Here’s the latest video treat from HBO: an introduction to the Starks of Winterfell.

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Some great footage of the kids in this one. And the first glimpses of Robb, Varys, and a few of other stalwarts. Cool stuff.

(Though I do feel the need to mention that the part where I’m saying how direwolves existed in the real world was originally followed by me saying that MY direwolves are much bigger than the actual prehistoric ones. Just don’t want anyone to go away thinking I believed actual real world direwolves were as large as ponies. Everything’s bigger in fantasy).

Anyway, hope you all enjoy seeing this as much as me.

Closer and closer…

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… and he’s taught me fear.

I’ve tied the last kraken up in knots, only to have another swarm up from the depths.

Aiieeee.

As of this morning, A DANCE WITH DRAGONS is thirty (manuscript) pages longer than A STORM OF SWORDS. And. Not. Done. Yet.

Dragons, krakens, monkeys, I hates them all.

But I press on. Kong, Kong, I will beat you yet! Where’s my bloody biplane???

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Look on HBO’s works, ye mighty, and despair.

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Regular readers of this Not A Blog will know what a fanatic fan of the NFL I am.

I cannot possibly express how disgusted and pissed off I am by the failure of the NFL owners and players to reach an agreement, which has now led to a lockout and may possibly imperil the 2011 season. There are no good guys in this scenario. It is millionaires versus billionaires, and it’s all about greed, greed, greed.

Don’t believe what Gordon Gekko told you. Greed is not good. Greed sucks.

When the pie is as big and rich and gooey as the NFL’s, the inability of the principals to come to any agreement about how to slice it up is just obscene.

Locking out the players? Owners, shame on you.

Decertifying as a union so you can sue? Players, shame on you.

The last bit is ESPECIALLY offensive in the light of what is happening in places like Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio, where real working class people are fighting desperately to keep their unions in the face of a concerted effort by the Radical Right to strip them of their right to collective bargaining. The teachers in those states are battling for their pensions, their health care, and salaries in the mid five figures, while NFL players decertify to make certain their seven figure salaries don’t get trimmed down to six.

Here’s a proposal for you: the legislatures in every state with an NFL franchise should pass a new tax. For every game missed due to a strike or lockout, the franchise owners should be required to take all the money they would have paid the players, and pay it instead into a pool to fund teacher salaries, benefits, and pensions.

Oh, to be the king. Oh, to have some dragons.

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Those scalawags and wackaroonies at Suvudu are at it again!

Last year they staged their infamous “Cage Match,” pitting various characters from a wide varity of SF and fantasy books and films against one another in battles to the death, with the ultimate winner decided by the votes of you, the fans and readers. (AFter spirited and sometimes rather acrimonious debate, it must be said). They plucked Ser Jaime Lannister out of Westeros to represent my books, and he did rather well… Assisted by his brother Tyrion, he defeated Hermione Granger, Kvothe, and the Great Cthulhu on the way to the finals, where he ultimately fell to THE WHEEL OF TIME’s Rand al’Thor, despite some help from Haviland Tuf, the Great and Powerful Turtle, Popinjay, and other friends.

Suvudu followed that up with a Villains Cage Match, another death derby. This time Westeros prevailed, when Ser Gregor Clegane, the Mountain That Rides, went all the way, proving himself the most nefarious and brutal badboy of all time and space. But then he got his ass kicked by Rand in the Hero v. Villain showdown.

And now here we are again. This time the Westerosi contestant is JON SNOW.

art by Michael Komarck

In his first match, Jon is facing Takeshi Kovacs .

Here’s the write up:

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2011/03/cage-match-2011-takeshi-kovacs-versus-jon-snow.html

Vote early and often.

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This JUST received this minute from HBO:

“HBO will present !“ for the first time !“ a 15-minute sneak peek of the first episode of a new series when GAME OF THRONES EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW debuts SUNDAY, APRIL 3 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT). Following this one-time-only play, GAME OF THRONES EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW will be available immediately on hbo.com and HBO Go, and will be available on HBO On Demand beginning Monday, April 8.

“The HBO presentation of GAME OF THRONES EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW will be followed by the debut of Part Three of the HBO Miniseries presentation MILDRED PIERCE at 9:15 p.m. (ET/PT).

“Based on the popular book series !œA Song of Ice and Fire,! by George R.R. Martin, the fantasy series GAME OF THRONES chronicles an epic struggle for power set in a vast and violent fantasy kingdom. The ensemble cast includes Mark Addy, Sean Bean, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Fairley, Lena Headey, Kit Harington and Aidan Gillen. The show was shot at the Paint Hall Studio in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as well as at various locations in Northern Ireland and Malta.

“GAME OF THRONES launches its ten-episode season SUNDAY, APRIL 17, exclusively on HBO.

“GAME OF THRONES was created by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss; executive produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss; co-executive producers, Carolyn Strauss, Guymon Casady, Vince Gerardis, Ralph Vicinanza and George R.R. Martin; producers, Mark Huffam and Frank Doelger.
Directors include Brian Kirk, Daniel Minahan, Alan Taylor and Tim Van Patten; writers include David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, Bryan Cogman, Jane Espenson and George R.R. Martin.”

So… cool… we’ll all get to see fifteen minutes from the first episode two weeks earlier than planned.

(And MILDRED PIERCE looks kickass too)

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My friends at Harper Collins Voyager have confirmed that the British edition of A DANCE WITH DRAGONS will also be released on July 12 of this year, simultaneously with the American edition.

(Please ignore what it says on Amazon.UK. I am sure they will get it right eventually)

Here’s the British cover:

Publication dates in other countries will, of course, be dependent on the speed of the translations. Which cannot begin until I turn in the final manuscript. So I had best get back to that right now.

Cheers.

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And if the DANCE announcement wasn’t enough for you (greedy bastards!), there’s a brand new HBO trailer just out.

This one is exclusive to ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY and can be found on their website, here:

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/03/03/game-of-thrones-new-trailer/

Lots of great new footage there, stuff that even I have never seen before. Hot damn. Hot double damn, with snow on it.

The Wall too. What more could you want???

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[first posted at 9 am EST on my website]

No. Sorry. Not done yet.

I’m close, though. Watch this space. When the book is done, you will read it here.

original cover 2006

Meanwhile… there is news. Big news. The end is in sight, at long long last, and we’re close enough so that my editors and publishers at Bantam Spectra have set an actual publication date.

revised cover 2007

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS will be in your favorite bookstore on

TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2011

new cover 2009

Yes, I know. You’ve all seen publication dates before: dates in 2007, 2008, 2009. None of those were ever hard dates, however. Most of them… well, call it wishful thinking, boundless optimism, cockeyed dreams, honest mistakes, whatever you like.

This date is different. This date is real.

Barring tsunamis, general strikes, world wars, or asteroid strikes, you will have the novel in your hands on July 12. I hope you like it.

((For what it’s worth, the book’s a monster. Think A STORM OF SWORDS))

final cover? 2011

The dragons are coming. Prepare to dance.

And hey… thanks for waiting.

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