For you Wild Cards fans out there, there’s a new interview with me and all the writers who contributed to BUSTED FLUSH up at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist:

http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2008/12/interview-with-george-r-r-martin-and.html

Check it out… and check out BUSTED FLUSH and INSIDE STRAIGHT, if you haven’t done so yet.

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Here’s some cool stuff you can buy to stuff a stocking or slip under the tree.

The paperback of INSIDE STRAIGHT.

Or maybe the hardcover of BUSTED FLUSH, the sequel, which hits the stands on Tuesday.

Valyrian Resin is shipping their wonderful minibusts of Ned, Dany, and the Hound.

Here’s the variant version of Dany. To see the other busts or place an order, check out their website at http://yhst-59202637827545.stores.yahoo.net/

Or if you’d prefer figures in a smaller scale, that you can paint yourself, Dark Sword Miniatures have Melisandre, Jon Snow, Jaime and Cersei, the Knight of Flowers, and lots of other cool Ice & Fire pewter minis available at their online store at
http://darkswordminiatures.com/

The official 2009 SONG OF ICE AND FIRE calendar from the Dabel Brothers is now at the printers, Les Dabel tells me. It features wonderful art by Michael Komarck, and can be ordered from Amazon, or direct from the Dabels at

http://www.dabelbrothersstore.com/2009-a-song-of-ice-and-fire-cale2009.html

And then there’s Valyrian Steel, who are now shipping Longclaw, the first in their series of replica swords of the Seven Kingdoms.

Get your own bastard sword and give Santa a surprise when he comes squeezing down your chimney.

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I’ve been getting a lot of emails since the announcement that HBO has given the green light to film the pilot of A GAME OF THRONES. (Well, I get a lot of emails anyway, but I’ve been getting a lot MORE since the announcement).

To all those who wrote with congratulations and good wishes… thanks. I have high hopes for the pilot as well. I think we’re in good hands with David Benioff, Dan Weiss, HBO, and the BBC all involved, but of course nothing is certain.

Many of you have been sending casting suggestions. Thanks for that as well… but you’re sending them to the wrong place. Yes, I will have a voice, but ultimately these decisions will be made by Dan and Dave, the director (still to be named), HBO, the BBC, and our eventual casting director.

If you’d like to throw out some ideas for actors you’d like to see in the show, the place to do that is on the Westeros board, where Elio and Linda have established a new forum for the show. Dave and Dan are checking in there regularly, so they will see your suggestions. They welcome fan input, and the folks at Westeros have already come up with lots of good possibilities. Anyway, the address is:

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?s=b6d13262e85650248daa79314a29e7cd&showforum=25

In addition to Westeros, there’s also a brand-new fan blog called Winter Is Coming that has been started up as “yoursource for news, speculation and discussion on HBO’s planned A Song of Ice and Fire television series.” No, it’s not an “official” site — should we make it to series, there will likely be one of those on the HBO website — but it looks like another lively place for discussion. You can find that one at:

http://winter-is-coming.blogspot.com/

Have fun, and keep thinking those good thoughts.

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Life is miserable and full of pain.

A truly wretched day of football today. Both of my teams sucked big time.

Hard to say which was the most miserable performance. Eli played pretty well for the Giants, but his receivers dropped every ball he threw at them, as if they were determined to prove that, yes, the team will miss Plaxico big time. In the afternoon game, well, the Jet offense was okay, but the defense couldn’t stop the 49ers. They just marched up and down the field at will. Singletary has that team playing much harder than Nolan did. The Jets game also had some truly awful and one-sided officiating by Ed Hochuli and his crew. The turning point of the contest may well have been when Leon Washington’s long return for a TD was called back on a phantom holding call. I don’t know what’s happened to Hochuli. In past years, he’s been one of the NFL’s best refs, but this year he and his crew have been terrible. It seems as if they blow a call every week… and a BIG call at that. Not that the Jets did not deserve to lose. These last two weeks, they’ve been playing as if they thought the season ended with the Titans game.

Pfui.

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