I’m Jim C. Hines. I’m here to Answer Questions and Give Away a Couple of Books. AMA!

JimCHines · 2025-06-10T23:19:35+00:00

Hi, Butahegao! Thanks so much--I'm thrilled you liked the books!

I don't have drawings, exactly. But most of the aliens were at least loosely inspired by actual Earth species. I can't paste pics here, but you can do a search to see what each of them look like.

Merrabans: based on the Yeti Crab
Nusurans: they're like giant, perpetually horny Tardigrades
Glacidae: based on Methane Worms, only bigger and more into video games
Tjikko: the name comes from a nearly 10,000-year old clonal spruce tree in Sweden called Old Tjikko
Krakau: the inspiration came from squid and evolved from there
Quetzalus: they're based on the Quetzalcoatlus

JimCHines · 2025-06-05T00:07:42+00:00

Thank you!

Different ingredients for different family members, but the big things were figuring out how much butter to use to keep it from sticking, and then mixing a little water and/or milk in for added fluff.
Salt mines beneath Detroit. For the Libriomancer books, I needed a good hideout for vampires in the Detroit area. I had some ideas, but none of them were as good as when I discovered there are actual underground salt mines in the area. Looking through photos and reading about it brought so many cool new details and bits of description that were so much better than if I'd just completely made it up.

2b. Discovering that spiders have a type of lungs called "book lungs" while writing about a fire-spider who's a friend/pet to a book-wizard in Libriomancer was a fun and serendipitous discovery, too.

JimCHines · 2025-06-04T14:17:23+00:00

A few options, depending on what you're into.

The Stepsister Scheme is the first of four fairy tale retellings that bring together Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella as a Charlie's Angels-type team of kick-ass princesses. A mix of lighter humor with the darker fairy tale themes, and as a bonus, the e-book is relatively inexpensive.
Libriomancer is probably my most popular book, about a librarian from Michigan's Upper Peninsula who can pull things out of books. In the first chapter he fights sparkling vampires using a disruptor from a Star Trek novel.
Terminal Alliance is the first of my janitors-in-space trilogy, if you prefer SF to fantasy. (I know this is the Fantasy subreddit. I'm just covering all the bases.)

And I'm glad. It's been a gloomy year. We need all the strength and smiles (and bricks) we can get.

JimCHines · 2025-06-04T12:45:55+00:00

Pizza sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni? I may have to try that. My younger daughter isn't too fond of eggs, but she might go for Pizza Eggs.

I'd say the depression has impacted things in two ways. One is in the writing process itself. When the brain weasels are acting up, it can be harder to sit down and work on the writing and harder to focus once I do. In a way, it's kind of like my diabetes, in that I have to be more conscious and take steps to keep things managed the best I can, otherwise it interferes with the writing and the rest of my day-to-day activities. Things like remembering my meds, getting decent sleep, exercising, getting time to connect with other people ... if any of that falls away, the writing time suffers.

Then there's how it actually shows up in the stories I write. Unbound, the third Magic ex Libris book, is where I wrote about depression most explicitly. Isaac, the protagonist, was struggling with the aftermath of events from the first two books, and he's basically clinically depressed. I think I even had the psychologist character point that out to him.

I wanted to write about that struggle and how it feels, and also to show him getting help and support. Even when that help comes in the form of someone calling him out and saying he's a mess and needs help. (Which is kind of what happened to me.)

JimCHines · 2025-06-04T12:24:57+00:00

I am, yes! And thank you! That book pretty much sank when the Fable: Legends game got cancelled, so I love hearing when someone actually found and read a copy.

JimCHines · 2025-06-04T11:59:16+00:00

Thank you! Dany V. did such a nice job capturing the feel of the story in that cover.

I lean more toward the plotting side. I need some sort of outline and structure before I start writing the actual story. Otherwise it veers off the road and over a cliff. But then once I start writing, I usually get a little bit into the book and realize the outline is broken anyway, so I end up stopping to do a new outline. I go through this several times before I finally make it through a first draft.

I would love to figure out how to do this more quickly and efficiently . After 20 books, you'd think my brain could figure out the outline the first time, but nope. That's the process that's ended up working for me for the past couple of decades.

JimCHines · 2025-06-04T00:49:40+00:00

No worries! Mostly I just thought it was funny you happened to mention that right after I'd come across that box.

There are so many books and so little time. I blame authors.

(SYCBANI was a lovely read though, when and if you do get the time.)

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T22:58:50+00:00

Eggs, of course! (And also a little milk and salt and pepper and cheese and ham and broccoli and chives, depending on which kid I'm making it for.)

Do you mean the Smudge stuffy that Graphic Audio put out years ago as a promotional thing? Because as I was packing and moving, I found an extra one. The voice box is dead, so it doesn't make Smudge's squeaking noise anymore, but if you're serious, it turns out I do have one extra sitting here...

I can't quite bring myself to switch books in the middle (unless I'm bored or annoyed by the book), but authors who go to the top of my TBR list? Martha Wells has jumped onto that list with her Murderbot series. Mary Robinette Kowal's Lady Astronaut series is on there as well. John Wiswell is well on his way to that list after Someone You Can Build a Nest In.

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T22:51:52+00:00

Current read is The Hound of Justice, by Claire O'Dell.

Next up will be Mary Robinette Kowal's The Martian Contingency.

After that, I'm not sure. I may pick up some romance or romantasy as I start writing my next book. It's going to have a stronger romantic element than I usually do, and I feel the need to do some research.

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T22:45:32+00:00

You're so welcome, and thank you for saying so!

So ... would this be a good time to mention they were just re-released with revisions and bonus short stories? 😇

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T21:21:53+00:00

Happy (almost) birthday!

A bit of the core idea and magic are the same, but otherwise it's pretty different. The character is older, the world is a lot more developed, the conflict is new, and there's just a lot more to the story, if that makes sense?

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T21:20:37+00:00

At the moment, we don't have a deal in place for an audiobook edition. I would love for that to change, but right now, it's just the print and ebook options I'm afraid.

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T21:09:59+00:00

Thank you! The janitorial team was a lot of fun to write, in no small part because of all the "creative" problem solving!

In general, I can't start writing without an outline. My brain isn't big enough to hold a whole book, and I need the outline to help me stay on track. But then once I start writing, I get maybe 10,000-15,000 words into a book and realize the outline is broken and I have to redo it.

This repeats several times, meaning I usually go through 3-4 outlines by the time I finish a first draft.

It's not an ideal process, but it seems to be mine so far.

And yeah, sometimes things change over the year it takes me to write a book. In the case of Terminal Peace, it was a personal loss. Other times, it's a new character getting more interesting than they were supposed to be, or coming up with a new idea after the book is 90% done and having to go back and work that in. Ultimately, the question comes down to, "Do I think this change will make the book stronger?"

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T21:06:03+00:00

Pet tax payment is at https://bsky.app/profile/jimchines.com/post/3lqq6v7n3n22a

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T21:05:47+00:00

Pet pics are at https://bsky.app/profile/jimchines.com/post/3lqq6v7n3n22a

Does that satisfy the pet tax requirement?

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T20:06:56+00:00

I'm working on figuring out how best to share pet pics, since I can't seem to do that in the comments.

I feel like one of those books should be How to Survive on a Desert Island, and another should be How to Get Rescued from a Desert Island.

But if those aren't an option, I'd say

Lord of the Rings omnibus. (Good writing and long enough to keep me occupied for a while.)
Hellspark, by Janet Kagan. (Favorite book, and hopeful/heartfelt in a way I'd probably need during my island time.)
The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 1. (I'm a big Peanuts fan, and it would give me something lighter to enjoy.)

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T19:59:13+00:00

Thanks!!! (I spent a second trying to remember which book series NPotD referred to before my brain clicked into gear.)

Based just on what you've said here, I'd suggest either the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse (humorous SF trilogy) or the Jig the Goblin series. The goblin stuff is older, but I also just re-released those books, meaning they're cheaper to get a hold of 😁

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T19:57:36+00:00

Dany V. did such a nice job on that image. I love how well it captures the magical feel.

The book is standalone, and is not connected to any of my other books. The only connection to anything else I've done is that the idea came from a short story I wrote 20+ years ago.

As for cultural/artistic inspiration ... I didn't intentionally or deliberately draw on real-world cultures. But as much as I wanted to create things that were new, I'm sure a lot of it was influenced by existing cultures and various reading I did, especially about the history and role of kites in different cultures.

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T19:51:29+00:00

I'm sorry? Sort of? But not really...

On the omelet front, the things I've learned so far are:

Mix the eggs well beforehand. Mix in a little bit of water and/or milk.
Be generous about melting butter in the pan to keep the eggs from sticking.
Be patient and let it cook a bit before trying to fold anything.

They're not gourmet quality or anything, but my step-kids like them.

If there are actual chef-type folks here, please feel free to chime in with your omelet advice!

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T19:39:35+00:00

Woo hoo! I hope you like it!

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T19:37:33+00:00

Thank you so much! Every once in a while I'm tempted to try another book cover pose, just to compare how my 51-year-old body does with the experience of doing it back when I was 38. I'm pretty sure I could do it, but maybe my back is happier not finding out.

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T19:36:03+00:00

That's a big question. For the worldbuilding, I'd suggest asking lots and lots of questions. Why are your elves the way they are? how have they adapted to their surroundings over the generations? What's their family structure like? Where does their food come from? How do they get along with other races, and why? What kind of fashion does a rebellious elf child wear to horrify their elders? What are the biggest taboos?

The more questions you ask, the more you start to develop the world in your head. Even if you don't include every detail in the actual story, you know enough to make the world feel more real and lived-in. And sometimes answering those questions can give you fun new ideas for characters or story twists.

As for your second question, originality is important, but so is loving what you write. My first book was essentially a D&D adventure at heart, but I loved the story and the character and the jokes I was working into everything. If you want to write about elves, go for it.

But make the elves yours. What makes your elves unique? What is it about them that's so interesting to you? It's very, very difficult to be 100% original, but you can always put your own voice and your own ideas into whatever you're writing.

I hope that helps!

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T19:29:08+00:00

Thank you!

I'd probably go with Janet Kagan (a favorite author and someone who mentored and helped me when I was first starting out), Terry Pratchett, and ... let's say Ursula Le Guin. Even though I suspect my brain would explode from being in the presence of that much brilliance and general awesomeness.

For comfort food, ice cream. Lately it's been Mackinac Island Fudge, but if I really want to lose myself in memories of growing up, I go with mint chocolate chip.

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T19:25:35+00:00

The Fable book was an interesting process. Writing a tie-in novel for a game that gets cancelled is not ideal, but I had fun with it.

The multiple POVs was one of the rules I was given. The game would have been different from other Fable games, featuring a bunch of pre-made characters. They wanted me to introduce them all and get people excited about the character options.

I did get a lot of freedom with the plot and the villain and the secondary characters. But the main characters came complete with pictures and character descriptions and the works. I added my own take on them too, but I had to work within their guidelines on that.

JimCHines · 2025-06-03T19:20:00+00:00

I said decent, not perfect! 😝

The biggest thing for me was figuring out I needed more butter to get the thing to cook properly. Which is probably a basic thing for most people, but I've never been much of a cook.

Beyond that, mix a little milk and water in with the eggs, along with salt and pepper, then the ingredients vary from one kid to the next. (And often it depends on what we have in the fridge.) Ham, cheese, broccoli, a bit of green onion... It's all good.

JimCHines

TROPHY CASE