Blog | Jim C. Hines

January 11, 2012 /

Striking a Pose (Women and Fantasy Covers)

A while back, we had a discussion on the blog about the cover art for my princess novels. For the most part, I really like these covers, but they’re not perfect.

Now I could talk about the way women are posed in cover art … or I could show you. I opted for the latter, in part because it helped me to understand it better. I expected posing like Danielle to feel a little weird and unnatural. I did not expect immediate, physical pain from trying (rather unsuccessfully) to do the hip thing she’s got going on.

I recruited my wife to take the pictures, which she kindly did with a minimum of laughter.

Being me, I naturally couldn’t stop there. I headed over to Amazon and grabbed a sampling of book covers, primarily urban fantasy, and spent the evening doing a photoshoot.

I’m tempted to use the Night Myst pic as my new author photo.

In all seriousness, I spent the rest of last night with pain running through most of my back. Even the pose in The Shape of Desire, which first struck me as rather low-key, is difficult to imitate and feels really forced. Trying to launch my chest and buttocks in two different directions a la Vicious Grace? Just ow.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with being sexual. I can totally see Snow from the princess books flaunting her stuff, for example. But posing like these characters drives home exactly what’s being emphasized and what’s not.

My sense is that most of these covers are supposed to convey strong, sexy heroines, but these are not poses that suggest strength. You can’t fight from these stances. I could barely even walk.

Guys, you should try it sometime. Get someone who won’t laugh at you too much to try to help you match these poses. The physical challenge is far more enlightening than anything I could say. (Wardrobe changes are optional.)

A few covers which I feel do a pretty good job of conveying strong, capable female characters: The Gaslight Dogs, An Artificial Night, The Darkest Edge of Dawn. Other suggestions and general discussion are welcome, as always.

January 9, 2012 /

Jig vs. Jig: Fan Writer and Other Hugo Stuff

It’s award time again, and author Catherine Schaff-Stump has written a lovely post titled Why I’m Nominating Jim Hines for the Best Fan Writer Hugo (and why you should too). I am truly flattered, and I think you should go read her post right now.

Hugo nominations are open to attending or supporting members of Worldcon in 2011, 2012 or 2013. My eligibility this year includes:

Best Fan Writer (for the blog)

Best Novel (for The Snow Queen’s Shadow)

Best Short Story

“In the Line of Duty” from Zombiesque (Undead FBI agent vs. bioterrorists, which did not in any way start out as zombie Criminal Minds fanfic)
“The Blue Corpse Corps” from When the Hero Comes Home (Goblins vs. zombies)
“Epilogue” from Human for a Day (Slightly surreal piece about living stories. Yes, this one also includes zombies.)

If you’ll be voting for Hugos or Nebulas this year and want to read something of mine, just let me know.

Mary Robinette Kowal has a good post about self-promotion and some of the ways we try to approach it without coming off as self-absorbed and egotistical. The problem is that a fair number of us, myself most definitely included, are both egotistical and rather self-absorbed.

I.e., we’re writers.

My solution is to turn it over to the goblins, because they’re much more entertaining about this stuff…

	Vote for me or I’ll eat you.
	Why don’t we try to keep things positive this time? We could start by recognizing some of the wonderful books and stories that were published last year–
	John Scalzi e-mailed me personally to say his rabbit chewed up his trophy shelf, causing massive structural damage. The animals are safe, but the weight of another Hugo award could destroy his entire house! For the sake of the bunny, DON’T VOTE FOR JOHN SCALZI.
	There’s something seriously wrong with you.
	Tobias Buckell is eligible in a number of categories, including Best Related Work for Nascence, a collection of FAILED stories! If you’re going to vote for failure, vote goblin instead … wait, that came out wrong.
	Do you have any idea how many people are eligible for these things? Are you going to sling mud at them all?
	It’s the American way! John J. Adams claims to be the editor of Lightspeed magazine, but when pressed, he admitted he only edits at about Mach 3. Seanan McGuire is actually a team of hyperintelligent typing velociraptors who want to eat your puppy. Jennifer Brozek edited your mom. Cat Valente isn’t even a real cat! Lynne Thomas picks her nose with a sonic screwdriver.
	I think you used that last one in 2011.
	Shut up! Alma Alexander sparkles in sunlight! Elizabeth Bear had Snoopy fixed! Shweta Narayan had an illicit affair with R2D2! Aliette de Bodard is the 8th horcrux! Neil Clarke cancelled Firefly! N. K. Jemisin writes Veggietales/Mario Brothers porn!
	Jemisin didn’t even write a post listing her eligible work!
	Yeah, but she’s a really good writer. It’s preemptive mudslinging. Laura Anne Gilman is 1/4 Smurf! (Show us the birth certificate!) Marie Brennan wants to cast Carrot Top as the new Superman! Saladin Ahmed prefers odd-numbered Trek films! Cat Rambo greenlit another Garfield movie! Pat Rothfuss is the host body for a superintelligent alien beard. Nnedi Okorafor keeps the petrified head of H. P. Lovecraft for a trophy!
	That’s the World Fantasy Award. Just stop before you embarrass us further.
	Do you realize what we could do with a Best Fan Writer rocketship? Imagine flying that golden rocket to the moon. We could establish the first goblin colony in space!
	…
	Golaka can create new recipes for moon cheese and if anyone gives us any crap we’ll drop moon rocks on their heads! The only way for goblins to finally live in peace is to WIN ALL THE ROCKETSHIPS!
	They’re trophies! The rockets are thirteen inches high! You thought they were handing out real rockets? How exactly did you think John Scalzi was keeping his on a shelf?
	I … I just thought it was a really big shelf.

And now I want to win a Hugo so I can use my goblin miniatures to depict their efforts to reach the moon. I could even create a goblin miniatures vs. LEGO minifigs showdown…

If you’ve read something this year that you feel is award-worthy, please feel free to leave your recommendation(s) in the comments!

January 6, 2012 /

Arctic Rising, by Tobias Buckell

Arctic Rising [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] is a bit of a change from other Tobias Buckell books I’ve read. While it’s definitely science fiction, it’s near-future SF with a strong “thriller” feel. (The genre, not the Michael Jackson song. There are no dancing zombies in this book.)

The protagonist is Anika Duncan, an airship pilot for the U.N. Polar Guard who gets shot down after discovering a nuclear missile being smuggled into the Arctic. She soon finds herself in the middle of a global power struggle. The Gaia Corporation have devised a plan to reverse global warming, but the technology can also be used as a deadly superweapon. (And I can’t say what the technology is without spoiling things, which sucks, because it’s pretty darn cool.)

I like the extrapolation Buckell has done on a world where the icecaps continue to melt and the oceans continue to rise. He’s done his research, and it shows. (Some aspects of the book should be familiar to anyone who reads his blog.) The dwindling ice caps create a rush to tap previously inaccessible oil reserves, leading to a proliferation of arctic settlements and colonies. Those settlements in the arctic have a bit of a science fiction feel as well, which was fun. Yes, I’m reading the book through more of an SF lens than a thriller one.

This was a pretty fast read, with colorful characters, a bit of dangerous romance, international intrigue, spies, guns, all leading to a desperate, high-stakes climax.

If you’re familiar with Buckell’s work, this book has some of his trademarks: awareness that there’s more to the world than the United States; significant nonwhite characters (Anika is neither white nor straight); sailing ships written by someone who’s actually lived on one; and lots of action.

Given that climate change is a hot political topic right now, I suspect some readers will denigrate the book as leftist liberal propaganda, and that’s unfortunate. I’ll admit there were a few points early on where I felt like the message started to overtake the story. But then I started wondering if this was due to the fact that in the U. S., any mention of climate change has become so highly politicized. In other words, it’s not that Buckell is preaching; it’s more that political groups have been screaming and squawking and flat-out lying at me about global warming issues for so long that it affected my reading of the book, which is unfortunate.

Overall, Arctic Rising does exactly what good science fiction is supposed to do: examines the current science and research, makes predictions about the future, and writes a rousing story about that future.

This book comes out on February 28.

January 5, 2012 /

Good News Roundup

It’s been a pretty good week so far!

Yesterday, I finished and submitted LIBRIOMANCER to my editor. One day ahead of my deadline, no less! There will be at least one more round of revision once she’s read it, but for now, it’s DONE!!! It came in at just over 100,000 words, and they’re all PERFECT (except for one spot where I wrote Timon instead of Pumbaa.)
As if to mark the occasion, my agent e-mailed yesterday to let me know we had sold rights to the first two Princess books to Turkey. Woo hoo!
I have an essay called “Writing About Rape” in the latest issue of Apex Magazine.
LIBRIOMANCER bookmarks arrived yesterday, and they look great. I shall commence handing them out at ConFusion, and will probably be offering/asking to mail some out to folks as we get closer to the release date.
I got an e-mail yesterday with a picture of STEPSISTER SCHEME on the shelf at a college bookstore, where it’s listed as a required text for a class. That’s pretty darn cool!

It’s strange to be done, to not know what I have to work on during my lunch break today. Should I start planning book two, or should I dive into that short story that’s due in a few months? I don’t know. I could do either one if I wanted to! Whoa … I don’t know how to handle that kind of freedom!

The past few months have been pretty hectic, and I want to say publicly how much I appreciate all of the support and understanding my wife and kids have given me. Hopefully I’ll be able to pay some of that back now.

As for the book … well, you’ll be able to decide for yourself in August whether all of that time and work paid off, but personally, I think it’s pretty darn awesome, and I hope you will too.

January 4, 2012 /

Throne of the Crescent Moon, by Saladin Ahmed

Throne of the Crescent Moon [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] is Saladin Ahmed‘s first fantasy novel.

It’s good. You should read it.

What, you want more? Okay, fine. Here’s the official summary from the publisher:

The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, land of djenn and ghuls, holy warriors and heretics, Khalifs and killers, is at the boiling point of a power struggle between the iron-fisted Khalif and the mysterious master thief known as the Falcon Prince. In the midst of this brewing rebellion a series of brutal supernatural murders strikes at the heart of the Kingdoms. It is up to a handful of heroes to learn the truth behind these killings.

One of those heroes is Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, “the last real ghul hunter in the great city of Dhamsawaat,” and he’s awesome. He’s old, he’s burnt out, and dammitall he’s doing the best he can. He’s not invulnerable or superhuman, and he’s facing a darkness more powerful than anything he’s encountered in his long career as a ghul hunter.

You also have Raseed bas Raseed, a badass holy warrior whose time with Adoulla creates a wonderful conflict between the rigid purity of Raseed’s religious beliefs and the messiness of the real world. He and Adoulla are joined by Zamia Badawi, who is just as deadly as Raseed, but where Raseed is disciplined and focused, Badawi is raw and passionate and angry.

Ahmed does a great job with his characters, making you feel for them in a way few authors can. The worldbuilding was refreshing as well. I love that Adoulla’s magic is faith-based, and the contrast between his faith and Raseed’s. The city, the tribes, the history … everything feels real. Ahmed isn’t just slapping in two-dimensional set pieces.

The book gets rather dark at time. Our villains are genuinely Evil, and that comes through from page one.

Much as I loved this book (and I’ll definitely be picking up the next), the ending didn’t sit quite right with me, and I’ve been trying to figure out why. It’s hard to get into details without spoiling things, but I think it comes down to the emotional payoff not quite matching up to what I was hoping for. That might just be a matter of personal taste.

Overall, a strong first novel, and I’m looking forward to the sequel.

Throne of the Crescent Moon comes out on February 7.

January 3, 2012 /

Shadow Ops: Control Point, by Myke Cole

Shadow Ops: Control Point [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] is a military fantasy from Myke Cole. Myke has experience both with fantasy (I first encountered him online when he was reading submissions for Weird Tales) and the military (three tours in Iraq – I recommend reading his thoughts on the end of the Iraq war). So it’s no surprise that his debut novel has a lot going for it.

The book is set in a world where magic has returned, leading to all kinds of messiness. Oscar Britton is a lieutenant attached to the Supernatural Operations Corps, a military unit which helps to neutralize rogue magic users. But then, after a particularly intense mission, Britton manifests magic of his own. He creates a magical gate to another dimension. Unfortunately, this particular school of magic is, how should I put this … it’s “prohibited with extreme prejudice.”

So Britton makes a run for it. According to U.S. law, he’s earned himself a death sentence. Instead, the military tracks him down and offers him another choice: join a unit that doesn’t officially exist, and join the real fight against magical threats.

This is not a warm and fuzzy book. It’s fast-paced, intense, and at times brutal. Britton is a flawed protagonist, and he makes his share of serious mistakes. While I occasionally wanted to yell, “Dude, WTF are you doing?” I could also understand why he made the choices he did. He’s a good, conflicted character.

Actually, “conflicted” is a good word for the book as a whole. Nothing is simple; there are no straightforward right or wrong answers. Cole does a good job of presenting the messiness of a world where a teenager could wake up one day with the power to massacre an police force, and the costs of trying to protect people in such a world.

This is an ambitious, thoughtful, and at times brutal book. It’s got a different feel than most of the fantasy I’ve read lately, and I’m glad my agent was able to hook me up with a review copy.

But the MOST IMPORTANT thing here is that the book has goblins, and they’re pretty damn awesome.

Shadow Ops: Control Point comes out on January 31.

December 28, 2011 /

Bookplate Frustrations

A week or so back, I offered to send bookplates to anyone who would be giving one or more of my books for the holidays and wanted to transform them into “autographed” books. I’ve done this for the past few years, mostly because it seemed like a nice thing to do for my fans and readers. (And hey, maybe it would encourage a few more people to buy and give my books as gifts.)

This year, that offer was picked up by various “Free stuff!” blogs. You can see a little of this on Twitter.

Off-topic, “samplesexpress” is not the best Twitter handle, folks. Also, thanks to Mike for the shoutout on my comic!

Anyway, my Inbox started popping with messages from folks who had never heard of me or my books, but wanted their Free Stuff! This created a problem. I don’t have the time to send this to everyone who surfs the freebie blogs, e-mailing for every offer that shows up. And since these bookplates cost me money to have printed and to mail, I can’t really afford to do so, either.

Sometimes it was easy to tell the person was just angling for Free Stuff. An e-mail with nothing but a mailing address? Deleted. (In my post, I asked people to let me know which book they were buying, and who they were giving it to.) Another person asked for an autographed bookplate to go in Kitemaster … a book which is only available in e-book format.

For the rest, I tried to come up with a way to separate genuine readers/fans from the folks who are basically reverse spamming me. I sent out quick e-mails explaining my situation and asking them to tell me the first word on page XX of whatever book they mentioned.

This is all making me rather cranky, especially when people are unable to answer but continue to e-mail. Either they’re expending a rather disproportionate amount of effort trying to trick me into sending them a silly little sticker, or else they’re genuinely trying to get something nice to go with a gift of my book(s) and we’re somehow miscommunicating, which means I’m basically being a dick by making them jump through more hoops.

At this point, I’ve updated my original blog post to let folks know the giveaway is over. It’s too late for me to mail anything to arrive for holiday gift-giving anyway. For the handful of folks who e-mailed me back, I think I’ll just send the bookplates and err on the side of not-being-a-dick.

But dang … this was not how I wanted to feel at the end of this thing.

On the bright side, I’m at 96,000 words in the rewrite of Libriomancer, and while it’s going to be tight, I still expect to make my deadline. Yay me!

December 21, 2011 /

Have Yourself a Slashy Little Christmas

If you don’t know what slash is, then this might not be the holiday carol for you…

Have Yourself a Slashy Little Christmas
by Jim C. Hines

Have yourself a slashy little Christmas.
Let your fandoms play.
Give She-Ra
And Xena one romantic day.

Have yourself a slashy little Christmas.
Throw canon aside.
Give Harry
And Draco one last “broomstick ride.”

Pair Magneto with Wolverine,
Xavier and Mister Clean.
Friends and foes who are so much more,
Time to let them all explore.

Kirk and Spock,
Or Optimus and Starscream.
Make your pairings hot.
Give old Smaug some sexytimes with Tiamat.
And have yourself some slashy little Christmas plots.

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