covers for a while now. ...
Posted by Justine at 18:36, December 16th, 2009 under Admin, Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
I have fallen in love with yet another city. Istanbul is glorious. We have met with our lovely agent here, Asli Ermiş, who took us to meet our publishers, Omer Yenici at
Epsilon (who will be publishing Leviathan) and Ilgin Toydemir at
Artemis (who will be publishing Liar and already publish Midnighters). They in turn took us out for fabulous lunches.
In Istanbul we have eaten.
A lot.
First course at
Borsa restaurant.
A baklava shop, which sells many sweet and wondrous things. Yes, we bought and we ate.
The Egyptian spice market....
Posted by Justine at 5:54, December 11th, 2009 under Excuses, Food, Praising, Publishing business, Travelling |
Or getting in a plane again. This time to Istanbul, which is a city I've never been before. Am I excited? Yes, I am. But it does mean that blogging may not be as every single day as I like it to be. Might be a couple of weeks before normal service resumes. On the other hand, there may be kickarse wireless in the hotel and I'll blog like a demon. Just to keep you on your toes.
Have fun in my absence---I know it will be hard---and patient with my slow response to emails and questions etc. If you do have any quessies for me the best way to get a response is to go to the
FAQs and ...
Posted by Justine at 0:24, December 4th, 2009 under Admin, Reading, Travelling |
I'm very sorry that some reviewers of YA were upset or worried by
yesterday's post. I truly was not talking about you. If you're reading my blog. odds are you know and care about the genre, which is something the people who write those kinds of reviews are often lacking---especially the knowledge.
There are two groups who are writing the kinds of reviews I was mocking:
Reviewers for trade mags/journals/newspaper who are being asked to review outside their area of expertise
Amateur reviewers whose gateway drug to YA was Twilight
The vast majority of specialist kidlit bloggers and trade reviewers are mad keen lovers of the genre who are knowledgeable about its history and don't make idiotic mistakes like accusing L. ...
Posted by Justine at 17:33, December 3rd, 2009 under Young Adult literature |
I have a rule that I never respond to bad reviews. I have blogged on several occasions about why I think doing so is pointless. However, I can't help noticing a certain tenor in many Paranormal/Fantasy YA reviews lately. Everything seems to be talked about in terms of Stephenie Meyer's Twlight books.
On the one hand it's inevitable given that they are the most popular books, not just in YA, but in the entire world. Meyer's had a huge influence and, yes, there are many Twilight knockoffs out there. But on the other hand, people seem to forget that Meyer's books are very new. Twlight was first published in October 2005. YA fantasy had already existed for decades before Meyer. There ...
Posted by Justine at 19:17, December 2nd, 2009 under Whingeing, Young Adult literature |
Sarah Rees Brennan pointed me to
this article about Gone with the Wind by Elizabeth Meryment. It annoyed me. So prepare yourself for a rant. Basically Meryment argues that all criticism of
Gone with the Wind (book and film) over the last few decades has been dreadfully unfair, especially from feminists, and why can't we all just enjoy such a women-centric book with its array of fabulous strong female characters. Now, I happen to agree that Gone with the Wind features many wonderful strong women. However, that being true does not contradict any of the criticisms made of both book and film.
Why do people find it so hard to love something and accept that it's flawed?
Gone with ...
Posted by Justine at 12:50, December 1st, 2009 under Ranting, Reading, State of the World, Viewing |
