Category Archives: Travelling

Documenting Our Lurve

31 January, 2008

Thanks to everyone for all the photos. You are all the bestest and most wondrous people EVER! As Jeff Fenech would say, “I love youse all!”

It was kind of weird to see how many photos there are of me and Scott I never knew existed. Eerie even . . .

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologise to my sister, Niki Bern, as well as my good friend, Cat Sparks. I’m sorry I’m always so recalcitrant about having my photo taken. You were both right that some day I would be happy you both insist on documenting everything.

That said, I now no longer need to have my photo taken ever again. Hallelujah! I shall keep intact what tiny bit of my soul is left.

Because some of you have expressed curiosity here is one photo for every year Scott and me have been together. Enjoy! We certainly have.


2001: Our wedding day. Upstate New York. (Photo by Phyllis Bobb.)


2002: On the Woomera Prohibited zone in South Australia to see a total eclipse. (Photo by Sean Williams.)


2003: Goofing around with Adrian Hobbs in Newtown back home in Sydney. (Photo by Olivia Rousset.)


2004: At the SFWA drinks night. (Thanks Liza Trombi and Locus for sending the photo.)


2005: With Andrew Woffinden and Lauren McLaughlin in London. (Photo by Niki Bern.)


2006: At the Lake Hills Library in Bellevue, Washington. (Photo by Shelly Clift. Thanks!)


2007: On our way to the National Book Awards.

Why can’t I be Guest of Honour all the time?

24 January, 2008

I will confess that I was nervous about going to High Voltage ConFusion. There were several reasons for this:

  • I’m afraid of cold places. And Detroit in winter is COLD.1
  • I’d never been a guest of honour before and was worried I’d be crappy at it.
  • I was aware that most of the people at the con would not have heard of me or Scott and was worried that they would feel dudded of a proper author guest of honour what wrote adult sf and fantasy.

I need not have had any concerns at all. I was right that most of the people there didn’t know us or our work (unless they were a teen librarian or had teen children—there were precious few actual teens in attendance). But it turned out to be a really good thing. No pressure and no expectations. It was really relaxing. One of the most relaxing weekends I’ve had in ages.

Mostly because of Anne Murphy, our liaison. I had no idea that guests of honour get someone to take care of them. It was fabulous. Anne made sure we were fed and happy. She is the best liaison of all time. Thank you, Anne! Why can’t she take care of us all the time? We’re lost without you, Anne!

There was much fun. The Opening Ceremonies were hilarious. A picture of which below. Scalzi interviewing us was very silly and totally enjoyable. Though I was bummed he didn’t bring up unicorns or quokkas.

We got to design our own panels. Thank you so much con organisers for indulging us! And thus were able to vent about stuff that’s been bugging us for ages. Why is there so little sport in fantasy and sf? Why did our audience turn on us during that panel back in Boston in 2004? Do they really just love wheat?

Thus the wheat panel which was FABULOUS therapy for me and Scott, though audience members expecting us to follow the panel description might have been disappointed. Sorry about that! But thank you for not turning on us. You were the best audience ever. Actually, all the panel audiences were smart and engaged and awesome. Me and Scott were dead chuffed that as the weekend went on more and more folks were showing up to hear us gasbag and pontificate. Yay!

The sport panel was also wonderful. Though we had way too much to say and not enough time to say it in. I especially loved that the audience was almost entirely women. Hah! There was also a sports writer, Dave Hogg, in the audience (he really should have been on the panel) who turned out—along with his partner—to be a huge Detroit Shock fan. Go, WNBA! We had an excellently geeky women’s hoops gossip.

I’ll admit that my last few cons had left me with panel fatigue. But now I love them all over again. I wish I’d gotten to see some of the panels I wasn’t on. I heard that all of Kevin Dunn’s (the science guest of honour) were brilliant. He explained soap and and all sorts of other Caveman Chemistry. I can’t wait to read his book.

You’ll be shocked to hear, however, that the best fun was not had during the panels, but at the parties and in the bar, and just generally hanging out. The ConFusion organisers and regulars are the best people on the planet. Seriously I got into so many great conversations and arguments and teasing contests. I can’t wait to go back!2

May I share with you the three best words in the world?

Roaming Pirate Party


Thanks again, Hugh, for the photo.

I haz met the Roaming Pirate Party. They haz rum3 and pirate hats and jollity by the galleon load. Best pirates ever! I shall treasure my pirate hat and t-shirt for ever!

We got to catch up with old friends like Karen Meisner, John & Krissy Scalzi, and Doselle Young. Why don’t they all live MUCH closer to me? I miss you all already. Waahh!! Not to mention making stacks of new friends. You know who you are! Yanni! Brian! Aaron! And SO MANY OTHERS! You all made it the best weekend ever.

Hell, we even got to see a movie: Cloverfield and it were good. Very good indeed.

If anyone needs a guest of honour me and Scott are so up for it!

  1. How cold? Minus a million cold! That’s how cold. So cold that I’m back in NYC and it’s freezing and it seems warm in comparison. [↩]
  2. Any chance you could move it to a warmer time of year? [↩]
  3. Though, obviously, being a YA author I didn’t drink any of it. Heaven forfend! [↩]

The juvenilia panel

23 January, 2008

I have returned home to oceanic amounts of work. It is crazed!

But I must tell you briefly about the Juvenilia panel at High Voltage ConFusion before it all fades from my memory.

Short version: Best. Panel. Ever.

Longer version: It were me, Scott and Merrie Haskell. I cheated and read cute stuff from when I was 7 or 8. And some pretentious 10 year old stuff. They were brave and read teenage monstrosities so bad that we wept on account of laughing so hard. WEPT!

John Scalzi moderated and he was so appalled by the pretentious badness of Scott’s writing that he couldn’t look at Scott directly. It was AWESOME.

The best lines were:

Merrie Haskell: “Keeper of Earth Gaia,” the Light One said arrogantly, “I honor you with my manhood.”

Scott Westerfeld: Recognition of the House of Eleven took no long time, and the lady midst the compliment was none other than wench Mary, a liaress whom I had met before in the rank combats of her style, and who had left more than one of the Clan Demonus with garrote between chin and breathless breast.

Oh no, I starts to laugh all over again . . .

Heh hem. In addition to being really really really funny. Sharing our crappy writing from when we were beginning writers has the salutary effect of making it clear to those what aspire to be published writers but aren’t there yet that we published folk didn’t step fully formed from Zeus’s head. There was lots and lots and lots of bad words and phrases and sentences and stories and novels written before we were good enough to be read by anyone other than our doting parents.

Every con should have a juvenilia panel. I’ve been on two. The other one was in Brisbane in 2006 with Kim Wilkins and Sean Williams. It was just as fabulous and funny as the ConFusion one. Better in a way because the audience was much bigger thus more people got to laugh at our stumbling first writing steps.

The great photo quest continues

23 January, 2008

The reason for which are posted most indiscreetly on Scott’s blog.

I’d just like to share with you my favourite photo so far:


Kevin Dunn (science guest of honour) plus me and me old man at High Voltage Confusion in Detroit.

Why pirate hats you ask? If I told you I’d have to kill you.

And, yes, if you have any other photos of us we’d love to see ’em.

Thank you so much everyone for all the photos you’ve pointed us to. We REALLY appreciate it!

Juvenilia

17 January, 2008

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 demonstrate that even the most talentless kid can grow up to be a writer.

In the meantime, we’re off to snowy Detroit, for the fun and laughter of ConFusion. Hope to see some of you there. We’re not bringing our computers so blogging is unlikely.

Here’s my favourite sentence from my juvenilia written when I was about 7 or 8:

A long time ago there lived a group of dragons that were called the toughies.

Don’t have too much fun while I’m away!

Because Scalzi made us do it

11 January, 2008

Next weekend Scott Westerfeld and yours truly will be guests of honour at the 2008 High Voltage ConFusion science fiction convention. It’s our very first time being guests of honour and we are stoked. TOTALLY stoked. In fact I’m so very stoked I’m thinking of celebrating with the purchase of a new dress. Surely, being guest of honour requires new clothes, right? I gotta look pretty, don’t I? If you have an opinion on this Very Important Matter please to express it in the poll to your right.

I’m thinking this one, though with black gloves not white:


Vivienne Westwood’s Watteau ball gown

Here’s Scott and mine’s schedule. Because we are joint guests of honour we are doing everything together:

FRIDAY 18 JANUARY:

1900 Den 1 Interview: Author GoHs by John Scalzi
Tee hee! Mr Scalzi will ask us questions and we will plead the fifth and get away with it because we know where he buried the bodies. I suspect zombies will be mentioned.

2000 Salon FGH Opening Ceremonies
We will say a few words but there won’t be an actual speech speech. Some of my words will be “quokka”, “zombie”, and “oscillate”, or maybe not. Depends.

2100 Salon FGH Dessert Reception
Where we eat dessert and natter with folks what want to natter.

2200 Den 1 Originality is Overrated
There’s this idea that writers work entirely alone and create their work out of whole cloth. That’s rubbish. If a work were wholly original no one would be able to read it. All writers are influenced by those who came before them. Most writers talk to other writers. Many are in writers’ groups and even those that aren’t frequently read and comment on each other’s work. Let’s talk about the influence and community that writers share. Even when they don’t know each other. Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld (M), Patrick Nielsen Hayden, John Scalzi, Patrick Rothfuss and Doselle Young.

I confess that I wrote this description on account of it’s something that drives me crazy and I’m looking forward to talking about it with such esteemed and smart companions. Especially Doselle. Everything is better if Doselle is involved.

SATURDAY 19 JANUARY:

1100 Den 1 Fantastic Sports
Organized sports are a vital part almost every culture on the globe. But sf and fantasy novels tend to overlook this key aspect of world-building. We examine what sports are and what they tell us about a culture, and dig up some good examples in sf and fantasy. Justine Larbalestier (M), Scott Westerfeld, Steve Ainsworth, Dave Klecha and Catherine Shaffer.

Mmmm . . . sport. If I weren’t moderator I would just spend the session teaching USians cricket.

1300 Salon G Juvenilia
Writers dust off the storage trunks, turn off the shame meter, and read from their 5th- through 12th-grade works of unalloyed proto-genius. A great way for young writers in the audience to feel much better about their own efforts. Justine Larbalestier (M), Scott Westerfeld, Merrie Haskell, K. Tempest Bradford and Marcy Italiano.

I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that Scalzi is not on this panel. Laughing at his early writing efforts was the whole reason I agreed to go to ConFusion!

1400 Den 1 SF Is Not Dead
More sf is written and consumed these days than every before, in the form of manga, video games, rpgs, and YA lit. Yet our beloved field constantly bemoans its own demise, while ignoring those 100,000 crazy kids down the road at Comicon. How do we connect these two worlds of sf? Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld (M), Anne Harris, Jim Frenkel and Peter Halasz.

Because me and Scott are sick to death of hearing the folks in the old sf people’s home whingeing about the death of sf. It ain’t dead! It’s doing just fine, thanks.

1500 Den 1 Golden Age of Young Adult Lit
Some argue that the YA books being published now are some of the best the field has ever seen. There are more of them, the quality is better, and the authors are being paid more. Is now the Golden Age of Young Adult Literature? And if so what does that mean for the next generation of readers? Justine Larbalestier (M), Scott Westerfeld, Steve Climer, Suzanne Church and Peter Halasz.

I think it is. I also think it’s just going to get better and better and better.

1700 All-Author Autographing Session
If you have books you want strange author types to scribble on here’s your chance.

2100 Concierge Literary Beer
The only thing we’re doing that you have to sign up for. It’ll be me and Scott sitting around with a smallish group of interested folks and answering their questions while we all drink beer (or water or whatever you wish to drink. I wish to drink Krug—I hope the ConCom is on top of that!).

SUNDAY 20 JANUARY:

1100 Salon H Gluten-Free Fantasy
Most medieval cultures didn’t have chainmail, swords, horses, or wheat. Yet the overwhelming majority of medieval cultures in fantasy do. What do we stand to gain by breaking the bonds of Europe on our collective imagination? And what’s so scary about bolas, sled-dogs, and rice? Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld, John Scalzi, Karl Schroeder, Jim Frenkel.

This panel is also something me and Scott came up with. It has a backstory. Way back in the dark ages we were on a panel together about fantasy where we panelists suggested that there were other settings for high fantasy other than mediaeval Europe. Scott went as far as to say that wheat is not essential to high fantasy.

The audience turned on him. “We LOVE wheat!” they proclaimed. “We hate fantasy that isn’t set in mediaevel Europe. We hate wanky literary fantasy. In fact, we hate you writers on the panel who are trying to take away our wheat!”

Scalzi was in the audience along with the wonderful Karen Meisner and they both say it was one of the most extraordinary things they have ever seen. Karen even sent Scott a Canadian license plate wth a beautiful picture of wheat on it. Scott still contends that we were caught in the wave of an Atkin’s diet backlash.

Here’s the con’s full schedule.

Hope to see some of you there! I mean if this wussy Aussie girl can brave the dead of winter in Detroit. Surely some of you can?

Sorry

5 November, 2007

I was asked today why I say sorry so much.1

It’s true. I do say it a lot. I say “Sorry!” even if I am not even slightly at fault: like when, say, someone has bumped into me, or spilled something over me. I say sorry for pretty much everything. Even when I’m not at all sorry. Mostly when I’m not at all sorry.

As to the why of all those sorrys. I used to think it was just me. That I have this weird sorry-saying nervous tic. But I now know it’s cultural. I say sorry all the time because I am an Australian girl.

I realised this when I was living in Spain and one of my friends there blew up about it. She yelled at me that if I said sorry one more time it would drive her insane.2 That I could keep my “sorrys” and my “thank yous” and “pleases” and shove them [somewhere unpleasant]. She never wanted to hear them ever again. After that it became a joke between us. Every time I slipped up I would say—you guessed it—sorry. She would glare at me and then I would say sorry for saying sorry for saying sorry.

The Spanish, I learned, do not say “sorry”, “please” and “thank you” a million times a day.

When I went back to Sydney I noticed—for the first time—that I was not alone. Pretty much every woman I know says sorry just as much as I do. More even. It was quite the revelation.

I have since noticed that many English women suffer this malady. And quite a few USians—especially the ones from the South.

I have no idea what it means. But I have dark suspicions.

  1. not for the first time [↩]
  2. ¡Me vuelvas loca! [↩]

A rant begins to brew

12 October, 2007

So I just stopped reading an ARC I was given a few book shops ago. It’s a YA by an author who’s only written for adults previously—it sucks. I’m sorry that’s as polite as I can get. The writer seems never to have read any other YA or ever met a teenager. The main character is very like this writer’s other main characters only dumber and way more obvious.1 I did not believe in this character. The book is patronising, annoying, and, frankly, boring.

Why do so many adults assume that writing for teens or children is going to be a doddle and turn off nine tenths of their brain to do it? What is that about? Why do they assume teenagers are stupid?

I hasten to add that there are adult writers who are a natural fit for YA. Alice Hoffman is one. Joyce Carol Oates and Elizabeth Knox are also splendid. But the vast majority of YA by adult authors makes me very very cross indeed. If I were not in a mad hurry I would write a long detailed rant about it.

  1. The character is so dumb and obvious that if they were meant to be a five year old it would still be insulting. [↩]

No, not those either, but yes to these

11 October, 2007

Now I’m being asked if formal shorts are okay. I love that you’re writing me for fashion advice! Yay! Cause I have the requisite strong opinions, but can you do a little research first? I’ve been over this one before.

Formal shorts are an abomination. They are worse even than footless tights.

You know what isn’t an abomination?

Awesome hand-made T-shirts like this one. I wish Scott had taken a photo of Liset’s face as well because she also had the coolest make up and hair, but he’s been scared off by all those schools that have no-photo policies.1 For the record: We always ask when we take photos and if it’s also okay to post them.

What other clothing are you guys loving right now? Share!

I saw a woman at Seattle airport who had gold strands woven into her hair and the whole thing was pulled up into the most amazing do. I wish I’d taken a photograph. She looked like a goddess. And her hair perfectly matched the rest of her outfit which was also black and gold. Hmmm, it prolly sounds a bit dire, but, trust me, she was turning heads in a really good way.

  1. Often for very good reasons. [↩]

Fans rule

10 October, 2007

Day 11 of the tour:

Tonight’s appearance at Books Inc (Opera Plaza) was fabulous. Lots of rabid, smart, enthusiastic Scott fans and passionate arguments about David/Zane. For the record I like Zane better than David but prefer Shay to either one of them.

The most wonderful part of the evening for me was meeting London, who’s a guy from Sacramento, who drove all the way to San Francisco (which is at least two hours!) to tell me how much he loves my books. Isn’t that awesome? Also turns out he’s a Sacramento Monarchs fan and has even met their big star Yolanda Griffiths. I was deeply impressed and we got to talk women’s hoops which always makes me happy.

Equally happy making was the lovely Liset who gave me a beautiful piece of fan art:

Liset’s fan art

What a wonderful day. Thanks to Jennifer and Shannon for all your hard work. You guys are deeply splendiferous!

There’s lots more to say. And a tonne of your comments I want to respond to, but I’m completely knackered.

Tomorrow there are more events. Also we fly to Seattle.

Sleep now!

Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson and other famous persons

9 October, 2007

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:

City of Bones

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 them:

schoollibrary.jpg

I checked each one, looking for a book by one of my friends, and lo and behold what did I find?

13lbe.jpg
Maureen Johnson’s Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes.

During tonight’s fabulous event at Copperfield books in Petaluma praise was heaped on Holly Black, Libba Bray, Cecil Castellucci, Cassie, Maureen, and Garth Nix. It was joyous to hear. And, yes, I was bad, I boasted about knowing them all!

Book tours are fun!

Toes, passports, and other misadventures

6 October, 2007

If this is Sunday it must be Oakland. What do you mean it isn’t Sunday?! But this is Oakland, right?

Scott is silly

Today has not been one of my better efforts. Let’s see:

    I almost broke one of Scott’s toes,

    Put the “signed by” sticker on several of his books upside down (worst jacket monkey ever),

    Left my bag with our passports in it behind at a restaurant and then managed not to hear the poor waiter sprinting after me and shouting with said bag in hands (but we got the bag back! yay most excellent waiter!),

    Fell asleep in the middle of Scott reading me this thingie he’s working on. (He is a most excellent reader. I have never fallen asleep while he was reading before. I plead exhaustion.)

Where is the rewind button? I would like to start over please.

Here’s hoping the actual Sunday goes much better especially as there’s a chance I might get to meet Alice Walker. I loved The Color Purple so much when I first read it that I immediately read it a second time. I can’t remember how many times I’ve read it since then. She is a genius. I love her essays every bit as much as her fiction.

Oh, and if you’re in the San Francisco area Scott is doing a whole bunch of appearances. I’ll be at all of them, most especially the one we’re doing together:

Tuesday, Oct 9
7:00pm
Books Inc.
Opera Plaza
601 Van Ness Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94102
In-store reading & signing with Scott.
A Not Your Mother’s Book Club event

I’m very happy to sign my books for you even at one of Scott’s events. I promise that I will try my best not to break any of your toes.

Free books

5 October, 2007

At the book shop appearances Scott keeps being offered a free book as a reward for his hard work and charming-ness. We keep choosing mass market paperbacks because we’re travelling and running out of spaces. Last choice: the latest Naomi Novik. (I started it last night and it rocks.)

If you were asked to choose one book from your favourite book shop what would it be?

Magic or Madness turns Japanese

4 October, 2007

Guess what? The entire Magic or Madness trilogy just sold to the Japanese publisher, Hayakawa Shobo. That’s right! I’m going to be in Japanese! I can’t tell you how over the moon I am. Woo hooo!!!

Ever since I first heard about the whole foreign-rights thing there were two languages I’ve been desperate to be translated into: Spanish (cause I speak it un poco) and Japanese on account of my Japan obsession (oh, okay, mostly Kurosawa movies, Kimba, and now manga).

I screamed when I got the email. And started entertaining fantasies of a manga adaption following on from the straight translation. How cool would that be?

Now we just need to get a Spanish-language publisher to pick up the books and my life will be complete. For the record this is the ninth country that has bought the trilogy and the seventh language other than English.

I love being a writer. Especially when cool stuff happens without my lifting a finger. Bliss! Thank you, Whitney Lee, for all your hard work. You are the very best!

The first book shop event

3 October, 2007

Last night we went to Anderson’s books in Naperville, Illinois. Much fun was had. Scott explained the origins of the Uglies series and of Extras. The first is all about our society’s beauty obsession; the second deals with the fame thing. There was lots of Q & A. The questions were ridiculously smart and interesting and there didn’t seem to be a single person who hadn’t read at least three or four of Scott’s books so he didn’t have to worry too much about spoilers.

Scott raises his hand. Dunno why.

During the hours and hours that he was signing for the smart and very appreciative crowd I got to hang out with some fabulous folk who were readers of my books and/or blog. At least three librarians came up to tell me how much they and their patrons enjoy my books. Yes!

I had a blast gossiping about favourite books, which is, naturally, my favourite topic of conversation ever. I was totally stoked to discover that my raving about the genius of Megan Whalen Turner’s Attolia trilogy had influenced some people to pick the books up and read them. Yay!1 Also I found someone who loved Meredith Anne Pierce as much as I do!2 Double yay!

Jez and friends

The photo is of Jez and her friends (whose names I’ve forgotten—sorry!) Thanks so much for all the manga recommendations. You guys are fabulous.

I wish I could remember everyone’s name. The folks I talked to were all so wonderful, but the only people I got a chance to say goodbye to were Jez and her friends. Sorry about that! Was wonderful meeting you all.

  1. If you haven’t read them yet what are you waiting for? Go get them! [↩]
  2. And if you haven’t read the Darkangel trilogy and you love vampires then I don’t know what you’ve been doing all your life! [↩]

Off on tour (updated)

28 September, 2007

Not my tour but Scott’s tour for his latest book Extras. It pubs on the 2nd of October and is deeply awesome. In fact, it’s my favouritest of the Uglies series. Aya is my new hero.

I’ll be along at most of the public events. If you’re around come and say hello.

I plan to keep blogging everyday. You know, on account of I’m addicted. I managed it every day we were away at Dragoncon so I don’t see how a little tour will stop me.

Hey, does anyone who’s been on a book tour before have any survival tips? (Other than bring lots of shoes?)

Update: I’d be delighted to sign books. I may have to skip a few of the events to get some work done but I plan to be at most of them.

Air travel suckage

5 July, 2007

Today there is a most excellent article in The New York Times about just how bad flying in the US is. Delays are up by 39% this year and that’s based on the airlines’ stats which everyone says are deeply wrong:

As anyone who has flown recently can probably tell you, delays are getting worse this year. The on-time performance of airlines has reached an all-time low, but even the official numbers do not begin to capture the severity of the problem.

That is because these statistics track how late airplanes are, not how late passengers are. The longest delays—those resulting from missed connections and canceled flights—involve sitting around for hours or even days in airports and hotels and do not officially get counted. Researchers and consumer advocates have taken notice and urged more accurate reporting.

The vast majority of internal US flights I’ve taken in the last four years have been delayed or cancelled or our lugguage has been lost. We’ve even managed to have all three happen on the same trip. Now when I book tickets, I first check to see if there’s a train I can take instead, then I do whatever I can to make sure it’s a direct flight (thus no missed connections) and that it leaves in the morning. Because if your flight is cancelled and it’s later in the day no way are you getting on another one until the next day.

It’s reassuring to know that my experiences are in no way unique. Air travel in the US is falling apart. The delays, cancellations, lost luggage aren’t even the worst of it. Dealing with the often grumpy airline employees makes everything a thousand times more horrible. It’s totally understandable that they’re unhappy—they’re underpaid and overworked and spend all day dealing with seriously pissed off people. It has to be one of the worst jobs in the world. And yet the crankier we are, the crankier they are, and it becomes an ever spiralling thing.

I am so very very glad we’re taking the DragonTrain to DragonCon. And that it’s a hundred days or so before I have to endure more air travel.

airport bookshop happiness (updated)

9 June, 2007

On our way to Adelaide way back when, I checked out the bookshop at the Qantas domestic terminal in Sydney.

bookalicious!

Lo and behold, there were multiple copies of Magic’s Child. Woo hoo! I’ve never seen one of my books in an airport bookshop before. But even better there were books by Maureen Johnson and David Levithan and Garth Nix!!! All friends of mine.

And now looking at the photo I see there are books by Jack Heath (who I met at Reading Matters in Melbourne) and Melina Marchetta (who we house swapped with) and Sonya Hartnett (who I briefly met at Reading Matters). So not only is one of my books in an actual airport bookshop, it’s there with books by people I know and adore who are amazing writers. Woo hoo!!!

Yes, it is very sad what gets writers excited.

Update: Wow. That was quick. Someone just emailed to say they can’t tell which book is which.

Here’s a closer look:

closer

From right to left left to right. Sonya Hartnett’s Forest, Jack Heath’s Remote Control, and Maureen Johnson’s 13 Little Blue Envelopes. Then there’s Magic’s Child and David Levithan’s Are We There Yet?. And, last but definitely not least, Melina Marchetta’s Jellicoe Road above many Garth Nix books.

Romans a clef

1 June, 2007

Maud Newton keeps raving about books I used to love as a kid. First she went back and reread East of Eden and found it just as fabby as the first time she read it thus compelling me to do the same and find the same (ah, the bliss of that book!) and now she’s talking about Somerset Maugham with whom I was OBSESSED in years seven and eight. Me and my friend Michal read all his novels and short stories we could find. It was heaven. So much melodrama! So much angst! And unlike (most) Steinbeck—so many funny bits!

My Maugham love is why I booked us into the Somerset Maugham Suite at Raffles1 for Scott’s birthday. Twas a ittle bit naughty seeing as how I didn’t know Scott’s feelings about Mr Maugham. I am so glad I did because on the writing desk of the suite we found several collections of Maugham’s essays and memoirs which I’d never read before. We spent a whole day lazing about reading his thoughts on writing, which led to much reading out loud of particularly excellent passages and then long discussions.2 Most. Relaxing. Day. Ever.

Maud mentions Somerset Maugham’s most excellent roman a clef, Cakes and Ale, which deals with London literary life in the 1920s and is deliciously catty about several writers, most notably Horace Hugh Walpole. Maugham wrote to Walpole to deny having lampooned him even though it was obviously true3. I can just see Walpole’s response: “Please!”

I now have to reread Cakes and Ale because I distinctly remember that it was the one book of his that did not impress me at thirteen. Who cares about a bunch of whingey writers? BORING!

I doubt I will have the same response now that I am a whingey writer myself. And more to the point I’m a whingey writer who hangs out with other whingey writers. This is very strange but somehow I have wound up being part of a literary circle.4 We hang out together. We talk books and writing. We read and comment on each other’s work. We bitch about each other. We are just like Maugham and co way back when.5

Oh. My. Elvis!

Which raises the question who will be the first to write the roman a clef about the YA writers scene in New York? Surely it’s time! I demand that we be satirised!6 Immediately! Hurry up!

Why is no one scribbling away?!

Do I have to do this myself?

  1. Is there any way to type those words without coming across like a wanker? Though actually those words are more wanky back home than in the US of A. When boasting that we were going to be at Raffles I discovered that nobody in America has even heard of it. Good Grief. It’s only one of the most famous hotels in the world! What on Earth do USians learn in school anyway? [↩]
  2. I must get copies so that I can share all the good bits. He has much to say about a working writer’s life. [↩]
  3. He admitted it after Walpole’s death. [↩]
  4. I’m not going to link to those people because I’m jetlagged and it’s the wee hours and I’m bound to leave someone out and offend them. Or include someone and offend them. [↩]
  5. Except not as talented. I speak for myself on that one. There will be no tickets written on this blog! [↩]
  6. By someone other than Gawker. [↩]

Reading Matters

27 May, 2007

So much has happened over the past few days I don’t know where to begin and frankly I’m too knackered right now to go into any detail. The Reading Matters conference was amazing. Lili and Mike did the most incredible job bringing together writers, publishers and librarians from all over. My head is still buzzing with it all.

There were several incredible moments of the conference. The three I can’t stop thinking about are David Levithan’s call to arms to Australian publishers and librarians to do more to support and produce young adult literature about, for, and by gays and lesbians; Margo Lanagan’s fascinating thoughts about what you can and can’t write about in our genre illustrated by examples from her new novel which I CANNOT WAIT TO READ; and Jacqueline Wilson’s keynote presentation about her career and new autobiography. She and David both made me tear up.

I want to sit down and write ten new novels. Sadly what I have to do is loads and loads of laundry. Ah, the glamorous life.

Thanks so much for all the comments everyone’s been leaving here. Sorry that I’ve had no internet access or time to respond. I do read every single comment and when I’m in one place for more than ten minutes I even try to respond to them. Normal transmission should resume in the next few days. It’s been a crazy hectic few months.

PS Apparently the debate went well. It was a draw.

Adelaide

18 May, 2007

Am in the pretty churchy city of Adelaide for a wedding. What larks. I love weddings! And these two crazy kids are great together. But internet access is not so much limited as BLOODY EXPENSIVE. Stupid gouging hotels! Colour me outraged.

So quickly: “gaol” is an another spelling of that place where people are locked up which is usually spelled “jail”. It ain’t slang. It used to be the only way the word was spelled but is on its way out. I cling to it out of love and perversity.

And thanks again for all the congrats on the Norton win. I can’t believe I’m still getting them! Yay! And an even bigger yay for the impact it’s had on my Amazon sales and my secret NYC bookseller friend who told me she has some people come in and ask for the Norton winner. Who knew?

Have any of you read any Jacqueline Wilson books? Some of you must have given that she’s sold gazillion billion trillion copies. I’ve been reading and really enjoying her Girls in Love books. Lovely.

And now I go before they demand my first born child.

Still on the road

8 May, 2007

Tired, overstimulated, happy. I have lots of news but none that I can share. Mostly because I’m too tired to type straight.

Has anyone read any of Somerset Maugham’s writings on writing? You should. I loves him. (More coherent thoughts on it when I get my brain back.)

Also what’s the consensus on Cormac McCarthy’s The Road? I read it on a plane. Started off hating it, warmed to it, got teary, but am now completely unsure what I think of it. I found it kind of slight oddly enough. But I may change my mind. Maybe I’m having hype allergy?

I do know what I thought of Sergey Lukyanenko’s Day Watch sequel to Night Watch. Loved it. More please! For the first time in my life I am tempted to write fan fiction. I mean what would the Sydney Day and Night watches be like? I’m seeing Simon Westaway as a world-weary medium ranked magician—but I’m not sure for which Watch . . .

Tis very strange reading so many not-YA books. They’re not half bad. I guess I should stop being rude about adult books.

Also saw Dreamgirls—yes on a plane—what an amazing film. Incredible sets, awesome adaptation of a muscial, unbelievably good acting, everything was absolutely perfect—except that the music sucked. SUCKED. Worst. Music. Ever. It caused me psychic pain having to listen to it. Aaargh. Is there some way to edit in good songs?

Have I mentioned that both Holly Black’s Ironside and Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones made the New York Times bestseller list? I love both those books. Isn’t it wonderful? And if you haven’t read them you really really really should.

So Pistons-Spurs final?

Oh, and I am deeply in love with Paris. Yet another city I want to live in. Plus now I must learn French!

Yes, we are in Paris

2 May, 2007

But I want to update you on the Bermudez Triangle liberation efforts. As I mentioned it was banned. Maureen Johnson, its wonderful author, has just posted about the campaign to get it put back on the library shelves with some truly excellent suggestions of what we can do to help.

And John Green has posted his letter protesting the banning. If you felt like doing the same thing, the email addresses are over here.

One of the librarians from Bartlesville’s public library, Beth Degeer, has also written a wonderful letter to the local newspaper.

I must dash—I’m about to have lunch with Scott and one of our wonderful French publishers.

My quick verdict on Paris thus far: Gorgeous! Yummy! Mmmmmm!

Paris, noon, 2 May 2007

Paris

29 April, 2007

So I just realised that I’m going to be in Paris on Monday. Tomorrow! Or at least on my way there.

Paris!

I’ve never been there before. I know about the Eiffel Tower and Versailles and all that stuff, but those of you who’ve been to Paris—what would you recommend that’s not in all the tourist guides? And which of the famous touristy stuff is really really really worth a looksee?

We may not have a lot of time cause of the crazy schedule, but, c’mon, it’s Paris! One of the most famous cities in the world. We have to sneak out and do some cool stuff.

But what cool stuff?

What are your fave Paris restaurants, cafes, shops, whatevers? I needs to know.

Also what French phrases am I going to need other than “Je nais parle pas Francais”? (And, no, I have no idea how that’s meant to be spelled. Yes, my google is broken.)

Share all your Paris knowledge, people!

Thank you!

Flying again

26 April, 2007

I get back on an airplane on Monday. It’ll be barely a week since I was last on one. Gah! No matter what airline I’m on, no matter whether I’ve been upgraded or not, whether it’s short-haul or long-haul, very little fun is had.

Today I had an epiphany: I must stop expecting air travel to go smoothly. I must lower my expectations. In the last few years of constant travel the vast majority of my flights have been awful. So it is reasonable to expect that will continue.

From now on I will expect the check-in person not to be able to find our reservations, and the flight to be delayed or cancelled, our luggage to not get on the same plane as us, and that our reserved seats next to each other will become middle seats far far far apart where I will be seated between two extremely large men who have no concept of armrest sharing, smell bad and listen to really loud music, and are deeply resentful when I ask them to move so I can get up. My seat will be broken.

Scott will not get his vegetarian meal and will be reduced to stale bread rolls or starvation. I will get my meal but it will be so foul I’ll be eating the stale bread rolls with him. I will have seen all the films before. Or they’ll be films I really want to see but every headset is broken and the DVD/video tape will conk out halfway through. The babies will constantly cry and/or projectile vomit. The turbulence will never end. (A little bit can be fun, but a fourteen-hour flight where it’s so constant you can’t get up to pee? Much less fun.)

If some of that is averted I’ll be laughing. We’re sitting together? Score! Seat actually reclines? Bonus! Flight leaves within an hour of stated departure time? I’m in heaven!

It would be so wonderful never to have to fly again. If only transmat beams were real. Stupid lying science fiction. Stupid airports and airplanes. I spit on them all!

Is there anyone out there who still enjoys flying?

Back in NYC (briefly)

20 April, 2007

The last ten days were bloody AWESOME. I don’t have words. I met so many wonderful librarians, writers, students, teachers, booksellers, readers, and other peoples. All the appearances went splendidly. Texas rocks! I loves it! More details soon.

I plan to blog ever day for the next ten because after that we bugger off to Paris, Singapore and then three weeks back home in Australia and blogging opportunities are probably going to be thin on the ground. I read some wonderful books that I want to tell you about. I also have some writing theories I want to share. Not to mention all the appearances I’m doing this week.

There’s been a micro kerfuffle while I was away because some commenters have strayed far off topic in some of the comment threads. While this doesn’t bother me in the slightest, it led to some folks being deluged with comment notifications. I’ve now put up an open post for those who want to chat about whatever. Enjoy! If folks enjoy it, I’ll put up more open posts in the future.

While I was in Texas, my good friend Cassandra Clare hit The New York Times bestseller list with her wonderful and completely unputdownable novel, City of Bones—it’s right next to Scott’s Specials! She’s now been on the list for two weeks! Woo hoo!!!! Go Cassie! Go Cassie! Go Cassie!

Me, I’m going to sleep in my very own bed. Joy!

Last two Texas appearances + Spoiler FAQ

15 April, 2007

Very flaky internet access—the wifi keeps dropping to one bar so I’m keeping this short. Also I don’t seem to be able to reply to emails, but I’ll be back in NYC by Saturday and will catch up then. If it’s urgent call me on the mobile.

We’re doing two more Texas appearances. Details here. Come say hi.

Also I’m getting a lot of people asking me the same questions about the ending of the trilogy so I’ve started a SPOILER FAQ over here [scroll down]. If you have questions about the trilogy that aren’t already answered you can ask them on the comments thread over there and I will respond. But please don’t ask spoiler questions in the comments for this post. Lots of this blog’s readers have not read Magic’s Child yet.

Hope no one’s too damp in NYC.

Okay, now I attempt to post this . . .

Yay! Aargh! Woohoo! Eep!

14 April, 2007

I have like a gazillion billion trakazillion emails in my inbox. This is the first chance I’ve had to go online in almost three days. It’s been crazy busy and exhilarating and fabulous and every big positive happy adjective you can think of.

San Antonio is wondrous. The Texas Library Association conference has been so extraordinarily wonderful I’m left without words. I’ve met so many amazing, fun, smart cool people I think my brain has exploded. Thank you everyone! Yay! Joy! Mangosteens! This trip has also been very educational: I know now how boots are made and have a much better idea of what distributors do.

Scott and mine’s presentation in front of what seemed like thousands of librarians, including Scott’s high school librarian, Darlene, was exhilarating. I’ve never had so much fun doing an appearance. Basically we just gasbagged about how we met, our books, writing, travelling, living in two countries, and answered lots of cool questions from the wonderful audience.

Then we signed what felt like a million books. I think I’m still floating.

To quickly answer two of your questions:

The beasts that shall not be named are evil. That is all you need to know. What do they need that horn for anyway?

Maureen is also evil and you should not do what she tells you to do.

Friday the thirteenth is excellent. Zombies love it. But yesterday’s was the best ever!

I will be brief

11 April, 2007

We are in San Antonio. The river walk is fun. We have tickets to the San Antonio v Sacramento game tonight. I went to Little’s Boots to get fitted for custom-made boots. It was awesome. The Littles are good people. David Little even drove us back to our hotel. I will get my boots in six months. I cannot wait.

The hotel is lovely. We have a balcony. There is free wifi in the lobby but not in our room. I have yet to hang out with any librarians or writers.

In other news it is warm. I do not need a coat or a scarf or gloves. I love San Antonio.

How’re y’all doing?

Ten days in Texas

10 April, 2007

Today we leave for San Antonio where we’ll be attending the Texas Library Association annual conference. I’m dead excited. We went to the ALA conference last year and it was fabulous. I met so many cool librarians and student librarians and writers and publishing people I thought my head would explode. Talk about over-stimulation! I look forward to more of it.

Unfortunately, we won’t be doing any public signings in San Antonio. So if you’re not signed up for TLA we won’t get to meet you. Sorry!

Our one public appearance of the trip will be in Austin:

Monday, 16 April 2007, 7PM
Justine Larbalestier & Scott Westerfeld
Book People
603 N. Lamar (at Sixth)
Austin, Texas

This Texas trip is also a chance for us to catch up with Scott’s family—especially his wonderful dad, who we haven’t seen in ages—which is why we’re doing so few appearances. It was too hard to do signings and family visiting. Maybe next time.

If you’re in Austin come see us at Book People I hear it’s one of the best book shops around.

And so you don’t miss me too much while I’m gone, Jennifer Laughran of Books Inc and Not Your Mother’s Book Club fame kindly interviewed me. She asked me some of the smartest questions I’ve ever been asked. Yay Jennifer!

What I did over the weekend

26 February, 2007

The short version of the past three days:

  • The Humble Teen Lit Festival was unbelievably wonderful and run by the awesomest group of librarians and teachers ever. Thanks for taking such great care of me, Dawn!
  • The Humble students and the other folks who showed up were smart and receptive and asked lots of questions I hadn’t been asked before. Fabulous!
  • My old man is insanely popular. I mean I knew he was popular, but I didn’t realise he was that popular. I thought I was going to burst I was so proud of him. You shoulda seen his signing queue! Around the block! Mental!
  • Scott’s family are lovely. Catching up with Uncle Ronnie the principal (and wow do his students love him) and Jackie and Ken would have made the trip totally worthwhile without the added bonus of Teen Lit Festival.
  • All writers obsess about their character’s shrugging or smiling or raising eyebrows too much.
  • Apparently there are two airports in Houston. Ooops.
  • Getting from one to the other is a seventy dollar cab ride.
  • Way too many of you lot are deeply deluded about vampires. It saddens me.
  • None of you knows about Scott Pilgrim?! This causes me great pain. Go out and read the three volumes immediately! That’s an order.
  • Although I feared three days without my computer it turned out to be way more of a blessing than a curse. I may now take a couple of days off from its evil thrall once a week. Or monthly. Or possibly every six months . . .
  • It was still lovely to come home to all your mail and comments here. Bless!

And now I go pass out. While being other places is wondrousness, getting to and from them is increasingly horrible. It took us fourteen hours to get from Houston to NYC. That’s how long it takes to get from LA to Sydney . . . That ain’t right.

Humble Houston,* here we come

22 February, 2007

This Saturday me and Scott and some other illustrious young adult literature types will be talking about our books and life (and the superiority of zombies over unicorns) and anything else you care to ask us about at a teen literary festival in Humble, Texas:

Saturday, 24 February, 2007
Humble ISD Libraries’
Teen Lit Festival 07
Guests are: Chris Crutcher, Gail Giles,
Justine Larbalestier, Benjamin Alíre Sáenz,
Scott Westerfeld and Chris Yambar
Atascocita High School Campus
Humble, Texas

The event is open to the public so if you’re anywhere in the vicinity do come and say hi. Even if you’re not into mine or Scott’s books, it’ll be totally worth it just to hear Chris Crutcher‘s keynote address. He’s an incredible, awe-inspiring speaker. I heard him last year and he made me cry. (In a good way.)

Instructions for getting there can be found here.

I’m really looking forward to it for several reasons such as Scott’s uncle is a headmaster principal there and this means we get to hang out with him and his lovely family, also I may get to meet Chris Crutcher (I hope I don’t make a fool of myself!), I’ve never been to Houston, I’m looking forward to meeting certain fans I hear are coming all the way from Austin, and because it’s warm down there. Proper, over-20C warmth. I’m so happy just thinking about it!

*And I don’t mean the street just south of me here in NYC.))

Calling all Melbournites

7 February, 2007

A friend from the frozen north, Chris McLaren, is choofing off to Melbourne soon and will have a whole day to spare for sightseeing. What should he see? And will he be able to see anything given the bushfires?

I recommended the Croft Institute because it has test tubes in it and they make me happy.

He would welcome any advice, recommendations and warnings about the fair city of Melbourne from actual Melbournites.

RW5: aaargh, finishing stuff, and Jones and Mahy

29 January, 2007

Request Week is now over and the comments are closed, but I’ll continue working through the rest of the requests. Cause I’m honorable that way.

Marrije wants to know about

the pluses and minuses of living in several places (i.e. nyc and sydney) and how you do that logistically.

I hope you understand, Marrije, that a question like that is a license for me to whinge. You have been warned.

My answer in short: Aaaaaarrrrrrggggggghhh!!!!!!!

We’ve been saying for a while that we live half the year in Sydney and half in NYC. But it’s not true. It never has been.

We haven’t lived anywhere for six months straight since we lived in Sydney for almost two years way back in the olden days. The last time we were three months anywhere was San Miguel de Allende. In 2006 I spent time in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, San Francisco, Bologna, Madison, New York City, Kyoto, LA, Seattle, Lexington, London and Bangkok.

I have no idea how we do it logistically. Every time I think about it my head explodes. I long to live somewhere for a year without packing and unpacking my bags at least once a month. (I’d prefer that somewhere to be Sydney.)

Pluses: Lots of different friends in lots of different places. Seriously, the list of cities I could happily live in just grows and grows. Seeing more of the world is wonderful. (The whole airplane/airport thing I could live without.) There are still so many more cities I’d love to see: I’ve never been to Istanbul or Paris or Rio de Janeiro or Dublin or Capetown or Amsterdam or Tokyo or Moscow or Kinshasa.

Minuses: Too much jetlag and travel (seriously I think we lose at least two months every year to travel and dealing with jetlag. Not good.), getting sick A LOT, being desperately homesick for at least one month of the year (I know, I’m a big baby), never knowing where my favourite coat is, the book(s) I need are always in the other city, doing my taxes is a nightmare, feeling like I’m missing all the important moments in my family and friends’ lives, missing my family and friends (doesn’t matter where I am, I’m always missing someone), whingeing about it all way too much.

A lurker asks:

what if (hypothetically of course) one is an adolescent writer, who writes sporadically – poems, first pages, occasionally a whole short story! – but never finishes? should i (or one . . . or . . . never mind) push myself to finish a novel if i hope to be a writer someday, even if the process starts to feel stressful and rushed? and any tips to how to reach the end? or should i take my time and enjoy the ride? i’ve never been able to stick with a story more than a couple months MAX on my own. i’ve tried several times to write a nano-novel or similar timed bits but always give it up as more hopeless than usual. i love starting to write novels—just never finish them. thoughts?

Scott has written about this one in detail. Read him! There’s gold in that there advice.

Like he said the only way to learn how to finish a story is to, you know, finish a story. Circular but true. Personally, I don’t reckon writing’s much fun until I have a complete draft to mess around with. You’re denying yourself the best part!

That said I didn’t feel that way when I was a beginning writer. I wrote more fragments than finished stories and novels, and I almost never wrote more than one draft. Finishing and redrafting were skills I learned (to love) later.

My biggest advice to beginning writers is to have fun, enjoy yourself! I have more to say on the subject of beginning writers getting overly obsessed with the publishing rather than the writing part here. Which is not what a lurker was asking about, but is a tiny bit a propos.

Orangedragonfly asks:

if you could sit down and have lunch with any person who ever lived, who would you choose and why? (this is a standard question for me. i ask everyone. i love to hear the responses.)

Diana Wynne Jones and Margaret Mahy. Because they are the two geniuses of my field. I would love to sit down and talk writing with them. Or anything else really. They are goddesses.

RW2: Jetlag, my favourite fruit, and signing etiquette

25 January, 2007

Pt wants to know how to cope with jetlag. I have but two pearls of wisdom:

    1) Be very very rich and fly first class. On those rare occasions I’ve been upgraded to business class I’ve recovered from jetlag many days earlier than when I fly cattle class. I can only imagine how much faster the whole thing would be in first class. Or in your own private jet. Or if you could teleport. I would not say no to a door between Sydney and New York either . . .

    2) Don’t fly anywhere. You get no jetlag and the environment will thank you.

Little Willow asks what my favourite fruits are and gets extra points for being an American and spelling “favourite” correctly.

I may possibly have mentioned my love for mangosteens. I am also dead fond of mangoes (I read this wonderful novel recently that featured a character eating a mango for the first time without knowing what it was), pineapples, rambutan, figs, longan, lychees, dates, custard apples (I just realised I haven’t eaten one in at least two years. Crap. That’s what I get for missing Sydney winters), apples (when they’re crisp and not even slightly floury), grapes (especially champagne grapes), nectarines, sugar bananas, peaches, passionfruit, dragonfruit, these amazing brown fruit I had in Thailand that I can’t remember the name of sapodillas, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, mullberries, boysenberries, cape gooseberries and apricots.

I’m sure there’s some others that I just can’t think of right now. It’s much easier to say which fruits I’m not in love with: paw paw and grapefruit, but if there’s no other fruit going I’ll eat them. I just won’t melt with joy as I do so.

If I could only live off one food group I’d go the fruit and veg with major emphasis on the fruit part. I loves them. Anyone who does not love fruit is deeply weird and suspect.

Rebecca asks:

book signing etiquette. ex. 1: is it a bad idea to bring every book the author has ever written, even if they’ve written, like, 20? is it okay for book signees to start conversations with the author, or will that be considered rude for holding up the line?

It’s entirely dependent on how long the queue is.

If it’s short then most authors will be grateful to you for showing up at all. When they see you have all their books they may cry. Authors with teeny tiny signing queues are more likely to start a conversation with you than the other way round. They may not let you go at all. The thought of the queue going from miniscule to non-existent is too frightening for them. If this happens to you, smile politely, ask them questions, and as soon as another of the writer’s fans shows up, back away slowly and make good your escape.

I have no advice for you if no other fan shows up. It may get tricky and involve staging a diversion. I imagine Maureen Johnson would have some excellent suggestions, but I fear they would involve a stun gun.

If the line is very very very long then they’ll probably have a limit on how many books you can sign, and the author may be too ecstatic with joy at the size of their queue to be capable of coherent conversation.

But I can only surmise. I have never had a queue of unusual length (QOUL). It’s something I aspire to, like having my name bigger than the title on my books. Some day . . .

For your edermahcayshun

30 November, 2006

An excellent piece from Daily Kos on the influence foreignors have always had on American politics. To which I can only say, “Well, der, people.” Show me one country in the world that isn’t influenced by other countries. For that matter show me one person who isn’t influenced by other people. Even hermits are influenced by others.

This is my favourite review of Scott‘s latest book, The Last Days. I think she misses Cal. What do you reckon? I gotta confess I prefer Last Days to Peeps, but I hear her pain. For the record, we wanted the book to be subtitled “Companion to Peeps” but we was overruled.

Simonne Howell, author of the fabulous Notes from the Teenage Underground (which Scott just finished and thoroughly enjoyed), is collecting haikus on her myspace account. I contributed a cricket one. Surely she needs more than just one cricket haiku . . .

I learned today that Harry Potter is hugely hugely hugely popular here in Thailand, which made me wonder: is there’s any country in the world where Harry Potter isn’t popular? While in England I learned that quite a few books and writers that are enormously popular in the US of A can barely sell more than a dozen copies in the UK. (No, I will not name them. On account of their lack of success reflects rather poorly on the United Kingdom.)

What exciting things have you lot learned today?

Little things

29 November, 2006

For Scott Bangkok has been all about the tuk-tuks. I wish I could be all spousely and say, “Yes, darling, tuk-tuks are wonderful.” But I can’t. They’re just mutated cars. I’d much rather walk, or take the sky train, or bicycle, or ride on the river boats than get in a tuk-tuk. The rides that Scott has found so exhilarating and fun I found uncomfortable and stinky. Call me weird, but the smell of petrol? Not my favourite perfume.

Aside from the tuk-tuks and cars and trucks and other yukky smelly mobile pollution devices, I’m really enjoying Thailand. I love the sound of the language which makes English sound flat as a tack. I order a dish, “Som tum, please.” And the waiter repeats my order back at me and some how som tum has transformed. The way he says it the words soar and swoop. Tonal languages make the non-tonal languages sound dead. I am trying to do what I can to make my ENGlish souND much MORE tonAL.

The food here is wonderful too. Almost everything wobbles. Especially the desserts.

We took a break from working and went to the National Museum today. Once we were inside the main building it started bucketing down so hard the rain drops bounced back up five to ten centimetres. We waited it out in the Old Weapons Room (as you do), sitting at the top of the steps leading into the Ivory Room. A gaggle of school girls, one school boy, and their teacher waited it out at the bottom of the steps. They started singing. Something strange and almost atonal that swelled and filled up the entire cavernous room and somehow melded in with the thunderous sound of the rain.

It was beautiful.

Did I mention that the steps were directly in front of a life-size model of a military elephant? The elephant seemed to be entirely down with the singing. It had a lump on its head and very large pointy tusks. Two life-sized fake soldiers sat on top in a howdah. One was holding peacock feathers and the other had a long pike-looking implement. If the elephant had decided to charge, we’d all have been dead.

When the rain slowed the teacher opened the nearest doors a crack, and declared it possible to make the mad dash to the next building (about ten metres away). The schoolkids swarmed around her and started ferrying each other across with the few umbrellas they had. When they were all over into the land of Textiles and Costumes, one girl came back. I glanced behind to see if there was some stray school kid I hadn’t noticed. But, no, she had come back for us. What a sweetie.

I pressed my hands into prayer position and kop kun kah’d1 her.

  1. “Thank you.” Sadly it is the only phrase I know in Thai. I am a bad slack tourist. I’ve been sick, okay? [↩]

Bangkok

10 November, 2006

Since some of you have been asking here’s a wee bit about our current Bangkok adventure.

We’re staying at Siri Sathorn in downtown Bangkok. It’s a serviced residence which means it’s like a hotel, but instead of rooms there are proper flats with kitchen and everything. Not that we’re doing any cooking—the room service here is awesome. Though even if it wasn’t Bangkok is full of incredible restaurants and food stalls. There’s fab food literally everywhere you go.

Yes, I have eaten some mangosteens, though they were sadly not the best. To be expected given that the season ended last month and they’re best when really fresh. Don’t be too sad for me though cause I still get to gorge myself on very fresh and yummy longan, dragon fruit, pineapple and mangoes. Yup, I know, life is harsh.

We’re not near Khao Sahn Road. Back-packing districts are typically not conducive to getting writing done. Where we are is dead quiet and peaceful, though that’s mostly because we’re on the twelfth floor . . The views are extensive!

We’re not near the river either. All part of keeping distractions to the minimum. In fact, we’ve done very little sightseeing thus far. Just walked around a bit at night on our way to dinner. We’ll probably do more exploring once we’ve got our writing rhythm going.

Which is what we’re here to do: write.

I’m working on the Great Australian, Elvis, Mangosteen, Monkey Knife-fighting, Cricket, Fairy, YA Novel. Indeed, I plan to finish the first draft while here.

Scott is working on . . . actually, I think what he’s working on is a secret. I’d ask him but he has his intense don’t-even-ask-me for-a-synonym-for-“effulgent” writing face on.

Hmm, that face makes me feel guilty. I shall return to my monkey knife-fighting fairies!

Thanks for all the well wishes. Lovely to hear from so many of you that you enjoyed the first two chapters of Magic’s Child!

If this is Thursday . . .

26 October, 2006

. . . then I must be in London.

When I was little all I ever wanted to do was travel, but I didn’t have in mind hitting Los Angeles, Seattle, New York City (twice—very briefly), Indiana, Kentucky and London all in the space of two weeks. It’s too much.

Things I hate about travelling:

  • airports (where they confiscate your toothpaste for being a few grams over the weight limit)
  • airplanes (full of people hacking up their lungs)
  • getting sick
  • leaving my favourite toothpaste/book/jacket/friends behind
  • never being a hundred per cent sure where I am or what time it is or where the stuff I need is

Other than that I adore travelling. Anyone else got some travel whinge or love to share?

This was written on a hotel computer which is currently my only access to the intramebby thingamajiggy. I am still behind with all correspondence and will remain so for a least a couple more weeks. But I have read and enjoyed your emails and comments. Thank you! You’re all too fabulous for words. Now if only check-in time would roll around my life would be complete . . .

Los Angeles

11 October, 2006

I ain’t never going to love Los Angeles. Not going to happen. The car thing makes it so difficult. In the last few days I’ve spent more time in cars than the preceding few months! Aaarggh!

But on this—my longest trip to the city—I’ve been eating fabulous food, walking along the beach, visiting amazing cool places like the Getty Centre, and getting to hang out with my sister and my other fabulous friends here like Doselle and Janine Young, Cecil Castellucci (at last we meet!), Alice Taylor, and Rachel Cohn. If only our insanely jampacked scheduled had allowed us to see all our friends here . . .

And you know what? If LA had footpaths and decent public transport it would be awesome! Just fix the car thing and I’m a total convert.

And tonight I get to go the cast and crew screening of Flags of our Fathers thanks to my fabulous sister, Niki.

Yes, the being-in-Los Angeles thing is why I’m behind on email and responding to comments and all of that. In the next few weeks we’ll be in Seattle, Kentucky, Indiana in the US of A, as well as London and Birmingham in the UK. Normal service is not going to be resumed any time soon. Sorry!

silence

3 August, 2006

Wow, thanks so much for all the fascinating responses to my last post. The reason I haven’t commented (or responded to anyone’s email) for the last five days was because I was in Kyoto with my family celebrating my mother’s birthday (more on that anon). My mum didn’t know me and my sister would be there so I could hardly blog about it before hand . . .

No time for a proper post so in the meantime can any of you help out Rachel Manija Brown? She’s looking for good non-fiction books about particular cities. She explains what she’s after here. Clearly, she needs to be told about ace books on Sydney!

New Orleans (updated)

28 June, 2006

The American Library Association Conference was the first to be held in New Orleans since Katrina. Everywhere we went people thanked us for being there, for spending our money at their hotels, restaurants, bars, cafes and shops, for riding in their cabs and dancing in their clubs. For the first few days that was the most frequent sign of what Katrina had wrought: intense gratitude that 18 thousand librarians (and hangers on such as, you know, writers and other publishing types) were in town.

The French quarter is on higher ground and largely looks like nothing happened. Gorgeous wrought iron lace work terraces (looking not unlike Sydney ones) line the narrow streets, and the restaurants and cafes and bars all seem to be open even if they are festooned with Help Wanted signs. It was easy to stroll around in the delicious heat and imagine taking a writing holiday there, spending four or six weeks writing every day in one of those gorgeous terraces, going out every night to gorge on the fabulous creole cooking, and get to know the place the place better; it was hard to keep in mind that this was the city that had been completely devastated last year.

I didn’t recognise the first sign of devestation I’d seen: when we flew in we were treated to a lovely view of the city, dotted with lots of bright blue, which I later learned was FEMA-supplied canvas.

The driver who picked us up and took us to our hotel was living in a FEMA trailer parked in front of his slowly being rebuilt house. The driver who picked us up on our way back home took us on an impromptu tour of a tiny part of the devestated parts of town. He told us 80% of the city is still waiting to be repaired (over the five days I heard estimates running from 60% to 85%). All the houses had clearly visible high water marks almost three metres above the ground and on each house someone had leaned out from a boat to make an X and mark how many dead people and animals were found inside. There were no cars parked outside, no people walking along the foot paths. It was a ghost town.

The same driver told us that the official death toll for the Convention Centre was 1. He had a firemen friend who’d seen a room inside the Centre piled high with what he reckoned was at least 150 bodies.

After 9/11 the newspapers round the world (or at least in Australia and the US of A) carried the death toll in their pages which was updated every day for weeks and weeks after the attack. I saw no equivalent after Katrina.

Why is there so little coverage of the fact that around 1,000 people are still unaccounted for? Or of the long, slow recovery? The local New Orleans paper, The Times Picayune, has stories every single day. The New York Times has had one in the last month or so. It was about the huge increase in the suicide rate in New Orleans. [Update: this is not true the Times has run lots of articles.]

Reading about New Orleans from New York City I honestly though I’d be visiting a city well on its way to recovery. A city being rebuilt. That’s not what I found there. [Update: this just shows that I’m a careless reader of the Times.]

If you can visit, do. If you can’t how about donating a book here which will help some of the devestated libraries in the area.

P.S. Yes, Cecil, I will be posting an account of the actual conference, too. Short version: twas a blast and Margo Lanagan is awesome beyond words.

Update: Monica Edinger points out in the comments that a simple search of the New York Times archive would’ve shown me that I was being not only unfair to the Times but completely wrong. That’s what I get for writing what felt true without checking. Always check your facts, folks!

in New Orleans

25 June, 2006

American Library Association conference highlights thus far:

  • Shaking hands with New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin
  • Meeting many wonderful librarians, especially you, Dawn!
  • Walking along Bourbon Street and realising that I’m walking along Bourbon Street
  • Randomly running into Margo Lanagan and her son Jack
  • Picking up lots of free books, including John Green’s latest. Mmmm free books . . .
  • Meeting someone who’s actually talked to Elvis Presley!!!!!

Running out of time so now I go.

WisCon is over; now I namedrop

30 May, 2006

The combination of jetlag and a cold meant that I did not get as much out of this year’s WisCon as I normally do. But everybody else seemed to be having an amazing time. There were a great many people there that I didn’t even get a chance to say hello to like Suzy McKee Charnas, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Jay Lake, Kelly Link, Sharyn November, Nisi Shawl, Helen Pilinovsky and I hardly had a conversation of any length the whole weekend long.

But I did finally get to meet Cherie Priest and she was just as fabulous as expected. More, even. (Thank you Liz Gorinsky for arranging it—lovely to see you, too!). As well as the elegant and charming Geoff Ryman (apparently he has a blog but I can’t find it—feel free to hit me with the URL) and the amazing Deb Stone who fights the good fight against book censorship for the American Library Association and is my new hero.

I also had the pleasure of introducing my best friend in the whole world,1 Ron Serdiuk, to all my lovely WisCon friends. Naturally he is now many more people’s best friend in the entire world. Seriously, to know Ron is to love him. But I saw him first, okay?

I did manage to catch up properly with Krissy and John Scalzi, as well as Doselle and Janine Young, Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, Nalo Hopkinson, Charlotte Boynton, Lauren McLaughlin, Andrea Hairston, Pan Morrigan, Ama Patterson, Shana Cohen, Lawrence Schimel, Ellen Klages, Caroline Stevermer, Claire Light and Holly Black (who is such a darling that she visited me in my room while I was gathering strength to get past my dread lurgy and go out and face everyone). Not to mention Julie Phillips, whose superlatively brilliant biography of James Tiptree, Jr. will be out later this year. It’s one of the best biographies I’ve ever read and I read a pretty early draft. Imagine how gobsmackingly awesome the final version is going to be.

It was also fabulous to see great big piles of my first (and only) anthology, Daughters of Earth, selling like hotcakes. A number of people had already read it and were very enthusiastic. Yay! Josh Lukin’s and Andrea Hairston’s essays were both mentioned in terms of gushing praise. Their essays are indeed very fine as are all the essays in the collection. There’s no way I’m picking favourites!

The wonderful folks of Dreamhaven donated a copy to be sold at next year’s Tiptree auction. (I recommend them as an online purveyor of all fine sf and fantasy books. And yes they still have more copies of Daughters.) I managed to get Samuel R. Delany, Ursula Le Guin, Vonda McIntyre, and Pamela Sargent (!!!) to sign near mentions of them in the acknowledgments, as well as the signatures of contributors Brian Attebery, L. Timmel Duchamp, Karen Joy Fowler, Andrea Hairston, Joan Haran, Pat Murphy, Lisa Tuttle and Kate Wilhelm. Elvis wept, eh? It better go for a decent amount next year.

I only managed to hear Gwenda Bond, Karen Meisner, Lauren McLaughlin, Claire Light, Scott Westerfeld, Christopher Rowe, Richard Butner and Gavin Grant read, which is to say I attended two different reading sessions. They were all fantastic and funny and weird. What more can you ask for? Well . . . I would’ve loved to have heard Carol Emshwiller or Samuel R. Delany or Ursula Le Guin or Vonda McIntyre or Jane Yolen or Kate Wilhelm or Karen Joy Fowler or Ama Patterson or Geoff Ryman read as well. I hear they were all incredible.

And it would have been nice to go to some of the panels people were raving about like the shapeshifting one and the one on enjoyable trash. I hear Micole Sudberg stunned everyone with her stupendous intellect, humour and wit. Mental note: must not get sick and spend way too much time napping in my room. At least I wasn’t alone in my illness.

Most moving moment: When Susan Vaught signed over her $1,000 cheque for winning a Carl Brandon Award to the Carl Brandon society. So generous! Such a classy gesture! I’m buying her book, Stormwitch as soon as. I hear it’s as wonderful as she is.

Now I go to bed.

P.S. I have no idea how any of my panels went. Sigh.
P.P.S. Too tired to paste in links to all the abovementioned folks.
P.P.P.S. I am massively behind with email. Sorry!

  1. I have a number of best friends in the whole world. [↩]

The goddesses of the CCBC

25 May, 2006

Scott and me were taken out for lunch by the lovely women of the CCBC, Hollis, Katy, Megan and Merri. We talked graphic novels, manga, YA books and censorship and much fun was had.

My favourite moment was Megan or Merri’s (I’m jetlagged and can’t remember which) anecdote about a twelve-year old asking to borrow a newly arrived library book because the cover so appealed to her. The book was M. E. Kerr’s Deliver Us From Evie. Evie of the title is a seventeen-year old lesbian; the girl wanting to borrow the book was from a very conservative rural family. So the school librarian looked at the girl desperately keen to read the book and imagined the outrage that would result when her parents found she had read such a book and hesitated. Is this worth my job? she wondered. But she gave the girl the book because it’s not her job to say what the girl can and can’t read. If the girl’s parents didn’t like it and raised a fuss the librarian would deal with it then.

Sure enough next morning when she got to work there was the girl waiting for her. “I have to talk to you about that book.”

Oh no, thought the librarian. “Well,” she said. “What did you think?”

“It was the best book about farming I’ve read in my entire life. Thank you so much!”

It’s a lovely example of what is so often forgotten in debates about what children and teenagers should and shouldn’t be allowed to read: people don’t always read books in the same way.1 Sometimes kids (and adults) don’t even notice the stuff that is outraging others. Me, I still can’t figure out how Harry Potter encourages Satan worship . . .

I left lunch with many other ace anecdotes about being on the frontlines in the battle against censorship (which I will ruthlessly exploit for Saturday’s panel on Banned & Censored books) as well as lots and lots of reading recommendations. It was very inspiring. Thank you, all. You’re goddesses!

  1. When I was still in primary school I read The Alexandrian Quartet by Alexander Lawrence [I’m jetlagged, okay?] Durrell. One of the the books is called Justine. I loved it, but whoooosh did a lot of it go soaring over my head. I certainly didn’t notice any of the sex. [↩]