That Jim C Hines Fellow

[dr_phil_physics]

Apologies

For those who saw a raw version of this post which accidentally got posted before it had any text...

Chased Across The State

Michigan author jimhines was having a reading of his latest "kick-ass princesses" novel at the Schuler Books at Meridian Mall in Okemos MI (east of East Lansing). I'd been to his reading for the last book at Schuler's on Alpine in Grand Rapids MI in October 2009. It being summer, it would be easy enough to run from work in Kalamazoo and get back just as it got dark. Well, that was the plan.

Instead there was an ugly furball of severe thunderstorms coming our way. I managed to get off campus and onto US-131 south and thence to I-94, driving east at 70 mph while the storm was coming at 50 mph. It threw off a possible tornado at Battle Creek, but shortly after that I was heading north on I-69 and by the time I got to Schuler's it wasn't raining.

Also ran into this Jim C. Hines fellow in the parking lot. Told him there was going to be a Big Name Author at Schuler's tonight -- he hoped to get some books signed. I told him these big swelled head BNA's don't sign books for the little people any more. He said that what was worse was authors featured in big coffee table books -- which would be both of us. (grin)

Just In Time For The Show

We got there at 5:50pm, just as the guy from Dominos was arriving with the pizzas for the party. (grin) Not wanting for the pizza to get cold, food came first. Then the good sized crowd, which had to be in the 20-30 range, settled in as Jim read the original James Bond-like opening to the next/fourth Princesses book -- which he's decided to cut, so we may have been the only public airing of that scene. (grin) You wouldn't have liked it. It has humor, fighting, crowds, and a spy running as fast as he can who turned out to be a golem made from a dark spicy cookie... (double-trouble-grin)

The reading and signing was a great success for Jim, as far as I could tell. He posted on Facebook tonight that: "Bookstore ordered 50 copies of RED HOOD'S REVENGE for tonight's signing. When I left, I believe they had two copies left. Victory!" Huh, I only saw one left. Someone must've been holding one back at the bookstore. (triple-word-score-grin)


The Many Reading Faces of Jim C. Hines

Just part of the line to get books signed, interspersed with Q&A with the crowd.

Note how the well-prepared book signer has (1) multiple pens, (2) a big stack of special Red Hood's Revenge bookmarks and (3) a sheet of paper to write down names before you sign the book. Just in case you try to spell "Linda" with a "Th". (evil-grin)

Anyway, I got home before the next storm came to Allendale -- and at that hour northern Kalamazoo County was getting clobbered. So I pretty much managed to make the triangle drive of Allendale-Kalamazoo-East Lansing-Allendale without getting blown, flooded or hailed off the road. Definitely a good summer outing.

Dr. Phil

Comments

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Very happy you could make it, and thanks for braving the storms! Glad you appreciated the cookie ;-)

I updated today's blog post to include a link to your post and the pics, too. Thanks for posting 'em!

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

No problem, good sir. The weird thing was that after putting in the HTML for the images, and copying the tags from the last reading/signing, there was something weird on the display which I realized afterwards was LJ's new helpful tag menus -- but hitting ENTER was the wrong thing to do as the mostly empty post ended up being posted. So at that point I HAD to finish the blog entry right then. (evil LJ grin)

And if you don't put the cookie in the fourth book, you should take that scene and turn it into a short story. Too good not to let it become part of the ouevre.

Dr. Phil

[aloysius7.livejournal.com]

You have all the fun. I've added his books to my Christmas/birthday list of books I want, so I'm almost 100% likely to get one or more of them, which makes me happy.

Except for the whole "waiting until my birthday/Christmas" part.

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Since jimhines never comes here, I'll tell you that is a very amusing and clever writer, and I do not think you'll be disappointed by any of his books. And I buy lots to give away as presents in my family. (grin)

Dr. Phil

[anothernathan.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming, since Dominos arrived at 5:50pm, someone must have had the forethought to have ordered it for breakfast!

:)

(I always latch onto the most salient point, don't I?)

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Only if you waited for it to congeal in the fridge. Now that's breakfast pizza!

Dr. Phil

[anothernathan.livejournal.com]

I was actually figuring they had given the guy an 8 hour head start. But waiting for the next morning is also cromulent.

[steve-buchheit.livejournal.com]

That Jim guy, I guess he intimidated the BNA who didn't show up. :)

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Well, see there were people, a desk, pizza -- and with no BNA showing up, Schuler's just happened to have 50 copies of Jim's latest book, plus tons of his previous ones. (Which I should mention is really quite a good show -- Jim had a signing at Schuler's Alpine a couple of years ago and there were not enough new or backlist books for even the small crowd.) (Or the book signing for WOTF XXIV where there were no books.)

Dr. Phil

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

I can top the WotF story. When Goldfish Dreams came out, I set up a signing at the local B&N. Showed up the night of the event. Not only were there no books, but they had fired the community relations manager and had no record there was even supposed to be a booksigning that night.

Really keeps the ego in check, doesn't it?

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Ouch! You, apparently, did not exist. It's like an episode of The Twilight Zone. Did you happen to see a guy with a skinny tie pontificating about the perversity of the universe in an alcove?

Dr. Phil

[wendyb-09.livejournal.com]

I've gotta admit, when I popped into your world and saw my girls on the cover of the new book, I did a little squee of joy!

Love those girls!!

NOTE: LJ did not accept my entry, sent me to the black scree(n) of doom, where a Clearisil ad was inflicted upon me. THEN told me I didn't exist AND I had to re-enter my name & pw.
the NERVE!!

Oh, wait, it gets better...LJ User box was dead so I had to copy this and start over. again...the NOIVE!!!

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

I am convinced that LJ randomly refuses to accept my password just so it can show me an ad -- something it isn't allowed to do the rest of the time because I have a Permanent Account and I told them they can't show me ads. (evil grin)

Dr. Phil