Archives
Posted by Justine at 4:48, December 22nd, 2008 under Bloggery, Excuses, Next novel, Praising, Research |
Posted by Justine at 14:35, December 6th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery, Excuses, Food, Frippery, New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 15:46, November 9th, 2008 under Bloggery, Excuses, Fans & readers, Liar Book, Next novel, Whingeing, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 1:00, November 4th, 2008 under Excuses, Liar Book, New York City/USA, State of the World, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, November 2nd, 2008 under Bloggery, Excuses, Frippery |
Posted by Justine at 14:09, October 29th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery, Excuses, Fans & readers |
I stopped studying maths in Year 7. Before that I'd made a bit of an effort but in my first year of high school (in New South Wales high school starts in Year 7) I downed tools. I was bored, annoyed, and couldn't see the point so I quit. Technically I kept going to maths class---it was compulsory until the end of Year 10---but I failed each year and was never made to repeat. I didn't learn anything new after Year 6.
At the time I thought it was excellent that I could get away with it. In class I read novels under the desk. I never studied and finished my maths exams quicker than anyone else cause I guessed all ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, September 9th, 2008 under Basketball, Bloggery, Excuses, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Praising, Science, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
Lately, I've been receiving a slew of lovely fan letters mostly about HTDYF but also about the trilogy. More than I've ever received before. Thank you so much.
I'm really sorry I haven't replied yet. Right now there are more than three thousand emails in my inbox. And lots and lots and lots of other more pressing matters---you know, the kind that pay bills---have to be dealt with before I can get to the non-urgent email. Please forgive me.
Obviously I'm not very good at managing my time, but I'm working on it. I will get to your letters I just don't know when. Please bear with me.
In the meantime, I remain committed to blogging every day. So if all else fails ...
Posted by Justine at 0:39, September 5th, 2008 under Excuses, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy |
Steam + eucaplytus oil
It may not cure anything but, damn, it eases the symptoms.
You?
Posted by Justine at 9:28, September 1st, 2008 under Excuses, Praising |
Posted by Justine at 14:00, June 19th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery, Excuses, Liar Book, Writing goals & milestones |
Posted by Justine at 18:44, June 17th, 2008 under Bloggery, Excuses, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Publishing business |
Rome was unbelievably wonderful especially the food. A friend of mine spent four months in Italy and gained around three kilos---I think I managed that in one week. Excellent!
I am at work on a post about the fabulous food we ate and a number of others---including another writing one ((See? I do listen to you. You ask that I blog it and blog it I will.))---but work on my next novel has got in the way of finishing them. Stupid novel! Not to mention the erraticness of our internet access. But, soon, my pretties, soon!
In the meantime I'm exhausted but happy: there's cricket on the tellie. All's right with the world. And even though England's doing kind of okay I ...
Posted by Justine at 19:11, March 24th, 2008 under Cricket, Excuses, Sport, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 11:44, February 25th, 2008 under Bloggery, Excuses, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 10:59, January 8th, 2008 under Bloggery, Excuses, Frippery, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 10:35, December 20th, 2007 under Excuses, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Writing goals & milestones |
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 |
I appear to have forgotten some vital password and so cannot access my email. I can read but I cannot send. Do not ask how this is so it just is. There'll be no email out of me till next week. Not that I've been that great at responding anyways . . .
Posted by Justine at 0:21, August 31st, 2007 under Excuses |
In my previous life I was an academic. Not a very successful or prolific one. I spent four and a half years researching and writing my PhD thesis, while on a scholarship and doing paid-by-the-hour teaching (what's known in the US as being a TA) as well as IT support. After that I was awarded a three-year post-doctoral fellowship that my university extended for nine months. In that time I wrote and published one book,
The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, and edited a collection of stories and essays,
Daughters of Earth as well as writing a bunch of essays and papers (and on the sly I wrote
short stories and a ...
Posted by Justine at 11:10, August 27th, 2007 under Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, Daughters of Earth, Excuses, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy |
I am in crunch time. I am in crunchy crunch time. The busyness I have been complaining about has rebounded on itself and leapt to a whole new level of busy. In a word: Aaaarggghh!!!!
I'm going to keep blogging. I made a little bet with myself to see if I could blog every day of July and so far so good. I hate to lose bets with myself. Especially fun ones. Also blogging kind of clears my head. Dunno why but when I'm deep in writing, blogging really helps me to unwind---that and a glass of wine.
However, I'll no longer be replying to comments as much as I have been (which I know has been down on what it used ...
Posted by Justine at 11:44, July 28th, 2007 under Bloggery, Excuses, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 1:02, June 30th, 2007 under Excuses, Whingeing |
Yes, my site has been down on and off since Friday. Ditto my email. Yes, it has driven me insane.
My apologies to anyone who's been sending me urgent emails. I now have close to a thousand unread emails waiting for me.
Brave new world of faster and better technology, eh?
Bah, humbug.
Posted by Justine at 22:59, June 18th, 2007 under Bloggery, Excuses, Ranting, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 17:12, June 10th, 2007 under Bloggery, Excuses, Whingeing, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
Because that's how much it's costing me to be online.
I may need to do hotel-hatred management classes fairly soon.
In short:
Adelaide still gorgeous, still full of churches.
The wedding was awesome. I'm a sucker for weddings at the best of times. But this was more excellent than most. The bride's speech rocked.
Despite the insane hotel gouging not allowing me to function in the 21st century, I'm more relaxed and happy than I've been in ages. Amazing how wonderful not working (and possibly not going online) and getting to hang out with my friends without feeling guilty is. More please!
Melbourne next. Where there will be much work and fun at Reading Matters. I'd link but that would lose me my second and third ...
Posted by Justine at 18:13, May 20th, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Excuses, Frippery, Praising, Sydney/Australia, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 12:44, April 14th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Excuses, Praising, Ranting, Scott's books, Travelling, Unicorns, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 10:07, February 13th, 2007 under Bloggery, Cricket, Excuses, Praising, Sport |
Posted by Justine at 18:04, January 25th, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Cricket, Excuses, Fashion, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 9:01, January 8th, 2007 under Cricket, Excuses, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Viewing, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
There's a bunch of kids playing loudly next door and one of them just yelled out, "I am the ruler of the universe!" I'm thinking that's not a bad resolution, but a tricky one to follow through on. The kid next door did not succeed, because now all the kids are yelling that they are the ruler of the universe. Scott included.
I like the idea of resolutions. I like the idea of trying to better or test yourself in some small concrete way. And I especially like the idea of lots of folks all over the place all resolving to do stuff at the same time. But like most everyone else I'm usually crap at sticking to them.
I was ...
Posted by Justine at 13:40, December 30th, 2006 under Excuses, Food, Frippery |
Posted by Justine at 9:47, December 26th, 2006 under Cricket, Excuses, Sport |
It's just come to my attention that something screwy has been happening with my mail for the last six weeks or so. If any of you have written to me in that time and I have not responded odds are I never got it or you never received my reply. If it's important or interesting or cool please resend.
At our new abode we do not have wireless intramanet access. This is a very good thing as I'm already getting more writing done than I do when I have the inertnetsy at my beck and call. (Or am I at its beck and call? Hmmm.)
However, it also means that I'm not getting through my mail (that which I've actually received) as ...
Posted by Justine at 15:00, December 7th, 2006 under Excuses |
Due to lots of very boring reasons, this year I read fewer books than I ever have before. Horrifying but true. I was even worse than I usually am at critiquing friends' manuscripts, for which I am truly and abjectly sorry. I regret, too, all the books people sent me that I didn't read. I suck. And, yes, I was also a horrible, horrible, horrible correspondent this year. I really hope next year will be better.
So here are some of the books I did read this year and highly recommend (you'll notice I don't give away much in the way of plot---that's because I hate knowing too much about books before I read them. I like surprises, me, and ...
Posted by Justine at 18:09, November 28th, 2006 under Excuses, Praising, Reading |
Posted by Justine at 23:59, September 21st, 2006 under Excuses, Liar Book, State of the World, Words & Language, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
I'm a big believer in community. I'm convinced that it's very very very difficult to produce good art without some kind of a community behind you. I can date the turnaround in my own writing to my first showing it to other writers. Their critiques hurt like hell, but my writing got better in ways it never would have otherwise.
The communities of writers and other publishing folks I'm involved with share a wealth of information with each other. We tell each other about which editors we enjoy working with and why, which houses have the best publicity/sales/marketing departments. Who got paid what by which house. When third person is a better fit than first. What the differences are between writing ...
Posted by Justine at 15:24, September 3rd, 2006 under Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Excuses, State of the World, Writing life |
Wow, thanks so much for all the fascinating responses to my last post. The reason I haven't commented (or responded to anyone's email) for the last five days was because I was in Kyoto with my family celebrating my mother's birthday (more on that anon). My mum didn't know me and my sister would be there so I could hardly blog about it before hand . . .
No time for a proper post so in the meantime can any of you help out
Rachel Manija Brown? She's looking for
good non-fiction books about particular cities. She explains what she's after
here. Clearly, she needs to be told about ace books on Sydney!
Posted by Justine at 10:03, August 3rd, 2006 under Bloggery, Excuses, Travelling |
You are correct that I have not been blogging much or responding to comments like I usually do or even responding to email a whole lot.
The reason is that I'm on a deadline (yes, the same one, yes, it was moved again, yes I really have to meet this one) and am working my arse off. (Oh, how I miss my arse!)
In the meantime I think you lot should entertain me. Here are some questions:
Does anyone have any recs for best brunch place in NYC?
Who's going to be the first Australian to win the Tour de France (no, it doesn't have to be this year)?
What's the best book you've read lately?
I just read
Out by Natuso Kirino. Loved it. ...
Posted by Justine at 11:18, July 16th, 2006 under Basketball, Bloggery, Excuses, Fashion, Food, Frippery, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Praising, Reading, Sport, Tour de France |
The combination of jetlag and a cold meant that I did not get as much out of this year's WisCon as I normally do. But
everybody else seemed to be having an
amazing time. There were a great many people there that I didn't even get a chance to say hello to like Suzy McKee Charnas, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Jay Lake, Kelly Link, Sharyn November, Nisi Shawl, Helen Pilinovsky and I hardly had a conversation of any length the whole weekend long.
But I did finally get to meet
Cherie Priest and she was just as fabulous as expected. More, even. (Thank you Liz Gorinsky for arranging it---lovely to see you, too!). As well as the ...
Posted by Justine at 18:35, May 30th, 2006 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Daughters of Earth, Excuses, New York City/USA, Travelling, Whingeing |
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 |
How's about that for a post title to put everyone off?
I've been hearing some complaints about writers who are too self promotery, who go on panels at cons waving their book around, saying,"Look at me! Look at me! I'm a published writer! Buy my book!" There are also complaints about certain writers' blogs which only talk about their books and their latest publishing news with links that only lead to places that sell their books. As well as whinges about the folks who relentlessly campaign for awards.
Accusations of being too self promotery make me a bit jittery. Promoting your books is part of a writer's job. If no one knows the book exists how is it going to sell? A ...
Posted by Justine at 1:53, March 1st, 2006 under Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, Bloggery, Excuses, Feminism, Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Ranting, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 8:26, January 17th, 2006 under Bloggery, Excuses, Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Writing life |
A friend just asked if I'm ever going to write another
musing again. She wonders if this blog has destroyed them for all time.
Tis true that I didn't write a single one in September or October, but then I hardly wrote an email in that time either. But just as I will write emails again, so too will I muse again. I've even got a bunch of half-written ones: about podcasts, the artist who's back to being known as prince again, about city hatred, being Australian, travelling, and about the nightmare of writing a mathematically gifted character (Reason in the Magic or Madness books when I am so not and how it gets harder with each book---not doing that ...
Posted by Justine at 10:55, November 3rd, 2005 under Bloggery, Excuses, Magic or Madness trilogy, State of the World |
Just read and giggled all over
this post by
Diana Peterfreund in which she wittily whinges about all the work she has to do (and skewers Star Wars). It struck a chord cause I was just about to whinge about the pageproofs of
Daughters of Earth which just landed in my life with a very heavy thunk.
Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
Diana (I'm taking liberties referring to her by first name, I don't actually know her, but I read her fabbie blog, so I feel like I know her) starts by referring to a
harder working writer who has family on top of it all, whereas Diana just has her sailor boy and a full-time job. I'm going to lower the ...
Posted by Justine at 13:45, October 24th, 2005 under Bloggery, Daughters of Earth, Excuses, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, Ranting, Travelling, Whingeing, Writing life |
We're only getting to the internet place once every three days (or so) and there's not enough time for me to do all the internetty stuff I wanna. Have to do all the biz, admin, and research stuff first. Sigh. So, I'm behind with all my fun correspondence. If I haven't writ it don't mean the love is gone. Honest. I haven't read anyone's blog, or newspapers, or anything since we left NYC. I have no idea what's happening in Sydney, NYC, or the rest of the world, or the blogsphere, or anywhere except our little bit of San Miguel. (Ask me about Luz's life and I can tell you anything you wanna know! Short version: she's doing great.) ...
Posted by Justine at 18:07, September 21st, 2005 under Excuses, Travelling |
I read Cotillion while on the recent London/Glasgow trip. Yes, that's right in eleven days I was able to read only one book. That should give you a measure of how busy the trip was and how knackered I was at the end of each day.
Anyway. I was delighted by the
response to my recent throw away
comments on Heyer, but because I was on said trip with scanty interweb thingy connectivity I was never able to respond to the
response. Sob.
In those
discussions Harriet mentioned Cotillion as one of her favourites which spurred me to pick it up for a reread. I adore the book. But I didn't always. On my first read as ...
Posted by Justine at 8:31, August 10th, 2005 under Excuses, Reading, Travelling |
a) our hotel is a long way from the con
b) intermittent web access
c) there's an incredibly exciting test match on
d) there are many excellent people to talk to and parties to attend
e) too damned tired!
Posted by Justine at 13:17, August 6th, 2005 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Excuses, Travelling |
We're in Glasgow. It's gorgeous and fun and you just can't get bored by
Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Trip so far:
London: great (though bloody expensive) food (
Niki and
Lauren &
Andrew have been most excellent guides), brilliant markets, cheap clothes (bought the most gorgeous 15 pound skirt). It's not the city I remember, though I did get some awe-inspiring rudeness---so it hasn't completely changed. Best restaurant was David Thompson's Thai one in Soho (I forget the name). Thompson's Australia's guru of Thai food. Was wonderful watching Lauren and Andrew's delight in finally trying decent Thai food. I also gave them their very first mangosteens. Heavenly!
Glasgow: gorgeous, love all the Rennie Mackintosh everywhere. Had the most brilliant black ...
Posted by Justine at 9:31, August 4th, 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Cricket, Excuses, Food, Liquids, Mangosteens, Sport, Travelling |
Done packing. Car gets here in 30 mins. Then it's into the big jetplane and across the skies till we get to London where
my sister lives. Can't wait.
Except that it's cold there. Sob. And even colder in Glasgow. Double sob. Just as it was getting to be a proper summer here we go somewhere damp and cold. What were we thinking?
Not sure what my internet access will be. Dunno if I'll post. But I've become a blogging addict so if I can I will.
Enjoy yourselves while I'm gone.
Posted by Justine at 18:31, July 28th, 2005 under Bloggery, Excuses, Travelling, Whingeing |
Should be writing, shouldn't be flibbergibberting all over the interwebby thingie. I think I'm addicted to
spirit fingers. It's my favourite blog eva! What's not to love? Its name is a reference to the
finest film ever made (except for all the other really good ones). Must stop reading through the archive, must stop spraying water over my laptop from laughing too hard. Must do some actual work.
Blogging has eaten my brain. I knew it!
Posted by Justine at 13:38, June 29th, 2005 under Excuses, Frippery, Whingeing |
and I'll write about sports if I want to! So stop emailing to tell me to post about "more interesting things." The very idea!
But there won't be much posting about anything---interesting or not---over the next few days. This is my last day to fix Daughters of Earth and the copyedited Magic Lessons just arrived and has to be back with my publisher by Tuesday morning.
Bye for now.
Posted by Justine at 11:55, June 17th, 2005 under Daughters of Earth, Excuses, Magic or Madness trilogy, Sport |
Raymond Chandler would lock himself in a room for four hours every day. In that time he didn't have to write, but he wasn't allowed to do anything else. Not write letters, do crossword puzzles, play solitaire, read the newspaper; he could only write. Eventually boredom forced him to it.
A writer friend of mine claims there is no such thing as writer's block, only writer's procrastination. "Writer's block," she claims, "has taken on a kind of mythic status for writers and wannabe writers, and become this curse or disease the hapless writer catches. Crap. It's laziness pure and simple. Anyone can write any damn time they want to.
"If I'm having difficulty getting going I just type ...
Posted by Justine at 22:59, January 9th, 2004 under Excuses, Listening, Magic or Madness trilogy, Musings, Travelling |
