Jim C. Hines's Blog, page 202

Follow-Ups

I wanted to thank everyone for the great comments and discussions from last week's posts — even the people who disagreed with me ;-)  Based on your comments, I wanted to follow up on a few things.

Booksignings: I'm annoyed at myself.  Rereading what I wrote, I looked at a number of factors, including the financial, the sneezers, and so on, but I completely omitted one of the other reasons I do these events — to connect with my readers.  Eight people made the effort to come out to Nicola's...

Happy Holidays!

I was hoping to be able to share the artwork for Red Hood's Revenge as a Christmas treat, but the final cover isn't ready yet.  However, I can probably get away with sharing this new icon I made today

I had been worried about switching cover artists in mid-series.  I was scared the characters wouldn't be recognizable.  You tell me — is this Snow, or is this Snow?

I'll probably be scarce for the next few days, doing the Christmas thing with my family.  All the best to everyone who's...

The Publishing Lottery and Other Insults

Dear Anonymous Commenter,

Thank you for taking the time to comment on my post about Self-Publishing Myths.  While the poor grammar and spelling were annoying, (something you might want to work on as you self-publish that second book), I was struck by this part of your comment:

"Lets be realistic- how many people get published through traditional publishers? When people used to ask me if i was published i would ask them if they had won american idol.
Its not about talent, its about pitching...

Are Booksignings Worth It?

Booksignings were always part of my mythic dream of the Published Author.  I couldn't wait to have my own flyer in the bookstore window, to be sitting there with a stack of my books.  A friend even bought me a fancy pen to use at my first signing.

[image error]One of my earliest booksignings was for the Five Star edition of Goblin Quest [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy].  Considering I was pushing a $25.99 hardcover by an unknown author, it went pretty well.  Much better than the one a month  later at B&N...

Thank You

Just got back from delivering books to the liaison for our local domestic violence shelter.  This is the fourth year I've collected books to be given out for the holidays, and once again I'm blown away by everyone's generosity.  There was a lot of good SF/F in there, as well as Seuss, an anime collection, some YA, mystery, romance … it's a wonderful mix of books, and will mean an awful lot to the families who receive them.

The only downside, of course, is that now I want to read them all.  So ...

Zombie Rhymes: Old Jane Horner

Old Jane Horner

by Jim C. Hines

Old Jane Horner

went to the coroner

to fetch her dead dog some brains.

But when she got there

the slabs were all bare

and so the dead dog had Jane's.

Diabetes Details 6: The Basics

• Book signing tonight at 7:00 at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor.  I'm sacrificing a tribble to the weather gods for a blizzard-free signing this time!

• This is why I shouldn't be allowed to play with Photoshop.  I end up making LJ icons and escalating the plotbunny wars.  (Help yourself to the icon, if you're interested.)

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I realized that after five diabetes posts, I had yet to talk about the basics of the disease.  Remember I'm not a doctor – everything that follows is based on my personal...

Guest Post at GFTW

Welcome to all of the new people who've started reading over the past weeks/months.  Please feel free to say hi and introduce yourselves!  Or not, if you prefer.  It's all good.

Today I'm going to point folks to the guest blog post I did at Grasping for the Wind.  From time to time, readers will ask me where they should go to buy an author's books.  Does it really matter if you buy from Amazon or the local independent?  Click over to GftW for my response.

And just because I haven't done it in a...

Girly Books

From time to time, I get an e-mail or a comment from male readers who enjoyed my goblin books, but are hesitant to pick up Stepsister Scheme or Mermaid's Madness because they look like they're for girls.

[image error]My reaction to this is all over the place.  The goblin books went over well with younger boys, and I can understand why a teenage boy might be hesitant to walk around with a book that has three women surrounded by swirling pastels on the cover.  I also think it sucks that we're still raising b...

Monday Pics

Saturday was my wife's birthday, so much of the weekend was spent doing things like making breakfast for her and the family, going out to birthday dinner with my parents, then going out to lunch the next day and watching a movie with just the two of us.  As a result, I spent zero time on things writing-related.  Nothing on Snow Queen, nothing on the new series proposal, and nothing for the blog.

Instead, have a picture of Flit with multicolored eyes beneath the Snoopy-infested Christmas...