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First a confession: I love
Sir Kingsley Amis. That's why the heading of this post says "Kingsley & I" rather than "Kingsley & me" (which is my preference cause I reckon it sounds better) but not old Kingsley, he was a sucker for good grammar. ((He would be appalled by my grammar, spelling, and punctuation skills. Or lack thereof. Sorry, Kingsley.)) I does not wish to offend him. ((Though I do feel free to use his first name. I guess I've been reading him for so long I feel that we are now mates. A very safe feeling what with him being dead and all.))
I love Kingsley Amis for so many reasons. Because he's dead funny, because he wrote ...
Posted by Justine at 22:08, January 31st, 2010 under Liquids, Praising, Reading |
Well, it's of note to me, maybe not to many other peoples.
Writing is FUN. It is multo happy making.
That is all.
Go about your business!
Posted by Justine at 23:53, January 30th, 2010 under Writing life, Writing process |
Every time I post about sexism, along come some men to make the conversation be about them. They usually start with a question about what they as a man can do, or how it applies to them. Before too long the entire comment thread becomes about them. Or even if the other commenters don't take the bait, the blokes keep coming back with more related questions, all of which has the effect of not adressing the subject at hand, but trying to bring it back to its "proper" place: talking about men.
Often, these blokes are nice people and are asking genuine questions. Sometimes the post has caused an actual epiphany for them and the shutters of privilege are lifting and ...
Posted by Justine at 19:06, January 29th, 2010 under Feminism, State of the World |
I am very proud to be friends with Karen Healey, who
popularised the term "mansplaining," which is
now out and living a
merry life of its own on the intramanets. Bless you, Karen!
Mansplaining according to Karen is
[w]hen a dude tells you, a woman, how to do something you already know how to do, or how you are wrong about something you are actually right about, or miscellaneous and inaccurate "facts" about something you know a hell of a lot more about than he does.
Bonus points if he is explaining how you are wrong about something being sexist!
Many have objected to this formulation as sexist claiming that women do it too. Nuh uh. SKM from Shakesville explains:
[M]en's ...
Posted by Justine at 20:55, January 28th, 2010 under Feminism, State of the World |
That spending any amount of time judging the ethical, moral or ideological purity of your allies in struggles to cause change derails those very efforts. Let's focus on the struggle itself, shall we? And not get bogged down kneecapping people on the same side. It never ends well.
This applies to pretty much everything from baking a cake, to running a bookclub, a government or fomenting revolution.
Posted by Justine at 21:45, January 27th, 2010 under State of the World |
Irish writer,
Sarah Rees Brennan, and I spend a lot of time IMing each other. We talk about many, many different things---including the superiority of Ireland and Australia to all other nations ((Just kidding.))---but mostly about writing. Recently when I was unwell SRB cheered me up by telling me the story of two of her not-yet-written novels. It was better than chicken soup! As any of you who have read her novel,
Demon’s Lexicon, or
her blog know, SRB is a wonderful storyteller.
It was not the first time SRB had told me the complete detailed plot of an as-yet-unwritten novel but this time I started wondering about how she does that. When I write a novel I ...
Posted by Justine at 17:42, January 26th, 2010 under Writing life, Writing process, Young Adult literature |
Omnivoracious, Amazon's book blog, has an excellent post on
the most influential YA of the decade. It is a very good list, indeed. I agree to a certain extent with almost all the entries, but---you knew there was a but, didn't you?---I don't think Paolini belongs on the list, and I feel strongly that Holly Black and Ellen Hopkins do.
Now before I get going, let me set out what I understand this list to be. It is not about the quality of the books involved, but about their influence on the publishing field of Young Adult fiction. I believe that there is no question that Stephenie Meyer was the most influential writer of the decade. She created gazillions of ...
Posted by Justine at 21:46, January 25th, 2010 under Young Adult literature |
There's a
wonderful project out in the blogosphere to sing the praises of YA that has flown below the radar and not gotten the attention of, say, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Books, Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy, or my own Scott's Uglies books. I think it's a wonderful idea. All hail
Kelly for coming up with it.
I was unfamiliar with about half of the books recommended on these unsung lists, which to me means the lists are doing their job. ((Quite a few of the ones I'd heard of I hadn't read so the lists will probably kick me into actually reading them.)) Many of the book descriptions sound irresistable. So my list of books to read just ...
Posted by Justine at 0:42, January 25th, 2010 under Publishing business, Reading |
Off to the
Aurealis Awards in Brisbane. I am not taking my computer with me. Have fun, oh internets, while I'm gone.
I leave you with this gorgeous music:
"Djarimirri" by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.
If you don't own his album you might want to fix that.
Oops! Forgot to mention that I'll be part of a signing tomorrow:
Saturday, 23 Jan 2010,
Signing at Pulp Fiction Books
10.30-11.30AM:
Trudi Canavan and
Kaaron Warren
11.30-12.30AM:
Justine Larbalestier,
Scott Westerfeld,
Sean Williams
12.30-1.30PM:
Karen Miller and
Glenda Larke
2.30-3.30PM:
Pamela Freeman and
K J Taylor
Shop 28-29 Anzac Square Building Arcade
265-269 Edward Street ...
Posted by Justine at 19:02, January 21st, 2010 under Sydney/Australia, Travelling |
Plans are under way for our fabluous roof garden. Thank you so much for
all your comments and suggestions they have been wonderfully useful.
I thought it would be fun to share with you its current state:
Yup, that's all we got a stray plant growing between the cracks on the balcony railing. The twenty cent piece and quarter are there for scale. It is teeny tiny.
Here is the bare, bare balcony, which we aim to transform:
I shall keep you posted with more pictures as the garden grows. It will be a slow process because we're having large wooden troughs made to house ...
Posted by Justine at 22:36, January 20th, 2010 under Garden, Sydney/Australia |
Because there has been
another whitewashed cover, I am being asked for my response. ((Journalists would do better to interview the people most adversely affected by whitewashed covers---readers like Ari of Reading in Color.)) I have one thing to say: ((Well, two. Stop blaming the author, Jaclyn Dolamore. This is her debut. Take it from me, she'd rather people were talking about her book than her cover. Also I am very suspicious of this approach. It feels like derailing. "Let's not talk about race, let's talk about bad authors!" Hey, let's not.))
This is not about the accuracy of covers on books.
It's not about blonde when the character is brunette, it's not about the wrong length hair, or the ...
Posted by Justine at 21:36, January 19th, 2010 under State of the World |
Gloating is wrong, I know, but I can't help myself. I have the new Megan Whalen Turner book to read and you don't! Mwahahahahaha.
I shall read it immediately. But I won't tell you a thing because the book isn't out until the end of March and I know you all hate spoilers as much as I do. So, yes, I will kill anyone who spoils it in the comments.
And now I'm off to read!
Update: Finished. It was good.
Posted by Justine at 1:09, January 18th, 2010 under Reading, Young Adult literature |
My romance reading project continues and I realise that I haven't explained what the project is. Very remiss of me! A few of the many books I'm writing at the moment are romances. I'm using that term very broadly to mean not just the publishing genre, but pretty much any book in which the romance between two or more characters is a big part of the overall story. To put it in fandom terms, I guess I'm talking about the kinds of stories that lend themselves to shipping.
For a long while now I've been aware that writing romance is not my strong point. While I love many of them as a reader, somehow I'm not quite able to write that ...
Posted by Justine at 22:57, January 15th, 2010 under Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Our new digs has a large L-shaped balcony, which at the moment is completely naked. It cries out for plant life and I aim to supply it with all it desires. I've decided I want to go with Australian natives. Because, well, I love so many of them. However, my knowledge is a bit on the small side. I know what I like but I don't have much idea of what goes well in pots in direct sunlight. We face north-west and north-east and there is loads of sun.
Here's my list of Aussie plants I like the look and/or smell of:
Carpobrotus glaucescens (pigface)
Lilly pilly (
Syzygium luehmannii)
Banksia ericifolia (any banksia is good by me)
Acacia ...
Posted by Justine at 23:49, January 14th, 2010 under Garden, Sydney/Australia |
My previous post on conducting interviews was largely addressed to inexperienced interviewers. Some of the comments on that post have me wondering what the point of conducting an interview is. For those who simply want to interview their favourite author and find out everything they always wanted to know then that's your point right there. But I get the impression from quite a few of these interviews that they exist because the blogger feels that that's what you should do on a blog about books. As you can imagine that does not usually make for a good interview.
I also wonder if people run interviews on their blog because they think it will increase traffic. ((Part of why I suspect ...
Posted by Justine at 19:44, January 13th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Ranting |
I'm always very flattered when someone wants to do an interview with me. I jump with joy. People are interested in what I think! They want me to blather on! I am a woman of many opinions so being offered the chance to opinionate in multiple places is most pleasing. Thank you everyone who's ever asked. I truly appreciate it.
However, many of the questions I get could be asked of any writer. Sometimes they could be asked of any person. It's a bit lowering to suspect that the interviewer doesn't really care about my particular pearls of wisdom---they want any old writer's wisdom.
Let me make it clear that I don't mind being asked generic, could-be-answered-by-anyone-with-a-pulse questions if the interviewer ...
Posted by Justine at 3:05, January 11th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Ideas, Writing life |
The most discussed aspect of a book, other than whether it's any good, is its cover. But looking around online and off- at gazillions of different cover discussions the cover's main function is sometimes forgotten. Thus I've decided to devote today's post to talking about what a cover is and how they're made.
When a publisher buys a book one of the first things they start thinking about is how to sell it. Who is its ideal audience? How can they position the book so those readers will find it? How can they position it so they expand beyond those readers? These discussions quickly wind up with ideas for the cover. That's because the most important function of a book cover ...
Posted by Justine at 0:17, January 10th, 2010 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Scott's books |
I know many people are all bah humbug about new year's resolutions but I love them. This year I resolve to find a balance with my time online.
Let me explain: when I first became a published author of an actual novel I kind of went a little bit insane. I tracked down every teeny tiny reference to my book or me. I used every tool then available (and remember this was the long distant past of 2005) to stalk mentions online. At first there were few, very few, and I was convinced no one was ever going to read or review my baby Magic or Madness. Wah! Then there was what seemed a lot, which provided momentary flickers of ...
Posted by Justine at 1:17, January 9th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Magic or Madness trilogy, State of the World, Whingeing, Writing life |
Some folks have been asking lately how to get hold of signed copies of my books. And asking if I'll sign a book if they send it to me. Tragically the answer is no, I won't. This is not because I'm mean but because,
I travel too much. Your book is unlikely to get to me in a timely fashion.
I am hopeless at getting to the post office. If your book does land in the right country at the right time it will then sit on my desk for about a decade. I tried book plates and I was just as bad at mailing them. It's a sickness.
So I have created a
signed books page. See the link in the ...
Posted by Justine at 1:38, January 8th, 2010 under Admin |
As mentioned in
my previous post, I just finished Joan Schenkar's The Talented Miss Highsmith. I loved it so I was curious to take a squizz at what reviewers had made of it and came across
this one by Jonathan Lethem. Oh. Dear.
It is exactly the kind of
review that annoys me the most. The I-don't-like-this-kind-of-book-but-I'm-reviewing-it-anyway review. Editors seem to think it dreadfully clever to get the reviewer who hates feminism to review the feminist tome, the hater of romance to review Jennifer Crusie's latest, and those who are full of contempt for teenagers and books to review YA. It will generate conflict and controversy! Goodie!
No, it will generate annoyance and boredom. I know what people who ...
Posted by Justine at 0:02, January 7th, 2010 under Ranting, Reading |
All writers fear they are a bit crazy.
Some of them are. Obviously, I am at the hardly-crazy-at-all end of the crazy-writer scale,
most other writers are much loopier than me. While that is clearly a fact, I confess that I have my moments of doubt. I have found just the cure for those moments of doubt: Patricia Highsmith.
I am reading the new bio,
The Talented Miss Highsmith by Joan Schenkar. Oh my. Oh wow. Oh Elvis. Highsmith redefines the crazy end of the crazy-writer scale. I have a million different responses to this book, but one is relief. Cause no matter how crazy I might (rarely) fear I am, Miss Highsmith will always be much much ...
Posted by Justine at 9:08, January 6th, 2010 under Reading, Writing life |
Thank you so much for all the
wonderful, moving, scary, funny stories about hair.
I wanted to highlight this comment from
Wonders of Maybe because it underlines how hair and fashion and politics and identity (self and imposed from the outside) co-exist:
Hmm --- I'm multiracial (Black/Native American/White) and very, very light-skinned with extremely thick, curly hair. I'm talking spirals on "good" days and fluffy frizz on "bad" days! When I was young I wanted to straighten my hair because of how much I got hassled but once I turned 12, I was intent upon my hair staying natural. With such light skin, I feel it's an honest indicator of what I am and who I am since ...
Posted by Justine at 21:45, January 5th, 2010 under Fashion, State of the World, Writing process |
I have always loved curly hair. I myself have straight hair so my preference for curly is usually ascribed to the fact that I don't have it. My hairdresser says all the straight-haired girls want curly hair and all the curly-haired girls want straight hair. When I press him on this, however, he admits that it's not entirely true. That many of his clients are quite happy with their hair. I, too, am quite happy with my hair. But I do get bored and I'm glad that I know how to make it wavy without too much effort. A change, they say, is as good as a holiday. To which I'd say depends on the change and depends on the ...
Posted by Justine at 6:40, January 3rd, 2010 under Fashion, State of the World |
Some of the people who enjoyed Liar have started telling me that they want to read something else like it. I'm not sure what to tell them. I can't recommend one of my other novels because they bear no resemblance to Liar and readers would just be disappointed.
Here are three novels that people have compared to Liar:
Jacqueline Woodson's If You Come Softly. This is hugely flattering. Softly is one of
the best books I've ever read. I think Liar has some of the emotional intensity of Softly and it shares an NYC setting---with Central Park playing a key role in both novels. If Liar evokes New York City even half as well, then I've done a bang up ...
Posted by Justine at 2:12, January 2nd, 2010 under Liar, Reading, Young Adult literature |
After I blogged about
our feast of Turkish cooking, I had a few people demand recipes. To them I strongly recommend getting a copy of Classic Turkish Cookery by Ghillie Başan. We've now tried multiple dishes from it and they've all turned out delicious.
However, there's one recipe that wasn't in that book: muhammara (walnut and roast red capsicum) dip. For that I had to google. I've now made it a bunch of times so this recipe is my take on the half a dozen or more recipes I found online.
5 or 6 big red capsicum (bell peppers)
2 cups of walnuts
approx half to 1 cup bread crumbs (1 pull two ...
Posted by Justine at 3:57, January 1st, 2010 under Food |
