State of the Jim

Well, I’m surviving Mermaid Week pretty well.  The whole week has been a bit of a blur.  Book stuff, family stuff, work stuff … it’s the perfect storm of craziness!  Here are some of the highlights.

Not Related to Jim, but Read it Anyway: At one point, I was asked to talk about how to get an agent.  I still plan to do this, but in the meantime author Kat Richardson has beaten me to it.

Radio Interview: I did an interview last night with the Michigan Literary Network and didn’t make a complete fool of myself–Win!  Even if they did introduce me as Jim Chines.  (You can listen here if you’re bored and have 15 minutes to kill.)

Book launch partytonight at Schuler Books is good to go, and should be a lot of fun.  Cake is ready, and I’ve printed out a copy of “Creatures in Your Neighborhood” to read.  Now I just need to make sure I have a working vehicle, since my car went into the shop last night for brake work.  Eep!

Amazon ranking for Mermaid has been hovering around 4000-5000 for several days now, with three reviews posted so far.  Not bad.  (And yes, I really need to break that obsessive Amazon-checking.  Is there a support group or a 12-step program for this?)

Red Hood’s Revenge:On Monday, I talked to Sheila at DAW about revisions for Red Hood’s Revenge.  She liked the story!  HUGE sigh of relief here.  I’ve still got pages and pages of notes and changes to work on, but I’m feeling better about the book.  My goal is to have that turned in by the end of the month.

Red Hood Artwork:  I’ve learned that Scott Fischer will not be doing the cover for the third princess book.  Instead, we’ll be getting artwork from Mel Grant, who did the goblin books.  I really don’t like the idea of changing artists in mid-series, but having seen Mel’s work, I trust him to do a good job.  Hopefully he’ll be able to stick pretty close to the style of the first two.  Needless to say, I’m veryanxious to see what he comes up with.

Current Contests: I’ll be announcing winners tomorrow.  One of my one-question interview folks will win an autographed copy of one of my books, and there’s also the caption contest.  The winner of that one will receive a copy of Strip Mauled, assuming I can buy one at the bookstore tonight.

Upcoming Contest: On Monday the 12th, I’ll be doing an interview and contest all day with Bitten By Books.  We’ll be giving away a dozen DAW anthologies, and one winner will receive a complete set of painted Goblin Quest miniatures.  I’m excited about this one, and will post more details and links soon.

ConClave: I’ll be at the con tomorrow night, but for a combination of reasons I don’t want to go into, I don’t think I’ll be there Saturday or Sunday.

And this is why, come Sunday, I intend to sleep in until noon with the covers pulled over my head.