Jim C. Hines's Blog, page 148

Fundraising for Rape Crisis Centers

April is sexual assault awareness month.

This is something that's very important to me. I've written a fair amount about rape over the years, but a lot of it comes down to:

Rape is a horribly common crime
As a society, we tend to punish victims while excusing or defending many perpetrators of rape
While the individual rapist is always responsible for his (or her) crimes, there are cultural/societal reasons rape continues at such a frequent rate
Survivors of rape deserve support, no matter what

For several years, I've run a fundraiser and given out signed books to encourage people to donate to rape crisis centers. In the past, I've given out autographed books to people who donate, but this year I wanted to go even bigger. So I've talked to some author friends, and the net result is that you could win a lot more books this year, depending on how much money we raise.

I'll post a running total here throughout the month. The more money we raise, the more prizes I'll throw into the pot. Right now, we're covered through $3000 with a total of seventeen incredible, autographed books. If we raise more money, then I'll just have to round up more authors and prizes.

TOTAL RAISED AS OF 4/11/2012: $342

The prizes so far and the amount we have to raise to add them to the giveaway are as follows:

$0 - An ARC of Libriomancer , by Jim C. Hines
$250 - Blue Magic , by Alyx Dellamonica
$500 - The Unexpected Miss Bennet , by Patrice Sarath
$750 - A book from Anton Strout (an ARC of Alchemystic or, if the ARCs aren't ready, a copy of Dead to Me )
$1000 - Of Blood and Honey & And Blue Skies from Pain by Stina Leicht
$1250 - A Magic of Twilight (hardcover) from S.L. Farrell
$1500 - Range of Ghosts , by Elizabeth Bear
$1750 - The Cloud Roads and The Serpent Sea , by Martha Wells
$2000 - Hardcovers of Twilight's Dawn and Bridge of Dreams , by Anne Bishop
$2500 - With Fate Conspire & an ARC of A Natural History of Dragons , by Marie Brennan
$3000 - The Vineart Trilogy (hardcover) by Laura Anne Gilman
$3500 - ???

Thanks so much to all of the authors who offered books!

The rules:

You can donate to your local rape crisis center, or if you prefer, to an organization like RAINN. Most places will take donations online.

To enter, send an e-mail to endrape@jimchines.com.

Let me know how much you donated so I can update the total. You can donate any amount, from $1 to $10,000 or more.
If you donate at least $50, please include some sort of documentation (e-mail or electronic receipt, something like that).
Make sure to include your mailing address!

Now, Michigan law prohibits unlicensed raffles, meaning I can't require donations to enter. Therefore, if you can't donate anything at all, you can still e-mail me to enter the giveaway. But for those who can, please try to give at least a few bucks.

Winners will be selected at random on May 1. If there are particular books you'd like, please mention them in your e-mail, in order of priority. But I can't guarantee anything. I'm planning to pick winners and prizes like so:

Randomly draw winner #1. If they asked for a specific book, that's what they win. Otherwise, they get the first one on the list (Libriomancer).
Randomly draw winner #2. If they asked for a specific book and it's available, that's what they win. Otherwise, they get whatever's next on the list.
And so on and so forth, until all the prizes have homes.

I hope that's clear. If anyone has questions, please let me know.

Finally, I'd very much appreciate it if people could spread the word about the fundraiser and giveaway.

Sharing my Own Privileged Dumbassery

This is going to come as a tremendous shock to people, particularly my wife and children, but I am not, in fact, perfect.

When I write about things like sexism, racism, bullying, homophobia, etc. in SF/F circles or society in general, I do it because I believe it's important. But I also do it because it's personal, both because so many people I love and care about are directly affected by these things, and because — having grown up in this society — I'm still working on my own assumptions and behaviors.

I came across a blog post discussing the Hugo nominations. (I'm trying to avoid these discussions, because they do bad things to my brain, but that's a mess for another post.) In this one, someone was pointing out that for the past six years, the Best Fan Writer category has had only a single female nominee each year (or in 2007, no women at all).

As I read, that privileged, sexist crap I complain about came crashing through my head. My brain was a bingo card of dumbassery.

Wait, is she saying I only got on the ballot because I'm a guy?
People shouldn't vote based on gender. It should be about the writing!
Why oh why has fandom declared War on Penises?

Okay, I'm exaggerating with that last one. The point is, my initial, gut-level response was to take it personally, and to go through some of the same reactions that piss me off when I see or hear them from others.

You know what? They piss me off when they come from me, too. Because the poster is absolutely right. There are brilliant, powerful, amazing women writing out there, and it speaks ill of us that we're not recognizing more of them.

Nobody's saying I only got on the ballot because I'm a guy. I don't believe anyone looked at their Hugo ballot and said, "Well, I like Cat Valente, but Jim Hines has a Y chromosome, so I'm nominating him instead. Go Team Penis!"

But does the fact that I'm a guy give me an advantage? Yeah, it does. I have more freedom to write whatever I like, with less fear of backlash. I'm given more respect and authority when I write, I'm taken more seriously.

That's not a comfortable thing for me to acknowledge. I want to believe that everything I've achieved has come 100% from my own inherent awesomeness … but it just ain't so.

This doesn't change the fact that I'm a good writer. (That's right, I said fact! My ego blows raspberries at the haters!) It doesn't change how honored I feel to be on that ballot. It doesn't diminish the things I've achieved. What it does is start to acknowledge the reality of the context in which I've achieved those things, the advantages I've been given.

None of us are perfect, and most of us have absorbed ideas, beliefs, and attitudes that we need to work on. It's hard, sometimes painful work to dig up and examine those beliefs, and to start to change our behaviors.

But it's important work. And it's work I hope and expect to be doing until the day I die.

Deadline, by Mira Grant

I picked up a copy of Deadline [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] last fall. It's one of my favorite autographed books, inscribed to Jim "Bite me" Hines, which puts it right up there with the one John Scalzi signed to me as his thong buddy. Deadline is on the Hugo ballot for Best Novel, so this seems like the perfect time to talk about the book.

This is book two in Grant's Newsflesh trilogy. (I talked about book one here.) And there's no way to talk about it without major spoilers for book one, so it's cut tag time.

Book one was told from the point of view of Georgia Mason, a young blogger/reporter following the presidential campaign … up until a conspiracy resulted in her being infected with live Kellis-Amberlee virus, at which point her brother Shaun shot her in the back of the head to prevent her from rising as a zombie.

Book two is from Shaun's perspective, and he is broken. Not damaged. Not grieving. Broken. He converses with his dead sister every day, and George talks right back. He's now in charge of their news organization, but he's mostly given up on the daredevil antics of his old Irwin days. He fully expects to die–at times he seems to look forward to it–but first he's going to find whoever was behind the conspiracy that led to George's murder, and then he's going to kill them a lot. When a doctor from the CDC arrives on his doorstep after faking her death, Shaun and his team set out to find the truth.

This is very much the middle book of a trilogy. You don't have the Shiny Newness of exploring a new world like you do in book one, and you don't get the closure and resolution I'm looking forward to in book three. There are revelations, there are twists, and there are lots and lots of zombies. The stakes get significantly higher, with plenty of "Oh, shit!" moments both for the individual characters and for the whole messed-up world.

One revelation I particularly appreciated was the reason the villain from book one felt rather over-the-top by the end. That bugged me in book one, but makes a bit more sense now.

What made this book for me was the character of Shaun, a very different kind of walking dead man. He's fully aware of how damaged he is. He takes stupid risks, lashes out at his team, talks to and occasionally even sees his dead sister. I spent much of the book wondering if he could ever come back from this, or if the trilogy is going to end with Shaun's death. At the same time, his obsession and his damage make him the perfect person to search for the truth, as any sane person would probably have run like hell the first time the bad guys firebombed an entire town to try to protect their secrets…

I talked to my wife (a licensed counselor) about Shaun's reactions, and she said the kind of conversations he's having with his dead sister would be unusual, but certainly not unheard of.  So kudos to Grant for getting the psych piece right.

I only had a few nitpicks about the book. For my taste, there were a few too many scenes where Shaun was talking to George and making others uncomfortable because "Shaun's crazy." And while I know perfectly well this is the middle book, I like closure, dammit! But I also recognize that's not what this book is.

If you read and enjoyed Feed, then I'd definitely recommend Deadline too. And if you do, you should probably go ahead and preorder Blackout as well…

Discussion welcome, as always! I can't say whether or not I'll vote for this one for the Hugo, because I haven't read the others yet, but I'd love to hear what people think.

Hugo Announcement

Also, I saw Saturn last night with the telescope, which makes the weekend even better.

Link to the Hugo Awards site.

You'll Probably Ignore Me Because I'm An Evil Straight White Dude, But…

Dear Internets,

Please do me a favor. If you ever find yourself speaking or typing words like the ones above? Shut up and walk away.

Cat Valente wrote a powerful post about Gender and the Fallout Over Christopher Priest, comparing the responses Priest received with the much more vicious, hateful threats and attacks women receive for similar posts.

Naturally, one of the commenters jumped in with, "I'll probably get vilified for saying this, but I'm a guy…" Just in case you missed the point, he added, "Unfortunately, I'm a guy, and so far as I can tell, therefore I'm evil."

I've seen this preemptive crap a lot lately. Look dude - it's not that you're a guy. It's not that you're white or straight or whatever. It's that you're being an dumbass and a coward.

A dumbass because nobody is saying anything about guys all being evil! Go read Valente's post and show me where she says men are evil. Show me where anyone in the comments says it. Take your time, I've got all day. Nobody said it, nobody suggested it, and if you really believe that's what's going on, then I have very little hope for you, but I'd be happy to recommend some remedial reading courses.

A coward because in most cases, I suspect you know perfectly well that nobody's saying that. You don't actually believe Valente is suggesting all men are evil. You're saying it to protect your ego. Because by preemptively writing crap like, "I know you're all going to dogpile me for being male," you've given yourself an excuse. Everyone who points out that your argument is full of crap isn't doing it because you're an ignorant, misinformed, condescending jackass. They're just doing it because you're a guy.

Bullshit.

Let me break it down as simply as possible.

1) Blogger writes a post pointing out the inequality in how men and women are treated online. She gives multiple examples of women who receive threats of rape and death, where men receive far less viciousness.

2) Random dude reads this post and immediately feels defensive and attacked as a man.

Why is that, I wonder? Is it because harassing and abusing women is, in your opinion, part of being a man? Is it because you've personally done things like this and you dislike being called on it? What is it that makes you read this as a personal attack on your gender?

Because you know what? If you haven't done these things, then it's not about you! And if you have, then it's not about you being a guy; it's about you being an asshole.

Like I said, it's not just one commenter. It's one person after another pulling out this same rhetorical garbage, and it's tiresome.

Enough from me. Go read Valente's post, if you haven't already. I'd also recommend Seanan McGuire's follow-up thoughts about gender and literature.

Harry Potter, Reviewed by Jackson (Age 7)

For months, we've been reading the Harry Potter books to our kids every night before bed. They get through a book, and then they watch the movie. (And then they talk about all the things that got left out or changed.)

My son Jackson is particularly into Harry Potter right now. He dressed up as Harry Potter for Halloween, had a Harry Potter themed birthday party, and recently created a book poster about Harry Potter for a school project. He also routinely casts spells around the house. (We've learned to use this to our advantage when we want him to come here. "Accio Jackson" works great.")

They've finished the first six books/movies and are starting number seven, and I figured I'd ask him about his thoughts so far. What follows is all his words, with any comments from me in parentheses.

What are the Harry Potter books about?

It's about Harry, Ron and Hermione trying to kill Voldemort. Voldemort is the bad guy. But Harry does need some help from Ron and Hermione.

What's your favorite Harry Potter book?

The Sorcerer's Stone, because it's the very first one. That's the most exciting book. And because the only part that's scary is the last part.

You don't like the scary parts?

Well, I kind of do and I kind of don't. In most of the scary parts, Harry's battling Voldemort or one of the Death-Eaters. It's scary and exciting. But sometimes some of the good guys die, and I don't like that.

What was your least favorite book?

I think it was the fourth book, because the editor didn't do much! (This answer makes me laugh, but it's possible he might have picked up this particular opinion from me and my wife…)

Who is your favorite character?

Harry Potter! (To truly appreciate this answer, you'd have to imagine the "Duh, Dad!" tone and expression.)

What do you think about the romance, like Ron and Hermione, or Harry and Ginny?

::Laughs:: I like them. Just because.

Which is better, the books or the movies?

The books. Because they got the idea for the movies from the books. Plus, in the movies, sometimes they fast forwarded through a bunch of parts, like in the third movie they fast forwarded through almost all of it! Like one minute you're watching Harry, Ron, and Hermione and then poof! They find out that Serious, Pettigrew, and James are animaguses!

(I love this answer!)

What do you think about Snape?

I don't like him! He killed Dumbledore! (I'm very interested to see what the kids think by the end of book seven.)

Who's your favorite character who isn't Harry Potter?

Ron, because he was Harry's first friend.

What would you do if you were a wizard?

I'd probably decide to be an auror and fight Death-Eaters!

Who do you think should read these books?

Everybody!

What is it about these books that everyone likes so much?

Because there's a bunch of magic. Even if something is a mile away, just point your wand in the right direction and say Accio, and it comes to you. Unless it's protected.

Buy My Book

Buy My Book

by Jim C. Hines

(To the tune of "Be Our Guest," with apologies to Disney)

Congratulations to you, brand new author,

on the publication of your masterpiece.

And now I invite you to stop, step back, and listen

as readers throughout the world beg you: Please don't be…

That Guy.

Buy my book!

Buy my book!

Just a dollar on your Nook!

Click the banner large and flashing please.

Oh, won't you take a look?

It has twists!

It has turns!

(True, my prose makes eyeballs burn…)

Try one chapter.

You'll be hooked!

(Though my plot is undercooked.)

Wait don't leave, please don't go,

It has wizards, don't you know?

Sparkling wizards fighting in the Famine Games!

Won't you just read the prologue?

Or the praise on my blog?

Buy my book,

Buy my book,

Buy my book!

When I go

to a con,

don't care what the panel's on.

I digress and push my book until

the topic's long foregone.

Afterward,

off I zoom!

I'll be in the dealer's room.

Stalking everyone who passes,

selling my book to the masses!

"Don't read her. Don't buy that.

This book here is where it's at!"

And I'll follow you all day

to wear you down.

Come on and grab your cash

I'm better than that trash,

so buy my book.

You look shook.

Just relax and take a look.

Buy my book!

Buy my book!

Buy my book!

Life is oh so stressful,

When I'm feeling unsuccessful,

As I wait for fame and glory. It's my due!

Where are my movie deals and fawning groupies?

When will all my writing dreams come true?

Five years I've been shilling,

pushing books at the unwilling.

I won't stop until I've sold this book to you.

Every night I dream about the future.

I'll be rich and famous.

Buy my book, you ignoramus!

Buy my book!

Buy my book!

I wrote such a thrilling hook.

Just peruse all these reviews.

You can't refuse to take a look.

One from Mom.

Twelve from me.

(From my sock puppets, you see.)

Just ignore the one-star haters.

Jealous writers. My book's greater!

Copy, paste, and repost.

Normally I hate to boast,

but I'll spread the word across the Internet!

And when you shout "No spam!"

I'll just repost again,

So buy my book!

Buy my book!

Buy my book!

Buy my book!

Buy my book!

Would you please just take a look?

I can't sleep until my sales rankings go up

by hook or crook.

I'm obsessed,

yes it's true,

with selling my book to you.

And you know I'll just keep trying

'til you break down and start buying.

I won't leave,

I won't stop,

'til you call the nearest cop.

Then I'll thrust at you my homemade business card.

So if you enjoy reading,

then to you I'm pleading,

Buy my book!

Buy my book!

Buy my book!

Please, buy my book!

New Collection: Sister of the Hedge and Other Stories

I spent the weekend working on a new e-book collection titled Sister of the Hedge and Other Stories. Like Kitemaster and Goblin Tales, this one will be $2.99, and will be available on as many platforms as I can get it.

I have a little work left to do, but I'm hoping to post it for sale by the end of April. (To forestall any questions about why it's not on Amazon yet.)

The stories are:

Sister of the Hedge
In the Line of Duty
Heart of Ash
Bloodlines
Images of Death
Ours to Fight For

"Sister of the Hedge" is one of my first stories about the Sleeping Beauty myth, and while it's not canonical to the Princess books, readers will recognize a lot of the ideas. "Heart of Ash" is the story of a dryad, one with striking similarities to a character from Libriomancer (though again, this isn't a canonical prequel).

Overall, these are some of my more serious stories. Each one includes an author's note at the end. Author notes may or may not be serious.

Jenn Reese at Tiger Bright Studios helped me put the cover together. I've made some tweaks based on feedback I received on Facebook, but I'd love to hear what folks here think of it.

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In Defense of Christopher Priest

This week's genrefluffle is apparently Christopher Priest's scathing condemnation of the 2012 Clarke Award shortlist. At first I was planning to stay out of this one, on account of I don't care. Also, others have already responded, including folks like John Scalzi, Cat Valente, Jeff VanderMeer, and Charlie Stross. Stross is particularly wonderful here, by the way, and I hereby vow to respond to all my future haters in T-shirt form.

Hating on awards is nothing new, nor is mocking those who get a little too carried away with their hating. And Priest's post went up on the 28th. In Internet time, it's ancient history. What possible reason could I have to jump in and help beat this particular dead horse?

Well that's the difference between you and me, my friend. When I look at this, I don't see a dead horse. I see a delightful horse-shaped pinata full of– Well, it would probably be full of maggots and bloated organs, which is … yeah, that's just gross. Okay, I didn't really think this metaphor through.

But I'm gonna jump in anyway, and just to make it a challenge, I'm going to do my best to defend Mister Priest. And I'm doing this despite the fact that I've read ALMOST NONE OF THE BOOKS ON THE SHORTLIST!

First and foremost, "Have we lived and fought in vain?" is awesome. I love this rhetorical flourish, and I do think he makes a good point about some science fiction being stuck in the past. I've been to conventions obsessed with old dead white men, and I've hung out with the fans who don't seem to recognize that there exist books published after 1960. So he's got a point here. But even if you disagree, let's still show some respect for the flourish, people!

Of Charles Stross, Priest writes:

Stross writes like an internet puppy: energetically, egotistically, sometimes amusingly, sometimes affectingly, but always irritatingly, and goes on being energetic and egotistical and amusing for far too long. You wait nervously for the unattractive exhaustion which will lead to a piss-soaked carpet.

Little known fact: When I first met Charlie Stross, he licked my hand, humped my leg, then ran off to chew on my jacket. So I find this characterization utterly appropriate. Unless that leg-humping thing was all part of a sugar-induced hallucination… I remember Cory Doctorow being there too. He was dressed up like Catwoman and screaming, "Copyright stole my girlfriend in 6th grade! I swore I would have my revenge!" Then he swelled up like a blueberry.

Upon further consideration, strike that last paragraph. Let's move on to the fact that China Mieville has won the award three years running, and could now win it for a fourth time.

I do think there comes a time when, if you keep giving an award to the same person year after year, it starts to lose meaning. Unfortunately, I see no way of remedying this problem, because China Mieville is TOO DAMN SEXY. Imagine those poor judges, trying so hard to select books based on merit, all the while imagining Mieville's smoldering good looks…

In all seriousness, two of Priest's complaints appear to boil down to the fact that the works on this year's shortlist are rooted in the past and/or are simply competent, but not excellent.

In general, I think these are great guidelines for an award. I enjoy "comfort books," lighter, plot-driven stories with plenty of action and fun and rompiness, but I wouldn't necessarily consider them award-worthy. When I think of stories that deserve special recognition, I think of stories that bring something new, that go beyond what's been done before, and do so with excellence.

Now you could argue that "excellence" is all subjective, and that it's all just a matter of taste. You could do that, but it would be dumb. If you think quality is purely subjective, go read slush for any magazine or publisher, and do not return until you've seen the error of your ways.

Also, one book apparently has horse puns. To hell with that crap!

Now like I said, I haven't read most of these books, but when has lack of information ever stopped someone from talking on the internet? But the fact is, Priest is well-read, and lays out some arguments as for why other books were more worthy of recognition. That alone puts him ahead of a lot of internet rants, and while you might disagree with him, I don't see a problem with having the argument.

Of course, he goes on to say the awards should be cancelled this year, and that they should FIRE ALL THE JUDGES! He also wants the award renamed The Christopher Priest Award for Books that Don't Suck.1

Some people might say this is where Priest crosses the line from cranky rant to cartoonish supervillainy, but I disagree. Lots of people complain on the internet; far fewer offer concrete suggestions. You've got to give him props for offering an action plan.

My only complaint is that he didn't go far enough. Priest should have made an excellence-themed costume and kidnapped the Clarke judges, along with the prize money and trophy. (I'm assuming there's a trophy? I told you, I'm utterly ignorant here.) Then, from the security of his underwater volcano base, he could have broadcast his ultimatum to the SF/F world! SFWA would dispatch the crack team of Seanan McGuire and Mary Robinette Kowal to rescue the judges. Seanan's trained scuba-diving ninja velociraptors would take out Priest's laser-wielding team of squid, while Mary incapacitated the human guards using her extreme puppetry skills, all leading to a final confrontation involving a malfunctioning cyborg Stephenie Meyer.

And if that's not deserving of an award, I don't know what is.

In conclusion, I probably shouldn't write blog posts while overtired.

—



Not intended to be a factual statement. ↩

Promoting ALL THE THINGS!

I try not to go overboard with promotion here. I'll mention my own stuff, but I don't want to turn the blog into an infomercial. And while I like to share good books, promote friends, or just point people to projects I think are cool and should be supported, there's just too darn much going on to capture it all.

So this is my attempt to catch up on some of those things. Comments are open to talk about these or other books/projects I've missed that you want to promote.

#

Elizabeth Bear's fantasy novel Range of Ghosts [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] came out this week. I enjoyed this one, and reviewed it here.

Michael M. Jones is doing a Kickstarter project for Scheherazade's Facade: Fantastical Tales of Gender Bending, Cross-Dressing, and Transformation. He's already raised the $5000 he needs for the anthology, but is keeping the fundraiser open to see if he can do a second volume.

Juliet E. McKenna is trying her hand at self-publishing, and has released an e-book collection titled A Few Further Tales of Einarinn.

John Scalzi's book Fuzzy Nation came out in paperback this week. (He's also got a preview of his novel Redshirts up at Tor.com.)

Laura Anne Gilman is doing a Kickstarter for "Miles to Go" and "Promises to Keep," two new Cosa Nostradamus novellas.

Tales of the Emerald Serpent is another Kickstarter project. This one is a shared-world anthology, with authors like Lynn Flewelling, Harry Connolly, Juliet McKenna, Martha Wells, Robert Mancebo, and Julie Czerneda.

Bradley P. Beaulieu's e-book The Winds of Khalakovo is currently available for free on Amazon.

Seanan McGuire launched a new series this month with Discount Armageddon [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy]. Have I mentioned that one already? I can't even remember anymore. Haven't read it yet, but I heard Seanan read the first chapter, and it sounds like a lot of fun.

Stacia Kane's new Downside novel Sacrificial Magic [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] just came out too. I reviewed the first one in this series here.

Finally, and perhaps most randomly, Charlie Stross is selling Internet Puppy T-shirts. (This is in response to Christopher Priest's post here.)

#

So, what all am I forgetting?