Running for SFWA Office (but NOT President)

After a great deal of thought, discussion with my family, and a good, hard look at my schedule and priorities, I just posted the following in the discussion forums of the Science Fiction/Fantasy Writers of America.

One way or another, I hope members will vote in the upcoming election. Because if there are no votes, I think the bylaws state that Lee and I have to fight some sort of a duel. Something about rubber chickens and key lime pie…

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Jim C. Hines
Platform Statement for South/Central Regional Director

I joined SFWA as an associate member in 2001, and upgraded to active as soon as I made that third short fiction sale. SFWA wasn’t only a goal and a source of validation, but also a valuable resource. Even before that first qualifying sale, I followed Writer Beware religiously. I have no doubt that SFWA saved me from a number of mistakes in those early years. Later, I learned about the Emergency Medical Fund, got first-hand experience with the Grievance Committee, and watched SFWA promote an industry-wide change in “professional” short fiction rates.

I’ve served on SFWA’s exploratory copyright committee, assisted with the drafting of a potential harassment policy, and volunteered at the SFWA table at Worldcon, but after twelve years, I’d like to give more back to the organization by serving as South/Central Regional Director.

First and foremost, I believe a Regional Director must listen to and represent the membership. I’ve been very active with the SF/F community, particularly working writers, both those who are members of SFWA and those who qualify but, for a variety of reasons, have chosen not to join the organization. I believe my online platform will make me accessible to our members, and give me a platform to hear and respond to their concerns.

I would like to see SFWA continue to move forward. To me, the biggest priority is to complete the reincorporation process. I would also like to see SFWA reach out to those eligible writers who have turned away, believing—rightfully or wrongfully—that we have nothing to offer, or that we’re too narrow in the writers we welcome and celebrate in our ranks.

As an author, I’ve published more than 40 short stories, and my ninth novel from DAW will be out later this year. I was honored with a Hugo award last year for my online writing about the SF/F community. (And yes, I’m the guy who did those half-naked cover poses to try to promote discussions of sexism in the genre.)

In my day job as a manager working for the State of Michigan, I’ve received a crash course in managing priorities, responding to multiple demands on my time, and reviewing input from a variety of often contradictory sources. Perhaps most importantly, I’ve learned how to keep good ideas from stagnating, and to do the work to push those good ideas forward.

I have nothing but respect and gratitude for Lee Martindale and the work she’s done for SFWA. But I also think the membership is better served when there are multiple candidates, and I believe I have a lot to offer the organization.

I would appreciate your vote for South/Central Regional Director. But more importantly, I hope you’ll vote, period.

Dragon Winners

Most of my energy is currently going into Codex Born (due to my editor on March 1), and a few other projects. So instead of a blog post today, I’m going to pick some winners to receive autographed copies of Marie Brennan’s A Natural History of Dragons [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy].

There were well over a hundred entries, providing entertaining and occasionally disturbing blurbs for Mary’s Angels. But the fickle hand of Random.org has spoken, and has smiled upon the following three people:

I’ve notified the winners by email, so if you’re one of these three people and you haven’t heard from me, leave a comment and let me know how best to get in touch.

For the rest of you, go get the book and read it anyway, because it’s good.

As for me, I’ve got to get back to that scene where Darth Vader cuts off Isaac Vainio’s hand, and then Smudge crawls up under Vader’s mask. Good times…

How To Train Your Dragon

I’ve wanted to talk about How to Train Your Dragon for a while now, and last week’s review of Merrie Haskell’s Handbook for Dragon Slayers and the resulting comments about disability in fiction made me finally sit my butt down to do it.

I love this movie. I love the story, I love the message and themes, I love the humor … there’s very little it gets wrong, in my opinion. I would have appreciated more female characters, but even there, as I understand it, the movie improves on the source material.

The story is pretty straightforward. Hiccup is basically a nerd among Vikings. He works as an apprentice to the village blacksmith, but he lacks the physical strength and battle prowess of his fellow Vikings, and is more interested in gadgets and inventions that don’t always work. Oh, and his village is constantly fighting off dragons.

I’m rather fond of Jay Baruchel, the actor who voices Hiccup. He’s got a very distinctive voice, and his sardonic and often self-deprecating tone works for me.

During one dragon raid, Hiccup manages to shoot down a Night Fury, the deadliest breed of dragons. The Night Fury’s tail is crippled, leaving it unable to fly. Hiccup tracks where the dragon fell, planning to finish it off and prove himself, but he can’t do it. Instead, he studies and slowly befriends the dragon, which he names Toothless (because Night Furies have retractable teeth).

Toothless is awesome. The expressiveness and humor the animators capture in every scene is amazing. This dragon, who never says a word, is a better actor and character than most humans. I love the details, whether it’s watching him scorch a circle and turn around before settling down to sleep, or the obvious love and loyalty he develops for Hiccup. (Love and loyalty which are returned in full.)

Some of what follows is predictable, of course. Hiccup uses his secret dragon knowledge to impress the other Vikings and improve his standing, only to fall when the truth comes out. There’s a low-key romantic thing between Hiccup and Astrid. The dragons turn out to be more than simple livestock thieves, and there’s a big old battle at the end. While the twists aren’t entirely original, they’re well done and engaging.

But one of the things I most respect about this movie is how it handles disability.

SPOILERS AHEAD

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Let There Be Links

Returning to a Review; Not a Spoiler Warning: After reading my review of The Dragon Slayer’s Handbook, author Merrie Haskell blogged about why she chose to write a heroine with a clubfoot, and why Tilda does not get magically healed at the end of the book.

The World SF Travel Fund: This project was started in 2011 with the goal of helping one or two international persons to get to a major SF/F event. As of this morning, they’ve met their $3000 goal, which funds the project for the next two years. But there’s 10 days left, and wouldn’t it be awesome to see it hit at least $4500 and provide them with a bonus year? The rewards are great, too. Donate $10, and you’ll get the e-books of the Apex Book of World SF, volumes 1 and 2.

Con or Bust Auction Begins Saturday, February 9: “Con or Bust helps people of color/non-white people attend SFF conventions.” You can read more about the founding and history of the project on their About us page. Items up for auction includes books, critiques, Green Tea Yoda Oreo cookies, and much more.

Weregeek, a web comic, talked about the Hawkeye Initiative yesterday and suggested that someone should do something similar for fantasy RPG art. Hm…

What do you think of John Scalzi’s new tattoo? Okay, so maybe I Photoshopped it. For background and better picture of Gamma Rabbit, see John’s post here. I’m impressed and amazed at how effectively he’s taken a rather irksome annoyance and transformed it into a fundraiser which has drawn international attention and brought in more than $50,000 in pledges for causes such as RAINN, NAACP, Emily’s List, and Human Rights Campaign. Think we can convince him to get the tattoo for real if the pledges hit $100K?

Some friends of mine are Kickstarting Glitter & Madness: The Speculative Nightclub Anthology, a collection to be filled with “Roller Derby, nightclubs, glam aliens, (literal) party monsters, drugs, sex, glitter, debauchery” and more. If they meet their fundraising goal, you’ll get stories from Amal El-Mohtar, Diana Rowland, Sofia Samatar, Tim Pratt, and many more. Including a 16,000 word InCryptid novella from Seanan McGuire!

Finally, Darth Maul would like you to know that he is awesome. (I’ve had this stuck in my head ever since we watched the whole LEGO Star Wars “Empire Strikes Out” show over the weekend.)

Handbook for Dragon Slayers, by Merrie Haskell

I reviewed Merrie Haskell’s first book about a year ago. The Princess Curse was a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, meaning Haskell has officially usurped me as Head of the Michigan Fairy Tale Princess Mafia. At ConFusion last month, she was kind enough to give me a copy of her new book Handbook for Dragon Slayers [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy], which comes out at the end of May.

This is a middle grade title about Tilda, a young princess who’s much more interested in writing her own book than she is in being a princess. Particularly given how little her people seem to like her. Born with a deformed leg that requires her to use a cane to get around, she often finds herself the target of whispers and gossip and general nastiness. So when the bad guy sets out to steal her lands and title, Tilda considers it no real loss.

I haven’t done a lot of middle grade reading–something I need to remedy–but Handbook follows the pattern I’ve seen of focusing more on internal conflicts and development than external plot. An “adult” novel would generally focus more on the central conflict between Tilda and the would-be usurper. Whereas this novel jumps around a bit more, plotwise, in order to show us how Tilda grows and changes. The story includes a pair of would-be dragon slayers, Elysian horses, the Wild Hunt, evil magic, and perhaps my favorite bit character, Curschin the dragon.

I appreciated the way Haskell addressed Tilda’s handicap, neither shying away from the pain and complications it presented, nor trying to give us a feel-good Message about overcoming disability. My wife has been dealing with chronic pain for many years, and often requires a cane to get around, so Tilda’s struggle felt familiar. But this wasn’t a book about a disabled character; it was a book about a character who happened to have a disability.

There were  a few points where I stumbled. The book doesn’t exactly take place in our world, but there are references to Plato and Christmas, things that were just discordant enough to bump me out of the story. There were also one or two plot points that seemed a little too convenient or unexplained. The story about the girl who wants desperately to be a writer could easily become self-indulgent, but Haskell manages it well, focusing on the character’s love and excitement and never slipping into “Writers are awesome!” or inside jokes/commentary.

Overall, this was a quick and enjoyable read, with a range of good, strong characters both male and female.

Handbook for Dragon Slayers has the official approval of the ex-head of the Princess Mafia.

Book Giveaway: A Natural History of Dragons

I know I haven’t even mailed out the book from my last giveaway yet, but I couldn’t help it! I had to give out more free books. Because that’s just how I roll!

Okay, what really happened is that a while back I had the chance to read Marie Brennan’s new book A Natural History of Dragons [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy]. I loved it, and was happy to provide a blurb. Tor recently offered me a finished copy as a way of saying thank you, which was very nice of them. To which I responded, “Yes please, and if you felt like sending me an extra copy, I’ll give one away on my blog.”

They sent me four.

I’m a-keeping one for myself, but the other three are up for grabs.

And just to make things more exciting, these are autographed copies! Not autographed by Brennan, though. And let’s be honest, we authors sign a lot of our books, especially during release month. So there will probably be plenty of author-signed copies out there. But these three books are the ONLY COPIES with MY autograph! Go ahead and look, it’s right there on the back cover by my blurb!

In keeping with the theme, all you have to do to enter the giveaway is write a blurb for the not-actually-written book Mary’s Angels and leave it in the comments. If you’re unfamiliar with this masterpiece or need a reminder, click here for the cover art. Your blurb should be silly, and can be as positive or negative as you’d like. (Though I know you can do better than “Oh, I’m blind” and “Brain bleach!”)

Everyone can enter, no matter where you’re located, and I’ll pick three winners at random next week.

I’ll close with the official publisher’s description:

You, dear reader, continue at your own risk. It is not for the faint of heart—no more so than the study of dragons itself. But such study offers rewards beyond compare: to stand in a dragon’s presence, even for the briefest of moments—even at the risk of one’s life—is a delight that, once experienced, can never be forgotten. . . .

All the world, from Scirland to the farthest reaches of Eriga, know Isabella, Lady Trent, to be the world’s preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth and misunderstanding into the clear light of modern science. But before she became the illustrious figure we know today, there was a bookish young woman whose passion for learning, natural history, and, yes, dragons defied the stifling conventions of her day.

Here at last, in her own words, is the true story of a pioneering spirit who risked her reputation, her prospects, and her fragile flesh and bone to satisfy her scientific curiosity; of how she sought true love and happiness despite her lamentable eccentricities; and of her thrilling expedition to the perilous mountains of Vystrana, where she made the first of many historic discoveries that would change the world forever.

I liked this book a lot. Lady Trent is a great character, the memoir structure works really well, and as a bonus, you get interior illustrations by Todd Lockwood. If you don’t win, you should check it out anyway.

Codex Born Teaser Text

I wanted to run this by folks before I send it in to my editor on Monday. This would be either on the back of the dust jacket or, more likely, in the cover flap for Codex Born [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy]. Any and all feedback is welcome.

And thanks!

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SFWA Presidential Election Thoughts

Warning: SFWA business and potential drama ahead!

SFWA elections are coming up again soon, and after three terms, President John Scalzi has announced that he’s done trying to herd this particular clowder of cats. Knowing how difficult writers can be, I can’t imagine how he’s done it for this long, but he has my thanks for his work and service, and for helping to push through some important changes.

The first person to announce his candidacy for SFWA president was Theodore Beale, aka Vox Day. Steven Gould has also tossed his hat into the ring. I knew Gould as the author of Jumper, among other things, and we’re on at least one mailing list together. Beale’s name was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I had heard it. So I went looking…

What I found raised some concerns. Beale is a prolific blogger, and has written such pieces as Women Ruin Everything, in which he he starts out talking about Title IX and moves onto politics. He writes, apparently in all seriousness:

Orwell put it beautifully.  All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.  And the Sports Guy put it even better: women ruin everything.

Do you really think it was an accident that women were never permitted any voice in the governance of the Roman Republic or the great historical democracies such as Athens, Thebes, Imperial Britain, and Revolutionary America?  Do you really believe it to be a mere coincidence that many modern democracies, including Germany, Italy, and the member states of the European Union, were not able to survive even 100 years of female suffrage?

He also writes columns for WND, such as this one titled Why women’s rights are wrong:

I very much like women and wish them well, which is precisely why I consider women’s rights to be a disease that should be eradicated.

Or this one, wherein he describes the real threat to science:

But this is not to say there is not a genuine threat to all three aspects of science today. Unsurprisingly, it comes from the same force that is the primary threat to the survival of Western civilization: female equalitarianism.

Beale also has a history of referring to current SFWA president John Scalzi as “McRapey.” In case that was too subtle, he also titled his first such post John Scalzi is a Rapist. (Beale also talks about how rapists are more likely to vote Democratic, because one third of all forcible rapists are black.)

I wonder if the SFWA will be concerned that their current president is an admitted rapist or if they’ll take the approach towards him that NOW and the other feminist groups did towards Bill Clinton.  Of course, unlike Scalzi, Clinton never admitted to being a rapist … Wait, he claims his confession is satire?  Well, that might fool anyone unfamiliar with the concept of blown cover as cover.

He was recently asked about the value of SFWA on his blog…

VD, any value with the SFWA?

Considerable entertainment value, but other than that, not so much.

Which does tend to reinforce my gut feeling that he’s running for president for the laughs. He’s been toying with the idea of running for SFWA president for several years now. Back in 2010, after quoting a hateful rant about Wiscon, he joked (at least, I assume this is supposed to be a joke):

I feel inspired to run against John Scalzi for SFWA President next year. My platform is going to involve disenfranchising all of the female members and endorsing a Federal law banning women from writing any science fiction or fantasy that does not contain vampires or wereseals and comes with a warning label: WARNING: this is Vampire/Wereseal fiction, not actual science fiction or fantasy.

Now, Beale has argued that just because people think he’s an asshole and disagree with his personal beliefs doesn’t mean he’d be a bad leader. There’s some truth to this. But in this case, I believe his personal beliefs and proclamations would seriously interfere with his ability to lead the organization. The president of SFWA has to be able to work with others on the board and within the organization. I’ve seen nothing to suggest his ability to do this, particularly when others disagree with him. Nor do I trust him to treat members with respect, particularly if those members happen to have the “wrong” chromosomal pair.

As president, Beale would be the public face of the organization. He would have to work with a board made of up people who might not be white or male or straight, and who might not always agree with him. And my sense is that this is a disaster waiting to happen.

The first five points of his platform for SFWA presidency are here.

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Steven Gould has posted his platform and qualifications as a SF/F author here. I don’t actually have that much to say about his candidacy, save that he seems to have a realistic sense of the internal and external challenges facing the organization, has shared and supported ideas for moving SFWA forward, and certainly has a strong SF/F background.

For me though, one of Gould’s strongest qualifications is that he’s not Theodore Beale.

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For those of you who are members of SFWA, please take some time to read through the discussion forums, review the Q&A with the candidates as well as their platforms, and vote.

Note: There’s a good chance this post will attract trolls. I don’t plan on moderating the comments here, and I suggest not engaging with any trolls who do show up. I’m hopeful things will stay civilized, but if not, well, they say you can judge a man by the company he keeps…

Auction, Winner, and Other Wednesday Stuff

There’s only one day left, give or take, to win the amazing, eye-popping, high-quality, ready-for-framing 16 x 16 print of me, John Scalzi, Patrick Rothfuss, Charles Stross, and Mary Robinette Kowal posing in the style of Young Flandry. Bid now, and bid often!

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The contest I did for a SFBC edition of either The Legend of Jig Dragonslayer or Libriomancer was amazing. I asked people to comment and share the best thing that happened to them last year. Roughly 300 people entered, and I have to tell you, reading all of your good news and accomplishments from 2012 made my week so much better. You took risks, sold books, bought homes, got married, fell in love, beat cancer, had children, survived accidents, reunited with loved ones, moved to better places, got dream jobs, quit jobs from hell … I’m bookmarking these posts so I can come back and reread the comments when I’m in a lousy mood.

Congratulations to Jeff D., who was selected by the Great and Oracular Master of the Numbers of Randomness to receive the book of his choice.

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As an FYI, the audio book of Libriomancer has been taken off of Amazon and Audible.com. Audible received some feedback on the narration, and decided to go back and re-record the book with a different reader. Not an ideal situation, but I give Audible major props for listening to their readers and taking steps to address the problems. I’ll let folks know when it’s available again, which should happen relatively soon.

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Finally, I shared this line from Codex Born on Facebook yesterday, but I’m gonna share it here as well, because it makes me laugh. Because no matter how old I get, a part of me will always be twelve. This is Isaac grumbling about one of the villains of the story.

“[BAD GUY] can go light a match and stand behind a flatulent dragon for all I care.”

I’m telling you, this new book has NEBULA AWARD written all over it! 🙂

One Consequence of Creeping

One of the reasons guys harass women is that they can. Their actions get excused as harmless flirting, or simply, “Bob being Bob.” The target of their aggression, whether it’s unwanted physical contact, stalking them around a convention, focusing unwanted attention and commentary on her body, or whatever, has generally been conditioned to not raise a fuss. If she does say something, she’s told she’s overreacting, or looking for reasons to be offended, or simply to lighten up.

So much of the time, the harassment appears to go unchecked.

But you know what? Fandom is a fairly small, interlinked community. People in fandom tend to know each other. Take a purely hypothetical situation where you, a random writer, were harassing a woman at a convention. Maybe she didn’t say anything to you. But–hypothetically speaking–she might have said something to a friend later, warning that friend about you. They might have started keeping an eye out for you, watching each others’ backs and passing the word.

They might even have mentioned what happened to someone like me.

I admit, I sometimes have to fight my own White Knight syndrome, the desire to charge out on my horse and smite creeps like you from our ranks. But of course, I didn’t witness what happened. And this was told to me in confidence. The only reason I’m talking about it here is that it happens so often that there’s no way to identify the specific person–the specific people–I’m talking about. Heck, just at ConFusion, I’m aware of at least three different instances of this kind of crap happening to people, and unfortunately, that’s not unusual.

If you’re worried that the creeper I’m talking about might be you, well, that seems like something you really need to sit down and think about.

I won’t get the rapier out of storage and go on a smiting spree. Nor will I call down the Wrath of the Internet to publicly shame you.

On the other hand, I get a fair number of review copies from various publishers. And what do you know, I recently noticed that you were the author of one of those review copies. Yes you, the same dude who was creeping on a friend of mine. What a fascinating coincidence, eh?

Guess which book will never get reviewed on my blog.

Guess which author will never get a retweet, a linkback, or any kind of promotion from me whatsoever.

I may not have the biggest following on the internet, but I’ve built up a pretty good readership over the years, and your actions toward this woman–actions you probably didn’t even think about…actions you assumed would have no consequence–have cost you the chance to have your book plugged to thousands of SF/F readers.

It’s a shame, really. And I can’t help but wonder how many potential readers you lost, all because you couldn’t treat a woman with more respect…

Hypothetically speaking, of course.

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