Jim C Hines

Life and work

Hines was a volunteer crisis counselor in East Lansing and worked as the Male Outreach Coordinator for the MSU Safe Place. In 2008, he donated his archive to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Collection in the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University. He has been the author guest of honor at multiple conventions, and was the Toastmaster for the 2014 NASFiC (North American Science Fiction Convention). He's also served as Toastmaster for Icon (Iowa science fiction convention) since 2012. He currently lives in Holt Michigan, where he works for state government.

He is the author of one non-fantasy novel, Goldfish Dreams, described on the author's website as a "mainstream rape-awareness novel". He is the author of the Goblin Quest fantasy trilogy, comprising Goblin Quest, Goblin Hero and Goblin War. He also edited the anthology Heroes in Training with Martin H. Greenberg. He is published by DAW Books, and his most recent books have appeared on the Locus Bestseller list.

Hines' literary works have been recognized and highlighted at Michigan State University in their Michigan Writers Series. He was a first-place winner of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Award in 1998 with his story "Blade of the Bunny".

In 2012 he received a Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer.

"Striking a Pose"

In January 2012, Hines posted on his blog with the headline "Striking a Pose (Women and Fantasy Covers)", a discussion triggered by some of the poses in which female characters are drawn on the covers of books in his Princess Series. Hines attempted to mirror some of these anatomically incorrect poses on the covers of one of his own works and those of a variety of other fantasists. The resulting discussion continued, in such venues as Jezebel.com. Hines has participated in several panel discussions at science fiction conventions such as one at the feminist convention WisCon, where a group of women including a gymnast and a dancer attempted (with limited success) to recreate such poses; and in a posing competition (benefits to charity) with fellow Hugo-winner John Scalzi, which has brought the discussion and others like it such as The Hawkeye Initiative to the attention of Boing Boing and other publications, including political blogs like ThinkProgress.