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Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much in February. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers.
*********
Sarah Cross is the author of Dull Boy, a YA superhero novel. She
blogs intermittently, posts random videos on
tumblr, and is hiding in a unicorn-and-zombie-proof bunker until this whole mess is over.
Sarah says:
You may be wondering where Justine is.
And I am sorry to tell ...
Posted by Justine at 19:59, February 12th, 2010 under Excuses, Frippery, Guest post, Toilets, Unicorns, Viewing, Zombies, Zombies v Unicorns |
This is
my annual post where I sum up what happened in my professional life in that year and look ahead to what's going to happen in 2010. Basically I do this so I can have a handy record that I can get to in seconds. (Hence the "last day of the year" tag.) Do feel free to skip it. ((Cause it will be boring. Don't say you weren't warned.))
This year, though, was less happy than any of the previous years I've summed up here. Thus my summary is brief. I want to get past 2009 and on to the fun of 2010 as fast as I can.
Books out: Liar (hc in US & tpb in Oz), HTDYF (in ...
Posted by Justine at 0:59, December 31st, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Bloggery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Last Day of the Year, Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, Travelling, Unicorns, Zombies, Zombies v Unicorns |
Posted by Justine at 0:02, December 23rd, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Sport, Travelling, Unicorns, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
I am going to go out on a limb and predict that these three titles will be the big debuts of 2009:
Diana Peterfreund's Rampant
Killer uni***ns and the tough gals what fight them. It's funny and exciting and romantic and has amazing action scenes. What more do you need to know?
Carrie Ryan's Forest of Hands and Teeth
Zombie apocalypse, scary nuns, and a girl who's never seen the ocean. You know you want this.
Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Lexicon
I have not yet read this one but Scott has and he keeps bugging me to read it. He loved it. I'm a huge fan of Sarah's extremely
witty and wonderful blog so I have high hopes.
They'll all be out next (northern ...
Posted by Justine at 20:03, December 14th, 2008 under Reading, Unicorns, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
Yes, there will be a zombie-un***rn story. I hope you're happy. Because personally I think that's a bit gross.
No, I can't tell you the names of any of the contributors. But trust me, they are all fabulously excellent writers.
Yes, it is a YA anthology. It will be edited by the marvellous Karen Wojtyla. That's right, me and Holly, who are editing the Zombie versus Uni***ns anthology, will in turn be edited. It's, like, a whole editing chain.
Sorry, the anthology is closed.
Yes, there will be lots of different kinds of zombies. Not just your regular Romero types.
I have no idea about the uni***n side of things. I doubt there's more than one kind. And if there is, who cares? Hmmm, ...
Posted by Justine at 8:54, November 18th, 2008 under Unicorns, Young Adult literature, Zombies, Zombies v Unicorns |
Posted by Justine at 16:00, November 17th, 2008 under Unicorns, Young Adult literature, Zombies, Zombies v Unicorns |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, November 11th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Unicorns, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 1:00, November 6th, 2008 under Praising, Ranting, Unicorns, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 14:42, March 2nd, 2008 under Unicorns, Writing goals & milestones, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 11:45, December 9th, 2007 under Unicorns, Vainglory, Writing life, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
People keep asking why I'm so against uni***ns. I think this picture explains everything:
Photo taken by me of the creepy bus always parked around the corner on sixth street. Avert your eyes!
Posted by Justine at 0:04, September 21st, 2007 under Unicorns |
Libba Bray ((and since I'm mentioning Libba I should also mention that
Maureen Johnson is not the only one to have already read The Sweet Far Thing. That's right! Me too. It is deeply awesome. The best of the trilogy.)) is the best friend a girl could have. Look what she done gived me:
I screamed.
Do you notice the choking hazard warning? And that the evil uni***n is call "Destructicorn"?
Happy sigh.
Have any of you seen High School Musical? I think it may be the most conflict-free movie I've ever watched. Quite astonishing. I admit I was a tad disappointed by the choreography. The dance sequences were much better in She's the Man. Also how ...
Posted by Justine at 13:45, September 15th, 2007 under Basketball, New York City/USA, Sport, Unicorns, Viewing |
Holly Black is
making me giggle (via
Gwenda). Now all I can think about is vampire elves and zombie unicorns and werewolf-griffins and pirate-orcs and . . . and which of all of those would win in battle and what they'd look like and what they'd eat. Would vampire elves still not like steel and not tell lies? And what would a novel with all these creatures in it be like?
Oh, hush, Justine. You have stories to write! Novels to unbuggerize! Admin to adminerate! Stop procrastinating.
Posted by Justine at 12:23, July 18th, 2007 under Bloggery, Frippery, Unicorns, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 11:15, June 25th, 2007 under Bloggery, Book challenges, Praising, Unicorns, Words & Language, Young Adult literature |
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 |
John Hinde was one of my favourite film critics of all time. He was a wonderfully warm and funny man. He could give charmingly negative reviews to sucky films without a hint of rancour, reviews that made you want to see the crappy film just to see what he was talking about. I always wanted to meet him. When he died I cried.
Now he's made me cry again by setting up an
extraordinary literary prize in his wife's memory. It's the "Barbara Jefferis Award for the best Australian novel that empowers the status of females or depicts them in a positive light." The award goes to an Australian writer, but isn't restricted by setting or genre, ...
Posted by Justine at 10:23, April 3rd, 2007 under Reading, Sydney/Australia, Unicorns, Zombies |
What is it with you people?
I tell you what an abomination in the sight of the Lord unicorns are and how much I love love love zombies and what do you do? You send me an endless stream of unicorn-related stuff. Gah!
Quit it already! No more!
Now zombie related links I'm all for. Fire away. Share your zombie love with me.
But the next person to so much as type or say the u-word anywhere near me? Well, that's a paddlin'.
I hope I have made myself clear.
Posted by Justine at 22:35, March 14th, 2007 under Ranting, Unicorns, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 0:01, February 23rd, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Frippery, Reading, Unicorns, Viewing, Zombies |
What have
I started? Arguments about the relative merits of
zombies and
unicorns rage across the intramanets. And on each thread someone suggests the zombie-unicorn hybrid. Great minds think alike? Or fools seldom differ?
I was greatly distressed that lovely friends of mine like
Holly Black,
Cecil Castellucci,
Meg McCarron and
Literaticat have fallen pray to the false glittery charms of unicorns despite the fact that being virgin fascists unicorns would have nothing to do with them. I guess it falls into the whole desiring-what-you-can't-have camp. Perhaps to resolve our issues Holly and I should collaborate on a Zombies vesus Unicorns novel? I will write the zombies and she can have the unicorns. Though ...
Posted by Justine at 12:54, February 18th, 2007 under Bloggery, Book challenges, New York City/USA, Praising, Ranting, State of the World, Unicorns, Words & Language, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
I am so proud that my
serious, soul-baring post about the trials and tribulations of blurbs wound up turning into a
debate about whether unicorns or zombies are better. Sometimes I just love my genre people.
This response to
Scalzi and me on blurbing also made me smile. I am, indeed, very proud of this sentence:
"How do you tell someone you shot their dog cause you really hate unicorns?"
The writer of that post suggests that it would be amusing to just blurb everything and if you don't like a book give it an ambiguous blurb of the "I cannot praise this book too highly" variety. Clearly they meant it in jest, but it reminded me that ...
Posted by Justine at 0:26, February 16th, 2007 under Bloggery, Publishing business, Unicorns, Writing life, Zombies |
John Scalzi has a post up explaining
his blurb policy. He even kindly explains what blurbs are.
I think his policy is so spot on that I've adopted it (slightly amended) as my own:
1. Yes, I am happy to look at books and if I love them I will blurb them.
I adore reading my peers' work and getting to read them ahead of publication is particularly exciting. It makes me feel like I'm really part of the Young Adult publishing world with my little ole finger right on the pulse. Not to mention that being asked for a blurb is an honour. ((Though who gets asked is a mystery to me, seeing as how I get asked to ...
Posted by Justine at 9:02, February 15th, 2007 under Bloggery, Publishing business, Reading, Unicorns, Writing life, Zombies |
I just attempted to read a screed that everyone's been linking to and had to give up because the paragraphs were so crazy long my head exploded. Co-incidentally I've been reading a wonderful novel for a friend and it too has lots and lots of endless paragraphs which majorly interfere with my reading pleasure.
Stop it already!
Paragraph breaks are your friend.
White space is gentle on the eye.
Embrace it!
Forget what you were told in school: A paragraph does not consist of one point or one idea. That bogus notion leads to paragraphs that go on for pages and pages and pages as the writer explicates everything they can which supports the one point they are making.
Gah!
In beginner fiction, you see ...
Posted by Justine at 0:57, January 3rd, 2007 under Bloggery, Unicorns, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 17:09, September 6th, 2006 under Best of Blog, Bloggery, Frippery, Unicorns, Writing process |
