Not a Blog

Dragons, Dragons Everywhere

March 29, 2023 at 9:35 am
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You can never have too many dragons.

My thanks to all of the attendees of last year’s Dragoncon, and to all the Dragon Award voters who chose ELDEN RING as the best game of the year.   Like all my friends at From Software, I am thrilled that you enjoyed the play… as challenging as it can be.

The trophy is a striking one as well.   I wasn’t able to attend the awards ceremony, but the Dragoncon folks were kind enough to ship it, and it just turned up here a couple of weeks ago, just before I left for a visit to HBO in LA.

I have other sorts of dragons too, of course.   Like this guy:

He’s not an award… but he is a handsome fellow all the same.

Current Mood: mischievous mischievous

Wild Cards: Sins of the Father a GRAPHIC NOVEL

March 26, 2023 at 7:49 am
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We’re proud to announce Wild Cards: Sins of the Father a GRAPHIC NOVEL By Melinda M. Snodgrass.

Illustrated in a gorgeous, cinematic style by Michael Komarck and Elizabeth Leggett, this unique graphic novel is a visual feast certain to delight.

PRE ORDER NOW! 

A cop on the trail of a bizarre murder uncovers a hidden conspiracy—and shocking secrets about his late father—in this original graphic novel set in George R. R. Martin’s shared-world universe, Wild Cards.

In 1946, an alien virus ravaged the world, its results as random as a hand of cards. From that fateful moment to the present day, those infected either draw the black queen and die, draw an ace and receive superpowers, or draw the joker and are bizarrely mutated.

Today, Aces, Jokers, and uninfected humans live in relative peace. Francis “Franny” Black is an uninfected human cop, trying to police a world filled with people with the extraordinary powers that he lacks. Newly—and some would say too suddenly—promoted to detective, he has been working out of Wild Card Central, the precinct in Jokertown where the bulk of the virus victims fell in 1946. Franny’s father was one of the heroes of the precinct, killed in the line of duty, and Franny is finding it hard to fill his dead father’s shoes. That is, until he’s given a particularly insidious case and starts uncovering long-buried secrets that his father might have died to protect.

THIS MESSAGE HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MINIONS OF FEVRE RIVER

Once upon a time there was a worldcon…

March 23, 2023 at 9:49 am
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The night I won two Hugos.

Seems like last week.

Seems like a million years ago.

Robert Silverberg was toastmaster (he was a great toastmaster, the best worldcon ever had)  and handed me the rockets.  I have forgotten every word he said.   I have forgotten every word I said, for that matter.   (I wonder if anyone was filming the ceremony.   These days all the Hugo ceremonies are videotaped, but in the days of yore, that did not always happen).   My whole night is a blur… but I do remember how happy I was… and the friends I shared the night with.   Phyllis Eisenstein, Mary Mertens, Ed Bryant… so many more… and of course, Gardner Dozois, who squirted whipped cream in my hair and formally threw me out of the Hugo Losers’ Party.

Once upon a time there was a worldcon…

Current Mood: melancholy melancholy

Three Kings, One Throne

March 21, 2023 at 8:14 am
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((No, no, not the Iron Throne.   An entirely different throne, on an entirely different world.   There are lots of worlds, you know.   Lots of books.   Lots of thrones)).

The queen is dead.   Long live the king.

Ah… but which king?   Charles III, you say?   Well, maybe in this world.   But not in the world of the Wild Cards, which diverged from our own reality on September 15, 1946, when Jetboy died in the skies over Manhattan.   History was never the same.

Elizabeth II never took the throne of the United Kingdom in that world.   It was her younger sister Margaret who ascended after the passing of their father, King George VI, and it is Queen Margaret I whose long reign has just come to an end there.   Her eldest son is about to succeed her as King Henry IX… but his younger brother has his own designs on the crown, and dreams of being Richard IV… and if the whispers can be believed, there may be another claimant as well, a joker prince hidden away for half a century.

Who will claim the throne?  To find out you’ll need to check out THREE KINGS, volume twenty-nine in the Wild Cards series (but have no fear, you do not need to read the first twenty-eight to enjoy this one).  Tor is releasing the trade paperback edition today, and you will find it at your local bookstore or your favorite online bookseller.

(

Melinda M. Snodgrass stepped up as editor this time around… no easy task, as THREE KINGS is a mosaic novel, with the storylines interwoven from start to finish.   The writing team consisted of Melinda herself, Peter Newman, Mary Ann Mohanraj, Peadar O Guilin, and Caroline Spector.   Featured characters included Double Helix, the Green Man, Badh, the Seamstress, Enigma, and the aforementioned three wannabee kings.   Yours truly was the assistant editor.

Some of you like signed books, I know.   Have no fear: we will have them soon at Beastly Books in Santa Fe, autographed by both of the editors, Melinda and yours truly.   The other signatures you’ll need to run down yourself.   You can place your orders with Beastly at https://www.beastlybooks.com/

Beastly Books has signed copies of all the other Wild Cards books as well… along with autographed editions (hardcovers and paperbacks both) of that other series of mine, the one where the throne is made of iron.   (Queen Elizabeth II visited our GOT set in Belfast once, and declined to sit in it.   Smart woman.   That thing is dangerous.  All those rusty old swords.  You could cut yourself).

Current Mood: busy busy

Cooters Take Wisconsin

March 15, 2023 at 7:47 pm
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VERY pleased to announce that NIGHT OF THE COOTERS kicked ass and took names at this year’s Midwest Weirdfest in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, winning the festival laurel as the Best Short.

It’s the third victory for our little movie since we hit the festival circuit.   COOTERS was also named Best Sci-Fi at the LA Shorts Film Festival back in November, and again at the New York Shorts earlier this year.

NIGHT OF THE COOTERS is based on the short story by the one and only Howard Waldrop, adapted for the screen by Joe R. Lansdale, directed by and starring Vincent d’Onofrio, produced by Trioscope and Lumenscape.    The film is not in general release yet, but we’re out on the circuit, so look for it at a film fest near you.   Next up on our calendar, looks like, will be Atlanta.   See you there.

Current Mood: bouncy bouncy