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Wild Cards, by Lego

November 19, 2014 at 11:26 am
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Here's a hoot and a half — a LEGO version of Wild Cards, put together by a fan.

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Iron from Ice

November 18, 2014 at 12:28 am
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There's a new GAME OF THRONES computer game on the way, this one from Telltale Games.

Unlike the earlier games from Cyanide, this is an HBO license, derived from the television series rather than the novels, so the characters will look like their TV incarnations, and in many cases will be voiced by the actors who play them on the show.   The action is centered around House Forrester, bannermen to the Starks of Winterfell whose seat in the wolfswood.  (Some Forresters are mentioned in the Stannis chapters, when he marches south from the Wall to attack Winterell, but very little is said about them, which made them ideal for game purposes).

The game will be sort of a side story to the show (and books), swirling and around major events.  Ty Franck, my longtime assistant who went off to become half of James S.A. Corey and write the Expanse novels, acted as a consultant on story and continuity for Telltale.

The first teaser trailer has just been released.  Have a look:

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More Pain

November 16, 2014 at 5:19 pm
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It's a wonder the score was so close.  The Niners dominated much of the game, but to the credit of Big Blue's D, they bent but did not break, and denied San Francisco several times in the red zone.  If only the offense had been able to take advantage…

But no.  Every time it seemed as if points were in prospect, Bad Eli threw another one to the Niners.  Even so, with time running out in the fourth quarter, the G-Men were down at the five with first and goal.  Four runs with Rashad Jennings and maybe we steal the win.  Instead we got three fades (all incomplete) and an INT.  Game over.

The only good to salvage from the afternoon: it does appear New York has found a genuine star in Odell Beckhem Jr.   He could very well turn into the best wideout the Giants have had since… well, since forever… and next year, if Victor Cruz returns to form, Big Blue could have one of the best receiving tandems in the league.

But that's next year.  And we'll still need some more studs on the O-line, to help keep Eli alive and upright.

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More Signed Books

November 12, 2014 at 2:02 pm
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Hmmmm…. that went well… those 14 signed hardcovers of DANGEROUS WOMEN went in a few hours, my team at the Cocteau tells me.  So let's go ahead and offer a few more autographed books.

We have seventeen remaining copies in stock of Dennis Lehane's novel THE DROP, signed by the author.

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Price is $24.99.  Add $15 S+H (media mail) or $25 S+H (priority mail).

We also have twenty-two copies of Anne Perry's mystery novel, DEATH ON BLACKHEATH, available in hardcover.

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Those are $27, plus S+H as above.

And I will include another of my own titles as well.  We have the long out-of-print Meisha Merlin hardcover of TUF VOYAGING (with wonderful interior art by Janet Aulisio, and a cover by Michael Komarck) available in two states, a trade hardcover and a slipcased limited.

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The trade hardcover sells for $30, the slipcased limited edition for $120.  Plus $15 S+H for media mail, $25 S+H for priority.

All orders should be placed with the Jean Cocteau via PayPal at jeancocteausantafe@gmail.com

Thanks.

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Dangerous Women Take HPL’s Head

November 10, 2014 at 7:00 pm
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DANGEROUS WOMEN, the big crossgenre anthology that Gardner Dozois and I edited for Tor, was announced as the winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology of 2013 on Sunday, at the World Fantasy Convention in Washington, DC.

I wasn't able to attend the con this year (I do hope to be at next year's event, in Saratoga), but Gardner was on hand, and accepted for the both of us.

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The news came as a pleasant surprise… nay, even a shock.  Neither Gardner nor I thought we had a prayer of winning.  The anthology shortlist was very strong this year.  But this one is case where I was glad to be proved wrong.

My thanks to the fans and readers who nominated us,  to the judges who chose us as winner, to our editors and publishers and all the rest of the good folks at Tor and Harper.  And of course to our writers, whose talents made DANGEROUS WOMEN.   We had a great lineup:

INTRODUCTION, by Gardner Dozois
SOME DESPERADO, by Joe Abercrombie
MY HEART IS EITHER BROKEN, by Megan Abbott
NORA’S SONG, by Cecelia Holland
THE HANDS THAT ARE NOT THERE, by Melinda Snodgrass
BOMBSHELLS, by Jim Butcher
RAISA STEPANOVA, by Carrie Vaughn
WRESTLING JESUS, by Joe R. Lansdale
NEIGHBORS, by Megan Lindholm
I KNOW HOW TO PICK ‘EM, by Lawrence Block
SHADOWS FOR SILENCE IN THE FORESTS OF HELL, by Brandon Sanderson
A QUEEN IN EXILE, by Sharon Kay Penman
THE GIRL IN THE MIRROR, by Lev Grossman
SECOND ARABESQUE, VERY SLOWLY, by Nancy Kress
CITY LAZARUS, by Diana Rowland
VIRGINS, by Diana Gabaldon
HELL HATH NO FURY, by Sherilynn Kenyon
PRONOUNCING DOOM, by S.M. Stirling
NAME THE BEAST, by Sam Sykes
CARETAKERS, by Pat Cadigan
LIES MY MOTHER TOLD ME, by Caroline Spector
THE PRINCESS AND THE QUEEN, by George R.R. Martin

For those of you who missed DANGEROUS WOMEN in hardcover, the anthology is being released in mass market (in three volumes) by Tor in the US and HarperVoyager in the UK.  All three of the British paperbacks and the first two of the American are on the stands, and available from Amazon and other online booksellers.  Gardner and I are very proud of this one.  We hope you check it out.

For the full list of this year's World Fantasy Awards winners, go to:

http://www.locusmag.com/News/2014/11/world-fantasy-awards-winners-2014/

This is my third Howard.  I won Best Novella for "The Skin Trade" a couple of decades ago, and more recently a Lifetime Achievement Award… which I guess makes this one a post-lifetime achievement.  I look forward to lining up my three HPLs on the mantlepiece.

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Aieeeeeeeeee…………………….

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Worldbook Rides High

November 9, 2014 at 6:33 pm
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The reports are in from both sides of the Atlantic, and I'm thrilled to be able to report that THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE has debuted at #2 on the bestseller lists in both the US and the UK… though, somewhat oddly, in two different categories.

 In the United Kingdom, the worldbook turned up as #2 in hardcover fiction in the SUNDAY TIMES for November 2.

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Over on this side of the pond, however, the NEW YORK TIMES does not appear to consider the worldbook fiction, so instead we've crashed onto the lists in the rather odd category of "Advice, How To, and Miscellaneous."

http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2014-11-16/advice-how-to-and-miscellaneous/list.html

Our maesters would no doubt be outraged, and insist their work was entirely non-fiction.  Me, I'd call it fiction.  Fake history isn't precisely FACT, after all.  Then again, THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE is an art book too, so maybe "miscellaneous" is a good place to put it.

WOIAF cover

 Truth be told, I don't care what they call it.  Categories have never mattered much to me.  Fiction, non-fiction, self-help, an art book… call it what you like, so long as you read and enjoy it.  This one was a LOT of work, and I am thrilled to see it doing so well.

 My thanks and congratulations to our crack teams at Harper Voyager and Bantam Spectra, to the designers and artists who made the book as gorgeous as it is, and of course to my partners in fake history, Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson.

 

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Win One, Lose One

November 9, 2014 at 5:52 pm
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I woke up this morning expecting a long day of pain in front of the television.  The Jets were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers and their red-hot quaterback, Big Ben, and the Giants were facing the world champion Seattle Seahawks.  Given the way both New York teams had been playing of late, I figured we were in for two more soul-crushing defeats.

Turns out I was only half-right.

The Jets shocked everyone, including me, by upsetting the Steelers.   As Gang Green came into the game at 1-8, no one could have seen that coming.  But that's why they play the games, as Boomer likes to say.  (I expect he'll be saying it tonight on Primetime).  Truth be told, though the Jets played much better than usual, the Steelers really beat themselves, with turnovers.  And it is kind of a Pyrrhic victory, since it is way too late to make a playoff run.  It is certainly more fun to watch the Jets win than to watch them lose, but if they start racking up victories now, all it will do is ruin their chances of getting a real franchise QB in the draft.  So that's probably just what they will do, watch and see.

I can bemoan that later, however.  For the moment, I will enjoy the win, and wonder what might have happened if Rex had only benched Geno Smith earlier.  (I was distressed to see Geno back as second string, and Matt Simms inactive.  Simms showed more in his brief appearance last week than Geno has all season).   Some good play there by Percy Harvin, Erik Decker, and Chris Ivory.  And the D line.  Gang Green DOES have some good players, if only they could get a quarterback.

The Giants game started off promisingly as well.  Big Blue gave the world champs all they could handle in the first half, and even held the lead at certain points… but they couldn't stop the Seattle running game.  Marshawn Lynch is a beast, the kind of RB I love and wish we had, and Seattle's elusive  QB  Russell Wilson kept fooling the Giants D with fake handoffs and scampering around end for ten or twenty yards before any of the Giants even realized he still had the ball.  "Get him," I kept shouting, "he's right there, get him, get him, get him."  But they didn't.

Still, the Giants held in there for three quarters, and were about to take the lead again when a long bomb from Eli caromed off Odell Beckhem's hands to a Seahawk DB for a freak interception.  After that things fell apart quickly.  The last ten minutes of the game were ugly.

The season is over for the Giants as well, alas.  Their record is slightly better than the Jets', but not enough to make a difference.

 sigh

(And yes, for those who will ask, I will continue to watch, week after bloody week.  A true fan remains a fan in defeat as well as victory).

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Signed Books

November 8, 2014 at 10:40 pm
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Oldtimers here may recall that my old website once included a Signed Books page, where I offered autographed copies of some of my older, out of print books and foreign editions for sale via mailorder.  Mostly as fan service.  The books were usually hard to get, and of course many of my readers lived far away from my various tour stops and cons, making it unlikely that they'd ever get an autograph by any other means.  In the beginning, we never got more than a few orders a week.  I used to fill them myself, once upon a time.  Later my minions took that over.

But as the years passed, the number of orders rose and rose, and the number of queries grew even faster.  Signing and shipping those books ate up more time every week.   So much so that when we redesigned the website a year or so back, we closed the Signed Books page.   That was intended to be temporary.  I figured I'd open a new and improved version of the page, with a shopping cart system, to make things easier on all concerned… but somehow we never got around to it.

Last year, at Christmas season, I got a lot of emails about that.  Readers wanting to buy autographed books as gifts, as they had in previous years.   And now Christmas approaches again, and once more we are getting the same sort of emails.

This year, though, we have an answer.  Of sorts.  No, I am not going to reopen the old Signed Books page on the website.  I don't have the time to personally inscribe dozens of books every week, and my office staff no longer has the time to pack and ship them.  I need my loyal minions for other tasks, alas.

HOWEVER… as it happens I also have the Jean Cocteau Cinema now, and the Cinema is also the state's smallest and most exclusive bookstore, where ALL the books on sale are autographed.  Yes, needless to say, I drop by the Cocteau every so often, and sign piles of copies of my own titles… plus, we also have a wide stock of books signed by the many great authors who have appeared at the Cocteau for interviews, screenings, readings, and similar events.

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Up to now, those books have only been available to those who stopped by the theatre in person.   But after fifteen months in business, the stocks have built up, so we're going to try offering certain titles by mailorder.  See how that goes.  If we run into unanticipated problems, I may need to shut this down again… but my staff at the Cocteau are game to give it a try, so let's see how it works.

Let me stress:  ALL purchases, payments, and queries should go to the Cocteau.  Please do not email us here at the office.  I shut down the old Signed Books page because I did not have the time, and I still don't.  The theatre HAS the time, the personnel, and the books.

Please also note: the books on offer are all autographed, but they ARE NOT inscribed or personalized, and that is not a service we can offer.  I don't even personalize books at my booksignings any longer.  I did so for decades, and happily, but I've gotten older and the lines have gotten much, much longer, it's not something I can do any more.  You'll just need to settle for my illegible scrawl.

Anyway… let's try this out, see it it flies.

DANGEROUS WOMEN just won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology (yay!).  The Cocteau has 14 signed hardcovers in stock, I am informed, so we'll make that the first offering.

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The price is $32.50, plus $15 for shipping and handling (media mail) or $25 (priority), within the US.  Overseas and foreign, please enquire.

PayPal will be ONLY form of payment we can accept at present.  Payments, orders, and queries can be sent directly to the Jean Cocteau Cinema (and Bookstore!) at jeancocteausantafe@gmail.com

Yes, we will offer other titles soon.  My own books, and those by the other writers who have appeared at the Cocteay.  But let's start with this one first.  Call it a trial run.

A DAY LATER:  Okay.  Wow.  That worked.  All our signed hardcovers of DANGEROUS WOMEN were gone within four hours.  We got 45 orders for the 14 books.  (We will try to get more, but that may take a while).

So: no more DW orders for the time being.  We will offer some other books.  See my next post.

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Banned In Turkey

November 8, 2014 at 2:45 pm
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It appears that GAME OF THRONES has been corrupting the morals of the Turkish military:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/11/11/why-turkeys-military-wants-to-ban-game-of-thrones/

Who knew?

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Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs

November 7, 2014 at 12:08 pm
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So, who likes dinosaurs?

What, all of you?  Well, of course.  I mean, who doesn't like dinosaurs!

I fell in love with them as a kid, on my first visit to the Museum of Natural History in New York City.  I had a great collection of toy dinosaurs back then (long since lost, alas — unlike my spacemen, who I hung onto).  I used to make them fight my toy knights.   I never thought to write up those adventures, however (I did write up stories about the space pirates, however — also lost, alack alas).

My friend Vic Milan was smarter.  His new novel, THE DINOSAUR LORDS, will be out next June.  First of a trilogy.  It's got dinosaurs, and it's got knights.  What more can you ask?  (And why the hell didn't I think of it first??)  For those of you who don't know him, Victor Milan has been one of my Wild Cards mainstays since the very beginning, back in 1987, the creator of Cap'n Trips, the Harlem Hammer, Mackie Messer. and more.   THE DINOSAUR LORDS is his best book yet… and damn, but Tor gave him a KICKASS cover:

DINOLORDS Cover

Be sure and check out DINOSAUR LORDS when it hits the shelves in June… or better yet, pre-order.

And speaking of dinosaurs, a couple of other friends also have a cool dinosaur Kickstarter going.  Tess Kissinger and Bob Walters , old friends from Philadelphia, have a great dinosaur book out as well.

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Bob Walters has been one of the world's leading dinosaur artists for decades, and the book is full of his gorgeous art.

(No knights, though).

And he and Tess have a new dream as well:  THE DINOSAUR CHANNEL.

But I will let them tell you all about it themselves, on their Kickstarter page:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/210659515/dinosaurchanneltv

Cool cause, and some cool incentives as well.  Check it out.

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