FAQ
Q: Is there any news on a movie?
A: While there’s been some interest in turning How To Ditch Your Fairy into a movie nothing has come of it so far. Trust me, if there’s any news on this front I will sing it from the rooftops. Though I think HTDYF book would make a better TV series than a movie.
Q: Do schools like New Avalon Sports High really exist?
There are all sports high schools around the world. But I hope they’re not quite as strict as NA Sports High. I didn’t base it on any particular high school. Though I was influence by a doco I saw about girls training to be gymnasts at the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport). I was shocked at the long hours these young girls were training and at how strict their coaches were. Yet they seemed to love it. I remember one girl being asked how she could love such a tough training regime. She looked at the journo asking her the question as if they were crazy: “Are you kidding? I get to go to the Olympics!”
A: Is all the slang a mix of US & Australian or is some of it made up?
I made up the majority the slang, mostly by playing with my thesaurus. Thesauruses are fun! My favourite is “pulchy” for cute or good-looking. I’ve always thought “pulchritudinous” was the most hilarious word ever because it sounds so ugly yet it mean beautiful.
Q: Will there be another book set in the HTDYF world?
A: At the moment I have no ideas for another book set in the How To Ditch Your Fairy world. That doesn’t mean I won’t get some great idea later on. But right now the next few books I have planned have nothing to do with those worlds. I don’t plan to write any.
Q: Diana Peterfreund asks, You seem to be drawn to very unusual names for your characters: Reason and Jay-Tee in Magic or Madness and now Charlie and Fiorenze in How To Ditch Your Fairy. I know you’ve talked about the story behind “Reason,” but what about How To Ditch Your Fairy?
A: Charlie’s not an unusual name! The names in How To Ditch Your Fairy come from two sources: 1. Famous sports people, 2. I borrowed them from teenagers I met doing appearances in libraries, schools and book shops in Australia and the USA.
Q: Where did the idea for How To Ditch Your Fairy come from?
A: I answered the question of how I came up with the idea for How To Ditch Your Fairy here. It’s a good story because I have good friends who inspire me. If you are a writer it is best to have many friends for they are much goodness in the giving of ideas.
Feel free to ask more questions below. I can’t promise a quick response but I definitely will answer.
Leanne Says:
Where did you get the ideas for the many (slightly painful) ways of removing fairies? I doubt you walked down the street and saw someone trying to bleach their fairy off….
November 26th, 2009 at 7:28 PM
2. Justine Says:
Leanne: Ha! No, I did not see such a thing.
I just thought of these things I thought would be uncomfortable and erky but not actually fatal. Well, not unless you did it very badly.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:07 PM
Amber Says:
First Of All, I Love this book and I’m hoping it will become a series.
Second thing, I was wondering why is it, no one can see the fairies, unless they look in a special mirror, and why is it that all they see is an aura?
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:40 PM
4. Justine Says:
Amber: Thank you!
I don’t know. I’m sure if I wrote more books set in that world I would know, but at the moment only Tamsin (Fiorenze’s mum) is the only one who knows exactly how at works.
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:56 PM
Dana Says:
Merry Christmas! Did you imagine New Avalon in a sort of alternate Earth or just sort of a closed-from-the-world city in the actual Earth?
And also, what kind of fairy do you have, if fairies did exist?
December 25th, 2009 at 6:12 PM
6. Justine Says:
Dana: Happy new year! It’s definitely an alternative Earth but one that’s a lot like this one.
I have a good travel fairy. Because I almost have good experiences when I go on trips to other places. (Well, the flying part is crap but once I get somewhere else it’s almost always fabulous.)
January 7th, 2010 at 3:10 AM
Say Says:
Okay 1, please don’t make fun of the way it says “Say Says”. Oh jeez, that just made it worse! I’m hopeless!
Anyway, I just felt the need to say that I have the most boring fairy in the whole world: a find your page fairy.
I read all the time, and no matter how many times I put my book down to some random place, and forget to mark it, I’ll always turn back to the rigt place.
I dropped my book (HTDYF, not all that much of a coincidence, really) and it fell of a ramp and into a big pile of dust and dirt and spider webs, and I still opened it to the right page.
It only works up to 15 minutes after I put the book down though.
Sorry, that was really…long.
I just thought of that after I finished HTDYF and I felt the need to share it with someone other than my mother.
: D
February 10th, 2010 at 12:41 AM
8. Justine Says:
Say: I will not say a word about “Say says.” I promise.
I don’t think that’s the most boring fairy in the world. That’s a fairy I’d like to have as I’m always losing my place in books. I think you’re lucky. (And I’m glad your book survived the fall!)
March 20th, 2010 at 10:18 PM
Leanne (again!) Says:
Me again… hehehe.
I have a friendship fairy, and I LOVE it!!
No matter WHERE I go, even to a summercamp in the States (I live in BC), I manage to make friends with everyone there! I’ll go to the camp not knowing anybody, and come out with ten people’s email addresses and five people’s mailing addresses and multiple phone numbers. Most of the people on my contacts lists are people who I haven’t seen in years but I still keep in touch with!
March 24th, 2010 at 5:39 PM
10. Justine Says:
Leanne: That’s probably the best fairy of all. You’re dead lucky.
April 3rd, 2010 at 9:08 PM
Camide Says:
The words you apparently made up (I was thinking they were Australian lingo or something) are addictive. I really like them and started using them. XD Especially Doos, Poxy, Pulchy, Doxhead, and Stellar. I love them! Who knows, maybe if we get other people to use them a lot, they’ll become real words! XD
Also, I believe I don’t have a fairy sadly…unless there can be a Slow Fairy as I’m always lazy, procrastinating, and just a plain turtle at everything! But as it seems, the fairies are suppose to bring something good, not bad, so that wouldn’t work…Maybe a Do-Well Fairy? One that helps me do well in things despite my slowness? I mean, I don’t do the best, not enough to be great, but enough to get by I suppose.Urk…I want a Quick-Wit Fairy…
April 13th, 2010 at 9:35 PM
Sasha Says:
So I’m just starting reading HTDYF (cause I found it in the library on the only shelf I can ever be bothered to look at)and i already love it! I was wondering, are there some bad fairies, as in ones that don’t bring such great things?
And i reckon that if i had a fairy it might be a day dream fairy? could that be possible? im always so out of it cause even in the middle of exams or monopoly i day dream.
You should come up with a million (or how bout just a lot) different fairy types so that everyone can find out which fairy they have! That’d be great!
and sorry its so long but i have a tendency to ‘over express’…in the words of my literature teacher…and my english teacher…and my history teacher…..
June 15th, 2010 at 5:11 AM
Sasha Says:
oh, and just by the way, i am Australian, and i’ve lived all over the east coast and honest and true -ive never heard of any sort of “lingo” here. And when was it that you were near Brisbane?…
PS (as if i needed a ps)
I love the words you made up!
June 15th, 2010 at 5:35 AM
Sasha Says:
I’m sooo so sorry to bother you again, but how do you say ‘Fiorenze’???
June 18th, 2010 at 3:53 AM
Meggie Says:
Hi!
I absolutely adore your books!
My favorites are Liar and HTDYF!
I was wondering, is there is singing fairy?
I am thinking a might have a – Teachers love you but not exactly the same with other students fairy.
Is That Possible?
Thank You!
July 13th, 2010 at 4:55 PM
ashley Says:
first thing, i loved this book !
i also loved the words you used in this book, there very addicting.
my favorites were doos and pulchy.
i was wondering if you were going to make another HTDYF book ?
if you did, i would definitly be the first to buy it
August 3rd, 2010 at 4:03 PM
Grace Says:
Will You come to Brisbane? also i read Liar before this and i think that you must be a fairy or Micah or something really smart. Maybe you have a ausome fairy? More, are you planning to write books on subjects like liar and HTDYF? if soo what are their names. Sorry if i am bothering you but I think i either have an i bother everyone fairy or a Always-get-good-grades fairy. Probaly the latter. Thankies for your time, Grace.
September 14th, 2010 at 12:54 AM
18. Justine Says:
Camide: Thanks so much. I adore making up words. Always have done. Though the only word I actually made up for HTDYF was “spoffs”. The rest are actual words but old-fashioned or not usually used that way. (You’re right they’re not Aussie words.)
Maybe what you have is a relaxation fairy and that’s why you move at a slower pace? There are many people who would love to have a relaxation fairy.
January 2nd, 2011 at 11:07 AM
19. Justine Says:
Sasha:
I hope you still liked it as much when you finished.
I was wondering, are there some bad fairies, as in ones that don’t bring such great things?
Fairies are only for good things. Though, as in HTDYF, those good things may not seem good to the person with the fairy. But there are no illness fairy or bad luck fairies or anything like that. Those are curses. Perhaps one day I’ll write a book about curses. I once knew someone with a restaurant curse. So that whenever he went to a restaurant the waiters would ignore him, get his order wrong, and give him the wrong bill etc. etc.
When was it that you were near Brisbane?
One of my best friends lives in Brisbane so I’ve been up that way many many times.
I love the words you made up!
Thank you! It was fun
January 2nd, 2011 at 11:13 AM
Grace B. Says:
Hi! I just finished reading HTDYF and I loved it!I think I would have a no cavities fairy because I’ve never ever had a cavity before and I love sweets and stuff but nooooo cavities! Not that useful but still fun:)
So my question is: What would Charlie’s blue proto-fairy be if she still had it?
April 3rd, 2011 at 6:26 AM
21. Justine Says:
Grace B.: Trust me, a no cavities fairy is AWESOME. Think of all your savings on dentist bills.
What would Charlie’s blue proto-fairy be if she still had it?
Because she got rid of it we will never know. But I suspect it was something boring like a lint repelling fairy.
August 10th, 2011 at 5:01 AM
Eileen Lower Says:
HTDYF needs a sequel. There is so much that can be explored in future books (hopefully the plural will come to pass) as many ideas in HTDYF weren’t able to fully develop as they would’ve ruined the plot.
June 22nd, 2012 at 1:19 AM
jessica Says:
I think you could do a second book and have her talking in court about having to park for danders anders when he might have been gambling.
August 8th, 2012 at 5:28 PM