… may be fraying, just a little.
But don’t quote me on that.
Current Mood: 
null
Tags: a dance with dragons, writing
Green Ronin Special
February 23, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Green Ronin Games is about to go to press with the new Campaign Guide for their SONG OF ICE AND FIRE ROLE-PLAYING GAME, and to help launch the guide they’ve announced a pre-order special. Anyone who pre-orders the Campaign Guide direct from Green Roning will get the PDF version of the book for free immediately. The PDF is normally $20 on its own.
For more info, and to place those pre-orders, go to
http://www.greenronin.com/store/product/grr2703.html
The special will continue until the book comes back from the printer, Green Ronin tells me.
And check out some of the other SIFRPG products while you’re there. In addition to the game itself, Green Roning also offers —
— the adventure module PERIL AT KING’S LANDING,
— a cool Narrator’s Kit with 3-panel screen, poster map, and 16-page booklet,
— a PDF ebook adventure module, WEDDING KNIGHT,
Be the first kid on your block to collect the whole set.
(Lots of cool art in these too).
Current Mood: null
Tags: green ronin, rpg
Odds and Ends and Snow
February 21, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Another snowy day in Santa Fe. Winter has bloody well come, and refuses to leave.
Yesterday’s SUICIDE KINGS signing at Barnes & Noble in Albuquerque went well, I think. We had a nice, enthusiastic crowd and signed a lot of books. Poor Vic Milan came down with some sort of creeping crud and had to cancel, but Carrie Vaughn, Caroline Spector, John Jos. Miller, Ian Tregillis, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Daniel Abraham, and yours truly were all on hand, defacing books. We signed a considerable amount of stock as well, so if you’re looking for an autographed title by any of the above, contact B&N at Coronado Center.
(photos by Parris)
Speaking of Wild Cards, we have some good news for my Italian fans. I’ve just signed contracts for Italian language translations of the first three volumes of the series (WILD CARDS, ACES HIGH, and JOKERS WILD). The publisher will be RCS Libri. Needless to say, if these books do well, the rest of the series will follow in good tine.
On other fronts, I’m going to be coming to Minnesota in November. Fantasy Flight Games is bringing me in as a special guest for ‘Days of Ice and Fire,’ a weekend-long celebration of Westeros at FFG’s new Events Center in Roseville, MN. FFG will be running tournaments for their Ice & Fire card game and board games, and I’ll be doing a Q&A, several signing sessions, and maybe a reading from A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. More details can be found on FF’s own site at http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=1120 We’ll know more about the schedule when we get closer to the event.
Another visit to a big midwestern city is in the works as well, and much sooner than the FFG event, but I can’t talk about that one yet. Watch this space. Announcement soon.
Current Mood: null
Just A Reminder…
February 19, 2010 at 11:21 pm
… for all you New Mexicans, and anyone passing through.
Tomorrow (that is, Saturday, February 20) is the SUICIDE KINGS signing at Barnes & Noble in Albuquerque. It’s at the Coronado Center B&N, starting at 1:30 pm, and lasting… well, until we’ve scrawled in all the books you have for us.
In attendance, besides myself, will be SUICIDE KINGS contributors Melinda (Double Helix) Snodgrass, Victor (Radical) Milan, Daniel (Bugsy) Abraham, Ian (Rustbelt) Tregillis, and Caroline (Bubbles) Spector. (The elusive S.L. Farrell will miss this one too. He’s a hard man to pin down).
Also on hand, all the way from Colorado, will be wild carder Carrie Vaughn, who will be signing copies of her new Kitty Norville novel, KITTY’S HOUSE OF HORRORS.
Carrie will be glad to sign her stories in INSIDE STRAIGHT and BUSTED FLUSH too, as will John Jos. (Carnifex) Miller, also expected to be on hand. And for Wild Card completists, there’s a chance we might also glimpse Gail (Peregrine) Gerstner Miller, Laura (Lamia) Mixon, and maybe even Ty (Tinkerbill) Franck.
So be there or be square.
Current Mood: null
Tags: wild cards
Some Pretty Pictures
February 19, 2010 at 7:34 pm
My books are published all over the world, in many different languages. Sometimes my foreign publishers just re-use the cover art from my American and/or British editions. Sometimes they slap on something vaguely appropriate (or not) from the Big Box o’ Bad Fantasy Art down in their cellars. But sometimes they commission brand new cover art, often from artists in their own countries. (And that’s certainly my preference, whenever I get a vote).
The quality varies, of course, just as it does with American and British covers. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good, sometimes downright hideous… but every once in a while, we get something spectacular. And I’ve been very pleased with some of the covers I’ve seen recently, so I thought I would share them with those of you who enjoy pretty figures.
First, from Estonia, a wonderful new FEVRE DREAM cover. Varrak, my Estonian publisher, really pulled out all the stops on this. I love the look of a classic antebellum steamboat, and the artist here actually got it right and gave me a sidewheeler, not a sternwheeler.
Meanwhile, in France, my French publishers are repackaging and reissuing all the books in A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE in new one-volumed editions (previously the French translations have been divided into three or four parts), with stunning new covers by Marc Simonetti. Here a couple of them: his takes on the Wall and Tyrion in King’s Landing.
You can check out almost every cover that I’ve ever had on “Cover Art” page of my website (click on second shield on the bottom, black and green, House Fell)… though admittedly I’m a little behind on updating the gallery.
Current Mood: null
Wolves in the Night
February 19, 2010 at 12:33 am
Saw the remake of THE WOLFMAN tonight. Great visuals, and Rick Baker’s makeup was spectacular, as always (I much prefer the traditional ‘wolfman’ look of the old Universal classics, which Baker updates here, to the hydraulic-snout werewolves of AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, THE HOWLING, THE WOLFEN, etc). Overall, though, I’d give the movie a C, maybe a C+. Anthony Hopkins kind of phones in it, and Benicio del Toro is no Lon Chaney, Jr.
Speaking of things that go bump in the night, a new producer has been attached to my own werewolf movie-in-development, “The Skin Trade,” according to CNN:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0587869.htm
Meanwhile, March creeps ever closer, and with it the HBO decision about whether or not to greenlight the GAME OF THRONES series. I am pretty much out of the loop on this, so there’s nothing I can do to impact it either way… but as much as I have tried to adopt a “que sera, sera” attitude, I’m growing increasingly anxious. All sorts of rumors swirling around the internet, both good and bad. And of course Hollywood has broken my heart before. Ask me politely and I’ll show you my DOORWAYS scars…
Last but not least, there’s Meereen. Can I just drop a hydrogen bomb on the damn place?
Sigh. Well, tomorrow is another day. At least when I’m in Westeros, I forget all about what may or may not be happening at HBO.
Current Mood: null
Last Call for Clarion
February 17, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Applications for the 2010 Clarion Writer’s Workshop in San Diego close on March 1… so if you’ve been thinking of applying, now’s the time to get your act together.
I will be one of the instructors at this year’s Clarion.
The good folks at the workshop sayeth:
“Clarion is widely recognized as a premier training ground for aspiring writers of fantasy and science fiction short stories. Many graduates have become well-known writers, and a large number have won major awards. Instructors are among the most respected writers and editors working in the field today. The 2010 writers in residence are Delia Sherman, George R.R. Martin, Dale Bailey, Samuel R. Delany, Jeff VanderMeer and Ann VanderMeer.
“The six-week workshop is held on the beautiful beachside campus of the University of California, San Diego. Since its inception in 1968, Clarion has been known as the !œboot camp! for writers of speculative fiction. Each year 18 students, ranging in age from late teens to those in mid-career, are selected from applicants who have the potential for highly successful writing careers. Students are expected to write several new short stories during the six-week workshop, and to give and receive constructive criticism. Instructors and students reside together in campus apartments throughout the intensive six-week program.
The application period for the 2010 workshop ends on March 1. Applicants must submit two short stories with their application. Scholarships are available. Additional information can be found at http://clarion.ucsd.edu.”
Current Mood: null
Tags: writing
Not Done Yet
February 15, 2010 at 8:17 pm
Music: “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?”
But I’ve left the Isle of Cedars behind, at least. 1261 pages and counting.
The timeline of this monster is going to drive me mad. I know perfectly well that as soon as DANCE is published, some of you out there are going to attempt to correlate its chronology with that of A FEAST FOR CROWS, fit all the parts together to suggest an appropriate chapter order for a (hypothetical, and largely impossible) combined book, something like what the “Big Feast” might have been, before the split.
Well, good luck with that. I’m glad you’re doing it, not me. With all these characters scattered over my entire world, some chapters that span hours and others many months, various journeys and voyages to account for, not to mention the demands of the dramatic chronology, an entirely different matter than the literal chronology… well, it may well make your head explode. It did mine. The DANCE timeline alone is a bitch and a half.
Just musing aloud here, so don’t anyone get all hysterical… but depending on how long the book comes out, moving some of these finished chapters into WINDS OF WINTER may make sense. Structurally you could make a good case for making DANCE a perfect parallel to FEAST; different cast of characters, but exactly the same time frame, so both books end on the same approximate date. Then WINDS could pick up the action for both sets of characters the following day.
That’s not the way I have been doing it, however. As written, I’ve covered the FEAST time frame in the first 800 pages (manuscript pages, the printed book pages will be different) of DANCE. Everything that follows is post-FEAST, so that’s where some of the cast from the last book start popping up again. Not the most elegant structure, I admit… but given how late this one is, I wanted to resolve at least a few of the cliffhangers from FEAST… (if only to set up the new cliffhangers). So…
These are the kinds of things I grapple with. No comments necessary, really. I am not looking for advice, and in fact I seldom talk about such issues precisely to AVOID unsolicited advice. These sorts of things are best resolved by me and my muse, sometimes assisted by my editors. Just felt like rambling a little.
Anyway, there we are. Back to the grindstone tomorrow.
Current Mood: null
Tags: a dance with dragons
Not Done Yet
February 14, 2010 at 6:53 pm
But today was a good, productive day. Only problem is that the chapter I finished just now is going to require that I go back and rewrite one of the chapters I finished last week. Minor stuff, though. Shouldn’t take more than a day. (Famous last words, I know).
Current Mood: null
Tags: a dance with dragons
Thoughtcrime
February 14, 2010 at 3:12 pm
The latest outrage by the TSA.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/11/local/la-me-arabic12-2010feb12
America is a free country. Except at its airports.
Anyone who thinks this is cool should go back and read their Orwell.
Kudos to this kid, for challenging the TSA in court.
Current Mood: null
Tags: politics
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