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When I was a kid learning Tae Kwon Do, I hated sparring. I don’t like to fight. Being small for my age didn’t help. It was my least favorite part of the lessons. Jump ahead 20 years to the present. Sanchin-Ryu, the style my daughter and I have been studying, has been a very different experience for me. Take last night. We had a session of fighting practice. I was the lowest ranked, least experienced student in the group. Among other things, I took a punch to the groin (thankfully, the black belt who threw that punch had very good control), as well as a punch to the back of my fist1. That one’s still sore this morning. I had a blast. Yes, a part of me is wondering if that’s a sign of deeper psychological problems. But mostly I think it’s because with this style and group of people, there’s always a clear understanding that everyone wants you to succeed. It’s not about winning or scoring points; it’s about helping you to see and understand what you did well and what you need to do better. It reminds me very much of the editorial process. My editor kicks my butt with every book. My agent often jumps in as well. (Much like the me-against-two-black-belts scenario I had last night, actually. That was fun!) I usually come away bruised, but it’s a good thing. They’re not the enemy; they want me to succeed and improve. And if one of their comments hits a little too hard or in a particularly sensitive spot? Well, you can bet that next time I’ll be paying attention to my form and technique to make sure it doesn’t happen again. —
When writing about rape in fandom two weeks ago, I included the following: “I’m not saying there’s never a time to talk about criminal prosecution of rape and why people might choose not to endure the ugliness of a rape trial. I’m saying this is not the time.“ Thank you to everyone for not derailing the conversation. So often when someone talks about rape, the immediate response is some form of “You have to report it!” I saw this at a few other blogs: “You have to get the asshole arrested!” Or on the other end of the spectrum, “If you didn’t press charges, you have no right to complain!” Rape is a crime that rips power and control from the victim. You know what doesn’t help you regain that sense of control? When everyone jumps in to tell you what you have to do. Especially if you add a heaping pile of guilt: “If you don’t press charges and he rapes someone else, it’s your fault!” Bite me. Rape is the fault of the rapist. No matter how hard some people try to pretend otherwise. Most of the time, when people talk to me about rape, they’re not looking for me to fix it or solve things. They might be looking for someone to believe them. They might be looking for support. Often they’re just looking for me to shut up and listen. That’s hard. I feel pissed off and hurt and powerless, and I want to do something. I want to fix it, and I want to make sure the bastard who did it gets punished. But that’s not something I have the power to do. Not helpful: You have to press charges! (More about satisfying my own need to punish the guy and to stop feeling helpless.) So why would someone choose not to report rape? Rosefox linked to this blog post explaining some of the reasons. Some police officers are wonderful about sexual assault, but not all. I’ve known people who reported a rape, only to have the cop refuse to believe them and threaten to arrest them for filing a false report. Then there are the stats on how few rape cases go to trial, and how few of those result in conviction. As for the trial itself… I’ve been through the court process for a custody issue. It was one of the most stressful experiences of my life, and it dragged out for close to a year with hearings, appeals, rescheduled dates, meetings with attorneys, and so on. Imagine going through that experience as a rape survivor, having to relive the rape again and again in front of strangers, hostile attorneys, and the rapist himself. Do I want rapists locked away? Of course. So what’s more likely to help that happen? Trying to bully a rape victim into doing what I want? Or trying to support her (or him), letting her make her own choice and offering to support her in whatever choice she makes? I also wonder if this insistence on “You have to report it!!!” is another facet of our attitude that stopping rape is women’s responsibility… Discussion is open and encouraged, but once again I’ll be moderating as needed to keep it respectful and on-topic. Janet Kagan was the author of, in my humble opinion, one of the best Star Trek novels out there: Uhura’s Song [Mysterious Galaxy | B&N | Amazon]. She also wrote the original SF novel Hellspark [Mysterious Galaxy | B&N | Amazon] as well as a collection called Mirabile [Mysterious Galaxy | B&N | Amazon] and a Hugo-winning story “The Nutcracker Coup.” There’s a warmth to her writing that I absolutely love. Janet was the first professional writer I talked to when I began trying to break in. I’m not sure how I got the courage to contact her, but we ended up swapping a number of e-mails over the years. She offered advice and shared her own experiences, and even provided a wonderful blurb for Goblin Quest. Close readers will notice several references to Janet in Mermaid’s Madness. The map includes the Kagan Sea, and in chapter one, the ships Saint Tocohl and Lord Lynn Margaret are both named after characters from Hellspark. She died two years ago this week. Here’s an excerpt from the post I wrote when I learned she was gone: One of the things she did was to offer a personalized, hand-made card to anyone who would donate blood. She was a small woman, and the Red Cross wouldn’t let her donate, so this was her way of supporting them. My mother (a regular donor) got in touch with her, and asked if she could send a card to me instead. I still have it. Of course, this led to Janet and my mother becoming friends. When I sneakily arranged to have Janet send mom a signed copy of Hellspark for her birthday, Janet threw in a hardcover first edition of Uhura’s Song as well. That’s just who she was. It’s hard to explain how much her encouragement and support meant to me as a struggling newbie. I occasionally still find myself wishing I could e-mail her about hitting #1 on the Locus bestseller list, or how well the goblin books were doing in Germany. Like a little kid showing his parents the A+ he got on his diorama for school. She’s who I think of when writers talk about paying it forward, and someone I aspire to be like as I try to step into the role of helping other new writers. I miss her. With 11 days to go, the First (Pro) Novel Survey is up to more than 200 responses, which is wonderful! But it’s also generated some interesting feedback in comments and e-mails. Some people are upset that small press, self-published, and e-book authors can’t participate. Others say advances are part of a dying publishing model. There’s been worry that advances can actually harm an author who doesn’t earn out. To top things off, I’m told I’m completely out of touch with the current state of publishing. Let’s start with the basics. An advance is an advance against your royalties. When I sold Goblin Quest to DAW, they paid me $4000, half on signing and half on publication. (Slightly lower than the average, because Goblin Quest was a reprint of a small press title.) For the sake of easy math, let’s say I got 50 cents in royalties for every copy that sold. So for the first 8000 books, I got nothing — I had already received that money up front. But once we sold book 8001, I officially earned out the advance and began receiving royalties. Even if I never sold those 8000 copies, I keep the advance. Nor would I be blacklisted for failing to earn out. A lot of books never earn out their advance. Understand that the publisher doesn’t necessarily lose money on those books. The math is a little messy, but publishers can and do still make a profit on books that don’t earn out. Will publishers get a little cranky if they pay you a six-figure advance and you only sell 10,000 books? Well, sure. It might mean smaller advances in the future. You might need to adopt a pseudonym (as many others have done), or change to a different publisher. But it doesn’t mean the end of your career. Remember the advance represents an investment on the part of the publisher, and I want my publisher as invested as possible in my book. There are never any guarantees, but which do you think will get more of a sales push, the book where they paid the author $5000 up front, or the one where they paid $50,000? Finally, there’s the fact that royalties take a long time to show up. Let’s assume your book is going to earn out, which means you’re eventually going to get the same amount of money either way. Would you rather get that money today, or wait and get it in a year or two or more? Writing is not a hobby to me. It’s a career, one that helps me pay the mortgage and feed my family. My advances mean I know I’m going to receive a certain minimum amount on each book. I can start to plan and budget, meaning I’m better able to make a living with this. (Now if only my publisher would offer a health plan for its authors…) As for the frustration and anger that I’m shutting out small-press and self-published authors with this survey? Yes. Yes I am. I’ve got nothing against small press and self publishing. (Please see above, where I first sold Goblin Quest to a small press.) But that’s not what I was interested in for this survey. I wanted to learn more about how authors break in with bigger, advance-paying publishers. If you have a problem with that … well, it’s your problem. Deal with it. Previous diabetes posts are available by clicking the diabetes tag. People often make assumptions about what I can and can’t eat as a type 1 diabetic. Here’s the thing: I can eat anything I choose … as long as I take the correct dose of insulin to go with it. Therein lies the trick. Diabetes Math 100: Introduction to D-Math I try to keep my blood sugar goal between 70 and 140. I’ve discovered that one unit of insulin drops my blood sugar about 60 points, so if my blood sugar is 200, I’ll program the insulin pump to give me 1.5 units. With meals, you’re worried about glucose. This means you primarily count carbohydrates. I need to take about 1 unit for every 8-9 grams of carbs. Pop Quiz: My blood sugar is 160, and I’m sitting down to a meal with 90 grams of carbohydrates. How much insulin do I take? I’ve also found that I need more insulin for my first meal of the day. Closer to 1 unit for every 7 grams of carbs. A 50 gram breakfast gets about 7 units. So now there are two ratios to remember. So far, so good. Diabetes Math 200: Graphing Over Time Those ratios are nice, but some foods are digested and absorbed more quickly than others. Humalog insulin has a pretty stable absorption rate, peaking after about 90 minutes. This can be a problem. A number of factors affect the absorption of that meal you just ate. Some things, like orange juice, get absorbed pretty darn fast. Others, like pasta, can take a long time to absorb, especially larger noodles. (Lasagna is a killer.) The insulin pump is programmed to deal with this using a feature known as the square bolus. Basically, you program two doses of insulin: one to be delivered immediately, and a second to be delivered at a steady rate over several hours. Pizza has a pretty high fat/grease content, which also slows down absorption. So for pizza night, I’ve figured out the proper dose is around 6.5 units now and a square bolus of 10 units over 6 hours. Lasagna is 2 units now, 6-7 over about 5 hours. A piece of fruit? 1 unit now, no square bolus. Diabetes Math 300: Multivariable Equations Now things get exciting. Remember those ratios we learned back in the 100-level class? They don’t actually stay the same from day to day. Here are some of the factors that can mess with your numbers:
Conclusion: It’s not that diabetics can’t eat certain food. But I’ve chosen to eliminate some things from my diet. I drink diet pop instead of regular; I don’t usually drink milk; I’ll eat ice cream, but rarely. Not because I can’t, but because eliminating those things from my diet reduces the number of variables and makes it easier for me to calculate my dosage. Even so, those calculations are often a best-guess, and I’ll usually check my sugar 2 hours after a meal and adjust for any errors. That’s how it works for me as a type 1 diabetic. Questions are welcome, as always — I’m pretty open about this stuff. —
A few things have happened over the past week that made me I need to figure out my book review policy, for my own sake if nothing else. So I came up with Jim’s Rules of Reviewing.
So, did I miss anything important? And as long as we’re talking books, here are two new releases to check out. Seanan McGuire’s second October Daye novel A Local Habitation [Mysterious Galaxy | B&N | Amazon] is out today. I actually provided a blurb for the first one, Rosemary and Rue: “McGuire knows her fairy lore, bringing the wonder and the danger of the fair folk to the streets of San Francisco so vividly you can smell the rose goblins. Action, intrigue, and a dash of romance make Rosemary and Rue a fun, engaging read. An impressive first novel that leaves you impatient for the second.” I haven’t read A Local Habitation yet, but I’ll be bugging DAW for a copy soon. Sample chapter is available here. Also out today is DAW’s monthly anthology. This time it’s Timeshares [Mysterious Galaxy | B&N | Amazon], edited by Jean Rabe. From the description: “Take a vacation through time with the help of a Time Travel Agency offering excursions into the past and future. Readers will find themselves in exotic, adventurous locales-and in all manner of trouble and mysteries. And figures from the past will be able to squeak by the other way.” Enter to win a free copy of this one over at SciFiChick’s blog. Do it now!
A few follow-up links to last week’s post about rape in fandom:
# The First (Pro) Novel Survey is up to 151 responses. I’d love to break 200 if possible. I’ve posted information at the following sites:
Any suggestions for places I’ve missed? (Or feel free to pass the link on directly, if you know someone who might be interested.) # So I was chatting with Seanan McGuire this weekend about book releases and pancakes and such when she mentioned something fascinating. Apparently every time she posts a picture of her cat, her Amazon ranking improves. Forget book trailers and contests. The key to writing success is cute animals. But it got me wondering … would a dog picture have the same effect? Can we prove once and for all whether cats or dogs have the superior selling power? Can we finally put an end to the age-old cats vs. dog dispute? I believe we can! I spent Sunday afternoon chasing our poor pets around until I got the following pictures.
So there we have it. Having posted two animal pictures, my sales should now go through the roof. I’ll compare this week’s Bookscan numbers to last week’s for both books and figure out the percentage change. So tune in late next week for indisputable scientific proof of whether cats or dogs are better. Earlier this week, [link removed at her request] shared a letter to her rapist in order to warn others in fandom about this individual. A number of people have responded to express their support. To say “I’ve got your back,” and that those who would commit rape are not welcome in this community. To which I can add only, “Hell, yes.” So often we as a society ignore rape. We make excuses. We pretend not to notice, and by doing so, we allow it to continue. I’m bracing myself for the backlash. For the indignant bloggers to ask why the Internet is dogpiling this poor man without giving him the chance to defend himself. For the guys to rally behind the flag of False Accusations. For the victim blamers to ask what she did to enable this, or why she didn’t press charges. For the men to point out how terrible it is to be accused of rape, and the horrible damage it can do to a man’s reputation. And for all of the other excuses why publicly confronting rape and rapists is a scary, dangerous, bad idea. I’ve already seen it in a few comments. To all of these people, please just shut up. Instead of immediately working to silence someone who found the courage to speak out, how about you take a turn being silenced for once. Maybe even try listening. I’m not saying false accusations don’t happen — they do, albeit rarely. I’m not saying there’s never a time to talk about criminal prosecution of rape and why people might choose not to endure the ugliness of a rape trial. I’m saying this is not the time. People don’t choose to be raped. People choose to commit rape. If you make that choice, I don’t want you in my community. You know what? The same goes for those who choose to grope their way through conventions. The ones who believe a costume that shows off a woman’s body is an invitation to sexually harass her. The ones who think drunk/unconscious is an acceptable substitute for consent. If those are your choices, I don’t want you around. Can you imagine what would happen if, every time someone raped, assaulted, or harassed another person, the rest of us actually spoke out? If we as a community let them know — clearly and loudly – that this would not be tolerated? If we told those who had been assaulted that we would listen, and we would support them? Comments are open, and discussion is welcome as always. However, please consider this fair warning that I’m going to be quicker to freeze and delete comments that I feel cross the line. Today was my day to blog at SFNovelists. I’m pleased with today’s entry, a helpful1 glossary of publishing terms. Here’s an example: Page Proofs - 1. Your chance as an author to review the typeset pages of your book and correct any typos. 2. Your chance as an author to discover all of those larger changes you’ll wish you’d made before, but now it’s too damn late. Full post is at http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/02/24/writing-terms-defined/ # So yesterday I went on about Diana Rowland’s book. Well it turns out Anton Strout also had a book out yesterday. I knew this, but somehow — completely by accident — forgot to mention it. I don’t know how this happened. I love Anton’s work. Really I do! I’ve reviewed him twice!
Anton: Hello Mister Hines. I was calling to let you know how much I enjoyed your review of Miss Rowland’s work. Jim: Thanks, Anton. I appreciate– Anton: I cannot help noticing, however, that you omitted another urban fantasy title from your post. Jim: Oh, shoot. Sorry about that. Anton: You are aware that I am published by, and have certain connections at Penguin, yes? Jim: Well, sure. Anton: Penguin, which just happens to to handle much of the sales and distribution for DAW. Jim: Um … yes, that’s right. Anton: Don’t you have a book coming out from DAW this July? It would be a shame if anything happened to it. Nope, that conversation had nothing to do with my decision to blog about the book. Nor did the rather disturbing experience of waking up this morning to find a stripped copy of Mermaid’s Madness on the pillow beside me. To make amends, I’m telling you all to go check out the third Simon Canderous book, Dead Matter [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon]. Please? Tell ‘em Jim sent you. —
A quick follow-up thought on yesterday’s post on Author Entitlement. I said the world doesn’t owe us a publishing contract, and that griping about not getting the success I “deserve” is tacky. On the other hand, confidence is a must. You have to have enough faith in yourself and your work to keep writing and keep submitting. It feels like a balancing act, trying to find just the right amount of self-confidence and ego. Too much and it’s easy to slip into entitlement. Too little and you can get discouraged and give up. It’s a little crazy, to be honest. But then, you already knew writers were nuts #
Kara Gillian is a young detective in Beaulac, Louisiana. Also, she summons demons (Like so many things, summoning isn’ t inherently good or evil; it all depends on what you do with it.) Her first homocide case is to investigate the apparent return of the Symbol Man, a serial killer who tortures his victims and covers the bodies in occult symbols. He vanished years ago, but now he’s back and killing at an even faster rate. Not only does Gillian have to track and stop her killer, she’s also dealing with the fallout after accidentally summoning a Demon Lord named Rhyzkahl, a creature powerful enough to enslave our world if Gillian makes the slightest misstep. I liked this book a lot. It fits comfortably into the urban fantasy genre: tough heroine, nasty paranormal threat, a few hot sex scenes, and so on. Sometimes urban fantasy starts to feel formulaic, but this time it worked well. Nothing felt gratuitous, and Rowland’s background as a cop gave the book a much-appreciated level of realism. Plotwise, there were a few times when it felt like Rowland was trying to hard to paint certain characters as suspicions, but overall the story worked really well, maintaining tension and raising the stakes with every chapter. There were real consequences at the end, and without spoiling that ending, Rowland managed to take one element of the story which could easily have been cliche and write it in a way that made sense and worked. You can read an excerpt at the Random House site. And book two, Blood of the Demon [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon], comes out today. I’m looking forward to it. So, anyone else reading this series? What do you think? |
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Copyright © 2010 Jim C. Hines - All Rights Reserved |
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By the way, this blog post has nothing to do with a phone call I received last night that went something like this…
I got 
