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This is
my annual post where I sum up what happened in my professional life for the year and look ahead to what's going to happen in 2013. I do this so I can have a handy record that I can get to in seconds. (Hence the
"last day of the year" category.)
Last year was not a happy year for me so you'll be pleased to hear that 2012 was lovely. There was some huge personal changes and they were all very very good indeed. What I'm really saying is this post contains no whingeing. Phew, eh?
Books Out This Year
This is the first since 2009 that ...
Posted by Justine at 19:12, December 31st, 2012 under 1930s NYC novel, Fairy Godmother Novel, Fans & readers, Garden, Last Day of the Year, Reading, Sydney novel, Team Human, Writing life |
I have a writing problem which is shared by many writers: I struggle to get started.
I wrote about this problem a bit
way back in 2009 when I confessed to almost destroying my professional writing career before it even started. The first six months of being a full-time freelance writer was one great big procrastinatory guilt-ridden hell.
Since then I have reigned it in so that it's only a struggle at the beginning of a first draft.
For the first week or so on a new book it is a major effort for me to look away from whatever online or offline spectacle is calling to me in order to start typing. I'll have the open scrivener project with ...
Posted by Justine at 6:58, August 7th, 2012 under 1930s NYC novel, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, RSI, Research, Sydney novel, What to write next, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Writing process, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 8:25, July 13th, 2012 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Research |
@DaniArostegui asked "Can you write a post on the research process for your novels? How much research do you do for a given book?"
The book I'm writing at the moment, Sekrit Project, was inspired by a non-fiction book. So one of the first things I did was work my way through the articles and books listed in the bibliography. Each of which led to other books and articles and so on. Footnotes and bibliographies will lead you in many wonderful and unexpected directions.
When I'm writing a book set during a different historical period as I am with my 1930s New York City novel I immerse myself in the music, literature, movies, radio, fashion, food (via cookbooks and restaurant reviews) ...
Posted by Justine at 5:41, July 6th, 2012 under 1930s NYC novel, Research, Sydney novel, Writing process |
Back in 2006 I posted my
writing goals. Then I updated it
in 2008 with the publication of How To Ditch Your Fairy and then again
in 2009 after Liar came out.
My goals are not stuff like Become NYT Bestselling Author or Win Nobel Prize. ((Though I am not against those happening to me. I mean, wouldn't that be grouse? I would not say no. Hmm . . . can you say no to being a best seller? Also is bestseller one word or two?)) Winning prizes and making bestseller lists is not something anyone can control, ((Well, not unless they're hugely wealthy or know hugely wealthy people who are willing to buy gazillions of copies of ...
Posted by Justine at 11:54, January 18th, 2012 under 1930s NYC novel, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Team Human, Writing goals & milestones |
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 2012. 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.)
This was not a fabulous year for me but it was a whole lot worse for so many other people around the world that whingeing would be tacky. I'll focus on the good:
Finally, finally, finally we were able to announce,
Sarah Rees Brennan and I, that we wrote a book together, Team Human, ...
Posted by Justine at 11:02, December 31st, 2011 under 1930s NYC novel, Food, Garden, Last Day of the Year, Praising, RSI, Team Human, Whingeing, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Writing process, Zombies v Unicorns |
I am hard at work in the writing-sequel-to-Team-Human, researching-the-1930s word & image mines, which led to watching "The Truth About Youth" (1930). Man raises best friend's son (known as the Imp) after best friend dies and encourages a match between the Imp and his housekeeper's daughter (Loretta Young). But the Imp is in love with wicked exotic dancer, Myrna Loy, and Loretta Young is in love with the guardian. (Oh no! How can they resolve such a mess?) It's not bad by early talkie standards. (I.e. it's bad by any other standards.)
The problem with casting Myrna Loy as a dancer, is, um, well, you'll see.
Just so you know I do love Myrna Loy. The Thin Man movies fill my heart ...
Posted by Justine at 4:25, September 25th, 2011 under 1930s NYC novel, Frippery |
Yesterday's post on
my lack of love for voice recognition software seems to have left some with the impression that I'm doing badly. Not so!
There are many people with RSI or other injuries like carpal tunnel much worse affected then I am. There are some who can no longer hold anything, let alone a pen. My RSI doesn't impinge on many activities other than writing. Also I have the resources to get the help I need (physiotherapy etc) to manage my condition. I'm extremely lucky.
I am, in fact, in the best shape of my life. Strengthening my core muscles and shoulder girdle (boxing is excellent for that as one of the commenters yesterday noted) has helped a great ...
Posted by Justine at 7:31, August 13th, 2011 under 1930s NYC novel, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, RSI, Whingeing, Writing life |
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 2011. 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.)
For reasons I'll explain in more detail below (but are mostly I was not online much) 2010 was ridiculously productive for me. I now have more than 100,000 words of my 1930s novel. Most of it written this year. And I declare those words to be good. ((I'm sure when I re-read them I'll be less thrilled but right now I think they're fabulous. I'll ...
Posted by Justine at 13:06, December 31st, 2010 under 1930s NYC novel, Admin, Cricket, Excuses, Last Day of the Year, Liar, Publishing business, RSI, Writing life, Zombies v Unicorns |
Sibylle asked:
Perhaps I’m reading too much into it but is this question [
have you heard of Joel Chandler Harris] somehow connected to your reading of Slavery by Another Name by Blackmon?
You are not reading too much into my question. It is indeed related to my reading of Blackmon's Slavery by Another Name or, rather it's related to the research I've been doing for my book set in the early years of the 1930s in New York City. I asked about Harris because I'd never heard of him and only vaguely knew what the Uncle Remus stories were. Yet his name kept coming up in a lot of reading I've been doing. I was curious to know whether he ...
Posted by Justine at 10:47, April 13th, 2010 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Research |
One of the results of
my recent injury, which has meant that I spend no more than four hours at my computer each day, is that I've been reading a tonne more. Here are some jetlagged thoughts, without any spoilers, on stuff (of all genres, not just YA) what I have read and loved recently: ((My apologies for how bad that sentence is. And for the bad ones which follow.))
Battle Royale Koushun Takami: Do not read this book if high school students murdering each other in graphic detail appalls you. And let's be frank, it should appall you. I'm appalled that I was not appalled. But then I kind of like boxing too so clearly I have no ...
Posted by Justine at 8:23, April 12th, 2010 under 1930s NYC novel, Praising, Reading |
If you're in NYC in the next couple of weeks here are two YA events you might want to check out:
The latest
New York Review of Science Fiction Readings features
Barry Lyga,
Marie Rutkoski, &
Robin Wasserman
curated by
Carol Cooper
Tuesday, 6 April, Doors open 6:30 PM, event begins at 7:00 PM
SoHo Gallery for Digital Art
138 Sullivan Street (between Houston & Prince St.)
Admission is by a $5 donation. (If circumstances make this a hardship, let them know and they will accommodate you.)
Me and Scott will be taking part in the
Read This Books for NYC Schools Day on the 10th of April.
Read This collects books for people who need them, especially ...
Posted by Justine at 21:57, March 28th, 2010 under 1930s NYC novel, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Young Adult literature |
As some of you know I've been dealing with an injury that means I spend way less time at my computer. I thought I'd say a little bit more about what that means as I've had a few people frustrated at my not responding to them.
When I'm at my computer for my scant four hours my top priority is my novel. After that I deal with the most important email (from agent, publishers etc) after that I tackle this blog. So far that's pretty much all I get to. Which means I am not reading anything on Twitter and I have not read any blogs in a donkey's age.
Thus I do not know what you've been saying about ...
Posted by Justine at 17:31, March 12th, 2010 under 1930s NYC novel, Admin, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Garden, Reading, Whingeing |
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 |
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 |
A while ago I posted about my
writing goals. I
updated it a year ago with the publication of How To Ditch Your Fairy. But now I have published Liar which is in a whole new genre and allows me to cross even more off my lists.
My goals are not stuff like Become NYT Bestselling Author or Win Nobel Prize. Winning prizes and making bestseller lists is not something I can control, but I can control what I write. So that's what my goals are about. Simple, really.
First the genres:
Romance
Historical
Crime (what some call mysteries)
Thriller)
Fantasy
SF
Comedy
Horror
Mainstream or litfic (you know, Literature: professor has affair with much younger student in the midst of mid-life crisis)
Western
Problem novel
YA
The publication of ...
Posted by Justine at 15:28, October 17th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Writing goals & milestones |
Yesterday I discovered that my husband is evil.
Remember way back when
people said they'd donate money to the New York Public Library if I learned to lindy hop? I said that I would have my dancing verified by three YA authors approved by John Green who was the first person to offer money to charity if I learned to dance. Well, that's not necessary any more.
Because Scott secretly shot video of some of our lessons. Utter, utter, utter bastard! He was going to make a video and put it up on youtube! Behind my back!
Fortunately, I caught him looking at some of the footage. But since he was nice enough to not shoot our faces, and we're ...
Posted by Justine at 11:58, July 16th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff |
Posted by Justine at 8:27, June 10th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Praising, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 9:56, May 21st, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Basketball, New York City/USA, Research |
Posted by Justine at 17:02, May 18th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Research |
Posted by Justine at 8:37, May 14th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Liar, Research, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 11:05, May 12th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Research |
Okay, who of my readers is a fan of the romance genre?
As many of you already know I am a huge fan of Georgette Heyer. ((When she's not being racist.)) More recently I discovered a love of Sherry Thomas. Her first novel Private Arrangements is a total ripper. Funny too. Thanks so much for the rec,
Diana!
I discovered there were well-written amazing romances courtesy of
Kelly Link. She's one of those omnivorous readers who doesn't let genre classifications get between her and a good read. She'll literally read anything and it shows in her writing in truly excellent ways.
When I met her back in 1999 I was not so open minded. I was disdainful of romance. On ...
Posted by Justine at 9:42, May 10th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Reading |
Posted by Justine at 16:46, May 8th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Research |
Did you know Buddy Ebsen of the Beverly Hillbillies could dance? Well, he could. He and his sister Vera had a most excellent vaudeville act together. He'd be the clumsy kid and she'd be the dance teacher. They appear together in Broadway Melody of 1936. He's the one wearing a Mickey Mouse jumper (sweater)
I really love his goofy dance stylings. Halfway between dancing and falling over. Fills my heart with joy. Here's the only good example I could find online. It's from A Banjo on My Knee (1936). Buddy doesn't start dancing until about 1:40. Enjoy. And keep your eyes peeled for his surprise dance partner who I have never ever seen dance before:...
Posted by Justine at 13:56, May 6th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Research |
Posted by Justine at 15:35, May 5th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Listening, Research, Viewing |
Following my
post of t'other day several people have been saying that I really must learn the lindy hop for my 1930s novel. And, in fact, if I don't they won't read my book.
I have several extremely sensible objections to learning the lindy hop. They are as follows:
Objection no. 1: My book is set in the early 1930s and the lindy hop was around later.
Tragically, this turns out
not to be true.
Multiple sources online say it began in the late 1920s in Harlem. *sigh*
Objection no. 2: I cannot learn how to dance.
This is absolutely true. I have physical dyslexia. I cannot folllow instructions. The instructor's arm goes one way mine goes the other. It is ...
Posted by Justine at 0:19, May 4th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Research |
Posted by Justine at 2:02, May 2nd, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Listening, New York City/USA, Research, Viewing |
I was actually looking for "Brush Off Up Your Shakespeare" cause it's brilliant plus it's clearly inspired by
Damon Runyon who published many of his best stories in the 1930s and is thus within the period of my next novel, which makes it vaguely research-ish. Not to mention Runyon's stories are almost all set in NYC. A highly imaginary NYC, I grant you, but still.
(Er, for those who don't know my next novel is set in NYC in the 1930s. I'm only reading and watching and listening to 1930s stuff until the novel is written. I'm being extremely strict about it except for sometimes my interpretation of "1930s" gets a teeny tiny bit elastic.)
Sadly, I could not find ...
Posted by Justine at 0:45, April 29th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Praising, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 10:41, April 12th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Admin, Liar, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 13:32, April 7th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Research, State of the World |
Posted by Justine at 10:41, March 28th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, New York City/USA, Research |
I am now the proud owner of a 1931 edition of Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage by Emily Post. Up till now I'd been making use of the
Project Gutenberg edition. And while I adore digitised books---they certainly make research much much easier---you still can't go past an actual held-in-your-hands book from the period you're writing about.
I have been flipping through it all day, checking out the illustrations, enjoying the jacket copy and ads for other books. (None of that matter is included in the Project Gutenberg edition). It feels like a direct link back to the people of that era. I can imagine them holding it just the way I'm holding it. And I'm pretty ...
Posted by Justine at 0:41, March 26th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Research |
Several people have asked me about my research for the 1930s novel. Specifically, they're interested in writing a novel set in ye olden days and they want to know if there are any particularly useful tools/techniques I'd recommend. Something that applies to more than just the 1930s.
Why, yes, there is one single research tool I would recommend: the
Oxford English Dictionary. It's the best value for money of all my online subscriptions. I could not write without the OED. I'm not even sure I could live without it. I hug its bits and bytes to my chest.
I probably spend just a tad too much time looking up words to see if they were in use in the 1930s and ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, March 24th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Research, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 3:26, March 3rd, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Research |
It's pretty bad, isn't it, that one of my favourite aspects of my 1930s NYC/USA research is the hilarious names I keep coming across.
Exhibit A:
Rexford Tugwell.
Readers, I admit that I laughed for about half an hour. And then I made the mistake of telling Scott about Monsieur Tugwell. More laughter.
For the record, Mr Tugwell was a dead interesting bloke. A member of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Brain Trust and thus a key contributor to the New Deal.
And yet, REXFORD TUGWELL!!!!
Posted by Justine at 8:27, March 2nd, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Research, Titles & names |
Posted by Justine at 15:43, February 22nd, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Ranting, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 16:56, February 16th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Whingeing, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 2:18, February 10th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Liar, Praising, Science, Sydney/Australia, Viewing |
One of the most pleasing things about finally have our own digs in Sydney was getting all our stuff out of storage. Including my nana's china:
Look we has TWO whole shelves of it!
I remember her saying that it was one of the first presents she bought herself when she came to Australia in 1939. Scott and me use it as our everyday crockery. No point in it sitting on the shelf collecting dust, right? And I love the sense of continuity that so many people have used these plates and cups and platters over the last 70 years. Pretty cool, huh?
Here, have a closer look:
I suspect it was very common in the late 1930s and early ...
Posted by Justine at 2:37, February 5th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 16:19, January 26th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Praising, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:01, January 26th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:10, January 24th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Writing process |
Rachel says:
So, I just read the storyless character post, and I have a similar problem: the storyless scene. I tend to come up with a scene, kind of like your Charlie scene but generally the idea, not the character, is dominant. How do I give that basic idea and scene a plot, characters, and events?
I've been thinking about this one a lot and I'm failing to come up with any new suggestions. There's stuff on finding a plot
here and I think the one on
characters applies as well, and you've already read the
storyless character post.
I suspect that your problem is that you're still in the mulling stage and not yet in the writing stage. I'm ...
Posted by Justine at 1:03, January 22nd, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Writing process |
AlisonG Says:
I’m working on my first YA novel, and have (of course) discovered two other books that have similar plots. What do you think, should I read the books so I can avoid similarities and reassure myself that my book will be unique? Or should I avoid them so I can claim I was not influenced and did not steal from them?
Kevin Says:
I’ll second AlisonG’s comment. Scalzi has talked about borrowing concepts for his books. I have a vague memory that Scott may have talked about his books having similar ideas or themes to other books. Have you had a situation where you’re borrowing concepts/ideas/settings and you borrow too much? How did you (or how would you) deal ...
Posted by Justine at 0:04, January 13th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Writing process |
Malcolm Tredinnick Says:
Picking a point of view and how you learnt to work with the different types would be something I’d be interested to hear about. As a reader, I kind of know when the point of view works for the story and when it doesn’t, but I don’t really know how consciously writers make the choice or how you do it.
Hmmm, a tricky one first up. Curses!
I think I may have mentioned that for most of my writing life i.e since I was five and first started, I wrote short stories, not novels. I'd start many but not finish them. But I finished hundreds of short stories. None of them were much good as stories, but ...
Posted by Justine at 4:03, January 2nd, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, Writing process |
Yup, it's my annual what-I-did-this-year skiting post. I write these mostly for myself so I can easily keep track. Hence the
last day of the year category. Thus you are absolutely free to skip it. ((I would if I were you.))
This year was exceptional. I'm still pinching myself. My first Bloomsbury USA book, How To Ditch Your Fairy, was published and seems to be doing well. I was sent on my first book tour, which was fabulous. It's insane how much fun I had and how many fabulous schools, book shops and libraries I visited in California, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. Thank you to everyone who came to see me while I was on the ...
Posted by Justine at 0:20, December 31st, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Book tour, First Kiss, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Last Day of the Year, Love is Hell, New York City/USA, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Vainglory, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 5:19, December 26th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Fans & readers, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, Mangosteens, Praising, Reading, Sport, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:02, December 24th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Praising, Research |
Posted by Justine at 0:02, December 23rd, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Sport, Travelling, Unicorns, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
