Archives
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.
Kristin Cashore is one of the bright new stars of YA fantasy. I met her at a Books of Wonder event last year and we had a lovely time gossiping talking of serious matters and have been pen pals ((I love the phrase "pen pal." It's so ...
Posted by Justine at 17:01, March 16th, 2010 under Guest post, Praising, Writing life, Writing process |
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 is
Baby Power Dyke whose blog I discovered last year and instantly fell in love with. She's rude, smart and funny. We have shared crushes on Rachel Maddow and Melissa Harris-Lacewell. So, clearly, she has excellent tase. She is my kind of a gal. ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, February 25th, 2010 under Guest post, New York City/USA, Praising, Ranting, State of the World |
First a confession: I love
Sir Kingsley Amis. That's why the heading of this post says "Kingsley & I" rather than "Kingsley & me" (which is my preference cause I reckon it sounds better) but not old Kingsley, he was a sucker for good grammar. ((He would be appalled by my grammar, spelling, and punctuation skills. Or lack thereof. Sorry, Kingsley.)) I does not wish to offend him. ((Though I do feel free to use his first name. I guess I've been reading him for so long I feel that we are now mates. A very safe feeling what with him being dead and all.))
I love Kingsley Amis for so many reasons. Because he's dead funny, because he wrote ...
Posted by Justine at 22:08, January 31st, 2010 under Liquids, Praising, Reading |
My romance reading project continues and I realise that I haven't explained what the project is. Very remiss of me! A few of the many books I'm writing at the moment are romances. I'm using that term very broadly to mean not just the publishing genre, but pretty much any book in which the romance between two or more characters is a big part of the overall story. To put it in fandom terms, I guess I'm talking about the kinds of stories that lend themselves to shipping.
For a long while now I've been aware that writing romance is not my strong point. While I love many of them as a reader, somehow I'm not quite able to write that ...
Posted by Justine at 22:57, January 15th, 2010 under Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
I recently read House of Mirth by Edith Wharton for the first time and I was gutted. Unlike, most USians, who've at least some inkling of what to expect from a Wharton book I had zero expectations or, rather, zero correct expectations. Wharton is not nearly so well known here as she is in her native country. Those Aussies who do know Wharton tend to know her from the Hollywood adaptations of her novels. I have managed to see none of them. So, I went in to the House of Mirth blind, like a lamb to the slaughter. Let me tell you: There was NO mirth.
I also went in kind of expecting her to be the USA's Jane Austen. I ...
Posted by Justine at 23:57, December 21st, 2009 under Praising, Reading |
Well, that was pure unalloyed pleasure. Though I wish I'd written this post immediately after finishing Persuasion, rather than now, when I'm still in post traumatic stress from having just read House of Mirth for the first time. ((More on that in another post. Complete with a detailed description of just how hard I wish to shake Selden and Lily Bart. Aaargh!))
Heh hem. Persuasion. Love it. Remains my favourite Jane Austen. With Pride & Prejudice only slightly behind. As I'm doing all this (re)reading in order to think about romance and heroines let's start there.
The Romance: This books seethes. It's full of glances, almost everything between Anne & Wentworth is unspoken. Until they get to Bath that is, ...
Posted by Justine at 18:43, December 20th, 2009 under Praising, Reading |
Well, that was a long break, wasn't it? I return refreshed and ready to resume blogging activities.
First boring admin: I have yet to tackle my mail, given all the totally urgent work on my plate, I won't get to it until the new year. Resend if urgent. I do try to answer all mail so if I still don't answer in January could be my spam filters ate it.
And now
some commentary over at the
Misfits' Book Club on the new covers of
E. Lockhart's Ruby Oliver books. It made me really happy for two reasons:
It's a very interesting discussion of covers. I've been working on a big fat post about covers for a while now. ...
Posted by Justine at 18:36, December 16th, 2009 under Admin, Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
I have fallen in love with yet another city. Istanbul is glorious. We have met with our lovely agent here, Asli Ermiş, who took us to meet our publishers, Omer Yenici at
Epsilon (who will be publishing Leviathan) and Ilgin Toydemir at
Artemis (who will be publishing Liar and already publish Midnighters). They in turn took us out for fabulous lunches.
In Istanbul we have eaten.
A lot.
First course at
Borsa restaurant.
A baklava shop, which sells many sweet and wondrous things. Yes, we bought and we ate.
The Egyptian spice market....
Posted by Justine at 5:54, December 11th, 2009 under Excuses, Food, Praising, Publishing business, Travelling |
Today (yesterday) I had my last school events of the Liar tour at Joliet West High School and Glenbard South High School in the outer suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. The students at both schools were amazing and asked many smart, engaged, funny questions. It was a total pleasure to meet you all. Thank you.
In other news
Cristina Hernadez posted her midterm project for her painting class on her blog and I was so impressed I asked if I could share it with you here. Remember, Cristina? She's the one who photoshopped a very
disturbing version of Maureen Johnson's Suite Scarlett.
Here's her midterm painting:
Wow, huh? Cristina also had to write an essay about the painting and I ...
Posted by Justine at 3:10, November 5th, 2009 under Book tour, Ideas, Liar, Love is Hell, Praising, Writing process |
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 |
In the last few weeks I've spent an inordinate amount of time talking about the writing of Liar and making much use of
jigsaws as a metaphor to describe said writing. Turns out that Margaret Drabble has also been thinking long and hard about jigsaw puzzles---longer and harder than me, truth be told--- ((Though can truth be told when I'm discussing Liar?)) and has written a whole book on the subject: The Pattern In The Carpet, which I am now longing to read.
You all need to listen to this
interview with Margaret Drabble about her personal history with jigsaws. Romana Koval is one of my favourite interviewers and the whole thing is utterly delightful from start ...
Posted by Justine at 19:37, October 26th, 2009 under Book tour, Liar, Listening, Praising |
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 |
Today, as I'm sure you know, is the official release day of
Scott Westerfeld's latest novel,
Leviathan. I am completely biased about this book. As I am about Scott. He's my husband, my best friend, my first reader, my ally, my So Many Things. We read and critique every word each other writes. His books are my books and vice versa. So, um, you can totally grain-of-salt what I'm about to say.
I think this trilogy is the best YA Scott has written. ((I may be slightly jumping the gun because I've only read the first two books, Leviathan and Behemoth (which will be out this time next year).)) I've loved it ever since he first started talking about ...
Posted by Justine at 11:43, October 6th, 2009 under Praising, Scott's books |
Several months ago, the agent Kristin Nelson got in contact with me via my agent to ask if I would take a look at the debut novel of one of her clients with a view to blurbing it. I agreed to do so, mostly because I love
Nelson's blog, but warned that I rarely blurb cause I only do so when I'm excited about a book. I am picky.
But the book---
Megan Crewe's Give Up the Ghost---hit all my sweet spots. For starters it was a ghost story. I adore a good ghost story. Secondly, it wasn't the same old, same old ghost story. It surprised me. It was fresh, original and sweet and I cried when it ended. ...
Posted by Justine at 10:49, September 23rd, 2009 under Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
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 |
I has one.
Back in May I mentioned that I wanted one on account of all the elecronic documents I read. I tried reading on my iPhone but it did not work out: too small and awkward.
After talking to friends and hearing what youse lot think I wound up getting a Sony 505. While it's not perfect and lacks many features I want, ((It does not produce mangosteens whenever I want them or set off fireworks. Honestly!)) it's made a huge difference. While flying home to Sydney, I did not have to carry the usual 5 books in my backpack on top of the entire suitcase of books. All I carried was the eReader. My back thanks me. ...
Posted by Justine at 18:56, August 31st, 2009 under Admin, Praising, Reading |
Yes, I seem
to have become one of those birdwatching types. What of it?
rainbow lorikeets
sulphur crested cockatoos
crows
flying foxes
magpies
myna birds (alas)
spotted turtledove
pied currawong
noisy miner
white ibis
ducks (!)
pigeons
sea gulls
And a tiny little wee birdie smaller than the palm of my hand that I haven't been able to identify. Zips by too fast for me to even figure out what colour it is. I'd love to hear any suggestions as to what it might be. I am new to this birdwatching caper.
Here's this morning's sunrise:
First bird I heard this morning: rainbow lorikeet. They really do have the happiest-making calls.
Posted by Justine at 20:27, August 19th, 2009 under Praising, Sydney/Australia |
Since
everyone else is professing their love for
Strange Horizons and urging folks to support their
fund raising efforts I thought that I would jump on the band wagon. What can I say? I'm a sheep.
Like Scalzi and Nora,
my first fiction sale was to Strange Horizons way back in 2001. At the time I had been trying to sell one of my short stories for just about a gazillion years. I thought it would never happen. So I would love them for that alone. But that is not even close to the best thing about Strange Horizons I love it and read it because it is a breath of fresh air in the stale ...
Posted by Justine at 22:19, August 16th, 2009 under Praising, Writing goals & milestones |
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 |
Sometimes when people read a book of mine and tell me it reminds them of some other book, especially if I have not read that book, I get in a snit. I am well aware that this reflects very poorly upon me. Please don't judge. ((Well, not too harshly.)) So when I was told that Liar was reminiscent of
Jacqueline Woodson's If You Come Softly ((And I'm very embarrassed by this but I can't remember who told me.)) my first reaction was pursed lipped muttering to myself about the special petal-ness of Liar and how it's not like any other book ever. ((Which is utter rubbish. Any book that was not like any other book ever would be completely ...
Posted by Justine at 1:11, August 11th, 2009 under Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
As you've probably heard by now Liar is getting a new cover for its publication in October. ((No, it's not actually out yet.)) First Bloomsbury considered going with the Australian jacket of Liar and specifically with the black and red version you can see
here because that would be the easiest thing to do. The design already exists after all and the window to make the change was very narrow.
However, given the paucity of black faces on YA covers, and the intensity of the debate around the original Liar cover, Bloomsbury felt really strongly that a more representative approach was needed. Rather than using a stock photo, Bloomsbury went the whole hog and did a photo shoot. The ...
Posted by Justine at 17:41, August 6th, 2009 under Liar, Praising, State of the World |
I always forget how gorgeous Sydney is.
Having highs in the late teens/ early twenties celsius in the middle of winter is how it should be.
Saw my first flock of rainbow lorikeets at 8AM walking up the hill around the corner from the flat. I'm home, I thought.
Sometimes NYC being a very long way away is a truly marvellous thing. I feel my head clearing by the second.
There were mangosteens at the local grocery. If that's not a sign of goodness I don't know what is.
Posted by Justine at 1:51, July 29th, 2009 under Praising, Sydney/Australia |
Because I'm in transit, ((These two guest posts are timed to post while I'm travelling. If your comments get stuck in moderation you'll have to be patient. Sorry.)) I asked
Ari if she would step in for me today and tomorrow, and she kindly said yes. Thanks, Ari!
A little bit about Ari MissAttitude: I'm a teenager who loves to read, dance, laugh, listen to music and just live! I also love my fine brown skin =) I started my blog
Reading in Color because I would visit teen book blogs and I never saw reviews of books with poc (people of color). This frustrated me so I decided to start my own blog in an attempt to slightly ...
Posted by Justine at 7:24, July 27th, 2009 under Guest post, Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
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 |
This year my favourite show is
Avatar . Scott and me watched all three seasons in a greedy one-week rush. Loved it, loved it, loved it. If you haven't seen it you really really should.
Ever since I've been wanting to watch something that hits the same spot. Thus far without a lot of success. Miyazake's films, which I adore, have some of the same feel, but I'm in the mood for a series, not a standalone movies. I want interesting world building, plots that make sense, strong female characters.
The last is particularly important to me. We've been watching
Death Note and while there's a lot I like about it, the main female character, Misa Amane, is absolutely ...
Posted by Justine at 13:43, July 18th, 2009 under Praising, Viewing |
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 |
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 |
Posted by Justine at 16:39, June 20th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Praising, Research |
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 0:23, May 9th, 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Praising, What's your fairy? |
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 13:10, April 18th, 2009 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Praising |
Posted by Justine at 0:02, April 8th, 2009 under Liar, Praising, Publishing business |
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 |
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 |
Posted by Justine at 13:59, March 15th, 2009 under Cricket, Magic or Madness trilogy, Praising, Sport |
Posted by Justine at 6:41, March 9th, 2009 under Praising, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 6:54, February 24th, 2009 under Book tour, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Praising, Publishing business, Sydney/Australia, Travelling |
Did I mention that I have a new How To Ditch Your Fairy cover for the US paperback?
Behold:
Posted by Justine at 16:15, February 19th, 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Praising |
Posted by Justine at 7:15, February 19th, 2009 under Praising, Sydney/Australia, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 2:18, February 10th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Liar, Praising, Science, Sydney/Australia, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 11:59, February 7th, 2009 under Cricket, Praising, Sport |
Posted by Justine at 0:35, February 1st, 2009 under Bloggery, Magic or Madness trilogy, Praising, State of the World, Writing life |
Monica says:
I have a hard time reading other novels without getting drawn in and forgetting to analyze and learn from them. Any tips?
Mary Elizabeth S. says:
A while back, you mentioned something about writing out scenes from books you liked in order to try and figure out how they worked and why. It was only mentioned in passing, and you were going to expound on it but never got the chance. (Of course, now I can’t find that post to save me life, and am wondering if I haven’t gone a bit crazy…) I’d like to know more about that exercise.
Funny you should ask, Monica, because your question overlaps with Mary Elizabeth's. One of the best ways to avoid getting sucked ...
Posted by Justine at 0:46, January 27th, 2009 under Praising, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 16:19, January 26th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Praising, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 23:12, January 20th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Praising, State of the World, Viewing |
"Write what you know" is one of the most frequent pieces of writing advice. Problem is, it's rubbish. As Cat Sparks discusses at length in
this excellent post:
We've all heard that old adage 'write what you know'. Well, that's a damn fine idea if you happen to be an articulate astronaut, outback adventurer, brain surgeon, fashionista, rock star, molecular biologist or trapeze artist. But if, like me, you're just another white middle class wage slave, maybe you want to rethink that hoary old chestnut. Because maybe we just aren't that interesting and maybe what we know about is duller than a public service tea break. I have developed a better idea. Find something you don't know much about, learn ...
Posted by Justine at 0:34, December 29th, 2008 under Bloggery, Praising, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 5:19, December 26th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Fans & readers, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, Mangosteens, Praising, Reading, Sport, Young Adult literature |
