The HBO is having a sale on GAME OF THRONES merchandise.

Twenty per cent ( 20 %) off… but today only!

http://store.hbo.com/

Just sayin’

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And herewith… drum roll, please… the cover art for the new TV tie-in edition of A GAME OF THRONES. Which seems to have lost its “a” but gained the soon-to-be-iconic image of Sean Bean upon HBO’s Iron Throne.

So much stuff happening on so many fronts of late that I could spend all days posting updates here and still would not catch up. So forgive me if I am late announcing This or talking about That. I do my best, but Kong is a mighty foe.

Back to Skull Island.

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My friend Paul Cornell — DR WHO writer, ace comics scriptor, and soon-to-debut Wild Carder –is growing out his beard for charity.

If you would like to turn Paul into Grizzly Adams, and help the homeless of London while you’re at it, go to

http://www.justgiving.com/paul-cornell0/

and make a donation.

And don’t forget to buy FORT FREAK this June, and meet Paul’s new Wild Cards character.

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And here’s yet another trailer that premiered on HBO tonight.

It’s called “Fear and Blood.”

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Lovely glimpse of the late Margaret John as Old Nan. She will be missed as the show goes forward.

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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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