Sorry I haven’t posted lately. Haven’t done much of anything this past week except (1) cough, (2) watch the NFL draft, (3) hack up phlegm, (4) cough some more.

Just saw my doc. Looks like I have bronchitis. Got an RX for some antibiotics that should take care of it. But I probably won’t be blogging much in the next week or so. What little energy I do have will be used for work.

Later, guys.

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Here’s your chance to ask me that question you’ve always wanted an answer to.

Starting tomorrow, I will be appearing for the next five days on the Center Stage forum of the Barnes & Noble Book Club. I’ll be logging on at least once each day to field whatever questions my readers and the B&N customers have left for me. Now, I’m not going to promise to answer all of the questions. I will give it my best college try, but a lot depends on how many questions are actually posted. Sometimes this blog generates hundreds of comments in just a few hours, and that’s obviously more than I can handle… but if the number is more manageable, well, I’ll see what I can do.

You’ll find Center Stage at http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/bn/board?board.id=CenterStage if you would like to post a question, or just read the ongoing discussions.

I will actually have three topics for my very own. One for INSIDE STRAIGHT and the Wild Card series, one for A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE and all my other books, and one about my experiences writing for television and film, including BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, TWILIGHT ZONE, and my series-that-never-was, DOORWAYS. So be sure to post your question in the right topic.

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I’m glad so many of you enjoyed my April’s Fool post. Thanks for the laughs.

I’m back home again from the conventions in Blacksburg, Virginia and Madison, Wisconsin, and settling in for the big push. The cons were both great fun, though travel was, as usual, stressful and unpleasant. More and more, I am finding that while I love visiting distant cities and exotic climes, I hate the process of getting there. Would that I could teleport.

Or drive. I still love driving. Give me my RX-7, an open road, some good tunes on my tape deck, and the Babe in the Box to tell me where to go, and I’m a happy traveller. Put me at an airport and my blood pressure starts to build at once.

Ah, well.

Anyway, I’m back now, and not going anywhere until late June, when I will be taking off on my long-anticipated trip to Ireland, Portugal, and Spain. It’s part vacation, part speaking engagement, and part promotional tour. If you live in or near any of those three places, watch the Appearances page on my website for details of when and when I’ll be. We’ll be adding dates as the events are confirmed.

Of course, I need to finish A DANCE WITH DRAGONS before I leave, or else my publishers will hunt me down and kill me. So that’s pretty much all I’ll be doing between now and then. And if I don’t finish, maybe I’ll just stay in Ireland, Portugal, or Spain, where no one will ever be able to find me.

Actually it’s not true that DANCE is all that I’ll be doing. I’ll also be editing the next Wild Cards books, SUICIDE KINGS, co-editing WARRIORS and SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH with Gardner Dozois, finishing the third Dunk & Egg novella, which is oh-so-close, and of course watching the NFL draft. Without me glued to the television, how will the Giants and the Jets know who to pick? But never mind…

I don’t know how much I will be posting here, or updating my website in general, however. The News page is woefully out of date, I know, and the pictures of babies, puppies, and cute kittens for the fan page are piling up… but for what it’s worth, when my webpage isn’t getting update, that’s usually a sign that I’m lost in my writing, with no energy left at the end of the day for much else. So that’s good.

Oh, and then there’s Center Stage. More on that in a moment.

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Some days the muse is with you, some days she’s not.

After years of struggle, I have finally figured out how to wrap up A SONG OF ICE & FIRE. As most of you know, it has been taking me longer and longer to deliver these books. The thing is, I got the poor Stark family into such deep trouble that I could no longer see any good, plausible way to get them out. I had written my poor characters into a deep, deep cave and the light was going out. No wonder I was having trouble. Why, I had created problems so severe that there was no way the Starks could hope to overcome them. Winterfell was doomed.

But today I had a brainstorm, and now the way is clear.

The problem was, I was taking my lead from J.R.R. Tolkien. JRRT was a master, of course, but he was sort of obsessive as well, when you come down to it. Middle Earth, Middle Earth, elves, orcs, dwarfs, that was all he could think about. I needed a broader perspective, so today I decided, the hell with Tolkien, I will take my inspiration instead from such giants as Stephen King, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinlein. King tied all of his work together in the conclusion of the DARK TOWER series. Asimov joined his Robot series to his Foundation series in the last books he wrote before his death. RAH, the first Grandmaster, the DEAN of Science Fiction, had all his protagonists get together for a cocktail party in THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST. So why should I limit myself to one world and one set of characters?

Winterfell is saved! The Wild Cards are coming to the rescue!

It’s perfect. Melisandre will open the gate with one of her fire spells, and from a world beyond the heroes will come through to save the Starks and rescue all of Westeros. The Others cannot hope to stand against Popinjay, Jetboy, and the Great and Powerful Turtle. So what if they can raise the dead? So can Hoodoo Mama. And what evil knight of Westeros could hope to match blades against Lohengrin armored in his ghost steel, with his glowing force sword in his hand? And those dragons… sure, they’re pretty fierce, but little Dragon Huntress can match them with her stuffy Puffy, and she can pull out Cthulhu too! Modular Man, Cap’n Trips, Yeoman, Carnifex, Bubbles, Curveball, Dr. Tachyon, Water Lily, Fortunato, Troll, Midnight Angel, and the rest… they’ll set right all that’s wrong in Westeros and do it in short order.

Why didn’t I see this earlier?

The muse is good.

The Wild Cards are coming to Westeros, and all is saved!!!

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