Jim C. Hines's Blog, page 194

Books and Squirrel

Two new books out today from friends of mine.

 

Feed [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon], by Mira Grant, also known as Seanan McGuire (of Rosemary & Rue fame)1.  From the Publishers Weekly Starred Review:

Twin bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason and their colleague Buffy are thrilled when Sen. Peter Ryman, the first presidential candidate to come of age since social media saved the world from a virus that reanimates the dead, invites them to cover his campaign. Then an event is attacked by zombies…

...

Everybody was Kung Fu Writing

Okay, so I'm actually studying Sanchin-Ryu, not Kung Fu, but I liked the subject line.  I spent Sunday afternoon at our first spring workshop.  Hundreds of students, lots of senseis and masters, and three hours of instruction and workout.

Lately, I've been thinking more about the parallels between writing and martial arts.  I riffed on this a year ago with a Writer as Martial Artist post at SF Novelists.  Both writing and martial arts require a great deal of practice and discipline.  With...

Random LOL Book

I haven't done a LOL book in ages.  Heck, a good chunk of my readers probably found me after I stopped doing 'em.  But what can I say — I saw this cover, and was struck by inspiration.  The book is Day of the Minotaur, by Thomas Burnett Swann.

The full LOL Book archives are available via http://jimhines.livejournal.com/tag/lol

Authors Behaving Badly?

So, informal poll time — is this a spoof/satire, or a legitimate author blog?

http://rejectionqueen.blogspot.com/

She mentions having a novel coming out, but I can't find any info on it, which suggests spoof to me.  I'm not sure, though. Most authors are fairly reasonable about rejections, but Rejection Queen wouldn't be the first to flip out and shoot her career in the foot.  With a bazooka. Just see this post from agent Colleen Lindsay:

Family Blogging

Want to see something scary?  Here's my web site as it appeared back in 1999.  At the time, I had sold only a handful of short stories, and was pretty much an unknown.  The site was a blend of writing and personal, as you can see by the Photo Album link.  (Only about half the pages on the archived site are still live.)  Later on, I added more photos for friends and family, including pics of my daughter.

As my writing career progressed, the site shifted more toward the writing, but I still...

State of the Author

Want a peek into the wackiness of author brain? Okay, first of all, here are the things I'm working on right now:

The Snow Queen's Shadow — 42,000 words into the second draft
Synopses for three books in a new series — I have some rough ideas for book one, and tentative titles for all three
Article for the SFWA Handbook — need to review and finalize that one

Compared to many of my author friends, it's a modest list.  But it's enough to keep me busy.  Now guess which one of these projects my...

Health Care Thought

There's a Democratic Congressman named Jim Himes in Connecticut who voted for Obama's health reform plan.  As a result, for months now, my Google Alerts have been sending me angry blog posts and web pages by spelling-impaired "real patriots" reacting to Himes' endorsement of this socialist plot.

I haven't written much about the health care debate, and I'm not planning to do a full-blown rant here.  However, for those of you who are my fans and readers, here are a few projects you might have...

Winners and More Answers

The not-a-raffle raised just over $1500 for rape crisis centers.  More than that, actually, since for at least part of this month RAINN has been matching donations, meaning much of your generosity was doubled.  Not to mention everyone who donated goods to shelters, or offered their time as volunteers.  Y'all are awesome, incredible people.  Thank you!

73 people entered the drawing.  Congratulations to Elektra, who won an autographed ARC of  Red Hood's Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy |

Birthday Blogging

Today's my birthday.  So what did ya get me?

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Today is also the last day to participate in the not-a-raffle for rape crisis centers.  So far, we've raised $1265!  My thanks to everyone who's donated.  Tomorrow I'll be drawing names and giving out an autographed ARC of Red Hood's Revenge, as well as a copy of Heroes in Training.

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Yesterday brought a royalties spreadsheet from my agent.  I'm happy to say that all three goblin books have earned out and are paying royalties, and Stepsister...

The Great Rape Conspiracy

comrade_cat posted about an article by Heather MacDonald called The Campus Rape Myth, which takes on the "campus rape industry."  Warning: reading the article is likely to significantly raise your blood pressure.

MacDonald spews more than 6000 words to "debunk" college rape as a ridiculously overblown myth fueled by false reports, radical feminist research, and slutty college girls.

She's not alone in her beliefs.  I remember a response to one of my own rape posts, in which a man said he liked ...