I'm continuing my fight against the hate swirling through the SF/F world by highlighting the good people who give me optimism for the future of our genre. The other day I started with K. Tempest Bradford. My good person pick for today? Jim C. Hines.
I first met Jim back in 2007 at the Context convention in Columbus, Ohio. That was the first SF convention I'd ever attended and Jim was nice enough to both sign a copy of his novel Goblin Quest and to talk with me a bit. I later interviewed him for Monsters and Critics, where he was nice enough to sit through far more inane questions than he likely wanted to answer.
You may have noticed I used the word nice two separate times to describe Jim. Well, there's a reason for that — he's one of the nicest people I've met in our genre. But he also has a strong sense of justice, meaning he'll engage on the tough issues affecting both our genre and the world. The stereotype of the nice guy who keeps his opinions to himself for fear of offending people definitely doesn't apply to Jim.
I urge people to go check out Jim's books and his must-read blog. And if you see him at a convention, go up and say hello. I, for one, will always appreciate how years ago he took the time to make this unknown, first-time convention goer feel welcome in our genre.
I also want to note that not everyone will agree with the people I'm selecting as good people of our genre. Obviously my selections are highly personal and opinionated. But the point I'm trying to make is to show how many positive people exist in our genre. To show that no matter how much wrongness pulses through the SF/F world, in the long run the good people will outshine the haters.
So please consider making your own list of good genre people and sharing it with the world.