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Pippin

Welcome New Furry Overlord, Name of Pippin

About two weeks ago, I was walking down our street and heard a rather pathetic meowing from a neighbor’s place. I didn’t figure out where it was coming from until later, when the neighbors were out. A cat had gotten himself stuck in the top few feet of their pine tree, and didn’t seem able to get down. He was too high to get with a ladder. We chatted, and they decided to give him overnight to see if he came down on his own.

He did not. I went down the next morning, thinking I might try my old tree-climbing skills. Fortunately, another (younger) neighbor was there first. I ended up holding the ladder while he climbed ladder then treetop to reach the cat.

Cat was removed from tree more-or-less successfully. Cat rubbed up against everyone’s legs in gratitude and hung out for a while before moving on with his cat life.

The following day, my wife and I were walking the dog, and spotted the cat hanging out one street over. It came running over to greet us, and we noticed he had a slight limp. He wasn’t worried about the dog, and continued to rub our legs and purr. He was skinny, his ears filthy and a little bloody from ear mites, but all he wanted to do was snuggle.

Yep, we’re suckers. We took him home and gave him some food and water, then took him in to the vet for a checkup, ear mite treatment, and shots. He didn’t have a chip, and isn’t listed on any of the missing pet sites. As malnourished as he was, he clearly hasn’t had a good home in a while.

I wanted to name him Treebeard. My wife and daughter vetoed that one, pointing out that a) the cat had no beard, and b) Treebeard was the tree — the cat should be named after one of the hobbits who was clinging to the top of said tree.

Today Pippin was released from ear mite quarantine. So far, everything’s going pretty well. Of our other cats, Sophie is cranky about the new addition, but Chewie thinks he has a new best bud to play with. He’s been following Pippin around like they’re best friends from a Disney movie.

Chewie and Pippin
What are you looking at, human?

Pippin Pippin Pippin

I think he’s going to fit in just fine.

Invisible 3 Reveal: Cover and Contributors

Work on Invisible 3 continues! At this point, we have signed contracts from all contributors, and our marvelous introduction-writer is hard at work writing the introduction.

We also have cover art, which includes our list of contributors!

Invisible 3 Cover Art

(The introduction bit is blurred out because I’m superstitious about sharing names before everything is done and signed.)

The introduction arrived in my inbox shortly after I posted this, so we can also announce now that it’s by K. Tempest Bradford!

We don’t have a firm release date yet, but it won’t be too long now.

In the meantime, thank you to:

for your amazing work. We can’t wait to share it with the world.

France Wrap-Up

The rest of the pictures from France are up, in two albums:

These are all from the roughly 48 hours or so I spent in Paris before heading to Epinal for Les Imaginales. It was a busy couple of days 🙂

Notre Dame Eiffel Tower Arc de Triomphe Entering the Catacombs

A few other random thoughts and observations from my time in France…

  • So many dogs, and not just on the streets, but in restaurants and stores and hanging out at booths at the festival!
  • Food was wonderful. I’m not entirely sure what all of it was, but I don’t think I had a single bad meal while I was there. (One frustrating restaurant experience, but even then, the food was great!)
  • French convention panels are very different than the ones I’m used to. The moderator asks questions of the individual authors in turn, so there’s not much back-and-forth among panelists. You’re also expected to talk about your book a lot, which took some adjusting for me.
  • Everyone I encountered was friendly and polite.
  • I did not win the Prix Imaginales in my category. On the other hand, I got to spend a week in France with amazing, wonderful people. I figure that’s plenty of winning for the week 🙂

I’m mostly recovered from the trip, and am wrapping up the final revisions on Terminal Alliance. I’m also hoping to get Invisible 3 packaged and ready to upload to various ebook retailers within the next couple of weeks. Cover reveal should be coming very soon!

 

Bibliothèque Municipale d’Epinal

On my first day at Les Imaginales, a pair of librarians came up and invited me to visit the Epinal Library. What I didn’t realize — they may have mentioned it and I just missed it — was that they were giving us a private tour of the rare books room.

Epinal Library Rare Books Room

It was amazing. One of the true highlights of my trip to France. My interpreter Lionel, an author himself, was as awestruck as I was. Especially when they brought out the first book. If I’m remembering right, this was from the 8th century.

8th century religious text

The next one wasn’t quite as old…being from the 9th century. This Gospel of Saint Mark was a youthful 1200 years old.

Gospel of St. Mark: 9th Century

The cover is metal and ivory. I’m not sure what kind of jewels those are. The circular areas on the corners were for holding relics. Here’s a glimpse of the interior:

Gospel of St. Mark: Interior

You can see the full set of photos on Flickr. (Or you may have already seen them on Facebook.) It was such a wonderful experience. My thanks to everyone at Bibliothèque Municipale d’Epinal for their time and generosity.

I’ll end with a map of Michigan from one of the books that was “only” a few centuries old. Michigan sure looked different in the old days…

Map of Michigan

Back from Les Imaginales

I got back to Michigan late on Monday after a wonderful week in France for Les Imaginales.

The festival was amazing. The whole town participates and helps to sponsor Les Imaginales, which felt like a cross between a book fair, convention, and renaissance festival. The town is gorgeous, the food is delicious, and there were dogs everywhere–even in restaurants or sitting under a table in the book tent 🙂

I’ve posted photos from the book fair on Flickr. I’ve got a bunch more to get through and post, but I’m doing them one batch at a time.

The best part, naturally, was getting to hang out with some wonderful author friends from America, and to meet new authors, fans, editors, and fellow geeks from France and elsewhere.

It was fascinating to see the differences between French and American conventions. The panels were very different. Instead of a free-for-all conversation, the moderator asked each author a question, one at a time. There wasn’t much interaction between the authors. It felt a bit more formal, but also made sure everyone got the chance to talk and contribute. You were also expected to talk a fair amount about your book and how it related to the topic. At home, I try to avoid doing that too much, but in France, it’s expected that you’ll talk about your writing and help the audience learn enough to decide whether or not they’re interested.

Which means the best time to be in the book tent is immediately after you’ve done a panel. (I didn’t figure that out for my first panel, and probably missed some sales since I didn’t immediately go to the tent afterward. D’oh!)

I’m still trying to get caught up on everything. In the meantime, have a few pictures. (Or check out the full album on Flickr or Facebook!)

A shot of Epinal at night
Authors en route to Epinal
James Morrow and Christopher Priest
Château d’Épinal
A bit of historical reenactment? I really don’t understand French history…

My thanks to everyone at the festival for inviting me, for their hard work organizing the event, and for making this such a delightful week.

Les Imaginales Schedule

Next week, I have the honor of being part of Les Imaginales, the international festival of fantasy literature in Épinal, France. In fact, I’m doubly honored, since Le Bibliomancien (the French edition of Libriomancer, translated by Lionel Davoust) is one of six finalists for the Prix Imaginales award in the foreign novel category.

Les Imaginales has posted my schedule for the fair. Here’s everything I’ll be up to in France:

Tuesday, May 16

Thursday, May 18

  • 10 – 11 a.m. Coup d’envoi des Imaginales (Opening kickoff)
  • 11 a.m. – Noon. La fantasy…

Friday, May 19

  • 2 – 3 p.m. Livres et lecteurs… (Books and readers)

Saturday, May 20

  • 9 – 10 a.m. Petit DĂ©jeuner avec Jim C. HINES (Breakfast with Jim)
  • Noon – 1 p.m. Entretien avec Jim C. HINES (Interview with Jim)
  • 4 – 5 p.m. Ils viendront vous traquer… (They will come to hunt you down…)

Wait, what? Is Google translating that last panel correctly? What kind of festival is this?

Anyone know of any good bodyguard services in France?

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