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And may be down again while it’s upgraded to a dedicated server.

Today has not been a happy justinelarbalestier.com day. I hate to be separated from my blog for so many hours. And it went down right in the middle of my putting up a teaser for my new story in Love is Hell. Wah!

If anyone can recommend a reliable new host I’m all ears. Or, you know eyes . . .

There are already some suggestions over here. I’d be curious to hear what others think of those suggestions.

All the problems of the past two days appear to have been resolved. Sorry for the inconvenience. Especially to those of you who had your comments eaten.

Thanks for chiming in on last post. I no longer feel like I have lost my mind. Just my website for a couple of days. And, praise Elvis, may it never happen again.

We can now resume normal blog activity.

For those who missed the post that was only visible to a handful of you for most of the day there’s a sneak preview of my latest published effort.

Thanks to everyone who wrote to share their concern about the absence and/or weirdness of my site today. It’s nice to know you care.

So we made it in one piece to sunny, warm Texas. Wow. The weather is so much better here than it was in NYC. Yay that we’re here and not there.

You can catch me and Scott at BookPeople tonight and then you can see me do my thing in San Antonio tomorrow night:

Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 7:30PM
With Scott Westerfeld
BookPeople
603 N. Lamar
Austin, Texas

Thursday, 20 November 2008, 7:00PM
Barnes & Noble
Northwoods Shopping Center
18030 Highway 281 North
San Antonio, Texas

Hope to see some of you there!

This made my day:

Get it? E. Kristin Anderson, who works at the fabulous Book People in Austin, is a parking fairy. Just like the one Charlie has in How To Ditch Your Fairy. Only, you know, not invisible. Isn’t that superb?

Coincidently, me and Scott will be hanging out at Book People on 19 November at 7:30PM. Can’t wait!

Happy Halloween!

On Tuesday voters in Arkansas, Arizona, Florida and California approved propositions that discriminate against couples of the same sex. I am depressed beyond words by this. Those propositions are against love.

Me, I am in favour of love.

I have a friend who’s been with the same guy for twenty years now. Their lives have been entwined since they met in their twenties. They have a dog together, a house, bank accounts. In every way that counts they are a couple. Very few of my straight friends¹ have been together for so long and with so much love. None of my straight friends have ever been beaten up for walking down the street hand-in-hand with the person they love.

I can hold my husband’s hand or kiss his cheek in public without fear. Because I’m a woman and Scott’s a man we were able to have our love sanctioned by the state. There are very few places in the world where same-sex couples enjoy the same privileges we take for granted.

The majority of the voters on those propositions agreed that only some people are allowed to have their love sanctioned. They agreed that only some lovers can visit their partner in hospital without question, can be covered by their partner’s health insurance, can adopt together, can migrate to their lover’s country.

That so many voters are still against equality depresses me. That in California some are blaming the passing of Proposition 8 on black voters depresses me. Let’s not go down that path. Let’s look instead at the youth demographic which cuts across race and class and religious affiliation:

CNN exit poll

Vote by Age
Yes No
18-29 (20%) 39 61
30-44 (28%) 55 45
45-64 (36%) 54 46
65+ (15%) 61 39

What do those stats prove? That the future looks wonderful. The majority of young people under 30 get that straight marriages are not safer or happier because gay and lesbians are prohibited from marrying. They understand that the opposite is true. Which is another reason it’s such a pleasure to write books for them.

It saddens me that I have something wonderful that many of my friends are not allowed to have. I want to give them a piece of this cake too.

I want people to be allowed to marry if they want. And not to if they don’t want.

I want everyone to be included in all the cool things that life has to offer.

1. Of my generation. My parents have been together for more than forty years.

I have a bunch of friends who have brand new books coming out next year. Friends who will be doing at least one or two appearances—or in one case (lucky duck!)—going on a book tour. This post is for them because they’re going to be asked certain questions over and over again and it’s best to have a bunch excellent and entertaining answers. Here they are:

Where did you get your ideas for this book?

This is a particularly hard one for most of us because often we have no idea where a book comes from. Best to start thinking about that questions and putting together some anecdotes. I have a bunch of different ones for HTDYF because, like most books, the ideas for it came from several different incidents. The first time I was asked it about Magic or Madness I ummed and ahhed and generally made myself sound like my IQ is lower than room temperature. Sigh.

Where do you get your ideas?

I tend to respond to this one by talking about how ideas are not the hard part, making yourself sit down and write is. Or I say I steal them from Maureen Johnson. Hey, it gets a laugh. Did I mention that going for the laughs is always the right move?

What were/are your inspirations?

I tend to interpret this one as being about what books/writers most inspired me when I was a beginning writer. So I talk a lot about Enid Blyton. I’ve also used it a couple of times to talk about the people who encouraged me to write when I was little. But I think you can interpret it as widely or broadly as you like.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

People love to hear the story of how and when you became a writer. Is it something you always wanted to do? Or did you just suddenly decide to give it a whirl one Sunday morning when you figured you could write better than the crappy bestseller you put down in disgust? Tales that involve dealing with rejection are always popular. Fortunately almost every writer I know has had to deal with it.

What’s your favourite book/author?

This is the question I still don’t have a handle on. Every time I’m asked I kind of freeze and can’t think of the title of a single book or author let alone the many, many ones I love. I always have a difficult time when I’m asked to pick just one thing. But, really, I’ve been asked the question often enough—pretty much every appearance I did on the tour it was asked—I need to prepare for it much better.

Bonus: Questions You’ll Be Asked If You’re an Australian author touring the USA:

Do you like vegemite?

Is the Pope Catholic?

Can you wrestle a crocodlie?

I’m sure I could if I tried.

Did you know Heath Ledger?

Sadly, no. But I think he was an amazingly talented actor.

Speaking of acting. Actually, I think that’s a whole other post, which I will now go write.

If I missed any general author questions you’re asked a lot please to share.

Good luck, everyone, with your first appearances. Break a leg! (In the good way.)

If you can could you comment? And tell me what browser you’re using.

I’m getting lots of reports of posts not showing up and people not being able to comment.

There was a way to do a book tour that didn’t involve having to get into a car . . .

This is my day of rest in between Michigan and Ohio/Kansas City. I plan to sleep till Sunday. Well, I will do that right after I go and see what Hollywood has done to Rachel Cohn and David Levithan’s fabulous Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. My fingers are crossed for fabulosity.

You (what live where it is showing) should all go see it too. Who knows? If Nick and Norah does well there might be even more adaptations of YA novels. Wouldn’t that be fabulous?

Pixelfish had this to say in comments. I could not let it languish there:

At what point did publishers start getting anal about the usage variations between the US and all other English speaking countries? Because my original copies of the Chronicles of Narnia had English spellings, but my new ones don’t and are in the wrong order. My Canadian copies of Harry Potter have the Britishisms intact, even though they don’t use all the slang, but the US ones don’t. I liked it better when US YA publishers let me find out MORE about the world instead of LESS. Part of the reason I read was to get away from my perfectly safe little Utah neighbourhood. But I digress . . . oh boy, howdy, do I digress.

I have no idea when that started. But it is a Very. Bad. Thing. I disapprove. HEARTILY.

Back at home I grew up with books with Commonwealth spelling and also with USian spellings. So Enid Blyton & Patricia Wrightson = colour. Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys = color. Though sometimes the punctuation would be changed.

I really hate the way many US publishers USianise things. I was just reading the US edition of an Australian book set in Oz with Oz characters. Except that the characters compared things to the size of a dime. (We don’t have dimes in Australia.) They discussed each others height in feet and inches. (Australia is metric.) The distances they drove were in miles. (Ditto. We have kilometres.) They used no Aussie slang. Everything that could be even a tiny bit confusing to a US reader was changed.

It drove me crazy. I stopped reading the book. I’ll read the Australian edition when I go home.

How stupid do publishers think readers are? We can figure stuff out from context. If we don’t know stuff we can look it up. Part of the fun of reading a book set in a different country is learning about the differences. Changing the spelling, adding “dimes” and “quarters”, removing all the local slang, wrecks the flavour and rhythm of the book. I think it’s a dreadful editorial decision and I wish they’d stop doing it.

Er, what you said, Pixelfish.

If you want a signed copy of HTDYF and you live in Toronto you should go to Bakka Phoenix Books, a lovely sf bookshop located at 697 Queen Street West. I believe you’ll also find books signed by John Scalzi and Scott Westerfeld.

My history with Bakka Books (as it used to be known) goes back to the 1990s when I was in Toronto doing research for my Phd at the Judith Merril Collection. I spent many hours at Bakka, gossiping with the staff, and feeding my book habit. So it was quite the thrill to be back there and signing my own books. Who’da thunk it?

I was also reminded me of how much I like Toronto. It’s not the prettiest city in the world but who cares when there’s so much cool inventive stuff going on? It totally reminds me of Melbourne. Queen St and Brunswick street bare a very close resemblance. I stumbled into Magpie Designs¹ and may have accidentally wound up with some clothes. Can’t be sure.

It was lovely to be reminded even briefly of another of my favourite cities. I could totally live in Toronto.²

1. Sadly, none of the images on the site are as fabulous as the clothes they have in their shop right now.
2. Just not in winter.

Lessons learned today:

• Beef jerky on it’s own is not enough to keep a girl going all day.
• Also never diss a hometown boy just before visiting his state. I don’t take a word of that back, but let’s just focus on Deanna Nolan’s awesomeness instead, eh? Plus, really? It’s news to the folks of Michigan that some do not appreciate Bill Laimbeer? I find that very difficult to believe.
• I am not yet ready to talk in detail about the new book (the one set in the 1930s). At the appearance tonight I started to, but then I got a weird feeling all over, and my mouth closed. How weird is that?

I am now an expert on what clothes travel well and what don’t. I have enough outfits with me for a thousand appearances and it all fit into one teeny tiny suitcase. I am now a packing genius!

If you’re in the Grand Rapids, MI area here’s where I’ll be tomorrow, or, er today:

Wednesday, 1 October 2008, 4:00PM
Pooh’s Corner
Breton Village
1886 1/2 Breton Rd. S.E.
Grand Rapids, MI

Hope to see some of you there!

Many of you have been asking, “When is How To Ditch Your Fairy going to be published in Australia?” I apologise for not answering. For ages I did not know if it would be or not and then it sold and I was not allowed to tell you. But now I can!

How To Ditch Your Fairy will be published in Australia in late February by the fabulous Allen & Unwin. That’s right I am now published by the same house that publishes Ursula Dubosarsky, Margo Lanagan, Garth Nix, Penni Russon and Lili Wilkinson amongst many other fabulously wonderful Oz YA writers.

What’s more A&U are not only publishing HTDYF, they’re publishing the liar book too!

Keeping this news to myself has been excruciating!

Not only will the book be coming out in Oz next Feb, which is mere months away, but I may even be doing a few appearances in support of it. Possibly in parts of Australia other than Sydney or Melbourne. More details as soon as I have them.

As you can tell I’m very excited. I feel like I’ve found a wonderful home in Australia just as I have with Bloomsbury in the USA. I hope to be with both houses for many years to come.

It is with great sadness that I realise I haven’t posted about zombies in ages. That’s SO wrong. Fortunately, Cecil Castellucci sent me a link to this science article all about how we all have an inner zombie:

[S]tarting in the late 1960s, psychologists and neurologists began to find evidence that our self-aware part is not always in charge. Researchers discovered that we are deeply influenced by perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and desires about which we have no awareness. Their research raised the disturbing possibility that much of what we think and do is thought and done by an unconscious part of the brain—an inner zombie.

Notice that it’s not an inner uni***n; it’s an inner zombie. I think that proves once and for all time that zombies are more powerful, interesting and make for way better metaphors than smelly old uni***ns.

Take that, Holly Black!

I am now off to Michigan to talk about the glories of zombies fairies with the locals. Posting may be erratic for the next few days. Though I will, as usual, do my valiant best to post every day.

I will also be popping in to chat at Book Divas this week: 29 September through to 6 October. So if you’re a member or want to join do go check it out. I will answer any question you might have. Any question at all!

Today, or, oops, yesterday is also the first day of Banned Books Week. Maureen Johnson has a fabulous post about it over at YA for Obama, with which I agree entirely. On some topics she’s completely wrong but when it comes to banning books and zombies you can totally trust her.

Go forth and read a banned book!

• Beef jerky is good.
• A lint brush is essential.
• A publicist with a sense of humour and a better memory than anyone alive is vastly excellent indeed.
• Publicists are all convinced that authors have the worst memories ever. I suspect they are right.
• I know that some writers get heaps of work done while on tour but I am most definitely not one of them.
• Q & A is always the best part of an appearance. Though I already knew that.
• No one wants to hear an author read. Boring!
• If you must be stuck in a dread car for ages it’s best to have witty, entertaining company and be in a convertible.
• School visits are best when the students aren’t being forced to listen to you. At all my school events the students were engaged and asked great questions because they wanted to be there. Especially the Ravenous Readers of Wallenberg High School. You guys were fabulous. Thanks so much for the bulldog pin!
• Booksellers and librarians are my fave people in the universe.
• If book shops must have a cat it should be hairless.
• There are indeed Sharpies wherever you go.

But most of all book tours are fun. I mean think of it: I’m being flown around the country to talk to mad keen readers about my books. It’s bloody brilliant. I am so lucky.

Here’s hoping I get to meet some more of you blog readers on the next three legs of the tour.¹

1. There are four legs in all. My tour is a cow.

The sun is shining, the sky is clear, you can see the entire length of the avenue, the Chrysler Building gleams and last night the New York Liberty made it into the conference finals. Let’s go, Liberty! (And San Antonio got through to their conference finals. Oh, how I long for those two to meet in the WNBA finals. That would make my year!)

My editor loves my new book, work is going great on the even newer book—how much fun is it researching NYC in the thirties? VERY FUN—and HTDYF keeps getting lovely reviews. In my world everything is fabulous.¹

How about youse lot? I had to shut down the old Good News post on account of evil spam so why not tell me your good news and sources of happiness here instead?

Me, I’m turning the computer off and going out to enjoy the glorious, glorious day!

xo

Justine

1. *Cough* It helps to not read newspapers or news blogs.

I finally figured out why I always often get into mega fights disagreements with my copyeditors.

Eureka!

Thus far all my novels have been in first person or limited third. I view these as the colloquial points of view and write them to mimic the character’s speaking voice as much as possible. That way, if I do it right, the reader will feel like the protag is talking to them because the language I use is conversational.

And there I fall into arguments with many copyeditors (not all of them—certainly not YOU). They wants everything to be gramatically correct and conform to house style. I wants for it to be colloquial, flowing, rhythmic language. Sometimes that means flouting conventional grammar rules and house style.

And leads to stet wars.

I also don’t believe that any one word is inherently “weak”. I do not believe there are “weak” adjectives or verbs or nouns. Or anything. Even words like “good” or “nice” have their place. Their use reveals a tonne about the character saying them.

There are very few grammar rules or commandments that I think are always and for all time. I is all about context. One of the reasons I love the English language so much is on account of how crazy flexible it is. I can bend and twist it. Sometimes make it go SNAP and BANG and BROKEN. But it always bounces back good and nice.

It’s the job of copyeditors to disagree with me. Which is for the best. Having them query my language messing, forces me to check that I’m doing what I think I’m doing, and that it actually works.

I can’t believe it took me so long to figure out why me and they is so often at loggerheads. It’s because our jobs be quite different.

Which is a good thing. Excellent even.

A while back I asked my faithful blog readers what their fairy is or what fairy they wanted. Twas a popular post so in honour of the imminent publication of my latest book, How To Ditch Your Fairy, set in a world where almost everyone has a personal fairy, I asked these questions of a tonne of writers. I’ll be sharing their answers with you over the next few months.

Here’s what John Green, multiple-award winning author and all-round good guy, had to say:

The fairy I most wish I had at the moment is the Dog Whisperer fairy, because then I would understand why Willy just peed inside.

I seem to have something of a Spare Change fairy. I find an unusual amount of spare change, and it’s almost always heads up. Thanks, fairy! (Although I do rather wish you specialized in hundred-dollar bills.)

Lauren McLaughlin, debut author of the absolutely wonderful Cycler,¹ answered thus:

I think the fairy I would most like to have is a noise canceling fairy. Not, mind you, a fairy that made me temporarily deaf, but rather a fairy that would eliminate any sound I didn’t want to hear.

The fairy I think I have is the neatness fairy. Not so grand, but it’s something.

I so don’t have either of those fairies. Though I think the noise cancelling one is a superb idea. How about you guys? Any of you gotten any new fairies since last I asked? Any of you longing for a particular fairy? Do share!

Note: Being on the road—I did my first appearance of the tour today—means not getting to my email or responding to comments. Sorry. I do love you all. I is just busy. And the appearance today? Fabulous! More on that later.

1. Why haven’t you read it?! Go forth and read!

Today is the official publication day of How To Ditch Your Fairy in North America. To celebrate I am doing what I did for Magic’s Child: sharing the first sentence of each chapter of HTDYF. As usual my concern is to protect you, the potential reader of the novel, from unnecessary spoilerage. Because there is [...]

Because they have signs like this at the entrance to their school libraries:

Isn’t that absolutely wonderful? Made me so happy!

Yesterday I got many texts telling me that How To Ditch Your Fairy had been boingled. Thank you, Cory! And Whatever’d. Thank you, Scalzi! And Slayground’d! Thank you, Little Willow! I also learned that HTDYF is on the Lone Star list. Since Texas is my favourite state in the union¹ that pretty much made my day too.

To quickly answers some questions: The tour is going fabulously. I’m having the time of my life. I heart all the bookshops I’ve been to Kepler’s, The Storyteller and Copperfield’s. And the girls and a few boys I’ve gotten to talk to have all been smart, engaged, funny and fantabulous. I want to stay on tour forever.

Also the food in the Bay Area has been heavenly. Yay!

And now I must go out and tour some more.

1. Other than all the other ones I love.

A note to those who threaten me with the loss of their readership if I express opinions contrary to their own:

Goodbye!

If I worried about what each and every potential reader thought of me I wouldn’t write novels. I wouldn’t keep a blog. I wouldn’t express opinions out loud. Hell, I wouldn’t venture outside my house for fear of saying something that might accidentally offend someone.

I have news for you: Many of the writers/actors/politicians/sportspeople you admire hold at least one or two opinions you don’t. Do you seriously want to silence them all?

I have been known to disagree with some of my favourite writers and bloggers. Me, I use voodoo dolls when they say wrong things. But I’d never be so rude as to tell them where the pins go.

Stop reading me if you want. But don’t post comments that “threaten” you’ll stop reading me.

All such threats will be deleted. After all, you’re claiming you want to disappear from this community. I’m just lending you a hand.

And the liar novel is almost finished. I’d say all’s right with the world, wouldn’t you?

He notes that in the Armenian Gospel of the Infancy, translated into Armenian in the 6th century from a much older lost Syriac original, a passage tells of Jesus playing what may well be the precursor of cricket, with a club and ball. (Via Lili.)

Sounds like a hundred per cent conclusive evidence of Jesus playing cricket to me.

You know what I like best about the Olympics? Other than twenty-four hours of non-stop sport? That I can’t decide which events I like best.

Seriously, there’s all the primal track stuff: run, throw, jump, jump with giant pole. I loves ‘em all. Plus Usian Bolt is a legend. I could watch the replay of his hundred metre relaxed stroll all day long. And how about Jamaica? Jamaicans are finally winning lots of medals for Jamaica, rather than GB or Canada or the USA. Lovely to see.

But how primal is weightlifting? Very. I love the grunt, scream, growl, popping veins. Weightlifting is the best sport ever. There should be a weightlifting channel.

On the other hand, I do love my team sports. In fact, the only team sport I haven’t been able to fall in love with is water polo. Handball is much better. And I adore the beach volley ball. Not to mention regular volley ball.

I’m also into all the judged sports. They’re such an excellent rage outlet: “ARE YOU JUDGES BLIND?! STUPID?! OR JUST OUT AND OUT CORRUPT?!” It’s good to have a bit of a yell. It’s the synchronised swimming judges who are most demented. I have no idea what they’re thinking ever. Are they using i ching to make their decisions?

I am not looking forward to the Lymps ending. Why can’t it be once a year and not every four years? Or even better why can’t there be a never-ending Olympics? Twenty-four/seven/three-sixty-five? That would be the best thing ever.

What do youse lot love most about the Lymps?

Note: Yes, I am still without regular internets and thus am massively behind with email etc. Hope to catch up when we return to NYC in Sept.

The responses to my post about gender-directed1 reading reminded me that I’ve been meaning to post about authors who are famous in their own country but not that well known outside it. Specifically, a bunch of you were aghast that anyone could dismiss Flannery O’Connor as “lightweight”. I suspect the reason that lecturer did so—you [...]

“I kill you. I kill you with my bare hands.”

Wow. Umm. So, you don’t live anywhere near me, right? Just because, like, I think I’ll do my best to avoid seeing you until August, you know? No offense. I just don’t want you to have to go to jail or something.

Also, you can totally reach 80,000 by August. Wait, you mean the end of August, right?

Probably really obvious guesses but I’m going with “What I Want” or “Never Ever”.

*creeps away to avoid tightly-wound author*

case of the fake people?

My guess would have been ‘Eternal Flame’ by The Bangles - it has an Elvis connection, after all - but I think it’s from the eighties, not nineties.

Godspeed with the novel!

Why WOULDN’T you all it Spice Up Your Life?

Well, I personally think that your word count sounds very manageable. You’ll rock it in and have time for dancin’. Everyone knows the first 54000 words are the hardest.

We could all help. If each commentor contributed just a few words, you could reach your goal of 75,000.

I contribute these words.

“The fat man exploded.”

There. Now you are at 54,017!!!

I guess: Nothing On But the Radio by The Alice Band.

My authorial contribution:

“So the last thing I said to him, I said, ‘well, they weren’t _my_ sherry glasses anyway!!!’ And I just keep thinking, if only he hadn’t exploded just then, we could have really got along.”

54,052. We’ll have this one knocked off in no time.

With all this killing going on, I’m glad I’m back home from New York. Ah, the safety of the West Coast. XP

“Daughters of the Kaos” by Luscious Jackson. (A good title, anway)

“Waterfalls” by TLC. (In which your DNA to stay near the Hudson after an ill-fated trip to Niagra Falls…)

“Cookie Day” by Shonen Knife. (In which your characters visit a cookie shop, and it is truly a beautiful cookie day!)

*In which your DNA profilers… oops.

You know, decaf tastes every bit as good as the real thing these days…

**In which your DNA prolifers decide to… Double oops. I think maybe I should go back to bed.

Has anyone guessed PRETEND THAT WE’RE DEAD yet?

Is it Viva Forever by Spice Girls???

No one has guessed the song. And some of you are confused about when the 1990s were.

just change the margins and font on your manuscript. Editor will never know the difference…..

The Gits (though started in 1986), Ani DiFranco or perhaps PJ Harvey? Because I know I’ll be thonking myself in the head when I find out what band/song has escaped my brain.

Carrie R.: Do you want me to kill you?

caitlin: Ani DiFranco & PJ Harvey are not all-girl groups, they are just girls.

Plus you’re all guessing the name of a song—not the name of the band.

Is the song by En Vogue??

Mahek: I am only going to say if someone guesses the right song. A band name is not enough.

I will say though that the group I’m talking about was not put together by a production company.

Just a guess …”Removal” by Spitboy

caitlin: Excellently non-obvious guess! I wish I was cool enough to have heard of Spitboy . . . I am ashamed.

Whats an ARC? Can i have one?

They gave them out at BEA?! That’s another reason I should have found a way to go…

i have a lead on acquiring one of these elusive arcs. mwahahahahaha. it may or may not materialize, and i am le suck at writing reviews, but if i do manage to get one, i’ll probably send you a lengthy email about it, just in case your inbox wasn’t full enough already. lol.

The only ARC I have ever received came from a writer who is notoriously slow about sending out books to contest winners. It was sent because of guilt, along with my prize.

I am a Big Mouth and I’ve been using my Big Mouth to already promote the fantaboulus HTDYF. Yes, I have an ARC, but I can’t wait to buy the actual book, because like opening a birthday present there is something magical about being the first to crack open a new book.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I WAS THERE! I COULD’T FIND BLOOMSBURY! I ASKED EVERYONE! NO ONE KNEW WHERE THEY WERE AT! I WAS SPECIFICALLY ASKING FOR AN ARC OF HTDYF!!!!!!! IT COULD NOT BE FOUND! ARGH! I HATE MY LIFE!
ARCs are special because it means you got it before everyone else did. Who cares if they fall apart easily, have typoes, don’y smell as pretty? You still have it before evryone else.

It’ll be worth the wait. The book is made of doos.

Caitlin: Thank you!

Hilary!: I am sorry for Bloomsbury’s elusiveness.

KT: Means a lot coming from you. YAY!

Why are you teasing us with excellent-sounding books we can’t read until September? Australians are MEAN!

I want it soooo bad!

Wowow! This is dreadfully exciting…

I can’t even tell you how fast I’m going to buy this book.

Congratulations. If you’re really embarrassed about all the good reviews, I’d be happy to write a bad review for you, just to make you feel better. There’s only one catch - you have to send me one. But I’d be happy to throw myself on this grenade if it would make you feel better, really I would.

:’)

good luck with that Ted- she wont even send a copy to her family….;(

Word. This book is made of magic and I loves it. Epic win!

See, if I had an ARC(since I am on the cover) I too could say nice things about HTDYF.

That rap made my day!

Awesome review!! I can’t wait to read it!! (and thanks for the thoughts…

*GASP* It’s beautiful!

I love the almost-invisible fairy being flicked away like so much unwanted dirt. “Leave me alone, would ya? A parking fairy, of all things…”

And the marketing plan on the back; OH. MY. PAJAMAS. Were I in your shoes, I’d probably take complete leave of my senses and start shouting out the window or something.

(Oh, oh, oh, I hope you come to Arizona! Please, please, please?! It’s a good place to go for a signing, good turnouts.)

~Mary

ooh - I want one!

-=spaz-spaz-spaz=-
love the the font size of your name (bigger IS better!) and I cannot WAIT until i can read it! Maybe my library will get an ARC and I’ll get dibs on it!
-=spaz=-
YAY!!!

Ooh! Fancy! I’d love an ARC! The title sounds interesting! I’d love a fairy too.

I’m looking forward to this one! Have been ever since you read from it at TLA in San Antonio last year!

oooh…so pretty!

What is with that “girl with the eyes cut off” thing being so popular on covers?
Otherwise, love love, it is very much the kind of book I would add to my pile at the library, even without knowing it’s from you, and the back summary makes it look so fun and silly. :D!

Oooh pretty! How do we reviewers (and TLs) in Australia get a hold of one!

All the best for the marketing campaign!

Sweet!!! Your new book looks beautiful, Justine. I can’t wait to get my hands on one of them!

That is the funniest cover, Justine! Makes me want to read it.

Re: Elodie, I’ve been told the reason for truncating the face on book covers is that if the eyes are shown, the story seems to be about that person on the cover, whereas if they’re not shown, the reader can more easily imagine herself in that person’s position. It sounds silly, but I think there’s probably some truth to it.

Congratulations! I love the way they’ve done the fairy. (Now, how do I go about getting a fairy of my very own?)

classy!

Very nice.

Very nice. Hope it sells like the dickens.

Awesome! I can’t wait to read it.

Om em gee, you caught Maureen’s eye-missing curse! I do love it though, especially how she flicks the fairy. Totally suits the title. Now I wanna read!

Looks awesome — the cover, the blurb, the copy, the tour — all of it sounds amazing! Congrats! Can’t wait to read it!!

BIG name and spelled correctly! It’s like Christmas all over again!

Seriously love the cover.

Dang! My wishlist won’t stop growing.

Congratulations.

Huzzah! looks lovely.

YAY!! I love the cover. It looked so pretty!

Oops. I meant: It looks so pretty!

congratulations! selfishly thrilled here–i’m so psyched you have published something new for me to read!

SWEET!! I totally love it!! OMG I can’t wait to read it!!

Awesome!!! I love that cover. Can’t wait to read it!

Yay for author tour! Hope you’ll stop down south. (specifically Atlanta!)

Hooray! Many congratulations! Can’t wait for you to come back to Texas.

Oh no.

Your publisher got bit by the eyeless girl bug. WHY? I’m still psyched about the book… but WHY, COVER ARTIST? WHY? THE EYELESS GIRL TREND MUST STOP!

*breathes*

It’s a good thing I don’t judge the book by its cover. I do like the flicky-fairy thing, though.

I wants it.
I wants it more than anything else right now (which is saying something, since any day now my new Darren Shan is supposed to be in at the library, and have I ever been waiting for *that*). It is gorgeous, eyeless girl or not.
And I have a love of reading marketing plans. I have an ARC of “Spud” by John van de Ruit, and I read the marketing plan on the back… um, a lot. Which is sort of sad, since it’s been out for a while. >.>
Anyways. Now I’m even more anxious for October and the flood of good books that are coming out around then. (:

Does this new cover mean that the rest of your books are gonna feature girls with really tight abbs? Like MJ’s.

That is a gorgeous cover.

And tour?! I hope you come near me. I want to see you D:

Huh. Why is everybody bothered by the cropped faces? I like the cropped faces, in and of themselves, because I think it gives the covers just the right amounts of anonymity and reality. (See what a rebel I am? Okay, okay, I’m more contrary than rebellious, but still.)

~Mary

Congratulations, Justine!

Looks awesome Justine.
and your name shall sell.
why?
because I say so.
as soon as it gets me I shall go out and get a copy.
and get all the surrounding libraries to get a copy too.
because I can.
.

please get them to add London to the city tour. Please.

Wow! I don’t know what’s cooler, the cover or the marketing plan!!

CONGRATS! Love the cover. Love the marketing plan even better. Size does matter when it comes to placement of names on covers. Hope you make it to Sacramento.
Pat

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments. I’m so pleased you (mostly) like it.

As for the eyeless thing. As some of you know I’m not a fan. And, yes, me and Maureen Johnson and Diana Peterfreund (both of whom have suffered the eyeless curse) have discussed the matter at length.

In comment no. 10 above Karen explains that one of the main reasons for the eyeless covers is that “if the eyes are shown, the story seems to be about that person on the cover, whereas if they’re not shown, the reader can more easily imagine herself in that person’s position.”

Also these covers sell. The identification thing may be why. Gazillions of teenage girls have responded positively to them over and over again. Indeed, Maureen and Diana’s books sell very nicely, thank you very much.

Ultimately, the cover is about selling the book. Hence the lack of eyes.

As for her tight abs: Those are actually appropriate to this book. Charlie, the protag, is an athlete. I was very pleased by the cover model’s sporty look, seeing as how she is a total jock.

Yeah, when Karen said that in her comment I thought about it and it indeed makes sense. I was mostly joking around. ^^ I really do like it. But mostly, I can’t wait to READ it!

i cannot wait!!!!!

Re: the thieving manager: nah, he confessed before taking it.

I can tell when my uncle is lying because of the face he makes and if what he is saying doesn’t make any sense. He might tell you something to see if you will belive him, and then he laughs when you really do belive him.

I can tell when my friend lies because she tries to sound likes she is older than she is and knows what she is talking about.

The secret to lying is to make the lie as close to the truth as possible.

If you don’t believe your own lie, no one else will believe you either. Haha, that sounds terrible coming from me………but I don’t lie very often.

I was required to take a polygraph a long time ago. I was the manager of a retail store. There had been an employee that worked for me who did not like me and accused me of things. Some items had turned up missing and she accused me of that as well.

I was innocent and when asked to take the test, of course did so willingly. I was told what some of the questions would be on a general level. I learned that some questions that were going to be asked had nothing to do with the missing inventory but about something else I was being accused of. Although I was innocent of it at the time, when I was much younger and stupid, I had done these things.

I find that if there is some truth in the lie, then you can get away with certain things. For example, if you are asked, “Have you ever taken anything from the store without paying for it.” If I had, by simply saying yes, I have taken things like paper clips, office supplies, etc. you are telling the truth without telling the whole truth.

I don’t know if any of that makes sense but I did pass the test and I was innocent of what I had been accused of. And the missing inventory ended up being located in the shipping and receiving room.

Purely as a matter of interest, those people who say “I can always tell when X is lying” - how do you know?

Couldn’t they have lied on occasions that you didn’t find out about?

I’m an excellent liar. I’m not proud of it, no, I am. Its just so easy… The secret, you ask? Too many people send off signals while lying. They look in the direction of thier dominant hand, they fidgit, twitch, sweat, stutter. Don’t do that!

Be yourself! If you weren’t lying, how would you respond? Do that. If you need to cry, think of something sad. Like that lady who asked you for money to buy food. Or the time your dog was run over by a car. Cry real tears!

If you’re supposed to be happy, think up one of those jokes that always set you off for ages!

Lying is powerful though. It can be used for good… or EVIL!!!!! Good: “She’ll be late to class, Mr. so and so. Her locker is jammed.” okay. Thats sort of evil. Evil: “She’ll be late to class Mr so and so. She’s making her daily trip to the bathroom. Yeah, she goes everyday after lunch.”

Not that I would ever do that. Seriously.

i knew a compulsive liar once–had a brief relationship with him actually. when i asked him why he lied, he said he just couldn’t stop himself. he had severe anxiety attacks and i think he just suffered from the need to keep everyone around him happy–to tell them what they wanted to hear. his heart would speed up and he his breathing would accelerate and he’d just open his mouth and it would come out of its own accord. at least that is what he told me. which was very likely a lie now that i think of it.

i think it all stemmed from the need to avoid confrontation, whatever the cost.

don’t know if this helps at all.

oh and i could usually tell when he was lying–mostly because things didn’t fit together–like the fact that his mother died three times and was very much alive when i called her after that.

Years ago, I worked for the first bank in this area (Atlanta, Georgia, US) to put locations in grocery stores. After training, they made me a “floater,” so I went to whichever branch in my area didn’t have enough people for my shift.

Apparently, they didn’t think through the security so very well, and there was a series of break-ins in which someone went through the dropped ceiling into the bank branches to steal money after-hours (the grocery stores were open 24-7). They suspected an “inside job,” and I’d worked at every branch that was hit, so I was asked to take a polygraph test.

I didn’t realize at the time that my normal blood pressure is quite low. For some reason, that and the fact that I was completely calm (I knew I didn’t have anything to do with the robberies) screwed up the test - there was no real difference between me saying one of their “test lies” and saying, truthfully, that I knew nothing about the robberies other than what little I’d heard at work. The guy doing the test got really mad at started yelling at me for no apparent reason.

Unfortunately for him, it was obvious to me that he presented no physical threat, and I’d been yelled at (and worse) by a 6′4″ Marine for most of my life. I didn’t freak out. When he told me to get the hell out of his office, I did. My manager told me later that the guy was certain I’d done SOMETHING wrong, but I had awfully good alibis for every time they’d asked me about. In fact, I’d been singing in front of an entire congregation during several of the robberies.

I figure it’s a really good thing that was before I took biofeedback training.

The most convincing liars I’ve ever known are those who have borderline or narcissistic personality disorders. Whatever they’re saying is the absolute truth to them while they’re saying it.

As I recall, the culprits did have an accomplice in the bank, but it was someone much higher up the food chain that I was. I made a point of not knowing the combinations for the safe at any branch, since I wasn’t a regular at any of them, but there was at least one person who had access to all of them.

I find that the best way to make a lie believable is to believe it yourself, at least for the moment. Act as if it WERE true. It’s surprisingly easy to convince yourself that something is true, particularly when you are trying to convince someone ELSE that it’s true.

Also, if someone thinks your story doesn’t make sense, instead of coming up with a complicated explaination, act as confused as they are.
Pretending not to understand the question is a good way to buy time to think of an answer.

I feel dirty.

Tell the truth but tell it slant, success in circuit lies….
and that’s pretty much all you need to know.
Anon

the secret to lying is to actually, not lie at all.
you tell the truth, but you don’t tell the whole truth.
so, there are always things left up in the air. this causes people to make assumptions, and nearly always, their assumption is the most likely one. and if you’ve told your story correctly, then you won’t get into any trouble, because they’ll be assuming the best.

it never fails. and if for some odd reason, you do fail, and someone accuses you of lying, you can say (without lying) that you weren’t lying, you just didn’t tell them that certain aspect of the story.

for the record, i’ve always heard that polygraph tests are completely unreliable and easy to fool besides. this is why i absolutely detest that stupid show moment of truth. the whole effing thing is a lie. some guy is probably sitting there in a dark room with two buttons to push, deciding when to say “true” and when to say “false,” and none of it has anything to do with what the contestant actually says. and that’s only one reason why i hate that stupid show. end soapbox.

in high school, i lied and sneaked around all the time, and i usually got away with it. i learned a couple things from this. one, if you’re generally trustworthy and people know that there are certain lines you won’t cross, then you can easily get away with other, less “serious” things. two, even if you know you’re lying, you can still pull it off as long as you feel that the lie is justified. i rarely felt guilty about lying back then. but everything flipped in college. i stopped feeling justified, so i stopped lying. for me, that seems to be the key. it also helps to be able to come up with relatively believable stories on the spot. if you have to stop and think, that’s the first and most obvious clue that you’re not telling the truth.

on the opposite end of things, i’m utterly crap at reading other people. it doesn’t matter if they’re lying or pissed or whatever, i only seem to see what’s on the surface. i’m the same way when reading “great” literary works. i never see the underlying meaning of either one until someone else points it out to me. hmm, maybe that’s the fairy i need.

I think I’m a convincing liar, but I think that since I’m a 90% trusting person, that when I lie, people just expect it to be truth. I’m not proud that I’m good at it, really, I’m not. It makes me feel horrible.

John Green wrote a list of “Things I am good at” in which he listed sitting down and telling lies. He said that’s why he became a writer.

So there you have it - ask your mate!

On a more practical note - a good lie (for good - read convincing) should always have some truth attached. Then if ever found out the author of the lie can claim they misunderstood the situation.
A good liar should have a great memory.

There’s an abstract on PubMed (here) in which a variety of people were asked to distinguish liars from nonliars. The only people to perform better than chance were Secret Service agents.

Thanks again, everyone. Some fabulous stuff here.

Jane Volker: I already did.

I think everyone has generally given good advice on how to be a successful liar, but I think the true key to getting away with a fib is picking your target carefully. Because really, the worst liar I’ve ever met is also the person who pulled the wool over my eyes most successfully–and he was able to do that in large part because he told *such* bald-faced lies that I couldn’t believe they were actually lies. This is a kid who could have been standing over a corpse with a bloody knife in his hands and claimed that he had *no idea* how those stab wounds got there. Even if you told him that you’d *seen* him do it, he’d have told you you saw wrong. It was ridiculously unbelievable…which is why it worked. I couldn’t believe that someone could lie that badly to my face and expect me to believe it; even if I’d seen him do something rotten with my own eyes, I started to doubt what I’d seen.

But more importantly, I *wanted* to believe him–which brings me to the moral of my story: all you really need to be a successful liar is a gullible target–or, more accurately, someone who *wants* to believe you. If you’ve cheated on your girlfriend, you can probably get away with lying to her about it because she doesn’t *want* to believe that you would do that to her. You have to figure out what someone wants to hear, and then you have to say that. It doesn’t matter how crappy your performance is, how completely it contradicts all available evidence; people will believe it because the alternative means looking like an ass. And everyone hates feeling stupid.

I am shame-faced and blushing. But my excuse is that I only found your blog TODAY and I hadn’t quite read back as far as 2006.
Brilliant interview. Very entertaining. I’m always impressed by a teller of tall tales mostly because I can’t lie convincingly unless I think the person I’m speaking to needs me to. In fact I can look totally guilty when I’m telling the whole truth. It’s a terrible affliction. Maybe people fall into two groups: good liars and good confessors.
It’s a bit depressing to realise you are one of the latter.

Don’t pause. Just GO. The best liar I know (who happens to be ELEVEN YEARS OLD) just spins stories out of nowhere so fast I can’t tell which are true and which aren’t - and I know he’s a pathological liar. And the times I’ve been most convincing in my own lies are the times I didn’t even know I was going to lie until I said it.

Jane Volker: I am shame-faced and blushing.

Don’t be silly. Why would you know about an interview conducted almost two years ago? I posted the link cause I thought you might be interested and because it confirms your supposition that Mr Green does indeed know a vast deal about lying.

Came across some news articles about polygraphs and lie detection just today that might interest your research.

Showing the inaccuracy of polygraphs:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22044177/

Preliminary info about brainscans and lies:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21552376/

I do a lot of ferreting out lies in my day job work and I have to say, so much of detecting lies is what I call the internal tuning fork - it’s just this “ping” I feel inside sometimes when someone says something - sometimes it’s that the word choice is odd, or the voice fluctuated and sometimes it’s just instinct. But when I start pulling at the story, some common things fall apart.

First, as a caveat on all this, some people are such good liars they actually convince themselves the lie is truth - they are almost undetectable, because there won’t really be any tells. The “tells” - eye contact, pupils, breathing, pitch, pulse, blood flow, etc… - none of that will show if the person is: (1) believing the lie; or, (2) psychotic/compulsive.
Now, for the rest of us, there are tells. And those tells are different for everyone.

Many times, the lie is told differently than the truth - with someone who is generally fluid in their delivery, sometimes the lie stumbles or a word choice is off. If the person sometimes hunts for words, sometimes the lie is too well-rehearsed or flowing.

Many, many times I say the truth is in the pauses - and in the deflections. When someone doesn’t answer a question fully, or directly, I usually zero in on the deflection. I find with many people the information I need to know most is in the pauses between their answers.

But, all that said, there are some good liars, and those people you only trip up in examining the details and seeing if every facet of the lie can be proven true- usally some small detail, maybe even as small as time or place, falls away, and then the story unravels. Becuase (generally) people don’t lie about little things unless they are trying to hide bigger things. So, sometimes someone lies about some stupid thing, and that derails an otehrwise well-concocted lie.

There are some great articles on jury seletion out there, and they are studies in psychology and reading people. Some of that technique would work for detecting liars, too.

Here are some pretty basic sites talking about some of the techiniques and tests (although, they may be too shallow, if you’ve already been researching):

http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/liars/

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040731/bob8.asp

What it comes down to very much is focussing on the person totally and watching for the thing that makes you wonder if the person is lying - the loose thread to unravel the lie is there. Even over the phone, even in written letters, the thing that makes you pause and wonder, to hesitate, your instincts are picking up on something…so pull at it and see what falls apart.

Just some quick thoughts… emily

[…] of you have been emailing to ask why I wants to know about lying and DNA testing and race that I feel I should offer some kind of explanation, or several […]

Reflecting some of the other posts, I was taught to always make my lie part true. If I’m taking a day off work to attend a funeral, include the aunt that died a month ago, even though the funeral was on a weekend and required no days off work. If you make it partially true, you can feed off that section of the truth and let it carry over into the not-so-true part.

Moderately related: a friend of mine has no adrenal gland, and has to take adrenaline just to keep his heart beating regularly. He was falsely accused of stealing by a grocery store, and placed in a small room with many people yelling at him. The fact that he never got excited, raised his voice, or freaked out was held against him, though it’s pretty imnpossible for him to get upset, or at least manifest it physically. He was eventually allowed to leave, and never went back.

Don’t know if this is still helpful, but I thought I’d post it anyway, since I don’t think anyone’s said this already

I don’t often lie, but when I need to - cough cough, ‘needed’ to go to a Harry Potter convention but told uni my cousin was getting married - I make up all the information around the lie to support it before I tell them, littering it freely with the truth and getting all the details fixed in my mind. Then when I have to tell the lie, I only tell them a tiny bit more than they asked for - not so much as to make them suspicious - and then if/when they ask me further questions (like, so where is your cousin getting married?) I can quite happily and confidently answer, and give the same answer to everyone (in the church near m grandparents’ house, so my grandma doesn’t have to travel too far with her sciatica) and not get caught out later.

Of course, this takes a bit of prep time, but not a huge amount. It depends on the extent of the lie. Usually I can do it in a couple of minutes, and then I repeat it to myself in my mind to fix it there.

I have never been caught out.

my fairy is a takes-all-the-bad-stuff-that’s-happened-and-won’t-give-it-back kind of fairy. i love him, sometimes he’s the only thing that keeps me going.

I have a colorguard fairy. She spins flags, rifles, and sabre. OH MY.

*band geek* if you don’t know what colorguard/winterguard is look it up.

My fairy is something like a they’ll-only-play-songs-you-like-on-the-radio fairy. Mostly. Sort of.

I have a “bored now… la la la.. ooh shiny books!” fairy.

Which is both good and bad when you’re a librarian.

I have a spontaneous-song fairy, a parallel-parking fairy and a library-card-collecting fairy.
I’d really like a what’s-for-dinner fairy. And then one to write the shopping list. Maybe an all-in-one grocery-and-cooking fairy?

Seriously, I do have a parking fairy, but I could use one of those switch-hitting ups-your-metabolism and brings-you-money fairies…

Emily

Give your protag a few years. I mean, seriously, I would have killed for a parking fairy when I lived in San Francisco. Do you know how many tickets I got? And I moved my car religiously.

I still have anxiety dreams where I dream I have fifteen minutes before my car needs to be moved for street cleaning.

i have a of-course-you’ll-get-the-job fairy. she’s come in very handy, i must say. if i could have a second fairy (i know it’s greedy), i’d like winning-lottery-ticket fairy. really, i’d only need her once.

I think I already have one. The “I save you from falling on your face” fairy. I nearly face planted walking up the stairs to my apartment today. Miraculously, I merely scraped my elbow. I’m overdue for a major spill. I’m constantly just barely catching myself, and wondering how.

I lost my “gain no weight” fairy as soon as I got married. Le sigh, I shall miss that one.

I used to have a parallel parking fairy. I think she vanished from disuse. I also have a metabolism fairy. It’s the only explanation.

I want a shoe fairy. She’ll bring me a new pair of shoes when I’m upset.

Hahhahaha! What a loaded question. I think I’d want an always-good-hair-day fairy.

A clean-my-house fairy, hands down. Or at least, a do-the-floors-and-dusting fairy.

I would like a:

don’t worry it looks like it’s all a disaster now but it’s going to work out just right fairy

always find the right and most perfect gift for anyone fairy

always have the right ingredients to make a delicious meal fairy

I know I have a read-as-many-books-and-enjoy-them-without-a-care-for-what-people-say fairy.
What I would really like is a read-very-fast fairy. Although that would be super hero fast, because I read really fast as it is already.

i have a boys-don’t-like-you fairy, or maybe a procrastination fairy. what i’d like is a writing fairy!

i have an absentmindedness fairy. also, an absurdist fairy.

i would like to have a can-eat-anything-she-bloody-well-likes-and-still-zip-up-her-jeans fairy.

Funny, I was just thinking of this the other day but obviously not in this context. I have remarkable luck with eggs. I have never had to switch out a broken egg. The carton I pick up is always full of 100% unbroken eggs.

i have a “spontaneous burst of sillyness and flights of fancy” faery. he (yes, he! so neener neener neener) helps keep my sense of the absurd functioning properly. my faery comes in handy when things happen like hitting a police car with a cricket ball and then arguing with the constable about wether or not that was a sixer! (it was! it bounced off the car and back into the boundary and then bounced out. so it was a sixer, unless i can have credit for it bouncing outside the rope and then inside the rope, therefore making it a tenner!)

i think i meant “whether” not “wether”. stupid english homophones anyway!

I don’t know what fairy I would have, but I know what fairy I do have.

His name is Murphy, and he likes to make up his own rules. He follows ‘Murphy’s law’ and he works like this:

if I have a really busy night, and I hope for no homework, I will get piles and piles and tonnes and tonnes of paper. So much, that the quantities could in no way be good for the environment!

But, if, on the odd occassion, I have an almost free night, with plenty of time to do homework, I will get none whatsoever. Which is good, but it makes me wish I had have gotten all that other homework on this night.

I think I may have a flatulance fairy that shows up just as I wake in the morning!

I clearly have a chaos magnet fairy, for drama eruptions occur around me a lot even if I am sitting there minding my own bidness.

Also, it makes off with my jewelry. Bad fairy!

I wish I had a parking fairy. Or a 3 point turn fairy. Or a chill out it’s only an orange light and not an approaching apocalypse fairy. Because I have to do my driving test next week.

I have a soup fairy. No matter what I have in the house, what ingredients are/aren’t available I can always make a good soup.

I wish I had a dries-your-tears fairy that would help with my low self-esteem.

I think I have a heavy-and-sits-in-your-backpack fairy.