Archives
There are a number of requests that touch on the same theme of getting stuck:
Jonathan says:
I’d be very interested in the pushing a dead plot post, since that’s where my novel is at.
On the other hand, I sort of know the answer already---stop reading blogs, sit down, and write.
Sylvia_rachel says:
I second the request for a pushing-through-a-dead-plot post (or perhaps a figuring-out-who-the-villain-is post). My writing projects tend to start with a strongly felt character/voice or scene, and then I have to go looking for a plot — sometimes easily found, sometimes … not.
Quiz question: Lois McMaster Bujold has said that the way she finds plots for character-driven novels is (I’m paraphrasing) to figure out what’s the worst thing she ...
Posted by Justine at 19:57, January 5th, 2009 under Ideas, Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, December 3rd, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Scott's books, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
Scott and me are having a wee bit of an argument. He thinks I sign too slow on account of I like to chat to everyone and make my dedication as personal as possible. He thinks that's fine with a very short queue but when the line is long you owe it to the people standing in line waiting to go as fast as possible.
The argument arose because I had a big line at NCTE ((National Council of Teachers of English)) on account of the lovely
Professor Nana talked very enthusiastically about How To Ditch Your Fairy. Bless you!
In my defense
Where I was sitting I couldn't see the queue so I didn't know how long it was.
English ...
Posted by Justine at 0:37, November 25th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Fans & readers, Scott's books, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 13:20, November 21st, 2008 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, Fans & readers, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar Book, New York City/USA, Next novel, Scott's books, Writing process, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 16:05, November 20th, 2008 under Book tour, Fans & readers, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Publishing business, Scott's books |
Posted by Justine at 13:39, April 15th, 2008 under Publishing business, Scott's books, Sydney/Australia, Travelling, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:16, January 2nd, 2008 under Reading, Scott's books, Viewing, Writing process |
So I finally got
Scott's new look blog up and running. What a hassle that was! I always think it will be just an hour or two. Hah! Try several days of hassles. Especially as there was a migration of his site to a new server. Why is it always so hard?
Anyways . . . It's up and I think it looks great. Go take a squiz and tell me what you think. Though if you have any complaints tell Scott, not me!
All praise to
Sadish Balasubramanian who designed the very nifty and flexible
SeaShore template.
I was planning a redesign here to go with the new book but the very thought of going through that again makes ...
Posted by Justine at 16:10, December 16th, 2007 under Admin, Bloggery, Scott's books, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 12:12, December 8th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Scott's books, Writing life, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 12:52, October 20th, 2007 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Scott's books, Travelling |
She
says my man ain't pretty:
At 44, Westerfeld isn't just another pretty face. With his cropped, sandy hair, furrowed brow and somewhat lumpy nose, he's not "pretty" at all, but he understands the calculus of beauty and fame that wields increasing power in young-adult lives.
His nose is not lumpy! I love that nose! He is too pretty! ((Okay, not "pretty" as in the pretties of his Uglies series because, you know,
ewww!))
That Ms. Goodnow better not cross my path any time soon. Grrr!
If you skip that one evil and wrong paragraph it's actually
not a bad article. I spose.
Posted by Justine at 13:18, October 19th, 2007 under New York City/USA, Scott's books |
Day 11 of the tour:
Tonight's appearance at Books Inc (Opera Plaza) was fabulous. Lots of rabid, smart, enthusiastic Scott fans and passionate arguments about David/Zane. For the record I like Zane better than David but prefer Shay to either one of them.
The most wonderful part of the evening for me was meeting London, who's a guy from Sacramento, who drove all the way to San Francisco (which is at least two hours!) to tell me how much he loves my books. Isn't that awesome? Also turns out he's a Sacramento Monarchs fan and has even met their big star Yolanda Griffiths. I was deeply impressed and we got to talk women's hoops which always makes me happy.
Equally happy making ...
Posted by Justine at 2:49, October 10th, 2007 under Basketball, Fans & readers, Scott's books, Travelling |
If this is Sunday it must be Oakland. What do you mean it isn't Sunday?! But this is Oakland, right?
Today has not been one of my better efforts. Let's see:
I almost broke one of Scott's toes,
Put the "signed by" sticker on several of his books upside down (worst
jacket monkey ever),
Left my bag with our passports in it behind at a restaurant and then managed not to hear the poor waiter sprinting after me and shouting with said bag in hands (but we got the bag back! yay most excellent waiter!),
Fell asleep in the middle of Scott reading me this thingie he's working on. (He is a most excellent reader. I have ...
Posted by Justine at 23:11, October 6th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Scott's books, Travelling |
Last night we went to
Anderson's books in Naperville, Illinois. Much fun was had. Scott explained the origins of the Uglies series and of Extras. The first is all about our society's beauty obsession; the second deals with
the fame thing. There was lots of Q & A. The questions were ridiculously smart and interesting and there didn't seem to be a single person who hadn't read at least three or four of Scott's books so he didn't have to worry too much about spoilers.
During the hours and hours that he was signing for the smart and very appreciative crowd I got to hang out with some fabulous folk who ...
Posted by Justine at 12:45, October 3rd, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Manga, New York City/USA, Praising, Reading, Scott's books, Travelling |
Not my tour but
Scott's tour for his latest book Extras. It pubs on the 2nd of October and is deeply awesome. In fact, it's my favouritest of the Uglies series. Aya is my new hero.
I'll be along at most of the
public events. If you're around come and say hello.
I plan to keep blogging everyday. You know, on account of I'm addicted. I managed it every day we were away at Dragoncon so I don't see how a little tour will stop me.
Hey, does anyone who's been on a book tour before have any survival tips? (Other than
bring lots of shoes?)
Update: I'd be delighted to sign books. I may have to skip a few of ...
Posted by Justine at 6:25, September 28th, 2007 under Bloggery, Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, Praising, Scott's books, Travelling |
So I was asked to suggest good YA sf and I lamely suggested Scott's Uglies series, which I do indeed love, but everyone's already heard of them---especially folks who read this blog. (I'd also recommend his Fine Prey which I think totally works as YA, but it is pretty dirty---not to mention being out of print.)
Thing is though I've read a fair amount of YA sf in the last few years I haven't liked hardly any of it. A lot of it is bog standard: plots I've seen before, characters I've seen before, worlds I've seen before, and nothing new done with any of it. Vastly yawn-worthy.
Remember though I spent
more than eight years doing nothing but read science ...
Posted by Justine at 10:58, August 28th, 2007 under Reading, Scott's books, Young Adult literature |
Over at
insideadog Scott has had an attack of the
lolcats and defaced several fine Australian young adult book covers. I am deeply horrified. Has he no sense of the sacred?
If you feel the urge to vandalise some other book covers (they don't have to be Australian or young adult) post the links to your efforts in the
comments thread over there. The best ones will receive a lovely
Extras T-shirt. The contest is open until the end of the month and we'll announce the winners in early August.
Posted by Justine at 0:02, July 18th, 2007 under Bloggery, Frippery, Scott's books, Sydney/Australia |
I appear to have won an Andre Norton Award for the first book in the Magic or Madness trilogy. Someone pinch me!
This is super amazing because:
The
books on the shortlist with Magic or Madness are absolutely fantastic.
It means I'm in the very tiny club of Norton Award winners with the brilliant Holly Black who won the inaugural award last year for Valiant.
I've won an award named in honour of one of the
most important writers of young adult fantasy books. How cool is that?
Now when I'm described as an award-winning author it's true!
Here's the speech that Eloise Flood who published and edited the trilogy (as well as Scott's Peeps and Maureen's Devilish, which ...
Posted by Justine at 2:20, May 13th, 2007 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Vainglory, Young Adult literature |
The last ten days were bloody AWESOME. I don't have words. I met so many wonderful librarians, writers, students, teachers, booksellers, readers, and other peoples. All the appearances went splendidly. Texas rocks! I loves it! More details soon.
I plan to blog ever day for the next ten because after that we bugger off to Paris, Singapore and then three weeks back home in Australia and blogging opportunities are probably going to be thin on the ground. I read some wonderful books that I want to tell you about. I also have some writing theories I want to share. Not to mention all the appearances I'm doing this week.
There's been a micro kerfuffle while I was away because ...
Posted by Justine at 23:03, April 20th, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Scott's books, Travelling |
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 18:24, April 8th, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Cricket, New York City/USA, Scott's books, Sport, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 13:16, April 6th, 2007 under Scott's books, Writing goals & milestones |
Scott's working so hard that bicycles have started growing out of his head:
I'm afraid of what's next . . .
Posted by Justine at 18:31, March 28th, 2007 under Scott's books, Writing goals & milestones |
John Joseph Adams doesn't quite have the full set (that would be Scott who's not done his bit---he's too busy writing Extras) but here are his interviews with the other Norton nominees:
Maureen Johnson who's nominated for Devilish
me for Magic or Madness
Susan Beth Pfeffer for Life as we knew it
Megan Whalen Turner for King of Attolia
Pending: Scott Westerfeld for Touching Darkness and Peeps
I finally took a break from inhaling manga to inhale Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life as we knew it. Wow. I'll admit I'm fond of post-apocalypse books to start with, but this is a decidely superior example. I read it in one sitting. Could not put it down. Go forth and read! My only complaint: ...
Posted by Justine at 12:20, March 27th, 2007 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Manga, New York City/USA, Praising, Reading, Scott's books, Sydney/Australia, Vainglory, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 9:17, March 9th, 2007 under Fans & readers, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, Praising, Scott's books, Vainglory, Young Adult literature |
The Norton shortlist is now final:
Devilish---Maureen Johnson (Penguin Razorbill)
Magic or Madness---Justine Larbalestier (Penguin Razorbill)
Life As We Knew It---Susan Beth Pfeffer (Harcourt)
Midnighters 2: Touching Darkness---Scott Westerfeld (Harper Eos)
Peeps---Scott Westerfeld (Penguin Razorbill)
The King of Attolia---Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow Books HarperCollins)
All the books on the list are wonderful ((The only one I haven't yet read is the Pfeffer which I've heard from people I trust is amazing. I can't wait to get my mitts on it. )) (except mine obviously). I'm so honoured to be in such incredible company. Wow.
Yet despite the glories of Maureen's catholic school girls demon fighters and Scott's reimainged vampires and magic twenty-fifth hour, if I were to vote right now ((And if I were a member of SFWA.)) ...
Posted by Justine at 0:01, February 27th, 2007 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 16:02, February 1st, 2007 under Daughters of Earth, Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Vainglory |
Next Saturday, the 20th of January at 2PM, me and
Scott will be doing an appearance at the fabulous Kinokuniya bookshop. We'll be appearing with Deb Abela and Michael Parker and talking about science fiction and whatever else grabs our fancy. If you're around we'd love to see you.
To recap:
Where:
Kinokuniya Books
Galeries Victoria
500 George St, Sydney
When:
Saturday, 20 January 2PM
Who:
Deb Abela, me, Michael Parker and Scott Westerfeld
What: talking 'bout science fiction
Posted by Justine at 17:57, January 14th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Scott's books |
It has been brought to my attention through various means such as
comments here, my email box, and this
lovely loudmouth that me and Scott are on
the preliminary ballot for a
Norton Award.
What does that mean?
The award is given in memory of the late great Andre Norton to honour her considerable contribution to fantasy and sf young adult fiction. While it's administered by SFWA and is announced along with the Nebula Awards, it is not actually a Nebula Award. This is the second year the Norton Award has been given. Last year it went to the fabulous Valiant by Holly Black. Woo hoo! (And much fun was had celebrating that win, wasn't it, Holly?)
At ...
Posted by Justine at 8:02, January 11th, 2007 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Vainglory |
It's been another good year for me professionally and I will now skite about it: My second and third books, Magic Lessons and Daughters of Earth, were both published to some very nice
reviews and
reader responses. The whole Magic or Madness trilogy sold to
Editora Record in Brazil, Magic or Madness and Magic Lessons sold to
Mondadori in Italy, while Magic Lessons and Magic's Chld sold to
Amarin in Thailand. And then there was the recent sale of the trilogy to the
Science Fiction Book Club for a 3-in-1. Not to mention Magic Lessons being on the shortlist for the Aurealis.
It was a great year for
Scott who hit the ...
Posted by Justine at 9:50, December 31st, 2006 under Bloggery, Cricket, Daughters of Earth, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Last Day of the Year, Magic or Madness trilogy, Praising, Scott's books, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Vainglory, Writing goals & milestones |
Posted by Justine at 20:46, November 30th, 2006 under New York City/USA, Scott's books, State of the World, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 13:38, November 10th, 2006 under Food, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, Mangosteens, Scott's books, Travelling, Writing goals & milestones |
Posted by Justine at 18:39, September 20th, 2006 under Listening, Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Vainglory |
Posted by Justine at 6:28, September 13th, 2006 under Frippery, Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Titles & names, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:02, July 9th, 2006 under Scott's books, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 18:58, July 2nd, 2006 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Writing life |
Today Scott and me went into the Penguin offices to meet some of the people who sell, market and publicise our books. We ate yummy cheese, humus, tabouli, dolmades, grapes and strawberries, drank good (Aussie) wine and talked publishing.
We writers mostly work on our lonesome but we're actually part of a team. A really big team. I have a lot of contact with my editors, Eloise Flood and Liesa Abrams, and some with the rest of the
Razorbill team (especially Andy Ball and Margaret Wright), but much less with the other people who work on my books. Frankly, I'm not always sure what the folks in the other departments do. So it's fabulous to meet the people from online ...
Posted by Justine at 22:22, June 8th, 2006 under Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Publishing business, Scott's books |
Scott just hit his
tenth anniversary as a freelance writer. Congratulations, Mr Hardest-Working-Writer-I-Know.
He shares some cool statistics. Here's two:
in that time he's published well over one million words (gulp!),
and it took him eight years---that's right---eight years (!) before he was earning enough from writing under his own name to support himself.
Eight years is a loooong time and yet most writers don't ever earn enough to (comfortably) quit their day job. Scott has done very good indeed. I'm so proud.
Posted by Justine at 20:36, June 4th, 2006 under Praising, Publishing business, Scott's books, Writing life |
Even while I'm away at a convention good news arrives: Magic or Madness and Magic Lessons just sold to
Mondadori, the biggest publisher in Italy. Woo hoo!
I'm especially excited because I met the editor, Fiammetta Giorgi, in Bologna and she was not only elegant, cool and fun, but also had great taste. We talked for ages about our favourite young adult writers such as Holly Black and Diana Wynne Jones. And now I'm going to be part of her Dark Magic series. Yay!
Mondadori also publishes Scott, so we're now published by the same company in the US of A (Razorbill/Penguin), Australia (Penguin), France (Editions du Panama), Brazil (Editora Record) and now Italy. How cool is that?
Magic or Madness ...
Posted by Justine at 13:50, May 26th, 2006 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Reading, Scott's books, Vainglory, Writing life |
I am now the wife of a
New York Times bestselling author! Oh my Elvis! Specials is number six and we here in the Larbalestier/Westerfeld household are over the moon. The congrats are flooding in from all over and champagne will be drunk in large quantities tonight. Woo hoo!
But what does this actually mean? Don't worry you're not alone asking. Several of my non-publishing friends---yes, I do have them---have also asked why it's such a big deal.
The New York Times bestsellers list is one of the oldest lists going and definitely the most prestigious. It doesn't matter that there's a whiff of dodginess about how it's compiled.
As Scott points out, there ain't a bestseller list ...
Posted by Justine at 16:34, May 11th, 2006 under Praising, Scott's books |
Posted by Justine at 12:30, May 11th, 2006 under Praising, Scott's books |
For months now Scott's been getting stacks and stacks of queries from fans all desperate for the final book in the Uglies trilogy so that they can find out which boy the protag, Tally, ends up with: David or Zane? (
Check out the "reviews" here for an idea of what I'm talking about.) I'm starting to get my own trickle of mail asking about who Reason winds up with. (Satan! She winds up with Satan!---Just kidding. ((Or maybe I'm not kidding . . .
No, really, I'm totally kidding.
Maybe.)))
How did we get so obsessed with relationships? With who's zooming who? What gives?
Is it possible to write a popular novel series that's romance free? I'm trying to think of one and ...
Posted by Justine at 17:05, May 8th, 2006 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books |
This year has been full on for me and Scott thus far. Oodles of work travel (Brisbane, San Francisco, New York City,
Bologna, Brisbane), lots of new sales---
Brazil (me), Denmark (Scott), Sweden (Scott)---and I just heard news that MorM and ML have sold in yet another market. Hopefully I'll be able to tell you about it soon. We're both on the shortlists for some pretty awesome awards---the
Ethel Turner (me), the
MLA's Thumps Up (me, Scott), and the
Locus Awards (Scott)---and Scott's book
Specials came out this week and has been ranked very high ((As high as 232 overall and no. 5 on the bestselling teen books list. No. 2 if you just look ...
Posted by Justine at 12:03, May 3rd, 2006 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Sydney/Australia, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 16:57, May 1st, 2006 under Manga, Praising, Ranting, Reading, Scott's books |
This Thursday Scott and me will be at Galaxy Books signing our latest books. For me that's Magic Lessons (US import) and the paperback of Magic or Madness. For Scott it'll be the Oz edition of
Peeps, plus the UK Uglies and I'm sure all the rest of his extensive oeuvre. I really hope those of you what are in the vicinity of Sydney's CBD can make it.
Details as follows:
Thursday, 27 April, 6PM
Signing at
Galaxy Bookshop
Justine Larbalestier &
Scott Westerfeld
143 York Street
Sydney, New South Wales
Stay tuned to
Scott's blog cause it looks like there might be news of unsurpassed bigness in the next few days.
Meanwhile I continue to write many many many hours every day whipping ...
Posted by Justine at 21:34, April 24th, 2006 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 13:22, March 19th, 2006 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Cricket, Listening, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Reading, Scott's books, Young Adult literature |
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 |
Yup off to BrisVegas for Australian science fiction's
night of nights. Both Scott and me are up for an award---the same one. Wish us luck! (I hope Scott wins. If I win I'll have to come up with a speech. Blerk!)
I'm not taking my computer with me. You'll all have to suffer twenty-four hours without me. But keep the quessies coming! Will answer on my return.
Posted by Justine at 7:09, February 25th, 2006 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Scott's books, Sydney/Australia |
Interviews with
me and
Scott have gone up on Cynthia Leitich's fabbie blog,
Cynsations. The interviews were done because we're giving a couple of workshop thingies on writing synopses and on teen speak at
SCBWI's
Before-Bolonga Conference (which is why I answered the questions as if it was already March).
Via the
Lady Bond.
Posted by Justine at 7:50, February 18th, 2006 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Scott's books, Vainglory |
Apparently I'm married to a "whip smart" "softly spoken" and "laconic" Texan who's an "authority on all things trendy". Who knew? Check out Mike Shuttleworth's
excellent interview with Scott in the Melbourne Age. I love the photo!
(The Age requires registration but you can always go to
bugmenot for a user name and password.)
Posted by Justine at 18:57, January 29th, 2006 under Praising, Reading, Scott's books |
