The premiere of HBO’s GAME OF THRONES series creeps closer and closer with every passing day
(there’s a countdown on the home page of my website), and the promotion continues to ramp up. A new trailer made its debut this evening.

For those who missed it, enjoy:

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And on other fronts… it’s still snowing on Skull Island, but one of the krakens is done and t’other is down to the last tentacle. Closer and closer… inch by inch, word by word, step by step…

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… to the United Kingdom, courtesy of our friends at Sky Atlantic.

It will arrive at April 18 on the dot. One day after the American premiere.

So keep your swords sharp, boys and girls, and sign up for Sky Atlantic.

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So! back in 1981, Parris left Portland, Oregon for Santa Fe, and moved in with me in my old house on Declovina Street. We’ve been together ever since, for good times and bad, a move or two, more cons and road trips and adventures than either of us can remember now in our advanced old age.

After thirty years, we finally decided that maybe this relationship was going to work out after all.

So on the evening of February 15, we finally made it official, and married in front of our hearth at our home here in Santa Fe. The hearth is Lannister red, but the bride wore Tyrell colors. Unlike most Westerosi weddings, no one was killed and only tears of joy were shed.

(I can hear some of you saying !˜What took you so long?’ What can I say? I’m slow. With writing and with!¦ ah!¦ other things. )

Parris and I have been very very lucky. In each other, in our friends, and in the prosperity we’ve enjoyed over the past few years. There’s very little we need in the way of gifts, flowers, etc. So if you would like to give us a wedding gift, please consider making a donation to the one of these charities. They all do good work, and have more need of your largesse than we do.

http://www.wildspiritwolfsanctuary.org/

http://www.shelterbox.org/

http://www.worldwildlife.org/home-full.html

http://www.zoo.org.au/HealesvilleSanctuary/

A small (very small, our living room is not that big) group of friends and loved ones bore witness to the nuptials, and joined us afterwards for a celebratory feast.

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Here’s a few more pix from the event.

IN BRIGHTEST DAY, IN BLACKEST NIGHT?

More can be found on Parris’s LJ at http://parrismcb.livejournal.com and Raya’s at http://rayagolden.livejournal.com

(We respectfully ask those who would like to spread this news to link back
to our LJs and photos rather than lifting the text and pix and using them elsewhere).

We are so happy to share the news with all our friends, old and new, the friends we have yet to meet, and with all of my (George’s) readers. And now we’ve off for a six-month Honeymoon trip around the world. See you when we get back.

(no, no, no, just kidding. GRRM will be honeymooning on Skull Island, I promise)

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So here’s the thing. I am a dinosaur, as all my friends will tell you. A man of the 20th century, not the 21st. Yes, I have been using a computer for twenty years now, but while I cruise this interwebby thing with a PC and Windows, I still do all my writing on an old DOS machine running WordStar 4.0, the Duesenberg of word processing software (very old, but unsurpassed). I have my website, which someone else runs for me, and I have this LJ account, the blog that I vainly called my Not A Blog in hopes that might prevent me from blogging.

But that’s it.

I am not on Facebook.

I am not on Twitter.

I will not be on the next new thing to come along, the one that makes Facebook and Twitter as obsolete as GEnie and CompuServe and The Source, those halcyon communities of yore.

Now some of you may think you’ve seen my page on Facebook. Others may swear they’ve read my tweets. Wrong and wrong. ’twas not me. Friends of mine who do these things inform me that there are several Facebook pages with my name on ’em. Some seem to be the work of well intentioned fans, and do nothing but copy my posts from here. Others are the work of trolls, established for purposes of abuse, since Ty keeps a lid of that kind of crap on LJ. A few are rank imposture, I hear, featuring nasty comments by assholes pretending to be me. The same sort of stuff is going on with Twitter, I’m told.

I have neither the time, the energy, or the inclination to get on any of these social media myself. There’s WAY too much on my plate, and keeping up with the Not A Blog and my website are taxing enough. So here’s what I’ve done. I’ve given my friend Elio… better known to the denizens of Westeros as Ran… permission to syndicate my posts and comments on both Facebook and Twitter.

Here’s the URLs:

http://twitter.com/westerosorg

http://www.facebook.com/Westeros

These Westeros sites will post my own stuff, yes… but also a lot of other material about the novels and TV shows. “Our social media sites are, we think, a pretty good place to keep on top of the latest news related to you and your projects,” Elio writes. Just so.

And these are the ONLY social media feeds I’ve authorized. If you want to follow me on Facebook or Twitter, accept no substitutes.

(Well, in English. Let me modify that statement. I have given some of my foreign fan sites permission to translate my posts into other languages, so if you are reading this in Klingon or Dothraki, you’re just fine).

And now we return you to your regularly scheduled programming, and me to Skull Island, where Kong is staggering a little.

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Pictures of HBO’s version of the Iron Throne are all over the internet these days — in publicity stills, in the teasers and trailers, probably as wallpaper. Love it.

I thought some of you might enjoy having a look at the FIRST Iron Throne: the one that Bantam had built as the centerpiece of their booth at the 1996 American Booksellers’ Association (ABA) show in Chicago.

photo copyright Andrew I. Porter

The official publication date of A GAME OF THRONES — first edition, first printing, with its now infamous embossed silver foil cover — was still months in the future when the 1996 ABA was held, but Bantam had hundreds of glossy hardcovers there at the show, and gave them all away to booksellers. Which is why I have always regarded the US edition as the true first of GAME, even though the British edition from Harper Collins had an earlier official pubdate. The American edition actually EXISTED earlier, and I handed out hundreds of them to the schools of piranha… er, retailers… who appeared out of nowhere whenever a new giveaway began.

Signed most of ’em too. Often while sitting in the giant Iron Throne. Which was actually made of wood, for what it’s worth. As the show was winding down, Bantam offered to let me have it, but somehow I didn’t think the airline would accept it as checked baggage.

Besides, the thing was really uncomfortable. That part they got just right.

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Here’s the latest treat from the good folks at HBO.

This one is called “Invitation to Westeros.”

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Just a reminder… for me and Ty as much as for you folks…

With the HBO series scheduled to debut on April 17, a lot of new people may be finding their way here. People who have seen the show, but have never read the books.

With that in mind, I think we have to put a lid on all spoilers in the comments (and for that matter, in my own posts). Yes, I know that GAME OF THRONES was published fifteen years ago… but for those who have not read it, it will be brand new, and I want some of the twists and turns and deaths in the book to come as a surprise to new readers in 2011, just as they did for my original readership in 1996.

I have not been consistent about this in the past, I know, even the very recent past… but from this point on, Ty and I are going to try and be more vigilant. All comments that include even glancing references to deaths, maimings, and major plot twists will henceforth be removed without posting. I respectfully request your understanding and cooperation.

Thanks.

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Will this damned snow ever cease?

Might be, might be. Saw a sliver of sun last night.

(Oh, it’s a gorgeous sunny happy day in Santa Fe. Just not out on Skull Island).

Wrestling with a pair of krakens. One almost subdued, t’other still writhing and twisting and slapping me alongside the head with her tenatcles. After them, I’ve got a wolf to face.

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Meier is really sclupting up a storm for Dark Sword Miniatures. Here’s a peek at his latest green, an awesome Maester Luwin.

Purists should take special note of the maester’s chain about Luwin’s neck. Tom’s is the most accurate visualization of the chain-of-many-metals I have seen to date. This is how I have always pictured these chains, and how I described them in my books. (though I should mention that Pycelle’s chain is much grander, larger, and more ostentatious, him being the GRAND Maester and all).

Next up from Tom and Dark Sword: Young Robert at the Trident. Watch this space. (And Dark Sword’s website).

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I miss football already. Looking forward to the draft. Not looking forward to months of fighting between the owners and players, and maybe a lockout/ strike.

Things are rolling along nicely on the Ice & Fire comic book. Check out the new interview with Daniel Abraham on Suvudu:

http://graphic-novels-manga.suvudu.com/2011/02/interview-daniel-abraham-on-grrm-comics.html

Suvudu also informs me of a new round of Cage Matches, wherein Jon Snow will be one of the contestants. Details here: http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2011/02/cage-match-2011-its-coming.html

I never had the chance to talk about their “Villains” Cage Match (too busy), in which Ser Gregor Clegane emerged victorious over a murderer’s rows of nasties and narsties from screen and page. Congratulations to the Mountain That Rides, and thanks to all of you who voted!

There’s been lots of talk about ebooks and digital publishing swirling around me of late. It’s a brave new world for this old dinosaur. Kindles, Nooks, iPads, iPods, ebooks, PODs, all confusing as hell. But it is something that I am looking into for some of my backlist titles… some of the out of print Wild Cards books might be well received in such formats, I think. So expect news on that front eventually, though maybe not soon. I have this other book I’m writing, you know, and that comes first. I can deal with putting the old wine in new bottles when that’s done.

That being said, y’know, I DO have some stuff available as ebooks and downloads, for all of you who have been asking. Check out my listings on Fictionwise and Electric Story if you would like to sample some of it:

http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/GeorgeRRMartineBooks.htm

https://www.electricstory.com/authors/author.aspx?authorid=78

Meanwhile, over in miniature town, the good folks at Dark Sword are rolling out four great new Tom Meier sculpts in their Ice & Fire range: the Reed siblings, Meera and Jojen, and a double of Hodor (HODOR!) with Bran riding on his back. Have a look at the greens.

The new minis should be available soon from the Dark Sword website at http://darkswordminiatures.com/ Along with the rest of the range, of course.

Should also mention that Hugo nominations are now open, for members of the current worldcon (Reno) and the last one (Melbourne). I did not have a novel out last year (some of you might have noticed that), but I am eligible to be nominated in Best Editor/ Short Form for my anthology work with Gardner Dozois, and in the novella category for “The Mystery Knight” from WARRIORS. All the other stories in WARRIORS and SONGS OF LOVE AND DEATH are eligible as well. I hope you will consider some of them when filling out your ballot; I think there was some fine work in both books, worthy of recognition. And let me once again suggest that it is long past time that MICHAEL KOMARCK was nominated as Best Pro Artist. His cover art for Wild Cards has been extraordinary, and he’s done amazing work for other books as well.

Must run now. Kong is calling.

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