Well, I finished a chapter of the DANCE this morning. Which ordinarily would not be occasion for comment, but this was a Bran chapter that I’ve been struggling with for something like six years. Bran has always been the toughest character to write, for a whole bunch of reasons, but this chapter in particular was killing me.

Anyway, that’s one done. (Unless I wake up tomorrow, reread what I’ve done, decide that I hate it, and tear the whole thing up. Which does happen from time to time).

Now let’s hope the NEXT Bran chapter doesn’t take six years as well.

Current Mood: null

The Giants have just signed David Carr to back up Eli at QB. It’s a one-year one-mil contract, so the risk is not great, but I’m not thrilled. Carr is a former #1 overall draft pick, just like Eli was a couple of years later, but Carr had the misfortune to be drafted by the Texans, where he played human pinata for five years. He’s been sacked way more than any other QB in the NFL over the same time span, and I fear may have had his potential knocked out of him. If Eli goes down, I’d much rather see Jared Lorenzen coming in behind center. The Hefty Lefty has a bigger arm than Carr, and much more upside.

Oh, well. Maybe Eli will prove to be as indestructible as his brother Peyton. Knock wood.

Meanwhile, the Jets have gone on a MAJOR free agent shopping spree. Alan Faneca, Kris Jenkins, Damian Woody, Calvin Pace, Tony Richardson. Maybe Ty Law too, we’ll see. Some of the new additions are older than I’d like, but still, Mangini’s boys should be considerably better next year… and unlike some, I still trust in Chad as our QB. With a solid offensive line protecting him, he can be very effective, “weak arm” or no.

Current Mood: null

Robin Hobb Speaks Truth: http://robinhobb.com/rant.html

Reading this was painful. Hits too close to home.

Maybe I have to start posting here less often.

Current Mood: null

I’ve done a new podcast, for the website of the 2008 World Fantasy Convention in Calgary. It can be found at

http://worldfantasy2008.libsyn.com/

for those who are interested.

Elsewise? Writing. Gaming. Editing.

Oh, and we have a new kitten, an orange Maine Coon Cat, female. So far she’s the Kitten Without a Name, but we’ll come up with one soon, I’m sure. She’s a great hit with me and Parris, but Caligula is less than pleased at the presence of another cat in the house, and he hisses and spits whenever he sees her. So

Current Mood: null

Well, I told you to get your copy of the Subterranean Press signed, numbered, limited edition of FEVRE DREAM before they were all gone. I hope you listened.

Bill Schafer of SubPress has just informed me that FEVRE DREAM is now sold out.

They still have copies of their deluxe illustrated edition of HUNTER’S RUN, signed by all three authors, but those too are going fast. If you want one, this would be a good time to visit the Subterranean website, before Ramon and Maneck follow Abner and Joshua down the river.

Current Mood: null

So Brett Favre is retiring.

A sad day for the cheeseheads… and for football fans everywhere, no matter what team they root for. Brett was a class act, and one of the all time greats at his position. He will be missed. A great, great career.

And just think. If it hadn’t been for those damned Atlanta Falcons, he would have been a Jet. Sigh. “Broadway Brett.” Okay, okay, almost only counts in horseshoes and grenades, but a boy can dream.

Goodbye, Brett.

Current Mood: null

I’ve made my Hugo nominations.

Have you?

Time is running out. The deadline is March 1.

Current Mood: null

Best Editor is another one of those problem categories, where the award goes to a person rather than to a piece of work, and as a result the same people tend to show up every year.

Originally this category was “Best Professional Magazine,” but that was changed back when books and original anthologies began to shove the prozines aside and assume more importance in the field, the idea being that now book editors would be able to compete for the Hugo as well. That sounded good in theory, but didn’t work in practice, since book editors were seldom credited and the readers didn’t know who they were. So the magazine editors continued to dominate.

Last year, however, the award was split in two. Now we have a Hugo for “short form” editing and one for “long form” editing.

The short form nominees are going to be the usual bunch of suspects, the magazine and anthology editors who have filled the ballot for years. The best of them, to my mind, is still GARDNER DOZOIS, and I expect I will be nominating him again. He brought ASIMOV’s to its present position as the best magazine in the field, still edits his BEST OF THE YEAR, and has also edited various original anthologies, some published, some in the pipeline.

The long form editors — the book editors — are still largely unknown to the general reader. Let me mention a couple of them who deserve a nod. 2007 was the last year of ELLEN ASHER’s long tenure at the Science Fiction Book Club, where she had been the editor for as long as I’ve been publishing. It was a distinguished career, and Ellen had the daunting task of reading almost all the SF and fantasy being published and selecting the best of it for her club members. She’s never been honored with a Hugo, and I think it’s past time. She’ll be on my nominating ballot, and I urge you all to remember her on yours.

I will also be nominating my own editor, ANNE LESLEY GROELL of Bantam Spectra. She’s been my editor since the first volume of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, and she’s been terrific every step of the way. If I survive this series, it will be in no small part thanks to Anne, so go and nominate her too!

Current Mood: null

Best Artist has always been one of the more problematical Hugo categories. Because it is given to a person rather than to a particular work, name recognition has always weighed much more heavily here than in the fiction categories, and the same artists have tended to dominate the ballot year after year and decade after decade, sometimes even winning Hugos during years in which they had little or no work published. Meanwhile other artists, equally talented, never even made the ballot.

If we’d used similar rules for the fiction categories, we would have had a “Best Writer” award instead of “Best Novel,” and Robert A. Heinlein would have won it every year from 1954 until his death, with maybe a few upset wins sprinkled in for Roger Zelazny and Ursula Le Guin when the New Wave was at its peak, and William Gibson when cyberpunk was the flavor of the month.

Past efforts to redress this problem have come to nothing, however. When they offered a Hugo for the best piece of artwork rather than best artist, no one nominated. So we’re stuck with this award the way it is.

There are so many good artists out there, however, that I urge everyone who intends to nominate to try and look beyond last year’s ballot when filling in this year’s.

How about John Howe, Alan Lee, and Ted Nasmith? The “Big Three” of Tolkien illustrators are among the best known fantasy artists in the world today, and have been for many decades, and NONE OF THEM HAVE EVER BEEN NOMINATED FOR A HUGO! They haven’t even made the ballot. Fantasy fans buy their Tolkien calendars in the hundreds of thousands, but seemingly forget all about them when the Hugo comes around. I think it’s time we rectified that. Alan Lee had an especially good year in 2007 with his gorgeous illustrations for Tolkien’s CHILDREN OF HURIN.

And there are so many news artists as well. Let me draw your attention to one of them, a guy named Michael Komarck. I first encountered Komarck a few years back when he stepped in to do a cover for the Meisha Merlin edition of TUF VOYAGING a week before the deadline, after the previous artist had taken a year and produced crap. Komarck did an amazing job in the short time he had, and his work has just improved since then. He did the cover for INSIDE STRAIGHT, the new Wild Cards book, and will do the rest of that series. He also did the cover the Fantasy Flight’s art book, THE ART OF ICE & FIRE, and he’s the one painting the Dabel Brothers series of limited edition Ice & Fire prints.

Here are few samples of his stuff. You can find a lot more on his website at http://www.komarckart.com/ Check it out for yourself.

I’ll be nominating Komarck, Lee, Howe, and Nasmith for the Hugo this year.

Current Mood: null