About Jim C. Hines

https://www.jimchines.com

Posts by Jim Hines:

Terminal Peace is Out Today!

Terminal Peace Cover Art by Kieran Yanner

Today is the day! Terminal Peace is officially available in print, ebook, and audio book formats.

This one had a rougher path than most of my books. Thank you so much to everyone for your patience, support, and understanding over these past few years. I hope the wait was worth it.

“Where can I get a copy?”

If your local independent bookstore doesn’t have a copy on the shelves, they should be able to order it for you. Or you can use this convenient little link list:

“What are the reviewers saying?”

Let’s start with the most important review. I gave my mother an early copy of the book for her birthday this month. Here’s what she texted me over the weekend:

Text Message: "Just finished the book. WOW"

If for some reason you need more than that, Booklist called it a “satisfying and hopeful conclusion to the series.”

I’ve seen a handful of reader reviews popping up as well. Several folks commented that they didn’t expect to get teary-eyed over a book about space janitors, which I take as high praise. (If you’re worried that means it’s going to be overly sad or depressing, reread the “hopeful” part of the Booklist review.”)

“What can we as readers do to help support this obviously-amazing book?”

Aw…you’re too kind, thank you!!!

  1. Reviews are love. Twitter, TikTok, Amazon, Goodreads…it doesn’t matter where. Every bit of word-of-mouth helps tremendously.
  2. Signal-boost the release, either by sharing this post or writing your own.
  3. Does your library have a copy? If not, most library websites have a way for patrons to suggest books.
  4. Are you a famous Hollywood producer who believes the time has come for a humorous-yet-heartfelt blockbuster about underdog janitors in space taking on war and politics and really tough stains? Give my agent a call.

“As long as I’m grabbing a copy of this one, does anyone else have books out today?”

I’m so glad you asked! I get to share a release day with the wonderful Tanya Huff and her book Into the Broken Lands.

“Any closing thoughts?”

Mostly just gratitude. Like I said, it’s been a rough few years, and in many ways, the path ahead is foggier than it used to be. But I’m still writing and still loving that I get to share these stories with people. Thank you all.

Historical Accuracy

The Tweet below has been making the rounds, and with it has come a lot of knee-jerk defensiveness and willful misunderstanding.

[Tweet by @Merman_Melville: “i think it’s very funny that the house of dragon guys are like ‘we want to reflect the misogyny of the time period’ the time period is the twelfth of makebelieve. it’s the 149th year of sir gooby the dragonfoot. it’s the eighth age of targabargabor. it’s literally made up”]

Responses I’ve seen have ranged from, “Stop telling us to remove conflict from the story” to “But misogyny is part of every human society throughout history” to the more generic, “The woke police are ruining everything!”

Look, the genre police are not going to break your fingers and kick your puppies and throw you in author jail for one thousand years because you wrote about sexism and misogyny and violence against women. The fact that these stories continue to get published and made into popular television series should tell you you’re safe to keep writing your fantasies about violence against women, Mister Author Guy.

But for the love of Cheez-its, don’t try to dodge responsibility for your choice by hiding behind “historical accuracy.” Especially when you’re writing your made-up story in a made-up world. A world where you made up the history.

Even when you write historical fiction, you’re choosing which parts of that historical setting to include. You know how [Popular Grimdark Story] has graphic depictions of violence against women but not, say, graphic descriptions of menstruation? It’s because the author picks and chooses what to write about, what “historically realistic” details to include and exclude.

A lot of writers — mostly men — like to choose to write about sexism and misogyny and violence against women. A fair number do it badly and gratuitously, with little real understanding of what they’re writing about. And these days, it tends to feel pretty unoriginal. Is it any wonder some readers have grown tired of it and prefer more original writing?

Don’t worry, y’all still have plenty of freedom when it comes to choosing what to write about. But could we please GTFO with the excuses and take some damn responsibility for the choices we make as storytellers?

The Invisible Box Set is Out Today

Cover Art: Invisible Box SetAll three volumes of Invisible are available as a single ebook as of today.

If you’re unfamiliar with the series, it’s a collection of personal essays about the power and importance of representation — and the lack of representation — in science fiction and fantasy. The third volume, co-edited with Mary Anne Mohanraj, collects poems as well.

Contributors include Mark Oshiro, Diana M. Pho, Bogi Takács, Sarah Chorn, SL Huang, LaShawn Wanak, Fran Wilde, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Brandon O’Brien, Rebecca Roanhorse, and so many more. Their essays and poetry are powerful and eye-opening.

Proceeds from the sale of this set will go to the Carl Brandon Society.

If you’d like to sample the contents, most of these essays are also available online: Invisible, Invisible 2, Invisible 3.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks | Smashwords | Google Play

Two Weeks to Book Three!

Terminal Peace Cover Art by Kieran YannerOnly 14 days until Terminal Peace arrives in the world!

Today, I’ve got a brief guest post on Mary Robinette Kowal’s “My Favorite Bit” feature, talking about a minor piece of the book that just made me happy to write about 🙂

Some of you will have seen that my author copies arrived a few days ago, which means the printing delays have been overcome and the book really does physically exist! Which is reassuring.

This also means you should be able to pre-order the book from your favorite local bookstore. Or if online works easier, we’ve got you covered there as well:

I’m hoping this book will mark a turnaround from a bit of a slump for me these past few years, writing-wise. Between my wife’s illness, the pandemic, and changes at my publisher, I’d love to get any sort of sense of security or stability on the writing front. But we’ll see what happens. I’ve got one new book sitting with my publisher, one that may become a 2023 Kickstarter project, and one that’s about 25% of the way through a very rough first draft.

In the meantime though, I’m counting down the days to this one, and really hoping you like it! I think it wraps up the trilogy pretty well, but now that it’s in print, your opinion matters a lot more than mine does 🙂

Publishing Updates

Update #1: The release date for Terminal Peace has been pushed back two weeks, from August 9 to August 23. This is because of printing delays that are affecting a number of Penguin Random House titles. (My publisher, DAW, is distributed by Penguin Random House.)

I’m 97% sure this will apply to the ebook and audio book release as well.

Update #2: Remember a while back (two paragraphs) when I mentioned DAW Books was distributed by Penguin Random House? Well, that’s changing too. A press release went out today announcing that my publisher has been acquired by Astra Publishing House.

Let’s start with a quote from the press release:

DAW co-publishers Betsy Wollheim and Sheila Gilbert said, “We are extremely pleased by Astra’s enthusiasm, and thrilled that we will be the sole SFF imprint of their company (a first for DAW!). We think this is the perfect fit for us, and it’s exciting and refreshing to be an integral part of a new and growing company. It speaks volumes about Astra’s respect for our company that they have included our entire staff. We’re very happy.”

So it sounds like current DAW staff will continue in their positions. This shouldn’t impact anything for Terminal Peace, or for other books scheduled for a 2022 release.

Links:

So what does this mean? I’m not sure. I hope it’s good news, both for DAW and for me.

Terminal Peace was my last contracted book with DAW. We submitted a new fantasy novel to them earlier this year. If they want it, it will be interesting to see if and how things change with the acquisition process.

For the moment, I’m cautiously optimistic and hoping for the best. And one way or another, the core of my job remains unchanged: sit my butt down and write the next book.

Michigan’s Republican Candidates for Governor

Got my absentee ballot for the August primaries, and I was curious about the five Republican candidates for governor. So I checked out an article on Bridge. And now I’m depressed.

Tudor Dixon: “…criticized Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies as a form of “tyranny” and aligned herself with Trump, who appeared at a recent fundraiser she threw at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.”

Ryan Kelley: “…protested removal of a Confederate statue in his hometown and organized a large anti-Whitmer protest at the Michigan Capitol that resulted in armed demonstrators entering the building … urged federal authorities to “arrest” Whitmer for her COVID-19 policies … called for a “forensic audit” of the 2020 election and was outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots.”

Ralph Rebandt: “…appeared at rallies demanding a “forensic audit” of the 2020 election … supports a no-exception ban on abortion.”

Kevin Rinke: …wants to “repair the state’s education system and stop “indoctrination” of kids … said he “had not seen anything to indicate there was fraud” in the 2020 presidential election but has since run television ads making the false claim that “dead people always vote” for Democrats.”

Garrett Soldano: “…built his campaign around support for personal freedoms and opposition to pandemic policies like vaccine mandates … made national news in February when he said he thinks women who are raped should not have abortions because “that little baby inside them might be the next president.””

Ryan Kelley and Ralph Rebandt have also said they want to ban same-sex marriage.

I’ve written and deleted several paragraphs, so I’ll just say this. I know that “just vote” isn’t enough. But please do vote this fall. Preferably for candidates who aren’t spreading repeatedly-debunked lies, fanning the flames of violence, and salivating at the chance to strip away other people’s rights.

< 1 2 3 4 5 >»