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LOWBALL Done & Delivered

April 12, 2013 at 4:23 pm
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Another monkey off my back…

This time it is a hideous mutant joker monkey. LOWBALL, the twenty-second volume in the ongoing Wild Cards series of shared world anthologies and mosaic novels, is finally complete, and has been delivered to our editors at Tor.

The lineup this time:
!œThe Big Bleed,! by Michael Cassutt, starring STUNTMAN,
!œThose About to Die,! by David Anthony Durham, starring INFAMOUS BLACK TONGUE,
!œGalahad in Blue! by Melinda Snodgrass, starring FRANCIS XAVIER BLACK of the NYPD,
!œTies That Bind! by Mary Anne Mohanraj, starring MICHAEL STEVENS of the NYPD,
!œCry Wolf! by David D. Levine, introducing THE CARTOONIST,
!œRoad Kill! by Walter Jon Williams, starring GORDON THE GHOUL,
!œOnce More, for Old Time’s Sake! by Carrie Vaughn, starring EARTH WITCH, CURVBALL, DRUMMER BOY, and JOHN FORTUNE,
!œNo Parking!¦ !œ by Ian Tregillis, starring RUSTBELT.

Special thanks this time around to Melinda Snodgrass, who stepped in heroically to help with the editing on this one when I was being crushed beneath the weight of other deadlines. I could not have pulled this puppy together without her.

LOWBALL will likely be released by Tor in hardcover in summer, 2014. More details when I have ’em. Our main man, Michael Komarck, is already hard at work on another spectacular cover.

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Dark Sword Strikes Again

April 7, 2013 at 11:39 pm
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My friends at Dark Sword Miniatures in Minnesota have released some terrific new figures in their range of Ice & Fire miniatures.

Here’s Strong Belwas, sculpted by the incomparable Tom Meier and painted by the amazing Jen Haley.

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And here’s his travelling companion, Arstan Whitebeard, who may be more than he seems. Another Tom Meier sculpt, another Jen Haley paintjob.

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The latest batch of “GRRM Masterworks” also includes Ser Jorah Mormont, Lady Margaery Tyrell, two new ladies of the court, and a battling brother of the Night’s Watch, all by Tom Meier, and Balon Greyjoy of Pyke, sculpted by Jeff Grace. To see them all, and lots of other cool minis besides, visit Dark Sword’s own website at http://darkswordminiatures.com/

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RIP Roger Ebert

April 5, 2013 at 1:15 pm
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I was very saddened today to hear of the death of Roger Ebert.

Roger (somehow I think of him as ‘Roger,’ not ‘Ebert,’ though I never met him in the flesh, and spoke to him only once, by telephone, in the early 1970s when both of us were young and dinosaurs roamed the earth) has been my favorite film critic since forever. I did not always agree with him, but I always found him insightful and fun to read. He was not just a terrific critic, he was a terrific WRITER. His shows with Gene Siskel, SNEAK PREVIEWS and SISKEL AND EBERT AT THE MOVIES, were must-see TV for me. A hundred other teams have tried to recapture their magic, but none came close.

He was One of Us too. A fan, and an SF fan at that. In his youth, he wrote for fanzines, and he even published a few short SF stories in Ted White’s AMAZING and FANTASTIC along about the same time I was publishing in those selfsame magazines. If he had not gone on to be the world’s best film critic, he might well have been a successful SF writer.

A brilliant man, a good life. I give him two thumbs up.

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Lone Star GRRM

April 4, 2013 at 1:05 pm
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For those of you who couldn’t make it to Texas for Aggiecon and Deeper Than Swords last month, the good folks at Texas A&M and the Cushing Memorial Library have thoughtfully videotaped my speech and uploaded it to YouTube.

So if you’d like to hear more about how a Jersey boy came to deposit his papers and manuscripts in College Station, you can hear all about my strange connection to Texas here:

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Enjoy.

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Season Four!!!

April 3, 2013 at 11:09 am
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HBO has officially renewed GAME OF THRONES for a fourth season. (And I’m almost finished with the first draft of my script. No, sorry, not going to tell you which one it is).

http://tv.broadwayworld.com/article/HBO-Renews-GAME-OF-THRONES-for-Fourth-Season-20130402

Record ratings for our season three premiere, “Valar Dohaeris.”

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/04/01/game-of-thrones-premiere-ratings-3/

Also (sigh) record levels of piracy.

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/column-post/game-thrones-premiere-breaks-piracy-record-83526

On other topics… no, no, Peter Dinklage is NOT being replaced by Warwick Davis in the role of Tyrion. That was just HBO’s little April Fools joke. (I was so busy I forgot to make my own April Fools joke). So calm down, boys and girls. Peter is still with us.

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