Archives
Posted by Justine at 1:28, March 8th, 2009 under Cricket, Liar, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 2:01, March 4th, 2009 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, 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 |
Posted by Justine at 3:44, February 23rd, 2009 under Book tour, Fashion, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 2:45, February 22nd, 2009 under Book tour, How To Ditch Your Fairy, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 7:27, February 21st, 2009 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, Listening, New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia |
Brekkie and lunch in Sydney and now dinner in Melbourne. What a jetsetter I am!
Why, yes, it's less than an hour flight time from Sydney to Melbourne, what of it?
It's thirteen hours on a bus, but. I have it on good authority from
Mr Paul Kelly.
Posted by Justine at 3:34, February 20th, 2009 under Frippery, Sydney/Australia, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 7:15, February 19th, 2009 under Praising, Sydney/Australia, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 0:11, February 19th, 2009 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, Sydney/Australia, Vainglory |
Posted by Justine at 0:05, February 13th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Publishing business, Sydney/Australia, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 2:18, February 10th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Liar, Praising, Science, Sydney/Australia, Viewing |
To all the people writing to ask me if I'm okay: Sydney is a long, long, long way from the worst of the bushfires. Me and mine are fine.
What's happened in
Victoria is horrific. So far more than 173 people have died. As I mentioned in
this earlier post you can help. The Oz Red Cross is taking
donations here.
Posted by Justine at 17:09, February 9th, 2009 under State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 16:04, February 8th, 2009 under State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 21:53, February 6th, 2009 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, Sydney/Australia |
One of the most pleasing things about finally have our own digs in Sydney was getting all our stuff out of storage. Including my nana's china:
Look we has TWO whole shelves of it!
I remember her saying that it was one of the first presents she bought herself when she came to Australia in 1939. Scott and me use it as our everyday crockery. No point in it sitting on the shelf collecting dust, right? And I love the sense of continuity that so many people have used these plates and cups and platters over the last 70 years. Pretty cool, huh?
Here, have a closer look:
I suspect it was very common in the late 1930s and early ...
Posted by Justine at 2:37, February 5th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Sydney/Australia |
While I was eating my breakfast of mango, passionfruit, banana, sheep milk's yoghurt and granola and looking out at the view of the city, a flock of rainbow lorikeets went screaming past, their red, green and blue feathers illuminated by the sun and I thought about my dear, dear friends---especially poor Maureen Johnson, little Libba Bray, and wee Robin Wasserman---back in New York City, who, judging by their frequent sad missives to me and Scott, are cold right now. Cold and miserable and they've completely forgotten what the sun looks like.
I decided that it is my duty here in sunny gorgeous Sydney to cheer them up. First, I thought of describing a day in the life of Justine in Sydney ...
Posted by Justine at 0:02, February 4th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia |
How To Ditch Your Fairy will be published in its shiny new paperback Australian edition next month.
So. Very. Soon.
If you go over to the Allen & Unwin Alien Onion blog
you'll see what it looks like.
And guess what? I'll be doing a wee bit of a mini Oz book tour. I'm dead excited.
Two of my events are in Melbourne, including the actual book launch:
22 Feb 2009, 2:00PM - 3:30PM
Me and Simmone Howell in conversation + cake
State Library of Victoria - Conference Centre
328 Swanston Street
(Entrance 3 on La Trobe Street)
Melbourne, Victoria
Go here to book
24 Feb 2009, 6:30PM
Australian launch of How To Ditch Your Fairy
My book will be introduced by the lovely
Lili Wilkinson!
Readings Carlton
309 ...
Posted by Justine at 1:43, January 21st, 2009 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 3:11, January 8th, 2009 under Cricket, Sport, Sydney/Australia |
Yup, it's my annual what-I-did-this-year skiting post. I write these mostly for myself so I can easily keep track. Hence the
last day of the year category. Thus you are absolutely free to skip it. ((I would if I were you.))
This year was exceptional. I'm still pinching myself. My first Bloomsbury USA book, How To Ditch Your Fairy, was published and seems to be doing well. I was sent on my first book tour, which was fabulous. It's insane how much fun I had and how many fabulous schools, book shops and libraries I visited in California, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. Thank you to everyone who came to see me while I was on the ...
Posted by Justine at 0:20, December 31st, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Book tour, First Kiss, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Last Day of the Year, Love is Hell, New York City/USA, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Vainglory, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:12, December 30th, 2008 under Cricket, Sport, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, December 28th, 2008 under Sydney/Australia, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 18:47, December 25th, 2008 under Cricket, Food, Praising, Sport, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 0:03, December 21st, 2008 under Cricket, Food, Sydney/Australia |
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 20:46, December 19th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 17:11, December 15th, 2008 under Praising, Sydney/Australia, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 20:28, December 12th, 2008 under Food, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 14:35, December 6th, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Excuses, Food, Frippery, New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia |
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 13:05, November 16th, 2008 under Reading, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 9:40, November 14th, 2008 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Love is Hell, New York City/USA, Reading, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, What's your fairy? |
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 25th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Research, Science, Sydney/Australia |
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 |
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 0:00, October 16th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Publishing business, Ranting, Reading, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature |
Many of you have been asking, "When is How To Ditch Your Fairy going to be published in Australia?" I apologise for not answering. For ages I did not know if it would be or not and then it sold and I was not allowed to tell you. But now I can!
How To Ditch Your Fairy will be published in Australia in late February by the fabulous
Allen & Unwin. That's right I am now published by the same house that publishes Ursula Dubosarsky, Margo Lanagan, Garth Nix, Penni Russon and Lili Wilkinson amongst many other fabulously wonderful Oz YA writers.
What's more A&U are not only publishing HTDYF, they're publishing the liar book too!
Keeping this news to myself has ...
Posted by Justine at 15:46, October 14th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Sydney/Australia, Vainglory |
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 |
I'm lying awake with a nasty case of bunker brain. Sleep eludes and weird thoughts intrude. I'm trying to combat them by
a) planning some fun ways to promote How To Ditch Your Fairy---so far the winning plan is to glue copies of the book to the backs of toilet doors---and,
b) trying to figure out how to describe the smell of flying foxes without using the words "musk" or "feral".
Also I'm wishing I could draw.
How about you?
Posted by Justine at 4:37, August 29th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Sydney/Australia, Toilets, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 9:50, July 14th, 2008 under Publishing business, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 0:36, July 13th, 2008 under Publishing business, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 10:55, July 12th, 2008 under Publishing business, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
You know the homesickeness has gotten silly when you watch this lovely video what's been doing the rounds and making everyone smile and you burst into tears at the brief shot of Sydney . . .
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from
Matthew Harding on
Vimeo.
Posted by Justine at 20:18, July 7th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Praising, Sydney/Australia, Viewing |
Recently the
National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra launched
Sounds of Australia a collection of recordings to mark Australian history and culture. One of the most recent additions was "Most People I Know (Think that I'm Crazy)" by Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs.
Fair enough, thought I. That's a song I've heard a million billion kajillion times and think of as being very Aussie. I also thought it was one of our first hits overseas. However, my extremely accurate research indicates that that might not be so. I've been asking several of my USian friends if they know the song. So far none of them do. ((Except for Scott and I think he's tainted from having spent ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, June 26th, 2008 under Listening, Sydney/Australia |
Australia is now the
most obese nation in the world.
Posted by Justine at 11:50, June 20th, 2008 under State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
I have been conducting a series of scientific experiments on how to cure homesickness. Here is my latest finding:
LISTENING TO MUSIC FROM HOME DOES NOT WORK.
In fact, it makes it much much worse. I have been listening to Oz music for the last four hours. Some of it music I don't even like. So far I have cried 4.7 times.
I feel my findings are conclusive and I can now cease the experiment.
Next: The stabbing-your-hand-with-toothpicks cure.
Wish me luck.
Posted by Justine at 13:38, June 19th, 2008 under Listening, Sydney/Australia |
Tasmanian marsupial lives that is.
Scientists back home have discovered that marsupials really really really don't like dingo pee. They avoid it like the plague which means that farmers and the forestry industry can stop poisoning wildlife in order to protect crops. Spray the wee around and the critters stay away and the crops grow unmolested. Everybody wins.
Apparently it also makes a really lovely perfume. ((No, not really.))
Posted by Justine at 14:10, June 13th, 2008 under Science, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
There's controversy right now in US women's basketball because an American player, Becky Hammon, is going to play for Russia in the Olymics. The coach of the US Olympic squad, Anne Donovan, has called her a traitor. Others have
different views: like how can Becky be a traitor when she was never asked to try out for the US squad despite putting up MVP (most valuable player) numbers and being one of the best guards in the world?
Mechelle Voepel writes a
very smart and nuanced article about the furore:
It's all fascinating to me on a lot of levels because it has made me think about so many things: what the Olympics really are, the ways the world has ...
Posted by Justine at 12:32, June 7th, 2008 under Basketball, New York City/USA, State of the World, Sydney/Australia |
NB: The following post is not intended to be taken seriously. I do not want to change the way anyone speaks. Please stop sending me ranty emails and comments lecturing me on my presumptiousness and lack of understanding of the diversities of the English language. Thank you. Note to self: never write about language differences again.
So I just listened to John Waters going off about people who pronounce "picture" "pitcher". That one does not bother me. But I cannot stand the way USians say "shone". Seriously, it makes my ears bleed.
I should confess that for years I thought it was just
Scott. He'd pronounce it all wrong when he was giving a reading and I'd be deeply embarrassed ...
Posted by Justine at 0:07, June 3rd, 2008 under New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia, Words & Language |
I have occasionally intimated that I am not a huge fan of vampires. This is not entirely true.
When I was little I was a huge Anne Rice fan and read Bram Stoker's Dracula many many times. I loved Lost Boys and Near Dark remains my favourite vampire movie. My love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is
well documented and Suzy McKee Charnas's Vampire Tapestry is one of my favourite books of all time. ((If you haven't read it you really must!))
I'm just not a fan of the idea of dead people being sexy. This goes for zombies as well as vampires. Basically the older I get the more attached I am to life and the more unsexy death seems. ...
Posted by Justine at 19:27, June 2nd, 2008 under Reading, Sydney/Australia |
