Lili Wilkinson's Blog, page 14
June 13, 2010
On Making Stuff
I get antsy if I'm not making something. It doesn't have to be a novel, although often it is. Things I've made (or worked on) this last weekend include
-8 squares of my epic string quilt (126 squares done, only 270 to go!)
-some hexagons for a much much smaller quilt
-pumpkin soup
-a proposal for an anthology
-new spaces to put things
I think we all like to make. My friends make TV, clothes, blogs, tweets, plans, postcards, music, stories, babies and amazing food. My dad makes environments...
June 6, 2010
It wasn't like that when I was young
The young generation has practically brought itself up. School discipline, since the abolition of corporal punishment, has become almost nominal; church discipline practically nil; and even home discipline, although retaining the forms, is but an empty shell. The modern child from the age of ten is almost his own boss.
The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint … As for...
June 3, 2010
Proust Questionnaire
This comes via Simmone Howell, who is currently in residence on Inside a Dog.
THE PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE
What is your most marked characteristic?
Bluntness.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
Honesty.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Intelligence.
What do you most value in your friends?
Extreme, loving silliness.
Selfishness.
Making stuff with words, wool or fabric.
What is your idea of perfect...
June 1, 2010
Edits
I've just finished reading the galleys for the US publication of PINK. It's been very exciting, and I can't wait to share the cover with you.
You hear so many stories about Aussie books being scarily Americanised and sanitised when they move over to the US. I was a bit afraid that my American editor was going to say something like.
So we really love this book about a lesbian wondering if she might secretly like boys. But we were thinking it might be better if she was… a vegetarian who secretly...
May 30, 2010
Dogs or dancing?
This weekend I spent a lot of time interpreting countries through things that aren't really very representative of them. Specifically, the Dachshund UN at Melbourne Museum, and Eurovision.
I'm not going to tell you about the artistic justification behind the Dachshund UN, because frankly it's more fun without it. And it provided opportunities to say things like:
The US is invading the Netherlands!
Madagascar and Burkina Faso seem to be staging a coup!
Japan is having a scratch.
Russia appears to...
May 28, 2010
When did we decide that love isn't serious?
One of the biggest criticisms hurled against books for girls/women is that "they're just about romance". As if romance (and by extension, love) is just a frothy, insubstantial, silly thing that isn't worthy of discussion or exploration.
Love affects every single person on the planet, more personally and profoundly than war or catching big whales or dead girls in country towns. And it doesn't just happen to girls. Boys fall in love too. We all do. It's part of our evolutionary reason for...
May 26, 2010
Pink. Ranty. Etc.
Meg Rosoff has shared some of her thoughts on the Queen of Teen book award.
Bags or shoes?? Why, people, WHY? Why is so much marketing to girls swaddled in sparkly pink and demeaning language?
I think there's a few steps in between talking about shoes and becoming entirely imprisoned by the male gaze. I like shoes. I like to look pretty. I'm not ashamed of that. I don't let it dictate how I live my life, or how much I eat, or inform any of my life decisions.
Here are some thoughts by other p...
May 25, 2010
Company of Angels
Remember how I wrote a book called Angel Fish? Well you can now buy it in the UK, except it's called Company of Angels. It looks like this:
I love those marching kids in silhouette!
May 24, 2010
May 23, 2010
A few thoughts about sport
1. I suck at it.
2. People who are good or even just reasonably okay at sport will tell you this doesn't matter. That they don't care if they win or lose, it's just fun to play.
3. Except when you really, really suck at it, it isn't fun to play. It isn't fun because you never catch or hit a ball. You always got picked last (or second last) at school. People used to say "hit it towards Lili, she'll never catch it". And because even if it's just fun backyard cricket, you feel like you're letting ...
