Jim C. Hines's Blog, page 205

Friday Updates

• As insane as this week has been at work, it's been a very good writing week.  I just found out that my German publisher is picking up both Mermaid's Madness and Red Hood's Revenge.  Excellent!

• Also exciting, Red Hood's Revenge is up for pre-order on Amazon!  I'm told it's been there for a few weeks, which shows how distracted I've been.  Normally my obsessive surfing habits would have uncovered that much more quickly.

• Neil Gaiman has given me permission to make T-shirts of my 20 Neil...

The Enchantment Emporium, by Tanya Huff

Happy news!!!  The Mermaid's Madness [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] was the #1 paperback bestseller at both Mysterious Galaxy and Uncle Hugo's–two wonderful and well-known SF/F bookstores–for the month of October!

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I just finished reading The Enchantment Emporium [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] the latest novel by Tanya Huff.  I consider myself a pretty big fan of Huff's work.  She was doing awesome urban vampires when Stephenie Meyer was still learning to type. I love her Keeper series, her...

Annual Roundup of Humorous SF/F

October kicked my ass, but man, what a ride.  The Mermaid's Madness [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] came out at the start of the month.  I did my first-ever guest of honor stint at Icon.  There were signings and readings. I also did a final revision on Red Hood's Revenge, which I turned in on Sunday (woo hoo!)

I'm probably going to be playing catch-up for a while longer, but wanted to talk about one of the panel discussions we had at Icon, about humor in science fiction and fantasy.  I've...

Deadline Crunch

Red Hood's Revenge is not done yet.  Red Hood's Revenge needs to be done. Ergo, I will be unplugging (mostly) until this sucker is turned in.  I probably should have done this a few days ago, but ah well.

Have a great Halloween, all.  In the spirit of the holiday, have a haunted house, courtesy of Starwarsboy5.  Click the pic for the full set, as usual.

Rapists and Abusers

I've been reading various discussions about the gang-rape of a 15-year-old girl in California and the aftermath. One constant, as with almost every such conversation, has been the mindset when it comes to rapists and abusers.

There's a strong sense of us vs. them.  How could they do this? How could the bystanders just watch? I've come across various theories–they were poor and desperate, they were in a gang, they were drunk…

We want our villains to be easy to identify, like on TV.  We...

Book Roundup

I picked up a copy of Kelly McCullough's Cybermancy [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy], in the dealer's room this weekend and read it on the plane ride home.  I reviewed WebMage [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy], earlier this year, and Cybermancy was even better (which is how it should be).

Basically, if you liked the first book, you should definitely pick up the second.  Cybermancy brings back magical hacker Raven/Ravirn and his webgoblin companion and throws them into even more trouble than last time. ...

Icon, Part 1

• Garden Ninja is holding a sale–30% off everything, including Goblin Quest miniatures (as well as their nifty new Schlock Mercenary mini)!

• I'll be at Schuler Books in Grand Rapids tonight at 7:00 (the Alpine Ave. location) reading my muppet werewolf story and signing copies of The Mermaid's Madness [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] and anything else you'd care to buy or bring.

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So I survived my first Guest of Honor experience at Icon, and I'm still processing the whole experience.  I had a...

Guest of Honor Tips

I wanted to say thanks to everyone who chimed in on yesterday's post.  One of the things I love about my online community is that it's wonderful for support and for reality-checking–in this case, the reminder that envy is human, and that in fact I'm not the only author in the whole wide world who isn't getting the six-figure advances

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So tomorrow I fly to Iowa, where I'll be doing my first stint as Guest of Honor at a convention. Thank you, Icon!

In order to avoid embarrassing myself too...

Writer Envy

I debated whether or not to post this, but in the interest of keeping myself honest and talking about all sides of this writing thing, I decided to go ahead.

My friend Seanan McGuire's debut novel Rosemary and Rue [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] came out at the start of September.  It's a great book, and I'm thrilled for her success. Yet there's a part of me that compares her Amazon listing–50+ reviews, a ranking in the 1000 range, and #99 of all fantasy titles at Amazon, all more than a month...

October Madness

Note to self: trying to do the new book release in the same month that you're doing final revisions on another book means twice the crazy. Add in a sick boy (finally feeling better), car trouble, daughter's soccer season, and a host of other random encounters, and the crazy has jumped exponentially.

I did not need extra crazy. I have plenty already, thank you.

I'll be spending today trying to box up extra crazy and return it to sender.  In the meantime, check out one of the coolest LEGO Flickr ...