jimhines

My theme for 2014 seems to be a year-long scramble to keep up on everything. As evidenced by the fact that I HAVE A BOOK COMING OUT IN SIX DAYS!

Okay, it’s not a brand new book, but it is the mass market release of Codex Born, coming on August 5. And with that release, the ebook price should also be dropping very soon.

If you’ve been waiting for this, here’s a convenient set of links:

Amazon | B&N | BAMM | Mysterious Galaxy | Schuler Books | Indiebound

The paperback also includes the first few pages of Unbound, which comes out in January of next year.

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Other stuff I’ve been meaning to talk about, or at least link to:

• Graphic Audio is releasing some of my goblin short stories, starting with “Goblin Hunter.”
• Lynne & Michael Thomas are Kickstarting a new SF/F Literary Zine called Uncanny. One day in, and they’re already more than halfway to their goal!
• The Wiscon/Frenkel Harassment situation keeps getting worse. Elise Matthesen has come forward to talk about what did — and what didn’t — happen after she reported. From her post:
  • “This is the safety chairs who didn’t investigate further. This is the con-chairs who didn’t follow up and didn’t ever interview me and Lauren. This is the subcommittee members who didn’t push further and contact me and Lauren and Mikki. This is lots of people, some unwitting, some just preferring not to look at the ugly stuff, not to learn something that would require that they confront someone — or confront their principles.

    This is a system. And it is fucking powerful and it is fucking broken.”

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

This is the official discussion post for Codex Born [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] for anyone who wants to chat about the book or ask questions. I may or may not answer all questions, depending on whether or not it would spoil things for future books (or, you know, if I just don’t know the answer yet).

Obviously, there will probably be spoilers in the comments.

My thanks once again to everyone who picked up the book, and especially to those of you who’ve posted reviews or shared the series with others.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Today marks the official release date for Codex Born and the mass market paperback of Libriomancer!

Codex is my ninth fantasy novel with DAW, so being an experienced, even jaded author, I am naturally not going to be spending the entire day freaking out and checking Amazon rankings and bouncing uncontrollably and flailing about like a muppet in a paint-mixing machine. (And if you believe that…)

My thanks to everyone who read and reviewed the first book, who pre-ordered this one, who offered support and encouragement, spread the word about the books, and just generally made my world a better place.

I’ve got two events scheduled for this week if you’re interested.

• Tonight (August 6), I’m at Schuler Books in Eastwood from 7 – 8:30.
• Saturday (August 10), I’ll be at Kazoo Books (Parkview Location) in Kalamazoo starting at 2 p.m.

BLURB OF AWESOMENESS: You know, a number of people have gotten blurbs from bestselling author and former SFWA president John Scalzi. But how many authors can boast something like THIS?

“This is the perfect follow up to Libriomancer. It has more magic, more action and more backstory.  And I love love love the Lena diaries!!!”

-Kristine Scalzi

VIDEO JIM: When I was in New York earlier this year, we filmed a promotional video at the Penguin/DAW offices. They’ve posted the first video over on the DAW Books Facebook page, along with a note that if it gets 100 likes, they’ll move on to videos 2 and 3, which get a bit … sillier.

LINKS TO STUFF:

• The Big Idea – A guest post at John Scalzi’s place, talking about the character of Lena Greenwood.
• My Favorite Bit – In which Mary Robinette Kowal lets me share a bit more about Lena, including one of my favorite pieces from Lena’s backstory snippets.
• Tell Me – A guest post at Jennifer Brozek’s blog, talking about Isaac’s love of books and magic.
• Literary Escapism has an exclusive excerpt from the book, showcasing one of the odder fight scenes

BUY STUFF (If you’re so inclined…)

Libriomancer

• PAPERBACK: Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Schuler Books | Indiebound
• HARDCOVER: Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Schuler Books | Indiebound
• EBOOK: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks
• AUDIO: Audible.com

Codex Born

• HARDCOVER: Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Schuler Books | Indiebound
• EBOOK: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks
• AUDIO: Audible.com

OTHER STUFF:

Carrie S. at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has a lovely new review of Codex Born.

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Stay tuned for more, including a few book giveaways!

#SFWApro

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

With five days left until Codex Born [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] comes out, this is the time when I’m supposed to be doing frantic self-promotion. The trick is to do it without looking like I’m self-promoting. Which is harder than it sounds. So I asked for advice on Twitter.

Kate K. F. suggested pictures of Michigan looking pretty, which sounded like a good way to go. Especially if those pictures tied into the Magic ex Libris series, which is primarily set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula   (Spoiler: Not all of the pics connect to the series…)

Larger versions of the pics are posted on Flickr, for anyone who’s interested.

Luna Moth. Because they’re cool-looking, and they hang out up north. Also, I believe there’s a reference to Smudge the fire-spider trying to eat one at some point. (If that reference isn’t in the books, it’s only because it got edited out in revisions. Which just means I’ll have to put it back in a future book!)

The Mackinac Bridge. Isaac hates driving over this thing. He’s uncomfortable with heights, and the center lanes are metal grating instead of pavement, meaning the air comes up through the center, and the feel of the tires on the road is very different. When I was driving home last week, it kept feeling like the car was trying to pull off to one side or the other.

Also, there used to be a colony of lake trolls living at the base of the bridge, but the Porters relocated them back in 1971.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

There are 26 days until the official release of Codex Born [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy], not to mention the mass market paperback of Libriomancer [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy], which means it’s time for me to start the Official Author Fidget-Dance of Anxiety!

The Cool Stuff Summary: Book-based magic, kick-ass dryad, flaming spider, wendigos, septuagenarian werewolves, a magical organization thought to have been wiped out more than five hundred years ago, and one random Spider-Man quote.

Review Copies: If you are a reviewer who hasn’t received a copy (and, you know, would like to have one), please contact my publicist at BerkleyNALpublicity -at- us.penguingroup.com. Please include your mailing address and where you do your book reviews. Unfortunately, due to the cost of books and shipping and such, reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and personal blogs without a good-sized readership don’t generally qualify.

Upcoming Events:

• July 26 at 6 p.m. Reading and booksigning with Mary Robinette Kowal at Schuler Books, Eastwood Location. Lansing, Michigan. (This is part of the conference kickoff for the MSU Young Authors Conference, and they will have copies of Codex Born for sale.)
• August 6 at 7 p.m. Booksigning at Schuler Books, Eastwood Location. Lansing, Michigan.
• August 10 at 2 p.m. Booksigning at Kazoo Books, Parkview Location. Kalamazoo, Michigan.
• August 15-18. Gencon. Indianapolis, Indiana. (I will have books for sale.)

Giveaways: I’m hoping to give away a few free books between now and August 6. I haven’t worked out the details yet, but I’ll let folks know as soon as I come up with a suitably entertaining way to do it.

Advance Reviews: Publishers Weekly and Romantic Times have both said nice things about the book. I hear rumors that Library Journal and Locus will both be reviewing it as well. But I think my favorite and most reassuring review so far comes from Kate over on Goodreads, who picked up a copy at ALA and says, “…this was an even stronger read than the first book.”

Also, Seanan McGuire read it and started sending me rude emails about having to wait for book three, so that’s a good thing, right?

Preview: The first chapter is available in both .pdf and .epub format.

State of the Author: Nervous, impatient, grateful, and excited. The Magic ex Libris series is the most ambitious story I’ve written so far. The first few reviews have helped me — somewhat — to get past the initial bout of imposter syndrome, and mostly now I’m just really looking forward to being able to finally share this one with everybody!

#SFWApro

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

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:

• Acrobat .pdf version
• E-book .epub version

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

Enjoy!

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Codex Born [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] is due to my editor in nine days. I finished draft 4 on the 13th, and have been working through draft 4.1 to fit the final plot pieces into place, flesh out missing descriptions and transitions, and add a Firefly reference.

Most of my free time and energy is going into this last revision, which means blogging will be lighter than usual.

I’m happy with how this book has turned out. I’m amazed at how much it’s changed from the very first draft. I think it does a nice job of continuing the themes and ideas of the first book, and I’m hopeful that readers will get the same sense of excitement and wonder and fun.

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Several people asked if there was a way to see all of the cover poses I’d done in a single spot. Well, there is now! I’ll be adding more to that page eventually, but for now, it has links to all of the blog posts as well as a link to the Flickr gallery containing all of the poses.

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Oh, and I’m almost finished reading The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison. This is a beautifully told story, and has cost me much-needed sleep these past few nights. And I’m not just saying that because GOBLINS!

I believe this one comes out in 2014. I’ll be putting a review together to go up closer to the release date.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

I originally wrote this piece on Saturday, planning to post it on October 1. Then we took a trip to the emergency room for some non-life-threatening but painful troubles my wife was having. That’s eaten up most of the past 48 hours. So I’m just going to post this today and pretend that October starts now and runs through November 2. That’s fair, right?

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For more than a decade now, I’ve done the majority of my writing during my lunch break at work. My coworkers have been generally understanding and supportive, which has been great. And looking back at the books and stories I’ve been able to put out, I’d say it’s worked.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t been working quite as well with Codex Born. I’m not entirely sure why, though I have a number of theories…

• In general, each new book is more ambitious than the last, meaning in some ways, they get progressively harder to write, or require more time and energy to pull together.
• Part of my therapy process with depression has been trying to learn to take time for myself, to just relax or have fun. Which is a good and healthy thing, but I wonder if deliberately concentrating on those issues has whittled away from some of the time I used to use to concentrate on the fiction.
• Libriomancer is doing amazingly well, which is awesome, but it also means I’m feeling a lot more pressure to make book two as good or better. It’s a great problem to have, but it still means I’m putting additional pressure on myself, which might paradoxically be slowing me down.

I’m thinking about trying something I haven’t done in a long time. Back when I started writing books, we didn’t have National Novel Writing Month. We did have novel dares, though. Back in our day, we didn’t settle for just 50,000 words in a month. We wrote the entire novel. And we wrote uphill! Both ways!

I’ve started on the third draft of Codex Born. I’ve discarded several half-finished drafts, but I’m feeling more confident about this one, and I think I’ve worked through most of the problems that killed the earlier versions. So I’m setting myself a goal to finish this draft in October.

I expect to fail at this goal. Realistically, I think the odds of me completing a full, finished draft this month are pretty slim.

I know it’s not impossible. Heck, I wrote, revised, and started submitting Goblin Quest in about six weeks. But I was unemployed and living in my parents’ house at the time. Realistically, it will be a lot more difficult to do 80-90K words in the next 31 days. But I’m going to try.

And while I expect to fail, I also expect that the goal will help me mentally, and that it will be a more productive month. I’m also going to go back to posting word counts, which I haven’t done in ages, as another mind trick to keep me motivated and on track.

Wish me luck!

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

First off, a few more things from yesterday…

The Libriomancer sequel has a title! Book two of the Magic ex Libris series will be Codex Born.

My Parents’ Cat is on SF Signal! - I wrote a guest post for SF Signal, talking about some of the behind-the-scenes stuff from Libriomancer. Including the true identity of the bookstore cat from the book.

Interview at The Editing Essentials - An interview I did with my friend Brittiany Koren, who edited several anthologies that included short fiction from me.

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On to the critique. Alex Cranz wrote a piece in FEMPOP about the treatment of women characters. Warning: While Cranz avoids specifics, this will probably spoil the ending of Snow Queen’s Shadow for you.

I know why I made the choices I did in that book. That doesn’t in any way change the fact that Cranz raises very good, valid points. Whether or not I had valid reasons for those choices doesn’t change the fact that those choices do fall into a larger pattern.

While I’m sad that my book bummed Cranz out right before a wedding, I’m glad she cared about the books enough for them to have that impact, and I’m even more pleased that she chose to write this essay and start up a conversation about these tropes.

I recommend checking out her piece. Not to defend my book. (Please don’t.) But because it’s thoughtful and important and a conversation we should be having.

Also, according to her bio, Cranz trained her dog to do fistbumps, which is just awesome.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.