Jim C. Hines's Blog, page 199

Real Men

Catherynne Valente recently posted two essays about gender issues, both of which are worth reading.1

"If you watch these ads, and mainstream sitcoms, you see this place. This place where men and women can barely stand each other long enough to have mutually unfulfilling sex and procreate. Where women are the sole source of everything irritating and wrong in a man's life, plus she's never hot enough, plus you have to, like, interact with her sometimes."

It's gotten me thinking about masculinity ...

When to Walk Away

Since a number of people said I should go ahead and do it, I've created a Jim C. Hines Fan Page over on Facebook.  I blame you all.

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I found myself in several Internet squabbles last week.  One started on Twitter after one of my #Amazonfail posts.  In that case, the other person and I swapped e-mails, and that was the end of it.  I don't think we changed each other's minds, but it gave me another perspective to think about, and I appreciate that.

Another didn't go so well.  This was someone I k...

A Gathering of Doorways, by Michael Jasper

A little while back I received a review copy of A Gathering of Doorways [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] by Michael Jasper.  Mike is someone I've known online almost since I started writing.  He's a good guy, and a very good writer.  (See my reviews of The Wannoshay Cycle and his excellent collection Gunning for the Buddha.)

In Doorways, Gil and Melissa and their son Noah are trying to make a living on their new farm, despite the strange, toxic water slowly encroaching onto their land.  One ...

Friday Roundup

[image error]I posted yesterday that I didn't know when I'd be able to share the cover art for Red Hood's Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon].  The answer, apparently, was "very, very soon."  I spotted the cover at B&N, then received a cleaner copy from DAW.  Click the thumbnail for a larger version.

As noted before, we had to switch artists in mid-series.  This was done by Mel Grant (who also did my goblin covers).  The cover for Mermaid remains my favorite, but I think he did a great job making...

I Don't Know

I don't know how much e-books should cost.  I've read arguments for sliding-scale prices.  I know lots of people don't want to pay over a certain price.  I don't have an answer.

I don't know whether Macmillan's agency agreement would be better for authors and readers than some other approach.

I don't know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop.

I don't know whether people are going to love Snow Queen.

I don't know where I get my ideas.

I don't know when I'll be able to ...

Books!!!

It's a new month, which means new books to read!  In a purely self-interested move, let's start with the one that has my story in it.

* A Girl's Guide to Guns and Monsters [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] is … well, pretty much what it sounds like. Urban fantasy women, weapons, and monsters.  Including my story "Heart of Ash," also known as the werejaguar/dryad story.  Anton Strout and Tanya Huff also have stories in this one.

* Next up we have the mass market release of The Horsemen's...

E-book Privilege

I've been thinking about e-books a lot lately, for some reason.  (Amazon still hasn't restored Macmillan titles, last I checked.)  In particular, there's a debate in the SFWA Lounge about the shift from printed books to electronic.

I think we're in a very dynamic time.  E-books are changing, and we're waiting to see who's going to be the dinosaurs and who's going to follow the superior evolutionary path of the  platypus.  Will multipurpose devices (iPad, smartphones) do away with...

Sunday Roundup

1. At 10:00 p.m. last night, I typed "THE END" on the first draft of Snow Queen.  First draft is done!!!  So, time to start reading and marking things up for rewrite #1.

2. HUGE thanks to everyone who suggested titles for Snow Queen.  You had some wonderful ideas, and I've e-mailed my top picks as well as a few crowd favorites to my editor.  I'll let you know what I hear back.

3. Catherine Shaffer believes I should be smothered with a pillow in my sleep for writing "The Creature in Your...

Macmillan vs. Amazon

So the writerly block of the Internet is up in arms after all of publisher Macmillan's books (including major SF/F publisher Tor) vanished from Amazon.

According to a blogger at the New York Times:

I've talked to a person in the industry with knowledge of the dispute who says the disappearance is the result of a disagreement between Amazon.com and book publishers that has been brewing for the last year. Macmillan, like other publishers, has asked Amazon to raise the price of electronic books...

Search for the Snow Queen's Title

Following up on yesterday's post, for anyone interested in publishing industry numbers, one of my readers provided a link to Bowker's 2009 industry statistics.  This doesn't provide numbers sold, but does show the number of new books in various categories.  Worth a look, for anyone interested in this stuff.

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So the princess series is going to be four books long.  Three of these books have titles:

The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy]
[Amazon | Mysterious...