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If you’re in NYC in the next couple of weeks here are two YA events you might want to check out:

The latest New York Review of Science Fiction Readings features

Barry Lyga, Marie Rutkoski, & Robin Wasserman
curated by Carol Cooper

Tuesday, 6 April, Doors open 6:30 PM, event begins at 7:00 PM
SoHo Gallery for Digital Art
138 Sullivan Street (between Houston & Prince St.)

Admission is by a $5 donation. (If circumstances make this a hardship, let them know and they will accommodate you.)

Me and Scott will be taking part in the Read This Books for NYC Schools Day on the 10th of April. Read This collects books for people who need them, especially schools without libraries, hospitals, homeless shelters, troops overseas, etc.

Justine Larbalestier, Bennett Madison,
Scott Westerfeld, & Cecily von Ziegesar
Reading and Q&A
12:30PM-1:15PM, Saturday, 10 April
Center for Fiction
17 E. 47th Street, Second floor
(between Madison & Fifth Ave.)
NY NY

The price of admission? Your donation of two or more new or gently used board books through grade 12.

The readings will be short. Just five minutes each.¹ I’ll be reading a letter from the 1930s novel (the novel I’m mostly working on right now) by my favourite character, Lizzy.² Scott may or may not be reading a sneak preview from Goliath. He says it will depend on the crowd and his jetlag.

Hope to see some of you there.

1. My favourite kind of reading.
2. Well, she’s one of my favourite characters. I kind of love them all.

I love finding books for people. This takes two forms normally:

1. The person who doesn’t quite know the title (or author or subject or whatever) of their book, but I find it for them anyway.

2. The person who is looking for something to read, but isn’t sure what they want.

In both cases it’s a wonderful little endorphim (did I spell that right?) rush to help someone out. And these people can be patrons, colleagues, young, old, anything.

PS-I just realized that I always spend a bunch of time capitalizing and whatnot on my comments on Justin’s post and then they just get wiped out. LOL!

I love

1) that librarians truly love books.
2) the memories I have of finding my favorite books at my childhood library
3) the rows and rows of shelves
4) the feeling I get when I think I’ve discovered a book no one has picked up in a century
5) the special collections sections
6) the dust (weird, I know, but it goes along with old libraries)
7) the open arms librarians seem to embrace authors with
8) seeing my kids relive all my fond memories in libraries of their own

I’m a non-librarian and I love the infinite possibility that the library represents. You could, theoretically, put your hands on ANY book. Not only that, libraries are a monument to reading. You don’t go there to socialize (unless it’s a specific event, or in a study room) which creates an atmosphere much like a cathedral, but dedicated to learning.

OK, this is going to sound totally sappy but i love being a librarian because i actually get a helper’s high from fitting the right book to the right person. i love being valued for knowing about children’s & YA books instead of being considered a case of arrested development. the library is just such a haven after everywhere else i’ve ever worked, a list that includes book & magazine publishing, documentary film production, non-profit organizations and museums. people complain about politics at the library–ha! after journalism it’s like working among the gentle herbivores! not that there isn’t competition and backstabbing but in comparison it takes place in slow motion.

justine, i will be there at ALA next week and sorry not to get a chance to meet you and have you sign my beloved copies of your books.

your many beeg fan,
Ariel

As a children’s librarian I get to do two of my favorite things- read all the new books and hang out with cool kids! How could I not love this job?

I’m not a librarian. But what I love about libraries and librarians is being surrounded by other people who genuinely care about books. I’ve also found that most librarians are passionate defenders of free speech, and opponents of censorship. This makes me feel safe, like the librarians are on the job, protecting past, present, and future books.

Although I’m not a librarian, I volunteer with and am on the board for the Foundation and Friends of my local library. I participate because I think that books and libraries are important, and can use all the help they can get.

as a teen librarian, what i love most is working with teens. they kind of have a bad reputation - especially in libraries - but i get a huge kick out of them and i really love being a part of creating programs for them and connecting them with books they like.

oh yeah, the books. love them, especially when they’re free. i don’t actually get to read at work but i do have plenty of access to books. but i could probably have that anyway - it’s the kids that are the best part.

and i get to meet authors! i’m lucky enough to work for a library district that brings authors here for visits. how cool is that? we’ll get you and scott here some day, justine! and thank you for the shout out for librarians. you’ve made some librarians smile today.

I went to library school because I was exploring Gopher (that’s pre-web for you youngsters) just to see what I could find when it occurred to me that there was a job that might pay me to do that. I also liked the idea of being able to research any topic but not have to write a paper about it. And that’s still what I love about it: finding out stuff about anything. It’s particularly fun when you can find info someone actually wants and show them how to do it themselves. Books are great and all, but it was the internet and online searching that sucked me in.

fyi - the midwinter ALA meeting is sometimes held in warmer locales, including New Orleans and San Antonio. It’ll be in San Diego in 2011.
http://www.ala.org/ala/confservices/upcoming/upcomingconferences.htm

Librarian from London, UK, here. I think the thing I love the most is visiting local nurseries and reading to the children there. The way 4-year-old kids respond to books - and there’s a wonderful variety of reactions! - always makes me smile.

As a librarian i love being immersed in and surrounded by the world of literature. Add to that the chance to help children & teens find their way into or around that world and I can’t think of any job I’d rather be doing (except maybe writing - but who wouldn’t?).

gem in nftu says she loves the state library because it’s filled with the perfume of knowledge … ahhh. I grew up at the old Ringwood library - everyday after school I’d go there to do my homework until mum finished work. as a littlie i gravitated to the ’stories from other lands’ section and then when I got a bit older I’d lurk in the adult section and try read huxley and art books. i never feel uncomfortable in a library.

I love walking into a room (or a building) and being surrounded by books, by shelf after shelf of books stretching up to the ceiling. What better place for this than a library? There’s just so much to read. Authors I’ve heard of and ones I haven’t. Travel books and science books and picture books and cookbooks and magazines and fiction and history…A good library as it all and has a lot of it.

I love librarians because they care for and take care of all those books, and because they seem to know how to find the answer to any question. What a fabulous skill to have! (Oh, and because a bunch of my good friends as well as several ancestors are/were librarians)

I’m fond of getting first crack at stuff that comes in. I also like hanging out with other people that value literature as much as I do, and occasionally amazing people with the ability to find the answer to the question.

I work in a library, and I’m not a librarian. I’m a library assistant. Trust me, the place would fall apart without us

I love my job. I get a great deal of satisfaction from helping people find what they are looking for, whether it is fiction, non-fiction, websites, music, whatever. And, somtimes best of all, I get to see all the new stuff! I’m an avid reader, and can’t imagine working anywhere else. I can talk books all day long!!

I’m not a librarian. I like how many books there are in a library. I like to see my favourite authors’ books on a special shelf. I like rearranging the shelves so that my favourite books are better placed. I like how librarians are always nice, and how they love books probably as much as I do.
I can’t wait to go to ALA! Although I’m pretty sad you and Scott (As said by Maureen Johnson, the YA royal couple) won’t be there. But I’ll meet MJ, and tons of cool authors, which is good.

Be careful about saying things like “i like rearranging the shelves” in front of us librarians

Hehe. Well, I don’t do it often. But like, if a random book was put back at the wrong place, and in front of a good book, I move it. I’m not very naughty.

as long as you’re moving them from the wrong place to the right place, that’s ok.

depending on the shelving layout you could choose also certain books to be on face out display shelves.

all the wonderful writers who were at Reading Matters in Melbourne (including JL) are getting prominence on my display shelves at the moment. The only problem is they keep getting borrowed and I have to find more of their books.

Wait, you’re friends with Garth Nix too?!

Is that “The Dream Merchant” I see being all long-bookish and generally taking up lots of space? I love that book!

Of course I know Garth! Australia is a teeny tiny country. We all know each other.

I didn’t have any trouble spotting them at all. I picked up on the sunset-and-clouds coloring of the spine on Magic’s Child. It’s really got a lovely, eye-catching spine.

When I have my glasses off, I can’t see lettering at all (or any other detail–the whole world is a chaos of multi-hued blur), so I’ve learned to recognize books by color.

~Mary

You know so many cool authors. You’re married to Scott Westerfeld, for fudge’s sake.

I *love* garth’s books. Do you know Markus Zusak as well? I think it’s amazing that all of my favorite YA authors know one another.

From right to left… isn’t it going left to right?

I am on a roll. Two ‘first comments’ in a row.
Go me.
Is that (one of the reasons) why you set up your blog? So you can communicate with the outside world duing your writing confinement?

wow, yeah. with all the talk around about people who are getting ready to go to the big upcoming conferences, i’ve been thinking wistfully of the possibility of going myself (which doesn’t currently exist for about a million reasons). i’m not completely isolated, exactly, but a lot of my contact with fellow writers (especially during the summer, when i’m away from school) comes via the internet. which is great, but not like going to a writers’ meeting, or conference, or whatever. it’s also a very sad truth that most college students aren’t interested in ya lit. :p nor are people older than that. so there is something, but not a whole lot of people who enjoy the same thing i do. and that’s probably true a lot, no matter what you read or write about.

oh! jaclyn moriarty wrote the year of secret assignments! wow. that is a book i tried to read years ago, but i was unable to. i remember sitting in the bookstore, taking up the main row in the ya section for ages reading it and then being so annoyed that i had to put it down and leave without getting it. it is so weird how every now and then, someone will mention a book on a blog, and i’ll go look for it and realize that i’d heard of it already. like realizing that someone you just met was best friends with your best friend back in elementary school or something.

I heard a news piece on my local NPR station about a year ago describing a communal space for writers for exactly the reasons you describe: writing can be hard and lonely and isolating. I think it’s really neat that you and Scott and John and Libba and Maureen, etc. have set up your own little community, and that you’ve been finding others!

You quoted me! I feel so special haha.

I’m a teenager, but I’ve been wanting to be an *official* writer since fifth grade. And you know, discovering all these writer blogs has made me want to be one even more. So I guess that’s a good example that knowing other people who share your passion does help. I also found that reading blogs and stuff gets me more inspired to write. Which is very good. www.misssnark.com is amazing. Too bad she just retired.

I’m trying to convince my Mom to go to Washington, DC for ALA. It would be so awesome if it works! It would be the first conference I’d go (although from the site, I’m an under-16-years-old *child*. So I’m not even sure I’d be allowed to do more than the exhibits. Sigh.

thats kewl and why not throw out the old dirty clothes and go shopping and buy more??? wouldnt that be funner??? i know i always have fun when i do cause im the one who has to wash the clothes here for my dad my son and i and anyways im only 15 so shoppings what i do best always gotta look good lol…and packing…thats just hell i say pack like two outfits cause your gonna end up needin more clothes when you get there

Hi Justine!

It was great to meet you at Reading Matters. You’re right - hanging out with other writers is by far the most fun part of this job.

Keep in touch!

-Jack

First comment. I feel special.

Wow, the Reading Matters conference sounds amazing! I wish I was there. Hear, hear David levithian!

Have fun doing the laundry.

Justine - what were you doing up at 1.49 am blogging. Surely time to go to bed. Lili and Mike did a great job, and David, Scott (and you) were terrific contributors (no, sorry, better than that - definers of the debate…)

Thanks…

A

Elmo: David was amazing.

Andrew: Actually the blog’s still running on NYC time. I blogged at 3:49PM. Much more reasonable! And thanks for the props.

Lili and Mike fill me with awe. I don’t know how they do what they do.

Isn’t it amazing to talk (and debate) with other writers? Sadly, my godmother apparently thinks I need a feather (literally!) and a bottle o’ ink to write, because that’s what she got me for my birthday. Sigh.

Oh, and Justine, I just finished Magic’s Child yesterday night! I had trouble finding it and I ended up ordering it at the Barnes & Noble. Amazing. You are amazing.

gabrielle! hi.

i heard something somewhere about a podcast of this debate. is there a podcast? or is this just a big rumor? i hope it’s not a rumor.

The podcast will go up on insideadog.com.au sometime. hopefully soon. I suspect lili might chime in with some more info

*chime*

it might be a week or so before the podcast happens - it all depends on when the sound guy sends me the raw file, and how much cleaning up it needs. but it will arrive! on www.insideadog.com.au, in the ‘downloads’ section.

Hey Justine, it was great to talk to you at Reading Matters. The whole conference was *amazing* - I’m still kind of incoherent with the awesomeness of it all.

Hope you have a fabulous time at BEA!

i am jealous of all the people going to book expo and ala. i hope they’re as amazing as they sound!

and thanks for the podcast info, lili and jonathan.

Hi, Rebecca.

I can’t wait to hear the podcast. I went to www.insideadog.com.au. I love the Marx quote. This looks like a really good site. I posted about Magic’s Child on my blog http://crazy-gabrielle.livejournal.com (plugged!–I don’t know if that’s an actual word in the sense I mean it. Ah, well.)

Gabrielle: Thanks so much! I’m so pleased you liked Magic’s Child. And, yes, insideadog is a fabulous site. Me and Scott will be blogging there in July.

Jonathan & Lili: Thanks for the podcast info. Though, to be honest, I’m not sure I could stand to listen to it. I hates the sound of my own voice. Eeek!

SJH: Great to talk to you too. The whole conference was *amazing* - I’m still kind of incoherent with the awesomeness of it all.

I feel exactly the same way. I wish it had gone on for several more days. But maybe we would have died from being so over stimulated. That or exhaustion!

Rebecca: I wish I was going to ALA too. I had a fabbie time there last year.

i’m so hooked on book conferences now. from february through april i met more writers and librarians than i had in my entire life. *sigh* for a brief time, i was surrounded by people who understood me…. lol

“insideadog is a fabulous site. Me and Scott will be blogging there in July.”

yay!! that’s awesome. i just started exploring that site today b/c of jonathan’s and lili’s linking it. it looks so cool.

hanging out with the ya community at reading matters - moving. inspiring. wonderful. affirming. indeed glorious. and a little bit exhausto. love it.

you’ve got simmone on your team - you’ll win for sure. good luck! the roadshow theatrette is a great venue.

best of luck to the ladies! I know you will kick the gentlemen’s asses!

xo

Good luck - you’ll be excellent!

I’ll hopefully be able to be there to cheer for you and send you encouraging thoughts.

The secret is getting up there and turning the fight or flight adrenaline into public speaking adrenaline. And wearing clothes that help to conceal the shaking of the leg!
You’ll be fine.
What actually constitutes as a boy’s book/girl’s book anyway..?

oh, and you will be fantastic.

I’ll just politely add that the event is COMPLETELY BOOKED OUT. if you want to come along in case of a no-show, feel free, though. but no guarantees.

(my secret to public speaking is: be an only child. people paying attention to me! hurrah! look at me!)

Thanks everyone!

Lili: Sold out!? That means there’ll be an actual audience! Nooooooo!!!

Wow, I didn’t know books had gender? I mean, in the other romance languages they have gender, mostly male, but then a glass of water has a gender inthose languages. So, how can you tell if it’s a boy book or a girl book?

I still remember the first speech I had to give, way back in high school, some forty years ago, which is an indication of just how traumatic that experience was…

But I found that as I got older and had to do more and more of such things, it really did get easier. I still get butterflies, but they normally disappear once I start speaking, even if my audience is a bunch of CEOs and my speech is critical to persuading them towards a million dollar decision.

Besides experience, the other thing I’ve found that really helps is knowing that you really know, in depth, whatever it is you are talking about. This gives you confidence that no matter how obscure an audience question is, you can answer it. And from what I’ve seen on your blog and in your books, the subject material for this little event is something you know quite a bit about.

P.S. I’m now about halfway through Magic and Madness, and liking it quite a bit!

I’m very weird concerning the public speaking thing. I’d rather speak in front of huge crowd of people I don’t know than to speak in front of a group of people I do know. When I do speaking event things, I tell people I know to not let me know they’re going to be there.

I know that most people draw support and comfort at knowing that friends and family are there for them, I’d rather not know. That terrifies me. People I’ve never met? Not scary at all.

Best of luck! Forget the audience: just show those boys why girls books are better!

If, you know, you feel they are.

but of course the important question is - what to wear?

best of luck to you i know you’ll be great
and what to wear? something really hawt or for you maybe cute but comfortable

Good Luck, JUSTINE!! I know you can do it!

i’m weird. i’m a girl, but I think guy books are better. especially fiction.

I’m curious: what will your Pro Girls’ Books arguments be? And I always worry that I’ll randomly barf in front of lots of people, though I doubt that’s very reassuring!

Elmo, I too wonder…what is the difference between a girl’s and boy’s book? Is it simply a matter of the main character’s gender? and will boys read “girl books?” I feel like girls are more likely to read boy books than the other way round.

speaking tip: don’t imagine the audience in their underwear. I tried that once for a class presentation and had to spend a few minutes pretending to cough while attempting to not bust out laughing. there are some funny-looking people in the world, and I have a vivid imagination.

i just ahb~so~lute~lee love your last name

i don’t get stage fright to the point of throwing up, but i don’t do that well with crowds. Apparently, (so i’m told by my friends) the blood rushes to my face and i turn very red and i shake. im also not very coordinated to begin with so, if i have to walk, i’ll most probably trip. it’s not that fun. but what i do is have the mentality of “im going to look stupid anyway so might as well get it over with” and it works out ok. ive never once fallen (until i was off stage of course. thats another story) my friends thoroughly enjoy your Australian glossaries and have begun calling me “rather unco”

Hey good luck Justine! You’ll be fiiiine. Maybe all the tickets sold to very quiet invisible people.

See you at the cocktail party afterwards?

good luck with that justine! scott really really needs to update*

Hello, I’m one of those freaks of nature that doesn’t get nervous in front of people at all. I just have really thick skin, that’s all, but my advice to you is this: que sera, sera which means what will be, will be. And don’t worry about what people are going to think, if they are there already they must like you for something!

Just remember how many fans you have who completely adore you and your books

good luck! you’re braver than i am, but you’ll be awesome. kick some arse!!

girl book = pretty much anything
boy book = something a boy can carry around school and not get made fun of for. which seems to be rare. although certain people will make fun of someone who has any book at all.

Ok, Justine, I just HAD to come give you your props. As a rule, I jump from book to book, author to author. That’s just how I am. Most of the time I’m reading multiple books at once, and when I finish one book, I usually don’t hesitate to dive into the next. I’d been reading Magic or Madness and The Last Days pretty much simultaneously for the last couple of weeks. Until last night. I totally couldn’t put Magic or Madness down, then when I finished I dove straight into Magic Lessons and finished that as well last night. I’m well into Magic’s Child, but I’m at work now, so I just have to sit here and be patient until my lunch hour rolls around. Not to take away from Scott’s books (which have always had a history of keeping me glued, i.e. Midnighters and Uglies triologies…) but this series is literally AMAZING. I’m sad that it’s taken me this long to pick them up (I’ve had all three on my bookshelf, waiting to be read) and read them! You’re wonderful, Justine!!!

…and it all went swimmingly and the girls…drew with the boys…

not because they/you didn’t kick ass, but because it was a silly (read ‘great’) subject.

ps and you were a terrific team captain…

Totally just finished Magic’s Child. Did I mention that you’re amazing, Justine?

rebecca, I like your definition. I once read somewhere that girls will read books with boys in them but boys won’t read books about girls. I think boys need to get over themselves.

best of luck - you must be getting used to it, no???
I HATE any kind of public speaking - go as red as a beet and end up in a state of gibbering, incoherent, embarrassing for All concerned (even the audience) panic.

“I once read somewhere that girls will read books with boys in them but boys won’t read books about girls. I think boys need to get over themselves.”

yeah, it’s sad. it’s not always the guys’ fault though. it’s societal values or whatever you want to call it. you know, it’s not MANLY to read chick lit or romance or books with pink on the covers. a lot of boys/men will get pretty twitchy at even the barest suggestion of a threat to their masculinity.

“I HATE any kind of public speaking - go as red as a beet and end up in a state of gibbering, incoherent, embarrassing for All concerned (even the audience) panic.”

you and i have that in common. that quite adequately describes what i go through every time i have to do a presentation in class.

Good luck Justine!!! You’ll be grrrrrrrrr-ate!

You are definitely not alone. It took me 9 years of booktalking to finally shake that feeling like I wanted to vomit the night before!

Don’t know if you read these comments Justine, but for the record, your speaking over the course of the whole conference was fantastic. I really enjoyed hearing what you had to say in each of the sessions you were a part of. I have to admit to having never read your books. But I will now

what jonathan said. you kick arse.

debate podcast available as soon as i can bring myself to get out of my pyjamas and go back into the office…

c’mon lili, stop reading blogs & have a day off - you’ve earned it

no thoughts on the photo thing or the dress-shoe color combination; but yes, i’ve definitely bought books now & again due to the appeal of a writer’s blogging voice. i think this is most likely to happen off a group blog with fairly high traffic–i think i read harley jane kozak’s novels (which i loved) because i liked her style at the lipstick chronicles blog, which in turn was one of the earlier & best written big author-driven crime fiction blogs. who else? hmm, can’t seem to come up with any names, perhaps that means it doesn’t happen that often–but certainly i feel strongly & more loyally a fan of certain authors who blog appealingly & regularly. like you, justine! (and i feel sure i was reading this blog before magic or madness came out, eh? so perhaps that counts…)

you’re alive!! hmm, hotels usually have free wifi, in my experience….not that i’ve been to many. but starbucks and borders and b&n really need to quit charging. i mean, seriously. every other coffee house/bookstore is free.

photos- dunno. b/c people like photos? especially now. digital cameras, camera phones, even cameras on traffic lights (hate those things). people get their pictures taken whether they want it or not. and there’s the whole memory thing. people like scrapbooking and photo-albuming and putting pix of themselves with famous authors up on myspace.

author blogs/book buying- i’ve never bought a book b/c of author blogs in particular, but that is how i’ve discovered the vast majority of what i’ve read in the last two years. it all started with you and scott, seriously. i read his blog, found out about your books, read your blog, found out about tons of other authors from there. but usually, i’d just maybe read an entry or two, or hear someone talking about someone else’s book, then i’d go on amazon to find out about the book, and get it. so blogs have been the means by which i found out about books, but not the reason that i bought them.

purple/red- hmm. i would go with wearing them separately, but that’s just me. i like to blend in most of the time.

I’m not sure it is socially unacceptable to say “no” to having your photo taken, at least not in many places. I’ll go further and say it is slightly rude for people to ignore your “no” if you’ve been polite. I have a number of friends who don’t like being photographed a lot and I think respecting that wish is neither hard nor unreasonable. At a wedding, it might be trickier, though.

I’ve bought books based on reading the author’s blog. I mean… I bought *your* books based on reading your blog, so there’s at least one example. Wouldn’t say I do it a lot, but I don’t read a lot an awful lot of author blogs (and I read a lot of books), so there’s a supply and demand problem. Will often go blog hunting after reading a particular author, though, so often with disappointing results.

Not touching the question requiring fashion sense. I’m a bit bereft in that department.

Purple is the best colour ever.

I buy books because of blogger voice all the time! It’s actually now my most common reason for trying a new author - that and recs from trusted bloggers.

I discovered the works of Cherie Priest, Elizabeth Bear, Poppy Z Brite, Diana Peterfreund and Mindy Klasky because I liked their blogs!

1) I’ve never noticed that it is. If someone I knew said no, I just wouldn’t take their picture.

2) No.

3) I’d wear ‘em together. In fact, I have done. Well, not your dress and shoes. But my own.

I think the photo thing depends. If you’re talking about at the wedding, then I guess it’s normal, people want “souvenirs.”

Actually, I’ve discovered a lot of authors with their blogs, and so I bought a lot of their books. It started with Scott, I read his blog, and then there was a link to yours, and then on yours there were thousands of links. I’ve discovered Maureen this way. Actually, I’d been eyeing 13 Little Blue Enveloped for a while, but sadly, the “slutty girl” cover had kept me at a distance.
Purple/red: Haha! I’m not too much of a dress fan, but I guess it’d depend on what shade of purple. But I do have red-and-black shoes.

I would have to say that, yes, I have bought and read books by an author because of their blog. I think reading an author’s blog kind of gives a feel of how they write…mainly because no matter what genre you write for, your style always comes out. I’d have to say that I found your blog because after reading some of Scott’s books I went to his site and found yours there…as well as Magic or Madness! The same kind of happened with my interest in both Sarah Dessen and Maureen’s books. I found them because I read some of John Green’s stuff, went to his site, and found mention of the two of them there. It’s actually interesting now to think of the impact.

blogs: yes. i bought maureen johnson and john green’s books because i discovered them via their blogs. (through yours, i should add.) and i read scott’s books at the library because of you, too. and that’s also why i’m going to buy your books, when i can find them - because i got to know you on your blog.

red shoes/purple dress: i think some people can carry stuff like that off. i know i couldn’t, but if you can, go for it! if you have to choose one over the other, go for the red shoes. i love red shoes.

and, i don’t know why it’s not socially acceptable to not have your photo taken. i don’t like mine taken either and people just think i’m being a party pooper.

If you are a photographer, everything looks like an image. When an image tells you “don’t take a picture of me,” it just doesn’t compute. That’s my theory anyway. It’s not so much not socially unacceptable as it is a non-sequitur.

I don’t think I’ve ever bought a book based on the author’s blog. I read an author’s blog because I already like the author. I bought your first “Magic” book because you’re related to Scott, basically, but it turned out to be good, so we bought the other two. I do sometimes buy books when they’re recommended on blogs, but I’m not convinced this performs better than blind guessing.

Depends on what color purple it is. Color, particularly gross color descriptions, make poor discriminators. But I definitely wouldn’t wear the red shoes with the purple dress, unless they happen to be a rare combination that doesn’t clash - normally I would expect them to clash miserably.

without a look at the dress and shoes in question, i have no thoughts. maybe okay in any sitch if you match the shoes with lipstick and carry a yellow bag?

anyhoo, thought you’d appreciate this: a rumor made it back to me via my stabbing victim that i had pulled knife on him back when we were both at clarion west. what ACTUALLY happened was that a classmate had been wandering the room during crit time, taking action shots. since it was crit time, i couldn’t just leave the room, as i normally would, and couldn’t duck out of his pictures.

so, it being week 5 of clarion, i snarled something at him about not taking pictures without permission. he was displeased but didn’t say anything and, more importantly, respected my snarl-quest. after class, a different classmate, my stabbing victim, who hadn’t actually heard the exchange between me and the photographer, came up to me and said some fightin’ words about me not speaking for anyone else (i wasn’t). then he immediately, literally, RAN AWAY.

it being week five of clarion, and me being hard-wired to chase creatures who run away, i literally chased him through three rooms before he came to rest, hiding behind one of the clarion west staff members. she calmed things down a bit.

my skewed perspective isn’t that it’s not socially acceptable to not want your picture taken, but that it’s not socially acceptable to refuse people anything they want, no matter how intrusive. people SO hate to be told no, feel SO irrationally humiliated by it, that they blame you for being rude, and don’t stop to think about why.

it’s true, i also read diana’s book not just because of the recommendation here but because i liked her blog voice. it must be said, though, that the ratio in my reading between “a bookish blogger recommended this book” and “a bookish blogger i like wrote this book” must be something like 50:1, or at any rate if justine (for instance) recommends a book and also links to the author’s blog & i go and like the sound of the blog & buy the book i am counting it as a “regular” recommendation rather than one specifically prompted by the author’s blog. (also i’m sure i’m not alone in being more attracted to blogs that seem to be relatively unmotived by promotional concerns.)

You need to get one of those mobile internet cards. Can access all over Australia from your laptop on your own bill. Is very cool.
And The outfit….bright reed and bright purple… nope…dark deep red and dark purple…great

It’s not rude to ask people not to take your picture, and anyone who says so is underdeveloped socially.

I’ve bought at least a couple books from people whose blogs I’ve read first, and, of course, I have a lot of readers who read my books after having read my blog.

I don’t think that particular dress/shoe configuration will ever work, but I assure you that I am not an authority on these things.

Oh, and, if you’re still in Adelaide, stop by Scalzi produce and say “hi” to Pat and Aldo.

Why is it that every photographer thinks that THEY will be the one to take an amazing picture of you that you (and the rest of the world) will adore for years to come, therefore they insist upon taking your picture against your will?

I have met very few that can actually do this. In fact, in times like those, most have managed to take the worst pictures possible. Pictures need to be taken from ABOVE eye level people! Grrr.

Why is it not socially acceptable to say no to having your photo taken? Good question, but I don’t know the answer.

Have you ever bought books on account of reading blogs by their authors? Do you do it a lot? Yes. I do it a lot. I even keep notes to remind me what was recommended.

Purple dress or red shoes? Can they be worn together? Yes. If you’re Pippi Longstocking.

okay heres how it went for me..I bought scott’s books and then i went to his blog and then I found yours and then i found maureen’s and then i found brotherhood 2.0

so far ive got three of maureens and i’m going to buy yours next time my mom lets me get books

and the red hat ladies wear purple and red together haha

I read your books because I read a rambling on your website.

Purple dress–red shoes. Of course. Purple and red are Number 3 on the Magick Colour Combo List.

or course you can wear a purple dress and red shoes. just tell people you’re going to a bollywood wedding. plus, you’ve won a norton so i think you can do anything you want now.

i totally buy books based on blogs. in fact, i just blogged about how i found your books via blogs!

Carrie: The question was inspired by your blog post.

scalzi is wrong, wrong, wrong. purple and red are a definite go.

to be fair, aforementioned author claims not to be an authority on dress/shoe combo assessment.

i sort of bought your books because of your blog, but also because a lot of people (on scott westerfeld’s blog) told me i should. so yeah i guess it was because of blogs. and the fact that i was thinking of reading them since i heard about them but never saw them in a store. (wait i heard about them on a blog. nevermind.)

I ran across a Cory Doctorow short story, found his blog, and have bought everyone of his books since. I found out about your books through his blog and have bought most of your books. Reading your blog I found out about Scott, his blog and ultimately have also bought his books too. My niece has since read them also and is eagerly awaiting your next books.
Congrats on the award!

i pick up a lot of books because of author blogs, mostly authors i haven’t read before and then they get that one book to win me over. If it rocked, i’ll probably buy whatever they put out next, regardless of what it’s about. but if it was only so so, then the follow up purchase isn’t guaranteed.

red and purple always remind me of the purple hat society. which i understand to be a group of old ladies who dress up and go out to have tea, or coffee or plot world domination. they are always dressed to the nines in purple and red. bonus points for sequins.

Why? I have no idea, I mean I’m completely okay if someone says they don’t want their picture taken because the majority of people don’t like that.

Have I bought any because of a blog? No. Have I picked up a book at the library because of a blog? Yes, I do this all the time. Your Magic or Madness series, Scalzi’s Agent to the Stars, and Maureen Johnson’s Bermudez Triangle (which I just finished this morning)
Have I picked up a book at the library because of a blog and then bought it later? Yes, that would be your Magic or Madness series, I read the first two, then bought all three when Magic’s Child was a pre-order.

Red shoes. And I think it depends on the shades of the shoes and the dress, but I’m sure in some cases it would be okay.

What an entertaining set of comments. Yummy.

I’ve lost count of how many books I’ve tracked down because of blog recs, but like most of you it very much depends on who is doing the reccing. But I definitely discovered Diana Peterfreund’s writing via her blog.

The clothing question was because I saw this woman in Adelaide wearing the most gorgeous fifties-style dress in a vivid eye-popping purple (more on the blue end of the purple spectrum) and she wore it with fifties pointy-toed pumps. She looked amazing! I had not considered the red/purple combo before. To be honest I don’t think I own shoes that aren’t black or brown. How boring! Perhaps it’s time I remedied that situation . . .

if you want to wear it wear it im sure you could get by with anything…

Sorry bout all my commments befoer!

When will you be in Singapore?

*beats head furiously against wall* i really really really really really really wanna read city of bones. gargh! but i am not allowed until finals are over. *resumes the beating of head*

coming coming coming!!

Wifi. That’s a funny word…
*eh hem*
anyway, I would come hi…but I can’t, it would invlove crossing and extremely large body of water and a (therefore) a lot of money…which I do not have. however, I will be there in spirit.

Thank you! I was wondering abou tthe doors!

I looked at your website and it doesn’t have anyh appearances in america after april. will you be doing any? I love in California. I want to meet you too!

I mean loveing in California is kind of funny. sorry for so many postings. hope you don’t mine!

though loveing is kinda funny.

ooops! I live in California, not love!

Mind! Hope you don’t mind. I think I type to fast. I love your books. Did I say that already?

Too many posts. Sorry! Had to tell you that I like Tom best.

Magics Child was the best one. Especially the end bit that I want say what it was because of not spoling. but it was super good.

but i like Jay-Tee and Reason to. I just like clothes. ANd he makes me laugh. I think he sounds cute.

i like all of them really. even esmerelda.

but not Jason Blaek. Hes awful!

I’ll stop now. Sorry!

wow rachel. thats a lot of comments

seriously

I heard you were in Texas again. :]

My librarian saw you and your husband at TLA and said the two of you were amazing!

Just thought I would drop by and say that…

Sorry ’bout the terrible internet connection…it happens.

-Stephanie

rachel: try to put all you want to say on one post so it doesn’t take up the whole thing!

hey potato!

hey ally!!!i made it!!!

hehe YAY! so what shall we talk about?

oh and every time she makes a new post we go to that so people dont get emails over and over

ally:
i don’t know what where we talking about befor???
oh and every time she makes a new post we go to that so people dont get emails over and over
what that didn’t make semce to me??

okay like if someone checks that box down there they will get messages to know when people have commented and if we stay here and talk then they’ll keep getting these messages everytime we comment so we need to move around instead of staying in one spot

Ally: but i don’t want to move they should just not check the box!!!

orrrr justine could take the box down..okay how about this, if anybody tells us to move we will move

o/k that works for me!!!

Potato: is it cold there? its is like 74 here wait I have to put Farenhiet b/c there are foriegn people here..

ally: no it’s sunny but it’s farly coldd especially in the morning. are you in california???

dude! you guys should start an ally and potato blog. that’d be totally awesome. and then we could all read it. it’d be like instant messaging, except cooler. if you like the idea and decide to do it, post a link, okay?!

i totally agree with rebecca. that would be hilarious. what’s 74 degrees in fahrenheit? unless it was in fahrenheit. sorry.

oh yeah calliope thats it I just dont know how to spell..

Rebecca:that would rock! haha it would be like a ally and potato talk show online haha that would be funny!

what do you think potato??haha

yeah, dude. you could have special topics or whatever. maybe even interview people! that’d be awesome. hehe.

aw like all the authors and people haha that would be cool

potato???

oh wow there was a bomb threat?? ahh!
AND you got to meet Scott and Justine!! how dare you. no im just kidding. as you can tell i just read your blog..sorry but i was bored and it is currently 12:12(wow) and there was nothing else to do.. justine and scott should come to arkansas for the extras tour during octoberish but they probaly get tired of people telling them where to go..
off to bed i guess

oh sorry potato no im in Arkansas haha big difference form california.. i wish i was in california..

sorry for the double wait no triple post. dont hate me..

I miss the days when comment threads were treated like comment threads instead of chatrooms.

I bought Magic’s Child yesterday, by the way, Justine .

ally:
i like the idea of our own blog but i have no idea how to do it!
oh that is far from cali is it by NY???

Hey, Justine:

I’ll see you in New York!

Yeah! That’s right. New York.

Mwah.

D

ally and potato: here’s a link to wordpress, which is the type of blog that justine and scott use. all you have to do is click on “start a blog in seconds” and the site will pretty much tell you what to do from there. if you want, you can email me about it if you’ve got questions. my email’s breca_halley at yahoo dot com.

hey potato will you e-mail me b/c for some reason its not letting me do yours
brasko2011 at hotmail dot com

sorry people for having conversations on here! im stopping….now

continue conversations! there funny. cali is reeeaaaallyyyy far from ny (across the country). post a limn-++!

im in Pennsylvania. its like 78 degrees farenheit(or however you spell it) its olny like the third day we’ve had warm weather this spring. stupid global warming messing up the season changes.

1st Comment! Ohhh i just got what “beast” you were talking about. I thought you meant like a cow or something since you were in texas but i got you now

There is a “beast” in Narnia so i bet you don’t like that movie but the books are my 2nd favorite books

(tell scott to make a post please)

isn’t it possible that unicorns are only posing as good? secretly they are evil.

the horn filled with power must surely go to their head- since that is where it is attached- making unicorns slightly less benevolent that people assume.

zombies rule.

hey, tell us more about scott’s high school librarian! my librarian really turned me on to books - my mom secretly visited her and told her not to lend me any more books because i was neglecting my chores. what did scott’s librarian think of his becoming a writer?

happy friday the thirteenth!

sorry about that justine. but justine but maureen answered two of my questions i asked her in her blog and instructed me to do so. i felt indebted. i wount do it again. (or at least I’ll try) and besided i dont like those horses that happen to have a horn brotruding from their heads. vampires are cooler (expecially if his name is edward cullen). zombies are cool too.

ahhh and i meant won’t not wount. i really cant type.

oops that was supposed to say but justine, maureen… not but justine but justine.

I really enjoyed your panel on Friday. You and Scott have such great chemistry and I loved how you would each just talk about the other. So cute! So cute, in fact, that I am sure no one will hold the Australia/Mexico comment against you

Holly please tell us about the Australia/Mexico comment! I’m intrigued.

I’m with you on “the beasts that shall not be named” I don’t see what’s so great about them. Or what they can do. And the pointy object coming out of their head sort of freaks me out a little.

But the reason I’m commenting is to let you know that I (finally) wrote up a review of Magic’s Child! It’s posted here on my blog.

australia/mexico comment?? hmmm

Yay! Aargh! Woohoo! Eep!?? bwaha

I’m glad you had such a good time in Texas!!! I wish I could have gone, and I’m certainly glad that you were able to update your blog. Today I got my SIGNED copy of Magic’s Child, and I did sufficient boasting and showing off. I LOVE IT!! YAY!!!

friday 13th is only a good day if you don’t have to get up at 4:30 am to catch a plane, which is delayed anyway, so you don’t actually leave the state til 9:30, all in order to go to the bogan wedding of the year.

I was in Mexico breifly somethime between late Friday the 13th and early Saterday the 14th. Friday 13th was the last day of my internet free mission trip to mexico. It started out well enough: on the top of a mountain, with my best friend, eating a tasty sandwhich. Then it was time to go down the mountian. On the way down I manged to do two things: sprain my ankle and knock my best friend into a river. Then I and the group of 98 people i was with boarded buses for the twenty hour trip home. About an hour into the trip, my ankle is throbbing and my allergy medicaion is wearing off, but I am completly out of food and medicine. Half an hour later, I am also out of food. Then, we reach the USA/mexico border where we had to take everything off of the buses put it through a scanner and reload the bus (which we were able to do in eleven minutes, well, it’s 11 when you subtract the time we lost when another bus almost ran over us.) The bus was ready to go again just in time for the ac to break. So, we open the windows and sunlights, which gave us some air flow until it started raining. We were able to switch buses (in the rain) in San Antonio between April’s 13th and 14th. I also bought pain medication for my ankle (which feel much better now) in San Antonio.

Hey Justine–I suppose you’re too busy being a famous, fabulous author and such to watch any bike racing but you’ll be very pleased to know that your countryman, Stuart O’Grady did you proud in the Paris-Roubaix.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/apr07/roubaix07/?id=results
It was an awesome race! And a big first for Australia and O’Grady! yay!
Anon

For those that asked about the Australia/Mexico comment, Justine slipped and compared Australia to Mexico saying that they are both lazy…it just came out kind of bad even though she was joking around. San Antonio is highly Hispanic so…y’know. I wrote out the whole conversation here:http://allellie.blogspot.com/2007/04/tla-or-bust.html
But seriously? Justine and Scott did a great job and were so funny!

I bought Frederique (offspring) a unicorn for her 4th birthday. She did ask for one. But I suspect Frederique may have a healthy streak of evil in her. I am sure she intends to use it for dire purposes.

She’ll get a Zombie for her fifth birthday. Naturally.

have fun! i was wondering if you guys were going to be making your way anywhere else around the US? i hope so!

Just finished Magic’s Child - very good! It snowed here in Chicago again - not so good…

hmm, fortunately i’ve been busy writing a book (just finished) so i didn’t notice you gloating the other day about a certain super eight match. of course, not to deny that aus are on top form, but we’re playing some shabby cricket at the mo.

hope you’re having fun in san antonio.

i just got in tonight!! and you’re going to a spurs game. i am jealous. i have lived here my entire life and never been to one. not for lack of trying. go spurs go!

Its still pretty chilly here…and I’m not THAT far from you.

Chicago. Snow. Bleagh!

It’s sunny and 70 degrees here in England! Come here! No unicorns!

Damn! And I was all set to take the Unicorn Express to Stansted…

hi! this is my first comment here. i like it!

hi i was on maureen’s blog and she said something about a lamp with those horse looking things that happen to have a horn protruding from their head. i asked her why you hate them so much and she said ask you. well actually she said now would be a good time to put horse looking things that happen to have a horn protruding from their head related posts….

Hi Justine! I hope your are having fun 615.88 miles and 9 hours and 25 minutes away from me. i could so drive there if i had a license and a car haha I found that on mapquest. Its a very handy little thing

Hi! I was in the audience today when you and your husband were speaking. Listening to the two of you was so much fun. You two are amazing writers—keep it going, please. : ) Hope you enjoy the city!

dana=lucky!

hi justine? did you see any unicorns in san antonio? i think it’s a hotbed for unicorn sightings. here in ny, i see unicorns all the time. dont you just love unicorns?

i dont particularly like unicorns but i would like to find out why justine has such distain against unicorns. i asked maureen johnson why you didnt like unicorns and she said… well just read above i already said what she said. so i hope you didnt see any unicorns there for fear of the unicorns being “acidentaly” hit by your car.

did you know that in the mmorpg Ultima Online only females could ride on a unicorn!!??! very interesting stuff!

first comment! baha

That’s it. Go and leave me, why don’t you.

Hey, you know what they’re also having in San Antonio this weekend? A UNICORN LOVERS CONVENTION.

Ally: congratulations!

Maureen: Do you want to be banned from this blog?

Yay! You’re coming to Austin! We’ll be cheering you on from the audience. (This is Jo from the YA listserv, btw).

I hate unicorns, of course. I am here in London for the zombie convention. I’m on Team Z.

I will still miss reading your daily updates, Justine! I wish I could meet you and Scott in Texas…no one ever comes to Kansas. (Who would want to come to Kansas anyway? I’m trying to get OUT of it myself. )

I wish I could read some of Extras. Sad face.

yeah me too..he should post like the back of the book on his website or something. that would be awsome!

ooh san antonio is only like a days drive away! maybe my mom will drive me..haha that would be a miracle if that happened.
are yall going to fly through arkansas? or like go around.

Well i hope you have fun in texas!

Hope to see you in San Antonio. I’ll try and come to your signing if I’m around.

We just came from Austin, which is close to San Antonio, and wound up driving for six hours through sleet and freezing rain. I don’t know what happened to Texas - I thought it was supposed to be warm there.

Fortunately for you, the weather forecast suggests that they will be experiencing record heat the next couple of days, so you won’t have to deal with that. But don’t tempt the weather gods - you could be next…

Im so jealous, Justine. While you get to go to san Antonio, im stuck here in Pennsylvania where its freezing cold. Yesterday was Easter and it was colder yesterday then on Christmas day! So jealous.

“i thought it was supposed to be warm there.”
“the weather forecast suggests that they will be experiencing record heat the next couple of days”

my world has been turned upside down. it was THIRTY-EIGHT DEGREES here. i had to go out and get two new sweaters, because i had nothing. NOTHING!! and within 24 hours, it’s supposed to be back in the 80’s. what am i supposed to do? and more to the point, what am i supposed to do with these sweaters?

yay tla!!!!

Thanks sooo much for mentioning my blog!!! I’d gush about how much I love your books… but I’m guessing that was already pretty apparent from my review.

(I was wondering last night why my blog stats were suddenly really really high, especially considering that it was Easter… now I understand )

Snow in spring is just wrong. I think the weather’s being crazy everywhere.

I write a fantasy writing newsletter and always include a publisher spotlight. I got a request to do one on an Australian publisher. Do you happen to know somewhere on the web I can find a list of some?

over here in germany we had snow a few weeks ago. for weeks it was in the 60s and 70s…and then it snowed for a week!!!!! argh. at least these days it’s better, sunny and warm most days. (not that i can enjoy it, being stuck in the house. stupid pre-term contractions, argh.)

Sometimes it snows in April … (someone had to say it).

It was 80 degrees here two days ago and they’re forcasting snow for tonight. Um, yeah. Kansas is pretty messed up, along with the rest of the US weather, apparently. I like the snow, though. Its pretty!

this probably won’t make you feel any better, but it’s supposed to be 37 degrees (F) here in texasland. That’s almost cold enough to snow. furthermore, i did not bring a sweatshirt home with me. yay! not.

I live in Michigan, so we get lake-effect weather. So over our entire winter break, it was mid-sixties. Then it randomly got to where the wind-chill was 20 below zero. and then it was warm again, and now it’s snowing. People were wearing shorts and flipflops over the weekend. Now they’re wearing parkas. >.

Fabulous weather here in San Francisco. You frequent the wrong coast, dear. (We are also closer to Sydney.)

Just be glad you’re not in Michigan’s upper peninsula - as of yesterday they’ve received three feet of snow with more on the way. That’s just wrong…

“I do not know what ‘chaotic good’ is, even though Scott’s explained it to me like a hundred times.”

Cory Doctorow - and all things Cory Doctorow-ish — is a perfect example of “chaotic good.”

For me ‘fan’ has connotations of ‘fandom’, which is a minefield, and every fandom I’ve drifted by with mild interest has very quickly put me off getting involved in anyway. I think, to me, ‘fan’ implies activity within the fandom, instead of just sitting and enjoying quietly, which I what I do.

‘geek’ has connotations of…well, I don’t know exactly, but I know I don’t wear it.

‘nerd’ comes from being a nerd at school. Somewhat outcast, not really mainstream.

‘dag’ is a beautiful word and also applies perfectly.

(I was about to type that as ‘perfically’. Ugh.)

Sir Tessa: Mmmm, yes, we are all dags. Dags rule!

But what I’m hearing you saying is that you are not a fan because you do not join things or take part in communities. So really you’re saying that you’re a misanthropist. Yes, grumpy Sir Tessa?

nothing wrong with long posts.

dag just sounds….really dirty, to my american ears. dunno why.

i have called myself a fan, a geek, a nerd, a dork, and a variety of other things. i give myself all the labels, instead of just one! ha.

I’m a daggy misanthrope at that.

Rebecca: That’s the beauty of it . . . you get to call yourself whatever you want.

There’s nothing dirty about dags. (Well, okay, if you’re thinking about the original meaning then, yes, there is, but let’s not go there, eh?)

Sir Tessa: You are an adorable daggy misanthrope.

It’s funny, but I never thought of “geek” as a derogatory term. My husband is an aviation geek, a business geek (he actually likes reading and writing contracts), a wood working geek and on and on. I thought geek just meant something you really liked and you enjoyed doing or learning about. (I would be an aviation history geek, a WWI geek, a polar exploration geek, etc.)

I also wonder when being a fan meant being an excessive fan. In other words, I saw Star Wars (way back in 1977) in the theater and I was a Star Wars fan. Other than my brother having some models that he built and hung from the ceiling, we didn’t have any Star Wars “stuff” but we liked the movies so I thought that made us fans. Same goes for certain music, food, tv, etc. Aren’t you just a fan if you like something - do you have to be crazy and dress up in costumes and read everything ever written about it and learn to speak Klingon or something in order to be a fan?

I think these words might have gotten mangled over the years or something. I mean really, how can referring to someone who has more than 10,000 Alaskan flight hours as an “aviation geek” be a bad thing? Not that I’m all worshipful of my husband or anything (perish the thought!) but he’s okay with the term geek - it just means he knows a lot of airplane shit and that’s okay.

We are also fans of science fiction movies and Guns N Roses. I hope that doesn’t scare anyone - ha!

Colleen: I hope you don’t think I was implying there’s anything wrong with being either a geek or a fan. Absolutely not!

You both sound like quintessential geeks. Of course, as I said, people use these terms in lots of different ways. The way I’ve mostly heard “geek” used does not describe my relatinship to stuff that I love. Fan or enthusiast or dag fits it better.

Oh no Justine - I didn’t see any criticism, it’s just interesting to me how fan used to mean one thing and now seems to mean another and the same for geek.

I will admit I’m a Star Trek fan - but don’t ask me to explain all that Klingon dictionary stuff.

Now those people - they’re what….uber geeks?

You could hurt your head trying to figure all this stuff out you know!!

oh I wish I was going to be there! Lauren is FABULOUSO!!!!! You will love her! Please pinch her for me!

ox

[…] Books I’m ordering for my stepdaughter first thing Thursday: Justine Larbalestier’s Magic’s Child — which A. has been asking about for months — and Margo Rabb’s Cures for Heartbreak. […]

I wish I could be there! yes! Thursday is even better than Friday!

Hi Justine,

Looking forward to meeting you on Saturday!

Cecil: I’m really looking forward to meeting her!

Dawn: Lemme know which day you find a copy. Remember the prize! And it’s not that crappy, honest.

Margo Rabb: Looking forward to meeting you too!

I will be there! Maureen will be there! My kid will be there! Sarah M. will be there! It will be a posse.

nobody in this bloody state has your book yet. they keep telling me it’s not out yet. argh! *sigh*

Happy birthday, Magic’s Child!!

jeez. i get incredibly nervous doing anything in front of people. i get nervous making a sitdown informal presentation in class. sometimes i even get nervous asking questions in class. and god help me if i have to actually stand up and give a presentation. speech class, both high school and college, was living hell. i couldn’t eat anything all day before giving a speech. once, i got it into my head to play piano in front of the entire high school. it ruined the whole day beforehand. and then, when i messed up horribly during the performance, it ruined the whole rest of the day after. i swore after that i’d never subject myself to such terror again. i ask people what classes they have to give presentations in just so that i’ll know to avoid taking them. i am way better one-on-one.

doing a reading would terrify me, needless to say. i am in awe of those of you who can get up and do stuff like that. you didn’t seem nervous at all when i saw you speak.

you didn’t seem nervous at all when i saw you speak.

Talking off the cuff in front of people doesn’t bother me much at all. I really enjoy doing panels and the kind of presentation you saw. (Q&A is always my favourite part.) But then I’ve been doing stuff like that for years and years now. So any nervousness I used to have is pretty much gone now.

It’s when I have to read something out loud that I wrote that I start to quake. But like I said it’s getting better.

I know it’s hard to believe but the more practice you get talking in front of people the easier it gets. Of course, there’s nothing that says you have to get better at it. There are plenty of successful writers who do no public appearances.

i thought i was the only one who felt that way…and that it was a side affect of not being a “real” writer, aka published. nice to know i’ll be quitely vomiting after readings for years to come.

i feel like i need covet and chastize a little. you’re a fiction writer and in the enviable position of being a fabulous one. people like stories, and even the yawning people listen politely because they’ve been trained for stories.

i’m a poet. i’m not a narrative poet, and contrary to popular sentiment, this does not mean i’m a bad poet either. when people give me blank looks at a reading, it’s for real. it doesn’t mean that my writing isn’t their particular cup of tea. it’s the frozen, blank, terrified, glassy-eyed, how’d i wind up here, out-to-lunch gaze of people missing all my beautiful words because they want a story…or shakespeare or frost…but that’s a tale for another time.

well, i can’t complain too much because in an informal survey of my poet friends, we’ve decided that we’re pretty much universally inspired to write poems because of all the fiction we consume. even the poets are story-addicts. (WHERE’S MY NEXT LARBALESTIER BOOK ALREADY?!) is there any chance you fiction writers are the people still secretly buying poetry?

Tomorrow I have to do some reading of Shel Silverstein’s poetry to my Children’s Lit class. Granted, its only a class of 20, its still really scary for me for some reason. I really hated my Public Speaking class, and I had to work hard to get the grade that I did. My hands always get really cold and clammy, and I ALWAYS feel like I’m going to lose any meal I’ve had all day. I hope that perhaps one day I won’t feel that way anymore and improve like you have! That would be very nice.

I’m not an author, but I am an avid enough consumer of books that I go to author readings sometimes when interesting people make the planet-wide journey out here to Sydney. I’ve seen some truly bad readings — where the author was either tired from a long book tour, or just not a good speaker and mumbled into their book whilst the audience looked for a fire escape. Most of the time, though, it’s a fun show, so I’m glad you guys (authors) submit to it. Thanks.

Making a massive generalisation, it seems like an author will be quite relaxed when talking off the cuff, then read a small passage from their book and it starts out very stiffly. But then, after a minute, they start to get into it and loosen up and it sounds more natural and fun. So it sounds like you aren’t alone in your internal state prior to reading, Justine.

(Now, if only you could have done this in, say, a month when I would have been in New York, I might have been able to go. ).

Justine, you were an absolutely knock-out reader by the only two measures that count, in my opinion.

1) You got laughs.

2) That Australian accent was UTTERLY convincing!

fabulous job! can’t wait for the book, now,
xoxox
m

logically, i know that practice will help. it’s the whole actually doing it thing that’s the problem.

I’ve read once. I’m not a fan. I’ve been to two author readings in my life. One was a group reading, at which four authors read, and only one really had the audience going. He was so amazing at it, I would be embarrassed to be anywhere near him at a reading. People were lined up to get his book.

YA authors, in particular, seem to value reading very highly. (I’ve never seen a romance author read.) I hope that’s not too important, since I don’t think I’m very good at it.

Letitia: I definitely think you’re on to something—narrative poetry is still popular in various forms. One of the NYT bestselling chapter books right now, Ellen Hopkins’ Impulse, is in free verse. The desire for story goes very very deep. Much of the poetry I love and read over and over like Yvette Christiansë’s Castaway or Anne Sexton’s Transformations are strongly narrative.

Dawn: Good luck! Does it help to be reading such a marvellous poet? Or does it make it worse?

Malcolm: I’ll be doing anothe appearance on 23 March if that helps. Though that’s not really next month, is it? Anyway you’re in Sydney we do gigs at home once or twice a year.

Maryrose: Hah! What about you, you theatrically trained cheater you! So not fair having to follow you. People almost fell out of their chairs they were laughing so hard during your reading. I think in future you have to go last. Otherwise it’s just not fair!

Rebecca: That there is a catch 22.

Diana: I love hearing other people reading and I have to say overall the standard in YA is very very high.

I definitely think it’s worth practising, Diana. When I read well, like you observed with that good reader, I sell a tonne of books. A good reading is extraordinary. The trick is to practise, read something funny, and keep it short. Like I said five minutes is perfect.

I was going to ask how an unpublished author could get practice, but really I already know where I need to start. Just have to do it. I am going to make a point to read to my writing group at our meeting this month. Though I get nervous enough bringing up agenda points, and these are my siblings! I’m so shy, quiet, non-confident… still hard to believe that I’m the one that started and leads the group.

Good to know that even wonderfully talented and published authors like yourself can get terribly nervous.

I read out loud to Scott every second or third day or so when I’m writing a first draft. I think that’s had a part in improving my reading skills. It’s also an awesome way to hear what’s wrong with my writing and then fix it. Still, an actual audience will always be way scarier than the person you live with.

Good luck reading to your writing group!

Do you really think reading aloud is important? Can I hire someone? what are your going rates?