Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

The Magic of Books

Michigan writer Jim C. Hines jimhines launched his first DAW hardcover book, Libriomancer, this week. Since first seeing him at ConFusion years ago, I've attended quite a number of Jim's book launch/tour/events (DW) across the width of Michigan. So making a run up to Schuler's Books on Alpine in Grand Rapids at 7pm tonight was pretty much a no-brainer. Especially when you have a book about a Yooper librarian!

The basic idea is of a class of wizards who are libriomancers -- people who can reach into a book and pull out an object from the book. Of course it can't be bigger than the book in width and some books are locked by the Guild -- no One Ring To Rule Them All -- but swords and other things are fair game. And it sounds like our hero not only loves books, but loves being able to do magic with books. Who wouldn't?

A Bite To Eat and Then On With The Show

I drove up from WMU in Kalamazoo to Schuler's in a steady rain -- the temps were running in the mid- to upper 60s! -- in plenty of time to buy some books and then hit the Chapbook Cafe to get "my usual":

English Roast Beef with Aged Cheddar and Fresh Horseradish Cream, and Caesar salad. Plus the inevitable Coke. (Click on photo for larger.)

Saw Jim arrive while I was eating, later gave him a hard time because he's been busy the last couple of days updating the Amazon sales figures and watching the book fly off the shelves. Needless to say, it hasn't been a productive writing week for him. (grin)


Waiting for the clock to strike seven. (Click on photo for larger.)


Oops -- false start. The rep from Schuler's had to come in and properly introduce Jim. And remind every one that Schuler's is celebrating their 30th anniversary. Yay, Schuler's! (Click on photo for larger.)


About my new book... You don't just listen to Jim, you get to watch, too. (Click on photo for larger.)


In the Q&A part, of course Jim's recent postings about the poses of women (and men) in urban fantasy covers. Here we are demonstrating the bare midriff reveal, including Jim's insulin pump. (grin) (Click on photo for larger.)


Some of the crowd of about two dozen at Schuler's. Say, isn't that SF/F writer Mary Robinette Kowal in my row? (Click on photo for larger.)


Dave Klecha (center), who will be handling Programming for ConFusion in January and indeed that is Mary Robinette Kowal, who was in the area doing audio recordings. Both Jim and Mary Robinette are up for Hugos at WorldCon in Chicago in a couple of weeks. (Click on photo for larger.)



And on to the task of signing books... (Click on photo for larger.)

Congratulations, Jim! Great launch week and now we have a copy to read.

Dr. Phil

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.