Green Man Review of MorM

I got up all ready to start turning my sketchy draft of MorM 3 into something a whole lot better. Before starting I thought I’d have a quick squiz at the email, just in case there was something important (you know like a foreign language sale, those always start the day off marvellously well). Of course, the fact that it was Saturday in the US of A and Sunday here made that vanishingly unlikely. Instead I found one of the most blush-worthy reviews so far, which is almost as good as a sale for starting the day off humming.

It’s written by an online friend of mine, Rachel Manija Brown. I very much enjoyed her memoir, All the Fishes Come Home to Roost. However, reading her other reviews I don’t think she’d’ve pulled her punches had she not liked my book.

Here’s a quote:

Magic or Madness takes place in Sydney and New York City, and both are drawn with such vivid detail that, to a reviewer who knows New York (as Reason does not) but not Sydney (as Reason does) that both cities become equally alien, equally disconcerting, and equally enticing. Larbalestier captures the culture shock that an unwary traveler can fall victim to when even countries where English is spoken can seem impossibly different from each other, and where even that English can sound like a foreign tongue. This is the first fantasy I’ve ever read that gets the effect of having a character transported to Elfland without ever leaving the fields that we know.

Green Man Review

Right then, now I roll up sleeves and dive back into the world of MorM 3. I’ve got nine days to make it perfect. Wish me luck!

Delany on Writers

A friend of mine, Deborah Biancotti, frequently posts cool quotes on her livejournal, often about writing. So, this one’s for you, Deb:

Writers are people who write. By and large, they are not happy people. They’re not good at relationships. Often they’re drunks. And writing—good writing—does not get easier and easier with practice. It gets harder and harder—so that eventually the writer must stall out into silence. The silence that waits for every writer and that, inevitably, if only with death (if we’re lucky, the two may happen at the same time: but they are still two, and their coincidence is rare), the writer must fall into is angst-ridden and terrifying—and often drives us mad. (In a letter to Allen Tate, the poet Hart Crane once described writing as “dancing on dynamite.”) So if you’re not a writer consider yourself fortunate.

Samuel R. Delany About Writing

Me Quoted in the Chicago Tribune

I know it’s not the New York Times, but I’m pretty stoked. Especially as Pat Reardon has written a smart and interesting article about author photos and I’m quoted alongside the likes of Jane Smiley. Woo hoo! Here are my pearls of wisdom:

“When you’re really sucked into a book, it’s an incredibly intimate experience,” says Justine Larbalestier, an Australian science fiction young adult writer and historian. “You’re really in that person’s brain.”

As an author, Larbalestier is ambivalent about dust-jacket photos. She’s even tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade her publishers to go without her photo. But, as a reader, there are times she finds herself gazing at the writer’s image for answers. She did so recently while reading The Music of the Primes: Searching to Solve the Greatest Mystery in Mathematics by Marcus du Sautoy.

“It’s about maths, but the writing is passionate and beautiful,” Larbalestier says, “and I kept trying to reconcile the smug picture of the author with the elegance of the text.”

Mate, I hope Mr du Sautoy doesn’t come across it. I didn’t really mean smug exactly, the photo’s more, sort of, pompous. No! That’s worse isn’t it? How about self-satisfied? Or, um, I know, English. The photo looks very English. And, Mr du Sautoy, I really, really love your book.

Don’t mind me, I’ll get back to finishing my own book now.

First novel? Second novel?

There’s a lovely little article by Malcom Knox1 that appeared in last Thursday’s Sydney Morning Herald (I discovered it by way of the lovely Maud Newton). In it he discusses second-novel syndrome (SNS). The inability to write a second novel that can set in after your first novel’s been a success.

Of course, as Knox points out,

true SNS can only exist where the first novel has been hugely successful. All writers know that if you haven’t had a big bestseller, it’s harder to get published next time, no matter what you write; and if you have had a big bestseller, you will be published, no matter what you write.

And there’s the tricky matter of whether a first novel is truly a first novel:

Many novelists’ first published work is actually the third, fourth, seventh or 10th novel they have written. Another Australian author, Venero Armanno, estimated he had written a million words in unpublished novels before his “first book”.

The second published novel is often one that was started and even finished before the first. What the critic praises as the brilliant first book, long in gestation, inspired and innocent, may well be novel No. 8 by that writer; and the condemned second book, “pumped out too quickly”, “too conscious of an audience”, “a disappointing follow-up”, is in fact novel No. 4 that took several years longer. Unless you know the novelist’s working method intimately, you can’t make assumptions.

My first published novel, Magic or Madness, was my third written novel. My fourth, Magic Lessons, which will be my second published novel, was finished before Magic or Madness came out. So whatever (moderate) success MorM has had in no way affected the writing of its sequel. Got that? No, me neither.

Many of the published novelists I know had written more than one novel before they sold one. They kept on writing until the publishing gods at long last smiled. And then they were in the excellent position of having inventory (don’t you love that word? they’re not trunk novels, they’re inventory). Too many unpublished writers obsess about getting their first novel accepted and are so wounded by the failure of their beloved that they forget to write a second or a third one.

In the end Knox decides that if you’re suffering from second-novel syndrome you’re dead lucky—it means you’re a success. And if you’re not suffering from second-novel syndrome than it also means you’re dead lucky cause you’re not suffering from over-inflated expectations—you can work in peace. (It could also mean you’re not a novelist—in which case how smart are you? Very!) It’s all good.

  1. I first came across Knox’s writing when he was cricket correspondent for the SMH. He was excellent, not just smart about the game, but smart about its history, people and politics. (I miss him!) Recently, I read his second novel, A Private Man. Okay, when I say I read it, I’m kind of lying. it was more skimming than reading. One of my many failing is that I’m completely unable to concentrate on the non-cricket bits of a book if I know there’s going to be cricket in it. I wound up skipping all the non-cricket chapters. I can report that the cricket bits were really, really excellent. [↩]

YA Author Cafe

Next Tuesday at 8:30PM if you’re on the East Coast of the USA, or 3:30PM if you’re on the West Coast, or 12:30PM Wednesday if you’re in Sydney, or 2:30AM if you’re in Madrid, I’ll be doing the YA Author Cafe chat with Holly Black and Cassandra Claire. Our host will be the lovely Marlene Perez.

For those if you who don’t know—and I can’t imagine there are many of you—Holly Black is the author of the wonderful YA urban fantasies, Tithe and Valiant, not to mention the mega-selling Spiderwick books. Valiant, is one of the best reworkings of Beauty and the Beast I’ve ever read. It only came out last year yet I’ve already read it twice. If you haven’t read it then you really, really, really must.

And Cassandra Claire is the queen of Harry Potter fandom and the author of the very very funny Lord of the Rings Secret Diaries that went zooming around the internet a while back:“Still not king . . . “. She’s also just written a really fabby original YA novel, City of Bones, which, sad for you, doesn’t come out from Simon and Schuster until March 2007. Trust me, you have to read it! And when you do you’ll be screaming for the sequel. Not because it doesn’t standalone—it does—but because you’ll want more more more!

Anyways, to follow our chat and join in head here on Tuesday/Wednesday (don’t you all love timezones?).

I want a dragon!

I haven’t felt this way since I was a kid gobbling up the Anne McCaffrey books, but Naomi Novik’s Temeraire (His Majesty’s Dragon in North America) has led to a desperate longing for my very own dragon. It doesn’t even have to be a Chinese one. Honest. But I want one! Now!

I’ve been stuttering around, unable to settle on any particular book for a while, and those I have finished lately, I haven’t much cared for. Though it could well be me and not the book, cause the last such book is acclaimed up hill and down dale and those in the know say it’s a likely Printz award shortlister. Left me cold. Worse than cold: I was bored. And the ending made me want to throw the book across the room. Bleach! I’ve been trying to get purchase with Tale of Genji and keep failing miserably. I haven’t even been able to finish the Gideon Haigh I started and I know I like his books.

So it was with great relief that I started Temeraire and found myself immediately sucked into the story. The first time I looked up I was more than a hundred pages in. It’s a cracker. Rips along. It has battles and honour and (discreet) sex and dragons! Lots and lots of dragons! It’s set during the Napoleonic wars and it’s fabulous. The protag, Laurence, is the best stick-up-his bum hero ever. And I won’t tell you anything more, except to say that you should really, really, really not read the cover copy because it gave away a couple of key plot points I’d’ve been much happier not knowing. It’s the first in the series, but who knows when the next two books are going to be published here (her website doesn’t say) and there’s no way I can be expected to wait. I want more. Now!

I feel bad for South Africa

They worked so hard and then the weather robbed them of any chance of winning. The declaration was brave. Some would say loopy. It felt like they deserved the win, and yet their bowlers were just too thin on. Get well soon, Mr Ntini.

And how bout that Ponting? No way he’s not getting the Allen Border medal. Two centuries in his 100th test? You bewdy!

Bookshops and the Signing thing

Wow, thanks to everyone for sharing all their writers’ humiliations. Apparently I’m not alone!

This post is for the bookseller who wrote to tell me that if I went to her bookshop I could sign whatever books I wanted.

On the same day I had my less than stellar experience at a chain I also visited Galaxy, Kinokuniya, Gleebooks and Better Read than Dead. All of them had many copies of Scott’s books and all told me that Uglies in particular is flying off the shelves. And they all had the Oz version of Magic or Madness and were very keen on me signing them. At Galaxy I didn’t even have to ask. Bless Galaxy. They rolled out the books, handed me a pen, and told me how well MorM‘d been doing for them. There was also mention of the possibility of Scott and me doing events for all of these shops. Way to make you feel wanted. Lovely!

I also figured out that I’ve been shopping at Galaxy for at least fourteen years! Oh my Elvis! That’s longer than some of my readers have been alive! And I’ve been a regular customer at Gleebooks for even longer . . . They’re two of my fave bookshops in all the world and have been incredibly good to me as both customer and now as author.

I have to admit though, that the whole signing thing is weird. I always feel like a loon asking people in bookshops if they want me to scribble on their books. It seems such an odd thing to do: “Deface your stock, Ma’am?” Though, of course, I’m very happy to have books by my favourite writers defaced, and treasure my two signed Dorothy Dunnett’s (Caprice and Rondo and Gemini).

Other than that initial awkwardness—“Hi, I’m Justine Larbalestier and, er, you seem to have some of my books. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind if I, um, signed them for you”—other than that I really like going into bookshops and chatting with the staff. For one thing, they’re mostly really into books. Surprising that, eh? And once I’ve gotten the self-promotery thing over and done with (quick as poss) I can ask about their favourite YAs and rave about mine (I talked up Haitani’s A Rabbit’s Eyes big time at Kinokuniya). Alliyx at Kinokuniya is a huge Scott Westerfeld and Holly Black fan so it was quite a treat to goss about their books. Interesting how much easier it is to push someone else’s work than it is your own.

I’d never been to Kinokuniya before. It’s amazing. I don’t think I’ve seen that much manga in one place. And the design and architecture section is huge! So’s the young adult section. In fact the whole bookstore is vast and full of bubbly helpful staff and way too many books that I lust after. And, yeah, they had my book, too. I wonder if I’ll ever stop being thrilled by seeing my book in shops? I hope not.

So, yes, Ms Bookseller-who-wrote-me, my chain bookshop experience was an anomaly.

Writer Humiliations (updated)

Because of late I’ve been all—look how well my book has been doing! award nominations! foreign sales! good reviews! la la la!—I thought I’d write about the less fabby side of being a writer. You know, so you don’t all think my life is nothing but caviar and champagne and flying foxes at dusk. Time to talk about writer humiliations!

There was a book out a while ago, Mortification: Writers’ Stories of Their Public Shame. Part of me wants to read it; the other part cringes at the very idea of its existence: way too close to the bone! The vast majority of working writers never get anywhere near the level of J. K. Rowling or Dan Brown fame. Every writer I know—no matter how well known in their field—can tell stories of doing signings or readings for an audience of no one but the bookshop staff. We’ve all had conversations like the following.

Typical conversation at a party:

    “So you’re a novelist, huh? That’s cool. Will I have heard of you?”

    “Well, so far I only have one novel out—”

    “Dan Brown has only one novel.”

    “Ah, doesn’t Dan Brown have—”

    “So, have I heard of you?”

    “Well, what kind of novels do you read?”

    “Oh, I don’t read novels.”

    “Then, no, you won’t have heard of me.”

Conversation with casual friend while checking out some stuff online:

    “So, your book’s published in America? That is so cool.””Thanks. I’m really excited about it.”

    “Hey!” says the casual friend, rapidly typing in a new URL. “I can look up the review in the New York Times!”

    “No need, there hasn’t been a review in the New York Times.”

    Casual friend continues looking me up in the Times.

    “Not many books get reviewed in the Times,” I say.

    Casual friend looks at me with incomprehension, presses the find button, and stares at the “no hits” result. “I thought you said your book was published in America?”

    “It is,” I say, rapidly typing, pointing to the Amazon listing.

    “But no review in the New York Times?”

Conversation with the clerk in charge of kid’s books at a Sydney branch of a chain bookstore which has twelve copies of Magic or Madness prominently displayed face out:

    “Hi, I’m Justine Larbalestier the author of Magic or Madness.”Clerk stares at me blankly.

    “Uh, I was told you were in charge of kid’s books?”

    “That’s right. Do we have your book?”

    “Er, yes, quite a few of them. Just over there.” I point.

    “Huh. I haven’t read that one. Are you a local author?”

    “Yup that’s right. Sydney born and bred. I’ve been away for a bit, so I was just stopping into bookshops to see how it’s going.”

    “Oh, I don’t think we’ve sold any of that one. I can check it for you if you like.”

    Heart sinks. “No, no, never mind.”

    “So, what’s it about?”

    I blurt out an over-detailed and incoherent version of the plot.

    “Huh? That sounds complicated. What age group is it aimed at?”

    “Twelve years old and up. But the book’s not really that complicated, it’s just about a door in a house in Sydney that opens onto a street in New York City.”

    “Your book is about a door? That’s unusual.”

    “Um, yeah, I guess.” I leave before I can do any more damage. “Thanks so much for your time.”

If anyone else has some writerly humiliations to share, I’d love to hear ’em. And yes, by all means choose the cloak of anonymity.

Update: Tobias Buckell shares one of his here. For the record, I’m not L. Ron Hubbard either.

And now Diana Peterfreund has joined in (but she doesn’t mention whether she’s L. Ron Hubbard or not).

Happy New Year!!!

How about this for a good omen on which to start the new year? My friend Shana noticed Magic or Madness in the window of one of the best children’s bookshops in the world, Books of Wonder in New York City:

And what’s more—it’s right next to The Very Hungry Caterpillar! This is going to be a very good year, indeed. (Well, for me, anyway, here’s hoping it will be for the rest of the world, too. And, yeah, I’d swap for the world to be better off, but, you know, I don’t think it works like that.)

Oh, and one last thing: Scott Lynch (whose lj I just discovered via matociquala) also had a good year—he became a firey.

Happy new year!

Last Day of 2005

Woo hoo! Another year gone! A fridge full of champagne and yummy food! Who could ask for anything more? (Well, it would be nice if we didn’t both have books due 3 Jan . . . )

I see that many in blogland (and elsewhere) are summing up their year, taking stock, making resolutions for 2006 and etc. I’ve already skited enough about my achievements this year. It’s been a bloody brilliant year personally. I just want it all to keep on keeping on.

I’m aiming to write two books (both of which I’ve already started) in 2006 and sell one (two would be nice, but I don’t want to jinx myself). I also plan to spend the majority of the year in Sydney, cause now that I’m home I just want to stay. And I really, really, really want to get tickets for the Sydney Ashes test. Ideally for every day of play. If anyone has a cunning method of getting said tickets, or is a member of the SCG—I’m am so up for offering you huge bribes! Whatever you want you got it!

Best book I read this year: Walter Mosley’s The Man in My Basement. I just made my parents read it too and they were also blown away. It’s the most powerful, moving examination of evil, of race and gender, and what it is to be human I’ve ever read. But rest assured this ain’t just philosophy and ethics; it’s a scary arse story that’s completely unputtdownable.

Books I’m most looking forward to: The Night Watch by Sarah Waters and Elizabeth Knox’s Dreamquake the sequel to Dreamhunter, and frankly it just can’t get into my hands soon enough!

Hope you lot have a fabby new year, too. And achieve everything you want to achieve. I’m going to get started on the champers now. Happy new year!

Another good review for Magic or Madness!

And of all places it’s in Australian Family Circle (December 2005 issue). A lifestyle magazine filled with recipes and stuff on quilting etc. (or at least that’s what it looks like from the cover) with a circulation of more than 300,000. In a country of only 20 million that’s pretty good going. Here’s what they said:

Reason Cansino has spent all her life in the outback with her mother, trying to hide from her grandmother—a witch. But when her mother falls ill, Reason has live with her grandmother and discovers all is not as she thought. While this is technically a fantasy novel, the very real world that’s created will enchant anyone who reads it.

Not bad, eh? And while some genre fans may objec, I like them pointing out that it will also appeal to non-fantasy fans. Bigger audience = good.

I think this might be the first t time I’ve been reviewed in a place not devoted to books, children’s fiction, or genre. Yay me!

Thanks to Ana Vivas of Hachette Children’s Books for for passing it along.

The Art of the Synopsis

As many people have noted Miss Snark is providing commentary on more than a hundred synopses. If you’re at all interested in a career as a writer or the publishing industry you should definitely take a squiz.

As Scott and me’ll be giving a workshop on writing these buggers in March (in Bologna!) I’ve been following Miss Snark’s critques and the resulting discussions closely. I found Diana Peterfreund’s posts particularly useful, especially her reminder to everyone that even when you’re already a published writer you still have to write ’em:

Often, being published means that your synopsis is even more important, for instead of merely trying to get an editor to read the manuscript on the basis of your synopsis, you’re trying to get them to lay down money for a manuscript you haven’t even written because the synopsis makes it sound cool. In some contracts, there’s a whole chunk of money reserved until you turn in your synopsis or outline or what have you. At many houses, it’s the synopsis, and not the manuscript, that is given to the art and marketing departments. It’s the synopsis that tells the PR person what to put in the press release, the flap copy writer what to put in the blurb, etc. etc. It’s the synopsis that helps the marketing department decide how to present your book to the public. It’s kinda important.

I can vouch for that. I sold the Magic or Madness trilogy on the basis of a proposal (including synopsis) and the first three chapters. In the contract I get paid when I turn in the synopsis for each book and then on publication. So, even though I’d already written the synopsis of the whole series I had to write a new one for books 2 and 3.

I nagged and nagged my editors until they let me out of writing a synopsis for the third book. I don’t hate writing them; I’m just lazy. Instead I had a meeting about the book with my editors and we all took lots of notes and gossiped. Much fun. I was feeling very cunning and pleased with myself for having substituted writing a synopsis with a fun gossip session, but then some publishers interested in foreign-language rights for the whole trilogy requested, you guessed it, a synopsis for book 3. Sucked in, Justine.

And because I was three-quarters of the way through writing Magic or Madness 3 when I had to turn around and write the synopsis, I found it very hard going. For me it’s much easier to write the synop first. If I’ve already written the book, or worse, haven’t quite finished it, then I’m all bogged down in the detail and writing a decent synop is agony.

From now on I’ll be writing a synop early on in the writing of each new novel—or, you know, I’ll intend to—because sooner or later someone’s going to want one out of me. And it doesn’t matter if it’s not an exact snapshot of the book—as Diana says quoting one of her teachers: “a synopsis is a sales tool”.

So there you have it: the synopsis is a mostly unavoidable part of selling novels. Live with it!

School Library Journal‘s Best Books of the Year

I mentioned a while ago that both Scott and me had made SLJ‘s best books of the year list. That issue is now available. I was very pleased by their description of Magic or Madness:

In this Australian page-turner, a resourceful teen tries to sort out her contentious family’s secrets and is astonishingly transported to New York City via a portal in her grandmother’s house. A potent mix of mystery and magic with a thoughtful exploration of personal-identity issues and familial relationships.

It also turns out that Scott has not one, but two books on the list: Peeps and Uglies. I’m dead proud. It’s one thing to be prolific, it’s another to be prolific and good. He’s had quite the amazing year, hasn’t he?

Merry, Merry, Happy, Happy

I hope everyone who celebrates today or any of the cluster of days around it—or who’s just enjoying the days off work or school—has a most excellent end of the year. I plan to.

I’d like to adopt the USian custom of giving thanks (yeah, yeah, I know they do it on a different day—whatever!). Here’s what I’m thankful for:

    That I’m home in Sydney living in the best place ever: Flying foxes at dusk! Huge decks! Huge bath tub! Views! Amazing pubs, cafes & restaurants within spitting distance! Southerly breezes!

    That I’m home in the land of continuous cricket coverage! Of beautiful beaches! And the best avocadoes (yes, Mely, you need to move here, not smelly California) and mangosteens and mangoes and all the other yummy fruit and veg my heart pines for!

    Rediscovering all my CDs what have been in storage since forever. Most especially Sepharad: Songs of the Spanish Jews by Sarband. Best CD ever!

    The books beside my bed: The Tale of Genji—started it, but am intimidated by its enormousness, though I really want to take part in this amazing discussion; Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince—started it; Shaman’s Crossing by Robin Hobb; The Fencing Master by Arturo Pérez-Reverte—finished it, loved it!; The Big Ship: Warwick Armstrong and the Making of Modern Cricket by Gideon Haigh—started it; Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm—started it.

    My writing career, and that I can type those words without cacking myself. Yes, I really do have a writing career!

    My family and friends. Especially my family: Jan, John, Niki and Scott, with whom I’m about to do the whole yummy food and wine, pressies, playing-lots-of-games thing! Bring it on!

Hope most everything is wonderful with you lot as well.

Things I Don’t Understand

1. Why the exact same brand toothpaste has radically different packaging in different countries.

2. Why everyone thinks King Kong is the best movie ever.

3. Why no one told me that Lost is excellent genre TV.

4. Why whenever you buy chips in an Oz pub they always come served in a plastic fake-wood bowl.

5. Why cricket isn’t the dominant sport in every country in the world.

6. How anyone could wear gold sandals and not be ironic.

Aurealis Awards Redux

Just back from Byron and it turns out that there are, in fact, five books on the shortlist for the Aurealis Award for best Young Adult book of the year. (Thanks for the heads up, Mr Ben Payne.) The missing title was Isobel Carmody’s Alyzon Whitestar. Can’t wait to read both Alyzon and Anthony Eaton’s Nightpeople.

Byron Bay was beautamous and excellent. More when not knackered.

Off to Byron, Whingeing about Deadlines, Boasting about My Sister, and Some Lovely News (updated)

Sorry about the not blogging of late, especially with you lot being all interesting in the comments (I’ve finally gone through and responded, bless you all). I was kept from it by boring, boring non-internets stuff and the looming deadline. Or rather, panic about the looming deadline. Corey asked of my deadline how soon “scary soon” is: 2 January, which is 17 days away, and I’m about 15-20 thou words short of the end. Also, I’d like to, you know, revise and rewrite before I send it off.

Ordinarily I leave myself a month or more for that, and while I’m revising I send it out to my first readers for comments. There won’t be none of that this time, which worries me deeply. Maybe I can send to first readers at the same time as sending to my editors? Hmmm. Don’t mind my panicking out loud here. Any suggestions for creating time pockets or outsourcing some of the writing are very welcome.

Today we’re off to Byron Bay for almost a week courtesy of my hard-working and very talented sister, Niki Bern, who is so very cool that one of her shots is the current front cover of Cinefex magazine. How amazing is that? Here’s a better look at her shot:

For Niki making the front cover of Cinefex is even better than if I got the front cover and a rave review in The New York Times Book Review. It’s beyond cool! My sister is ubercool! And she’s just hired a house in Byron on the beach for us all to hang out and relax. I ask you: does anyone have a better sister than I do? I didn’t think so. Now, if only I didn’t have to work the whole time I’m there . . .

The lovely news is that Magic or Madness is a finalist for the Aurealis Award for Young Adult novel and so are two (!) of Scott’s books: Peeps and Uglies! Between us we make up three quarters [update: three fifths] of the short list. Most excellent, eh? The other quarter [update: one fifth] is Anthony Eaton for Nightpeople [update: and Isobel Carmody’s Alyzon Whitestar] both of which we’ll be grabbing copies of asap. To make the lovely news even lovelier many our friends are also nominated in other categories: Cat, Sean, Rjurik, and Garth, as well as Rob (stories he edited).

Oh, and one last thing: First Test against South Africa starts at the WACA today. Kill ’em, boys! Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Settling in

Slowly, very, very slowly, and not that surely, I’m settling back into life in Sydney. I have some bookshelves, though no where near enough to cope with all my many, many books. But for the first time in almost three years I can sit and gaze at my first editions of Geek Love, Wide Sargasso Sea, Fireworks, Black Glass and The King Hereafter and all my other beloveds and try to figure out which to re-read first. I’m very, very tempted to start with the Lymond books.

Right now a whole bunch of LJers are reading The Tale of Genji. Having just unearthed my never-read copy I’m very tempted to read along with them. So very tempted . . .

Sadly, the third Magic or Madness book is due scary soon and I’m not exactly on top of it. I have fifty thousand words. Remember? Pretty much the same fifty thousand words I had at the end of my San Miguel sojourn. Not good. But maybe The Tale of Genji will be inspiring . . .

Beautiful Clothes

All this talk of fashion and clothes and why some of us love ’em compelled me to head to Lisa Stack’s shop, Helix (conveniently located in Surry Hills where me and Scott now live). The shop is on Bourke St in what once would have been a corner shop dispensing lollies and milk and newspapers. Now it is filled with gorgeous dresses, skirts, trousers, tops in the most fabulous colours, with luscious prints. No vile pastels or lollipop colours, none of the hippy dippy crap that’s filling most of the shops hereabouts. I wound up buying two of Lisa’s tops and a pair of her silk japanese fisherman’s pants (so very very comfortable—I don’t think I’ll ever take them off again). And a circle skirt by Theresa Jackson made of embossed cotton. It’s shiny and makes me feel like a 1950s goth African fairy princess. Sigh. Much clothes happiness.

Here’s what I love most about Lisa’s shop, not just that her clothes are inventive and beautiful and comfortable, but that I don’t feel like a fool for walking in. In many botique shops I only fit into the largest sizes, and—you’re just going to have to trust me on this—I’m not that big. I’m not particularly tall or fat, and yet in cool shop after cool shop I barely squeeze into the largest sizes. Huh? And the shop assistants make out like this is somehow my fault. Does that make for shopping pleasure? No, it does not.

While I was at Helix three other women tried on clothes. Two of them much older than me, one much younger. One larger than me, two smaller. And here’s the thing: we all looked really good in her clothes. We had fun trying them on. We gossiped and offered opinions on what looked best on each other. It was a gas. I don’t remember the last time I had such a good time in a clothes shop.

And even better, Lisa’s clothes aren’t insanely expensive, are very well made, and last a very long time. What could be better?

Best Quote Ever

Fossicking through my many, many, many boxes of books I found this quote marked:

I once asked a young dissertation writer whether her suddenly grayed hair was due to ill health or personal tragedy; she answered: “It was the footnotes”.

—Joanna Russ, How to Suppress Women’s Writing

Those words bring back my years of PhD thesis research, writing, turning it into a book, and the postdoctoral fellowship that followed it. Not to mention the mighty labours on Daughters of Earth. Footnotes, bloody, buggery footnotes! A pleasure to read and chase amongst; a total pain in the arse to get right. And don’t get me started on bibliographies and indexing. Aaarggh!

So very, very glad I never have to do any of that stuff ever again!

And, yes, I did go prematurely grey.

Whoa, Black Caps!

One of the best onedayers I’ve seen in ages. Last over: Black Caps had one wicket left, one run a ball needed, and then two runouts in the last over. I was thinking NZ were absolutely no chance! But they got so very close. What a match!

Is it just me or have ODIs gotten a lot more interesting in the last couple of years? And how about the Brett Lee reversal of fortune? 3/5 in the last match; 1 for a million in this one. How about that Symmo? And Vincent? And Cairns? And Vettori? And Clarke? And Lewis?

And how happy am I that I can watch the baggy greens v the black caps in NZ; Pakistan v England in Pakistan (yay Shoab Akhtar!); and soon Australia v South Africa here in the land of Oz? Very, very: tis glorious to be home with TV access to cricket all over the world.

Fashion = good, complex, interesting

Lauren McLaughlin in praise of fashion. Sing it, Lauren!

Regarding fashion being shallow. This is a prejudice I find maddeningly overrepresented in the spec fic community. Fashion is an art form and the wearing of fashion is something everyone does every day (unless you’re a nudist). Even people who think they don’t care about fashion make choices about what they wear. Fashionistas (a term often used derogatorily) are merely people who take pleasure in the clothing choices that others skim over, much as foodies take a greater interest in what they eat.

This reminds me of a friend of mine being (verbally) attacked by an earnest young man (e.y.m.) at a party. She was (and is) gorgeous and has always enjoyed playing with fashion, is always well attired, with fabulous make-up and hair. He accused her of dressing to please men. How long, he wanted to know did she spend on such a high-maintenance look? Shouldn’t she be doing better things with her time? Why was it so important to her to have men admire her? Weren’t there more important things in life?

Reader, my friend demolished him. She smiled and pointed out to the e.y.m. that his look wasn’t exactly low maintenance. How long did it take him to shave his head? He opened his mouth, goggled, closed it again. If he cared so little about fashion, she continued, why was he wearing fashionable jeans and a black T-shirt? And trendy workman’s boots? Clearly he was dressing to pick up inner-city chicks. He stammered some more, claimed he chose them because they were comfortable. She countered that if he truly gave no thought to clothes or his appearance he would simply buy whatever was closest and cheapest. She happened to know the jeans he was wearing were only availlable at two different shops and were not exactly cheap. Why not wear no-name brand jeans?

As Lauren says most everyone thinks about clothes and what they’re wearing and what other people will think of them because of their choices. Fashion is a very big deal. Often people can tell how rich or poor you are from what you wear, they form an opinion of your education and politics (though they can be very very wrong), they can decide not to let you into a club, or talk to you, or give you a job because of what you’re wearing. Fashion is a deadly serious (and excellently entertaining) and far-reaching part of all our lives. It is definitely not a trivial matter to write or think about.

ASIF! hits PW

The newly-minted organisation ASIF! (Authors Supporting Intellectual Freedom) has just gotten coverage in the source of all publishing news , Publishers Weekly.

We also now have our mission statement:

AS IF! champions those who stand against censorship, especially of books for and about teens.

I’ve never had a mission statement before. I feel very superhero-y all of a sudden. Yay us! Maybe we need capes?

Lovely Texas and other matters

A few things:

1) I got my intramanet back!! In my very own home. My excitement is beyond words: email! dictionaries! blogs! posts! The whole world at my fingertips!

2) Magic or Madness made its third best books of the year list, the Tayshas reading list put together by the Young Adult Round Table of the Texas Library Association. I’m particularly chuffed about this one on account of I got family in Texas—that’s where my in-laws hail from and my uncle-in-law is the principal of a high school in Houston. Also there are many very cool books on the list. Not just Scott’s Uglies, but the work of at least two other Aussies: Fiona McIntosh’s Myrren’s Gift and Marcus Zusak’s I Am the Messenger. Very pleasing.

3) In our new flat we can go out onto the balcony and watch the nightly exodus of flying foxes from the Tannie gardens. I love them.

4) The nothing changes convo continues (so fab to see the nattering continue without me—I love youse guys!) and is taken up by David Moles and a cast of thousands on his blog. All fascinating stuff. Oh, and Claire & Lauren? I’m so with you on Ghost World. I was double plus unthrilled by that movie. Especially cause the Bollywood music opening sequence was luverly.

Quick this and thating

Still no interwebby thing in our new home (I’m at my parents), but at least we can watch the cricket!

There’ve been some comments from actual editors on the gender balance question thing I posted about a while back. Confirming once again that there is no vast conspiracy—it’s all much more complicated than that.

I’m loving our new neighbourhood, Surry Hills, but am less than thrilled about the whole unpacking, organising, cleaning, not finding necessary things etc. Turns out that our flat while fab, lacks certain essentials. There’s hardly any storage, making unpacking really hard cause there’s no where to put anything. And a lack of hooks and railings for the hanging of towels in the bathroom is driving me nuts. Hanging the hand towel from one of the drawers is not the best solution. Also what is it with modern built-in wardrobes being narrower than most coathangers? I mean how did anyone think that was going to work out?! Aren’t wardrobes meant to protect clothes, not squish them?

I’m in love with Dwayne Bravo. What a miracle worker he is. And how much better has this third test been than the first two? So very good to be home in the land of cricket and wry understatment and really really good Thai food. Green mango salad . . .

Moving

Tomorrow we move to our brand new flat what we rented while still jetlagged, which may not be quite as fab as we remember. Scott tells me the bath isn’t torquoise, that it doesn’t come with jetpacks, nor is there an airship tethered to the roof. I could’ve sworn . . . Oh well, as long as the monkeys were real.

All our stuff will be hauled out of storage for the first time in an age. What larks will abound! ‘Cause everyone knows how fabulously fun moving is . . . almost as blissful as flathunting.

Internet access in the new flat isn’t lined up yet, so not sure when next I’ll blog, or answer emails, or google, or read anyone else’s blog. Sob.

Wish us luck!

Many Things

Hung out with Agnes and Lili of the Centre for Youth Literature and talked books. Tried to remember all the cool, hot YA books of this year and failed, so raved about A Rabbit’s Eyes yet again. Agnes raved about Adam Rapp and his books 33 snowfish and Under the Wolf, Under the Dog. I want to read them right now.

I found out that Magic or Madness is a Magpies pick of 2005 for older readers. That’s the second best book of the year list for MorM. How bout that?

Afternoon spent at the Penguin Australia offices where we were champagned and cheesed and got to meet more of everybody. Yay all of them! And had our very first meeting with the sales people, which was fabulous. We got to sit and talk about us and our books, which is pretty much all we talk about anyways. Much fun.

Last of all dinner with the mighty Tessa and wild-eyed Rjurik. Very very very silly. They are excellent.

Agnes Nieuwenhuizen

We’re in Melbourne, running around like crazies, and having fun. Spent all day yesterday at the fabulous School Libraries of Victoria conference, which was a blast. Shook me out of my jetlag. And Monday we get to hang out out with our Australian publishers at the Penguin offices, and also with the wonderful folks at the Centre for Youth Literature, Mike Shuttleworth, Lili Wilkinson and the fabulous Agnes Nieuwenhuizen. Agnes is profiled in today’s Age. She’s one of the most formidable, intelligent, engaged and engaging people I’ve met and today’s profile actually captures that.

Must dash!

Nothing Changes

Meghan McCarron has just written eloquently about sexism in publishing. Why do so many anthologies and short stories magazines have way more stories by men than by women? Why do men get more awards and reviewed more widely? The ensuing discussion is very cool, too.

I confess that I get very tired when I consider all of this. I spent years researching gender, sexuality, men, women and hermaphrodites in science fiction. Hell, I even wrote a book about it. Sometimes I wonder if anything has changed at all.

Fortunately, I’m now in a genre—Young Adult fiction—that’s overwhelmingly written by women. And its awards reflect that. The Prinz has only been awarded six times thus far and so far it’s 50% women. The US National Book Award has had a Young People’s Literature award since 1996 and women have won six times to the bloke’s three. The Australian Children’s Book Council Awards for Best Book of the Year (Older Readers) was first awarded in 1987: women eleven; blokes eight. (My counts may be out because I’m innumerate and jetlagged.)

Looks good to me.

This has been a great year

I just found out that both Scott and me made School Library Journal‘s best books of 2005 list. Scott for Peeps and me (obviously) for Magic or Madness. We is most happy. For me it’s more icing on an already well-iced cake.

I’d like to take a moment to (incoherently and jetlaggedly) say how amazed I am by how Morm has been doing. It’s my first novel. I’ve seen lots of first novels published, so I knew what to expect. The reviews have been amazing, the placement in bookshops, and the response from readers. After we hooked up with our foreign rights agent, Whitney Lee, I had hopes of selling into countries other than the US and Australia (where the book is set), but I wasn’t really expecting it to happen. But it’s now sold in Thailand, Taiwan, France and Germany. I keep having to pinch myself.

As long as I can remember I’ve wanted to be a writer, to make a living writing stories. And now I am.

The good side of jetlag

One of the best things about being jetlagged is getting to watch the sunrise. In my normal life I never see it. This morning though I watched my parent’s backyard go from pitch black to completely light. And because it’s spring their backyard is gorgeous. The jacaranda tree is covered in purple flowers. There are other plants in bloom with white and pink flowers. I just saw my first flock of rainbow lorikeets, chirruping back and forth at each other as they zoomed by. I should be up at this time more often.

The only noises I’m hearing are birds, the hum of the fridge from the kitchen, and various house creaking noises, but mostly birds. I’m so not in New York City anymore! It’s so wonderful to be home.

A Rabbit’s Eyes

Because I hate packing more than anything in the whole world, I’d like to tell you about the best book I read this year, A Rabbit’s Eyes by Kenjiro Haitani, published by the ubercool Vertical Books. And also because I’m anxious that I’m not packing when I really, really should be packing I’ll keep my comments brief.

A Rabbit’s Eyes is unbelieveably good and strange and very hard to describe. Told from the point of view of a brand-new, eager-to-be-good teacher, it’s all about this kid, Tetsuzo, who doesn’t speak and breeds flies (not houseflies though, they’re dirty). It’s wry and touching and I hate to say it—heartwarming, but in a totally non-vomitous way. It’s not like anything I’ve ever read before. In the best way, I never knew where the story was going. As soon as I finished I went back to the beginning and started over and it was even better on a second read. I love this book.

Go get it!

I go pack now.

I’m in Hebrew!

Well, not me so much as my essay “Too Young to Publish”. Awhile back Didi Chanoch asked if I minded if it were translated? I did not!

So now Itay Shlamkovitch has translated “Too Young to Publish” and Bli Panik has published it. If you read Hebrew check it out. (Is your Hebrew coming back, Da?) Hell, even if you don’t. It’s pretty.

This is the first of my writings that’s been translated. I’ve sold translations rights to Magic or Madness and Magic Lessons but the actual publishing of those translations hasn’t happened yet. Oh, the glory of online publication. So very fast!

Oh, and I think this is my name in Hebrew: ×’’סטין לרבליסטר

Cool, eh?

In Praise of the US Postal Service

I hear many USians complain about going to the post office and about the US postal system generally. I’m here to say you’re wrong. You lot have one of the best postal services in the world. It’s way cheaper, faster and better than the postal service of any other country I’ve been in.

I enjoy going to the post office on Fourth Avenue and Eleventh St. Most of the people who work there are lovely, have a sense of humour, and go out of their way to tell you the cheapest and/or fastest way to send things. And the woman who delivers our mail? A goddess. I’ve never ever seen her in a bad mood. She calls everybody “boopy” or “booboo” and is always smiling and cracking jokes. Whenever I run into her I know I’m going to have a really good day.

So stop your whingeing people. The rest of the world doesn’t have it so good as you lot. All hail the USPS!

Things not to do

Things not to do mere days before racking off back home:

1. Drop your laptop.

Actually, that’s the entire list.

Not a good day. Not at all. But laptop came out of it—while not quite as aesthetically pleasing as before—mostly functional.

Oh my! Oh no! (updated)

I swore to myself that I wouldn’t do it, that I would resist, that to give in and look at the trailer for the latest version of Pride and Prejudice would just make me ropeable at worst, sad at best. Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennett? Ack! Yeah, I know there are worse actors out there, who’d be even more ludicrously miscast, but it doesn’t make her any less of a crap choice.

I’m not a Knightley fan. I know it’s not her fault, but I’ve never forgiven her for becoming the famous one after Bend it Like Beckham, when it was the luminous Parminder Nagra who stole that movie, not Knightley. Now Nagra’s on ER and Knightley’s everywhere. Where’s the justice?

And let’s just say I didn’t have high hopes that the folks what made Love, Actually were going to do right by Miss Austen. But watch the trailer I did, only to discover that it’s more shockingly awful than the one for the 1940 Greer Garson Pride and Prejudice. At least that one (and the film) can be excused because of its camp value. This one, well. Is the film a satire of bad historical adaptations? I really hope so. Throughout Darcy looks incapable of keeping his shirt on, Elizabeth Bennett is shrill, and in two of the scenes it looks like the two are about to go the tongue! Bloody hell! Did the film makers even read the book?

And you know what? Elizabeth Bennett was not a woman ahead of her time. She was very much of it, shocked by sex before marriage, with no ambitions for herself other than becoming the wife of a good man. I could go on but it’s been said much better here.

Still, seeing the trailer was a very good thing—my loins are now well girded against seeing the actual movie. The thought of it goes well beyond shudder territory.

Update: Just to make it clear—I am no Jane Austen purist. My favourite adaptions of her work are Amy Hackerling’s Clueless (1995), Patricia Rozema’s Mansfield Park (1999), and Gurinder Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice (2004). Hah, all directed by women. I never noticed that before.

another question from googleland

Someone landed at my website after googling the following question:

“how do publishers decide print runs first second printing”

I don’t really know the answer to that question. Or, rather, questions, because the decision on the initial print run is a different (and more complicated question) than whether to reprint or not. If the book’s selling well and likely to sell out the first run, then you print again.

Or, mostly, I have heard horror stories like a recent unexpected bestseller whose first print run sold out flash quick and the editor had to plead with higher ups to do a second print run.

There are also houses that do such tiny initial runs that second printings are inevitable.

One editor told me that they go on instinct when recommending a print run. That if it feels like a 10,000 copy book that’s what they’ll ask for.

But, you know, I only got gossip. Are there any publishing people out there with actual information who want to respond?