It's The Story, Dammit

One Good Forward Deserves Another

Via Andy Duncan, one of our 2004 Clarion instructors:

"Never underestimate the power of a good story"
Greg Frost alerted me to this fine commercial, via YouTube, for the French pay channel Canal+, a.k.a. "Canal Plus."

posted by Andy Duncan at 9:13 PM

Or else it's a French thing.

Dr. Phil

Yet Another Jim C Hines Reading

So Yesterday Was A Silver Anniversary

Yeah, me and Mrs. Dr. Phil had a lovely wedding ceremony in Bond Chapel on the campus of the University of Chicago twenty-five years ago on 27 October. So naturally I didn't go straight home last night after Exam 2, but went off to Schuler's Books and Music on Alpine Avenue for a quick bite to eat, and then a reading and book signing by Jim C. Hines.

What? Don't look at me like that. (a) The 27 October 1984 was our second wedding ceremony. The first was back on 12 January 1984, where we got married before a Cook County (Illinois) judge who didn't see us***, in the midst of moving to the U.P. (2) We've got another GVSU special wine pairings dinner scheduled for 12 November with a wonderful menu, so we'll celebrate just fine thank you. (III) Hey, Mrs. Dr. Phil got a signed book out of the deal.

Second Exam

I was pretty worried about that Exam 2 in my PHYS-1060 Stars and Galaxies class. So many people were down with the flu. But they came through. 115 out of 124 people showed up for the exam, and just about all of the 9 who didn't managed to drop me a line or a phone call. So I think it worked out all right. Chose not to hold class after the exam, and made it 50 instead of 30 multiple guess questions. Managed to finish well before the end of the class time, get the tests boxed up for the grad student to run to the Scantron center. And I made it to Schuler's by 6:02pm, and by 6:28 I'd hit the bathroom, bought five copies of Jim's new book to sign, and had just been served my salad and half roast beef with horseradish sauce sandwich on French bread.

And Then Much Madness Pursues

Jim C. Hines is a Michigan author whom I've known from cons and the web for a couple of years. We've been on some panels together and he's a WOTF winner and author of a series of Goblin books and now kick-ass Princess books. The Stepsister Scheme was launched at ConFusion in January and now it was time for the second adventure, The Mermaid's Madness.

He's also a charming speaking and great teller of tales. Rather than read from the new book, he chose instead to read from his Muppet-inspired werewolf story, The Creature in Your Neighborhood from the anthology Strip Mauled. It's written as a TV script and Jim did a lovely job of voicing the different memorable characters and provide some sound effects, including deleting certain words not suitable for children's hearing using a squeaky toy. A Mr. Happy Fun Ball, I think he said it was. (grin)

There were perhaps a dozen people in attendance, though most were Jim's family and friends from the Grand Rapids area. Even at that it was quite a successful event, plus Jim's books got some nice featuring in the front of the store and in their monthly news flier.

Jim's note for the future: Yes, it is a good idea to bring more books with you to make sure the bookstore has books to sell. But if you have a series, don't bring the same amount of each. Bring LOTS more of Book One. Because you won't sell the later books in a series if the first one isn't there. (wise grin)

I love Jim's clever and funny writing style. Go buy his books. And if you are at WindyCon 36 in mid-November, you could meet Jim C. Hines there as well.

Dr. Phil

*** The judge was blind. Married by Blind Justice on his lunch hour -- what could be more symbolical? Well, it's worked for a quarter of a century plus.