I do other things besides A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE.
Nothing new about that. Since the very start of my career, in the early 1970s, I’ve always tried to keep several balls in the air. Sometimes one will plunk you in the head, to be sure, but it keeps life from getting dull.
My editing wound down a little in 2015. As much as I would like to do some more anthologies like ROGUES and OLD VENUS with Gardner Dozois, they were taking more of my time than I was comfortable with, given my other commitments. So Gardner is going on ahead solo with several exciting new anthology projects, but our team titles will need to wait. Apologies to all of you who were waiting for OLD URANUS.
Wild Cards is another matter. Wild Cards is in my blood, and I plan to continue with those books as long as someone will keep buying them. (And I desperately want to write more Wild Cards stories of my own, instead of just editing, but I don’t have time for that either). We delivered HIGH STAKES last year — the copyedited manuscript is on my desk as I type, waiting to be reviewed — and have signed with Tor for three more originals. Meanwhile, the reissues continue, and foreign publishers are picking up the series all over the world. We also have three Wild Cards graphic novels in the pipeline. Originals, not adaptations. The scripts are in — one from Carrie Vaughn, one from Melinda M. Snodgrass, one from the team of Kevin Andrew Murphy and John Jos. Miller — and the artists are hard at work on the pencils. They should be something.
Meanwhile, on the Hollywood front, I have three shows in various stages of development under the aegis of my overall deal with HBO. There’s CAPTAIN COSMOS for HBO (scripted by Michael Cassutt), there’s SKIN TRADE for Cinemax (to be scripted by Kalinda Vasquez), and there’s a third project in the very early stages that I am not allowed to talk about yet. There’s also WILD CARDS, but that’s at a different studio and I am not involved with it, except to license rights, sign the check, and distribute funds to my writers. Oh, and on the movie side, we seem to be moving toward production on IN THE LOST LANDS, an adaptation of three of my old stories.
Last year I also formed Kill Van Kull Productions, to develop and produce a series of low budget short films (twenty to thirty minutes long) of some classic SF short stories. Can’t say any more than that just now, but I will keep you posted as plans proceed.
I also turned down several interesting and potentially lucrative projects, on both the publishing and television/ film sides. Some of it was stuff I would love to do, but there’s just not enough time. I like to juggle, but you do need to keep the number of balls down.
So… plenty on my plate. Keep your fingers crossed, though, especially for the television and film projects. In Hollywood, nothing is ever real till shooting starts, and sometimes not even then. Remember William Goldman’s wisdom: nobody knows anything.