Archives
Posted by Justine at 0:02, October 12th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Next novel, Reading, Research, State of the World, Toilets, Writing & Publishing |
Posted by Justine at 14:50, October 11th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Next novel, Research, Writing & Publishing |
Enough of you have been emailing to ask why I wants to know about
lying and
DNA testing and race that I feel I should offer some kind of explanation, or several even:
I am hard at work building a lie-and-DNA-detecting robot.
I was bored.
Maureen Johnson made me ask you cause she's too lazy to do her own research.
It's for my new novel.
It's procrastination to avoid work on my new novel on account of Scott took my IM capability away.
I am distracting myself from certain sad events on The Wire.
None of the above.
I hope that's cleared everything up to your satisfaction.
Posted by Justine at 0:00, February 21st, 2008 under Liar Book, Research, Writing & Publishing |
Than you so much for all the
excellent liar info yesterday. I'm now halfway through Paul Ekman's Emotions Revealed: Recognising Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life and finding it extraordinarily useful. Thanks to Gwenda Bond, Jenny Davidson and Malcolm Tredinnick for suggesting him. I'll be chasing down all the other leads as well. You are all the best research assistants ever!
Since you were all so amazingly helpful on yesterday's research question I have another:
Last year (I think) I read at least two articles about DNA testing being used in a classroom (or possibly classrooms) in California (but I may have the state wrong) to demonstrate that no one is racially "pure" and, indeed, to promote discussion ...
Posted by Justine at 10:55, February 20th, 2008 under Liar Book, Research, Writing & Publishing |
Have any of you ever taken a lie detection test of any kind? (Polygraph or written q & a or some other kind of test I have not read about yet.) If so would you care to tell me about it? Feel free to be anonymous in the comments if you'd prefer.
And more generally: for those of you who have told lies and gotten away with it---what's your method?
Do any of you believe you have the ability to tell when someone else is lying? Is it a general ability or just with people you know well?
Can any of you recommend any good non-fiction articles and books about lying? Most of what I've found so far has been deeply underwhelming.
Thanks!
And thanks ...
Posted by Justine at 11:33, February 19th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar Book, Research |
Vampires are so far ahead of the competition in my latest poll that it's ridiculous. Fifty-four per cent of my readers believe there are vastly more bad books about them than anything else on the list. Lagging way behind are faerie and witches at 9%. Daikaiju and ghouls got no votes at all.
On the other hand, my last piece of
intensive market research found that faery and vampires were the most popular creatures of the night. What to conclude?
People love vampires when done well, but hate them done badly.
There's a massive opening for novels about giant monsters and/or ghouls.
Therefore, my next novel clearly has to be about a (reimagined) vampire who battles giant monsters with the assistance ...
Posted by Justine at 10:28, February 15th, 2008 under Research, Writing & Publishing, Zombies, young adult literature |
I'm spending the weekend in upstate New York catching up with friends and researching snow for my next novel.
My research involved sitting in a rocking chair and staring out the window:
12:01PM
12:16PM
12:36PM (Can you see the red squirrel?)
1:33PM
Sadly, there is still not enough snow for snow shoeing, cross country skiing, or tobogganing. None of which I have ever done before even though my characters (pesky annoying things) have. But I have high hopes for tomorrow.
We went out for a walk. It were pretty and not scary cold (about 1C or 34F):
I was taught how to make snow balls, snow men, as well as snow angels. All of it fairly wet-making. But, I ...
Posted by Justine at 17:04, February 9th, 2008 under Research, Travelling |
If I decided that the current poll was a wee bit of market research I'd be feeling quite happy that my next book ((coming in September of this year and no longer called The Ultimate Fairy Book)) is a fairy book. Thing is though that it's not a f-a-e-r-i-e book. It's a f-a-i-r-y book.
What's the difference you ask? Well, in YA and children's publishing land there are dark, scary faery like those that Holly Black writes about, who would as soon gouge your eyes out as look at you. And then there's your pink, glittery, tinkerbell kind of fairy. A la all those of the Disney books etc. etc.
My fairies are probably more Disney than Holly Black. But they're ...
Posted by Justine at 10:01, February 2nd, 2008 under Frippery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Research, Words & Language, Writing & Publishing |
For research purposes, I am going to drastically increase my zombie culture consumption.
Thus far I've been reading and loving The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman. (I read the trades not the skinnies---so no spoilers for the latest issues!)
I also plan to read World War Z, An Oral History Of The Zombie War by Max Brooks. So no spoilers, people!
Update: Forgot to mention I have read the entire and very excellent Kelly Link zombie oeuvre.
What other zombie books and graphic novels should I be reading?
And there's the movies---because really the whole zombie thing is very movie driven.
Obviously I've seen and loved all the George Romero zombie films. Yum. My faves. Yes, even the recent Land of the Dead that I've ...
Posted by Justine at 12:11, July 27th, 2007 under Reading, Research, Viewing, Zombies |
El and
Rachel Brown correctly surmised that the fan half of
my question was inspired by
the bruhaha about whether John Scalzi should be nominated for a fan writing Hugo or not.
For the record: yes, Scalzi should, and I hope he wins for all the reasons that have been described in great detail
here,
here and
here. I'm also not comfortable with people telling other people that they are or aren't "fans" or "geeks" or anything else. Those are the kind of labels you get to choose for yourself.
The geek half was inspired by my being asked to contribute a story to an anthology about geeks and geekery. My instant response ...
Posted by Justine at 12:52, March 31st, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Cricket, Listening, Praising, Ranting, Reading, Research, Sport, Viewing, Words & Language |
Remember
way back when I asked you to help me to decide what to write next? You all told me the fairy book, which I dutifully wrote, but now I'm feeling all indecisive again. Can you help me out?
Here are the options:
The great Australian feminist monkey knife-fighting cricket Elvis mangosteen fairy novel . This one is written.
The compulsive liar book narrated by a---you guessed it---compulsive liar. Downside: will involve lots of outlining. I hates outlining. Plus it's going to be so hard! Upside: whenever I mention this one folks get very excited.
The beginnings of cricket historical romance. Downside: lots of research and all my cricket history books are in storage in Sydney. Upside: yumminess. I am besotted ...
Posted by Justine at 8:07, March 16th, 2007 under Liar Book, Manga, Research, Writing & Publishing |
So I have a genius idea for a book ((Scott does not believe in the existence of this genius idea. He thinks I just like watching the same old movies over and over. I'll show him!)) that requires me to watch lots of old American movies from the 1930s, 40s and 50s. It's tough but someone has to do it. Plus Scott's never seen a lot of these movies and I consider that to be criminal. Do you know before he met me he'd never even heard of Preston Sturges? What kind of a life is that?
So far we've worked our way through the films of (natch) Preston Sturges, George Cukor, and Douglas Sirk. As well as almost all the ...
Posted by Justine at 0:01, October 1st, 2006 under New York City/USA, Praising, Research, Viewing, Writing & Publishing |
My intensive google research has revealed that there is no biography of Fredi Washington. I demand that one of you get off your arse and write one immediately! (Or use your better research skills to find me one.)
Who is Fredi Washington, you ask? Why, let me tell you:
Fredi Washington was a light-skinned black actor and dancer. She largely starred in movies for the Jim Crow circuit and often with her skin darkened. She was such a compelling screen presence that the Hollywood bigwigs in the thirties offered to make her a big star if she'd pass as white. She told 'em all where to go. Yay, Fredi! (I also ...
Posted by Justine at 0:07, September 27th, 2006 under Research, State of the World, Viewing, Writing & Publishing |
a partial account of Justine's research into Judith Merril and co. in New York City in the 1940s and 1950s
Posted by Justine at 21:59, November 28th, 2002 under Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, Musings, New York City/USA, Research |
all about the excellence of archives, libraries, librarians and archivists
Posted by Justine at 17:39, August 19th, 2002 under Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, Musings, New York City/USA, Reading, Research, Sydney/Australia |
