Lots of stuff going on that warrants a brief mention, though there’s not enough on any of it to warrant a lengthy post.

NFL: The season begins Thursday. My season begins Sunday, when the Jets and Giants take the field. I’m excited. Will life be magical and full of joy, or meaningless and full of pain? Tune in here to find out.

HBO Pilot: D&D have cast one more role and have an offer out to a wonderful actor on another. Sorry, no clues, I’m clued out for the present. One of the roles that was yet to be filled has been written out of the pilot. No huge thing, he wasn’t in that part of the book in any case… though we did have a world-class thespian lined up to play the part. Character and actor will both be back if we go to series.

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS: I took a good hard swack at the Meereenese knot. The sword bounced off and cut my nose off. Bugger.

MOVIE NEWS: My werewolf novella “The Skin Trade,” originally published way back when in NIGHT VISIONS 5, has been optioned for film by Mike the Pike Productions. You can read some of the details here: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Mike-The-Pike-Productions-Inc-1042223.html And about time. I’ve always thought there was a terrific movie in “The Skin Trade,” but somehow no one has ever optioned it till now. The novella is a horror/ mystery cross set in a decaying rustbelt city and featuring a hot young female private eye and a hypochondriac lycanthrope, how that for high concept? Randi and Willie are still favorites of mine. The novella won the World Fantasy Award too, which is how I got that head of H.P. Lovecraft that looks down over my living room. I hope that Mike the Pike does a kickass job with it.

FUNNY BOOK NEWS: And whattaya know, “The Skin Trade” will also be a comic book miniseries and graphic novel. Avatar Press will publish the book. Daniel Abraham did the adaptation and script. The pencils will be done by talented Polish artist Marek Oleksicki.

MORE MOVIE NEWS: Three of my short stories have also been optioned for film of late. The stories are the fantasies “In the Lost Lands” and “The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr” and the science fiction story “Bitterblooms.” Film rights have been optioned by producer / director Constantin Werner, who has a website at http://www.constantinwerner.com

MORE FUNNY BOOK NEWS: Avatar Press is also adapting my novella “In the House of the Worm” as a comic book miniseries. The adaptation on this one was done by John Jos. Miller. Ivan Rodriguez is doing the pencils. I am told he has finished the first two issues.

NO FUNNY BOOK NEWS: The last issue of WILD CARDS: THE HARD CALL from the Dabel Brothers remains undrawn as I write, alas. We hope to have news… ah… eventually…

ANTHOLOGIES: Well, let’s see. SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH is sold out from Subterranean, but the British edition should be out next month from HarperCollins Voyager. WARRIORS will be released next March in hardcover from Tor. Stories have started to come in for STAR-CROSSED LOVERS, the most recent being a Kushiel tale from Jacqueline Carey. Already on hand are the contributions from Robin Hobb, Cecelia Holland, Yasmine Galenorn, and Carrie Vaughn. And Gardner Dozois and I have just sold another original crossgenre anthology, this time to Penguin/ Ace. DOWN THESE STRANGE STREETS will blend the classic private eye story with fantasy and science fiction… sort of like I did in “The Skin Trade,” actually, or like Robert A. Heinlein once did in his classic “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.” We have a terrific lineup of contributors, as usual, including… well, that would be telling.

I am probably forgetting stuff. Life is busy.

That will do for now.

The bird is cruel.

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