Jim Gavin's Blog, page 2

A Year with My Celiac Kid

One year ago we discovered that my daughter had celiac disease, which means she can't eat gluten or it makes her very sick (gluten is a protein found in many common grains like wheat). After 1 year of dealing with it I have to say I think I would rather we had discovered she had some other problem, like being born without a foot or something like that.

People can at least understand when you don't have a foot, and you just get a plastic foot and you're good.

And you either have th...

Horror Tropes: Dead Ned

Possibly my least-favorite horror novel trope is what I call a "Dead Ned".

This is a character whose sole purpose is to die in the first chapter, killed by the Big Bad so that you will know that Dr. KnifePenis or whatever is SERIOUS BIZNISS. Usually described with Tom Clancy levels of detail regarding his appearance, life history, thoughts on current events, etc. Almost always some kind of lower-class white person, dumb as a bag of rocks and just as cliched in their portrayal.

Without...

A Month on Kindle and Other Things

So HBVK has been on Kindle for about a month. It hasn't quite exploded the face of the Internet, thanks to my Taoist marketing strategy of refusing to go against the flow of the Universe by promoting my book all the time. That's wu wei, baby. If it's gonna happen, it'll happen.

Yeah, well. I haven't squared the circle yet on how to tell people about my book without being annoying. Everyone I'm connected to on Facebook already knows about it and maybe already bought it...

Obituary: Jasper, 1999?-2014

Beloved pet and long-time candidate for Best Dog in the World Jasper passed away quietly in his sleep on the afternoon of Tuesday the 8th of July from an overdose of barbituates, in the company of his owners. He was approximately 16 years old. His health had been declining for some time and doctors advised that euthanasia would be more humane then attempting heroic measures. He was preceded in death by Jezebel, his wife and dam of his litter. He is survived by his issue, two of whom, Buster a...

HBVK NOW AVAILABLE ON KINDLE!

Yeah, and so is everything else. Hey, I'm still excited. More excited than I've been in a long time.

So now you can get it here. It also includes a preview of ARENA OF THE WOLF for those of you who haven't read it yet. For an older book I think the price is fair, the KDP (that's Kindle Direct Publishing) seems to be trying to move away from $1.99 and $2.99 books with some success. Turns out if your book's too cheap people will think of it accordingly.

Let me tell you a quick story. A few...

Grow Up

Note: all Amazon links in this blog post are affiliate links that make me some small amount of money. I am given to consider this venial as I'd rather you buy my books but my wife insists and anyway I'm warning you now. It doesn't cost you anything, after all and it's better than shitty ads that might put malware on your computer.

So Slate dropped this article before the weekend. It caused a kerfuffle, as it was intended to, but not a huge one, because no one really gives a damn about books ex...

Game of Who Cares?

Or as the Iron Sheik might say, "Game of Who Gives Fuck? More like Game of I Fuck You and Break Your Neck Like the True Bubba." He gets a little carried away but you get the idea.

I've read all the books AFAIK. I'm pretty sure the appearance of a new one would be big enough to get through the wilderness to my own private hermitage. Remember this series was started something like twenty years ago. To be honest I can't say for sure why I read through them all. Something about Martin's voice and...

What I've Been Up To Lately

In keeping with my resolve to avoid posting on wastes of time like Facebook as much as possible, here instead is the kind of stuff I would put there. Mostly what it says in the title.

Last weekend I watched an awesome movie, Rigor Mortis. Its original Cantonese title is "geung-si", literally "stiff corpse", translated to English as "Hopping Vampire". Chinese aren't great with snappy titles, if you didn't know. While they are rightly famous for the poetry, literature, art, music, etc., they als...

A thought.

My problem with writing these blog posts is that I hold very strong opinions but don't really have the cred to back them up.

I read, write, listen, Pay Fucking Attention (PFA, it's like my version of TCB, which I also use but of course don't own), no one will give a shit until I am receiving my Please Fucking Die Already Award from the Association of Asshole Writers. DOUBLE CANES, BITCH. I'M USING TWO CANES.

I'm sure most would count this a sign of total ignorance. They'd be right to do so exce...

Why the Hell Would You Want to do That?

I don't know how else to write about this, so how about I just tell you a story. I'll try to keep it to the good parts.

When I was in college, they had this program they called "the Experimental College" or EXCO for short. EXCO was one of those idealist hippie ideas that my alma mater was (and is) famous for - a school with no rules! Students teaching classes about any subject they wanted! TOWNIES teaching classes! The lion laying down with the lamb! etc., etc. It was dead easy to sign up to t...