Since my day was spent moving with the rest of the English department, tonight I bring you the cut and past method of journaling, and give you the low down on our reading group’s discussion of Goblin Quest, as well as Jim’s answers to various questions from the group. Enjoy, and I’ll be back with a little world building tomorrow. And, a word count.
Speaking of word counts, there’s A LOT of Jim Hines under the cut. A LOT.
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Ian wondered how much editing happened to the book, as it seemed that the characters traveled fairly quickly from the death of the dragon on. Michele felt that this was a pretty good emulation of the D&D style, and that the “game” just wrapped up after the main character was finished killing the monster.
Most of the readers are also gamers, and they appreciated the allusions to a gaming campaign. The characters were all characters that they had encountered in their gaming taken to an extreme–the dwarf particularly pendantic, the fighter particularly arrogant, and the magician particularly mad. There was some discussion of some of the things readers had wished for, including gelatinous cubes, but on the whole they were pleased.
Michelle wondered if Jig and the goblins should have been more different than humans. Mark suggested that humor must be based on familiarity. Michele (yes, a different Michele) suggested that she felt the mix between the familiar and different was good, and the portrayal of goblins was what you’d guess from their threat level and their hit points.
Ian talked about how he could chart the growth of Jig as a character. About the time Jig ran out of tunnel to lead them through is about the time he stands up for himself. Cath suggested that she was really into the book for Jig’s evolution. That, and Tymalous Shadowstar. Ian really liked Shadowstar as well. Cath plugged Jim’s third book.
As a final note, Michele mentioned that her husband Jon blames Cath for introducing her to the books, and that he’s staying up late reading them. Cath mentioned that her job at their home is done.
Read below the cut for more of Jim’s responses to reading questions.
Jason asked: I’m FAMILIAR with Dungeons and Dragons, having friends who used to play as well as picking up references here and there in general geek culture. But never having played myself, I’m likely to miss any D&D allusions the book might have. Is there anything I should research or be aware of to better enjoy the book (Catherine mentioned “alignments”)?
Jim replied: I think you’ll be fine. You might miss a few allusions, but it shouldn’t affect the story at all. I’d describe it mostly a humorous fantasy adventure with some gaming humor sprinkled on top. You might miss a few jokes, but I doubt it should make a difference to your (hopeful) enjoyment of the story.
Though there’s one moment where it definitely helps if you’re familiar with Lord of the Rings 🙂
A group member asked: Jim, can you tell the group how you got the idea for Goblin Quest? How did you find out you were getting it published?
Jim replied: The idea … well, I was reading another book which shall remain nameless. It was supposed to be a fantasy from the monsters’ point of view, and I loved the concept, but the execution … let’s just say the author went in a totally different direction from what I wanted. I wanted to see more of the monsters’ culture, to see the genre from their perspective, to understand what made them monsters as opposed to being essentially ugly, scary humans. (I’ve got a whole rant about how Shrek is just a strong, green human, not a real ogre.)
Anyway, I finally threw the book away in disgust and sat down to write the story *I* wanted to read. It’s not that the other book was bad; that author still outsells me by far. But I wanted more fun and more insight into the monsters.
Publication was either a four-year or a six-year process, depending on how you’re counting. I collected thirty-some rejections from various publishers and agents, not to mention several publishers who simply never got back to me at all. A while later, I sold a short story to the anthology “Turn the Other Chick”. As it turns out, the man packaging that anthology for Baen was also the acquisitions editor at Five Star, so I e-mailed him to see if he’d be interested in Goblin Quest.
He liked it, made an offer, and life was good. At least, I thought it was. Five Star was a small press, but a good one. Within a year, they had put out a nice hardcover edition of the book.
Now, remember those publishers who had ignored me? Apparently one of them was ignoring me because they liked the book. Two and after I had submitted to one of these major publishers — and a few months after Five Star published the book — they e-mailed to make me an offer.
I freaked out. I had sent notices to these publishers, withdrawing the book from consideration after the Five Star sale, but apparently they hadn’t received it. I went to several agents and asked for help to see if we could salvage something from the deal. The agent took me on, but the publisher withdrew the offer. The agent helped drag me out of my depression and convinced me to write another book, which was Goblin Hero. Agent then turned around and sold both of the goblin books to DAW in a nice little deal.
Since then, we’ve sold the third goblin book and three more books in a new series. Not how I’d recommend breaking in, but it’s a pretty happy ending, at least so far.
Was that a long-winded enough answer? Sheesh … you’d think writers got paid by the word or something.
Michele asked: Do you plan to write more in this world? What are the chances of finding out more about the average female goblin? What about a kid’s story?
Jim replied: ::Grin:: At the moment, you’ve got the three books, four short stories in print, and a fifth story coming out next year that magically brings Smudge the fire-spider into a modern-day SF convention. (It’s an odd story, but the editor specifically asked me to write something with Smudge in the present day.)
Goblin Hero splits the perspective between Jig and a female goblin named Veka. We also meet Grell, an old nursery worker who .. well, she has an important role in books two and three.
Goblin Lullaby, one of the short stories, also focuses on Grell back when she was taking care of Jig the baby goblin. Just in case anyone wondered how a goblin runt actually survived infancy. That story is one of the free podcasts, and there’s a link on the front page of my site at www.jimchines.com
As to whether or not I’ll write more? Who knows. I’m working on a different series right now, but I might come back and at least do more goblin short stories someday. My editor has suggested she wouldn’t object to a fourth goblin book, but I don’t want to write one unless I have a good story to tell.
Michele asked: Please tell us a little about your experiences with Podcasting. I know you have had a story on PodCastle (and ClonePod…?) What do you think of the concept? Has it helped your exposure to new audiences?
Jim replied: Good question! I’ve had two stories on PodCastle, and one on ClonePod. Fantasy Magazine also did a podcast of one of my stories when they published it. I wasn’t very involved in the technical side. In each case, I provided the story, and they found readers and did the recording.
Overall, I’ve been quite pleased. Even the ClonePod story, which is the smallest of the sites, appears to have gotten several thousand hits. When I was at GenCon, one of the people in the audience said he had been listening to the podcast of Goblin Lullaby just a few days before, and he was delighted to meet me and have the chance to buy the books. (Music to my ears 🙂
I don’t know that it’s made a huge difference, but I like having free fiction out there, and it’s been fun. I’ve got a few other stories I’ll probably be sending to PodCastle, just as soon as the contracts permit. (Darn those one-year exclusivity periods….)
