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In early March I will be at the
Adelaide Writers Week. Which is the oldest and most prestigey ((Yes, that's a real word. Shut up!)) writers festival in all of Australia.
I've never been before. Indeed, I've never done any events in Adelaide unless you count going to a friend's wedding. ((Which, no, I don't. It was a lot of fun, but. I love weddings! So much love! So many wonderful speeches about love! So many opportunities for it to all go horribly wrong! Especially at doomed weddings between those Who Should Not Marry. Someday I'm going to write a Doomed Wedding book. Though to be clear: the Adelaide wedding was not doomed. Um, I think I'm digressing.))
Here ...
Posted by Justine at 13:26, February 3rd, 2013 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Sydney/Australia, Travelling, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
All my favourite fiction, whether novels or television, features strong relationships. I've started to think that for me the hallmark of good writing is, in fact, the strength of the relationships. So many books/movies/tv fail for me because the protag either doesn't have any relationships or because those relationships are constructed out of cardboard.
And, no, I'm not solely talking about the lerve and the shipping. I'm talking all relationships: with mother, father, siblings, uncles, aunts, children, nieces, nephews, cousins, colleagues, neighbours, teachers, coaches, and most especially, friends.
One of the things that attracted me to YA as a genre is that so much of it is about friendship and family relationships. It's why every time I read a YA book that ...
Posted by Justine at 8:17, September 18th, 2012 under Ranting, Reading, Viewing, Writing process, Young Adult literature |
More than any other writers ((Except for those who write for children, obviously.)) we YA writers get grief over our subject matter. We are frequently told that we should not be writing about subjects such as sex, drugs, cutting, suicide, anorexia nervosa, etc. because our audience is vulnerable and easily swayed and it is our duty of care not to lead them down such scary paths.
Now, there are a tonne of smart, cogent ripostes to this argument. But I just want to say that we YA authors do not have a duty of care. It is not the job of YA writers to teach or guide teenagers. That is their parents' and guardians' job. Their teachers' and coaches' job. ...
Posted by Justine at 7:38, August 1st, 2012 under Writing life, Young Adult literature |
I'm not going to link to where I saw this particular bizarre notion. Mostly because it's not something that's found in one place. I've come across the same sentiment in various locations offline and on- over the last ten or so years. So it's kind of irrelevant who said it most recently.
But here's gist of the argument:
YA writers only do it for the money. They don't care about the effect their [insert negative adjective] work has on children only about making money.
I'm fascinated that this argument gets made at all ever. I don't know a single writer who became a writer to make money. Everyone I know is a writer because they can't not be a writer. It's a compulsion. ...
Posted by Justine at 8:25, July 27th, 2012 under Ranting, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
This is a discussion that comes up every so often. Is it better to do what you can to make yourself a brand name author, i.e. write books that are very similar, say like Georgette Heyer's Regency romances, or that are all set in the same world, like say, the Left Behind books, or have the same characters, like pretty much every popular crime series ever from Sherlock Holmes on. Or are you better off writing what you want to write from urban fantasy trilogies, to realist crime, to fantastical comedies, to historicals to whatever.
The argument is that you are much more likely to build an audience and keep them if your audience knows what they're in for when ...
Posted by Justine at 8:02, July 23rd, 2012 under Publishing business, Ranting, Young Adult literature |
Cassandra Clare has written an important piece called
Rape Myths, Rape Culture and the Damage Done. If you haven't read it already you really should. Be warned: she discusses much which is deeply upsetting.
What I want to briefly comment on here is the notion that to write about rape or war or any other terrible thing is to automatically condone it. Cassie writes:
[T]he most important point to be made here is that to depict something is not to condone it. This is a mistake that is made all the time by people who you would think would know better. Megan Cox Gurdon in the Wall Street Journal,
for instance, excoriated YA books for being too dark, zoning in ...
Posted by Justine at 13:27, May 22nd, 2012 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Feminism, Praising, Ranting, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Okay, I totally shouldn't be writing this. But
Janni Lee Simner issued a call for authors to say that it's okay to give us bad reviews. I want to add my voice to those saying, "Go forth and shred our books into tiny pieces." ((If you hate them that is. Feel free to praise should you want to. Feel free to meh them also. Whatever you want!))
You do not have to be nice about a book you hate.
However, I also want to say that it's not our place to say so. Reviews are not for authors. They're not even about authors. You do not need our permission to write about our books. Because once they're published they cease to ...
Posted by Justine at 18:54, March 6th, 2011 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Reading, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Holly Black recently posted on the subject of the so-called
YA Mafia, which apparently is a "cabal of writers who give one other blurbs, do events with one another, and like each other's books." Also if you cross them they can ruin your career.
In her post Holly said such a cabal does not exist. I suspect she's right. Certainly none of the YA writers I know are involved in such a group. However, there are many YA authors I don't know. Could be a few of them plot darkly together. Who knows?
Thing is plotting ain't doing. As Holly points out, YA authors do not have that power. I have recommended twenty or more of my writer friends to my ...
Posted by Justine at 18:32, March 3rd, 2011 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, RSI, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
You're going to have to excuse this post (and the crappy photo) but I can't help myself. A package just arrived from my wonderful Australian publisher, Allen & Unwin. It made me scream. In a good way.
This is what was in it:
That's the official
Children's Book Council of Australia short-listed book sticker and it's on Liar! And it's not a joke or an accident!
*Faints*
Um,
I may have mentioned that the CBCA awards have always been a huge deal for me. Ever since I was a tiny person. This really is a dream come true.
And on that cliched note ((Hey, they're cliches for a reason.)) I am off to ...
Posted by Justine at 12:15, April 20th, 2010 under Liar, Sydney/Australia, Vainglory, Young Adult literature |
NOTE: I am in Sydney, Australia where it is already April Fool's Day. However, my blog is set to NYC time cause I was too lazy to change it.
- - -
April Fool's is the day I began my career as a
full-time freelance writer. Back in 2003, having sold only
one short story, I took the completely insane plunge.
The first year did not go well, but since then it's mostly worked out great. I've been very lucky indeed.
For my own benefit some stats:
Books sold: 8 ((One non-fiction tome, two anthologies, five young adult novels.))
Books published: 7 ((8 in September))
Countries books have been sold in: 15 ((Australia, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, the ...
Posted by Justine at 18:33, March 31st, 2010 under Freelance Anniversary, Vainglory, Writing goals & milestones, Young Adult literature |
I have been asked for my take on last week's question about
teenagers and reading. To be honest, it's difficult to know where to start because there are so many assumptions embedded in those questions. I'll start by unpacking them.
1. There seems to be an implicit assumption that all teenagers are the same.
2. There's also an assumption in all these discussions about YA that it is primarily read by teenagers.
3. Another assumption is that a) only reading fiction counts and b) reading is better for you than any other pastime.
4. Then there's the assumption that there is such a thing as good writing and bad writing and we all agree on what those are.
Teenagers
Let me take numbers ...
Posted by Justine at 21:45, March 29th, 2010 under Ranting, Reading, Young Adult literature |
If you're in NYC in the next couple of weeks here are two YA events you might want to check out:
The latest
New York Review of Science Fiction Readings features
Barry Lyga,
Marie Rutkoski, &
Robin Wasserman
curated by
Carol Cooper
Tuesday, 6 April, Doors open 6:30 PM, event begins at 7:00 PM
SoHo Gallery for Digital Art
138 Sullivan Street (between Houston & Prince St.)
Admission is by a $5 donation. (If circumstances make this a hardship, let them know and they will accommodate you.)
Me and Scott will be taking part in the
Read This Books for NYC Schools Day on the 10th of April.
Read This collects books for people who need them, especially ...
Posted by Justine at 21:57, March 28th, 2010 under 1930s NYC novel, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Young Adult literature |
The wonderful
Kathleen T. Horning sent me a link to
this discussion of Twilight on NPR in which much mock is made of the writing style of Twlight. Judging from the comments if you love Twilight then the NPR people are being condescending meanies and if you hated Twilight ((Even if you haven't read it---how do you hate a book you haven't read?)) then their comments are hilarious and spot on.
Now, I do not want a discussion of the merits or otherwise of Twilight here. In fact, I will delete any comment trashing Twilight. We do not diss living authors on this blog. What I'm interested in is a broader discussion of adults' attitudes to YA literature.
My question ...
Posted by Justine at 18:10, March 25th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Reading, Young Adult literature |
There's a lot of shockingly bad advice about how to get published online. Much of it comes from unpublished people who know nothing about the publishing industry and are bitter about their own inability to get published. ((Before you yell at me for this statement you should know that I spent twenty years trying to break into mainstream publishing. I know how it feels. Also very few of those unpublished writers are bitter about it and decide that the big publishers are evil. Most suck it up and keep trying.)) But some of it is from actual published writers with careers, who have a bug up their arse about the evil of agents, or small presses, or big presses, or ...
Posted by Justine at 16:44, March 14th, 2010 under New York City/USA, Publishing business, Ranting, Writing goals & milestones, Young Adult literature |
Due to
boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much for awhile. 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.
Alaya Dawn Johnson is a wonderful writer, whose short story in Zombies v Unicorns, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is jaw-droppingly good. Her next novel, Moonshine, out in May is my fave New York City vampire novel. I love it so much that it's been killing ...
Posted by Justine at 18:35, March 11th, 2010 under Guest post, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
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.
Today's blogger, Lauren McLaughlin, is a crazy talented YA writer, who has one of the more unusual backgrounds of all the YA novelists I know. She used to be a Hollywood producer. This means that she has more confidence than anyone else I know and is extraordinarily good ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, February 24th, 2010 under Guest post, State of the World, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Writing process, Young Adult literature |
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.
Today's guest bloggers are two Allen & Unwin editors. Allen & Unwin publish me in my home country ((Which is why they say lovely things about my books.)) and I think they are absolutely wonderful. One of the two editors might even be my editor there. They are ...
Posted by Justine at 20:45, February 21st, 2010 under Guest post, Publishing business, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature |
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.
I have known Lili Wilkinson for many years now. She's one of the most talented, driven, organised people I have ever met. I am in awe of her. (Yes, even when I'm asleep.) She has had many wonderful books published in Australia as well as the UK and ...
Posted by Justine at 0:26, February 19th, 2010 under Guest post, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature |
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.
Zetta Elliott's
A Wish After Midnight was one of my favourite YA novels of 2009. I still can't believe no mainstream publisher picked it up and I am hoping the book's re-realease by Amazon will get this wonderful book into many more hands.
Zetta's blog ...
Posted by Justine at 9:00, February 18th, 2010 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Guest post, New York City/USA, Publishing business, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
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.
Today we have Randa Abdel-Fattah and not just because she's a Sydneysider like me. She's one of those amazing writers who manages to produce novels while holding down a demanding job and looking after her kids. (Little known fact: the majority of novelists have day jobs.) Enjoy!
- - ...
Posted by Justine at 0:23, February 16th, 2010 under Guest post, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature |
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.
Doret Canton loves sport as much as I do. In fact, I
interviewed her about that very subject right here on this blog and she said many smart and sensible things. (Except about American Football not being boring.) The reviews on
her blog are amongst my ...
Posted by Justine at 0:01, February 15th, 2010 under Guest post, Ranting, Reading, Viewing, Young Adult literature |
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.
Today we have one of my favourite YA lit bloggers, Ah Yuan, whose blog,
GAL Novelty, should be on your blogroll if it isn't already. I love how no-holds-barred her reviews are. Thoughtful, smart and conversation provoking. If you want to know a bit more about Ah ...
Posted by Justine at 18:39, February 8th, 2010 under Guest post, Reading, State of the World, Young Adult literature |
Irish writer,
Sarah Rees Brennan, and I spend a lot of time IMing each other. We talk about many, many different things---including the superiority of Ireland and Australia to all other nations ((Just kidding.))---but mostly about writing. Recently when I was unwell SRB cheered me up by telling me the story of two of her not-yet-written novels. It was better than chicken soup! As any of you who have read her novel,
Demon’s Lexicon, or
her blog know, SRB is a wonderful storyteller.
It was not the first time SRB had told me the complete detailed plot of an as-yet-unwritten novel but this time I started wondering about how she does that. When I write a novel I ...
Posted by Justine at 17:42, January 26th, 2010 under Writing life, Writing process, Young Adult literature |
Omnivoracious, Amazon's book blog, has an excellent post on
the most influential YA of the decade. It is a very good list, indeed. I agree to a certain extent with almost all the entries, but---you knew there was a but, didn't you?---I don't think Paolini belongs on the list, and I feel strongly that Holly Black and Ellen Hopkins do.
Now before I get going, let me set out what I understand this list to be. It is not about the quality of the books involved, but about their influence on the publishing field of Young Adult fiction. I believe that there is no question that Stephenie Meyer was the most influential writer of the decade. She created gazillions of ...
Posted by Justine at 21:46, January 25th, 2010 under Young Adult literature |
Gloating is wrong, I know, but I can't help myself. I have the new Megan Whalen Turner book to read and you don't! Mwahahahahaha.
I shall read it immediately. But I won't tell you a thing because the book isn't out until the end of March and I know you all hate spoilers as much as I do. So, yes, I will kill anyone who spoils it in the comments.
And now I'm off to read!
Update: Finished. It was good.
Posted by Justine at 1:09, January 18th, 2010 under Reading, Young Adult literature |
My romance reading project continues and I realise that I haven't explained what the project is. Very remiss of me! A few of the many books I'm writing at the moment are romances. I'm using that term very broadly to mean not just the publishing genre, but pretty much any book in which the romance between two or more characters is a big part of the overall story. To put it in fandom terms, I guess I'm talking about the kinds of stories that lend themselves to shipping.
For a long while now I've been aware that writing romance is not my strong point. While I love many of them as a reader, somehow I'm not quite able to write that ...
Posted by Justine at 22:57, January 15th, 2010 under Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Some of the people who enjoyed Liar have started telling me that they want to read something else like it. I'm not sure what to tell them. I can't recommend one of my other novels because they bear no resemblance to Liar and readers would just be disappointed.
Here are three novels that people have compared to Liar:
Jacqueline Woodson's If You Come Softly. This is hugely flattering. Softly is one of
the best books I've ever read. I think Liar has some of the emotional intensity of Softly and it shares an NYC setting---with Central Park playing a key role in both novels. If Liar evokes New York City even half as well, then I've done a bang up ...
Posted by Justine at 2:12, January 2nd, 2010 under Liar, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Much of the fan mail and comments I get from adults includes this phrase "I'm not your target audience" before continuing to say how much they enjoyed one or more of my books in (sometimes) slightly embarrassed tones. As if they're a tad worried to find themselves reading and enjoying a book published for teenagers. How did that happen? they wonder. Does it make me less of an
adult?
I understand the anxiety. Before I became a published YA author, I was unaware of how disdainful many adults are towards teenagers and anything that smacks of teenager-y-ness, such as books marketed at teenagers. Looking back, I now find it weird that I was unaware of this. Firstly, I once was ...
Posted by Justine at 17:44, December 28th, 2009 under Fans & readers, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
I recently tweeted a really
interesting review of Leviathan by
Tansy Rayner Roberts. It's my favourite review so far partly because she puts into words something Scott and I have been noticing:
I find it interesting that so many people are talking about this as the latest Scott Westerfeld novel without really acknowledging that this is such a departure from his more recent work. I would not be surprised if some of the audience for the Uglies and Midnighters and Peeps books (at least the teenagers) were less interested in this new series, even as Leviathan draws in an entirely new generation of readers. It’s always interesting to see an author whose work you admire move on to pastures ...
Posted by Justine at 20:38, December 27th, 2009 under Book tour, Fans & readers, Reading, Scott's books, Young Adult literature |
This goes out with love to some dear friends of mine. You know who you are.
There's an
xkcd cartoon so famous that many refer to it by its number, 386. It's my favourite and one that is referred to frequently in the Larbfeld household.
"OMG!" I will yell, looking up from my computer.
"Is someone wrong on the internet?" Scott will say, making me feel a wee bit foolish, and deflating my outrage by at least 50%. Thank you, Randall Munroe.
Turns out that it's not as famous as I thought it was. Recently I discovered that
my sister, who makes a living in the visual effects industry, had never ...
Posted by Justine at 20:38, December 23rd, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Liar, Young Adult literature |
Well, that was a long break, wasn't it? I return refreshed and ready to resume blogging activities.
First boring admin: I have yet to tackle my mail, given all the totally urgent work on my plate, I won't get to it until the new year. Resend if urgent. I do try to answer all mail so if I still don't answer in January could be my spam filters ate it.
And now
some commentary over at the
Misfits' Book Club on the new covers of
E. Lockhart's Ruby Oliver books. It made me really happy for two reasons:
It's a very interesting discussion of covers. I've been working on a big fat post about covers for a while now. ...
Posted by Justine at 18:36, December 16th, 2009 under Admin, Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
I'm very sorry that some reviewers of YA were upset or worried by
yesterday's post. I truly was not talking about you. If you're reading my blog. odds are you know and care about the genre, which is something the people who write those kinds of reviews are often lacking---especially the knowledge.
There are two groups who are writing the kinds of reviews I was mocking:
Reviewers for trade mags/journals/newspaper who are being asked to review outside their area of expertise
Amateur reviewers whose gateway drug to YA was Twilight
The vast majority of specialist kidlit bloggers and trade reviewers are mad keen lovers of the genre who are knowledgeable about its history and don't make idiotic mistakes like accusing L. ...
Posted by Justine at 17:33, December 3rd, 2009 under Young Adult literature |
I have a rule that I never respond to bad reviews. I have blogged on several occasions about why I think doing so is pointless. However, I can't help noticing a certain tenor in many Paranormal/Fantasy YA reviews lately. Everything seems to be talked about in terms of Stephenie Meyer's Twlight books.
On the one hand it's inevitable given that they are the most popular books, not just in YA, but in the entire world. Meyer's had a huge influence and, yes, there are many Twilight knockoffs out there. But on the other hand, people seem to forget that Meyer's books are very new. Twlight was first published in October 2005. YA fantasy had already existed for decades before Meyer. There ...
Posted by Justine at 19:17, December 2nd, 2009 under Whingeing, Young Adult literature |
Lately many white writers have been asking me about writing characters who aren't white. Quite a few are doing NaNoWriMo, so I decided I'd put my responses into the NaNo tips.
I've been asked the following questions: Why should I have non-white characters in my books? How do I write about non-white people if I've never known any? Should I write about non-white people at all?
I've already
addressed some of
these questions a
number of times. I'm not sure if any of my responses are adequate. These are complicated questions that I wrestle with myself.
And, of course, I feel very weird being put in the position of giving people permission to write. No one can do that ...
Posted by Justine at 13:58, November 24th, 2009 under State of the World, Writing process, Young Adult literature |
This year I've been getting more and more people asking about ebook editions of my novels. This is my general response to that query.
First of all: you're asking the wrong person. My publishers are in charge of the electronic rights to my novels. If you're curious
John Scalzi has more to say on this question. If you're desperate for ebooks of my stuff bug my publishers, not me. That will be much more effective.
But here's what I know: Penguin has made electronic editions of Magic Lessons and Magic's Child available. But for some reason not the first book in that trilogy, Magic or Madness. Apparently they're working on it. That's all I know.
Bloomsbury, who publish How To Ditch ...
Posted by Justine at 21:02, November 13th, 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Reading, Young Adult literature |
The event at
Books of Wonder with
Libba Bray,
Kristin Cashore,
Suzanne Collins, me and
Scott last night was astonishing. Several people said they thought there were around 200 people there. I could not possibly guess from where I was sitting, but it did indeed appear to be many.
Here's my bad fuzzy photo of the many:
It was pretty overwhelming to be on the bill with such popular writers, especially Suzanne Collins. For those who don't know, her two most recent novels, Hunger Games and Catching Fire are currently, and have been for some time, numbers one and two on The New York Times bestsellers list, selling bajillions of copies a week. The Books ...
Posted by Justine at 17:03, November 11th, 2009 under Book tour, New York City/USA, Writing life, Writing process, Young Adult literature |
Today Louisville's Courier-Journal has a most excellent article
about adults reading YA by Erin Keane. I don't just say that because I was interviewed for it, but because the article is smart and non-sensationalist, and includes some actual facts:
Young adult fiction's appeal has grown way beyond the school library. What was once considered entertainment for kids has become big business for adults, who are increasingly turning to the children's section for their own reading pleasure, according to publishing experts.
Nielsen's BookScan predicted U.S. book sales will remain flat this year, but amid this industry slump, sales of young-adult titles are expected to continue to rise. It's not only teenagers who are browsing the shelves
There's no hint of panic about this ...
Posted by Justine at 12:35, October 27th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Ever since I first became a part of the YA world, I've been noticing complaints that way too many YA books published in the US of A are set in New York City. Why can't other cities get a look in? they ask. Off the top of my head I can easily name many, many US YA books that are not set in NYC. But I think most people would concede that there are more YA books set in NYC than any other city or place in the USA.
There are lots of reasons. There's the famous
New York City bubble. People who live in NYC find it hard to believe there is anything of interest outside her five boroughs. ...
Posted by Justine at 8:13, October 2nd, 2009 under New York City/USA, Young Adult literature |
First I must make a confession: I was very nervous about reading
Zetta Elliott's
A Wish After Midnight despite all the good reviews it's had. I was nervous because it's self-published and I've had some bad experiences with self-published books. Midnight does show a few (minor) signs of not coming from an established publisher such as the margins and line spacing too tight. However, within a couple of pages I stopped being bothered by them, and a few pages after that I stopped seeing them at all because I was lost in the story.
I feel like A Wish After Midnight was designed with me in mind. Because it does so many things I love as well as working ...
Posted by Justine at 12:48, September 30th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Pixelfish wants to know what a problem novel is. My own definition until fairly recently was: "a contemporary realist YA novel that I don't like because it's preachy and condescending and defines teenagers in terms of their 'problems' (which half the time I would not define that way) and most teenage readers hate." (Here is a
more useful definition.)
The problem with my definition, other than it's way too personal, is that it's not true. During the past few years of talking to teenage readers and school librarians I've learned how incredibly helpful many find problem novels. Readers told me over and over again that they were able to find someone like themselves in the main character dealing with ...
Posted by Justine at 13:06, September 28th, 2009 under Liar, Young Adult literature |
If you haven't already read
My Life as a Rhombus by
Varian Johnson I'm really going to have to insist that you do so. As usual I won't be revealing too much about the plot mostly because I think any plot summary makes
Rhombus sound like a problem novel, ((I have a huge prejudice against problem novels which I may have to reconsider since the last few books I read that could be considered problem novels were all fabulous.)) which it really isn't. It's a character study of a wonderful, smart, engaging, confused teenager, who's a total maths geek and wants to go to Georgia Tech to become an engineer. ((I kind of wish I'd gone to ...
Posted by Justine at 11:09, September 24th, 2009 under Reading, Young Adult literature |
Several months ago, the agent Kristin Nelson got in contact with me via my agent to ask if I would take a look at the debut novel of one of her clients with a view to blurbing it. I agreed to do so, mostly because I love
Nelson's blog, but warned that I rarely blurb cause I only do so when I'm excited about a book. I am picky.
But the book---
Megan Crewe's Give Up the Ghost---hit all my sweet spots. For starters it was a ghost story. I adore a good ghost story. Secondly, it wasn't the same old, same old ghost story. It surprised me. It was fresh, original and sweet and I cried when it ended. ...
Posted by Justine at 10:49, September 23rd, 2009 under Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Back in early August, Doret Canon of the wonderful blog,
The Happy Nappy Bookseller, wrote to thank me for linking to her and ”put in a request for a YA novel featuring girls playing sports. Any sport will do.” I misread her as asking for recommendations for such YA novels when she was in fact asking me to write ‘em. (What can I say August was kind of mental for me.) I was ashamed to discover that all I could think of was Catherine Murdock’s Dairy Queen series and my own How To Ditch Your Fairy. It transpired that Doret knows more about YA sports books than anyone else on the planet. We soon got to talking about books, ...
Posted by Justine at 0:30, September 22nd, 2009 under Basketball, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Young Adult literature |
Maybe I'm being unfair, but Dwight Garner's
New York TImes review of LeBron James' & Buzz Bissinger's Shooting Stars gave off the distinct reek of Eau de Condescension (via
Mitali Perkins):
“Shooting Stars,” a new collaboration between LeBron James, probably the greatest basketball player alive, and Buzz Bissinger, the author of “Friday Night Lights,” is a different kind of book. It avoids speaking about James’s professional career with the Cleveland Cavaliers (he was the National Basketball Association’s most valuable player last season) almost entirely. And since James skipped college, well, ixnay on that too.
"Ixnay"? Seriously?
“Shooting Stars” reads like a better-than-average young-adult novel, “Stand by Me” with breakaway dunks and long, arching three-pointers. I suspect it will find its best ...
Posted by Justine at 12:23, September 9th, 2009 under Ranting, Reading, Whingeing, Young Adult literature |
I have never ever wanted to learn to fly, yet
Sheri L. Smith's
Flygirl almost had me calling up flight schools. ((I suspect you need to know how to drive a car before you move on to planes. Not that I actually want to learn to fly or drive a car for that matter. Nasty smelly things.)) Ida Mae Jones lives to fly. So much so that she passes as a white woman in order to become a
WASP during World War II. The book is about race, class, gender, about friendship, obsession (for flying), love, and family.
Cut for mild spoilerage:
Posted by Justine at 13:12, September 8th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Most aspiring writers ask the right questions. I worry that
my last post, which is an
echo of
many earlier posts, gives a different impression, so I feel the need to say it loud and clear: the vast majority of aspiring writers who contact me ask smart, sensible, interesting questions. It's really only the ones who are more in love with the idea of being a writer than with actually, you know, writing who ask the wrong questions. Mercifully, they are massively outnumbered by the people who love writing.
During my events at the
Melbourne Writers Festival I wasn't asked any wrong questions. My audiences were smart and full of excellent questions. The encounter ...
Posted by Justine at 6:42, August 28th, 2009 under Fans & readers, Reading, Sydney/Australia, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Laura Atkins recently gave a paper, "
What’s the Story? Reflections on White Privilege in the Publication of Children’s Books," at the
IRSCL (International Research Society for Children's Literature) congress. She's calling for
comments and suggestions from people involved with children's publishing.
Her paper is
here. You can leave comments and suggstions
here.
Please don't go over there to deny that white privilege exists because a) that's simply not true and b) you'll be derailing what's already turning into a very useful conversation. Thank you.
Posted by Justine at 19:01, August 15th, 2009 under Publishing business, Young Adult literature |
Sometimes when people read a book of mine and tell me it reminds them of some other book, especially if I have not read that book, I get in a snit. I am well aware that this reflects very poorly upon me. Please don't judge. ((Well, not too harshly.)) So when I was told that Liar was reminiscent of
Jacqueline Woodson's If You Come Softly ((And I'm very embarrassed by this but I can't remember who told me.)) my first reaction was pursed lipped muttering to myself about the special petal-ness of Liar and how it's not like any other book ever. ((Which is utter rubbish. Any book that was not like any other book ever would be completely ...
Posted by Justine at 1:11, August 11th, 2009 under Praising, Reading, Young Adult literature |
As previously mentioned I've discovered a slew of marvellous blogs because of the storm surrounding the cover of Liar. I've already mentioned
Color Online and the
Happy Nappy Bookseller as well as
Reading in Color and
Taste Life Twice, all of them wonderful informative blogs. I'm not sure how I lived without them.
But I also came across some blogs that have almost nothing to do with YA books. My current favourite is
Journal of a Baby Power Dyke in Training---best blog title ever, right? (Why did I not come up with a cool title for my own blog? What was I thinking?)
This post made me nearly combust with laughter. It is currently my ...
Posted by Justine at 7:14, August 7th, 2009 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Young Adult literature |
Because I'm in transit, ((These two guest posts are timed to post while I'm travelling. If your comments get stuck in moderation you'll have to be patient. Sorry.)) I asked
Ari if she would step in for me, and she kindly said yes. Thanks, Ari!
I'm back! So yesterday I gave you a list of books about poc that I think you should read, although I'm sure I left off some great books by accident. If you want some more lists check out Susan's at
Color Online for specifically sci-fi check this out the
Happy Nappy Bookseller's list and for bi-racial, multi-racial poc
go here.
Also I want to share some information with you ...
Posted by Justine at 7:47, July 28th, 2009 under Guest post, Reading, State of the World, Writing process, Young Adult literature |
