Archives
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/Internetty Stuff, 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/Internetty Stuff, 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 |
Posted by Justine at 18:47, December 25th, 2008 under Cricket, Food, Praising, Sport, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 0:02, December 24th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Praising, Research |
Posted by Justine at 4:48, December 22nd, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Excuses, Praising, Research |
Posted by Justine at 4:49, December 20th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Praising, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 17:11, December 15th, 2008 under Praising, Sydney/Australia, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 0:25, December 14th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Fans & readers, Praising, Ranting, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, December 1st, 2008 under Fans & readers, Praising, Reading |
Posted by Justine at 10:58, November 28th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Praising, Vainglory |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, November 27th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Fans & readers, New York City/USA, Praising |
I have decided that I will do all future signings my way and ignore Scott's advice entirely. The only people who can tell me to hurry up when signing is whoever is running it. So there, Scott!
I hasten to add that crazy long signings are not a regular occurrence for me. They pretty much only happen at places like
NCTE or
TLA or on school visits. If I had lines like Scott gets routinely I would probably study how he gets through a line speedily while also managing to chat to those he's signing for. He is a master. He does in fifteen seconds what takes me a minute. ((This could be because he's a USian and I'm ...
Posted by Justine at 17:28, November 26th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Sydney/Australia, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 16:33, November 15th, 2008 under Frippery, New York City/USA, Praising |
Posted by Justine at 14:53, November 8th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Praising, State of the World |
Posted by Justine at 1:00, November 6th, 2008 under Praising, Ranting, Unicorns, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 1:00, November 3rd, 2008 under New York City/USA, Praising, State of the World |
Over at Daily Kos, Meteor Blades (via Scott) has an
article on accents in which he points out that, yes, everyone has one and quotes Geoffrey Nunberg
being smart on the same topic:
If authenticity is a matter of heeding your true inner voice, then it probably isn't surprising that people listen for signs of it in the way you speak. And our idea of an authentic accent reflects our idea of the authentic self. It's the natural speech you sucked up from the surroundings you grew up in, unfiltered and uncorrected. It's how you're supposed to sound when you're talking to yourself.
It's also a delusion. Or at least if your speech is like yourself, it's because both are ...
Posted by Justine at 11:46, November 1st, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Listening, New York City/USA, Praising, Sydney/Australia, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 29th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Praising, Travelling |
One of the biggest culture shocks for me as an Australian living (some of the time) in the USA is
voting. Every election year I've been here there have been
voter intimidation and
fraud scandals. Maybe I missed it, but that does not happen at home. Not every single election.
Seems to me that the aim in the US is to make voting as difficult as possible. Why? I don't get it. I've had friends disallowed to vote because the official said they had the wrong ID. It didn't exactly match the name on the voter rolls. As in, their driver's license had their middle name spelled out in full, "Rachel", but the voter roll had just ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 22nd, 2008 under New York City/USA, Praising, Ranting, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 1:00, October 19th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Praising, State of the World |
Allen & Unwin, my Australian publisher, has a blog:
Alien Onion. (See if you can figure out why it is thus named.) And they has written a post
welcoming me. I is dead chuffed. Thank 'ee!
There's also a
preview of the Oz cover of How To Ditch Your Fairy. See if you can spot what's different to the US cover.
Do check out the rest of
their blog it's the most lively fun publisher's blog I've seen. With lots of excellent guests and pictures of cake. I think it will give you an inkling of why I am so ecstatic that Allen & Unwin is my new Australian home.
Posted by Justine at 10:49, October 18th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Praising, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 12:54, October 15th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Praising, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 13:32, October 4th, 2008 under Praising, Viewing, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 14:08, October 3rd, 2008 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Praising, Viewing, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, September 30th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Book challenges, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Reading, Science, State of the World, Travelling, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 12:40, September 23rd, 2008 under Basketball, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, New York City/USA, Praising, Sport, Writing goals & milestones, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, September 12th, 2008 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Praising, Vainglory, Viewing |
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/Internetty Stuff, Excuses, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Praising, Science, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
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 16:45, July 31st, 2008 under Fans & readers, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
