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  1. Books That Changed Me

    Today the Sydney Morning Herald is running my entry in their long-running Books That Changed Me series. I struggled mightily to get it down to four. Especially as they initially told me I could name five. There are too many books that have changed me! Too many books that I love with every fibre of […]

  2. Racism in the Books We Write

    It is almost impossible to avoid writing work that can be read as racist. If you’re writing about people, you’re writing about identity, and a huge part of identity is race. We are all seen through the lens of race. We all see through the lens of race.1 Whether we’re conscious of it or not. […]

  3. My Books of Electrons! (Updated)

    One of the most frequent queries I get is: “Are your books e-books yet?” For a long time, they were not and I could only respond in the negative. This was never a very satisfactory reply. Not for me, because I dreamed of having books of electrons, and piteously begged my publishers to make it […]

  4. NaNo Tip No. 28: Take Care of Yourself

    It’s my second last NaNoWriMo post! Wow, that went fast. You’ve all been at it for 28 days now.1 Which leads me to suspect that some of you may be feeling quite sore about now. Writing, like any job that involves spending hours in front of a computer, has a high injury rate. Almost every […]

  5. Question for those who like to get their books signed

    Scott and me are having a wee bit of an argument. He thinks I sign too slow on account of I like to chat to everyone and make my dedication as personal as possible. He thinks that’s fine with a very short queue but when the line is long you owe it to the people […]

  6. BookPeople questions we ran out of time to answer

  7. Not naming books I hate

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

    I will confess that I was nervous about going to High Voltage ConFusion. There were several reasons for this: I’m afraid of cold places. And Detroit in winter is COLD.1 I’d never been a guest of honour before and was worried I’d be crappy at it. I was aware that most of the people at […]

  9. Time

  10. How long does it take to write a novel?

  11. Quotidian Climate Catastrophe

    Note: I’m not on Twitter. If you wish to discuss any of these blog posts with me, leave a comment on my blog. I will respond. My sister is texting to find out how we make the niece scrambled eggs. I ask Scott how and text his response. Outside the sky is grey and the […]

  12. Why I Left Twitter, or, the Last Day of 2019

    Note: I’m not on Twitter. If you wish to discuss any of these blog posts with me, leave a comment on my blog. I will respond. This has been a horrible year for me.1 Or, rather, it’s been a horrible two years–more than two years. In June 2017, I woke up feeling weird. It was […]

  13. The Faddishness of Publishing

    NB: Every example I give in this post will soon be out of date. I’m only talking Young Adult publishing in the USA. What follows may be a tad exaggerated. Publishing may be an old and crusty industry, that sometimes still runs on handshakes, but it is also flighty and driven by fads. Right now […]

  14. On Writing a Good, Kind, Nice, Empathetic Main Character

    What’s the hardest part of writing has to be one of the most frequently asked questions. For me the answer to that question depends on what I’m writing. I don’t just mean whether I’m writing a blog post or a novel. It changes with each particular piece of writing. My latest novel, My Sister Rosa, […]

  15. Guest Post: Ambelin Kwaymullina: Thoughts on Being an Ally of Indigenous Writers

    Today Ambelin Kwaymullina, who is an Aboriginal writer and illustrator from the Palyku people, has generously allowed me to publish this essay. I’ve been an admirer of Ambelin Kwaymullina’s work for some time. Not just her wonderful dystopian trilogy about a far future Australia, The Tribe series, but her thoughtful essays. She has become one […]

  16. My WisCon 40 Guest of Honour Speech

    Today in honour of James Tiptree, Jr.’s birthday I’m publishing my guest of honour speech from this year’s WisCon. WisCon is the longest-running feminist science fiction convention in the world. It’s an amazing con. My fellow guests of honour, Nalo Hopkinson and Sofia Samatar, will also be publishing their speeches. Both speeches are amazing. Check […]

  17. How to Write Protagonists of Colour When You’re White

    Step One: Ask Yourself Why Why are you writing this book? Why have you decided to write a protagonist whose background is different from your own? Is it because you want to make the world a better place? Because doing so seems to be the cool new thing? Because you lived for many years in […]

  18. Getting Started is Hard

    My biggest writing struggle is getting started. The novel I’m writing right now which I think of as the Psychopath Book because, unlike My Sister Rosa, it’s from the point of view of a psychoath, rather than just being about a psychopath. It was going pretty well until Rosa was published in Australia and New […]

  19. Last Day of 2015

    This is my annual recap of the year that was as well as a squiz at what’s gunna happen in 2016.1 By which I mean what’s going to happen in my publishing life. I am not Nostradamus. (Actually neither was Nostradamus. He was not an accurate prognosticator.) Nor would I want to be. I’m convinced […]

  20. Influences

    The initial idea for writing a Young Adult take on William March’s The Bad Seed (1954) came from one of my favourite novelists, Tayari Jones. She was tweeting about the book—or was it the movie—and got me thinking about evil children. What would it be like to be the older sibling of a psychopathic child? […]

  21. On Writing PoC When You Are White

    My comments on white people writing People of Colour in these two posts has created a wee bit of consternation. This post is to clarify my position. First of all: I am not the boss of who writes what.1 This is what I have decided for myself after much trial and error and listening and […]

  22. Things Not To Say As a White Person When Talking About Racism (Updated)

    Not all white people are racist. True. Also irrelevant. Not all white people are racist but we all benefit from being white because we live in a world that is structured to give white people advantages and that makes whiteness the default. #notallwhitepeople is also an attempt to change the subject from people of colour […]

  23. YA is for Teens

    The publishing category of YA (Young Adult) started as a category about and for teens. But it has always been controlled by adults. Right now YA is one of the most profitable publishing categories in the USA. That’s largely because of the huge growth of the adult readership. Put it this way: the Hunger Games […]

  24. The First Sentence

    A big deal is made of the first sentence of novels. There’s gazillions of pages listing good ones.1 Almost every obsessive reader can quote their favourite ones. Every Jane Austen fan can reel off: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of […]

  25. Razorhurst Out in North America Today!

    Today is the official publication of Razorhurst in the USA and Canada by Soho Press. For those of you who have been waiting since last July when it was published in Australia and New Zealand the wait is over! For those of who you have no idea what I’m talking about: Razorhurst takes place on […]

  26. On Sexism and Awards (Updated)

    If you’re a man and you write a realist YA novel you’re more likely to win an award for it than a woman is. Big claim I know. Here’s some evidence about the awards side of the equation, an examination of most of the big awards in the Young Adult genre since 2000, compiled by […]

  27. So-called Writing Facts

    Here are two “facts” about writing I’ve been hearing lately that I must beat until their stuffing falls out and their non-factness is apparent to all.1 1. On average published authors write 2-3 novels before publication. Um, what? How was such a statistic arrived at? Where does it come from? Why is everyone repeating it? […]

  28. BWFBC: Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt/Carol (1952)

    Welcome to July’s Bestselling Women’s Fiction Book Club in which we discuss Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt/Carol. It’s original title was The Price of Salt and that’s what some editions in the US still call it. In Australia and the UK it’s called Carol. That’s how I think of it because that’s the edition […]

  29. FAQ

    Q: How long did it take you to write Razorhurst? A: It took about three years from getting the first idea to the book being published in Australia and New Zealand in March 2014. Though the first time I blogged about it was in July 2012. Q: Why ghosts? A: Razorhurst began with ghosts. There […]

  30. Guest Post: YA From a Marginalized Young Adult’s Perspective

    A few weeks back @bysshefields was being really smart on twitter about being a young adult excluded from conversations about Young Adult literature. This is something that has often annoyed me, that the go-to “experts” on the genre for the mainstream media are almost never young adults themselves, that we only rarely hear from the […]

  31. Spoiling Spoily Spoilers

    I used to hate spoilers. I didn’t care what it was—a book, an ad, a shopping list—I didn’t want to know what happened until it happened. I wouldn’t read the back of books or movie posters or reviews. I wanted to know as little as possible before going in. I thrived on surprise. Now this […]

  32. Getting Away

    One of the things I need most as a writer is a routine. For me that’s not as much about what time of day I write, that varies, but about where I write. When I sit at my ergonomically gorgeous desk and writing set up I write because it is the place of writing. Unlike […]

  33. BWFBC: Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls (1966) (Updated)

    Welcome to our first Bestselling Women’s Fiction Book Club. We’re very excited to get the ball rolling with Susann’s Valley of the Doll. For the discussion on Twitter we’ll be using the hashtag #VofD #BWFBC. You can also leave a comment below. We love it when you leave comments. If you haven’t read the book […]

  34. BWFBC: Bestselling Women’s Fiction Book Club

    Kate Elliott and I have started a book club to talk about bestselling women’s fiction. First book we’ll discuss is Jacqueline Susann’s The Valley of the Dolls. A post with both our takes on it will go up here on 12 March (in the USA) 13 March (in Australia). We’d love to hear your thoughts […]

  35. My Next Published Solo Novel: RAZORHURST!

    My next novel, Razorhurst, will be published in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin in July. That’s right, its publication is a mere five months away! Which is practically right now. I’m delighted to be working with Allen & Unwin on Razorhurst. They have published all but three of my books of fiction. […]

  36. Reviews, Awards, and Lists

    “[T]imeless.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “[A] dark, unforgettable and blood-soaked tale of outlaws and masterminds.” —Kirkus (starred review) “[G]ritty historical fiction with a paranormal twist.” —School Library Journal (starred review) “Reading like a detailed painting in novel form, this haunting, gorgeously rendered supernatural/historical novel captures the rough and tumble world of gangsters and molls in […]

  37. Daring and Ridiculous

    Today, Justine has graciously agreed to host a guest post from Alpha, the SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers. Workshop graduate Rachel Halpern is here to talk about the confidence Alpha gave her as a teen writer. I came into Alpha in the comfortable certainty that I would never be a writer. Even applying to Alpha […]

  38. On Likeability

    Since my first novel was published in 2005 I have seen more and more reviews, both professional and not, discuss the likeability of characters in novels.1 Here’s what I have noticed:2 I. Many writers rail at the very idea that their main characters must be “likeable”. II. No one agrees on which characters are “likeable” […]

  39. Some Thoughts On A Writer’s Intentions

    Where in the writing process does social messaging have a place? Various writers weigh in.

  40. Last Day of 2013

    And, lo, another year has passed and it is time for my annual post where I sum up what happened in my professional life this year and look ahead to what’s going to happen in 2014. I do this so I have a record that I can get to in seconds. (Hence the “last day […]

  41. To Self-Publish Or Not To Self-Publish (Updated x 3)

    I’ve been asked a lot lately by new writers whether they should self-publish their first novel or go with a traditional publisher. To me the answer is very obvious: find an agent and publish the traditional way. What follows is my reasons why I think the answer is obvious but first a disclaimer. Disclaimer 1: […]

  42. (The Non-existence of) Perfection in Politics and Writing

    One of the constant criticisms of politicians, or anyone, really, who steps up to speak against a common social ill, like misogyny, is that they themselves are flawed. How dare you get on your high horse, Julia Gillard, about sexism when members of your own party, like Mark Latham and Kevin Rudd, have been sexist, […]

  43. Learning to Write Romance

    The first time I attempted to write a romance novel I was fifteen years old. I sent away for the Mills & Boon guidelines and spent a few hours or days or weeks1 typing away trying to follow those guidelines and make lots of money. Back in those far distant days it was rumoured that […]

  44. We Have Always Been Fighting this Fight

    N K Jemisin recently gave a speech in response to the latest kerfuffle around sexism and racism in science fiction. It’s a very fine speech. Go read it. One of the points she makes is this: women have been in SFF from the very beginning. We might not always have been visible, hidden away behind […]

  45. Twitter Etiquette

    So ages back @MalindaLo requested that I “blog about twitter etiquette: the good, the bad, the ugly.” Best. Request. Ever. Especially as there are so many other people who are so much more qualified than I to impart such advice. Like, for example, the YA queen of Twitter, Maureen Johnson, who has about as many […]

  46. Ten Years of Writing YA Novels For A Living

    It is now TEN WHOLE YEARS since I became a freelance writer. I know, right? How did that happen? Ten years! And one more time because truly my disbelief is high: I HAVE BEEN A FULL-TIME, FREELANCE WRITER FOR TEN WHOLE YEARS. I know it’s also April Fool’s day but I truly did begin this […]

  47. Me at the Adelaide Writers Festival

    In early March I will be at the Adelaide Writers Week. Which is the oldest and most prestigey1 writers festival in all of Australia. I’ve never been before. Indeed, I’ve never done any events in Adelaide unless you count going to a friend’s wedding.2 Here are my events: GIRL POWER: ISOBELLE CARMODY, JUSTINE LARBALESTIER, VIKKI […]

  48. Last Day of 2012

    This is my annual post where I sum up what happened in my professional life for the year and look ahead to what’s going to happen in 2013. I do this so I can have a handy record that I can get to in seconds. (Hence the “last day of the year” category.) Last year […]

  49. On the Differences Between Publishing Houses

    My mate Diana Peterfreund had an excellent post on some truly terrible publishing advice doing the rounds at the moment. In passing she mentions that “as someone who has now published with four NY publishers and the aforementioned small presses—every publisher does things a little differently.” I have not seen that pointed out very often. […]

  50. Please, Please, Please, Give Your Protag Friends, a Sibling, Parents

    All my favourite fiction, whether novels or television, features strong relationships. I’ve started to think that for me the hallmark of good writing is, in fact, the strength of the relationships. So many books/movies/tv fail for me because the protag either doesn’t have any relationships or because those relationships are constructed out of cardboard. And, […]