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I've just added six more categories: Book tour: this one's obvious. Is for all the posts about book tours. In general, are they a good idea? And specifically, reports from on the road. Book challenges: this one's for censorship, book banning, and challenges, which are sadly common in the land of YA. Publishing business: this is for the posts specifically about some aspect of the publishing business. Such as what an editorial letter is, money, and how to get an agent, publishing in Australia etc etc. Titles & names: I noticed that I talk about the problem of coming up with a title for ...Posted by Justine at 18:25, January 3rd, 2009 under Admin, Search Terms | 5 Comments »
Note to livejournal people
Posted by Justine at 21:35, January 2nd, 2009 under Admin, Bloggery | 14 Comments »
In which I am naughty
Posted by Justine at 14:35, December 6th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery, Excuses, Food, Frippery, New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia | 8 Comments »
All fixed
All the problems of the past two days appear to have been resolved. Sorry for the inconvenience. Especially to those of you who had your comments eaten. Thanks for chiming in on last post. I no longer feel like I have lost my mind. Just my website for a couple of days. And, praise Elvis, may it never happen again. We can now resume normal blog activity. For those who missed the post that was only visible to a handful of you for most of the day there's a sneak preview of my latest published effort. Thanks to everyone who wrote to share their concern about the absence and/or weirdness of my site today. It's nice to know you care.Posted by Justine at 18:15, October 30th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery, Love is Hell | 3 Comments »
Can you see this post?
If you can could you comment? And tell me what browser you're using. I'm getting lots of reports of posts not showing up and people not being able to comment.Posted by Justine at 16:45, October 30th, 2008 under Admin | 12 Comments »
Yes, the site was down
Posted by Justine at 20:46, October 29th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery | 9 Comments »
Quick note
Posted by Justine at 14:09, October 29th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery, Excuses, Fans & readers | 3 Comments »
Happiness is . . .
Posted by Justine at 0:15, October 17th, 2008 under Admin | 11 Comments »
FAQ updated + good news
Posted by Justine at 18:05, August 27th, 2008 under Admin, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy | 4 Comments »
Notice anything different around here?
Posted by Justine at 20:50, July 23rd, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, Writing goals & milestones | 25 Comments »
Fixing my FAQ*
Posted by Justine at 12:30, July 15th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery | 14 Comments »
Brief note to the lurkers and newbies as well as general excuses
Posted by Justine at 14:00, June 19th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery, Excuses, Liar Book, Writing goals & milestones | 10 Comments »
Email backlog etc
I am still very behind with all my email. As I have a book due soonish and much much much more work to do on it, I suspect that I will not be getting through that backlog any time soon. For which my apologies! But, you know, my publisher pays me, which helps keep roof over head and rent paid and food in mouth---so they're my priority. I will continue to keep blogging daily and as much as possible responding to comments here. Cause if all I do is write all day I'll go insane. Anyway what I'm attempting to say is if I haven't gotten back to you it's not because I don't love you but because I'm working my arse ...Posted by Justine at 15:40, May 7th, 2008 under Admin, Liar Book | Comments Off
The great photo quest continues
The reason for which are posted most indiscreetly on Scott's blog. I'd just like to share with you my favourite photo so far: Kevin Dunn (science guest of honour) plus me and me old man at High Voltage Confusion in Detroit. Why pirate hats you ask? If I told you I'd have to kill you. And, yes, if you have any other photos of us we'd love to see 'em. Thank you so much everyone for all the photos you've pointed us to. We REALLY appreciate it!Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 23rd, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Travelling | 9 Comments »
Urgent: photo help
We are in desperate need of photos of me and Scott together---preferably with other people, but no worries if you just have the two of us. If you have such photos online please include the link in the comments. Or you can send them to me at jlATjustinelarbalestier.com (replace the AT with @). If you could say where and when they were taken that would be extremely helpful. You'll be doing us both an enormous favour. Thank you!Posted by Justine at 15:56, January 22nd, 2008 under Admin | 19 Comments »
Yes, there are CAPS
Some of you have expressed surprise and dismay that I abandoned my archy and mehitabel policy. They wants to know why and if it's merely a bout of temporary insanity. The why is easy: I was bored. It was get rid of the no-caps or find a new template. The one takes seconds, the other days. Not a difficult choice. The no-caps rule lasted quite a long time. To be precise: from 25 May 2005 up till 8 Jan 2008. More than two and a half years. That's AGES. I don't think the no-caps will return. Been there, done that. By all means continue to eschew them in your comments as homage to the way Things Used to Be. I'm all for ...Posted by Justine at 11:13, January 14th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery | 20 Comments »
Scrivener (updated)
Posted by Justine at 0:03, December 29th, 2007 under Admin, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Praising, Writing process | 38 Comments »
Silence
Sorry about the silence of the last week. I did something very bizarre: I went on holiday. A real holiday with no laptop and no internet access. Totally off the grid! Let me report that five days of no internet is bliss! I plan to do it more often. In other news Diana Peterfreund got me addicted to free rice. Improve your vocab while being virtuous! Also Maureen Johnson is stirring revolution on Amazon. Go, Maureen! Hope your holidays are going as well as mine. Normal blogging will resume soon. Honest.Posted by Justine at 12:50, December 28th, 2007 under Admin, Bloggery | 15 Comments »
Web stuff
So I finally got Scott's new look blog up and running. What a hassle that was! I always think it will be just an hour or two. Hah! Try several days of hassles. Especially as there was a migration of his site to a new server. Why is it always so hard? Anyways . . . It's up and I think it looks great. Go take a squiz and tell me what you think. Though if you have any complaints tell Scott, not me! All praise to Sadish Balasubramanian who designed the very nifty and flexible SeaShore template. I was planning a redesign here to go with the new book but the very thought of going through that again makes ...Posted by Justine at 16:10, December 16th, 2007 under Admin, Bloggery, Scott's books, Whingeing | 13 Comments »
Deadlines, polls, a question answered etc
Posted by Justine at 19:25, December 14th, 2007 under Admin, Bloggery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Manga, New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia, Whingeing, Writing goals & milestones | 17 Comments »
New Poll (updated)
Because Eric Luper had the temerity to suggest that quokkas are not the cutest animals on the planet I have devised a new poll. It goes up exactly a day after the last one which I successfully managed not to break---so you were all wrong. Yay, me! I like having polls but I definitely need less buggy WordPress compatible software. The "How To Rewrite" post will go up as soon as I, um, finish, the book what I have to rewrite . . . And the manga/manhwa/graphic novels one not long after that. Promise! Update: Eric Luper jinxed me into breaking the poll! Oh noes. Oh well, at least the quokkas were ahead. But I had planned to leave it ...Posted by Justine at 17:32, December 11th, 2007 under Admin, Bloggery, Excuses, Sydney/Australia | 26 Comments »
Polls (Updated a lot)
So that I can better get to know what you, the reader, thinks, I have added a poll thingie to the sidebar. ((This was in no way a work avoidance measure. It is serious research!)) The first poll is about winter because I need to know if the total darkness before 5PM and constant cold and the only decent fruit & veg being apples and pumpkin is bumming out anyone other than me. ((I should be clear: it's only Northern hemisphere winters I hate. Sydney winters are lovely.)) Tell me I am not alone! That it's December and I'm still stuck in the Northern hemisphere fills my soul with despair. Here have some more quokkas: Lucky quokkas living far away in sunshine and ...Posted by Justine at 1:10, December 10th, 2007 under Admin, Bloggery, New York City/USA | 37 Comments »
I hates paper
Especially when it's a manuscript intent on giving me paper cuts or in the form of a card. There. I've said it: I hate Christmas Cards. Do not send me any. To be honest I'm pretty much against anything that shows up in my mail box that isn't a cheque or a contract or a magazine I subscribe to. ((I'm okay with parcels though. Especially in their Krug champagne form.)) And really why can't all of these be done electronically? Why do banks charge wire transfer fees? Transferring money from account to account is now one of the simplest processes in the world. Why can't I sign my contracts electronically? Why can't I subscribe to all the magazines I ...Posted by Justine at 0:01, December 3rd, 2007 under Admin, Ranting, State of the World | 20 Comments »
comment deletion
Okay, I'm not quite sure how I did this but I just accidentally deleted some of your comments. So, if you notice a comment you made has gone AWOL that would be me. Sorry! Feel free to re-comment. The technologies they mess with my mind!Posted by Justine at 8:03, December 2nd, 2007 under Admin | Comments Off
Political blogging
When I started this blog I was very definite that I wasn't going to blog about politics or religion. I'd seen too many flame wars, too many blogs overrun by indignant trolls. My blog, I decided, was going to be sweetness and light and avoid incendiary topics. But then the John Howard regime finally fell and I couldn't contain myself. And, you know, what? I've gotten not a single troll. The discussions generated by my political musings have been thought-provoking fun, and, most unexpectedly, my traffic is up. Who'd've thunk it? I love youse all! I now feel free to blog about whatever the hell I want to blog about. If any trolls show up I'll just nuke 'em. That said, I'm ...Posted by Justine at 11:28, November 30th, 2007 under Admin, Bloggery, State of the World, Sydney/Australia | 17 Comments »
Are your comments being eaten? (updated)
I'm getting reports that my blog is eating some people's comments. Could you let me know if this is happening to you and exactly what it was my blog would not let you post. Preferably by way of the comments. But if that's not working: jlATjustinelarbalestierDOTcom To make the address work substitute @ for AT and . for DOT So far it seems to have something to do with posting HTML and URLS. Thanks! And if any wordpress users have had this happen to them and have solutions---fire away! I have nothing blacklisted. Update: I've been trawling through the spam filters and found quite a few comments which I've now marked as non-spam. Please let me know if my spam filters eat your comments and I ...Posted by Justine at 10:40, November 10th, 2007 under Admin | 22 Comments »
Admin Day
Posted by Justine at 15:31, June 5th, 2007 under Admin, Magic or Madness trilogy | 15 Comments »
La la la . . .
Posted by Justine at 19:29, September 10th, 2006 under Admin, Bloggery, New York City/USA, Praising, Sydney/Australia | 11 Comments »
Apologies & Updates
Sorry for the silence. My excuses are many and covered in mucus and jetlag. Which led to my inadvertantly consigning a number of thoughtful posts to spam purgatory. My apologies. Please comment again. I hope to be non-mucus laden and competent any day now and am much less likely to nuke future comments. While I lay sweating, coughing, swelling and dripping mucus, the wonderful Deborah Biancotti was making additons to my website to accommodate the imminent (and in San Francisco, at least, actual) arrival of my second novel, Magic Lessons the sequel to Magic or Madness. Feast your eyes here and here. You can even read the first two chapters. She's also created a new section ...Posted by Justine at 18:33, March 10th, 2006 under Admin, Cons & Other Gatherings, Daughters of Earth, Excuses, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Praising, Scott's books, Whingeing | 9 Comments »
Yes, I’m blogging. Real blogging . . .
So apparently it's de rigeur for the first entry of a brand new blog to feature the cover of the blogger's latest book. I mean, if the blogger in question happens to be a writer with a brand new cover to display to the masses, which this particular blogger does. To wit the cover for the second book in the Magic or Madness trilogy: Colour me very happy indeed. Aside from anything else, that photo of the tree there? I took it! It's a moreton bay fig. In fact it's the fig tree just past the front gates of Camperdown Cemetery in Sydney, which cemetery makes an appearance in both Magic or Madness and Magic Lessons. The photo on ...Posted by Justine at 0:09, May 25th, 2005 under Admin, Bloggery, Magic or Madness trilogy | 30 Comments »
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