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ICE Now Shipping

August 6, 2011 at 7:21 pm
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Cool news from Valyrian Steel. Their full-sized steel replica of Ice is now ready and shipping.

Mine turned up a few days ago. If you preordered, you should have yours as well.

And if not, well, there’s still time to arm yourself for the invasion of the Others and/or the zombie apocolypse, whichever comes first.

Order from Valyrian Steel at http://www.valyriansteel.com/shop/swords/ice-sword-of-eddard-stark/prod_9.html

(I should note, for those who came in late, that the Valyrian Steel replica is derived from the blade in the books, and is NOT modeled on the version seen in the HBO television show. HBO preferred to make its own versions).

Replicas of Longclaw and Needle remain available as well, while the supply lasts.

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“Mystery Knight” Vies for Howie

August 6, 2011 at 5:18 pm
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Dunk and Egg are contending in another tourney. The third of my Dunk & Egg novellas, “The Mystery Knight,” has been announced as a finalist for this year’s World Fantasy Award.

Here’s the full list of this year’s nominees:

BEST NOVEL
* Zoo City, Lauren Beukes (Jacana South Africa; Angry Robot)
* The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
* The Silent Land, Graham Joyce (Gollancz; Doubleday)
* Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada; Roc; Harper Voyager UK)
* Redemption In Indigo, Karen Lord (Small Beer)
* Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)

BEST NOVELLA
* Bone and Jewel Creatures, Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean)
* The Broken Man, Michael Byers (PS)
* !œThe Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon!, Elizabeth Hand (Stories: All-New Tales)
* The Thief of Broken Toys, Tim Lebbon (ChiZine Publications)
* !œThe Mystery Knight!, George R.R. Martin (Warriors)
* !œThe Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window!, Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer 2010)

BEST SHORT FICTION
* !œBeautiful Men! , Christopher Fowler (Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels and Heavenly Hosts)
* !œBooth’s Ghost!, Karen Joy Fowler (What I Didn’t See and Other Stories)
* !œPonies!, Kij Johnson (Tor.com 11/17/10)
* !œFossil-Figures!, Joyce Carol Oates (Stories: All-New Tales)
* !œTu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us!, Mercurio D. Rivera (Black Static 8-9/10)

BEST ANTHOLOGY
* The Way of the Wizard, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Prime)
* My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, Kate Bernheimer, ed. (Penguin)
* Haunted Legends, Ellen Datlow & Nick Mamatas, eds. (Tor)
* Stories: All-New Tales, Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio, eds. (Morrow; Headline Review)
* Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror, S.T. Joshi, ed. (PS)
* Swords & Dark Magic, Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders, eds. (Eos)

BEST COLLECTION
* What I Didn’t See and Other Stories, Karen Joy Fowler (Small Beer)
* The Ammonite Violin & Others, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean)
* Holiday, M. Rickert (Golden Gryphon)
* Sourdough and Other Stories, Angela Slatter (Tartarus)
* The Third Bear, Jeff VanderMeer (Tachyon)

BEST ARTIST
* Vincent Chong
* Kinuko Y. Craft
* Richard A. Kirk
* John Picacio
* Shaun Tan

SPECIAL AWARD, PROFESSIONAL
* John Joseph Adams, for editing and anthologies
* Lou Anders, for editing at Pyr
* Marc Gascoigne, for Angry Robot
* Stéphane Marsan & Alain Névant, for Bragelonne
* Brett Alexander Savory & Sandra Kasturi, for ChiZine Publications

SPECIAL AWARD, NON-PROFESSIONAL
* Stephen Jones, Michael Marshall Smith, & Amanda Foubister, for Brighton Shock!: The Souvenir Book Of The World Horror Convention 2010
* Alisa Krasnostein, for Twelfth Planet Press
* Matthew Kressel, for Sybil’s Garage and Senses Five Press
* Charles Tan, for Bibliophile Stalker
* Lavie Tidhar, for The World SF Blog

The winners will be announced Halloween weekend at the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego, California. The award is a wonderfully gloomy bust of H.P. Lovecraft sculpted by Gahan Wilson.

I have one Howie on my awards shelf already, a best novella award for my werewolf story “The Skin Trade,” published lo these many years ago when the world was young… but he has a lonely look about him, and ‘twould be nice to have another. Hey, it’s always nice to get a little head. Not that I’m expecting to win. Unlike the Hugo and the Nebula, the World Fantasy Award is juried, so one never knows how it’s going to turn out.

“The Mystery Knight” was published in WARRIORS, the big crossgenre anthology I edited with Gardner Dozois. If you’d like to check it out, paperback copies are available from Amazon and other on-line bookshops.

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Seattle Remarks

August 6, 2011 at 4:47 pm
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And here’s my appearance in Seattle, courtesy of Vimeo, Suvudu, and the University Book Store.

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Any resemblence to my pre-signing remarks in Burlington, New York City, Indianapolis, San Diego, LA, Redwood City, Denver, and Lexington is entirely… ah… intentional.

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Googling

August 6, 2011 at 4:22 pm
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For those of you who couldn’t be there, here’s my interview at Google.

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The Google campus was pretty amazing. Must be a fun place to work. I especially liked the slide who those who want to get to the ground floor quickly…

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Hot New Casting Hints

August 6, 2011 at 3:28 pm
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Down under he was the voice of wisdom.

Later on he was the voice of everyone.

Now he’s wisdom.

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