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The event at
Books of Wonder with
Libba Bray,
Kristin Cashore,
Suzanne Collins, me and
Scott last night was astonishing. Several people said they thought there were around 200 people there. I could not possibly guess from where I was sitting, but it did indeed appear to be many.
Here's my bad fuzzy photo of the many:
It was pretty overwhelming to be on the bill with such popular writers, especially Suzanne Collins. For those who don't know, her two most recent novels, Hunger Games and Catching Fire are currently, and have been for some time, numbers one and two on The New York Times bestsellers list, selling bajillions of copies a week. The Books ...
Posted by Justine at 17:03, November 11th, 2009 under Book tour, New York City/USA, Writing life, Writing process, Young Adult literature |
Today Louisville's Courier-Journal has a most excellent article
about adults reading YA by Erin Keane. I don't just say that because I was interviewed for it, but because the article is smart and non-sensationalist, and includes some actual facts:
Young adult fiction's appeal has grown way beyond the school library. What was once considered entertainment for kids has become big business for adults, who are increasingly turning to the children's section for their own reading pleasure, according to publishing experts.
Nielsen's BookScan predicted U.S. book sales will remain flat this year, but amid this industry slump, sales of young-adult titles are expected to continue to rise. It's not only teenagers who are browsing the shelves
There's no hint of panic about this ...
Posted by Justine at 12:35, October 27th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
I now say a fond farewell to the peoples of the Pacific North West. Goodbye Seattle and Portland! What gorgeous cities you are. My timing was perfect: all the leaves were gold, red, maroon, pink, orange and brown. Spectacularly gorgeous. Also mostly the weather was crisp and clear. Only two raining days. Well done, Pacific North West.
My favourite part was getting to meet so many of the people who comment on this blog such as Pixelfish, Saints and Spinners, AndrewN, and the people I met last night whose names I've forgotten because my brain is fried. So sorry! And meeting Lizzy-wa and Captain Cockatiel again after two years.
The most amazing thing happened last night at the Clackamas Town Ctr Mall ...
Posted by Justine at 12:55, October 23rd, 2009 under Book tour, Liar, New York City/USA |
Today I fly to Seattle, which could not possibly be as cold and wet as it is here in New York City. Surely not?
Here are my public events in Seattle:
Monday, 19 October, 4:00 pm
Mukilteo Public Library
4675 Harbour Pointe Blvd.
Mukilteo, WA
Monday, 19 October, 7:00 pm
UWash Bookstore
4326 University Way N.E.
Seattle, WA
...
Posted by Justine at 8:54, October 18th, 2009 under Book tour, Liar, New York City/USA |
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 |
Yesterday was lovely. First up there was the flight from NYC. Well, okay, that was not lovely. Flying in the US rarely is. Ridiculously long security lines, having my luggage searched yet again and all my carefully packed to prevent wrinkling event clothes trashed, etc. However, I sat next to a book cover designer and we had a long goss about the industry and the flight arrived on time. So, really, it went better than usual.
Fist event of the tour was an interview with the fabulous
Justine magazine. Yes, there's a magazine named after me. ((They thought about calling it Larbalestier but were worried people wouldn't be able to spell it.)) We talked books, writing, and Elvis. Hey, I'm ...
Posted by Justine at 10:55, October 9th, 2009 under Book tour, New York City/USA |
Ever since I first became a part of the YA world, I've been noticing complaints that way too many YA books published in the US of A are set in New York City. Why can't other cities get a look in? they ask. Off the top of my head I can easily name many, many US YA books that are not set in NYC. But I think most people would concede that there are more YA books set in NYC than any other city or place in the USA.
There are lots of reasons. There's the famous
New York City bubble. People who live in NYC find it hard to believe there is anything of interest outside her five boroughs. ...
Posted by Justine at 8:13, October 2nd, 2009 under New York City/USA, Young Adult literature |
First I must make a confession: I was very nervous about reading
Zetta Elliott's
A Wish After Midnight despite all the good reviews it's had. I was nervous because it's self-published and I've had some bad experiences with self-published books. Midnight does show a few (minor) signs of not coming from an established publisher such as the margins and line spacing too tight. However, within a couple of pages I stopped being bothered by them, and a few pages after that I stopped seeing them at all because I was lost in the story.
I feel like A Wish After Midnight was designed with me in mind. Because it does so many things I love as well as working ...
Posted by Justine at 12:48, September 30th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Lately, I have heard several published white writers express their trepidation about the idea of writing non-white characters. Some of them have mentioned that they feel they'll get in trouble if they continue to write only white characters, but that they also feel they'll get into trouble if they write characters who aren't white cause they'll bugger it up.
Damned if you do, they say, damned if you don't.
To which I can only say, and I mean this nicely, "Please!"
What exactly are you risking? Who exactly is damning you? Which of your previously published novels have attracted no criticisms and no damnation? Cause that's amazing. You wrote a book no one critcised? Awesome. Please teach me that trick!
Every single book I've ...
Posted by Justine at 16:46, September 26th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Ranting, State of the World, Whingeing, Writing life, Writing process |
I now have almost all the dates and times for the
US Liar tour. For the first time ever I'll be doing some tour stops in the South and the Northwest. In fact, my only repeat visits are to Austin, Philadelphia and, of course, NYC. ((I mean, I live here half the year, I'll always do appearances in NYC.))
But first I must apologise. Profusely. Despite
what I said earlier, I will not be visiting Phoenix. I'm very disappointed. Phoenix was one of the first cities mentioned for this tour and the Bloomsbury publicists did every thing they could to make it happen. But alas. If it was down to me I'd spend a week in Phoenix visiting every ...
Posted by Justine at 12:01, September 13th, 2009 under Book tour, Liar, New York City/USA |
I have never ever wanted to learn to fly, yet
Sheri L. Smith's
Flygirl almost had me calling up flight schools. ((I suspect you need to know how to drive a car before you move on to planes. Not that I actually want to learn to fly or drive a car for that matter. Nasty smelly things.)) Ida Mae Jones lives to fly. So much so that she passes as a white woman in order to become a
WASP during World War II. The book is about race, class, gender, about friendship, obsession (for flying), love, and family.
Cut for mild spoilerage:
Posted by Justine at 13:12, September 8th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
In addition to my
Melbourne Writers Festival events---first one is
tomorrow with Scott and Isobelle Carmody *squee*---soon I'll be off on my second US tour. Pretty, exciting, eh?
I just added a few events to the
appearances page. So far I have events confirmed (or close to) for Phoenix,
Nashville, Memphis,
Austin, Seattle, Portland and New York City. I'm especially excited about those first three cities as I've never been to any of them before.
Also: Memphis = Gracelands = Justine hyperventilating. For those of who don't know, yes, I am a daggy Elvis fan. Goes back to
when I was very little.
There will be at least one or two more cities on my tour. ...
Posted by Justine at 21:58, August 21st, 2009 under Book tour, First Kiss, Frippery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, New York City/USA |
My last week in NYC I was invited to visit the studio where the audio book of Liar was being recorded. Even though I had a gazillion million things to do I made sure to get there. I'm so glad I did. It was an amazing experience.
I'd never had my prose read out loud by a talented actor like Channie Waites before. It was a revelation. I know it's a cliche but she really did make my book come alive. Bits that I hadn't realised were funny, she rendered funny. (In a good way!) It was strange and wonderful and gave me chills. And as you can see I'm really struggling to articulate how incredible it felt to listen to ...
Posted by Justine at 2:44, August 12th, 2009 under Liar, New York City/USA, Praising |
In the last few weeks as people have started reading the US ARC of Liar they have
also started asking why there is
such a
mismatch between how
Micah describes herself and the cover image. Micah is black with nappy hair which she wears natural and short. As you can see that description does not match the US cover.
Many people have been asking me how I feel about the US cover, why I allowed such a cover to appear on a book of mine, and why I haven't been speaking out about it.
Authors do not get final say on covers. Often they get no say at all....
Posted by Justine at 12:02, July 23rd, 2009 under Liar, New York City/USA, Publishing business, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
Before this past week I had never watched a congressional hearing before. In the ten years I've been living back and forth between Sydney and NYC I never found time to spend a few hours watching this variety of Washington theatre. I'm glad I did. In the course of several hours of listening to senators question Sonia Sotomayor to find out if she's qualified to be a Supreme Court justice I learned a bit more about the political process in the US and that Sotomayor is one of the calmest, most patient, smart and rational people on the planet. She was amazing.
But it turns out these hearings weren't really about her.
The hearings were about a
handful of white ...
Posted by Justine at 10:46, July 19th, 2009 under New York City/USA, State of the World |
Charles N. Brown was the publisher of Locus: The Magazine of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Field. He was well known throughout the SFF world for this love and support for the field and his enormous generosity.
I first met him at the 1993 World Fantasy Convention in Minneapolis ((I think. It was some time that year.)) when I was researching my PhD thesis. He was extremely enthusiastic about my research and gave me many leads and suggestions including inviting me to make use of his insanely extensive library in Oakland. His help was invaluable. He knew everyone and pretty much everything about SFF in the USA. We remained friends even after my defection to YA. My case is not ...
Posted by Justine at 14:21, July 13th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Praising, State of the World |
Posted by Justine at 12:21, July 6th, 2009 under Bloggery, New York City/USA, Publishing business |
Sunday afternoons are meant to be lazy. It's like a law. Which you're not allowed to ignore even if you have a tonne of work to do.
So Scott and me went to visit
Lauren McLaughlin and meet her and Woofy's new baby, Adelina. She's a darling. We were there for more than three hours and she didn't cry once. Astonishing!
Here's Addie after being fed:
Isn't she a darling? (Who is that strange man in the background?)
In other news the stalker contest continues. Many excellent entries. If you want to enter do so
over there not here.
And now I must get back to work. Sadly . . .
Posted by Justine at 16:40, July 5th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Praising |
Posted by Justine at 15:54, July 1st, 2009 under New York City/USA, Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
One of the hardest things for me in the US of A is getting a glass of water (or any other not hot beverage) without ice. The default, even in the very depths of winter, is a glass that's at least half ice, half water.
They even put ice in orange juice! In bubbly water! It's INSANE!
I do not get it. Why so much ice? Why do USians want to have their teeth painfully assaulted with sub-arctic temperature liquids?
Is that truly what they want?
I will never understand it.
Posted by Justine at 13:28, June 28th, 2009 under Frippery, New York City/USA, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 16:39, June 20th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Praising, Research |
Sometimes I think the best course of action for me is to simply not read anything in the New York Times
about books by women. I just wind up
cranky.
Today's piece by Janet Maslin on this summer's books by women was astonishing. On the one hand there's this:
The “Commencement” characters are savvy about, among other things, feminism and publishing. “When a woman writes a book that has anything to do with feelings or relationships, it’s either called chick lit or women’s fiction, right?” one of them asks. “But look at Updike, or Irving. Imagine if they’d been women. Just imagine. Someone would have slapped a pink cover onto ‘Rabbit at Rest,’ and poof, there goes the ...
Posted by Justine at 12:53, June 12th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Ranting, Reading |
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 11:20, May 31st, 2009 under New York City/USA, Publishing business |
By
TheChrisKnight: a musical take on
segregated proms in the south:
Posted by Justine at 9:22, May 30th, 2009 under New York City/USA, State of the World, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, May 29th, 2009 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Liar, Listening, New York City/USA |
Posted by Justine at 0:22, May 24th, 2009 under New York City/USA, State of the World |
Posted by Justine at 14:30, May 22nd, 2009 under Basketball, Frippery, New York City/USA |
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 2:02, May 2nd, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Listening, New York City/USA, Research, Viewing |
I think the most important thing you can do
today other than, you know, getting the workers' revolution going is to buy a copy of Maureen Johnson's
Suite Scarlett. It's Maureen Johnson's funniest book to date and is now appearing in the eminently affordable paperback edition.
Highlights include:
A most appealing heroine: I hug Scarlett to my chest!
Romance!
Romance gone wrong!
Romance gone right!
Romance gone in between!
New York City as you've never seen it before!
The shabby gentility of a crumbling hotel!
A crazy Broadway lady!
A unicycle-riding, prat-falling, seriously hot older brother, Spencer! ((I know he's fictional and much younger than me but I can't help it I really heart Spencer.))
Many!
Other!
Wonderful!
Things!
I urge you all to go forth and buy it! If you're broke ...
Posted by Justine at 13:07, May 1st, 2009 under Frippery, New York City/USA |
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 9:08, April 28th, 2009 under Cricket, New York City/USA |
Ever since I first started learning about publishing I've been hearing that the majority of the books published by legitimate publishing house don't earn out. But I've never seen any concrete evidence to back this claim up. Since I started learning about children's & young adult publishing I've been hearing that the majority of their books do earn out. I've heard the same about the romance genre.
As far as I know no publisher releases what percentage of their books earn out. All we have to go on is anecdotal evidence.
I'm starting to wonder whether this oft quoted stat---sometimes it's 7 out of 10 don't earn out; other times it's 9 out of 10---is solely about adult publishing. Because the same ...
Posted by Justine at 10:36, April 16th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Publishing business |
Remember way back on Wednesday when I previewed the
Oz cover of my next novel, Liar? Well, now it's time to have a squizz at what my publisher in the US of A came up with. This cover was so well received by sales and marketing at Bloomsbury that for the first time in my career a cover for one of my books became the image used for the front of the catalogue. Front of the catalogue! One of my books! Pretty cool, huh?
Apparently all the big booksellers went crazy for it. My agent says it was a huge hit in Bologna. And at TLA many librarians and teenagers told me they adore this cover. In fact one girl ...
Posted by Justine at 0:09, April 10th, 2009 under Liar, New York City/USA |
Posted by Justine at 13:32, April 7th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Research, State of the World |
I am extremely happy to let youse all know that I just said yes to a joint offer from
Bolinda in Australia and
Brilliance Audio in the USA to produce audio versions of How To Ditch Your Fairy and Liar.
This makes me especially happy as it guarantees an Australian actor will read How To Ditch Your Fairy. Yay! It will sound the way it's supposed to and not like Dick Van Dyke doing a cockney accent in Mary Poppins. ((Yes, I might possibly be referring to the audio version of the Magic or Madness trilogy. I might even be implying that it's unspeakably bad. Maybe.))
Will let you know as soon as I hear when the release dates will ...
Posted by Justine at 0:02, April 7th, 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, New York City/USA |
Posted by Justine at 8:43, April 5th, 2009 under Food, New York City/USA, Praising, Young Adult literature |
So now Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa ((At least I can spell "Iowa" without having to look it up!)) have legalised same-sex marriage. Hurrah for all three states!
Which state will be next? I hear that Vermont's governor is all set to veto the pro-love bill there. Which is weird, I honestly though Vermont would be one of the first states to give the green light to same sex marriage. Because I live there half the year, I'm hoping New York will be next, but the forces arrayed against love in my US home state are pretty strong.
Any of you got any bets on which state will be next?
I wonder too how long it will take before same-sex marriage is legal throughout ...
Posted by Justine at 9:25, April 4th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Praising, State of the World |
Posted by Justine at 11:00, April 3rd, 2009 under Liar, New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia, Titles & names |
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 |
Posted by Justine at 17:19, March 28th, 2009 under New York City/USA, State of the World |
Posted by Justine at 10:41, March 28th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Bloggery, 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 |
We've worked our way through the first season of Mad Men and I didn't enjoy it. I can see that it's well written and acted. The costumes and sets are remarkable. It has a very shiny kind of verisimilitude. I can see why it wins awards. But it leaves me cold.
Actually, worse than that---it make me uncomfortable and unhappy. I watch with pursed lips and my arms crossed tight.
I don't feel like they're exploring the sexism and racism of the period I feel that they're skirting a line towards reproducing it. Why are there no black characters? The black cleaner or lift operator could easily have been major characters. Instead they're rarely seen and less often heard. There are many ...
Posted by Justine at 0:50, March 23rd, 2009 under New York City/USA, Ranting, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 0:26, March 22nd, 2009 under New York City/USA, Writing life, Writing process |
I wonder why it is that women in sports get so little attention. Unless they're tennis or golf players and pretty. Or winning gold medals during the Olympics.
I've been following the
women's world cup online, but apparently I don't have much company online or offline where
very few folks have been going to their games. I don't get it. The NZ v Pakistan game sounds like it was amazing. Wish I'd been home to see it. ((Here's hoping the Kiwis can crush the Poms in the final. Guess, I'll find out when I wake up.)) Games were $5 each or $35 for a pass to see all of them. Standards were high yet attendance was crap.
And then there's ...
Posted by Justine at 0:44, March 21st, 2009 under Basketball, Cricket, New York City/USA, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
Our NYC Teen Author Festival event last night at the Mulberry Street Branch of the
NYPL was unbelievable. Over a hundred people showed up. Standing room only. And many of them were actual teenagers---YAY!---who asked incredibly good questions including one we'd none of us ever heard before. But more on that that below.
The event was to celebrate everything that Joe Monti has done for YA literature in the US of A. Joe used to be the YA buyer for Barnes & Noble. In that role he went out of his way to champion a whole host of fabulous books that otherwise might otherwise have disappeared. He was a supporter of Scott and mine and played a huge part in ...
Posted by Justine at 12:08, March 19th, 2009 under Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Young Adult literature |
To duck out of work and come see me and Alaya and Cassie and David and Diana and Holly and Scott make total fools of ourselves sharing our earliest attempts at writing, while Libba laughs her head off.
For extra incentive: in Sydney I unearthed a piece I wrote while in the thrall of Raymond Chandler at the age of 13 or 14. It involves a scary Erroll Flynn and has to be heard to be believed.
Details of this extraordinary event:
Juvenilia Smackdown
Monday, 16 March---otherwise known as TODAY---4-6pm, Tompkins Square Park branch of the NYPL, 331 E. 10th Street
Join
Holly Black, Cassandra Clare,
Alaya Dawn Johnson, Justine Larbalestier,
David Levithan,
Diana Peterfreund,
Scott Westerfeld as ...
Posted by Justine at 11:59, March 16th, 2009 under Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA |
