Lili Wilkinson is one of the funniest people I know. Whenever I receive mail from her I make sure I’m not eating or drinking anything. You know, just in case. (This laptop’s already on its last legs . . . ) So I’m stoked that she’s finally started blogging. Yay!
Among many other talents, Lili’s one of the masterminds behind the insideadog website and has just published her very first book: Joan of Arc: The story of Jehanne Darc.
Go make her welcome to the blogsphere!
Inside a dog is a brand new website promoting young adult literature. It launched today and has Nick Earls as its first writer-in-residence.
On top of the writer-in-residence blog, there are reviews, recommended booklists—I love the categories: such as pink books, bring the funny, things that go bump. Some of the recommended books are faves of mine, like Cecil Castellucci’s The Queen of Cool, Scott’s Peeps and Michael Wagner’s Dog Wars. There are lots of other goodies, including a contest to win an ipod.
Go check it out!
This Thursday Scott and me will be at Galaxy Books signing our latest books. For me that’s Magic Lessons (US import) and the paperback of Magic or Madness. For Scott it’ll be the Oz edition of Peeps, plus the UK Uglies and I’m sure all the rest of his extensive oeuvre. I really hope those of you what are in the vicinity of Sydney’s CBD can make it.
Details as follows:
Thursday, 27 April, 6PM
Signing at Galaxy Bookshop
Justine Larbalestier & Scott Westerfeld
143 York Street
Sydney, New South Wales
Stay tuned to Scott’s blog cause it looks like there might be news of unsurpassed bigness in the next few days.
Meanwhile I continue to write many many many hours every day whipping M! M! M! O! O! O! into shape so that it’s fit for my editor’s eyes come Friday. I’m more optimistic than I’ve been in ages. Yay! I’ve been buoyed by sight of the new Oz cover for Magic Lessons—gorgeous. As well as the early versions of the US M! M! M! O! O! O!—very, very promising. When I’m allowed to share I will.
There’s a fun profile I did up on Norm Geras’s blog (a blog I discovered via Rjurik. Thank you, Rjurik!). I went to read Norm’s words of wisdom on cricket and stayed cause it’s most excellent.
I’ve already been asked what I mean by giving the answer “passion” to the question of what’s a person’s worst fault as well as their best quality. I’m with W. B. Yeats on “passionate intensity”: every day someone somewhere is killed because of someone else’s passion. On the other hand every day someone somewhere is creating something beautiful because of that passion.
Marrije enjoys Magic Lessons and has many many questions for the final book in the trilogy, which although smart and interesting frankly filled this writer’s heart with dread. How am I going to please all the people waiting for Magic! Magic! Magic! Oi! Oi! Oi!? I’ve already seen the anguish that a not completely happy ending to a trilogy can bring. Aaarggh! No more trilogies for me!
Okay, better get back to rewriting the ending so that the heavens open and fairy dust is sprinkled over the land and everyone’s magic becomes happy fairy magic and all the badness melts away and everyone is happy forever and ever and ever. That, or have them all die on the bus.
Anna Genoese explains P&Ls. I am eternally grateful to her. I have never understood these before. They were just this mysterious thing my editors would groan about. Anna Genoese is a goddess.
Thanks for all comments in previous post. You are all goddesses. My problem has been solved by reading Anna’s post: the thought of P&Ls has killed smelly monkey brain creativity and now I can focuss on task at hand.
Shana: cricket helmets are heavy!
Friday week is Oz speak for the Friday after next Friday. I.e. rewrites due next Friday not today.
Has anyone seen Daughters out in the wild yet?
Yay Jason Gillespie. Double century. Strewth.
Write now.
Magic! Magic! Magic! Oi! Oi! Oi! must be rewritten and the send button pressed by midnight Friday week. The writing is going just fine and dandy. However, my brain will not stop coming up with other ideas for the bestest, most brilliantest, most amazingest novels eva!
It’s driving me mad. There I am finally nailing a scene that has been allluding me for months and brain starts whispering sweet nothings about snowboarding werewolves, zombie cowboys, Australian ex-ballerina underwater police. If you don’t write them now, brain tells me, they will run away, never to return. They will die of starvation! In a gutter! It will be all your fault!
Aaaarrrggghhhhh!!!!!
What do you lot do when this happens? How do you make the brain shut up and focus on the urgent urgent urgent task at hand? Do I have to threaten it with the withdrawal of gold koala bear stamps? Make it stand in the corner on the naughty mat?
Help!
Here is where you’ll find me at WisCon (and just before):
“A Feminist Utopia in Madison? Global Communities, Science Fiction and Women”
Wednesday 24 May, 2006, 7:30 pm
Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium, 816 State Street.
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Open to the public, free of charge
Panelists: Elizabeth Bear, Karen Joy Fowler, Nalo Hopkinson, Justine Larbalestier (moderator), Meghan McCarron
Food in SF&F (Reading SF&F)
Saturday, 1:00-2:15 p.m. Saturday, 1:00-2:15 p.m.
Melissa Scott, Justine Larbalestier, Janet Lafler, Mary Kay Kare, Nora Jemison
Literary History of Women in Science Fiction. (Feminism, Sex, and Gender)
Saturday, 2:30-3:45 p.m. Saturday, 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Pamela Sargent, Justine Larbalestier, Andrea D. Hairston, Janice Marie Bogstad, Brian Attebery
Banned & Challenged Books (Reading SF&F)
Saturday, 9:00-10:15 p.m. Saturday, 9:00-10:15 p.m.
Deborah Stone, Veronica L. Schanoes, Anne Marie Redalen Fraser, Justine Larbalestier, Kira Franz
The Death of the Panel (Reading SF&F)
Sunday, 2:30-3:45 p.m. Sunday, 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbalestier, Paul Kincaid, Gwenda Bond, Christopher “i just sold my first novel” Barzak, Lenny Bailes
I think these all look fabulous—I get to talk about feminism, food, Young Adult lit, and death—what could be better? I can’t wait.
I’m especially excited cause Daughters of Earth will definitely be out. In fact I’m hearing rumours it may already be available. Has anyone seen it in shops in the US of A yet?
See you all in Madison! It’s going to be the best WisCon yet. Samuel R. Delany! Ursula K. Le Guin! Jane Yolen! Kate Wilhelm! Oh my Elvis! I must lie down now to recover.
Came across this completely randomly *cough* *cough*. (I mean would I waste time with the likes of google, blogpulse, technorati, ljseek, icerocket or feedster? Please!) It gave me twelve kinds of pleasure.
First up someone getting into the Magic or Madness trilogy enough to want to figure out their Sydney setting—Newtown—and look at maps and photos. How cool is that? And then linking me to the Whitlams, who are an ace Sydney band. Even cooler. (Though I don’t know them and I very much doubt whether they know me. So no cahoots at all.) The Newtown photos Purple Primate links to are fabulous. If I wasn’t already home I’d be so homesick. And they’re making me regret having shifted from Newtown to Surry Hills. What was I thinking?
Here are some of my faves:
When we lived on Chelmsford St we used to walk through this tunnel all the time. Sadly, “Piss Tunnel” is a pretty accurate name. It’s very eerie and every time I walk through I’m not entirely sure what I’ll find on the other side.
I couldn’t find any photos that gave a sense of how narrow the streets are or of what Esmeralda’s house looks like. Maybe I’ll have to take ’em myself.
The other pleasure of this post was the speculation in the comments about who would wind up with Tom, Reason and Jay-Tee. That’s right they were shipping my book! Colour me very happy. But I’m not saying a word about what happens, except that one of those comments might possibly be right. Or not. I’ll never tell!
Heh hem. Tis a bit late given that the con has already started, but here’s where you can find me at Conjure in Brissie:
Mon 1 pm: Those were the young years: Juvenilia Readings
Chair: Rob Hoge. Kim Wilkins, Sean Williams, Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld
I’m most looking forward to the last panel. I have stuff going back to when I was eleven, but unbeknownst to me my lovely mother has a whole folder of my writings going back to when I was seven or so. She dropped it over last night. And oh my Elvis—it’s hilarious! Seriously, Scott and me was reading it out loud to each other and weeping we laughed so hard.
His juvenilia doesn’t go back so far, but fortunately is also excellent for the making of laughter. Especially the bits that are cleverly coded so his mum couldn’t figure out what he was talking about. I bet Sean and Kim will also have some splutterers. What larks we’ll have!
There’s an article in the SMH about writer’s block by Catherine Keenan—which draws a lot from Zachary Leader’s Writer’s Block, which I will superstitiously never read. I mean what if it’s contagious? Anyway the article is full of lots of ace anecdotes, but what I liked best about it was the accompanying illustration:
Simon Letch (Click through on the link and you’ll learn just how dangerous a life illustrators in Australia lead.)
How cool is that?
Now I must get back to my own writing bouyed by yesterday’s excellent news, and last night’s fabulous food and champagne (thank you, Jan & John—you are the best!) and with my ears stoppered against any hint of writerly blockage . . .
I am now free to tell you the news of which I have not been able to speak:
Magic or Madness is on the shortlist for the 2006 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards. Specifically for the Ethel Turner Award.
This is huge! I’m being recognised in my home state! I’m up for an award named after the author of one of my fave childhood books: Seven Little Australians!1
Ethel Turner (bit of a spunk, eh?)
Here’s the full shortlist:
I’m really looking forward to reading all the other books on the shortlist. And it was a pleasure to get to chat to some of the other nominees at the official announcements today at Gleebooks. (Gleebooks has been one of my favouritest bookshops since I was kneehigh to a grasshopper.) I am giddy.
Now I must get back to work, but tonight I am so drinking champagne. Everyone always says it’s an honour to be shortlisted and they’re dead right. I’m still pinching myself!
In the few moments that I’m not banging MorM 3 into shape, I’ve been taking a squiz at the first test in Bangledesh and, wow. Turns out my sister was right and I—like many other commentators (most notably, our noble captain, Ricky Ponting who said they weren’t worthy of test status)—was talking out my arse. And ain’t that fabulous?
Matthew Hayden batting (briefly); Shahadat Hossain appealing (unsuccesfully)
Getty Images
Bangladesh are the worst ranked team in the world; Australia are the best (by a considerable margin) and right now Bangladesh are pounding us. Excellent stuff. Not just because it’s been an incredibly entertaining test match, but because of what it means for the future, for the raising of the level of test cricket world wide. Colour me very happy indeed.
Though it ain’t over yet. We can still win!
Look at me! I have worked so hard that I’ve managed to get myself back on target for my Friday deadline! Yay me! And as a reward my tyrant husband is letting me have internet access this evening. How kind and good you are, dear sir.
There’s been some lively debate over this way. I confess that I was surprised by the force of Garth (author and ex agent), Patrick (editor) and Sharyn‘s (editor) response to what I thought was an innocuous post (stupid me). Fortunately Teresa (editor) explained the reaction (thank you).
In the end we all agreed: the writing is the most important part, as well as the second most important part, the third most, and so on. It is the day, the night, the morning, the evening; the dove, the crow, the sulphur-crested cockatoo, and every other bird in the sky, even the annoying myena bird.
It’s almost exactly three years since I became a full-time freelance writer. April Fool’s Day 2003 was the glorious first day of this new career. Ever since I’ve been trying to make sense of it and of the publishing industry generally. My post on a writer’s job was one such attempt. I’ve learned an awful lot in those three years. I’ve sold four books, published two, written four and a half, and edited one. I’ve found answers to many of my questions on various blogs around the interwebby. Patrick and Teresa’s Making Light is a fabulous resource (Slush Killer is probably my favourite post on any blog eva) and Anna Genoese‘s livejournal is fab as well. And there are many other excellent publishing blogs. And yet, I still have lots of questions about this industry:
I could go on. If you have any questions of your own add them to the comments thread. And if you have any answers, please, please, please tell all!
I’m having such “discipline” issues (i.e. current book is flouting my authorial command and to punish it I go hang out with other novels and all the cool folks online) that my evil husband is going to change the airport password, burn all the books, and lock me in my study with nothing but a chamber pot and a bottle of water until I finish said book. This may be my last post for awhile . . .
Beloved google led me to this review:
And icerocket.com led me to these fascinating thoughts on the same. I’m especially pleased that Innle’s secret name for my book is Magic or Chunder. Tee hee. And, yes, Magic Lessons was a bugger to plot (except for when it wasn’t), but not as hard as the third book! Thanks for noticing all the stuff I worked hard to do!
Andrew Lang has excellent advice on how to completely stuff up a career in writing, via Literaticat. A particularly choice bit:
But really the whole thing is wonderful: Check it out! Ain’t nothing new since Homer . . .
Holly Black is insane and wants to try what could possibly be the most noxious liquid on the planet.
Philip Stanton, one of the illustrators we met in Bologna, drew me and Scott while I delivered my keynote about “Regional Voice” for The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators Before Bologna conference. (Scott was up front with me to do the American and Scottish readings; I don’t do accents.)
It’s lovely to have this keepsake of the SCBWI conference (thanks, Philip!). It was my first time teaching creative writing (we taught a workshop on writing synopses) and it turns out that I really enjoy it. I had my doubts because I had to teach back when I was an academic and, well, there are things I have loved more in this life (like fourteen-hour flights in cattle class, for example). Turns out that teaching a roomfull of people who are keen, interested and really want to be there is an enjoyable and inspiring experience. I swear I learned new stuff about writing synopses from all the smart questions we were asked. Thanks for inviting us, Lawrence and Erzsi!
Giving the keynote was also fun. I’d already been thinking a lot about how you write different accents because my Magic or Madness trilogy has Australian and USian characters, but giving the lecture forced me to put my thoughts in some kind of order. It also gave me an excuse to mess about with writing stuff phoenetically. I started by writing how I think I pronounce “can’t”:
How Scott thinks I pronounce it:
And how I reckon many USians (particularly Midwesterners and Californians) say it:
The lecture also gave me an excuse to phoenetically render the Queen of England speaking of her spouse and herself:
I have always wanted to share that with the world at large. I can die happy now.
A while back I wrote about self-promotion which elicited much commentary, but then was too sick and/or too travelly to respond. There was one comment from the fabulous Patrick Nielsen Hayden which I’ve been wanting to reply to for some time:
My only quibble is with this: “Promoting your books is part of a writer’s job.” No it’s not. Writing is a writer’s job. The rest of it is optional and depends on your personality, aptitude, and energy.
As the equally fabulous Ellen Kushner said in the following comment: “Would that it were so!”
I mean how fab would that be? If all a writer had to do was write their novels? My brain is exploding with the blissful joy of it.
In my experience the job of writer includes many things, some of which can be outsourced (there are writers who outsource the writing), some of which can not. And some of which can be avoided at least for some of the time:
(I’m sure there’s more that’s escaping me right now and I’m leaving out the stuff that goes with any job: taxes etc.)
Mr Nielsen Hayden says the publicity is optional. Tell that to the writers who get heavy pressure from their publishers to do book tours etc. Sure they can say no, and so can their publishers reduce the budget for promoting them.
The more common flipside of this is all the writers who are desperate for their publishers to send them on any kind of an appearance, who are willing, ready and able to do whatever they can to promote their books, but who find their publicists more than a little, shall we say, elusive. When your publisher isn’t behind your book then it’s even more important that you do what you can to draw attention to it, in a desperate attempt to postpone the journey into remainderdom (sad truth: being remaindered is inevitable).
Yes, there are writers who are shy or otherwise temprementally unsuited to going on the road to promote their books. There are writers that publicists don’t want to send on tour because of their talent for turning lifelong fans into mortal enemies (no, I’m not going to name any of them). Not good. Fortunately publicity encompasses a wide variety of activities, many of which don’t involve leaving your abode. You can sign books and bookplates to be posted, run your website, your blog, do online chats, email interviews and etc. Some argue that online promotion is more effective than offline.
But there are very few writers who can get away without doing any self promotion. Just as there are very few writers who can get away with hiring ghosts to do the writing for them.
Update: To be crystal clear—writing is absolutely the most important part of a writer’s job by a factor of a gazillion brazillian zooadillion.
A HUNDRED demons were slain at the Wanderers as the Australian tail-enders took their side to the verge of victory and then completed the task. —The wisdom of Peter Roebuck
Getty Images
We beat South Africa 3-zip in the greatest form of cricket. I got home just in time to catch the last days of the third test. Wow! It was fabulous, evenly poised throughout. Is there anything better than a test match when either side can win right down to the very last ball? No, there is not.
Some men don’t deserve to finish on the losing side. But that is the nature of sport. Indeed, it was the message of this match. Although sport has its heroes and its victims, both live to fight another day.—further wisdom of Mr Roebuck
I’m all for Australia beating all comers and yet, it woulda been nice if South Africa had won this one; if Makhaya Ntini had won it. With ten wickets he so deserved this win. And it sure seemed like most of the dodgy decisions went against South Africa. On the other hand it was one of ours boys what got sconned.
Now no test cricket until we play Bangladesh. Call me cynical, but I doubt anything there’ll come within cooee of the test at the Wanderers. But at least Mr Roebuck will be able to drag out all his minnows and David and Goliath metaphors . . .
I know you’ve all seen this already—cause, I mean, who doesn’t read boingboing?—but I was boingled. My very first! And what a blush-making boingle it was. And what an immediate impact it had. I woke up to my amazon numbers having zoomed from six figures to below 2,000 and my site getting hammered. Bless you, Cory Doctorow and bless you, boingboing. Here’s my fave thing Cory said about MorM:
Magic or Madness wonderfully mixes a genuinely creepy system of hereditary magic with Australian bush lore, sweet and canny details about New York’s East Village, daily life in Australia, fashion and mathematics, sneaking lectures into dialog and description so subtly you never know they’re there, only that you’re getting the charge of soaking up new knowledge about how the world works.
Tee hee. I am a sneaker of lectures (though not in a shoe way)! I have a major allergy to the infodump (unless it’s written by Kim Stanley Robinson who makes even infodumps sexy) and am always looking for ways to get the necessary info across without breaking the novel or the reader’s brain, so the above fills me with chuffage.
The last few weeks have been chock full of good news. I can’t tell you how bursting I am to tell you the embargoed stuff! Stupid embargo.
Just back from Bologna (now that was a long journey home via Frankfurt & Singapore—so long our luggage decided to stay iin Frankfurt. Sigh.) Had a wonderful time. Bologna is gorgeous and the food is extraordinary. Truffles! Fresh blood orange juice every morning! I now understand the appeal of fresh mozarella di Bufala . . .
But you all want to know about the book fair, right? It’s totally geared to business. Unlike Book Expo America where you’re overwhelmed by how many books there are—and more particularly how many free books there are—at Bologna I was overwhelmed by how many meetings were going on. Every single stall, no matter how small, was set up with lots of desks, at every single one two people sat across from each other earnestly waving books around, consulting their notes, doing everything they could to sell and/or buy rights to books.
It’s very very intense. I now feel like I know more about the business than ever before. I finally understand what it is that scouts do and how they’re paid! It’s amazing how many middle men there are out there. I also learned all about how they make pop-up books—it takes a whole village in China. I learned that the publishing wisdom that short story collections don’t sell holds everywhere, that everyone—even the French—reckon that French YA books are too preachy and boring, that hardbacks are big in Sweden and non-existent in Brazil. I am dizzy with everything I have learnt!
There were hardly any other authors. I met one the whole time I was there. (Hello, Isobel!) There’s not a lot for us to do at the Fair except be taken out by our publishers and agents. I was entertained by Penguin (who are my US and Oz publishers), and by my Brazilian and French ones. I also went along to dinner/lunch/drinks with some of Scott‘s publishers and thus got to hear about the UK, Finnish, Swedish, Italian, Thai, and German versions of the business. Fascinating.
As authors we weren’t invited to any of the parties and had to crash by trailing along on our publishers’ coat tails. I started to feel weirdly like authors aren’t that important in the publishing scheme things, which is crazy because aren’t we what they’re buying and selling?
On the other hand, there are lots of illustrators who run around with their portfolios ready to wow publishers from all over the world. The illustrator exhibition was breathtakingly good (though sadly there were no exhibitors from the US or Australia) as was the one focussed on Hungarian art. Oh my! Stunning. I’m now desperate—desperate, I tell you—to do an illustrated book.
So if you’re a published author is it worth going?
I think so, but I think it’s most valuable if you’ve had at least a couple of foreign sales so you have publishers to meet with. It also helps if your home publisher is there. I met one author whose publisher wasn’t at the fair and who’d had no foreign sales and they seemed kind of lost and overwlemed. It must be even more overwhelming if you’re not yet published.
As a result of going to Bologna I have a much clearer idea of how my publishers work and who to go to with questions. I now know some of the key people at my Brazilian and French publishers which makes the whole being published in other languages seem less remote and even more fun. I wish I’d been able to meet all my publishers!
I definitely plan to return.