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Posted by Justine at 11:24, March 10th, 2008 under Publishing business, Young Adult literature |
John Scalzi has some
excellent advice for writers who are trying to make money out of said occupation. Go forth, read, take notes.
While I strongly agree with most of his advice, I have issues with two of his points:
3. Marry (or otherwise shack up with) someone sensible with money, who has a real job.
This is something that worked really well for John. I've met his wife, Krissy, and a more formidable, fun, amazing person I have yet to meet. And she knows from money. Seriously smart about it. I wish I had married Krissy.
But, really, this is Scalzi confusing his own excellent good luck with general advice for everyone. Not everyone's going to meet a Krissy. I ...
Posted by Justine at 14:03, February 11th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 10:05, February 6th, 2008 under Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, February 4th, 2008 under Reading, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Hilary!
asked the following:
I have a VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION ABOUT BOOK WRITING!!!!!!!!! My Friend Weslie is writing a book and I’ve been helping her, but she won’t exactly tell me what the plot is, but i feel that since I am helping her with it anyway, she SHOULD tell me. What’s your take on it? PLEASE ANSWER PROMPTLY!!!!!
When you say you're "helping" her I'm assuming you mean you are critiquing her work. Right? If so then, yes, it's really difficult to make constructive comments when you have no idea where the book is going.
For instance, say she's writing a vampire love story (judging from my poll opposite my readers are VERY into vampires) but she only slowly reveals that ...
Posted by Justine at 11:46, January 29th, 2008 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 13:19, January 28th, 2008 under Ideas, Praising, Publishing business, Ranting, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 0:04, January 28th, 2008 under Writing life, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 10:50, January 23rd, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Travelling, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
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/Internetty Stuff, Cons & Other Gatherings, Frippery, Travelling |
Posted by Justine at 10:59, January 8th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Excuses, Frippery, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:22, January 7th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 3rd, 2008 under Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:16, January 2nd, 2008 under Best of Blog, Reading, Scott's books, Viewing, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, December 31st, 2007 under First Kiss, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Last Day of the Year, Love is Hell, Magic or Madness trilogy, Writing goals & milestones |
Posted by Justine at 0:03, December 29th, 2007 under Admin, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Praising, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 11:45, December 9th, 2007 under Unicorns, Vainglory, Writing life, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 12:12, December 8th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA, Scott's books, Writing life, Zombies |
Posted by Justine at 0:03, December 4th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Whingeing, Writing goals & milestones |
This is the Brazilian version of Magic or Madness. Quite a contrast to all the other versions, eh? I likes it.
Here are the four other covers ((Apparently I'll be seeing the Thai and German versions before too long.)):
US & Oz; Italian; French; Taiwanese.
I'm not sure which ones I like best. What do youse reckon?
Posted by Justine at 13:28, November 21st, 2007 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Vainglory |
Posted by Justine at 16:18, November 20th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Publishing business, Words & Language, Writing goals & milestones, Writing process |
is because all the other writers are cool and supportive and wonderful to hang out with.
New-to-the-genre writer Sherman Alexie has been finding that out. He told
galleycat that at every bookshop he went to on his YA tour, "two or three big-name YA authors have come to the reading. That never happened on my adult book tours."
I certainly felt that way last night at the
ALAN drinks hanging out with my peeps. Way too many to name. As well as the usual suspects were people like Lauren Myracle, Pete Hautmann, Sara Zarr and Kathleen Duey (who wrote the brilliant
Skin Hunger that I raved about earlier---yes I fan girled all over her). All of them fabulous people ...
Posted by Justine at 8:45, November 19th, 2007 under Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 9:55, November 13th, 2007 under Basketball, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, New York City/USA, Praising, Publishing business, Ranting, Sport, State of the World |
Posted by Justine at 17:08, November 12th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Writing process |
My desk is not so small as you all think. It has two levels. Two! Look closely at this photo:
See the stuff below? It's not on the floor it's the second level of the desk.
I'm now curious about your working spaces. If you feel so inclined take a photo and link to it in the comments.
Posted by Justine at 9:44, November 9th, 2007 under Frippery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Writing goals & milestones |
A friend will be in town next week to meet her agent and some editors who are interested in her writing. She is very nervous and asked me what to expect. I directed her to agent Kristin Nelson's blog where a while back she gave the
lowdown on the shennanigans that take place at agent-editor lunches. It's shocking stuff!
They eat food and gossip! Who'd've thunk it?
I then revealed to my friend that the exact same thing happens at editor-author lunches. Food is et and (rarely) wine is drunk, and the publishing industry, family, friends, mutual acquaintances, as well as Ugly Betty, and books just read are discussed and dissected. Much fun is had.
I found this all very ...
Posted by Justine at 13:25, November 7th, 2007 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, New York City/USA, Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 20:34, November 6th, 2007 under Writing life |
It has come to this. I have the final round of edits on the Fairy book. They are in manuscript form. However, there is no room on my desk to put the manuscript. The towering piles of crap cannot stand any further weight, not even one small piece of paper, definitely not 264 manuscript pages. I know because I tried and there was much toppling of crap to the floor. It is now dumped back on the desk.
The desk must be cleaned in order for me to work.
I am afraid of it. It is now more like an archaeological dig than mere cleaning. I fear what I might find: I did clean away all uneaten food, didn't I? I fear ...
Posted by Justine at 10:44, November 4th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Whingeing |
Posted by Justine at 22:08, November 2nd, 2007 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Words & Language, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 1:11, October 29th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Titles & names, Whingeing, Words & Language, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 21:31, October 23rd, 2007 under Ideas, Science |
Posted by Justine at 18:32, October 22nd, 2007 under Praising, Reading |
Cedarlibrarian, a major Harry Potter fan,
doesn't care about spoilers. Her arguments are smart and convincing.
And yet.
I'm really not a very evolved consumer of texts cause spoilers bug the crap out of me. I want my first experience of any narrative---be it book, manga, graphic novel, TV show, movie, play, whatever, to be untrammelled by knowing stuff about it. I don't read reviews unless there of something I've already read/seen or it's something I don't care about.
Frankly, I'd almost prefer not to know what genre it is.
I don't want to know if people liked it or not. All the spoilery grumbling about the latest series of TV shows I haven't seen yet drives me spare. ((And I almost ...
Posted by Justine at 22:51, October 21st, 2007 under Ranting, Reading, Viewing |
Several people have been bewildered by
my enjoyment of
this article about the Frankfurt Book Fair. Don't you get depressed by how it's not about the authors? they ask. How it's about books as product? How there are so many, many, many books?
Nope.
Books are products.
That's not all they are, but it's a pretty bloody important aspect, especially for those of us who are trying to make a living writing (or editing or selling) them.
Publishing is an industry. Part of what it's about---and has always been about---is making money. For most of its history most of that money has been made by people other than writers. ((Most editors and publicists and sales reps and booksellers don't make ...
Posted by Justine at 0:09, October 18th, 2007 under Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 9:34, October 15th, 2007 under Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 13:26, October 12th, 2007 under Ranting, Reading, Travelling, Young Adult literature |
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/Internetty Stuff, Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Travelling, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 11:33, September 20th, 2007 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Whingeing, Writing life |
A warning: this is one of those stumbly thinking out loud posts.
I just read a dead interesting essay by
Jim Huang reflecting on twenty years of selling books. Most of his comments have to do with mystery books but a lot of it applies to other genres. I've been thinking about this comment:
When I think about the center of gravity of the mystery genre, I still believe that it lies in series. Seventy percent of the titles on the bestsellers lists of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association in 2007 year to date are part of a series. Seventy percent of these series titles belong to long-running series of five or more books. Sales in IMBA member stores ...
Posted by Justine at 11:45, September 11th, 2007 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Manga, Praising, Reading, Viewing, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 13:53, August 9th, 2007 under Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 14:36, August 6th, 2007 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Publishing business, Ranting, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 12:07, July 31st, 2007 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Cricket, Sport, Sydney/Australia, Whingeing, Writing life |
I am in crunch time. I am in crunchy crunch time. The busyness I have been complaining about has rebounded on itself and leapt to a whole new level of busy. In a word: Aaaarggghh!!!!
I'm going to keep blogging. I made a little bet with myself to see if I could blog every day of July and so far so good. I hate to lose bets with myself. Especially fun ones. Also blogging kind of clears my head. Dunno why but when I'm deep in writing, blogging really helps me to unwind---that and a glass of wine.
However, I'll no longer be replying to comments as much as I have been (which I know has been down on what it used ...
Posted by Justine at 11:44, July 28th, 2007 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Excuses, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Whingeing |
For research purposes, I am going to drastically increase my zombie culture consumption.
Thus far I've been reading and loving The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman. (I read the trades not the skinnies---so no spoilers for the latest issues!)
I also plan to read World War Z, An Oral History Of The Zombie War by Max Brooks. So no spoilers, people!
Update: Forgot to mention I have read the entire and very excellent Kelly Link zombie oeuvre.
What other zombie books and graphic novels should I be reading?
And there's the movies---because really the whole zombie thing is very movie driven.
Obviously I've seen and loved all the George Romero zombie films. Yum. My faves. Yes, even the recent Land of the Dead that I've ...
Posted by Justine at 12:11, July 27th, 2007 under Reading, Research, Viewing, Zombies |
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/Internetty Stuff, Frippery, Unicorns, Zombies |
Marrije asked over on insideadog if I'll be following the Tour de France this year. Sadly, I will not.
This year has gotten out of control. I cannot afford to spend hours every day watching the Tour and following it online. I am incapable of following the Tour non-obsessively. So for the first time in years I'm not following it at all. (No spousal pressure was brought to bear in the making of this decision. Well, okay, just a little bit. I am not husband-beaten! I am not!)
Waaaahh!!!!!
The New York Liberty (10-8) will have to sustain my sport-following needs this northern summer.
And now I go back to the myriad tasks that confront me. At this point it's so bad I'm resorting ...
Posted by Justine at 12:02, July 9th, 2007 under Basketball, Sport, Tour de France, Whingeing, Writing goals & milestones |
David Levithan's speech at Reading Matters inspired me to put together a list of Australian gay and lesbian young adult books.
I could not do this on my own. Thank you Lynndy Bennett, Kate Constable, Susannah Chambers, Pamela Freeman, Simmone Howell, Judith Ridge, Penni Russon and Ron Serdiuk for all your help and suggestions.
This list is definitely not complete and is not annotated. It's just a start. If you can think of any more titles, please let me know! And if you've read any of the books on the list and can say a bit more about them that'd be great too.
Lili Wilkinson has said that the
Centre for Youth Literature will give the list ...
Posted by Justine at 12:06, July 1st, 2007 under State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 1:02, June 30th, 2007 under Excuses, Whingeing |
The
wonderful speech that
David Levithan gave at Reading Matters is now
available as a podcast. You all should listen to this passionate, galvanising call to arms that left most everyone wanting to go out and slay vampires right that very minute. Or, you know, get the books that kids need into their hands.
I'm still mulling over my response to David's call to arms. On the one hand, I think he's totally right. On the other, it's so annoying to have a foreignor come in, spend a few minutes in the country, and then tell us Aussies what to do! We hates it, we do. Especially when they're right . . .
Posted by Justine at 0:12, June 20th, 2007 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Praising, Ranting, Reading, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 18:14, June 4th, 2007 under Publishing business, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 10:08, April 5th, 2007 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Vainglory, Whingeing, Young Adult literature |
