Aeons ago, when I was kid in Bayonne, I bought all my books off the spinner rack in the candy store on 1st Street and Kelly Parkway. Paperbacks were the only books I could afford and even they were horrendously expensive. Just one book cost as much as three comic books and a Milky Way bar: 35 whole cents. For that kind of money, I wanted value, so whenever I could I snatched up Ace Doubles.

"Two Complete Novels," the covers promised (two novellas, really, but "complete novel" sounded better). The Doubles had two covers, one on the front and one on the back (and often both had wonderful Emsh art), so you had to be sure you flipped the book over to make sure you weren't buying two copies of the same one. The 'novels' were bound back to back, each upside down in relation to the other, and printed on the world's cheapest paper, but it was in the pages of those Ace Doubles that I first encountered Cliff Simak, Jack Vance, Eric Frank Russell, Murray Leinster, A.E. van Vogt, Wilson Tucker, Andre Norton (and Andrew North!), Jerry Sohl, Damon Knight, Edmond Hamilton, Gordon R. Dickson, and many other writers whose work I soon came to love. There was a point where those Ace Doubles with their distinctive red-and-blue spines made up something like three-quarters of my library, and of course, when I began to write my own stories, I used to dream that one day I might have an Ace Double of my own.

That was a long long time ago, of course. Ace Books is still around and doing fine, though they stopped publishing "doubles" decades ago. But I'm still going to get my double... kinda sorta... thanks to Bill Schafer and the good folks at Subterreanean Press.

When I was putting together GRRM: A RRetrospective for SubPress back in 2003, the hard part was not picking which stories to include, but deciding which ones were going to be left out. Even in a book as big as that one, you don't have room to include everything. Two of my last cuts were the novelettes "Fast-Friend" and "Starlady." Originally published in anthologies, neither story ever got much attention, but I was fond of both of them, and hated having to leave them out of my RRetrospective.

Now I finally get to make up for that oversight. Subterranean will be publishing the two of them -- back-to-back and upside down, in true Ace Double fashion, with two covers by Martina Pilcerova. I tried to convince Bill Schafer to sell them for 35 cents apiece, to complete the homage, but he demurred, mumbling something about production costs. Instead there will be a trade hardcover edition for $20, and 200 copies of a signed limited edition for $45. (You'll have to do your own calculations to figure out how much that is in comic books and Milky Ways). The books are available for preorder now, so head on over to the SubPress website if you'd like to snag one. (They're too big to fit into the wire slots on a spinner rack, alas). Not "Two Complete Novels," no, but "Two Complete Novelettes." Order direct from Subterranean Press via their website.

Or, if you'd rather try to win a free copy of STARLADY/ FAST-FRIEND, head over to Pat's Fantasy Hotlist. Enter his latest contest, and you may be the lucky winner who walks away with a copy of the limited.

And speaking of SubPress, their limited edition of my historical horror novel FEVRE DREAM sold out months ago, but it's not too late the snag a copy of their beautiful edition of HUNTER'S RUN, illustrated by the Hugo award-winning artist Bob Eggleton. There are two vserions; the numbered copies go for $50, the deluxe lettered edition for $150. Both are signed by all three authors. The lettered copies are housed in a custom traycase. Publisher's Weekly wrote of the novel, "Martin (Song of Ice and Fire series), Dozois (Strange Days) and Abraham (A Shadow in Summer) revisit classic themes of exploration, exploitation and what it means to be human in this gritty SF adventure...This tightly written novel, with its memorable protagonist and intriguing extrapolation, delivers on all levels."

Dunk and Egg are back.

If you missed the six-issue run of The Hedge Knight II: The Sworn Sword from DBPro and Marvel Comics, don't despair. Marvel has collected all six issues into a graphic novel, and the hardcovers are on sale now from you favorite bookseller or comics shop.

The graphic novel is available with two variant covers: one for the direct market (comic shops), and the other for the mass market (bookstores, Amazon, etc). Here's a look at both of them. Buy either, or or be the first kid on your block to own both versions. The story's the same, an adaptation of my novella "The Sworn Sword." Ben Avery did the script, Mike S. Miller the art -- the same great team who brought you the first Hedge Knight comic.

Photos from INSIDE STRAIGHT launch

SFRevu interviews George R.R. Martin and Melinda Snodgrass about Wild Cards.

Interview in Blood, Blade & Thruster #3.

This should be a merry Christmas for Wild Cards fans. Tor has scheduled Busted Flush, the second installment in the new triad that began with Inside Straight, for publication in December.

The nineteenth volume in the overall series, Busted Flush features the return of three popular mainstays from our original run with Bantam and Baen: Carnifex, Cameo, and... but no, that would be telling. The three veterans will be sharing the action with Bubbles, Jonathan Hive, Curveball, Drummer Boy, Stuntman, Earth Witch, Rustbelt, Double Helix, and the other "next generation" wild carders introduced in Inside Straight, and some great new characters making their Wild Cards debuts, among them Genetrix, Hoodoo Mama, Snowblind, Little Fat Boy, and Our Lady of Pain. The lineup looks like this:

Originally launched in 1987, Wild Cards has outlasted all the other shared worlds of the 80s to become the longest-running such series in the history of our genre. For a taste of the new triad, check out the Wild Cards Sample on this website. And be sure to visit Tor's official Wild Cards website, the informative fan site at wildcardsonline.com, and the lively Wild Cards Forum.

2008 is the year of the Wild Card. The new Wild Cards mosaic novel, Inside Straight, hit the bookstores on January 22, and has been getting some great buzz... though that might just be Jonathan Hive. My beloved New York Giants, a wild card team, roared through the NFL playoffs and won the SuperBowl. And come April the Dabel Brothers will be releasing the first issue of their new Wild Cards comic -- The Hard Call.

The Hard Call is not an adaptation of any of the existing Wild Cards stories, old or new, but an all-new, all-original tale designed and written especially for comics. The story and script are from Daniel Abraham, author of the highly acclaimed fantasy novels A Shadow in Summer and A Betrayal in Winter, co-author (with me and Gardner Dozois) of Hunter's Run, and creator of Jonathan Hive (from Inside Straight) and Father Henry Obst (from Deuces Down). For The Hard Call, Abraham has created an entirely new cast of characters... and brought back one old favorite, a guy named Croyd who never learned algebra. When a sudden outbreak of the wild card virus strikes a high school in Colorado, the survivors are rushed to New York City's famous Jokertown Clinic. Some find themselves twisted into jokers, while others emerge with the powers of aces... and meanwhile, the Sleeper finds he has been framed for murder... and he's not going to rest until he clears his name.

Artwork on The Hard Call will be provided by Eric Battle, whose previous credits include Batman, Green Lantern, and many other titles. I've seen Eric's pencils for the first two issues, and delighted in the way he's bringing Daniel's story to vibrant life. Here are his covers for the first two issues of the run. If you'd like to see some more of his work, check out his website.

The first issue will also feature a variant B cover painted by Arthur Sudyam. The mini-series will be six issues long, with the first issue available in April, 2008. Afterwards, the story will be collected in graphic novel format as a Del Rey trade paperback, with a spectacular painted cover by Vance Kovacs.

"Wild Cards is one of those series in science fiction that many comic book fans have read, because it's really a sci-fi take on superheroes," explained Ernst Dabel, President of Dabel Brothers Publishing. "And that's excellent news, because this story feels right at home in the format. It's a great way for old fans to enjoy the story in a new way, and it's also a wonderful introduction to the world of Wild Cards for those who've never had a chance to read the books before."

You can reserve your copy of Wild Cards: The Hard Call at your favorite local comics shop, or order directly from DBPro.

The Wild Cards series has its roots in comics, and I'm thrilled hat it will be returning to comics once again, after too long a hiatus... and not just with adaptations of the books, but with brand new stories and brand new characters, Old Wild Cards hands and brand new ones should both be thrilled by The Hard Call.