I hope I didn't step on anyone's toes, but it looked like this one was unclaimed. If this is acceptable, I'll go ahead and do the rest of this event this week.
*Notes-not sure if Halfover Templar is correct...couldn't make out exactly what was being said*
2009 Dayton Book Signing Q&A youtube video
Part 1 Dictation by
bookwormsamJim: Hi. They said that I'm supposed to be introducing my book, so can I borrow this copy for a second <gets book from audience member and holds it up, audience laughs> Okay, book, these are the readers and readers this is the book, so ta-da. <audience laughs, Jim hands book back> A lot of times I'll go to a book store and they'll be okay, we want you to do a reading. They usually don't do that here, which I think is smart because I tend to assume that most of my readers can read <audience laughs> and they really don't me to read for them. So is it okay with you if we just like skip to question and answer, is that okay?
Audience: Yeah <claps>
Jim: Let's do that. For this to work, someone has to ask a question. Okay, good, excellent, thank you sir.
Audience: The book is dedicated to Bob. Is that the Bob from the series or a different Bob?
Jim: No, the book is dedicated to Bob, who was a prominent member of the forums, who died a couple of months ago. So that's what that means. It wasn't actually to a makeup character. I have to talk about real people, for the most part, in the dedication acknowledgement things. Otherwise people look at you funny. Back here at the back, sir.
Audience: I assume writing is still kind of a hobby for you, how do you keep it being an enjoyable experience rather than becoming a job?
Jim: The question is, if everybody didn't hear it, he's assuming writing is kind of a hobby for me, how do I keep it enjoyable instead of it being a job? And the answer is, it was always a job. <audience laughs> That doesn't mean I can't enjoy myself while I'm on the job, but from the get go it was something I was trying to do to make a living at. So, that has the advantage of sometimes when you're writing you'll be writing along and you'll plug along for several hours and its just like hitting your head against a brick wall, you know, at the end of six hours of trying maybe I've got 750 or 1000 words to show for it, if that, you know. Other times I'll be writing, and I'll get into the groove, I'll look up and all of a sudden its 9am and there's actually people moving around the house and I've got 6000, 7000 words written and I was having such a good time I didn't even notice. But when I get to the end of the book and go back and look at that, I'm not actually able to tell the difference between the stuff that I had to grind out and the stuff that came out real smooth. So, but the answer is that it is a job, but I really like my job. <audience laughs> Who else? Right here please.
Audience: I actually have two questions. The first one is how do you feel about all the fan fiction online that takes place using your characters?
Jim: Okay, let me stop you right here. How do I feel about all the fan fiction online using my characters? The answer to that is I wasn't aware that there was any fan fiction <audience laughs> online on account of if I'm aware of it I have to go and vigourously defend my copyright, which means I would have to go to some of the fans who like my work the most and who are so excited about it that they want to play with it themselves, and tell them, "Go away, you bad bad people," which would be stupid for me. So I'm really glad I don't know about fan fiction. <audience laughs and claps> But there was a part two so please go ahead.
Audience: And the second question is if you play Nero Central, I was wondering what's your favorite race and class of play?
Jim: Yeah, I play Nero Central and I play a Halfover Templar. I play a cannibal Halfover Templar named Thud who is too dumb to fool and always the first guy through the door. That's always fun, I love playing the dumb guy. Thats just a great time. Who else? Right here, please.
Audience: Do you have a set plan for the stories or when you sit down to do an individual book, do you just know about that book and the characters lead you through it?
Jim: Question is, do I have a set plan for the stories or when I sit down to do an individual book do I just only plan for that book and do the characters lead me through it? And the answer is I plotted all 20 books in 1996, when I was getting started. The only thing I didn't plot was any of Harry's romantic stuff. I wanted that to be something that grew up by itself, but as it turns out, whoever you're in love with sometimes has an effect on the other parts of your life <audience laughs> Who would have thought such a thing? So that's kind of given the plans a monkey wrench occasionally, but we're still pretty much on schedule. I think I'm about one book behind from where I planned on being, but we're doing alright. For something that got planned in 1996, it's doing okay. But anyway, so, but yeah.
Audience: For those of us who are trying to get published, I know there was a story behind how you actually got your first book published, can you relate that?
Jim: For those who are trying to get published, can I relate the story of how I got my first book published. I wrote my first novel when I was 19 and it was awful. But not to be stopped, I wrote a sequel, which was, if possible, even worse. <audience laughs> So I started taking some writing classes, professional writing courses at the University of Oklahoma, where they were actually being taught by a novelist. And I wrote another fantasy novel that was terrible and the second one in that series which was equally as bad. Maybe not quite as bad, but almost, I tried hard. And then I did this Xfiles take off thing. It was bad. I wouldn't send that book to Osama bin Laden. <audience laughs> There's just some things you don't do. And the entire time I was getting very good advice from my writing teacher which I was ignoring. I was ignoring her because i have an english literature degree and I knew what I was talking about whereas she had merely published 40 novels. <audience laughs> So after that fifth one, and she kept harping on the same things and she was so wrong, wrong, wrong. So finally after that fifth bad one, I decided, you know what, the next book I write, I'm just going to do everything she says. I'm going to fill out all those old worksheets. I'm going to do all her little character things. I'm going to do all this planning and plotting and all this stuff, this completely artificial approach to story telling, and when I get done with it, I'm going to do everything just exactly like she says, and then she'll see what terrible crap comes out when I do that. And I wrote Storm Front. <audience laughs> And she still to this day has not admitted that she was wrong. But having learned a bit of humility, I went out looking for an agent when she said, "Now this will sell, you should be able to sell this". And somebody else, who was a friend of mine who was in the music business said, "What you really need to do if you want to pick up an agent, you need to get out and meet some of the agents and talk to them". So I said, okay, well I took somebody else's advice once and it sort of in a kind of backasswards way worked out, so I'll do this too and I went to a convention where Laurell Hamilton was. I targeted an agent who was... they'd said, "Well you know, if you're writing something that's sort of like what Laurell is writing, maybe if that agent liked Laurell's stuff, they'll like your stuff too." My reaction to that was, "I don't know that seems too rational." <audience laughs> But I went to that convention where Laurell was and she was there with her agent. And I was a fan on several of Laurell's mailing lists, fan lists, and I gathered up a bunch of questions from the other fans and at the mixer I introduced myself to Laurell and said, "Hey I've got these questions from fan lists and could I have 5 minutes of your time at some point?" And she was like, "Sure." And then we hung out at the mixer talking about Buffy and Babylon 5. And all these other people walked up to her and wanted to talk to her about Anita/Jean Claude/Richard etc etc etc, and you could just kinda see her eyes get a little bit wide when they did. So I started deflecting the conversation, Buffy and Babylon 5, cause we were both fans and we wound up talking about that. And the next day at the convention, I'm wandering around bumping into walls, which is what I do when I don't have a keeper <audience laughs> and Laurell saw me and says, "Hey, Jim, a bunch of us are going to lunch. Do you want to go with us?" And I said. "I eat lunch." <audience laughs> Mr Suave right there. And I wound up going to lunch with Laurell and 3 other writers and 3 editors and a couple of agents and as it turned out they liked Buffy and Babylon 5 too. And by the end of the weekend, both agents had offered to represent me. I turned to one of them and said, "But Jen, (who is my current agent now) Jen, you sent me a rejection letter." She says, "I know." "Two weeks ago." <audience laughs> She says, "I know, but that's before I found out that you're somebody else who's actually played the Amber Diceless role playing game." <audience claps> Yeah, mostly my career's been about inspired stupidity. <audience laughs> And then within 6 months of getting an agent, it was sold. That was how that got going. Kind of a long answer to the question, but there you go. Right here, please.
Audience: Any chance of seeing Harry on the screen again?
Jim: Any chance of seeing Harry on the screen again? The studio, Lionsgate, still has the rights until 2 years 364 days from now, not that I'm keeping track.<audience laughs> But they only have the rights to like the first 5 books. So, I mean, if somebody wanted to do book 7, if somebody wanted to do Dead Beat or something like that as a movie, which zombie T-rex <audience laughs> thats a movie selling point right there."
