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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 |
Magic or Madness just made its fifth best books of the year list with its inclusion on
Locus' 2005 Recommended Reading List. I'm in ace company with the likes of Elizabeth Bear, Judith Berman and John Scalzi. Scott made the YA list along with Holly Black and Carol Emshwiller and other excellencies. Best of all they listed Midnighters 2: Touching Darkness which has been mostly ignored by the other lists. Dunno why. It's fabulous.
Anyways, I'm off to stick my head in a bucket of cold water in hopes of reducing the swelling.
Posted by Justine at 11:21, January 29th, 2006 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Vainglory |
The
Young Adult Library Services Association has just announced its lists of recommended books for 2005. Getting on one of these lists is a very big deal because they are frequently used as a guide for building a collection etc. The two main lists are the
Best Books for Young Adults (BBYA) and the
Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.
This year both Scott and me were on the BBYA. I'm so thrilled. Magic or Madness is one of the best young adult books of the year! Woo hoo! Even cooler, Scott made the list with two books, Peeps and Uglies, and Peeps was on the
top ten BBYA of the year. How bout that?!
Here's my ...
Posted by Justine at 7:26, January 26th, 2006 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Vainglory, Young Adult literature |
Scott's Peeps is a
BCCB blue ribbon book.
And I finished the (very sketchy) first draft of Magic! Magic! Magic! Oi! Oi! Oi! Hallelujah!
Off to read the last few chapters to Scott and drink champagne. Not necessarily in that order . . .
Posted by Justine at 16:40, January 15th, 2006 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books |
Wow, thanks to everyone for sharing all their
writers' humiliations. Apparently I'm not alone!
This post is for the bookseller who wrote to tell me that if I went to her bookshop I could sign whatever books I wanted.
On the same day I had my less than stellar experience at a chain I also visited
Galaxy,
Kinokuniya,
Gleebooks and
Better Read than Dead. All of them had many copies of Scott's books and all told me that Uglies in particular is flying off the shelves. And they all had the Oz version of Magic or Madness and were very keen on me signing them. At Galaxy I didn't even have to ask. Bless Galaxy. They rolled ...
Posted by Justine at 8:31, January 5th, 2006 under Bloggery, Magic or Madness trilogy, Manga, Praising, Reading, Scott's books, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 20:40, December 31st, 2005 under Bloggery, Last Day of the Year, Magic or Madness trilogy, Praising, Reading, Scott's books, Sydney/Australia, Vainglory, Writing goals & milestones |
I mentioned
a while ago that both
Scott and me had made SLJ's best books of the year list. That issue is
now available. I was very pleased by their description of
Magic or Madness:
In this Australian page-turner, a resourceful teen tries to sort out her contentious family's secrets and is astonishingly transported to New York City via a portal in her grandmother's house. A potent mix of mystery and magic with a thoughtful exploration of personal-identity issues and familial relationships.
It also turns out that Scott has not one, but two books on the list:
Peeps and
Uglies. I'm dead proud. It's one thing to be prolific, it's another to be prolific and ...
Posted by Justine at 11:18, December 29th, 2005 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Vainglory |
A few things:
1) I got my intramanet back!! In my very own home. My excitement is beyond words: email! dictionaries! blogs! posts! The whole world at my fingertips!
2) Magic or Madness made its third best books of the year list, the
Tayshas reading list put together by the Young Adult Round Table of the Texas Library Association. I'm particularly chuffed about this one on account of I got family in Texas---that's where my in-laws hail from and my uncle-in-law is the principal of a high school in Houston. Also there are many very cool books on the list. Not just Scott's Uglies, but the work of at least two other Aussies: Fiona McIntosh's Myrren's Gift and Marcus Zusak's I ...
Posted by Justine at 18:55, December 5th, 2005 under Bloggery, Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Sydney/Australia, Vainglory, Viewing, Young Adult literature |
I just found out that both Scott and me made
School Library Journal's best books of 2005 list. Scott for
Peeps and me (obviously) for
Magic or Madness. We is most happy. For me it's more icing on an already well-iced cake.
I'd like to take a moment to (incoherently and jetlaggedly) say how amazed I am by how Morm has been doing. It's my first novel. I've seen lots of first novels published, so I knew what to expect. The
reviews have been amazing, the placement in bookshops, and the response from readers. After we hooked up with our foreign rights agent, Whitney Lee, I had hopes of selling into countries other than the US and ...
Posted by Justine at 6:45, November 15th, 2005 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Praising, Scott's books, Vainglory, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 13:43, October 20th, 2005 under Basketball, Cons & Other Gatherings, Cricket, Food, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liquids, Listening, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Scott's books, Sport, Travelling, Words & Language, Young Adult literature |
I don't want to rubbish a whole city, especially when I was only there for a few hours, but Atlantic City is an erky perky bleah of a place. Friends warned me it was a shithole---I had no idea they were being kind. It's ugly, full of the most hideous buildings ever built and populated by zombie gamblers, who are served by an army of twelve-year-old incompetent staff. Once you're inside one of the casinos it's almost impossible to get out again. All signs lead to more gambling areas. I'm convinced that hell will be nothing but Atlantic City casinos.
This is heresy for an Australian, but, I hate gambling. I love cards and I'll bet on them, but not with ...
Posted by Justine at 9:56, October 19th, 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Ranting, Reading, Science, Scott's books, State of the World, Travelling, Viewing, Whingeing, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 16:19, October 18th, 2005 under Scott's books, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature |
Next week is Teen Read Week and me and Scott will be doing a bunch of readings and signings around the traps.
First up, the very day after we get back from Mexico, so expect us to be full of Mexican cheer (I plan to wear my Mexican cowboy hat and may do the entire reading in Spanish):
Sunday 16 October, 6:00PM
Justine Larbalestier
Bennett Madison
Scott Westerfeld
Barbès Reading Series
376 Ninth Street (at 6th Ave.)
Barbès Bar
Park Slope, Brooklyn
New York
I'll be reading from Magic Lessons the sequel to Magic or Madness in a way that gives absolutely nothing away if you haven't read the first book. I'll also read a wee bit from a brand-new novel I've been working on. Scott will ...
Posted by Justine at 14:20, October 14th, 2005 under Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Reading, Scott's books, Travelling, Young Adult literature |
I'm the invisible one.
Posted by Justine at 12:54, October 7th, 2005 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Travelling, Writing life |
Word count: 15,000
Average word count: 2,500 a day ((Look, I know word counts are spectacularly boring to everyone accept the person counting the words, but, mate, I'm bloody screaming along! Normally, when I'm starting a book I can barely scrape a thousand words a day together. I can't believe how the words are pouring out of me! I mean, it's the final book of me trilogy, I thought it was going to be horrible agony. I thought I had no idea what was going to happen. And here the book is practically writing itself! Maaate! Fingers crossed that I have not spoken too soon. Not superstitious, me.))
We arrived in the middle of the anniversary of the first Mexican revolution. Many ...
Posted by Justine at 19:06, September 21st, 2005 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Travelling, Viewing |
Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps,
Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps,
Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps,
Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, ...
Posted by Justine at 23:37, August 22nd, 2005 under Scott's books, Young Adult literature |
Scott finally wrote a new post and it mocks a New York Times
book review. Also he has news of yet another foreign sale of his books.
Enjoy.
Posted by Justine at 18:55, August 12th, 2005 under Bloggery, New York City/USA, Scott's books |
So to be all author promotery and stuff at book expo america, Scott made up t-shirts for the both of us. Mine had the cover of
magic or madness on the front and on the back quotes from
my starred reviews. Nobody seemed to notice my t-shirt until we were waiting outside the convention centre surrounded by great piles of our book expo booty (yes, many, many books), looking like Penguin books roadies (
Peeps and MorM are published by Penguin). A woman came up to me and pointed to my t-shirt and said, "I loved that book."
"Really? I'm so pleased."
She nodded emphatically. "I gave it a great review for booklist."
"You mean this review?" I asked, turning ...
Posted by Justine at 10:36, June 6th, 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Scott's books |
Scott's book The Risen Empire is now in
Spanish form and in the same post he shares the title for his memoir: I live to Horse: the Scott Westerfeld Story.
We go BEA now.
Scott sign books.
Posted by Justine at 8:48, June 4th, 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Scott's books |
Editions du Panama, a brand new, well-funded, French house run by some of the biggest names in French publishing is going to publish Magic or Madness on the same list as
Scott's So Yesterday! It's going to be translated into French! Woo hoo! This means Magic and So Yesterday are now on the same list in the US (Penguin/Razorbill), Australia (Penguin) and now France. Pretty fab, eh? It's also now been bought by four countires (Taiwan is the fourth).
A friend (hi, Karen H.) who has slightly more French than me (I have none) thinks the title might be something like Magique ou Démence. That sounds good to me. Keep your fingers crossed that a Spanish-language publisher will pick ...
Posted by Justine at 13:40, June 2nd, 2005 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Vainglory |
Scott's website relaunched last night with a (
mostly) whole new look. And guess what? We did it all by ourselves!
Deborah Biancotti, who designed this site and the
Midnighters section of Scott's site, was too busy to do it, so we did it. Scott came up with a design, showed it to me, and I used my puny Dreamweaver skills to turn it into a reality that had a passing resemblance to what he wanted. And I think it looks pretty much okay. Yay us!
Of course, ...
Posted by Justine at 1:17, May 12th, 2005 under Musings, Scott's books |
and other excuses
Posted by Justine at 0:39, September 20th, 2004 under Basketball, Food, Magic or Madness trilogy, Musings, New York City/USA, Praising, Scott's books, Sport, Whingeing |
a love letter to New York City
Posted by Justine at 0:38, September 14th, 2004 under Musings, New York City/USA, Praising, Scott's books, Sydney/Australia |
the panels
Posted by Justine at 0:36, September 8th, 2004 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Magic or Madness trilogy, Musings, New York City/USA, Scott's books |
and only five weeks left
Posted by Justine at 23:01, January 26th, 2004 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Musings, New York City/USA, Scott's books, Sydney/Australia, Words & Language, Writing life |
Scott and Justine get up way too early in the morning
Posted by Justine at 22:41, June 21st, 2003 under Listening, Musings, New York City/USA, Scott's books |
