Some Stuff and Nonsense

September 9, 2024 at 7:44 pm

Stuff I thought I’d mention:

Week one of the new NFL season was played yesterday. The Giants had the Vikings at home, and looked just as bad as last year. They made some good draft picks, I thought, adding a top receiver and bolstering the O-line, but it did not seem to make a whit of difference. Daniel Jones did not impress at all. Maybe we need to go back to Tommy DeVito. I fear I am not going to get much joy from Big Blue this year. Maybe the Jets will be better. They play tonight. Here’s hoping that Aaron Rodgers will last more than three plays.

So, this year’s Bubonicon, our friendly hometown SF con, was August 23-25 down in Albuquerque. I could not attend the whole con, but I dropped down on Saturday for the mass signing and our traditional dinner with the Pope. I also had a speech, “80 Minutes with George R.R. Martin.” I did not have time to write a speech, as I’d intended, so I played it by ear and ad libbed my remarks… which turned out surprisingly well. I’ve had a lot of things on my mind of late, so there was plenty to talk about: WINDS OF WINTER, my television projects, the trip and my visit to Tolkien’s grave, my upcoming birthday, what I want to do when I grow up… er, rather, what I want to do for the rest of my life. It was a serious talk, parts of it quite personal and heartfelt. I am wrestling with a lot right now, and it felt good to share some of that with my listeners. Afterward several fans told me how much they enjoyed it. One told me the speech was “poignant.”

One of my assistants was recording the talk on his phone, so that I could post it here. Supposedly he got all eighty minutes… but his iPhone was glitching and overheating, and the next day, when we tried to play it back, we discovered we did not have it after all. The phone had failed, and the speech did not make it to the cloud either. You have no idea how much that bummed me out. We have brought in a recovery expert to try and find the speech on the dead phone, but I fear the odds of recovering anything are slim. That sucks. I had really wanted to share that speech… no, there were no huge earth-shaking announcements, but I tried to give some insight into where I am right now with my writing, and the rest of my life… If anyone reading this was in the audience for “Eighty Minutes With George R.R. Martin” and happened to record it, let me know. I want to know what I said, and if it was half as profound and eloquent as I remember.

Politics? I could talk about the election, but I think I won’t. Not now, at least. Suffice it to say, I am worried. Trump was the worst president in American history, and if he gets in again, he will be worse, judging from the remarks he keeps making about retribution and bloodbaths and the like.

I had some cool guests in between worldcon and Bubonicon: Anne LeGuernec, the amazing French actress who starred as Cat in my DOORWAYS pilot back in 1993, came to visit with her incredible family. Anne and her husband did a reading for us at the Jean Cocteau, and we showed them Santa Fe and Taos and introduced them to green chile. It was great to see Anne again, and talk about DOORWAYS and the roads not taken, all the stories we might have told had the show been greenlit.

Oh, did I mention that the first two seasons of DARK WINDS are now streaming on Netflix (as well as AMC), and doing very very well?

https://www.netflix.com/title/81613903

https://nativenewsonline.net/arts-entertainment/dark-winds-soars-to-top-10-on-netflix

Meanwhile, the third season is filming here in New Mexico, at Camel Rock Studio.

Speaking of television shows, I have always loved alternate history and Jane Grey, England’s nine-days queen, has always fascinated me. Small wonder, then, that I really enjoyed MY LADY JANE, a clever and original historical fantasy on Amazon Prime, set in an England full of witches and shapechangers, where Jane lasts more than nine days. Meredith Glynn is one of the showrunners. I had the pleasure of working with her on one of the GAME OF THRONES spinoffs that HBO shelved a few years back, and knowing her talents, it did not surprise me that MY LADY JANE was so much fun. Witty and original, it reminded me a bit of THE GREAT, a show I loved. Alas, THE GREAT is gone, and it appears MY LADY JANE is too. Amazon did not renew it for a second season.

The show has a lot of fans, though, and they have launched a petition to get Amazon to order more. (Got to love the fans).

https://movieweb.com/my-lady-jane-fans-petition-canceled-prime-video-series/

I wish them luck. Jane deserved more than nine days, or eight episodes.

Current Mood: busy busy

Tags: everyday life, nfl, television

A Belated Blog

September 9, 2024 at 2:10 pm

I am way behind in my Not-a-Blogging, I know.

Along with a thousand other things.

I was traveling in Europe from July 15 to August 15. I do not travel with a computer (never have), so I had hoped to catch up before I left… but it was hard, hard. The first half of my year was pretty miserable, dominated as it was by the death of Howard Waldrop on January 14. Howard was my oldest friend in science fiction community; we had been corresponding since 1963, when we were both in high school. His passing came suddenly, only six days after our last conversation, and there’s a part of me that still cannot accept it, that wants to pick up the phone and ring him up and hear his voice again.

Nor did I find much solace in my work. Writing came hard, and though I did produce some new pages on both THE WINDS OF WINTER (yes) and BLOOD & FIRE (the sequel to FIRE & BLOOD, the second part of my Targaryen history), I would have liked to turn out a lot more. My various television projects ate up most of those months. Some of that was pleasant (DARK WINDS, and THE HEDGE KNIGHT), most of it was not. The stress kept mounting, the news went from bad to worse to worst, my mood seemed to swing between fury and despair, and at night I tossed and turned when I should have been sleeping. When I did sleep, well, my dreams were none too pleasant either.

I had been planning our European trip for some time. The Dunk & Egg show would start filming in July and I wanted to visit the shoot in Northern Ireland, and a month later there would be a worldcon in Glasgow. I had not been to a worldcon since the Dublin convention in 2019 (we won’t count Covid Con, the New Zealand worldcon in 2020 that went all virtual) and I wanted to return. Fandom had been my second family since 1971, and worldcon our family reunion. Even so, I had so much on my plate that I seriously debated whether I should cancel the whole trip so I could stay home and fight on. I am glad I decided against that. I was so stressed out that I doubt I would have accomplished much anyway… and the trip turned out to be a blessing, balm for my bruised soul.

We had a great time on the trip, and I meant to tell you all about our adventures and experiences when we returned. Those will be happy posts, made of happy memories, and I still mean to write them… soon…

But when we finally got back to the Land of Enchantment I had a thousand emails waiting for me. I also managed to bring covid back home with me, after picking it up at worldcon. It was a mild case, thankfully, but even so, it put me out of action for a week or so, with the worst sore throat of my life. (I am fully recovered and testing negative once again, thank you. Don’t get covid, boys and girls, it is no fun at all). And, alas, the moment I opened my computer again, the stress came rushing back. I managed to put my problems aside for a month, but they were still waiting for me.

So… I have a lot to blog about. Big things, small things, glad news and sad news. I do want to talk about the trip while it is still fresh in my mind, but there is so much else…

Current Mood: stressed

Tags: life and death, travel, worldcon, writing

September Morn

September 3, 2024 at 11:54 am

My calendar is telling me it is now September. Really? Damn, the days are going by fast.

We got back from our month abroad on August 15, which seems like yesterday on the odd numbered days and last year on the evens.. I returned to find more than a thousand emails waiting for me, which proved even more daunting than usual since I brought covid home with me as well, acquired at the worldcon in Glasgow. Two of my assistants tested positive as well; Parris and the other two were spared. We’re all negative now, I am pleased to say.

Joe Lansdale and kin were here in Santa Fe with us for a few days. Joe departed this morning, heading for LA and the red carpet premiere of THE THICKET, the new feature film based on his novel, starring Peter Dinklage and Juliette Lewis. We didn’t have a red carpet here, alas, and we didn’t have Peter or Juliette, but we did have our own premiere on Saturday at the Jean Cocteau Cinema, along with Joe His Own Self. A good crowd turned out for the movie, and for the signing at Beastly Books before hand. Joe signed a good number of copies of the latest edition of the novel, as well as his new new Hap & Leonard novel, and a collection of horror stories inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. For the collectors among you, signed copies of all three are available at Beastly… while the supply lasts.

The Santa Fe audience seemed to like the film, as did I. It’s a western, but the sort of western only Joe could write, dark and twisty and filled with a cast of colorful characters. Dinklage and Lewis were both excellent. If you’re a fan of the Old West, be sure and catch THE THICKET when it turns up at a cinema near you.

And speaking of movies, we are moving along with the short films we made based on some of the short stories by the late, great, great great great, Howard Waldrop. Steven Paul Judd’s adaptation of MARY-MARGARET ROAD GRADER has been accepted into WASTELAND, depp in the heart of the Mohave Desert.

WASTELAND FILM FESTIVAL

Mary-Margaret will also be showing down in New Zealand, at the Wairoa Maori Film Festival in New Zealand

https://filmfreeway.com/wairoa

There will be more, I am sure; festival season is just beginning, and we’ve entered MARY-MARGARET ROAD GRADER and THE UGLY CHICKENS in other festivals all around the country and the world. Watch this space; I’ll announce other show dates and locations as soon as we know.

Two other shorts are still in post production here in New Mexico; another Waldrop, with the working title FRIENDS FOREVER (that is likely to be changed), and an original called THE SUMMER MACHINE, based on a story I pitched THE TWILIGHT ZONE back in the 80s, just before it was cancelled. SUMMER MACHINE stars Lina Esco, Charles Martin Smith, and Matt Frewer. Michael Cassutt wrote the short, based on my treatment, and directed as well.

We have several other movies under option or in development, but whether any of them will ever get filmed, well, I really couldn’t tell you. It’s Hollywood, boys and girls. As the late great William Goldman once wrote, “Nobody Knows Anything.”

Current Mood: stressed

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