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Shift Cover
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Dec. 13th, 2006 @ 11:59 am
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The cover for Shift has just been released and here it is:
I don't who the artist is yet but I'll find out. I suspect it may be Alan Pollack - he did the artwork for Resonance.
For those wanting to see if the picture matches the blurb (and it does) take a look
here
For spoiler reasons, I won't reveal the significance of certain aspects of the cover - but they are there and if you read the book you'll notice them too:)
I'm really pleased. There's always a degree of apprehension when awaiting cover art. Will you get the infamous Men Gambolling in Pink Tights cover* or some strange concoction that bears no relation to the book you thought you wrote. I've had two covers from Baen now and both are great.
*Pink Tights Cover: I forget the title but the story was a sword and sorcery novel - lots of magic and sword play - and the cover had men, dressed in pink, skipping through the woods, arm in arm.
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Another Day, Another Convention
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Dec. 2nd, 2006 @ 03:52 pm
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I think I might add another convention to my 2007 diary. A trip to Dublin to attend the Phoenix Convention (aka P-Con IV) on the weekend of March 11/12 2007.
I've spent most of this morning working out the trip from Normandy to Dublin. Amazingly you can fly from Dublin to Paris for under 4 euros! Ok, there are taxes on top of that (fuel tax, a whip round for the pilot and a tenner for the French traffic police to look the other way when we land on the autoroute) ... but it still means I can fly to Dublin and back for 55 euros.
And it looks like a good place to cut my con teeth. Kim Newman, Charlie Stross, Ken MacLeod, Dublin, pub quizzes.
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Book Dates, Tours and Conventions
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Nov. 28th, 2006 @ 11:10 am
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A busy summer beckons as ... the book dates are out! The paperback of Resonance is coming out in the US on May 29th and the hardback of Shift on July 3rd.
So, quandary, where shall I go and when? My current thinking runs thus: push the paperback in the UK in mid June (the UK is predominantly a paperback market) and visit the US in early July to promote both books.
UK publication dates are usually 14 days after the US, so I'd expect Resonance to be in UK shops around June 12th. I'll follow a few days later. I'm not sure where or how long I'll be in the UK for - but I've provisionally pencilled in the week Jun 14-21. The long process of arranging signings, interviews etc will start in the New Year. All and any suggestions of venues welcome. I am a flexible.
For the US, my thinking is slightly different. I'd like to line up a convention or two. I've had a quick google around the SF conventionsphere and come up with a few possibilities.
Westercon (June 30 - July 3rd) San Mateo, California.
Readercon (July 6-8), Burlington, Mass.
CONvergence (July 6-8) Bloomington, MN.
Inconjunction (July 6-8) Indianopolis.
I've never been to a convention before so I'd welcome any recommendations or comments. Are there any cons I've missed or should miss?
I've provisionally pencilled in a week for the US tour but, as everything else in my life except meal times, it's flexible. Again, I'll add signing venues in the New Year. Do they have rover tickets in the US? Those 'travel anywhere you want for a week' type of tickets that an 'I'll go anywhere to sign a book' author could use to criss-cross the States?
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Virtual Book Tour: Jim C. Hines at the Astraldome
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Nov. 9th, 2006 @ 08:55 am
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Once more the Astraldome has its walls hosed down, the drains unblocked and ... welcomes Goblin Quest author Jim C. Hines.
So, same format as before, with the help of two mediums strapped to a supercomputer we are going to astrally project Jim from his dungeon in Michigan to a place very close to your computer screen. A slight warning: Doris 'internationally renowned medium' Scrote is back on the drink - so there may be some ectoplasm wander. If any gets on your keyboard - don't let your cat lick it up.
Ready? Okay, Windows ESP is loading and the quantum computer is in a state. Now concentrate on Jim's picture below. Will him across the astral plane. And keep concentrating. Hold that image. The astral plane is a slippery place to cross - especially with Doris back on the bottle - Jim's spectral image might snap back.
Can you see it? Jim's spectral form? Then let the interview commence...
Q1. You sold your first pro story to Writers of the Future in 1998. What do you think was different about that story compared to your earlier ones that didn't sell?
Ah, good question. Unlike my earlier, "failed" stories, this one had a magical dagger shaped like a bunny.
Seriously, this was the first story I really had fun with. Up until that point, I had worked very hard on what I thought my stories should be. This time, I just relaxed and wrote what I wanted. My characters bantered back and forth, they played practical jokes in the middle of their adventure, and I had a blast writing it. I'm told that sense of fun really came through in the story.
Still, a knife that can wiggle its nose and bite a disrespectful owner is a strong selling point in my book.
Q2. Goblin Quest is about a goblin who lives in a dungeon, gets press-ganged, forced to fight hobgoblins, carrion worms, zombies and necromancers, and search for hidden treasure. Is it autobiographical?
Jig the goblin is a nearsighted little runt who gets picked on by all the bigger, stronger, popular goblins. I'd like to say for the record that there is absolutely nothing autobiographical about it. Nope, nothing whatsoever.
Fortunately, Jig is also a clever little guy, and a great deal of fun. He's the underdog, and unlike a lot of fantasy quest adventures, he's not "the chosen one" in any way. No special gifts or powers, nothing but his wits and his pet fire-spider. He absolutely hates this whole quest thing, but as it turns out, he's not half bad at it. Better than the real adventurers, at least.
Of course, the adventurers don't appreciate being shown up by a mere goblin, so even Jig's successes come around to bite him. It's rough being a goblin.
Q3. You receive a phone call from a serial killer. He asks you the same question he asked his previous victims. "You have 150 words to sell me your book. 150 words exactly. If I like what you write I'll buy the book. If I don't you die." What would your 150 words be?
Thank God. I was afraid this would be another political call.
As a serial killer, you'll appreciate the goblin mindset. Goblins just want to stay alive. If that means they smile at you, then stick a knife in your back the moment you let down your guard, so be it. That's what you get for turning your back on a goblin. After all, the closest word for "trust" in the goblin tongue is a word that means "gullible" or "dumb as dung," depending on context.
Jig also comes up with some very creative ways to attack his enemies. You need a flaming spider for at least one of them, but I'm sure a clever fellow like you could find a few useful ideas.
And really, who doesn't appreciate good old-fashioned cannibalism jokes?
To close, Wil Wheaton called the book, "too f***ing cool for words." What else is there to say?
A quick pause for a reaction. He's not too happy about being compared to a goblin. But he does have this strange fixation on Wesley Crusher. So ... yes, it's an ectoplasmic f***ing thumbs-up from our serial killer. On with the next question...
Q4. Looking at Goblin Quest I suspect a D&D past. But which role did you prefer - dungeonmaster or adventurer?
Oh, I go both ways. Um, wait . . . can I rephrase that?
I enjoy the storytelling side of running an adventure, and trying to keep up with both the really clever and the really dumb choices my players make. But it's also a great deal of fun for me to be one of those players, being really clever and defeating a room full of manure-wading, methane-generating stink-monsters with a single fire spell, then leaping into a whirlpool in full plate mail the next.
Goblin Quest definitely has its share of gaming humor, for those attuned to catch it. Most of my college friends will recognize a certain dwarf's obsession with mapping, for example. But the story itself and most of the jokes are written for gamers and non-gamers alike.
Q5. I notice on your website it says that you've amassed 500+ rejections. Any really memorable ones? Threats to set the dogs on you if you send any more stories?
My very first rejection letter was from the Clarion Workshop. I applied several times, to both workshops, and never got in. (Though I was an alternate several times.) What makes this one most memorable is the fact that earlier this summer, I was invited to be a guest instructor at Clarion. I've also got a rejection from Marion Zimmer Bradley, asking why I had written this pointless story. I sold her one later, for the very last issue of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine.
Rejection letters can be frustrating, but few things are more satisfying than turning around and blowing that rejection away with a sale to the editor in question. (Or with an invitation to lecture, in the case of Clarion.)
Thank you, Jim. The mediums power down, Doris falls down, and Jim's ghostly presence slithers back along the plane, gnaws at an engine then disappears.
Now for feedback - did anyone see any ectoplasm? Did anyone sober see any ectoplasm? Did Jim's astral form billow out and grasp a pen? And if it did, did it write anything legible? Enquiring minds need to know.
Meanwhile, Goblin Quest can be bought from all good bookshops including Amazon in the US and UK
And details of Jim's book tour across the blogosphere can be found here
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Stirrings at the Astraldome
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Oct. 26th, 2006 @ 05:33 pm
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The ectoplasm's been hosed down, the mediums dusted off, Windows ESP debugged and the quantum computer - possibly - reconfigured. Yes, the Astraldome is getting ready for another author. Names have been mentioned, dates have been discussed, ectoplasm booked.
Watch this space. An author may be astrally projecting onto a keyboard near you.
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Busy Week
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Sep. 28th, 2006 @ 12:33 pm
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Well Baen are interested in Hidden in Time but they want to see how well Shift does before making a decision. So I've suspended work on Hidden in Time for a week or two while I dust off Shift and make sure it's as good as it can be. Best to do it now before it hits the copy editor and changes become more difficult.
So far I'm really pleased - the book reads well (it had been six months since I last read it and the usual 'oh my God what if everyone thinks it's crap' panic had begun to elbow its way into the insecure writer's portion of my brain - a dark, unheated garret just behind my left ear)
I've made a few improvements - there's always room for improvements - a bit more tension here, a better explanation there, a tad more colour to that mutant killer alien there.
Hopefully I should finish by my birthday - Saturday.
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Busy Times
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Aug. 10th, 2006 @ 10:41 am
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Busy times at the ranch - harvest is proceeding apace and with much abundance. Onions and garlic have all been picked, trimmed and are now drying on the shelves in the barn. Early potatoes have all been bagged and 80% of the maincrop (we go for Sirtema earlies and Charlotte maincrop for those of an enquiring mind) Currant crop was so huge we had to leave half of it on the bushes for the birds - who are now far too fat to fly and lie around all day in the Wisteria shouting abuse at our kittens.
Dwarf bean crop's been excellent and runner beans and pole beans are coming out of our ears - it's the way we eat them. And we had to stop picking cherries when we ran out of buckets.
The only failures, so far, have been the broad beans which cropped poorly and then almost spontaneously rotted; the tomatoes - which have blight; the blackberry - which, for the second year running, produced nothing but tiny fruits; and the calabrese - which succumbed to a foul smelling rot, the stench of which hung over the garden and much of Northern France for a week.
Still to come we have the plums which are looking excellent; the apples which are not; the sweet corn which looks a little thin; the figs which are looking pensive; and - for the first time ever - kiwis (we have 8 very cosseted little kiwi fruits hanging from our vines. And talking of vines we have a massive crop from our Chasselas grape (white) and a reasonable one from our Muscat (red).
And (whispers) our carrot fly counter measures, as detailed here: http://chrisdolley.livejournal.com/10817.html worked. A huge and unsullied carrot crop.
Meanwhile, back at the computer, I'm 6,000 words into Hidden in Time so I should have the first draft of the first three chaps (est. 7,500 words) ready soon. I'm not a fast writer. I start each day by reading and editing the previous days work. I know it slows you down but I find it a good way of immersing myself into the narrative style and making sure I don't stray off voice. It does mean that my first drafts are pretty tight but I also know that anything in the first three chaps - which, being the critical part of the book, I tend to hone and polish in true obsessive compulsive frenzy - is likely to get re-written. One day I'll learn:)
And I've already done a lot of rewriting on chapter one. I think the problem I had initially with this book was that I was getting too close to the main character and filling the chapter with lots of detail, emotions and issues that, while interesting to me, was irrelevant to the story. Now that I've swept them away I'm much happier and the book much tighter.
And I've also updated my website, adding my Confessions of a French Film Extra. A task not helped by Mambo throwing itself into a heap every time I tried to enter the word enhancing. It was fine with inhancing or even nhancing but ran screaming through the ether every time I tried to spell it correctly. Obviously a feature.
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Website Update
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May. 25th, 2006 @ 02:54 pm
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I've updated my website at http://www.humor.me.uk/mambo/
Changes include:
Adding another two chapters of Nous Sommes Anglais - The First Day, House Hunting and Toilets; and Cars, Cartes and Campagne.
Increasing the text font size from 12 point to 13 point.
Does the latter change make the site easier to read or do I need to consider going to 14 point or maybe a colour tweak?
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