Libriomancer

One of my goals with swag — bookmarks, temporary tattoos, buttons, bookplates, etc. — has been to create designs that people will think is nifty, regardless of whether they know or care about the book being promoted.

My earliest bookmarks didn’t do this so well. They simply showed the cover, a (hopefully) clever quip, and purchase information for the book. I think they looked okay, but they were a little bland.

Below the cut is my first stab at a Libriomancer bookmark. The back side simply shows my backlist (and based on earlier bookmarks, those covers should show up better when printed than they do on the screen).

I’m pretty pleased with the front, though. I may change the quote a bit, but I like the layout, and I think the image works. I’ve also eliminated things like ISBN and price … I think in most cases, the author’s name and title should be more than adequate for anyone who’s interested to find the book.

What do you think?

More

So yesterday, my friend Anton Strout commented that he had seen the cover art for Libriomancer, saying, “Holy Cats it is AWESOME!” Which is great … except that I hadn’t seen it yet! So I shot a rude comment in Anton’s direction (as one does), and e-mailed my publisher. DAW was kind enough to shoot the more-or-less final cover art my way.

The art is by Gene Mollica. My editor and I both independently came up with Gene’s name when we were brainstorming possible artists for this book, which amuses me to no end.

So anyway, meet Isaac Vainio, libriomancer from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and his fire-spider partner Smudge.

I am pleased.

You can click on the image for the extreme close-up, if you really want.

I’m about 10,000 words through the third draft of Libriomancer. The scene I wrote yesterday introduces one of Isaac’s colleagues, a fellow magic-wielding librarian. I ended up basing the character on a librarian friend of mine (with permission), one who routinely used to kick my butt at Trivial Pursuit back in grad. school.

I’ve got another character who will be based on the winner of a fundraising auction from earlier this year. That’s two Tuckerizations in one book. (Tuckerization being the practice of inserting real-life people into the book as minor characters.)

I’m also writing a protagonist who’s a SF/F fan, meaning there will be inside jokes aplenty. He quotes Star Wars at one point. He has a toy TARDIS hanging from his rear-view mirror. He makes quips that some readers might not get…

…and that’s where I run into a dilemma. Because with everything I’m doing here, it would be too easy for the book to become self-indulgent. Especially when you add in the fact that I’m bringing Smudge back for this series.

So I’m falling back on the same rule I use when writing humor:

The story comes first.

Years ago, I was reading one of Robert Asprin’s MYTH books, and there was a scene where our hero meets a green-scaled taxi driver. The driver proceeds to talk about this convention where he won the chance to be written into some author’s next book…

Bam. Just like that, I was flung out of the story. I loved the early MYTH books, and I thought it was pretty cool that Asprin had done that, but I was thinking about Robert Asprin instead of the story. It felt like he had paused the story to squeeze in this scene.

With Libriomancer, I could easily work in all sorts of details and backstory about my friend, but she’s not a primary character. It might be fun to work in that puma joke from ’98, but it wouldn’t add to the story.

On the other hand, it would be in character for Isaac, who prides himself on his brains, to mutter something about a Trivial Pursuit rematch when he sees her. It’s not that such things can’t work; they just have to fit the story.

The same holds true for Smudge, and for the inside SF/F jokes. My agent has already suggested I trim the Smudge scenes in chapter one, because while they might be appealing to me and to my goblin fans, they slow down this story. Likewise for Isaac’s Star Wars quotes, or references to other SF/F books and films.

In the end, I believe Tuckerizations, inside jokes, and humor in general should all work the same way:

• It should fit the story.
• It should add to the enjoyment of the story for readers who get it.
• It should not detract from the story for readers who don’t get it.

Easier said than done, especially with the rather meta premise of Libriomancer. It’s a book about SF/F books and magic, and it would be so easy to pack it full of geek references and insider humor … but I don’t want to restrict my readership like that. So in general, if I think something will bump a reader out of the book, it’s getting cut.

What do you think? Any examples of effective or ineffective Tuckerizations or inside jokes? For the writers, what has your experience been with writing (or avoiding) them?