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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, 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, 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, Excuses, 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, 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, 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 existence 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, 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, 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, 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, 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 |
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, 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 |
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, 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, 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, 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, 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 |
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, 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 |
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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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 |
Danah Boyd is an ethnographer who's done a great deal of work on teenage use of the internet in the USA. Her work is absolutely fascinating and I think every writer of Young Adult books should be reading it.
She recently gave a talk about
race and class in the MySpace v FaceBook divide. You all need to read it, like, NOW:
If you are trying to connect with the public, where you go online matters. If you choose to make Facebook your platform for civic activity, you are implicitly suggesting that a specific class of people is more worth your time and attention than others. Of course, splitting your attention can also be costly and doesn’t necessarily mean ...
Posted by Justine at 0:07, July 15th, 2009 under Bloggery, Research, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
I did not select winners myself because too many of you chose dialogue written by friends of mine and I didn't want anyone to think there was bias going on. The winning comments were decided by randomly generating numbers at random.org. :
7:
Celia:
From Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens:
Eventually Crawly said, “Didn’t you have a flaming sword?”
“Er,” said the angel. A guilty expression passed along its face, then came back and camped there.
“You did, didn’t you?” said Crawly. “It flamed like anything.”
“Er, well–”
“Lost it, have you?”
“Oh no! No, not exactly lost, more–”
“Well?”
Asiraphale looked wretched. “If you must know,” he said, a trifle testily, “I gave it away.”
Crawley stared up at him.
“Well, I had to,” said the angle, rubbing ...
Posted by Justine at 9:12, July 14th, 2009 under Bloggery |
The
dialogue song contest ends at midnight today East Coast USA time. I'll be turning comments off on
the thread then.
You have until midnight tonight. Make sure you enter
over there not here.
Six winners will be chosen randomly. They'll all get a Liar sampler as well as their choice of one of these books:
Advanced Reader Copy of First Kiss anthology signed by me and Scott
US paperback of Love is Hell anthology signed by me and Scott
US or Aus paperback Magic Lessons (sequel to Magic or Madness)
US or Aus paperback Magic’s Child (sequel to Magic Lessons)
HC Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction
Now I return to the to finish-the-novel salt mines.
Posted by Justine at 12:10, July 13th, 2009 under Bloggery |
But first, Morgan, one of the winners of
the last giveaway, still hasn't
contacted me. Please do so! Your copy of Love is Hell and the Liar sampler awaits!
Once again the giveaway is based around a post I've been meaning to write for ages on dialogue. Way back in January when I did my whole month of writing advice I promised I'd write a whole post about how to write dialogue. But it never happened. I have started such a post but I has not finished it. Sorry!
In the comments please share your favourite bit of dialogue from literature. I'm using that term very broadly, so, yes you can include an exchange from any genre: YA, crime, romance, ...
Posted by Justine at 12:25, July 11th, 2009 under Bloggery, Reading |
Posted by Justine at 19:20, July 8th, 2009 under Admin, Bloggery |
Posted by Justine at 11:43, July 7th, 2009 under Bloggery, Liar, Scott's books, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 12:21, July 6th, 2009 under Bloggery, New York City/USA, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 13:54, July 3rd, 2009 under Bloggery, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 12:06, June 30th, 2009 under Bloggery, Publishing business, Ranting |
In the land of twitter
Danah Boyd passed on a question from
alicetiara:
When you tweet, who do u think of reading it? Followers, followed, public, best friends, etc? Who do you tweet *to*?
I am very curious about the responses.
It made me wonder, too, about blogging. Recently there was a slight and
fairly dumb article in the New York Times about the astounding fact that most people who start blogging don't continue. Scalzi excoriated it
most entertaingly. Cause the interesting question isn't why do people abandon blogs but why do people continue to blog?
I could tell you that I keep on blogging day after day after day because my publisher likes me to have an ...
Posted by Justine at 15:05, June 11th, 2009 under Bloggery |
Posted by Justine at 10:00, June 6th, 2009 under Admin, Bloggery |
Posted by Justine at 11:53, June 4th, 2009 under Admin, Bloggery |
Yesterday's post got a pretty overwhelming not really from most of my readers. Most of you do not lie about
those five things. (I was made very happy by all the teenage non-drinkers. Yay, youse!)
Judging from your comments and my own experience here's my suggestion of a top five:
That you didn't do the thing your parents/teacher/boss busted you for
That your friends' clothes/appearance looks fine
Your health in order to get out of school/work
Height
Weight
I have lied about all of these. But not about no. 1 in a very long time. Or about no. 3 and no. 4 in ages. Haven't lied about no. 3 since I had a regular job. Sadly my no. 2 areas of lies is still going ...
Posted by Justine at 0:03, May 27th, 2009 under Bloggery, Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy |
My blog has no copy editor, no proof reader, and no fact checker. It's just me. Occasionally I'll get Scott or one of my friends to proof a post, but not often. They're busy. Even more rarely my readers will point out errors. Yesterday someone wrote and told me I'd misspelt Count Basie's name on my bio page. *Blushes*. I was extremely grateful. That mistake had already been there close to a year! Who knows how many more such errors there are all over this blog?
I'm not
a great speller and I find proper nouns especially difficult. The copy editors on my last two books, How To Ditch Your Fairy and Liar, found I'd spelled various of the characters ...
Posted by Justine at 18:03, May 15th, 2009 under Bloggery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar |
I have many many many posts in various states of undress, which I cannot get to because of other pressing matters. But I do not want to leave you with nothing so here is a sample of some links which have amused me:
Which monkey is cuter? Go to Jennifer Lynn Barnes' blog and
vote on which of her monkeys attracts more mates. I think it's completely obvious.
An excellent article by Meg Reid on the new Disney movie, which features a black princess.
This one just made me laugh. English writers
TAKE ON THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE and WIN. Cause that's how writing works. It's all a death match.
A
truly amazing artist, Ernie Barnes, dies.
On
exclamation ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, April 30th, 2009 under Bloggery |
Posted by Justine at 10:23, April 25th, 2009 under Bloggery |
Posted by Justine at 23:23, April 22nd, 2009 under Bloggery, Fashion |
Posted by Justine at 16:08, April 15th, 2009 under Bloggery, Frippery, Young Adult literature |
I started using
Twitter in earnest at 9:16 AM on the 5th of April, 2009 (Eastern Standard USian time).
And it was good.
Since then I have tweeted around 15 times a day. And that's only because I was restraining myself. Why did no one warn me how addictive the world of Twitter is? Damn your eyes!
I admit I was dubious. I signed on at first solely to follow two friends of mine back home in Sydney. Neither of whom blogs and we're not very good at writing each other. It worked. I feel much more in touch with them than I had previously. Though, ironically, I'm now tweeting way more than they are. See? Even on Twitter I am ...
Posted by Justine at 8:52, April 13th, 2009 under Bloggery |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, April 12th, 2009 under Bloggery, Liar, Vainglory |
I wasn't going to mention Maureen Johnson's
Blog Every Day Month (BEDA) thingie because I already blog every day and think those who don't already are losers lucky not to be addicted to blogging the way I am. Seriously I shake if I don't blog once a day. The only days I miss are when Scott drags me away to some benighted place without intramanet access. He claims these are "holidays" and I should be having "fun" on them. Where is the fun without my blog?
*Heh hem* I digress.
The point of this post is to publicly admit that what Maureen is doing this month is pretty amazing. See, Maureen doesn't blog the way I do. Her shortest posts ...
Posted by Justine at 10:58, April 9th, 2009 under Bloggery |
Posted by Justine at 16:45, April 6th, 2009 under Bloggery, Publishing business, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 9:14, April 6th, 2009 under Bloggery, Frippery |
Posted by Justine at 0:05, March 30th, 2009 under Bloggery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Publishing business, Young Adult literature |
