Tax Time

March 27, 2009 at 1:15 pm

It’s that time of year again, and Ty and I have spent two days pulling together all my tax records for my accountant.

Help, help, I’m drowning in little bits of paper!!!

How I hate this time of year.

(It’s snowing, too).

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Wild Cards Xmas

March 24, 2009 at 4:48 pm

Make it a Wild Cards Xmas this year.

Tor informs me that SUICIDE KINGS has been scheduled for release in December.

So this year, stuff Rustbelt, Gardener, Double Helix, the Amazing Bubbles, Jonathan Hive, and the Radical in your stocking.

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Tags: tor, wild cards

Another Monkey Off My Back

March 24, 2009 at 12:18 pm

Music: Sixteeen Tons
Gardner Dozois and I have completed work on our WARRIORS anthology, and delivered it to Patrick Nielsen Hayden, our editor at Tor

This one is a monster, a gigantic “event” anthology with an all-star lineup of writers, most of them award winners and bestsellers in their own fields. The theme of the anthology is war and the warrior ethos… but what makes WARRIORS different from all the military SF anthologies that have gone before is that this one is a cross-genre anthology. Fantasy, SF, historical fiction, suspense, mainstream, romance, and more, all of it was welcome here.

Our final lineup:

Introduction: “Stories from the Spinner Rack,” by George R.R. Martin
“The King of Norway,” by Cecelia Holland
“Forever Bound,” by Joe Haldeman
“The Triumph,” by Robin Hobb
“Clean Slate,” by Lawrence Block
“And Ministers of Grace,” by Tad Williams
“Soldierin’,” by Joe Lansdale
“Dirae,” by Peter S. Beagle
“The Eagle and the Rabbit,” by Steven Saylor
“Seven Years from Home,” by Naomi Novik
“The Custom of the Army,” by Diana Gabaldon
“The Pit,” by James Rollins
“Out of the Dark,” by David Weber
“The Girls from Avenger,” by Carrie Vaughn
“Ancient Ways,” by S.M. Stirling
“Ninieslando” by Howard Waldrop
“Recidivist” by Gardner Dozois
“My Name is Legion,” by David Morrell
“Defenders of the Frontier,” by Robert Silverberg
“The Scroll,” by David Ball
“The Mystery Knight,” by George R.R. Martin

There’s twenty stories, all original and never before published, including a Forever Peace
sequel from Joe Haldeman, a “Lord John” novella by Diana Gabaldon, an Emberverse tale from Steve Stirling, and a major new Dunk & Egg novella from yours truly. Vikings, doughboys, Roman legionaries, knights, Buffalo soldiers, cybernetic infantry, WASPs, Cossacks — you’ll find them all in the pages of WARRIORS.

Look for the Tor hardcover in March 2010.

So far there’s no UK sale, nor any foreign deals on the table. Those may come later… but until and unless they do, if you want to read “The Mystery Knight” or any of the other stories, you’ll need to grab the Tor edition.

Buy early and often, and help us smash these genre boundaries! It’s the story that matters, not the label… at least that’s our mantra here.

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Tags: tor

Hugo nominations

March 20, 2009 at 1:40 am

Well, this year’s Hugo Award nominations are in. You can check out the full list at:

http://anticipationsf.ca/English/Hugos

For several years now I have been beating the drum on this blog and elsewhere, urging more people to nominate.

The good news is, nominations are up sharply this year. Denvention III received 483 valid nominating ballots, Anticipation has announced 799. That’s a very impressive spike.

The bad news is, well, almost none of the stuff that I nominated made the ballot, and I’m not crazy about a lot of stuff that did.

But at least more people are nominating.

Now comes the vote. The categories have all been winnowed down to a short list. Go ye forth and read.

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The Twins, Again

March 17, 2009 at 11:57 pm

I can’t resist sharing some more beautifully painted miniatures.

Here’s another set of the Lannister twins. These two were painted for me by the exquisitely talented Jen Haley of Paintrix Miniatures, whose website can be found at http://www.paintrix-miniatures.com/ First up is Jaime, this time in crimson Lannister plate, wearing the black silk cape he wore the first time we see him, at Winterfell in A GAME OF THRONES.

The facial details are just amazing, I think. I used to try my own hand at painting, when I had a bit more time, but at this scale I count myself lucky when I can get both eyes on the same side of the nose, with the pupil inside the white. But take a look at this close up —

And of course, Ser Jaime hardly ever goes anywhere without his sis, so here’s Cersei in a stunning brocade gown, all freehand work by Jen.

Many of you are not collectors or painters, I know. You may not have any idea how very very HARD it is to do this. Just to put it all in perspective, this shot will give you some idea of the scale of these figures:

It really requires painting of this quality to bring out all of the astonishing details of Tom Meier’s amazing sculpts.

The twins, and the rest of the range, are all available from Dark Sword Miniatures at http://darkswordminiatures.com/ for those who want to try their own hand.

Good luck.

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Tags: dark sword, miniatures

Calendars Are Gone

March 17, 2009 at 4:18 pm

Three huge boxes of signed calendars have been picked up, and are on their way back to the Dabels at DBPro. Everyone who paid for an autographed calendar should have it soon.

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Tags: calendar, dabels

Tom Meier Is Back

March 16, 2009 at 11:31 pm

Music: Randy Newman, “Short People”
Miniature fans rejoice. Tom Meier has finally found enough time from all his other commitments to sculpt another figure for the Dark Sword range of Ice & Fire miniatures. And this is one you guys have been clamoring for… the Imp himself, Tyrion Lannister.

The figure won’t actually go on sale for another month or thereabouts, but here’s some advance peeks at Tom’s green.

This is the early Tyrion, as he is when we first meet him in A GAME OF THRONES, before he grows the beard and loses… well, no, that would be telling.

Next up for Tom will be Ser Gregor Clegane, the Mountain That Rides, but he has to fit him in among his toy work, so it may not be tomorrow. To make the time pass faster, Dark Sword has some other surprises in the works. But more on that some other day.

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Tags: dark sword, miniatures

The Calendars Are Signed

March 12, 2009 at 2:20 pm

I’ve defaced ’em all. (See? Sometimes I finish SOONER than I estimate!!!)

The calendars are all signed, packed up in three big boxes, and waiting for UPS to come by, pick them up, and return them to DBPro for distribution.

Me, I’m going back to DANCE. Maybe I can even finish that bloody Tyrion chapter today…

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Tags: calendar, dabels

The Calendars Are Here

March 11, 2009 at 3:15 pm

FYI, the Ice & Fire calendars have just arrived here from DBPro for signing. The huge boxes in which they came had both pretty well disintegrated in transit, which gave me some worry, but the calendars themselves seem unharmed.

All of them appear to have the Jon Snow cover.

There are quite a lot of them. I will get to signing ASAP, and it may take me a few days to deface them all. I need to get some silver markers too. That should show up best on the black, glossy covers.

As promised, I’ll post here as soon as the job’s done and the calendars are on their way back to the Dabels.

Thanks for all your patience.

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Tags: calendar, dabels

After the Signing

March 8, 2009 at 4:48 pm

Yesterday’s signing at Page One went well. It’s always fun when the Wild Cards gang gets together, and we had a nice turnout and a lively crowd. Thanks to everyone who attended, to the good folks at Page One for hosting the event, and to Craig Chrissinger for acting as MC.

Those of you who weren’t able to attend can still pick up a hardcover first edition of BUSTED FLUSH signed by Melinda (Double Helix) Snodgrass, John Jos. (Carnifex) Miller, Carrie (Curveball) Vaughn, Caroline (Amazing Bubbles) Spector, Bud (Little Fat Boy) Simons, Ian (Genetrix) Tregillis, Victor (the Radical) Milan, and yours (the Great and Powerful Editor) truly by visiting Page One’s website at:

http://www.page1book.com/

We signed a goodly stack of books, but the supply won’t last forever, so it’s first come, first served for the autographed copies.

And Page One will also be delighted to sell you autographed copies of Carrie’s latest Kitty book, Daniel Abraham’s AN AUTUMN WAR, Melinda’s EDGE OF REASON, the Green Ronin WILD CARDS rpg by John, HUNTER’S RUN signed by me and Daniel (but not Gardner), and John Maddox Robert’s latest SPQR mystery.

After the signing we all went off to Powdrell’s, ate us some barbeque, and talked about the Wild Cards books to come.

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Tags: wild cards

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Tax Time

Wild Cards Xmas

Another Monkey Off My Back

Hugo nominations

The Twins, Again

Calendars Are Gone

Tom Meier Is Back

The Calendars Are Signed

The Calendars Are Here

After the Signing

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