Archives
A few days ago I tweeted this:
I am sick of people who've never read a romance or a YA novel casually dismissing the entire genres. Do some research, you tedious people.
It was in response to yet another casual dismissal of YA in the middle of a discussion about something else entirely. So often does this happen, particularly in regard to romance, that I scarcely even register it anymore.
I'm happy for people to hate whatever they want to hate. Go, for it. I mean, yes, I think it's kind of silly to dismiss an entire genre. All genres have good and bad and mediocre examples. Yes, including, Ye Mighty Literachure. I could give you a long list of literary ...
Posted by Justine at 11:09, January 17th, 2013 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Ranting, Whingeing, Writing life |
My mate Diana Peterfreund had
an excellent post on some truly terrible publishing advice doing the rounds at the moment. In passing she mentions that "as someone who has now published with four NY publishers and the aforementioned small presses---every publisher does things a little differently."
I have not seen that pointed out very often. I've seen oodles of folk point to how writers all write differently. That there are as many ways to write a novel as there are novels. But in most discussions about publishing the assumption is that all publishers are the same. Or at least the only differences is between small presses and big presses. Between the Big Six ((Hachette; Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group/Macmillan; ...
Posted by Justine at 8:05, September 25th, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, New York City/USA, Publishing business, Writing life |
I write this from my perspective as someone who has published nine books and received many critical reviews.
I know that's obvious but I think it needs restating up front. I know what I'm talking about. People have loathed each one of my books with the fire of a thousand burning suns. People have wanted to throw them across the room, to burn them, to make sure they never get into the hands of impressionable teenagers, to remove them from library bookshelves, and have been bored into a coma by them.
I used to be really upset by negative responses now not so much. I was even upset by what is now my all-time favourite punter review: "Like a bad ...
Posted by Justine at 16:33, August 29th, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Ironical (This is Writ), Writing life |
Recently I argued that the
best way to deal with a cranky author coming after you for writing a less-than-glowing review about their work was to delete the review but say why you had done so. My argument was that obscurity is the worst thing that can happen to an author. No reviews = no attention = no sales = no career. Bye, bye author.
Kat Kennedy (and others) responded in the comments (and on Twitter) to say that while she could understand responding that way she personally would not do it for three reasons: 1) She was proud of her reviews. 2) Some authors badgered reviewers into taking down their negative reviews. Why should they be given what ...
Posted by Justine at 8:01, August 24th, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Fans & readers, Ranting, Writing life |
Seems to me to be bleeding obvious that tweeting and facebooking and blogging and whatever other social media is the flavour du jour do not automatically equal vastly increased sales. Of any kind. But I'll talk about books that being what I am in the business of selling.
So I agree with
Nick Earls' post about how social media works for us author types. Except I don't have a cat and have never had a cat and will never have a cat. ((Apparently pets would not be down with the whole going back and forth between Sydney and New York City thing.))
Loads of authors are being told that they MUST tweet, blog, facebook, tumblr, whatever. Because if you ...
Posted by Justine at 7:19, August 17th, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, RSI, Writing life |
A friend of mine, a librarian and blogger and reviewer, has had a handful of authors attack her because she wrote what they considered to be bad reviews of their books. ((Mostly, of course, these were not bad reviews but more like three-star, has-some-good-points-has-some-bad-points kind of reviews.)) She did not enjoy it.
This is not an isolated incident. Reviewers have had authors dummy spit ((USians: look it up! You are online. You can find out the meaning of any unfamiliar word or phrase in heartbeat. Embrace this gorgeous future we live in.)) at them, sic their fans on them, and generally make them wonder why they're bothering to write reviews.
What can bloggers do when wrathful authors and their hordes descend up ...
Posted by Justine at 8:20, August 13th, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Praising, Ranting, Writing life |
So here it is the final day of my blogging every day of July effort and I have succeeded! ((Weekends do not count. No one is online on Saturdays and Sundays. Scientific fact.)) And it was fun. So much fun that I'm going to keep on blogging. Not every day but at least once a week. Turns out I missed it way more than I realised. Missed you commenter types both here and on twitter. I think we had some really cool and interesting conversations over this month and I hope we'll have many more. *hugs blog* *hugs commenters* *cries*
I didn't do all the posts I promised I would. I know. I am badness. But I will do them. In ...
Posted by Justine at 11:57, July 31st, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, RSI, Sport, Sydney novel, Writing life |
I've had several folks respond to the discussion of
bad reviews and bad books pretty much as Trudi Canavan did in the comments:
"I stop reading. Life is too short for bad books."
To which I can only respond, well, yes, obviously. One of the great pleasures, for me anyway, of being an adult is finally realising I am under no moral compulsion to finish every book I start. I can put boring books down! I can walk away from bad books without being sullied by reading the whole thing! Oh happy day!
On the other hand---and I know this is not just me---sometimes I really enjoy reading a bad book. It has to be a particular kind of bad. ...
Posted by Justine at 6:34, July 12th, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Reading, Words & Language, Writing life, Writing process |
Following on from
my post about bad reviews there's been a spot of conversation about how to exorcise the horrific experience of reading a truly bad piece of excrement masquerading as a book. Some of us write eviscerating reviews and some of us imagine or actually practice violence upon the offending item: I mentioned my desire to stab them.
N. K. Jemisin says she throws them across the room.
I have a group of friends who compete to find the very worst books and then read them out loud in order to point and laugh and marvel at how truly bad they are. It is incredibly entertaining. We end up weeping we laugh so hard. It's also educational. ...
Posted by Justine at 1:48, July 11th, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Frippery, Reading, Words & Language |
I hear this is a big deal over in the US of A. Given that many of my readers are from there and that I myself am now also a citizen of your fine country---dual nationalities for the win!---I thought I should blog in a USian way or about the USA on your day of celebrating being a nation. ((It is still the fourth of July there even though we Australians have already moved on to the fifth of July.))
First I thought why don't I tell you everything I think is wrong with that mighty nation. But given that I haven't even been USian for a whole year it seems a bit premature. It's all very well for me ...
Posted by Justine at 0:37, July 5th, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, New York City/USA, Praising |
*If by "everywhere" I mean Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA, which, um, I do. Sorry, rest of the world.
Team Human is real! Team Human is out in the world! *bounce bounce bounce*
This morning (Australia time) we did a twitter chat about
Team Human and I can't quite believe this happened, but, well, there's proof. Our chat
#THchat trended worldwide!
How surreal is that? Thank you so much everyone for your participation and amusing questions. Yes, @colorlessblue, I promise I will add writing a bunyip book to my list. ((My list of books to write is really long. I make no guarantees I will get around to it.))
In ...
Posted by Justine at 11:49, July 4th, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Team Human, Vainglory |
Well, this is exciting. A whole month of me blathering at youse. And, hopefully, youse lot blathering back at me in them there comments below.
I'm overcome with joy at the prospect. So overjoyed that I know that I said I wouldn't blog on the weekend but this year the 1st of July is a Sunday and I couldn't not blog on the very first day of my blogging month, now could I?
I thought I would start with some frivolity. Did you see
#badwritingtips on twitter? There were some truly awesome ones. I loved
Elizabeth Knox's "Begin as many sentences as possible with a verb + 'ing', it makes everything so much more active." Cracking good advice! ...
Posted by Justine at 8:55, July 1st, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Team Human, Writing process |
I have decided to put this here voice recognition software to the test in the month of July by blogging every day. ((Except weekends. Cause, come on, no one is on the intramanets on the weekend. Scientific fact.)) Yes, I will blog every single day of July 2012.
Tell Me What To Blog
If there's anything you would like me to blog about please let me know! The comments are below in the manner of most blogs. ((I thought about having them above but my web designer said no.))
I've had a few suggestions on Twitter:
@SirTessa wants me to write a complete post without correcting any of the voice recognition software mistakes. I WILL DEFINITELY DO THAT.
@WanderinDreamr wants me to ...
Posted by Justine at 22:37, June 12th, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Fashion, State of the World, Team Human, Whingeing, Writing life, Writing process |
Cassandra Clare has written an important piece called
Rape Myths, Rape Culture and the Damage Done. If you haven't read it already you really should. Be warned: she discusses much which is deeply upsetting.
What I want to briefly comment on here is the notion that to write about rape or war or any other terrible thing is to automatically condone it. Cassie writes:
[T]he most important point to be made here is that to depict something is not to condone it. This is a mistake that is made all the time by people who you would think would know better. Megan Cox Gurdon in the Wall Street Journal,
for instance, excoriated YA books for being too dark, zoning in ...
Posted by Justine at 13:27, May 22nd, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Feminism, Praising, Ranting, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
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 |
Holly Black recently posted on the subject of the so-called
YA Mafia, which apparently is a "cabal of writers who give one other blurbs, do events with one another, and like each other's books." Also if you cross them they can ruin your career.
In her post Holly said such a cabal does not exist. I suspect she's right. Certainly none of the YA writers I know are involved in such a group. However, there are many YA authors I don't know. Could be a few of them plot darkly together. Who knows?
Thing is plotting ain't doing. As Holly points out, YA authors do not have that power. I have recommended twenty or more of my writer friends to my ...
Posted by Justine at 18:32, March 3rd, 2011 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, RSI, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
As some of you may have noticed I've not been around much online. Sorry! Thank you so much for all the concerned supportive emails. They are much appreciated. (You made me all teary.)
Here's where things stand with me:
The good news: The
original injury that caused me to cut back on blogging is completely healed. Yay!
The bad news: The RSI in my hands and forearms got worse.
I took four weeks off from the computer entirely. I have reorganised my computer setup. I've been doing a vast amount of physical therapy. I'm improving. Slowly and frustratingly but surely.
However, my time at keyboard
remains limited and my top priority is my novel. All else---blogging, tweeting, emailing---is on hiatus until ...
Posted by Justine at 11:44, June 7th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Excuses, RSI, Reading, Sport, Whingeing |
Due to
boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much for awhile. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers.
Jaclyn Moriarty is a wonderful Sydney writer who used to be a lawyer and is responsible for some of my favourite Aussie novels of the last few years, especially The Betrayal of Bindy McKenzie and Dreaming of Amelia. But, trust me, all her books are amazing. Be ...
Posted by Justine at 14:54, April 15th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Guest post, Sydney/Australia |
Okay, after yet another spam hammering I've had to switch comments and pinging off on many of the posts that were getting hammered. I'm really at a loss as to what to do. I don't want to switch comments off. I love your comments. But right now I'm battling so much spam that loads of geuine comments are not making it past the filters while too much spam is. I'm only spending four hours at the computer a day so I cannot use most of that time dealing with spam.
Oh, how I hate spammers!
Anyone got any cool wordpress plugins or other suggestions?
Update: Forgot to say I already have Askimet. Which was working brilliantly.
Part of what is going on is ...
Posted by Justine at 0:01, April 14th, 2010 under Admin, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff |
You're unlikely to get anything sensible out of me for awhile. This will be brief. First, thanks for all
the responses yesterday. That was truly fascinating.
Second, we recently finished watching Fullmetal Alchemist and Read or Die and LOVED them both with a fiery burning passion. Thanks everyone who recommended them. What should we watch next? And why do you recommend it?
Third, without googling how many have you heard of Joel Chandler Harris? And what do you know about him? And where are you from? (I suspect how old you are is pertinent also.)
Thank you!
If you're in NYC you can see me and Scott reading this Saturday:
Justine Larbalestier,
Bennett Madison,
Scott Westerfeld, &
Cecily von Ziegesar
Reading and ...
Posted by Justine at 15:21, April 7th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Excuses, New York City/USA, Viewing |
Right now I am at Auckland airport and it is nothing like Sydney airport. For starters there are All-Blacks jerseys everywhere and people are laughing at my accent and not Scott's. It's Bizarro-world!
Now a serious question for my USian readers. Do you guys have any theories as to why so many of the USian blog reviewers of Karen Healey's Guardian of the Dead are under the impression that her extremely New Zealand book is set in Australia? Many NZ cities are named, such as Christchurch, where it is largely set. The South & North Islands are frequently mentioned as are many other very very very Kiwi things and people. No mention is made of Australia.
What gives? Are you taught ...
Posted by Justine at 0:47, April 6th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Sydney/Australia, Travelling |
The wonderful
Kathleen T. Horning sent me a link to
this discussion of Twilight on NPR in which much mock is made of the writing style of Twlight. Judging from the comments if you love Twilight then the NPR people are being condescending meanies and if you hated Twilight ((Even if you haven't read it---how do you hate a book you haven't read?)) then their comments are hilarious and spot on.
Now, I do not want a discussion of the merits or otherwise of Twilight here. In fact, I will delete any comment trashing Twilight. We do not diss living authors on this blog. What I'm interested in is a broader discussion of adults' attitudes to YA literature.
My question ...
Posted by Justine at 18:10, March 25th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Why do so many people read any statement, no matter how innocuous, as being about them? For example, I have mentioned my dislike of chocolate and people have gotten cranky. As if my chocolate hatred will somehow deprive them of it. Huh?
Every time I talk about my love of fashion someone says, "I just want comfortable clothes! Give me jeans and t-shirts!" Which always strikes me as deeply bizarre because a) no one has said a word against jeans and t-shirts, b) t-shirts and jeans are items of fashion, c) having a desire for a ballgown does not mean that person doesn't also wear jeans and t-shirts. (For the record I am wearing jeans and a New York Liberty ...
Posted by Justine at 21:41, March 23rd, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Fashion, Ranting, State of the World, Writing process |
Tessa Kum is a wonderful writer. She does not write full-time. She has not had any novels published. Like the vast majority of writers she finds time to write at the edges of her paying job. She knows, however, many career writers and sometimes
winds up in conversations where they tell her what a real writer is:
Various people at WFC (World Fantasy Convention) told me what it is necessary to achieve in order to be a 'writer'. You must make this amount of money per year from your writing, or you must sell this many stories, or you must be able to live solely from your earnings as a writer. Most of these people shot me down ...
Posted by Justine at 18:29, March 22nd, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Publishing business, RSI, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
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 |
I have decided that I love songs about women who don't want to be married. I decided this while listening to lots of Gillian Welch. Twas the song "Look at Miss Ohio" which triggered this decision. Also my annoyance with certain lines in Beyonce's "Single Ladies". "Put a ring on it"? What are we living in the 1950s or something?! Uggh.
Then I realised I couldn't think of any other songs about women who have priorities in life other than getting married. ((This probably reflects more on my dreadful memory than anything else.)) Other than the "I never will marry" song:
I never will marry
I'll be no man's ...
Posted by Justine at 23:17, March 4th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Feminism, Listening |
(Or answering email or responding to IM requests or to comments or been on Twitter or read many blogs.)
Like almost every writer I know, I have a number of chronic---though not particularly bad ((I know people who have been crippled by RSIs and now can only write with voice recognition software.))---injuries, that were caused by (or flare up when) I spend a lot of time at my computer.
Sitting at a computer for long hours is not good for your body. Which is why so many writers, receptionists, data processors, computer programmers etc etc ((There are bazillions of jobs that involve long hours sitting in front of a computer.)) have repetitive strain injuries, headaches, chronic back and neck problems, ...
Posted by Justine at 21:15, February 28th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Excuses, RSI, Whingeing, Writing life |
Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much in February. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers.
Zetta Elliott's
A Wish After Midnight was one of my favourite YA novels of 2009. I still can't believe no mainstream publisher picked it up and I am hoping the book's re-realease by Amazon will get this wonderful book into many more hands.
Zetta's blog ...
Posted by Justine at 9:00, February 18th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Guest post, New York City/USA, Publishing business, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much in February. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers.
Today's guest blogger, Doselle Young, is not only one of my favourite people on the planet, he's also every bit as opinionated as me. (Though frequently wrong, like his love of Madmen and Henry Miller. Ewww.) I enjoy Do holding forth on any subject at all. He's also ...
Posted by Justine at 19:36, February 10th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Cons & Other Gatherings, Frippery, Guest post, Ideas, Liar, Reading, Sport, State of the World, Words & Language, Writing life, Zombies v Unicorns |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
One of my highlights of
NCTE was doing a panel on blogging with
Laurie Halse Anderson, Maureen Johnson,
Barbara O'Connor and
Lisa Yee. The panel was put together and moderated by
Denise Anderson, who was just splendid and had done a tonne of research. I was very impressed. They've all now blogged about the panel. (Links to their posts are on their names.) All except for me and Maureen. As I think it's a sign of deep failure not to blog about a panel on blogging I am now fixing my omission. I doubt Maureen will, however, because hers is
not that kind of a blog.
The panel was aimed at teachers and concerned with ...
Posted by Justine at 15:03, November 29th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Cons & Other Gatherings |
Today I blogged
over here. Those of you who've been wondering about the process of writing Liar might find it interesting.
Today I prepare for my appearance in
Larchmont tonight and the many appearances I'm doing next week in
Seattle and Portland. Then I'll be at the
Teen Lit Festival in Austin next Saturday. That's quite a temperature range. Packing's going to be fun!
For those of you who only read the posts and not the comments, you really need to check out the comments on the
White Writer Advantages thread and the
Hating Female Characters one. People are being astonishingly smart.
Posted by Justine at 13:23, October 16th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Liar, New York City/USA, Praising, Writing process |
I've already talked about this a fair bit, basically
pleading for people not to give away any of the
twists and turns of Liar. For the most part bloggers and reviewers for the trades have done exactly that.
I would like to thank them for being so amazing about not spoiling Liar. I'm really astonished by how considerate reviewers have been. Thank you!
Of course, inevitably, there are spoilers out there in the broad, wild intramanets. Not all reviewers feel
the same way about spoilers that I do, which is absolutely their right. I cannot make anyone not spoil Liar I can merely request. ((The blog overlord, alas, only controls this blog with an iron fist.))
But I would like ...
Posted by Justine at 12:07, September 21st, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Liar |
Enough of youse lot are wondering what's up with me not blogging every day that I am driven to offer an explanation for my blog silence of late. A brief explanation: travel, busy, knackered, bad sport karma.
I have many posts brewing or brewed. More on race, writing and publishing (here's a
few links to
others. I'm especially loving the Writers Against Racism series on
Amy Bowllan's SLJ blog like
this one with Ari of
Reading in Color.); a complaint about Being Human (Why does the woman have to be a timid ghost? Wouldn't it have been much more interesting if she was the werewolf or the vampire? Um, okay no need to write ...
Posted by Justine at 15:21, September 2nd, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Excuses, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar |
I'm at Sydney airport, on my way to Melbourne for the Melbourne Writers Festival, and since it took way less time to get here than I thought ((10 mins as opposed to 1 hour. Who knew? Other than Scott.)) I figured I'd test this here new application what Stephen Fry recommended. ((As you all know everything Stephen Fry says is golden unless it is about cricket. He supports the bastion of evil the English cricket team. Ewwww!)) I am blogging from my phone without squinting or yelling. I count that as a big thumbs up for the wordpress app.
I'd also like to give a big thumbs up to my Sony reader 505. It's not perfect---I'd prefer a touchscreen and ...
Posted by Justine at 19:28, August 22nd, 2009 under Admin, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff |
Today's guest blogger is
Neesha Meminger. She is the author of
Shine, Coconut Moon (about which I've been hearing nothing but raves). She was born in India, raised in Canada, and now lives in New York City with her husband and two children. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a BA in Film & Media Arts. She has a fascination with the moon, stars, planets and, strangely, coconuts. She can be found online at
her website as well as
her blog.
From Margin to Center: Writing Characters of Color
This essay was originally meant to be a short comment in response to Justine’s post on
why her protags aren’t white. In one of the comments, ...
Posted by Justine at 0:19, August 10th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Guest post, State of the World |
I rarely delete comments on this blog, ((Truly rarely. I only remember deleting one this year. If your comment disappears, as sometimes happens---especially lately with the veritable storm of comments and hits I've been getting---assume there was a snafu and mail me. I can usually fish it out of the spam filters.)) but one of the things that is most likely to cause me to do so is someone telling another commenter (or me) to shut up.
Now obviously such comments are not always phrased that way. Sometimes they say "I do no think what you are saying is productive" or "I do not think you are adding anything to this conversation". But the unspoken "so you should shut up" ...
Posted by Justine at 0:29, August 8th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff |
As previously mentioned I've discovered a slew of marvellous blogs because of the storm surrounding the cover of Liar. I've already mentioned
Color Online and the
Happy Nappy Bookseller as well as
Reading in Color and
Taste Life Twice, all of them wonderful informative blogs. I'm not sure how I lived without them.
But I also came across some blogs that have almost nothing to do with YA books. My current favourite is
Journal of a Baby Power Dyke in Training---best blog title ever, right? (Why did I not come up with a cool title for my own blog? What was I thinking?)
This post made me nearly combust with laughter. It is currently my ...
Posted by Justine at 7:14, August 7th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Young Adult literature |
As you may have already discovered if you read Publisher's Weekly's "
Children's Bookshelf," Bloomsbury is rejacketing the hardcover edition of Liar. My wish came true much sooner than I expected. Thank you to everyone who expressed your concerns. Thank you to Bloomsbury for listening.
As soon as the jacket is final, which should be soon, I'll be posting it here. Yes, I was involved in the cover design process.
I am delighted that my post about the original Liar jacket got some traction. But everything I said there had been said many times before by authors and bloggers of colour. Whitewashing of covers, ghettoising of books by people of colour, and low expectations (reflected in the lack of marketing push behind ...
Posted by Justine at 16:07, August 6th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Liar, State of the World |
One more wonderful blog for you to add to your list:
Taste Life Twice run by Kiki and Tashi and covering all things YA.
Also Susan over at
Color Online has issued the following
reviewing challenge:
Read and review POC books through the month of August. We'll have a random drawing for 3 reviewers at the end of the challenge. Drop us a link to your review to be eligible. +3 entries for any sidebar link/tweet or blog post about this challenge. Contest limited to US residents.
If you're looking for suggestions for books to read and review these two blogs have lots of reviews as do the blogs I
listed yesterday. I'd also like to suggest
Touching Snow ...
Posted by Justine at 14:17, July 26th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, State of the World |
Because of
my post about the US Liar cover I have discovered some wonderful blogs, which as someone who follows the YA blogosphere closely, I'm ashamed I didn't know about already. I have added all of them to my blog roll:
Reading in Color
Color Online
Shalonda's blog
Into the Wardrobe
The Brown Bookshelf (which the fabulous and unbelievably talented
Varian Johnson is part of. Have you read
My Life as a Rhombus? It's also on my to be read pile and from what I've been hearing is astonishingly good.)
I am still no where near working my way through all the mail the cover post generated. It may take me a few weeks. ...
Posted by Justine at 7:09, July 25th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, State of the World |
The response to yesterday's
post has been astonishing. I
am overwhelmed. I received more mail in a single day than I normally do in a month. (I was already behind with my mail.) I'm going to try very hard to get to it all, but it may take some time and I have a novel to finish and leave the country in a couple of days. So bear with me.
Thanks so much for taking this conversation further. It's crucial.
Posted by Justine at 7:11, July 24th, 2009 under Admin, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, State of the World |
Diana Peterfreund has a request:
Um, can someone help me with an anime rec? I watched one episode a long time ago and I can't remember what it was called but it was recommended to me.
It starts with a girl falling through the sky. then there are all these kids at a school --- they're angels, with little wings and halos. And they are cleaning up in a library that has what looks like a giant cocoon in it. And then you see inside the cocoon and the girl who was falling is inside of it.
Anyone know what series she's talking about?
And thanks everyone for all the
amazing anime recs. I can't wait to start watching. I'm particularly excited ...
Posted by Justine at 11:54, July 20th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Praising, Viewing |
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 |
