Hugo Lessons Thus Far

Hugo voting just opened and runs through the end of July, which makes today a good day for this particular post.

I’ve picked the brains of some friends, trying to figure out how to handle the whole Hugo nomination thing. What follows is a combination of my own thoughts, along with the wisdom and guidance I’ve received from others.

First of all, if ever there was an occasion that called for Calvin-style Lucky Rocketship Underpants, this is it!

I would ask if anyone knows where I can get some, but knowing you all, I have the feeling I’d be deluged with links. (And on the off chance that I won, I could totally see John Scalzi deciding to formally present me with said underpants when I went up on stage.)

How do I avoid freaking out for the next 4+ months until the winners are announced?

Apparently, freaking out is mandatory for all nominees. If the freaking out decreases to an unacceptable level, your e-mail is programmed to automatically alert you to the fact that someone, somewhere is talking about your category, thus boosting your freakout back to acceptable levels. Which leads directly to…

Do not read people’s blog posts about the Hugo ballot.

I learned this one all by myself after coming across a few blog posts and having the following experiences.

  • Blogger A said they were happy to see me on the Fan Writer list and would probably vote for me. OMGYAY SOMEONE’S GOING TO VOTE FOR ME I’M TOTALLY GOING TO WIN!!!
  • Blogger B said they were going to vote for someone else, and asked why a professional writer was on the Fan Writer list. AW CRAP I’M SO GOING TO LOSE AND EVERYONE WILL HATE ME FOREVER!!!

Yeah. I think it’s best if I just stop reading those posts…

What should I wear?

Women: Anything less than the perfect blend of elegance, professionalism, beauty, and class will be judged harshly both by those in attendance at Worldcon and those observing the webcast online.

Men: Eh. Whatever.

Fun fact – I have not owned a suit for many years now. I do have a half-dozen good Snoopy ties, though.

The Hugo Voter Packet is awesome.

Basically, for a $50 Supporting Membership, you get electronic copies of pretty much all of the nominated books and stories, not to mention a sampling from the fan writers. (We were asked to submit four pieces that represent our writing.) I’ve heard rumors this should be available in May.

Any ties will now be settled with Moroccan Fighting Cupcakes in a duel to the sweet, tasty DEATH!

This worries me, as Steven Silver is skilled with three different flavors of frosting, and I hear that Claire Brialey has been known to sneak ninja sprinkles onto her cupcakes…

Wednesday Stuff

Thank you all for the supportive comments and stories on my depression post Monday, and I’m sorry I haven’t been able to respond to them all individually. It’s very much appreciated. On a related note, I think four of the most powerful words in English are “You are not alone.”

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Rape Crisis Center Fundraiser Update: We’ve raised more than $2500 so far, which is wonderful. For those who still want to donate, RAINN is matching all donations for the rest of April, meaning anything you give is effectively doubled. Also, my LJ friend Shadesong is once again doing the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center Walk for Change. If you sponsor her, that would also count as an entry toward my fundraiser. I’m just saying…

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Remember that cover pose thing I did earlier this year? I’m thinking about doing another one to address some of the most common responses I hear when we talk about how women are posed and portrayed. This is inspired in part by the comments to an article over at Tor.com: Hey Everyone, Stop Taking This Picture. What do you think? Does the world need another round of ridiculously-posed Jim pics?

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I have Libriomancer bookmarks. If you’ll be going to a convention in the next 3-4 months and would be willing to put some bookmarks out on the freebies table, please let me know? Thank you!

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Socchan has posted her pattern for a crocheted Jig the Goblin.

Well This Sucks (Depression)

A week ago, I went in for a doctor appointment, the end result of which was that I’ve started taking Zoloft for depression.

I feel like there should be a punchline here. “This is what I get for reading about Arizona politics” or “I blame the mess that is my current first draft.”

This hasn’t been a paralyzing, debilitating problem. I’ve been going to work, writing, taking care of the kids, going to karate … everything I’m supposed to do. But I haven’t been enjoying it. I’ve had less patience with my family. It’s gotten steadily harder to find the energy or motivation to do things. I’m spending more and more time feeling annoyed or apathetic.

It should not feel that draining or overwhelming to answer a simple e-mail.

I took any number of those depression self-assessments, most of which told me I was either mildly or moderately depressed. Even so, it took me close to a year to finally call and make an appointment to do something about it. Why did I wait so long? Probably the same reason I hesitated to blog about this.

I have no problem blogging about my diabetes. I’ve never felt ashamed of that disease, and I’ve never hesitated to talk about it, or to do whatever I needed in order to take care of myself.

This felt different. I’m diabetic because my pancreas took early retirement. That’s not my fault. But in my head, I was depressed because I wasn’t strong enough to deal with everything.

I know better. I was a psych major, and I’m married to a licensed counselor. I’ve watched people close to me start antidepressants, and I’ve seen how much of a difference it can make in their lives. I’ve never thought of them as weak, or of antidepressants as a sign that they’ve somehow failed at life.

It feels different when it’s you. There’s a double-standard. I know perfectly well that depression isn’t something you can simply will yourself through. I understand that neurochemical imbalance can be a physiological problem, just like a lazy pancreas. But I told myself it wasn’t really depression. I was just stressed. I needed some down time. I could tough it out. Eventually it would get better.

I can’t remember exactly when I stopped believing it would get better.

These aren’t things I’ve talked about online. There are aspects of my life that don’t make it onto the blog, and this certainly wasn’t what I wanted to project as Jim C. Hines, World Famous Author/Blogger/Cover Model!

We’re starting with a low dosage, and it will probably be a month or more before the medication starts to have an effect. Maybe longer. I was extremely hesitant about this. I don’t like the idea of messing with my brain … except that depression is a sign that my brain has already gotten messed up. I’m a bit worried about side effects too, though I’m told those should be minimal.

I have felt a little better this past week. I’d blame it on the placebo effect, except that I know perfectly well the meds don’t work this fast. Instead, I think it’s because I’m doing something. I don’t feel stuck, and there’s hope that I’ll get back to feeling like me again.

I am not asking for advice. If that changes, I’ll let y’all know.

Anyway, this is why I’ve been a bit slower to respond to e-mail, though I’m trying not to let anything slip through the cracks. This is why the rape fundraiser this year is a little less organized, and I didn’t get it posted right at the start of the month.

I’m not going to turn the blog into all-depression, all-the-time, any more than I blog about diabetes all the time. But given how open I’ve tried to be about the latter, it felt dishonest to not talk about the former, too. It felt dishonest to me. And, after all, the first step in solving a problem is acknowledgment, right?

Fundraiser Update

In less than a week, the Fundraiser for Rape Crisis Centers has raised more than $2000 dollars. This is the third year I’ve done this, and we’ve already exceeded the amount raised in 2010 or 2011, which is wonderful.

To celebrate, I’ve added some new prizes, including:

  • Three books (your choice) from Katharine Kerr
  • Two books (your choice) from the following ISFIC Press titles: Tanya Huff’s Finding Magic, Catherine Asaro’s Aurora in Four Voices, Mike Resnick & Joe Siclari’s Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches, and Harry Turtledove’s Every Inch a King
  • Either a necklace-crown or a 35″ necklace of Swarovski crystal and sterling silver from Elise Matthesen
  • And if we raise $4000, someone will get a two-year subscription to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Click here for the full list of goals and rewards.

My thanks to everyone who’s offered prizes. At the moment, I’ve got more authors offering books than I know what to do with, so we’re all set there for now. (It’s a great problem to have 🙂 )

And of course, tremendous thanks to everyone who has donated and spread the word so far. It really does make a difference.

First Book Friday: Tansy Rayner Roberts

It’s been six months since the last First Book Friday post, where authors talk about how they wrote and/or sold their first novel. Previous entries in the series are indexed here, and the submission guidelines are over there.

Tansy Rayner Roberts (Twitter, LJ) is, in her words,  a writer, a mum, a doll merchant, and in her spare time (ha!) likes to cut up fabric and sew it back together in an amusing fashion. She’s also one of the three voices of the Galactic Suburbia podcast (which is currently on the Hugo list for Best Podcast!)

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I had only just turned twenty when my first novel, Splashdance Silver, was published.  It sounds like a dream come true, but while there are some amazing benefits to being published so young, there are also some fairly grim realities.  When asked to give advice to new authors, I almost always say “A debut is a terrible thing to waste.”  And I am well aware that it’s often those authors who debut later in their lives who manage to turn that first lightning moment of luck-and-timing-and-good-book into a solid career.

But I hope I also stand as an example of how a less-than-stellar debut can be overcome.  Eventually.

The media surrounding Splashdance Silver used my age as a hook for readers, which I think caused as much backlash as it did awareness.  The book was the inaugural winner of The George Turner Prize, a contest designed to select and publish a new manuscript of science fiction or fantasy.  The prize ran for three years (with a female winner every year, my successors being hard science fiction writers Maxine McArthur and Michelle Marquardt) before quietly disappearing into the sunset with a swag on its back and a sad song in its heart.

As the first prize winner, receiving an advance for a whopping $10,000, which would still be considered an exceptional novel advance for a first time author in Australia today, I was under a lot of scrutiny, and there were rumblings in the SF community about the fact that a prize named after George Turner, an eminent Australian writer of serious science fiction, had been won by some girl’s funny fantasy novel, featuring more girls, and frocks, and exploding pirates, and that sort of thing.

Then there was the award ceremony itself, badly handled, where I discovered on the night that while *I* had known for months of secrecy that I was the winner, and had been busily editing the book for its imminent publication, none of the other shortlisted authors had been told that the race was long over.  They did figure it out, I suspect, when I was seated at the table with the guests of honour, well before the official announcement.  I cringe now to think about it – and am terribly grateful that many of them were not only forgiving, but have become very good friends since.

I had some lovely, supportive readers, and still hear from fans (mostly young women, who discovered Splashdance then or now as a teenager) but in 1998 the Young Adult fantasy boom had yet to take off, and my little book struggled to live up to the substantial advance, which turned out to be more of a curse than a blessing.  A sequel, Liquid Gold, was put out the following year, when Australia was hosting the Worldcon, but the third book never made it to the shelves.

I’ve been working to overcome my first false start for many years now, making friends and allies in the SF community, teaching, studying, having babies, reviewing and learning to craft short stories, podcasting at Galactic Suburbia, and writing, writing, writing.

My debut might have been less than stellar, but our industry can (occasionally) be more forgiving than we give it credit for.  In 2010 I was relaunched as a writer of dark fantasy at HarperCollins Voyager with The Creature Court trilogy. This time I have been widely reviewed, receiving a great deal more critical attention and support.  With community goodwill behind me, I hope this time to be able to launch a career that will stick to the wall, and keep climbing.

So, here we go again!

Miscellaneous (with LEGO Game Boy)

The Fundraiser for Rape Crisis Centers raised more than $500 in the first 24 hours, which is wonderful! Our next goal is $750, at which point a book by Anton Strout gets added to the prizes. Thank you to everyone who’s donated and spread the word so far!

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I’ll be doing a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) tomorrow, April 13, starting at 7:00 p.m. CST. Having read some of the AMAs they’ve done with other authors, I expect this to be fun.

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ARCs of Libriomancer have been spotted in the wild! Cranking up the authorial anxiety in 3…2…1…

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A blog post by author Adrienne Kress: How to Write Female Characters (or as I like to call them, Characters).

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Finally, because I haven’t done anything LEGO in a while, have a LEGO Game Boy. That’s also a Transformer. With a LEGO Tetris cartridge. That transforms into a bird, Laserbeak-style. Oh, just click the pic and check it out! This was built by Baron von Brunk.

Fundraising for Rape Crisis Centers

April is sexual assault awareness month.

This is something that’s very important to me. I’ve written a fair amount about rape over the years, but a lot of it comes down to:

  • Rape is a horribly common crime
  • As a society, we tend to punish victims while excusing or defending many perpetrators of rape
  • While the individual rapist is always responsible for his (or her) crimes, there are cultural/societal reasons rape continues at such a frequent rate
  • Survivors of rape deserve support, no matter what

For several years, I’ve run a fundraiser and given out signed books to encourage people to donate to rape crisis centers. In the past, I’ve given out autographed books to people who donate, but this year I wanted to go even bigger. So I’ve talked to some author friends, and the net result is that you could win a lot more books this year, depending on how much money we raise.

I’ll post a running total here throughout the month. The more money we raise, the more prizes I’ll throw into the pot. Right now, we’re covered through $3000 $4000. If we raise more money, then I’ll just have to round up more authors and prizes.

TOTAL RAISED: $3573

The prizes so far and the amount we have to raise to add them to the giveaway are as follows.

Goals Met So Far:

Additional Prizes:

Thanks so much to all of the authors who offered books!

The rules:

You can donate to your local rape crisis center, or if you prefer, to an organization like RAINN. Most places will take donations online.

Note: As of 4/17/2012, all donations to RAINN will be matched, effectively doubling your donation.

To enter, send an e-mail to endrape@jimchines.com.

  • Let me know how much you donated so I can update the total. You can donate any amount, from $1 to $10,000 or more.
  • If you donate at least $50, please include some sort of documentation (e-mail or electronic receipt, something like that).
  • Make sure to include your mailing address!

Now, Michigan law prohibits unlicensed raffles, meaning I can’t require donations to enter. Therefore, if you can’t donate anything at all, you can still e-mail me to enter the giveaway. But for those who can, please try to give at least a few bucks.

Winners will be selected at random on May 1. If there are particular books you’d like, please mention them in your e-mail, in order of priority. But I can’t guarantee anything. I’m planning to pick winners and prizes like so:

  • Randomly draw winner #1. If they asked for a specific book, that’s what they win. Otherwise, they get the first one on the list (Libriomancer).
  • Randomly draw winner #2. If they asked for a specific book and it’s available, that’s what they win. Otherwise, they get whatever’s next on the list.
  • And so on and so forth, until all the prizes have homes.

I hope that’s clear. If anyone has questions, please let me know.

Finally, I’d very much appreciate it if people could spread the word about the fundraiser and giveaway.

Sharing my Own Privileged Dumbassery

This is going to come as a tremendous shock to people, particularly my wife and children, but I am not, in fact, perfect.

When I write about things like sexism, racism, bullying, homophobia, etc. in SF/F circles or society in general, I do it because I believe it’s important. But I also do it because it’s personal, both because so many people I love and care about are directly affected by these things, and because — having grown up in this society — I’m still working on my own assumptions and behaviors.

I came across a blog post discussing the Hugo nominations. (I’m trying to avoid these discussions, because they do bad things to my brain, but that’s a mess for another post.) In this one, someone was pointing out that for the past six years, the Best Fan Writer category has had only a single female nominee each year (or in 2007, no women at all).

As I read, that privileged, sexist crap I complain about came crashing through my head. My brain was a bingo card of dumbassery.

  • Wait, is she saying I only got on the ballot because I’m a guy?
  • People shouldn’t vote based on gender. It should be about the writing!
  • Why oh why has fandom declared War on Penises?

Okay, I’m exaggerating with that last one. The point is, my initial, gut-level response was to take it personally, and to go through some of the same reactions that piss me off when I see or hear them from others.

You know what? They piss me off when they come from me, too. Because the poster is absolutely right. There are brilliant, powerful, amazing women writing out there, and it speaks ill of us that we’re not recognizing more of them.

Nobody’s saying I only got on the ballot because I’m a guy. I don’t believe anyone looked at their Hugo ballot and said, “Well, I like Cat Valente, but Jim Hines has a Y chromosome, so I’m nominating him instead. Go Team Penis!”[1. It’s been correctly pointed out in the comments that having a penis or Y chromosome does not equal being a guy, and vice versa. It’s not that simple or straightforward.]

But does the fact that I’m a guy give me an advantage? Yeah, it does. I have more freedom to write whatever I like, with less fear of backlash. I’m given more respect and authority when I write, I’m taken more seriously.

That’s not a comfortable thing for me to acknowledge. I want to believe that everything I’ve achieved has come 100% from my own inherent awesomeness … but it just ain’t so.

This doesn’t change the fact that I’m a good writer. (That’s right, I said fact! My ego blows raspberries at the haters!) It doesn’t change how honored I feel to be on that ballot. It doesn’t diminish the things I’ve achieved. What it does is start to acknowledge the reality of the context in which I’ve achieved those things, the advantages I’ve been given.

None of us are perfect, and most of us have absorbed ideas, beliefs, and attitudes that we need to work on. It’s hard, sometimes painful work to dig up and examine those beliefs, and to start to change our behaviors.

But it’s important work. And it’s work I hope and expect to be doing until the day I die.

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Deadline, by Mira Grant

I picked up a copy of Deadline [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] last fall. It’s one of my favorite autographed books, inscribed to Jim “Bite me” Hines, which puts it right up there with the one John Scalzi signed to me as his thong buddy. Deadline is on the Hugo ballot for Best Novel, so this seems like the perfect time to talk about the book.

This is book two in Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy. (I talked about book one here.) And there’s no way to talk about it without major spoilers for book one, so it’s cut tag time.

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