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Next novel poll
Posted by Justine at 14:42, March 2nd, 2008 under Unicorns, Writing goals & milestones, Zombies | 18 Comments »
Best Zombie Hunter Librarians Ever
The wonderful Kathleen T. Horning of Worth The Trip ((Oh, and yeah, she's a mover-and-shaker librarian in her spare time.)) sent me this fantastic art by Madison Hartup: You can check out Madison's other work over at DeviantArt. And my apolgoies for posting this to Maureen who's a little bit zombied out right now.Posted by Justine at 0:00, February 28th, 2008 under Viewing, Zombies | 12 Comments »
Zombie Idol has been decided!
Congratulations to Adrienne and Danielle for making the finals and to Adrienne for winning. I'm relieved I wasn't allowed to vote cause I have no idea who I'd've voted for. I thought both pieces were fabulous. I shall miss Zombie Idol. Literature without zombies popping here, there, and everywhere, well, it's hardly worth reading, is it?Posted by Justine at 22:28, February 26th, 2008 under Zombies | Comments Off
The Finals of Zombie Idol
I have been remiss and forgotten to point out that voting is now open for the finals of ZOMBIE IDOL!!! Go vote! Voting is open for another (almost) six hours. That is you must vote before 7PM Eastern US of A time. Go!Posted by Justine at 13:09, February 26th, 2008 under Zombies | Comments Off
Zombie Idol, Round the Second
That's right us judges have done decided and now you get to choose which is the bestest. And if that isn't enough on Monday you get to choose between the winner of round one and the winner of round two for the utlimate uber-winner of Zombie Idol 2008. Go, zombies!Posted by Justine at 14:23, February 22nd, 2008 under Frippery, Zombies | Comments Off
Zombie Idol voting begins
The final five of Zombie Idol have been selected. Now all you have to do is go and vote for your favourite. And not to worry if you had a yen to enter Zombie Idol. This is just round one. The deadline for round two entries is midnight of 21 February (East Coast USA time). To whet your appetite here is Libba Bray's take on Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown: In the great scary mall There were survivors And some dark halls And a picture of The zombie cow jumping over George Romero And there were three little zombies sitting on chairs And two dead kittens And a pair of severed mittens And a little toy house And a flesh-eating mouse And a lost sombrero and pain and a ...Posted by Justine at 0:00, February 16th, 2008 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Zombies | 2 Comments »
More market research
Posted by Justine at 10:28, February 15th, 2008 under Research, Young Adult literature, Zombies | 21 Comments »
Zombie idol!
So, the whole Maureen Johnson stick a zombie into a novel thing has just gotten heaps bigger. Like heaps. You need to go over there to check out the extent of the bigness. I heard a rumour that there are more than a gazillion entries already! A bazillion gazillion trabillion! So many that's she's extended the competition. And gotten some judges in. Stellar judges such as Meg Cabot, John Green, E. Lockhart, and, um, me. I'm excited and delighted and slightly nervous. How long does it take to read a bazillion gazillion trabillion entries? Also---Oh. My. God.---I'm a judge with Meg Cabot. I think I'm going to faint. To forestall the fainting fit here is my little take on the whole thing: I ...Posted by Justine at 0:00, February 12th, 2008 under Frippery, Young Adult literature, Zombies | 14 Comments »
Genre schmenre
Posted by Justine at 10:05, February 6th, 2008 under Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Young Adult literature, Zombies | 15 Comments »
I am not an expert
Posted by Justine at 0:04, January 28th, 2008 under Writing life, Zombies | 12 Comments »
The Scalzi, Westerfeld and Me podcast continues
Posted by Justine at 11:45, December 9th, 2007 under Unicorns, Vainglory, Writing life, Young Adult literature, Zombies | 10 Comments »
Podcast Seriousness
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 | 7 Comments »
Matter of taste
Someone just told me I'm wrong about Bring It On being the best movie of all time. Excuse me? If I say it is then it is! This is my personal list of the best movies of all time. I cannot be wrong about it. I'm not saying there aren't other best movies of all time. There are! The Princess Bride is one. Rififi is another. Not to mention Out of the Past and Lagaan. I am also not wrong about mangosteens being the best fruit. Or The Wire being the best television. Or Emma and Hellsing and anything by Osamu Tezuka being the best manga. Or zombies being the best monsters. And cricket absolutely is the best sport. So nyer! Though, of course, I reserve the ...Posted by Justine at 17:23, August 1st, 2007 under Food, Mangosteens, Ranting, Reading, Viewing, Zombies | 20 Comments »
Zombies, of course (updated)
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 | 23 Comments »
Vampire elves
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 | 7 Comments »
I am not a zombie
Unlike Mr Scalzi and a scary number of others, I am not a zombie. The flesh is still pink and I'm craving miso soup, not brains. (At least not unless they're lamb's brains lightly sauteed with lots of garlic.) I suspect that the apocalypse has not hit New York City yet. Figures that it would ravage the midwest first. We have a reinforced steel door and enough food to last . . . Hang on a second. Oh. Okay, enough food to last a few hours. But there's lots of booze. So I'm good. And, frankly, I can think of no better way to spend the apocalypse than holed up with me old man and two cases of really ...Posted by Justine at 13:34, June 13th, 2007 under Zombies | 12 Comments »
Yay! Aargh! Woohoo! Eep!
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 | 17 Comments »
The Tall One
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 | 9 Comments »
Back home
All my friends are zombies:Posted by Justine at 13:13, March 26th, 2007 under Sydney/Australia, Zombies | 15 Comments »
Quit it already
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 | 21 Comments »
Zombies, unicorns, scrotum (updated)
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/Internetty Stuff, Book challenges, New York City/USA, Praising, Ranting, State of the World, Unicorns, Words & Language, Young Adult literature, Zombies | 27 Comments »
More on blurbs, plus 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/Internetty Stuff, Publishing business, Unicorns, Writing life, Zombies | 27 Comments »
Blurbs
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/Internetty Stuff, Publishing business, Reading, Unicorns, Writing life, Zombies | 33 Comments »
Sometimes only Resident Evil 2 will do
Sometimes I've been writing too much, my brain is broken, and all i can do is crash in front of the box and try not to dribble. Times like those I need Resident Evil 2 because only zombies, motorbikes and Mila will unbreak my brain. Mmmm, zombies. What are your favourite brain unbreakers? And why?Posted by Justine at 0:09, January 18th, 2007 under Praising, Viewing, Zombies | 14 Comments »

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