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Initial disclaimer: I realise that just by announcing that I'm not that fussed I'll be seen as protesting too much. To which I respond: Whatever.
In the course of reading
Diana Peterfreund and
Carrie Ryan's lovely posts about all the ways in which YA is dismissed by people who know nothing about it and have read at most two YA novels, and the
New Yorker blog post that set Carrie off, I realised that I, in fact, wasn't particularly annoyed or outraged by it. There are a few reasons for that:
The post in question, while declaring that it is the exception that proves that YA is not worth reading, raves about a novel by a truly wonderful writer: ...
Posted by Justine at 0:02, December 23rd, 2008 under Sport, Travelling, Unicorns, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
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, Listening, New York City/USA, Praising, Sydney/Australia, Travelling |
This made my day:
Get it? E. Kristin Anderson, who works at the fabulous
Book People in Austin, is a
parking fairy. Just like the one Charlie has in How To Ditch Your Fairy. Only, you know, not invisible. Isn't that superb?
Coincidently, me and Scott will be hanging out at
Book People on
19 November at 7:30PM. Can't wait!
Happy Halloween!
Posted by Justine at 20:41, October 31st, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 29th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Praising, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 24th, 2008 under Fans & readers, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Travelling, Vainglory, Young Adult literature |
I have neglected to let all you fabulous Canadians know that I will be in Canada next week. Toronto to be precise and, yes, there will be an appearance. Me and Scott will be here next Monday:
Monday, 27 October, 7:00PM-8:00PM
Indigo Bookstore
Yorkdale Mall
3401 Dufferin Street
Toronto, Ontario
Here's hoping some of my Torontonian readers will be there. I promise to tell really gross vomit stories. Or, you know, not, if that grosses you out.
They're really great vomit stories, but.
Posted by Justine at 0:21, October 20th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, September 30th, 2008 under Bloggery, 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 0:00, September 29th, 2008 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Travelling, What's your fairy?, Young Adult literature |
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 |
I just read a book that's been getting rapturous reviews. It is every bit as beautifully written as advertised. There were whole paragraphs that were very WOW inducing. ((Imagine Stephanie Rice saying, "Wow!!!")) I loved parts of it and not just because they were about cricket. ((I just gave away what book I'm talking about, didn't I?)) But I did not enjoy this book.
I will break my usual procedure and name the book: Netherland by Joseph O'Neill. I'm naming it because it really is gorgeously written. Seriously, it's stunning. O'Neill deserves the reviews he's been getting. I think many people will love it. Hell, many people are loving it. I'm writing this to figure out why it didn't work for ...
Posted by Justine at 0:59, August 27th, 2008 under Ranting, Reading, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 19:25, August 10th, 2008 under Cricket, Liar Book, Sport, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 18:52, August 8th, 2008 under Liar Book, Travelling, Whingeing |
Scott and me has run away to finish our novels at an undisclosed location. Posting from behind the walls of our hidden bunker may be intermittent and on the shortish side. Book must be finished on the soonish.
In the meantime, it is
conclusive, "monster" and "white-ant" are verbs only in Australia. For confused non-Australians a white ant is a termite. Thus to white-ant someone is to undermine them: to bore away at their foundations, you know, like termites do. Is most useful verb.
Thanks for the Cadel Evans commiserations. Second two years running. Surely next year.
Yes, I is stoked that the Liberty are in the second place in the Eastern conference. Here's hoping we come out after the Olympics break ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, July 29th, 2008 under Basketball, Bloggery, Liar Book, Sport, Tour de France, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 14:18, July 2nd, 2008 under Praising, Publishing business, Reading, Sport, Travelling, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 22:35, May 29th, 2008 under Liar Book, New York City/USA, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 9:27, May 24th, 2008 under Liar Book, Praising, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, May 7th, 2008 under Travelling |
As usual I'm not going to mention the books that I didn't like because I don't want the authors to hunt me down and kill me. ((Or their family and agents.)) Writers are scary people.
I'm still on a bit of a crime binge. And have been reading a scary amount of adult books. Who'd've thunk there was some good books over on those shelves? Colour me, shocked.
So here are the novels:
The final book in
Denise Mina's Garrnethill trilogy, Resolution, was every bit as good as the other two. I have a major writing crush on Mina. She's amazing. I love the way she writes. I love it so much, in fact, that I typed out an entire chapter of ...
Posted by Justine at 0:18, May 6th, 2008 under Manga, Praising, Reading, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 0:11, May 1st, 2008 under New York City/USA, Reading, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Travelling |
While we waited to board the mighty Queen Mary 2, we wandered around Southampton, stopping Marks & Spencer for knickers, and into Forbidden Planet to stock up on manga for the voyage and (joy!) I signed their stock of the paperback editions of all three volumes of the Magic or Madness trilogy ((I love Forbidden Planet. They're the only English bookshop that stocks my books. Bless them! I also signed copies at their store in London.)).
We also goggled at the many Jane Austen plaques. Here, for my mother's delectation, is a sampling:
Most excellent. Hope you enjoy, Jan!
Posted by Justine at 0:00, April 29th, 2008 under Travelling |
Tomorrow I will be on a boat. Is
big boat.
Posted by Justine at 16:18, April 21st, 2008 under Travelling |
As detailed in
my previous post I have learnt much on this trip, but one thing remains a mystery:
How do women get around in high heels on cobble stone streets without destroying their ankles?
Every European city we've visited has had much cobble-stoneage and yet almost all the women are in high heels. It is bewildering. I have gone over on my ankles wearing
the most comfortable and supportive of footwear. No harm was done because my beloved boots have non-ankle-spraining super powers. Yay boots!
I saw one woman get her heel stuck between stones. She came to a sudden and whip-lash looking halt, before bouncing about, trying to extricate herself. She was promptly rescued by a kind gentleman ...
Posted by Justine at 13:02, April 17th, 2008 under Fashion, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 13:39, April 15th, 2008 under Publishing business, Scott's books, Sydney/Australia, Travelling, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Look what I saw in an actual bookshop, RavensBuch in Friedrichshafen! Isn't it gorgeous?:
Yup, it's the German version of Magic or Madness. It's even more beautiful in real life. Sigh. The book next to mine (the yellow one) is by John Marsden. Two Aussies together in Germany. I've been stunned by how many Aussie books I've been seeing in translation on our travels. Oodles of them by the likes of Trudi Canavan, Sara Douglass, Sonya Hartnett, John Marsden, Garth Nix, Marcus Zusak etc., etc. World domination!
Speaking of Germany. Random House Deutschland has just made an offer for How to Ditch Your Fairy. A very enthusiastic offer and they'll be publishing it in hardcover. I am very happy. I ...
Posted by Justine at 6:18, April 13th, 2008 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Travelling, Vainglory |
Posted by Justine at 14:18, April 11th, 2008 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Publishing business, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 16:27, April 9th, 2008 under Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Travelling |
We are in Bologna at the
Children's Book Fair. There are five of us in a tower flat. Me,
Scott,
Holly,
Cassie and
Maureen. We are the Tower Gang.
So far we have eaten really good food, gossiped and walked under many porticoes. Tomorrow the fair starts and we meet our non-English language publishers. And we eat more good food.
My life is so very hard.
Update: Fine. Here have some photos. Courtesy of Maureen, which is why she is not in them. I will remedy that later.
Posted by Justine at 12:25, March 30th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 16:12, March 26th, 2008 under Liar Book, New York City/USA, Praising, Sydney/Australia, Travelling |
Rome was unbelievably wonderful especially the food. A friend of mine spent four months in Italy and gained around three kilos---I think I managed that in one week. Excellent!
I am at work on a post about the fabulous food we ate and a number of others---including another writing one ((See? I do listen to you. You ask that I blog it and blog it I will.))---but work on my next novel has got in the way of finishing them. Stupid novel! Not to mention the erraticness of our internet access. But, soon, my pretties, soon!
In the meantime I'm exhausted but happy: there's cricket on the tellie. All's right with the world. And even though England's doing kind of okay I ...
Posted by Justine at 19:11, March 24th, 2008 under Cricket, Excuses, Sport, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 5:57, March 21st, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Travelling, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, March 17th, 2008 under Travelling |
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 |
Thanks to everyone for
all the photos. You are all the bestest and most wondrous people EVER! As Jeff Fenech would say, "I love youse all!"
It was kind of weird to see how many photos there are of me and Scott I never knew existed. Eerie even . . .
I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologise to my sister,
Niki Bern, as well as my good friend,
Cat Sparks. I'm sorry I'm always so recalcitrant about having my photo taken. You were both right that some day I would be happy you both insist on documenting everything.
That said, I now no longer need to have my photo taken ever again. Hallelujah! I shall keep ...
Posted by Justine at 0:01, January 31st, 2008 under New York City/USA, Praising, Sydney/Australia, Travelling, Viewing |
I will confess that I was nervous about going to
High Voltage ConFusion. There were several reasons for this:
I'm afraid of cold places. And Detroit in winter is COLD. ((How cold? Minus a million cold! That's how cold. So cold that I'm back in NYC and it's freezing and it seems warm in comparison.))
I'd never been a guest of honour before and was worried I'd be crappy at it.
I was aware that most of the people at the con would not have heard of me or Scott and was worried that they would feel dudded of a proper author guest of honour what wrote adult sf and fantasy.
I need not have had any concerns at all. I was right ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 24th, 2008 under Basketball, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Sport, Travelling, Vainglory, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 10:50, January 23rd, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Travelling, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
The reason for which are posted most indiscreetly on
Scott's blog.
I'd just like to share with you my favourite photo so far:
Kevin Dunn (science guest of honour) plus me and me old man at High Voltage Confusion in Detroit.
Why pirate hats you ask? If I told you I'd have to kill you.
And, yes, if you have any other photos of us we'd love to see 'em.
Thank you so much everyone for all the photos you've pointed us to. We REALLY appreciate it!
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 23rd, 2008 under Admin, Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Travelling |
I will have more to say about the fabulous
High Voltage ConFusion when my brain and body are in the same place. ((All the usual disclaimers apply about why I haven't responded to your emails, comments etc. Sorry!))
In the meantime what song is stuck in your brain right now? I have Suzanne Vega's "Blood Makes Noise" on high rotation.
Posted by Justine at 17:56, January 21st, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Travelling |
Because we're on a juvenilia panel at
ConFusion, Scott is in the next room making strange noises. Some of it is laughter, most of it is groans. He's reading through stuff he wrote when he was a teenager.
Because all my juvenilia is back in Sydney, my wonderful mother transcribed some of the earliest stuff to send me. Bless you, Jan. I just read through it.
Oh, dear.
Sad to say, but there is not an inkling of genius in either of our earliest writings. Wow. We must have worked pretty hard in the intervening years learning how to, you know, construct a sentence or two that don't completely suck.
I might put some of it up on our sites to ...
Posted by Justine at 8:46, January 17th, 2008 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Frippery, Travelling |
Next weekend Scott Westerfeld and yours truly will be guests of honour at the
2008 High Voltage ConFusion science fiction convention. It's our very first time being guests of honour and we are stoked. TOTALLY stoked. In fact I'm so very stoked I'm thinking of celebrating with the purchase of a new dress. Surely, being guest of honour requires new clothes, right? I gotta look pretty, don't I? If you have an opinion on this Very Important Matter please to express it in the poll to your right.
I'm thinking this one, though with black gloves not white:
Vivienne Westwood's Watteau ball gown
Here's Scott and mine's schedule. Because we are joint guests of honour we are doing everything together:
FRIDAY 18 ...
Posted by Justine at 12:26, January 11th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Fashion, Travelling |
Photo by Scott
It was pretty.
Posted by Justine at 0:41, December 30th, 2007 under New York City/USA, Travelling |
I was asked today why I say sorry so much. ((not for the first time))
It's true. I do say it a lot. I say "Sorry!" even if I am not even slightly at fault: like when, say, someone has bumped into me, or spilled something over me. I say sorry for pretty much everything. Even when I'm not at all sorry. Mostly when I'm not at all sorry.
As to the why of all those sorrys. I used to think it was just me. That I have this weird sorry-saying nervous tic. But I now know it's cultural. I say sorry all the time because I am an Australian girl.
I realised this when I was living in Spain ...
Posted by Justine at 12:15, November 5th, 2007 under State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Travelling, Words & Language |
Posted by Justine at 12:52, October 20th, 2007 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Scott's books, Travelling |
Photo taken by Scott from the window of our plane in Chicago
Posted by Justine at 19:37, October 16th, 2007 under Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 20:25, October 13th, 2007 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, Food, New York City/USA, Toilets, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 13:26, October 12th, 2007 under Ranting, Reading, Travelling, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 15:10, October 11th, 2007 under Bloggery, Fashion, New York City/USA, Praising, Travelling |
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 |
One of the fabulous things about this tour is seeing how popular so many of my friends are.
At a book shop on the outskirts of Chicago I saw this:
I pointed it out to Scott. "Look! Someone here loves Cassie's book. And they have a tonne of copies!" (There were more in piles above and below this book shelf.)
The bookseller who wrote that shelf talker overheard me:
"You know Cassie Clare?! Oh. My. God. I LOVED that book so much!!! She is a genius! I have loved her ever since I read her Secret Diaries!"
At a school in Walnut Creek, California lots of the kids had painted posters of their favourite books. The room was full of ...
Posted by Justine at 2:21, October 9th, 2007 under Bloggery, Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Travelling, Young Adult literature |
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 |
At the book shop appearances Scott keeps being offered a free book as a reward for his hard work and charming-ness. We keep choosing mass market paperbacks because we're travelling and running out of spaces. Last choice: the latest Naomi Novik. (I started it last night and it rocks.)
If you were asked to choose one book from your favourite book shop what would it be?
Posted by Justine at 8:52, October 5th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Reading, Travelling |
