This is our author chat where we were lucky enough to have Jim Hines with us talking about his GoblinQuest, GoblinHero, GoblinWar books as well as some future projects. I would like to thank everyone for coming and a special thanks to Maria for getting this setup, it worked out very well.
[Maria] 2. So far the Goblin books have been set in a mountain—did you do any real spelunking to get ideas or did you just make it all up?
[jchines] I've gone through a few caves over the years, which helped a bit. Among other things, you learn what real darkness is like. Go on a cave tour where they turn out the lights. I also talked to my cousin Andy, who's a geologist, to get some of the details right. He's responsible for the malachite formations over the lake, which I loved!
[jchines] He also explained why I couldn't have stalactites and stalagmites in my volcanic caves and tunnels.
[jchines] (No limestone.)
[Maria] Clever.
[Damon] How did Jig actually come to you? A Dream?
[Maria] Nightmare?
[Damon] :)
[jchines] @Damon: Good question. Jig ... he's one of the only characters who's ever come to me pretty much fully-formed and ready to go.
[jchines] Some have pointed out that he has a lot in common with me. Small, nearsighted, constantly losing his hair.
[jchines] I don't see the similarity at all.
[Damon] hehe
[Maria] Er...me either.
[Maria] What about Jig's pet? That is just a classic pet. How did you think of him?
[jchines] My wife actually told me that Jig on the cover of Goblin Hero looks a bit like me.
[Damon] I am personally scared of spiders myself
[jchines] @Maria: Smudge is wonderful. In part, when I was writing Goblin Quest, I set myself a challenge. I wanted to write a spider that people would love so much that they would cry when .
[jchines] @Damon: Me too. That's part of what made Smudge so interesting to write about.
[Maria] I LOVED Smudge.
[jchines] He's a cute little guy, and the whole setting-things-on-fire bit is just a blast to write.
[Damon] Your books are about making fun of classic themes in fantasy and adventures how do you keep that fresh in book 3 :)
[jchines] And Jig loves him, which I think comes through to the reader.
[jchines] @Damon: Book three was a bit of a challenge.
[Maria] 3. Will your next Goblin book (Goblin War) take place in the same mountain or will Jig have to venture further out?
[jchines] Dang it. Stupid italics.
[jchines] @Damon & Maria both: For book three, I needed Jig to get out of the mountain and face something new.
[jchines] He deals with some consequences from the first book.
[Maria] Oooh, I like the sound of that--new setting.
[jchines] He also starts to see some larger patterns about goblin lifestyle, and has to finally choose to make a change.
[Maria] Smudge gets to go too, right?
[jchines] For all three books, he's been trying to find a way to survive, and also for the rest of the goblins to survive. But in book three, he finally faces up to what that will require.
[jchines] Of course! I can't imagine writing Jig without Smudge. (Okay, there was one short story, but it just wasn't the same...)
[Patrick] With the new setting, did you find it more difficult to write? Or was it more like a breath of fresh air and your ripped right through it?
[Damon] I fought for that story in Heliotrope!
[Maria] Man, if I'da known I'da sent in *my* recommendation!
[jchines] @Patrick: Yes to both, actually. It was fun to get out of the tunnels and explore something new, but the worldbuilding increased exponentially. Still, it was fun finding a place for things like elves, and dealing with some of the history and backstory of the humans' royal family.
[jchines] @Damon: Thanks :-) It ended up selling to Andromeda Spaceways. Just came out, actually.
[Damon] Glad to hear it, so do you play paper RPGs? Online RPGs? You pretty much have them down pat from a writing standpoint and the adventurers :)
[jchines] I'll crack Heliotrope one of these days...
[jchines] Paper & dice. Earlier tonight, we were just fighting a few groups of city guardsmen. (They interrupted my half-orc's nap!)
[Patrick] :D
[jchines] I think I first opened the boxed basic D&D set when I was ... maybe 12 years old? Back when you had to use a crayon to fill in the numbers on your dice.
[Damon] You have any favorite WoTC authors if you dont mind me asking? Wow dating yourself on those dice, I seem to remember that myself
[jchines] @Damon: I haven't actually read much of the WotC stuff. Though I just met Paul Kemp online, who writes some Forgotten Realms books, and I'd like to check his stuff out.
[jchines] And I have to mention Ed Greenwood, just because he's a wonderfully nice guy.
[jchines] (See Maria? I can do namedropping! :D )
[Patrick] Kemp is the man! He has some great books. I recommend trying his stuff.
[Maria] So I have another book question.
[Damon] I wanted to say I find your Book LOL pretty funny
[Maria] Everyone likes those covers. We should put Jim's Goblin Quest on out on the comments trail of the review.
[jchines] Thanks, Damon! Wait until you see what I've got for Monday. And I'll try to pick one up, Patrick!
[Patrick] :D
[Damon] Well are we talking 5 Star Cover or DAW
[Maria] The DAW LOL one that Jim did of his own book.
[Damon] The 5 Star Cover is a bit scary :)
[jchines] DAW, please. Five Star did a nice cover, but it really didn't capture the book.
[jchines] The original version had blood-red shadows behind the lettering. I asked them to at least remove that much.
[Maria] THe Daw one has Smudge. 'nuf said.
[jchines] :)
[Patrick] For some members who are not as aware of you as we are, can you discuss why you get into writing and what was your first published piece?
[jchines] @Patrick: I started writing back in '95. Mostly, I did it for fun. Ended up writing a whole novel while I was at Michigan State. It was a very bad novel, but I enjoyed it enough to start thinking a bit more seriously about this whole writing thing.
[Damon] And as a follow up, I know Maria said you have answered this before, but I think Im too lazy to find it, how did you go from 5 Star to DAW?
[jchines] I had a short story published in a little contest magazine that nobody ever saw. Collected a lot of rejections. And then ended up with a first place story in Writers of the Future XV, called "Blade of the Bunny."
[Patrick] Michigan? You a football fan?
[jchines] As you can tell, I was writing deep, serious literature from day one.
[Patrick] :D
[Maria] I need to find that story.
[jchines] @Patrick: Not so much. I know football is the one with the pointy ball, right?
[Maria] *Groan*
[jchines] @Damon: That was an ugly story.
[jchines] I had submitted Goblin Quest to a lot of publishers, and collected some rejections.
[Patrick] Hehe, yes, that is correct! :D
[Brian] I love the title 'Blade of the Bunny'
[jchines] Eventually, I met John Helfers from Tekno, who also does books for Five Star.
[Maria] Brian: Me too!
[jchines] Sold it to him, then after the book came out, got an offer from a big publisher.
[jchines] That was messy, but it got me an agent. (An offer in hand helps a lot!) The publisher withdrew the offer, but my agent was able to sell both Goblin Hero and Goblin Quest to DAW a year later.
[jchines] Not exactly how I'd recommend people break in, but it worked.
[Maria] Sounds stressful.
[Damon] Is Blade of the Bunny available anywhere for reading? Now you have our interests peaked
[jchines] To clarify, the big publisher was one I had submitted to originally, then withdrew the book after a year and a half. (I figured they had either lost or rejected it.)
[Patrick] Wth there being a lot of publishers now, how do you feel DAW is treating you?
[Brian] isnt pubishing a book always stressful
[jchines] It's at Fictionwise: http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/JimCHineseBooks.htm
[jchines] @Patrick: DAW is a great publisher. It's less corporate than a lot of them, and they're more supportive of newer authors.
[Damon] I also want to know what Jim Hines is working on besides Jig, I know you have to have something funny coming soon after Jig.
[jchines] I wouldn't mind a bit more publicity, but what author would? They got a great cover artist for the goblin series, and they've already picked up my next book.
[Damon] Well I hope you do at least
[jchines] @Damon: Good timing on the transition!
[jchines] DAW bought "The Stepsister Scheme," which I hope will be the first book in a new series. Think fairytale princesses crossed with Charlie's Angels.
[Brian] I have a personal theory that the best SF/F writers all have facial hair, preferrably beards. How has your beard helped your career? :)
[jchines] I'm currenly writing the first draft of "The Mermaid's Madness," which will be the sequel to Stepsister.
[Damon] Haha Brian, that seems to be the case :)
[Damon] maybe they have a secret handshake also
[jchines] @Brian: Hm ... I'll have to pass that theory on to Julie Czerneda the next time I talk to her :wink:
[Maria] Fairytale princess crossed with Charlie's...THE MIND BOGGLES.
[jchines] It's a bizarre concept, but for some reason, it really seems to work. I did a reading last weekend at Context, and the two people who showed up really loved it.
[Damon] Time Check - lets wrap up in about 7 minutes otherwise I think people will go blind reading all this :)
[Maria] You went from goblins to mermaids…pretty big stretch. Do you avoid humans in your books for a reason?
[Maria] I mean fairy princesses.
[jchines] The Stepsister Scheme is all humans. (Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, to be precise).
[Damon] You are very active in the fantasy community, how are you treated with the type of humor fantasy you write in comparison to epic fantasy etc..
[Brian] Speaking of the princesses did you see Shrek 2? If so what did you think of the princess depictions in the movie?
[jchines] @Damon: Interesting question. I haven't noticed anyone actively looking down on me for it. My humor doesn't show up on the Nebula ballot or anything like that, but I've been pretty happy overall. And there are some who recognize that humor can be just as hard to write as anything else.
[Brian] oops, meant Shreak the Third
[Patrick] How do you manage your writing time?
[jchines] @Brian: Don't get me started on Shrek. I wrote Goblin Quest back in 2000, then Shrek came out. I started writing the princesses, then Shrek 3 came out. Dreamworks actually had Goblin Quest on their desk at one point, talking about movie possibilities, but decided it was too close to Shrek. I have serious ogre issues. (As you can probably guess if you read the second book.)
[Damon] that is a very interesting tidbit
[jchines] @Patrick: State job with a union-regulated lunch hour. I write during lunch, one hour a day, five days a week. It's enough to do a draft of a novel in about six months, and turn in a finished one in about a year.
[Maria] Oh, so that's why all the orgres...Spoiler.
[jchines] @Maria: Could be :)
[Patrick] Wow, that is very interesting.
[Maria] Goblins eat some strange, disgusting things. Were any of these recipes based on your own cooking?
[jchines] My cooking? Maybe some of the more horrific ones. The last time I tried to make up a recipe was as a teenager. It involved pasta and vinegar and Kool-Aid. 'Nuff said?
[Brian] Its like Gaiman having a hard time getting The Books of Magic made because of Harry Potter
[Patrick] haha
[Damon] I would love to see a goblin quest movie, who do we have to write to? :)
[Patrick] How long were you in the hospital after eating your "creation"?
[jchines] @Brian: I'm hoping the princess bit in Shrek 3 will actually build the demand for novels of that kind...
[jchines] @Damon: I wish I knew. Maybe start with Peter Jackson and work our way down from there?
[jchines] @Patrick: You think I actually ate that? (Okay, I tried a few bites...)
[Damon] Ok one question each to finish this off
[Maria] 9. There’s some pretty funny scenes with goblin latrines and goblin garbage in both books—were these scenes inspired by your children’s diaper years?There’s some pretty funny scenes with goblin latrines and goblin garbage in both books—were these scenes inspired by your children’s diaper years?
[Patrick] Okay
[Damon] then let jim have the floor for a sign off and we wrap and package it for sunday update :)
[jchines] Hey, that's two questions! Or the same one twice!
[Maria] I only need one answer...
[jchines] Maria: There's a short story called "Goblin Lullaby" in the anthology Fantasy Gone Wrong which was dedicated to my son, who was four months old at the time. It shows Jig as a baby, and there are major diaper issues. The latrines and garbage scenes weren't really inspired by anything, except that I'm a very childish man who enjoys some good privy humor.
[jchines] Hi Melissa -- you made it in time for the last minute or so of the interview :)
[Maria] She gets one question too!
[jchines] Fair enough!
[Patrick] Where do you see Jim Hines in the next ten years?
[Damon] she can have mine also and then she gets two :)
[Melissa] Sorry I'm late. There were these lizard fish in the hall...
[jchines] @Patrick: Let's see ... that will put my daughter at age 17, and my son will be 12, so I'll probably be about 98% insane by that point. Careerwise, I hope to still be writing, and it would be nice if my readership continued to grow a bit.
[jchines] I suspect I'll have even less hair by then, too.
[Patrick] :D
[Maria] I was going to ask about the hair...completely bald by then, do doubt!
[Damon] FBS will be doing a holographic interview with you at that point :)
[jchines] And I'll still be trying to connect to the holochat room with my little 56K modem...
[Brian] If your fate in the afterlife was to be a fictional character from one of your own books, which would you want to be and why?
[jchines] @Brian: That's cruel!
[Damon] I like it :)
[Damon] great question
[Patrick] haha
[jchines] I'm so mean to them all.
[Brian] I had tomake up for being quiet during the chat:)
[Maria] SMUDGE!!!
[jchines] But if I had to choose, possibly James Lapan from the Blade of the Bunny stories. He's a smart-ass, but he ends up with a good wife and a wonderful kid, and gets a pretty decent Happily Ever After.
[Damon] Melissa do you have any questions before we wrap this up?
[Brian] Ok, follow up if it had to be a character from another book for all eternity, who would you pick, and why?
[Maria] Smudge! He's the only one that got...oh wait, this is a family show, isn't it?
[Damon] wow brian is now on a roll you backing him into some corner :)
[jchines] Nakor the Blue Rider, from Raymond Feist's Riftwar books. Nakor has some decent magic going for him, but more importantly, he has fun!
[Melissa] Ok. I may be repeating questions, since I don't know what's been said, but what comes after the mermaids?
[jchines] @Melissa: Nope, that's a new one.
[Brian] Great answer! I'm done
[jchines] There's a line in The Stepsister Scheme, where Danielle (Cinderella) is coming to terms with fairy tales vs. reality, and asking about the stories. One story she asks about is Red Riding Hood. "Did that happen? Is she real?"
[jchines] Talia (Sleeping Beauty) says, "Oh, she's real. The lady of the red hood is one of the most feared assassins this side of Hilad. Bitch nearly killed the queen a few years back."
[jchines] I'm thinking about coming back to Red for book three, but nothing's decided yet...
[Brian] sounds intriguing
[Maria] Jim, it was really, really great of you to come and chat with us.
[Patrick] Indeed
[jchines] Thanks - this was fun! And I appreciate the invitation!
[Melissa] :grin: Fairy tales are such fun to twist!
[Damon] Yes thank you very much
[Brian] Thanks!!
Thanks again to Jim Hines. You can comment on this chat at http://www.fantasybookspot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4860
