One of my fave magical YA books, like, ever, is MAGIC OR MADNESS by Justine Larbalestier. It's a terrific story about a very rational girl who finds out that not only is magic real ... but it's also deadly. The third book in the trilogy, MAGIC'S CHILD, is finally out, and I have to say, the end of the story is both unexpected and perfect.
Justine was good enough to sit down with me and answer some very tough questions about math, zoology, and exotic fruit. Oh, and books, too!
Hey Justine! How did you go from being a fancy-pants academic to a YA princessa?
I always wanted to be a YA princessa. How did you know? Wouldn't it be dreamy to be the Australian Meg Cabot?
But back when I was trying to figure out what to do for a living, I didn't fancy my chances, so I studied and became an academic. That way I could pay the rent and, you know, eat while I wrote on the side. It's always a good idea to have more than one way to earn money so that if one doesn't work out you can try something else. I also trained to be a massage therapist. (Didn't like it at all.)
I quit to become a freelance writer before I sold anything. It was terrifying and completely unwise. I don't recommend it to anyone. But within six months of going freelance I sold the MAGIC OR MADNESS trilogy. Phew, eh?
That was in 2003. Sounds magical and instantaneous, doesn't it? But I'd been writing for years and years and years before that. I have gazillions of short stories that never sold. And the novel I started in 1988 and finished in 1999 still hasn't sold either.
Having been raised in the bush must have had a great impact on Reason's personality. Have you yourself spent a great deal of time in the further reaches of Australia, and if so, what was that like?
My parents are anthropologists and they did a fair amount of field work in the Northern Territory of Australia which is the area with the largest indigenous population. It's also much poorer than the rest of Australia. When I was little I went on two of those trips. It was about a year altogether but it's the part of my childhood I remember the most vividly so it feel like I was there much longer. It was a whole other world---filled with hunting and fishing and condensed milk and, except for the wild plums, fruit out of tins and lots and lots and lots of dogs---nothing like the cities I grew up in.
Though at the same time the kids were just like city kids. Same petty fights and squabbles, same games of British Bulldog, Red Rover and hide'n'seek. Just as many smart and dumb and average kids. It's just that their school was terrible and their access to good health care woeful. For the first time I learned how incredibly lucky and privileged I was.
All the sections where Reason remembers her outback childhood are pillaged from my experiences. I haven't been back since I was nine, so I got my dad to check those bits (he goes back almost once a year). It was amazing how accurate my memories of the landscapes were. Usually my memory is pretty crap.
But, yes, Reason's weird and wonderful life had a huge impact on her, especially the constant moving. One of the things Reason learns in the trilogy is how to have friends. Because other than her mother she's never had any. The books are secretly about the importance of friendship and creating your own family. Much like BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.
(ed: you can read more about Justine's youthful outback adventures HERE and HERE.)
One of the most interesting things about the series is the magic system you've created. It's magical, sure, but it's also logical. Did the rules of this magic come to you at once, or did they develop as you were writing?
The basic rules---use it and die young or don't use it and go barking mad---were there from the beginning. I also knew from the beginning the magic would be very everyday. No flying, or reading people's minds or making things blow up. My magical talents are mathematical (Reason), geometrical (Tom)---hence his aptitude for fashion, and kinetic (Jay-Tee)---hence hers for dancing and running. But the specifics evolved as I wrote.
When you started writing, did you know that you would go from a rather grounded, "realistic magic" to a more surreal, freaky-deaky magic in the later books?
No. That was a shocking and horrifying turn of events. I hate that kind of magic! I've no aptitude for the abstract. I find books on philosophy incredibly hard to read and am usually bored by those fantasy books with abstract other worlds where the characters float in magic and can do whatever they want. Blerk.
But then I found myself was writing one. Though it was a bit more structured because it was based on various different mathematical landscapes and fortunately I was able to pare down the time spent there to the absolute minimum. Give me real worlds!
It was especially hard getting the balance right with Reason because as she becomes less human she also becomes less sympathetic. As a reader I find it very difficult to sympathise with characters who are losing what it is that makes them themselves---their humanity.
As a result MAGIC'S CHILD went through many, many, many drafts. I missed deadline after deadline as I struggled with it. I've never had such a hard time writing a book before. It's been a relief to hear from readers that not only do they not find those parts boring, but some of them even like those parts best. Colour me shocked!
The books are set in both the USA & Australia, and the integration of different slang and speech patterns was seamless and added a lot to the characters. Was it hard to switch voices?
Thank you! It's actually quite a relief to get out of one character's head and into the next. In MAGIC'S CHILD I was especially eager to get away from Reason and her scary fights and into Tom's head. Tom's the easiest, most relaxing character for me to write. He reminds me of quite a few boys I knew growing up. The ones who weren't obsessed with sport and weren't afraid to have friends who were girls. And he's dead funny.
Jay-Tee was hard for me to write. The rhythms in my head are all Australian, so I had to work to make her seem believably American. Fortunately, I have lots of native American speakers to check the Jay-Tee sections for me, not to mention my brilliant editors, Eloise Flood and Liesa Abrams as well as the copyeditors and proofreaders.
I've heard that you are actually lousy at math. But your main character, Reason, is all about math! So... did you actually have to learn math to write her, or did you just have to learn how to fake knowing about it... (if that makes sense)?
I can barely add up. It's shocking. I spent a lot of time looking at basic maths sites aimed at primary school students. It was a stretch though whenver I tried sites that went beyond a fifth grade level. Don't laugh!
I also read books on the golden ratio and primes. The ones that didn't make my head explode were Marcus Du Sautoy's gorgeously written THE MUSIC OF THE PRIMES and Mario Livio's THE GOLDEN RATIO. I didn't understand the really mathy parts of the Du Sautoy and the Livio but they gave me a feel for how it is to be in love with numbers and patterns---for the magic of them. And the history of prime numbers is fascinating.
I learned a lot, but I'm still basically innumerate. Tragically so. And I mean that. Having read those books and written the trilogy I have an understanding of what I'm missing out on. There truly is another world out there. Whole mathematical worlds. That's the world Reason retreats into in MAGIC'S CHILD. It's a world I will never visit, which makes me really sad.
I know your books are being published in other countries as well as the US. How does that work? Are you involved in the foreign editions? Do you have to work with multiple editors, and if so, what is that like?
Rights have sold to Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Taiwan and Thailand. I have to pinch myself when I think about. I'm going to be read in other languages!
Naturally, I worked closely with my Australian publishers. My home market is the one most important to me even though it's teeny compared to the US market. We made little changes like dropping the glossary---Australians know what Oz words mean and they're pretty solid on the US ones too---and some of the Aussie slang they deemed too old-fashioned. I also do some kind of publicity for Penguin Australia whenever I'm home.
I've met my Brazilian, French, and Italian publishers. All of them are lovely. But so far I've not heard from any of my translators. It's early days though. The only editions to come out so far are the French and Taiwanese versions of MAGIC OR MADNESS.
I would love to hear from my translators. I'm fascinated by how they get around the two different versions of English in the trilogy. An Israeli publisher contacted me to say that while he loved MAGIC OR MADNESS it was untranslatable into Hebrew because they don't have any dialects because the language is too new.
Lots of people say that their editors or agents are the ones that decided to market their book as YA. Did you know you were writing YA when you began?
Yes. Conceived, written and sold as YA. I've always read and loved YA, so it was natural to start writing it. Now that I've had books published I love the YA world even more because I've started to meet some of the awesome librarians and booksellers---such as yourself---who do such amazing work supporting and promoting the genre. You all rock!
And then there's the readers. I've had letters from kids as young as eleven and as old as seventy writing to tell me what they think of my books. Their letters are a totally unexpected bonus to becoming a published writers. I love being in conversation with folks who've not only read my books, but other YA, and get what I'm trying to do and the world I'm part of.
I plan to keep on writing YA for the rest of my life. Even if they stop publishing me I'll keep writing it.
There's some extraordinary writing coming out of Australia. What do you think accounts for it?
We're prolific readers. Like New Zealanders we read way more than any other English speaking nation and I imagine write more too. Both nations are bursting with bookish people. Hence us having extraordinary writers like Ursula Dubosarsky, Sonya Hartnett, Margo Lanagan, and Garth Nix. Then there's New Zealand's Elizabeth Knox and Margaret Mahy. (Along with Diana Wynne Jones, Margaret Mahy is the goddess of YA.) I'm convinced that New Zealand has more talented people per capita than anywhere else in the world. You should see their jewellery and clothes and art. Not to mention all the top athletes and scientists they produce.
What books (besides your own) do you think NYMBC members would adore?
Everything by the Aussies and Kiwis I listed above. Also I've recently been blown away by Coe Booth's TYRELL. It's extraordinary, poetic, joyful, sad, bleak, perfect. Booth made me care about a boy who reminded me of some of the total dropkick macho boys I went to school with. That's quite an achievement. I couldn't stand those boys! And everyone must read Megan Whalen Turner's ATTOLIA trilogy. Better than any drug you care to name.
Lightning Round:
Let's play favourites!
* cricket team!
Depends when, but right now I'd have to say Bangladesh. They're young and playing some very smart cricket right now. They're unlikely to win any major tournaments any time soon but I just love to see people and teams and countries achieving beyond what's expected of them.
* lady science fiction author, pre-1960!
Margaret St Clair
* exotic fruit!
Hah! Mangosteens, of course. Fruit of the gods!
* mode of transport!
Bicycle. I don't have one in New York. I miss my bicycle!
* comic book artist!
Osamu Tezuka and Ai Yazawa
* marsupial!
Platypus
* time of day!
Midnight.
* beverage!
Water
* city!
Buenos Aires. It's unbelievably beautiful and the food and wine and music and everything is fabulous beyond words. I can't wait to go back.
* bookstore!
Oh, no, I can't answer that one! I have too many dear friends, like you, who work at or own too many fabulous bookshops around the world. Whatever I answer I'll be in trouble with someone.
OK, OK, fair enough. Is there anything else you wish I had asked?
Nope. These were fabby questions. You got me thinking about stuff I hadn't before. Also you made me realise that I forgot to thank the authors of those maths books in the acknowledgments of the trilogy. I am a horrible human being! I wonder if I can correct that for later editions?
Thank you!
NO, thank YOU!
For more excitement, visit Justine's excellent blog, or add her on MySpace. But if you haven't read the books yet, you should BUY THEM, READ THEM & LOVE THEM!
ETA: 14 May 2007 - Justine just won the Andre Norton award! Congratulations, Miss J!
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Justine was good enough to sit down with me and answer some very tough questions about math, zoology, and exotic fruit. Oh, and books, too!
Hey Justine! How did you go from being a fancy-pants academic to a YA princessa?
I always wanted to be a YA princessa. How did you know? Wouldn't it be dreamy to be the Australian Meg Cabot?
But back when I was trying to figure out what to do for a living, I didn't fancy my chances, so I studied and became an academic. That way I could pay the rent and, you know, eat while I wrote on the side. It's always a good idea to have more than one way to earn money so that if one doesn't work out you can try something else. I also trained to be a massage therapist. (Didn't like it at all.)
I quit to become a freelance writer before I sold anything. It was terrifying and completely unwise. I don't recommend it to anyone. But within six months of going freelance I sold the MAGIC OR MADNESS trilogy. Phew, eh?
That was in 2003. Sounds magical and instantaneous, doesn't it? But I'd been writing for years and years and years before that. I have gazillions of short stories that never sold. And the novel I started in 1988 and finished in 1999 still hasn't sold either.
Having been raised in the bush must have had a great impact on Reason's personality. Have you yourself spent a great deal of time in the further reaches of Australia, and if so, what was that like?
My parents are anthropologists and they did a fair amount of field work in the Northern Territory of Australia which is the area with the largest indigenous population. It's also much poorer than the rest of Australia. When I was little I went on two of those trips. It was about a year altogether but it's the part of my childhood I remember the most vividly so it feel like I was there much longer. It was a whole other world---filled with hunting and fishing and condensed milk and, except for the wild plums, fruit out of tins and lots and lots and lots of dogs---nothing like the cities I grew up in.
Though at the same time the kids were just like city kids. Same petty fights and squabbles, same games of British Bulldog, Red Rover and hide'n'seek. Just as many smart and dumb and average kids. It's just that their school was terrible and their access to good health care woeful. For the first time I learned how incredibly lucky and privileged I was.
All the sections where Reason remembers her outback childhood are pillaged from my experiences. I haven't been back since I was nine, so I got my dad to check those bits (he goes back almost once a year). It was amazing how accurate my memories of the landscapes were. Usually my memory is pretty crap.
But, yes, Reason's weird and wonderful life had a huge impact on her, especially the constant moving. One of the things Reason learns in the trilogy is how to have friends. Because other than her mother she's never had any. The books are secretly about the importance of friendship and creating your own family. Much like BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.
(ed: you can read more about Justine's youthful outback adventures HERE and HERE.)
One of the most interesting things about the series is the magic system you've created. It's magical, sure, but it's also logical. Did the rules of this magic come to you at once, or did they develop as you were writing?
The basic rules---use it and die young or don't use it and go barking mad---were there from the beginning. I also knew from the beginning the magic would be very everyday. No flying, or reading people's minds or making things blow up. My magical talents are mathematical (Reason), geometrical (Tom)---hence his aptitude for fashion, and kinetic (Jay-Tee)---hence hers for dancing and running. But the specifics evolved as I wrote.
When you started writing, did you know that you would go from a rather grounded, "realistic magic" to a more surreal, freaky-deaky magic in the later books?
No. That was a shocking and horrifying turn of events. I hate that kind of magic! I've no aptitude for the abstract. I find books on philosophy incredibly hard to read and am usually bored by those fantasy books with abstract other worlds where the characters float in magic and can do whatever they want. Blerk.
But then I found myself was writing one. Though it was a bit more structured because it was based on various different mathematical landscapes and fortunately I was able to pare down the time spent there to the absolute minimum. Give me real worlds!
It was especially hard getting the balance right with Reason because as she becomes less human she also becomes less sympathetic. As a reader I find it very difficult to sympathise with characters who are losing what it is that makes them themselves---their humanity.
As a result MAGIC'S CHILD went through many, many, many drafts. I missed deadline after deadline as I struggled with it. I've never had such a hard time writing a book before. It's been a relief to hear from readers that not only do they not find those parts boring, but some of them even like those parts best. Colour me shocked!
The books are set in both the USA & Australia, and the integration of different slang and speech patterns was seamless and added a lot to the characters. Was it hard to switch voices?
Thank you! It's actually quite a relief to get out of one character's head and into the next. In MAGIC'S CHILD I was especially eager to get away from Reason and her scary fights and into Tom's head. Tom's the easiest, most relaxing character for me to write. He reminds me of quite a few boys I knew growing up. The ones who weren't obsessed with sport and weren't afraid to have friends who were girls. And he's dead funny.
Jay-Tee was hard for me to write. The rhythms in my head are all Australian, so I had to work to make her seem believably American. Fortunately, I have lots of native American speakers to check the Jay-Tee sections for me, not to mention my brilliant editors, Eloise Flood and Liesa Abrams as well as the copyeditors and proofreaders.
I've heard that you are actually lousy at math. But your main character, Reason, is all about math! So... did you actually have to learn math to write her, or did you just have to learn how to fake knowing about it... (if that makes sense)?
I can barely add up. It's shocking. I spent a lot of time looking at basic maths sites aimed at primary school students. It was a stretch though whenver I tried sites that went beyond a fifth grade level. Don't laugh!
I also read books on the golden ratio and primes. The ones that didn't make my head explode were Marcus Du Sautoy's gorgeously written THE MUSIC OF THE PRIMES and Mario Livio's THE GOLDEN RATIO. I didn't understand the really mathy parts of the Du Sautoy and the Livio but they gave me a feel for how it is to be in love with numbers and patterns---for the magic of them. And the history of prime numbers is fascinating.
I learned a lot, but I'm still basically innumerate. Tragically so. And I mean that. Having read those books and written the trilogy I have an understanding of what I'm missing out on. There truly is another world out there. Whole mathematical worlds. That's the world Reason retreats into in MAGIC'S CHILD. It's a world I will never visit, which makes me really sad.
I know your books are being published in other countries as well as the US. How does that work? Are you involved in the foreign editions? Do you have to work with multiple editors, and if so, what is that like?
Rights have sold to Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Taiwan and Thailand. I have to pinch myself when I think about. I'm going to be read in other languages!
Naturally, I worked closely with my Australian publishers. My home market is the one most important to me even though it's teeny compared to the US market. We made little changes like dropping the glossary---Australians know what Oz words mean and they're pretty solid on the US ones too---and some of the Aussie slang they deemed too old-fashioned. I also do some kind of publicity for Penguin Australia whenever I'm home.
I've met my Brazilian, French, and Italian publishers. All of them are lovely. But so far I've not heard from any of my translators. It's early days though. The only editions to come out so far are the French and Taiwanese versions of MAGIC OR MADNESS.
I would love to hear from my translators. I'm fascinated by how they get around the two different versions of English in the trilogy. An Israeli publisher contacted me to say that while he loved MAGIC OR MADNESS it was untranslatable into Hebrew because they don't have any dialects because the language is too new.
Lots of people say that their editors or agents are the ones that decided to market their book as YA. Did you know you were writing YA when you began?
Yes. Conceived, written and sold as YA. I've always read and loved YA, so it was natural to start writing it. Now that I've had books published I love the YA world even more because I've started to meet some of the awesome librarians and booksellers---such as yourself---who do such amazing work supporting and promoting the genre. You all rock!
And then there's the readers. I've had letters from kids as young as eleven and as old as seventy writing to tell me what they think of my books. Their letters are a totally unexpected bonus to becoming a published writers. I love being in conversation with folks who've not only read my books, but other YA, and get what I'm trying to do and the world I'm part of.
I plan to keep on writing YA for the rest of my life. Even if they stop publishing me I'll keep writing it.
There's some extraordinary writing coming out of Australia. What do you think accounts for it?
We're prolific readers. Like New Zealanders we read way more than any other English speaking nation and I imagine write more too. Both nations are bursting with bookish people. Hence us having extraordinary writers like Ursula Dubosarsky, Sonya Hartnett, Margo Lanagan, and Garth Nix. Then there's New Zealand's Elizabeth Knox and Margaret Mahy. (Along with Diana Wynne Jones, Margaret Mahy is the goddess of YA.) I'm convinced that New Zealand has more talented people per capita than anywhere else in the world. You should see their jewellery and clothes and art. Not to mention all the top athletes and scientists they produce.
What books (besides your own) do you think NYMBC members would adore?
Everything by the Aussies and Kiwis I listed above. Also I've recently been blown away by Coe Booth's TYRELL. It's extraordinary, poetic, joyful, sad, bleak, perfect. Booth made me care about a boy who reminded me of some of the total dropkick macho boys I went to school with. That's quite an achievement. I couldn't stand those boys! And everyone must read Megan Whalen Turner's ATTOLIA trilogy. Better than any drug you care to name.
Lightning Round:
Let's play favourites!
* cricket team!
Depends when, but right now I'd have to say Bangladesh. They're young and playing some very smart cricket right now. They're unlikely to win any major tournaments any time soon but I just love to see people and teams and countries achieving beyond what's expected of them.
* lady science fiction author, pre-1960!
Margaret St Clair
* exotic fruit!
Hah! Mangosteens, of course. Fruit of the gods!
* mode of transport!
Bicycle. I don't have one in New York. I miss my bicycle!
* comic book artist!
Osamu Tezuka and Ai Yazawa
* marsupial!
Platypus
* time of day!
Midnight.
* beverage!
Water
* city!
Buenos Aires. It's unbelievably beautiful and the food and wine and music and everything is fabulous beyond words. I can't wait to go back.
* bookstore!
Oh, no, I can't answer that one! I have too many dear friends, like you, who work at or own too many fabulous bookshops around the world. Whatever I answer I'll be in trouble with someone.
OK, OK, fair enough. Is there anything else you wish I had asked?
Nope. These were fabby questions. You got me thinking about stuff I hadn't before. Also you made me realise that I forgot to thank the authors of those maths books in the acknowledgments of the trilogy. I am a horrible human being! I wonder if I can correct that for later editions?
Thank you!
NO, thank YOU!
For more excitement, visit Justine's excellent blog, or add her on MySpace. But if you haven't read the books yet, you should BUY THEM, READ THEM & LOVE THEM!
ETA: 14 May 2007 - Justine just won the Andre Norton award! Congratulations, Miss J!
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