Jim C. Hines

Discrimination and Marriage Inequality

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:14:50 GMT

I’m still waiting for someone — anyone — to present an argument against same-sex marriage that doesn’t boil down to, “My religion doesn’t approve” or “I think it’s icky.” Using the former as an excuse for discrimination is about as unAmerican as you can get, and the latter is just asinine.

While politicians and bigots continue to argue that “those people” don’t need “special rights or protections” under the law, here’s some of what’s been going on recently…

In Texas, a judge enforced a clause in Carolyn Compton’s divorce papers which states that, “someone who has a ‘dating or intimate relationship’ with the person or is not related ‘by blood or marriage’ is not allowed after 9 p.m. when the children are present.” Since Carolyn’s partner of three years is a woman and Texas has laws against same-sex marriage, the judge has essentially made it illegal for them to live together.

In New York, Elliot Morales shot Marc Carson, a gay man, in the face at point blank range, killing him. Elliot had followed Carson and his companion, and was heard yelling anti-gay slurs and asking, “You want to die tonight?”

In Chatham, Canada, an openly gay 13-year-old boy was attacked by four older teenagers, who called him “faggot” and “queer,” told him he was going to hell, and beat him. One of the boys pulled a knife and threatened to kill him.

Rep. Mark Pocan became the first member of Congress to obtain a congressional ID card identifying his same-sex partner as his spouse. However, his husband is still legally excluded from receiving health, pension, and other benefits.

In Washington state, lawmakers have proposed a bill that would provide an exception to anti-discrimination law and allow businesses to refuse service based on sexual orientation.

David and Jason married in New York in 2012, but Jason is a UK citizen. As a result, Jason is unable to stay in the country. In order to see his husband, Jason has to get a Tourist Visa, which allows them to be together for 90 days. Jason is now being warned that he’s used too many Tourist Visas, and has been advised to stay out of the U.S. for at least six months.

In New York, two gay men were pursued by a group that shouted anti-gay slurs and then beat them. Both victims were hospitalized. One required eye surgery.

So go ahead. Explain to me why we’re still denying people equal rights and protection under the law. Explain to me why any of this is okay. Explain how you sleep at night, knowing that these things are the direct result of our refusal to recognize “those people” as equal. Or even to recognize them as people.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Collect ALL the D-seases!!!

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:00:16 GMT

On Facebook last week, I mentioned that I seem to be collecting D-themed diseases. First diabetes, then depression. Now I have a third one to add to the mix.

During Penguicon, my wife noticed what looked like an elongated callus on my right hand, below the ring finger. (Spoiler: It’s not a tumor.) When it was still there two weeks later, I hopped online to do a little research, then went in to talk to the doctor. His diagnosis confirmed my guess, and the winner is…

Dupuytren’s Contracture

That link goes to the Wikipedia page, which includes a post-surgical picture with incision and stitches, so don’t click if that kind of stuff gets to you.

Basically, some connective tissue in my hand is misbehaving, which starts to restrict the extension of the tendon. Right now, it’s just a little vertical speed bump on my palm. Eventually, it will restrict the movement of my ring finger, and I won’t be able to extend it beyond a curved, clawlike position.

I think of this soon-to-be claw as the first step in my very, very slow transformation into a werewolf.

The good news is that it’s not painful, and it’s fairly straightforward to correct. Basically, the doctor said to let him know when it starts to become a problem, at which point he’ll hook me up with a hand surgeon to go in and clean out the affected tissue. Six weeks of recovery and physical therapy, and I’m good to go.

Note: I’m not looking for medical advice.

Dupuytren is less common in people my age. I guess I’m just precocious. There seems to be a correlation to diabetes as well. And it sounds like there’s a decent chance of recurrence in the long run.

Compared to some of the medical complications I’ve seen friends and family deal with, this is little more than an annoyance right now. I am a little anxious about the eventual surgery, though. I’m a writer, which is a much easier job for me to do with functional hands.

Fortunately, I should have a little while–maybe a few years?–before that becomes necessary.

The silver lining: It looks like the surgery leaves a zig-zag scar on your palm, which means after I heal, I’ll be able to tell people I stopped a Killing Curse WITH MY BARE HAND!

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Job Hunting Tips

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:39:05 GMT

It’s strange to realize I’ve been a manager at Ye Olde Day Job for more than seven months now. One of the most surreal parts so far has been the process of hiring new employees, doing everything from reviewing applications to writing screening questions to conducting job interviews.

In some ways, it reminds me a little of being an editor. Some stories just aren’t that well-written. Others might not be the right fit for your project. Then there are those that are good, but are they good enough? And of course, I hate the rejection part…

Having done this a few times now, I wanted to pass along a few observations and suggestions. I hope they’re helpful!

Read the Guidelines: When you’re submitting a story, the guidelines are a test. If you submit a 10,000 word story to a market with a 4000-word upper limit, you fail. Same thing with a job application. If the application says to include a cover letter and you don’t, that’s going to cost you. If it asks for a copy of your transcript and you don’t include that, you’re much less likely to get an interview.

Learn to Write Well: I suspect I’m more critical of people’s writing skills than most, but your ability to write complete sentences and paragraphs in your cover letter, to present a clean, grammatically correct resume, these things do make a difference. And whenever possible, ask someone else to review and proofread your material before you send it in.

Research the Employer: This is advice I’ve heard for years. Having sat on the other side of the table, I finally understand why. Not only do you look more invested if you’ve taken a few minutes to study the company online before the interview, but it lets you tailor your interview answers to the company’s specific goals and needs. It really does make you stand out.

Practice: Interviews make a lot of people nervous, even when they’re fully qualified for the job. If you can do practice interviews through your school or a job training program, that will help. If not, get a friend to throw practice questions your way. You can find lots of standard interview questions online.

Make Sure You Understand the Questions: When you’re interviewing, make sure you listen to and answer the whole question. If you’re nervous, it’s easy to get tunnel vision about a particular key word and miss part or all of the question. Wait to hear the entire question, and if you’re unclear about anything, ask them to repeat or clarify.

Be Confident in Your Skills, but Don’t Lie: Don’t be afraid to talk up your strengths and accomplishments. You’re there to make yourself look good! But don’t lie. It won’t end well.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Starting on UNBOUND

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:30:14 GMT

This is for my own reference as much as anything else, but yesterday afternoon I began writing the first draft of Unbound.

The very first line of the book is “WEREWOLVES VS. BIGFOOT”, and yes, it’s in all-caps.

Have I intrigued you yet?

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

My Son Reviews Goblin War

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:30:20 GMT

My wife has been reading the goblin books to my eight-year-old son. Earlier this week, they finished the final book in the trilogy, Goblin War [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy]. I admit, I’m a little sad. This has been an amazing thing to watch. Toward the end, I found myself sneaking over to the couch to listen to my wife read and watch Jackson’s reactions. When I tucked him in at night, we’d talk about the latest chapter and what he thought might happen next.

But then I realized it’s not quite over! I’ve got five goblin short stories they can read, too! We started in on “Goblin Lullaby,” which has already led to some diaper-related laughter

In the meantime, here are Jackson’s thoughts on Goblin War, as transcribed by me.

What is Goblin War about?

It’s about Jig and how he and Shadowstar have to defeat Billa and her god Issa. Relka, who was stabbed in the belly by Jig in Goblin Hero, became obsessed with Jig and Shadowstar. And Darnak comes back, because Theodore got the Rod of Creation. He used it to [SPOILER]!

Who are your favorite characters, and why?

Jig, because he’s the main character. And Tymalous Shadowstar, the other main character. I like them.

What about the other characters?

Yeah, I liked them too. I really liked how you made Noc and Issa.

What was the best part of the story?

I can’t decide. It’s too good!

Okay, what were some of the best parts?

I liked when it showed about Jig as a baby.

Let’s see… Don’t type that. Daddy!

I liked when Jig, Relka, and Trok had to clean the wolf pen. Smelly (one of the wolves) rolled around in the poop!

Were there any parts you didn’t like?

No!

What’s the best book, Goblin Quest, Goblin Hero, or Goblin War?

Goblin War.

Who should read this book?

Everyone!

I always say that, because I really like them.

What do you think will happen to Jig and the goblins next?

I think that more characters will come back, either Veka or Riana.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Codex Born Preview

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:15:42 GMT

Codex Born [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] comes out in three months. To mark the occasion, I’ve posted the first chapter in .pdf and .epub formats.

For those of you who’ve asked how e-books work in a world of libriomancy, this chapter talks about that question. Or if you just want to read about Smudge eating a poetic raisin…

Download links:

If you notice any problems with either file, please let me know.

Enjoy!

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Guest Post: Steven Harper on Forming Families

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:30:41 GMT

Steven Harper (Blog, Twitter, Facebook) is another Michigan author, with a bunch of books to his name. Names, actually. His latest novel is The Havoc Machine [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy], the fourth book in his Clockwork Empire series. You can read a sample chapter here.

He stopped by to talk about the creation of family…

Ah, Friends. Remember them? The quintessential show of the 90s. When Friends first aired, I was immediately drawn in. We had six (mostly) unrelated people who had formed a family. They laughed and played pranks and squabbled and dated other people, but in the end, they remained woven together like yarn into socks. They were so close that they spent Thanksgiving and other holidays together instead of going home to their birth families.

I was a faithful viewer for ten years, and I sniffled hard when the show went off the air.

This image of unrelated people coming together to form a family stayed with me. My own birth family had undergone a number of upheavals, and however necessary those upheavals were, it still left my family fractured and pulled apart. What would it be like . . . ?

Eventually I found out what it would be like. I married, we had a son, and we realized more birth children wouldn’t be an option. My then-wife and I adopted two boys from Ukraine, and our family grew. Sasha and Maksim weren’t ours by blood, but they were ours by everything that counted. Sasha defended his new brother Aran from bullies at school. Maksim clung to me whenever he felt shy or afraid. We laughed and played pranks and squabbled and ate Thanksgiving dinner together. We were a family, pulled together from bits and pieces from all over the world.

When I wrote The Havoc Machine, I set out to explore what it meant to form a family out of nothing. Thad, the main character, has lost his family, and he limps through life like a dented automaton as a result. His clockwork parrot Dante is all he has left of this former life, and their relationship is far from healthy. It’s easier for him to be alone, when he has nothing to lose. Then he meets Sofiya Ekk and they rescue a boy named Nikolai from the lair of a mad scientist, and Nikolai attaches himself to Thad with ferocious tenacity, and Sofiya comes along for reasons of her own. Thad doesn’t want attachments, but he finds himself thrust into the role of father nonetheless, and through him, I got to explore what it means to learn fatherhood all over again.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Fandom, Conventions, and Race

Tue, 07 May 2013 13:30:51 GMT

Over the past two weekends, I’ve been a Guest of Honor at Penguicon and Mo*Con. I had a great time at both, and would like to publicly thank both cons for all of their work, and for making me feel so welcome. Penguicon gave me a pocketwatch! Mo*Con wouldn’t stop feeding me! At both conventions, I got to hang out and talk to amazing people, and I’m grateful to all of the volunteers and attendees who helped me to feel welcome.

But these two cons also drove home something I’ve been noticing. Earlier this year, I was on a panel about inclusion in fandom at a different convention. One of our panelists insisted that fandom had always been welcoming to everyone, adding that she preferred the colorblind approach, welcoming everyone as individuals.

Mary Robinette Kowal beat me to the response by 0.6 seconds. Mary stood up and asked everyone in the audience who was white to raise their hands.

The entire audience raised their hands, with the sole exception of the partner of the panel’s one black panelist–a gentleman who, I believe, had been invited specifically to attend that panel.

That’s what “colorblind” looks like.

Most of the conventions I’ve attended are like this.

Data on race and ethnicity in the U.S. is a little messy, but in 2010, our population was roughly 72% white. So why do so many conventions seem to be between 95% and 99% white? And it’s not just in the midwest that I’ve seen this, either.

Mo*Con was an exception to the rule. There were times this past weekend I wish I could have been colorblind, because in the back of my mind, I kept looking around and wondering, Why can’t more conventions be like this?, and that frustration took away from my ability to just relax and enjoy myself.

We’ve had this conversation before. I don’t believe anyone is deliberately or consciously trying to limit convention participation along racial lines. Nobody’s setting a quota of at least 97% white folks. We’ve seen some conventions beginning to talk about trying to more actively look for nonwhite guests to invite, as opposed to thoughtlessly recycling the generally white status quo.

I’m not saying nobody should ever invite white guests of honor to their conventions. But I don’t think white men should be the default, the automatic choice, when there’s such a broad range of amazing writers contributing to our field.

But that’s just a part of the picture. One of the things I noticed at Mo*Con was a sense of genuine welcomeness. I’m not sure how to describe it. It’s not that I’ve felt unwelcome at other conventions; but Mo*Con had a sense of warmth and inclusiveness and appreciation for everyone that I haven’t experienced at most cons. Some of that might have been the smaller size and the focus on people and connections, but whatever the reason, I want that at every convention.

I want everyone to have that, dammit.

And it’s not enough to just tell the concom to invite more nonwhite guests. The entire convention needs to be a part of creating that inclusiveness. I need to be a part of it, of inviting and welcoming and listening. When conventions promote, where do they focus their outreach? When we come back to the real world and talk about what a great time we had at a con, who do we talk to? Who do we try to invite along to the next one?

Lots of people will protest that they don’t discriminate, and they don’t judge based on color. They’ll argue that they welcome everyone, and they do so in a way that’s fair and non-racist and colorblind. But we’ve seen what “colorblind” tends to create. We end up recreating and reinforcing our preexisting circles, building a convention that might be welcoming to us, but isn’t necessarily welcoming to everyone.

That needs to change. Because dammit, the world is bigger than that. Our genre is bigger. We should be bigger.

—

Related Link: The Carl Brandon Society runs the Con or Bust fundraiser, actively working to help fans of color attend conventions.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Star Trek: Of Gods and Men

Mon, 06 May 2013 19:27:51 GMT

Star Trek: Of Gods and Men is an interesting phenomenon. It’s a fan-made film, but one done with at least the tacit acceptance of the powers that be. I picked this up after watching and enjoying another fan0-made Trek film, World Enough and Time.

Of Gods and Men is set about twelve years after the “death” of Captain Kirk on board the Enterprise B (in Star Trek: Generations). Starfleet has built a replica of the original USS Enterprise, a kind of museum and tribute. Captains Nyota Uhura and Pavel Chekov are in attendance, along with Captain John Harriman (captain of the Enterprise B). A time disturbance leads them to the planet of the Guardian of Forever, where Charlie X (from the original episodes, now 40 years older) is seeking revenge on Kirk. He escapes into the guardian and changes history…

The result is a mirror universe-like empire, the “Galactic Order,” made up of humans, Klingons, and more. Uhura is married to Stonn on Vulcan, which has remained neutral in the face of the Galactic Order’s oppression. Chekov is now a ruthless freedom fighter. And Harriman is still captain of the Enterprise, but he now serves the Galactic Order. Thus the film’s tagline, “Legends come together one last time…to destroy each other.”

While it opened kind of slowly, and the special effects were a bit uneven, I loved seeing some of the classic actors again. Nichelle Nichols will always be awesome, and while Walter Koenig sometimes seemed a bit tired, I really liked him as Kittrick the freedom fighter. We also got Trek alumni like Tim Russ as Tuvok, Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand, Chase Masterson, Ethan Phillips, and many more.

I’m having a hard time trying to evaluate this thing. Some of the plot elements were familiar, particularly after the J. J. Abrams Star Trek reboot. On the other hand, Of Gods and Men came out two years before the Abrams movie, which raises a few questions in the back of my mind… But even aside from that, the broken timeline isn’t exactly a new approach in Star Trek or science fiction in general. But it worked. It gave us a plausible story, and allowed the creators to bring back a number of characters from the old series. The tension didn’t exactly have me gripping my seats, but I stayed to watch the whole thing when I should have been working.

Familiarity with the old series will help. Otherwise, there are a lot of characters and references that probably won’t make a lot of sense. But as someone who grew up on original Trek, it was fun to see everyone coming together again.

My only other two comments are that the final battle dragged on a bit, and the Uhura/Stonn thing didn’t make sense to me, particularly given Stonn’s character in the original series. That said, it was a lot of fun to revisit Star Trek, and this had more of the original Star Trek feel than the Abrams reboot.

Also recommended: Star Trek: World Enough and Time. I believe both this and Of Gods and Men can be viewed online for free, as well as ordered on DVD from their respective websites.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Magic ex Libris News and Other Niftiness

Thu, 02 May 2013 13:31:03 GMT

After a bit of negotiation, we’ve accepted an offer from DAW, which means THERE WILL BE MORE MAGIC EX LIBRIS BOOKS!!!

Book three, tentatively titled UNBOUND, will probably be coming out in early 2015. (There’s no official or unofficial release date; this is purely speculation on my part based on my deadlines.)

Book four, tentatively titled I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO CALL THIS BOOK, would presumably come out in 2016.

But wait, there’s more! Last month also brought a royalties check for Libriomancer [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy], which EARNED OUT ITS ADVANCE WITHIN ITS FIRST FOUR MONTHS! (THANK YOU!!!)

To celebrate all of this goodness, last night I went online and PAID OFF THE REST OF MY WIFE’S STUDENT LOANS! (Yeah, some people don’t see the excitement and awesomeness involved in paying off debt, but for me, this is party time!)

I have no doubt I’ll celebrate some more this weekend, when I join Saladin Ahmed, Gary Braunbeck, and Stephen Zimmer as guests at Mo*Con 8!

Finally, just to make sure I cram a year’s worth of good news into a single blog post–I’ve seen the cover art for the German edition of Libriomancer, and it is nifty. It looks like Die Buch Magier should be out in March of next year.

If anyone needs anything, I’ll be sitting here in a daze, grinning goofily and wondering what just happened…

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Smudge in a Jayne Hat

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:30:57 GMT

I’m doing the post-con recovery thing, so have a pair of pics of Smudge wearing a Jayne hat behind the cut. Because they make me happy.

The first was done by Mara Johnstone.

The second one is by Emily Ritter.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

To Penguicon!!!

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:30:31 GMT

I’m off to play Guest of Honor at Penguicon today. I’ve been going to this convention for years, so it’s doubly awesome to have been invited to be author GoH. Triply awesome when you realize that as GoH, I get to invent a flavor of liquid nitrogen ice cream!

I’ll be making Troll Toe Ice Cream, for anyone who wants to stop by…

The full schedule looks like so:

Friday, April 26:

6:00PM-7:00PM: Opening Ceremonies
7:00PM-8:00PM: GoH Social Hour (Meet n’ Greet, with Q&A for all the Guests of Honor)
9:00PM-10:00PM: You’ve Written It, Now What?

Saturday, April 27:

4:00PM-5:00PM: Make ‘Em Laugh: Comedy in Speculative Fiction
5:00PM-7:00PM: ICE CREAM!!! (I probably won’t be there the whole two hours, since I’ll need to run and get dinner.)
7:00PM-8:00PM: Jim C. Hines – Sexism and Cover Art

Sunday, April 28:

3:00PM-4:00PM: Closing Ceremonies

My wife Amy will be coming along on this one. It’s our first convention with just the two of us, and I’m really looking forward to it. Partly because we get to spend a weekend together in a nice hotel surrounded by geeks. And partly because, well, it’s the first time she’ll see me doing the Guest of Honor thing.

It’s a combination of sharing something that’s really important to me with my best friend in the world, and at the same time, spreading my authorial peacock feathers to show off for my mate. Which is a little silly, but still cool.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Tapping the Internet Brain: Stuffed Spiders?

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:56:59 GMT

Dear Internet,

Without getting into detail, I was asked today about the possibility of doing a very small run of stuffed fire-spiders as a promotional bonus type of item. (We also discussed the possibility of Smudge T-shirts.)

These wouldn’t be available for public sale; it would be more of a “Buy this stuff and get your own Smudge, too!” idea.I love this idea. But since I know nothing about the world of stuffed toys, I was hoping the internet might have a suggestion on where to go for limited-run, good quality, hopefully-not-ridiculously-expensive stuffed fire spiders.

Help me internet brain! You’re my only hope!

If you don’t want to comment, you can also shoot me an email.

Thank you!

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

People Being Awesome in the Aftermath of the Boston Bombing

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:30:45 GMT

After yesterday’s post, I wanted to follow up with some examples of kindness, courage, generosity, and overall awesomeness from the past week or so.

The Red Cross of Eastern MA sent out a Tweet saying they didn’t need blood at this time, because so many people had rushed to donate after the bombing. (For readers not located in Eastern MA, your local Red Cross would probably still appreciate donations, though!)

From El Pelon Taqueria, a restaurant in Boston: “This week @Boston_Police @BostonFire and all Public Saftey–put away your wallets.” They’re one of many stores and restaurants to show this kind of generosity.

The sheer number of people, both first responders and civilians, who reportedly ran toward the chaos and explosion in order to help the victims.

The Chicago Tribune sent pizzas to the staff of the Boston Globe, along with a note saying, “We can’t buy you lost sleep, so at least let us pick up lunch.”

Several of you pointed to this photo of a Boston police officer delivering milk to a family with young children during the lockdown.

Google put together a tool to help people find their friends and loved ones after the explosions. I’ve grumbled about some of Google’s actions in the past, but this was a perfect example of using their skills, resources, and connections to do good.

Honey Nichols spent Wednesday handing out candy to residents of Boston. (Thanks Peter K. for this one.)

Check out this amazing list of Boston-area residents who offered space to sleep, transportation, food, and more.

This exchange between people in Syria and Boston.

Please feel free to add more examples in the comments. If links get caught in the spam filter, don’t worry, I’ll be checking and unspamming those throughout the day.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Violations of Wheaton’s Law From Last Week

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:30:24 GMT

I assume most of you are familiar with Wheaton’s Law? I suppose it should be no surprise when national tragedy brings out the lawbreakers, as it did last week. If I were a smarter person, I would have turned off the internet for at least the first 48 hours after the bombing. Alas, instead I ended up spending too much time jumping back and forth between the news and social media sites. While this did help me to stay informed, it also resulted in a fair amount of rage…

6. The “lamestream media” was scared to say what we all knew: the terrorists were Muslim. Political correctness is literally killing us by blinding us to the real enemy!

Go to the FBI’s terrorism report here. Scroll down to the bottom, and start working your way back. How many of those terrorist attacks in the U.S. were committed by Islamic extremists, as opposed to environmental extremists, Jewish extremists, anti-abortion extremists, etc.? Seems to me that if you hear about a terrorist act in the U.S. and your first assumption is IT’S THE MUSLIMS!!!, you’re pretty much just showing off your ignorance and bigotry.

5. You never see Christians doing this stuff / Islam is the religion of hate.

Um … y’all know the KKK is a Christian organization, right? Not to mention the Westboro Baptists. Or the Army of God. Or Hutaree. We’ve got plenty of Christian hate, both historically and in the present day.

You can twist any religion into an excuse for hatred and violence. And while it’s been a long time since I attended Sunday school, aren’t Christians supposed to have that whole, “Judge not, lest ye be judged” thing going on?

And as long as we’re talking about hate, please see this quote from a December 2009 study published by Duke University about the backlash after 9/11:

Hate- crimes against Muslims rose from 28 in 2000 to 481 recorded incidents in 2001, and current levels remain about five times higher than prior to 9/11.

4. “I can’t believe that pair in the Boston bombing was NOT Towel Heads. They are Czechoslovakian. F*** Czechoslovakia!”

This is one of a depressingly large number of comments from people who don’t know the difference between Chechnya and the Czech Republic, but weren’t about to let ignorance stop them from spewing hate and racism.

3. I heard this thing on the internet, and even though I have no idea whether or not it’s true, I’m going to repost and retweet it to everyone I know!

There’s a lot of confusion and misinformation after something like this happens. In the first 48 hours, it felt like major news outlets were tripping over each other to get their facts wrong. We’re so hungry for facts–especially facts that might confirm our own biases and assumptions–that we end up spreading an awful lot of misinformation.

2. “I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine?” -Arkansas Rep. Nate Bell

Dude, I don’t care what your position is on gun control. You’re an asshole.

1. Pretentious, holier-than-thou bloggers getting up on their high horses to go on and on about other people’s dickish behavior.

Um…aw, crap.

Because this was depressing, I’m working on a follow-up post giving examples of people being awesome in the aftermath of tragedy.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Asking For Beta Readers with Autism

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:30:09 GMT

ETA: Wow, and thank you. I’ve got several emails I still need to reply to, but I think at this point I have enough beta readers to help me with the story. I very much appreciate all of your responses.

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes, and for sharing various positive and awesome things. I don’t know about you, but for me, reading your comments and hearing about the good things in your lives brought some much-needed hope and happiness yesterday.

I’ve just finished writing a story about Nicola Pallas, an autistic bard from the Libriomancer books. This one is set many years earlier, when Nicola is unaware of the larger world of magic.

I’ve talked before about my son being autistic. To be blunt, this story is important to me, and I want to get it right. I want Nicola to be an individual, not the One True Representative of Autism. I want to avoid the various cliches and problematic storylines (there is no “cure” narrative in this one). And I want her experiences and perceptions to ring true.

So I’m asking for a few beta readers with autism, to take a look at this story and help me make it stronger. If you’re interested and willing to help me on this, please email me at jchines -at- sff.net.

Thank you.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

It’s My Birthday. Share 365 Awesome Things!

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:18:54 GMT

I got older today. Which doesn’t really distinguish today from any other day, but today is when we celebrate it with cake and presents and jokes about the gray in my beard.

What I want today is for you to share something awesome. It could be a cool fact about the universe, the best book you read last year, something great that happened to you or your friends, or–if you happen to be a LEGO executive–a contract for your new goblin- and princess-themed sets based on my books!

The Challenge: I would love to see 365 Comments of Awesomeness, one for every day of the coming year. Which may seem like a lot, but I HAVE FAITH IN YOU ALL!!!

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Website Outage Tonight and LEGO Grayskull

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:06:55 GMT

www.jimchines.com will be down for a little while tonight while sff.net updates the WordPress installation for their users. I’ve also killed a few plugins that weren’t really necessary, and I’m hoping that will eliminate the occasional FastCGI Error message folks have reported. It’s certainly sped things up on the admin. interface.

Also, have a LEGO Castle Grayskull, just because. This was built by Fraslund, and you should definitely click through to see the rest. I think I even spotted the Sorceress up there…

Thursday Links: Autism and Other

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:35:04 GMT

April is Autism Awareness month–or perhaps Autism Acceptance Month is the better approach. As it happens, I’m working on a short story with an autistic protagonist. I also have an autistic son, as some of you know. Between the additional posts & discussion, research for the story, and my own ongoing personal efforts to expand my understanding, I’ve been doing a lot of autism-related reading lately.

Ada Hoffman talks about the problems with “cure stories.” This was both helpful and timely, given a short story I’m currently working on.

April is Here - Things You Can Do.

Functioning Labels. I’ve talked about my son as “high functioning.” Reading this piece gave me a lot to think about with regard to such labels and what they really mean.

The Autistic Tsunami. A Facebook page which collects and links to a number of articles about autism, many (most?) of them written by people with autism.

Someone Who Moves Like You. “…for the first time in Julia’s life, she looked at a character on television and saw a yes. Abed Nadir walked onto Julia’s laptop screen, and nothing and everything changed.”

Goblin Hero, as Reviewed by Jackson

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:30:42 GMT

About a month ago, I posted my son’s review of Goblin Quest [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] here.

He and my wife finished reading Goblin Hero [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] last night, so I asked him to share his thoughts again. I was nervous, because he had said the first chapter was kind of slow. I also introduced a second point of view character in this book, and he didn’t really like Veka’s chapters, at least in the beginning. But by the end, he seemed to be really enjoying the story. Even the gross bits. (Glowing pee!!!)

Jackson would like everyone to know that there are SPOILERS in his review.

What is Goblin Hero about?

It’s about Jig, who has to kill the pixie queen, and Veka, who wants to be a hero, but she can’t really. None of the things that she did were in her book* except [SPOILER ALERT!] slaying a dragon, and that wasn’t really direct, but I guess a giant flying snake is kind of like a dragon.

*The Path of the Hero, Wizard’s Ed., by Josca. It’s a book Veka carries around that supposedly tells her how to become a hero. Naturally, shenanigans ensue.

Who is your favorite character?

I like Braf, but he’s not my favorite. He’s funny, and I like what he did to avoid getting killed by the other goblins. He just plays dumb. Jig is my favorite. He was in the last book. Of course, in the last book, most of the people were bad guys, and they were treating Jig like a slave. The only two good guys in Goblin Quest were Jig and Riana.

What about the other characters?

I liked them. Veka, well, I liked her, but what she was doing to try to help the pixies, I didn’t like that. I think you made more Veka chapters than there were Jig chapters. Jig chapters were my favorite.

What was the best part of the story?

The best part was when Jig found out [SPOILER ALERT!] that he couldn’t get affected by the pixie queen because he would be looking at her through two steel circles*, and steel is what the pixies call death metal. It’s the only thing powerful enough to kill a pixie!

*Jig’s spectacles.

Were there any parts you didn’t like?

There were some chapters I didn’t really like, but I don’t really remember them.

Which is better, Goblin Quest or Goblin Hero?

I can’t pick.

Who should read this book?

Everybody!

What do you think is going to happen in Goblin War?

I do not know. I’d like to see Riana coming back in her [SPOILER ALERT!] dragonchild form.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Living the Dream

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:30:35 GMT

A few weeks back, my therapist pointed out that I was basically living my dream. Eight books in print, with a ninth on the way. A Hugo award sitting on my shelves. Guest of Honor gigs lined up for the coming year.

Forget Klondike Bars, do you know what 25-year-old me would have done to be where I am today? There’s always more to accomplish, and there are certainly things I’d change if I could (::cough:: day job ::cough::), but it’s easy to get caught up in where you’re going, to the point that you forget to appreciate where you’re at. I love being a writer, and I love that I’ve been able to do it pretty successfully, at least so far.

There’s an inspirational quote that gets passed around, usually misattributed to Confucius:

“Choose a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life.”

I’ve got a job I love, and I’m gonna come out and say this quote isn’t just wrong, it’s so fundamentally opposed to the state of “rightness” that if you put it together with a true quote, you’d create an explosion powerful enough to rip open spacetime and devour Kalamazoo.

I love being a writer, but if you try to tell me it’s not work, I’ll send goblins to eat your feet. It’s work I usually (but not always) love, sure. But we’ve got to move beyond the myth that dreams just happen. When I look around at my role models, the people who are living the kind of “dream life” I’d love to have someday, pretty much every one of them is working his or her ass off.

I don’t want to suggest that hard work will automatically make your dreams come true. That’s a different myth, and unfortunately, the universe doesn’t always play fair. There are no guarantees, and some of us have far more hurdles put in our way than others. In many ways, my dreams are a luxury, one I can afford because I don’t have to worry much about more basic needs.

None of which changes the fact that dreams, as a rule, are hard. And God forbid you ever complain about the work, because there are a hundred people just waiting to tell you how they’d happily trade places with you. Heck, if J. K. Rowling was venting about the stress and pressure of writing books after Harry Potter, I’d be tempted to say the same thing. “Just sign your career over to me, and I’ll take it from there, Jo! Happy to help!”

That “never work a day in your life” quote is nice and fluffy and feel-good, but I suspect the truth might be closer to this:

“Choose a job you love, and you’ll choose to work even harder every day of your life.”

I’m not complaining today. I reserve the right to vent some other day, but even if I do, that doesn’t mean I’d trade my life as a writer for anything else in the world. But I think the way we look at dreams is unhelpful and unhealthy. If we imagine our dreams to be this idyllic state in which everything goes perfectly and we never have to “work,” it’s gonna get pretty darn frustrating, since we’re never going to get there.

I’ve got a ridiculous (for me) number of projects lined up right now. I’ve managed to knock two of them off the list so far, but I still cry a little inside when I look at everything I want to write over the next 12 months. But you know what? This is what I’ve worked almost half of my life to achieve, and I love it.

Now if y’all will excuse me, I’ve got writing to do.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Bigots, Bullies, and Enablers

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 23:35:41 GMT

Synopsis of the April Fool's Mess: One of Locus' April Fool's Day columns this year announced that all Wiscon attendees would now be forced to wear burqas. "...starting with this year’s Wiscon, we’ve made burqas mandatory for all attendees. Allah Akbar!" There were also cracks about making sure burqas were available in sizes "to 5XL," and working to "eliminate rampant lookism."

Part of how this piece showed up on the site, as I understand it, is because of the separation between the Locus website and the magazine. The website editor apparently saw nothing wrong with the post, but as soon as the rest of the staff realized what had happened, they yanked the article site and apologized. They're also taking steps to make sure this sort of thing doesn't go up again.

Look, I don't think it comes as a surprise to anyone that there are people out there who think "Islam" and can't get beyond burqas and "Allah Akbar!" Likewise, it's no shock to see people actively reenforcing stereotypes of feminists as fat, ugly, shrill harpies with no sense of humor. None of this is remotely new or original.

I've been working on an autobiographical essay, and writing a section of that piece today helped me clarify what was pissing me off as much as the incident itself. We know there will always be nasty, small-minded bigots. But once Locus pulled the article, a mass of people--mostly white men, for reasons I'm sure are entirely coincidental--rushed in to defend the article, and to decry Locus for censoring free speech.

It's a familiar pattern, but the dynamic didn't click until I was writing about my own experiences being bullied as a teenager.

I was a skinny, overly bright, socially inept, fashion challenged kid with glasses and a speech defect. My teenage years were utter hell. Looking back at any of those incidents of name-calling, having my books knocked out of my hands, being shoved in the hallway, tripped on the steps outside the school, having my belongings destroyed, and so on, very few of them in isolation were such a big deal. Real physical injury was relatively rare. But when those small jabs continue day after day, they add up. They whittle away at your strength and your hope, and it never, ever lets up, never stops, until you're sitting alone in the bathroom with a syringe full of your father's insulin, searching for a single good reason not to jab the plunger down and hopefully put an end to it all.

The backlash against the Locus article isn't about someone taking cheap shots at Muslims and women. It's about yet another person taking those shots, lining up to bully those who are already a popular target for abuse. And it's about everyone else who stands around, encouraging and enabling that bullying.

25 years ago, I was told I should just ignore the bullies.

I was told I shouldn't let it get to me. ("Why are you choosing to be offended? You're just looking for reasons to be upset.")

I was told they didn't mean anything by it. ("It wasn't intended to be racist or sexist!")

They were just joking around. ("You people have no sense of humor!")

That's just how they are, and you need to learn to live with it. ("You need to be more tolerant of the people who are intolerant of you, and who are hurting you.")

Stop making such a big deal about it. ("I don't understand why you're upset! ...Ergo, you have no legitimate reason to be upset.")

People complained about the Locus piece because it was hurtful. This wasn't an example of the court jester speaking truth to power. While the author claims he was trying to write satire, what he actually wrote was another in a long line of jabs toward people who are already disproportionately targeted for a broad range of abuse in this culture.

It was bullying.

That's what people are defending. They're attacking Locus for not giving this person a platform with which to bully those he doesn't like, based on an incident that happened several years ago. They're telling the targets of ongoing bigotry that the best solution is to just ignore it.

That doesn't work for the target of bullying. It only works for the bystanders who don't want to deal with it. It's a cowardly, ineffective, and downright shitty "solution."

Yeah, I got through my teenaged years, and I survived despite the lack of support from those around me. But you know what would have helped a lot more? You know what might have saved the life of a classmate who, as far as we've been able to determine, killed himself as a result of bullying? If the bystanders had spoken up and told the bullies to knock that shit off.

Thank you, Locus, for taking that step.

April Fools’ Day Roundup

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:30:38 GMT

Humor isn’t easy, and April 1 often provides plenty of evidence to support that fact. But there are some people who do it well. This is a roundup of some of my favorite April Fools’ Day links. Please suggest your own in the comments, because really, couldn’t we all use the laughs?

ThinkGeek - I’m particularly amused by the Batman family car decal set.
Google is unveiling Google Nose, and Google Maps now has a Treasure Map option.
Dr. McNinja assembles the best Justice League ever!
Amazon Announces Purchase of English. The Millions has the scoop on this one.
Virgin is launching the world’s first glass-bottomed plane.
Could the 12th Doctor be a Dalek?
Tor.com presents the rocky road to John Scalzi’s The Shadow War of the Night Dragons: The Musical.
Surprise! Mary Robinette Kowal’s fantasy series is actually science fiction. Mary explains the science in impressive detail.
Quirk Books is launching “Normal Books.” My favorite of their forthcoming titles is Pride and Prejudice Without Zombies.
Brent Weeks is starting a line of children’s books, the first of which is One Kitten, Two Kitten, NINJA KITTEN!
In the tradition of The Force: Unleashed, author John Jackson Miller will be writing the novelization of the Star Wars game Boba Fett Pinball.

I’ll be updating this throughout the day with additional links that made me chuckle.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Grumbling About the Hugo Awards

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:04:10 GMT

The 2013 Hugo nominees have been announced! That means it’s time for the complaining to begin!

First of all, what’s up with John Scalzi getting a Best Novel nomination for Redshirts [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy]? That’s two years in a row he’s made the ballot for something humorous. Are we actually taking humor seriously now? Come on, people. Only Deep And Serious stories should be recognized for awards! The next thing you know, we’ll be treating urban fantasy or tie-in authors with respect. WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO???

And then there’s the gender balance. 2/5 women on the Best Novel Ballot? 3/5 in Novella, and 4/5 in Novelette? 2/3 in Best Short Story? IT’S CLEARLY A POLITICALLY CORRECT CONSPIRACY, BECAUSE EVERYONE KNOWS GIRLS CAN’T WRITE SF/F! What happened to the good old days when we only nominated old white dudes??? Have we lived and fought in vain?

Seanan McGuire made the ballot a record-setting FIVE TIMES!!! This is a Very Serious Problem, people! It’s OBVIOUSLY some kind of voting conspiracy wherein Seanan writes popular, fun, thought-provoking stuff, in addition to helping to create a widely-loved podcast, and in return, people vote for her. It’s a TRAVESTY of democracy!!! WE MUST REVISE THE RULES AT ONCE TO MAKE SURE THE HUGOS ARE A POPULARITY CONTEST WHERE ONLY THE PEOPLE I THINK DESERVE TO BE ON THE BALLOT ACTUALLY END UP ON THE BALLOT!

Sheila Gilbert of DAW Books is on the ballot for Best Long Form editor. How could this happen? Sheila doesn’t have an active blog or online presence, which means she must have gotten on the ballot purely by being an awesome editor. Thanks SO much for completely shattering my understanding of how this process works, Gilbert!

Wait, they let Throne of the Crescent Moon [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] by Saladin Ahmed onto the Best Novel ballot too? THE PC POLICE ARE RUINING THE HUGOS AND THE WHOLE DAMN GENRE BY NOMINATING AWESOME STORIES THAT AREN’T ABOUT WHITE PEOPLE!!!

Three more Doctor Who episodes made the Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form category. What’s up with that? ALL YOU PEOPLE WHO LOVE DOCTOR WHO SO MUCH AND THINK IT’S WONDERFUL SHOULD ACCEPT THAT YOU’RE WRONG AND STOP VOTING FOR THINGS YOU LOVE!

Look, the bottom line here is that the final ballot for the Hugos doesn’t precisely match my own nominations, and therefore all of y’all who nominated Wrong Stuff are Bad People, and you should feel bad!

Seriously, huge congratulations to all of the nominees! It’s true the final ballot doesn’t exactly match my picks, but I’m thrilled at many of the names and titles on the list, and I’m going to have a heck of a hard time trying to decide how to vote in many of these categories.

Big hugs to all of my friends who made the list! You’re amazing people, and I’m honored to to know you.

Diabetes Details 13: The Sick

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:46:31 GMT

I've spent the past day and a half with a stomach bug, which made me once again contemplate the possibility of installing Mira Grant-style sanitizing showers and blood screening tests in my house.

I've talked before about how I need to regularly test my blood sugar in order to keep my diabetes more-or-less controlled. Well, when I get sick, I have to test even more often. Here's why:

The vertical axis is my blood sugar readings, and the horizontal shows each blood sugar test throughout the course of two days or so.

It would be one thing if getting sick messed up my blood sugar in a consistent and predictable way. If I knew I'd always run high when I got sick, I could adjust the insulin pump to give me a little more insulin during that time.

But as you can see, I was all over the map for the past 24 hours, with a low of 23 and a high of 468.

Not cool, diabetes fairy. Not cool at all.

The low was the most dangerous. Normal blood sugar should be around 100 or so. I was still up and walking around at 23, but had it dropped any lower, I would have been in trouble.

Here's a fun scenario. You have a low blood sugar, which is normally treated with juice or other high-carb food and drink. But your stomach is too messed-up to keep anything down. What do you do?

Well, there are pills to help suppress nausea, which I completely forgot about because my blood sugar was 23 and my head was a bit fuzzy. So I ate high-carb, quick-acting snacks, disconnected my insulin pump for about six hours, and hoped I'd absorb some of the glucose before...um...sending a form rejection to my food.

I'm not thrilled about hitting 468, either. This happened after I finally got to sleep, but because I was sleeping, I couldn't check my blood sugar as frequently. Oops. As much as I needed the rest, in hindsight, it might have been good to set an alarm for one or two in the morning, just to roll over and check my blood.

Short version: Diabetes + Another Illness = Visit from the Blood Sugar Gremlin.

(Also, I'm using this as my excuse for not answering email over the past few days. Sorry about that!)