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Valar Comedys

May 21, 2014 at 4:19 pm
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All men must perform comedy.

Starting with John Hodgman, on June 2, right here in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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John will be performing two shows.   John Roderick of the Long Winters (how apt) will be opening for him.

Their 7:00 pm show is already SOLD OUT, sorry.

Tickets remain available for the 9:00pm show, but I don't know how long that will be true.  They are going fast.  So if you'd like to John & John, get your ticket now.

All men must buy tickets.  All women too.

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Ten Thousand Ships

May 20, 2014 at 12:13 am
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For all you fans of fake history, we've got another taste of THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE up on line, to help whet your appetite for the main course.

"Ten Thousand Ships" is a brief excerpt from the history of the Rhoynar, the final fatal war between the proud princes of the river and the dragonlords of old Valyria.  You can find it on the Westeros site at

http://www.westeros.org/ASoWS/News/Entry/World_of_Ice_and_Fire_Excerpt_The_Rhoynar

courtesy of my collaborators and archivists, Elio and Linda.

Enjoy.

(The full version, in the worldbook, will carry the tale of Princess Nymeria's odyssey considerably further, but you'll need to wait till October for that one).

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Leaving Los Angeles

May 16, 2014 at 11:18 am
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I have been in LA all week, taping the introduction for the ROGUES audiobook, appearing on CONAN, taking meetings… and signing books.

Angelenos, take note.  If you are looking for an autographed copy of one of my books, you'll find large stacks of them for sale at the Bookstar in Studi City, the B&N superstores at Manhattan Beach and the Grove, and Mysterious Galaxy in Redondo Beach.  Grab one while the supply lasts.

(Of course, for my friends in New Mexico here are signed copies always available at the Jean Cocteau Cinema, along with autographed books by Pat Conroy, Neil Gaiman, Michael Chabon, Junot Diaz, Melinda Snodgrass, Connie Willis, Anne Perry, Peter S. Beagle, S.M. Stirling, Diana Gabaldon, and many more.  And tomorrow we have SUSAN ORLEAN coming in, for our big Rin Tin Tin weekend).

I'll be flying home to Santa Fe in a few hours.

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Simonetti Art Book

May 10, 2014 at 11:07 pm
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Marc Simonetti, the amazing French artist who has done so many great covers for both A SONG OF ICE & FIRE and WILD CARDS, is trying to raise funding for a book of his art.

I know there's a lot of Simonetti fans out there.  If you'd like to help, check out:

http://www.itsartmag.com/features/projects/coverama-by-marc-simonetti/

 

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The 6th Gun Returns to Santa Fe

May 10, 2014 at 2:29 pm
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[THE SIXTH GUN is a exceedingly popular Fantasy Western series that's been burning up the comic shops the past few years.   Zombies and gunslingers, hard to beat that.  Given the popularity of the comic, no one was surprised when  NBC picked up the television rights to the series and filmed a one-hour pilot, shooting most of it on one of the many "old west town" sets that surround Santa Fe.  But everyone was surprised when NBC passed on the pilot rather than go to series.

Turns out that was good news for GAME OF THRONES, since we promptly made off with two of SIXTH GUN's stars, Pedro Pascal (who became Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper of Dorne) and Michiel Huisman (our new Daario Naharis).  It was less good for all the other folks on SIXTH GUN, whose work would never be seen.

But now it will… on Friday, May 23 the Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe will be showing the pilot of THE SIXTH GUN… the first and, quite likely, last time the pilot will be shown, and beyond a doubt the ONLY time you will ever get to see it on a big (okay, medium sized) screen.  It's an event that comic fans. fantasy fans. western fans, and zombie fans will not want to miss.

For those who don't know the comic, here's a taste:

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(FYI, it should be noted that the pilot is live action, not animated, the above shots all come from the comic).

 We are planning a whole day of activities around THE SIXTH GUN.  We will have two showings of the pilot, one at 4:00 pm and one at 8:30 pm.  In between we will have gunfights, zombie shambles, zombie dance hall girls.  Some local members of the cast and crew should turn up (the first time they've had a chance to see the fruit of their labors).  Our bar will be serving a special cocktail, the Sinclair Shooter.

And we will have three very special guests:  writer CULLEN BUNN and artist BRIAN HURTT, the guys behind the SIXTH GUN comic, will be flying into Santa Fe to join us, together with RYAN CONDAL, scriptwriter and executive producer for the television pilot.  Cullen and Brian will be autographing copies of the comic and graphic novels, and joining Ryan for a panel discussion and Q&A about the comic, the TV show, and the future of the series.

The best part?  All of this is FREE.  No charge for admission to either of the screenings, the panel, any of it.

And if you get to the Cocteau by noon, we may even make a zombie of you.  The more zombie gunslingers and zombie dance hall girls we have on hand, the more fun it will be.  It takes a lot of zombies to make a proper horde…

See you at the shootout.  May 23.  Remember that date.

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3-Eyed Crow Sees All

May 9, 2014 at 1:08 pm
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A GAME OF THRONES fan saves the day:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2621445/Missing-three-year-old-girl-Game-Of-Thrones-fan-searched-field-seeing-crows-circling-birds-sign-important-events-show.html

 

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LOCUS Nominees Announced

May 7, 2014 at 8:25 pm
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locus

LOCUS, the premiere SF and fantasy newsletter/ fanzine/ semiprozine/ whatever — an indispensible publication whatever you call it — has just announced the finalists for this year's annual Locus Awards, and I am happy to announce that the list includes a couple nods for me.

"The Princess and the Queen," my 'fake history' novella from DANGEROUS WOMEN, has been nominated as Best Novella.

And OLD MARS, the retro-SF anthology I co-edited by Gardner Dozois, is a finalist for Best Anthology.

Old Mars cvr

Gargoo is competing against himself in the anthology category, since his annual BEST OF THE YEAR is also nominated.  Gardner is also nominated as Best Editor (I'm not).

I'm also thrilled by the nominations of a couple of stories we edited.  Joe Abercrombie's "Some Desperado" from DANGEROUS WOMEN and Howard Waldrop's "The Dead-Sea-Bottom Scrolls" from OLD MARS are both finalists in Best Short Story.

And while I had nothing to do with it, I'm equally delighted by the nomination of ABADDON'S GATE by my friends Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck as Best Novel.  ABADDON'S absence from this year's Hugo ballot is a crime, especially considering some of the stuff that did make that ballot.

Win, lose, or draw, it is an honor just to be nominated.

The full list of nominees can found here:

http://www.locusmag.com/News/2014/05/2014-locus-awards-finalists/

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A Brave New World… Cover

May 7, 2014 at 4:53 pm
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Bantam has changed the cover for our forthcoming concordance, THE WORLD OF ICE & FIRE, several times.

You've seen a couple of the earlier mockups here and on my website.

Now here's the latest and… I am told… final cover.

WOIAF cover

 How do you like it?

 WORLD OF ICE & FIRE will be out in the fall.  It is going to be a gorgeous book, a big coffee table volume with lots and lots of stunning artwork, and tons of fake history.  We were supposed to provide 50,000 words of text, but… ah… I got carried away.

 

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Godzilla Is Coming..

May 6, 2014 at 7:03 pm
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… to the Jean Cocteau this weekend.

No, no, not the new guy… the ORIGINAL Big, Green, and Scary.

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Starting May 9, for a special limited run, we'll be showing the original Japanese version of GODZILLA (aka GOJIRA, aka KING OF THE MONSTERS).  Not the Americanized version either, you won't see Perry Mason… er, Raymond Burr… here.

If you haven't seen GODZILLA before, you may be surprised.  This is not the camp Godzilla of the later films, when he was hanging out with Rodan and Mothra and battling robot versions of himself.  This Godzilla is no one's monster buddy, and the film is much darker than any of the sequels.

In honor of Godzilla coming to the Cocteau, our bar will be offering a special cocktail: the TOKYO STOMP.

See you at the movies.

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Up and Up

May 6, 2014 at 10:50 am
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Did you say seven million?

Yep.  Ratings for GAME OF THRONES continue to climb, week after week.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/05/06/game-of-thrones-ratings-surge/

Congratulations to David, Dan, Bryan, our amazing directors, and the best cast in television.

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