I’ve just read the news about the passing of author George MacDonald Fraser.

What a rotten way to kick off a new year. Fraser will never be admitted to the august halls of High Literature, but if there was ever a more entertaining storyteller, I don’t know his name. GMF wrote some fine screenplays and some terrific stand-alone novels, but he will be best remembered for the Flashman books, his delightful series of historical swashbucklers featuring Queen Victoria’s most dubious hero, that notorious cad, bounder, and coward, Harry Flashman. I loved Flashie the first time I encountered him in the pages of FLASHMAN, way back around 1973 or so, and for more than thirty years it has always been an occasion for rejoicing when Fraser discovered another “packet” of Flashman’s unexpurgated memoirs. The arrival of a new Flashman book always meant that I had to stop whatever I was doing, drive to the nearest bookstore, snatch it up, bring it home, and sit down at once to read it. It saddens me to think that won’t happen any more.

Flashman was always great fun, and somehow managed to be an utterly original character, despite being “borrowed” from another book (TOM BROWN’S SCHOOLDAYS). And Fraser knew how to keep you turning pages. He was the best writer of pure adventure in our times, a modern day Dumas. I’ll miss him and Harry both. Roger on, lads.

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I’ve sent a new sample chapter from A DANCE WITH DRAGONS and an update on the current status of the book to my webmaster. Expect them to go up soon, on their respective pages.

It may take a few days. It is the holidays, after all, and my webmaster has a life and other things to do besides taking care of my site. (This is the only part of my site that I can actually change myself). So please be patient. It won’t be long.

Happy New Year, everyone.

(And no, the book’s not done. Didn’t I just say that in yesterday’s post?)

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Another year about to end. They seem to go past very fast of late.

I had hoped to be able to finish A DANCE WITH DRAGONS during 2007. Way back around this time last year, I had even hoped that the book might be published during 2007. Neither of those happened, and to that extent the year was a disappointment… for me, as well as for my fans.

Other projects fared better. THE ICE DRAGON, HUNTER’S RUN, DREAMSONGS, the SWORN SWORD comic book, the incredibly cool miniatures from Dark Sword, and soon to come the minibusts from Valyrian Resin and the replica of Longclaw from Valyrian Steel. The rebirth of Wild Cards has been especially exciting. INSIDE STRAIGHT will be out in less than a month, BUSTED FLUSH has been delivered, our new Wild Cards website is up and running, and the Wild Cards comic series and RPG are on the way (from DBPro and Green Ronin, respectively). And then there are the two new anthology projects that I’m co-editing with Gardner Dozois, WARRIORS and SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH, both now well underway. So it’s certainly been a productive year. In some ways an exhausting one.

Still, the new year looms. I am not a big believer in New Year resolutions, but I do have some goals for 2008, both personal and professional, and the most urgent of those remains A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. For more about DANCE, see the Update page of my website, which I intend to update in the next day or so. See also the Samples page. I’ve been alternating the first Tyrion chapter and the first Dany chapter there for the past year, but as a holiday gift to my readers, and a thanks for all their patience, I’m going to put up a new sample soon.

(It may take a few days to get the update and the sample up, be warned).

Here’s hoping that 2008 is a year of triumph and wonderment for all of us.

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Even when they win, they lose.

Yesterday Mike Nugent kicked a field goal in overtime to give the Jets a victory over the Kansas City Chefs. Closing out the dismal season with a win.

Alas, that win changed them from a 3-13 team to a 4-12 team.

If they had finished 3-13, the Jets would have had the third choice in the April’s NFL draft. At 4-12, they drop down all the way to sixth pick. There are three other teams that finished at 4-12, and all of them get to pick before the Jets now.

Why do the other three 4-12 teams get to pick before the Jets, you ask? The tiebreaker is “strength of schedule.” The Jets played a stronger schedule than the other three 4-12 teams, so they pick last of the bunch.

Why is their strength of schedule stronger than the other three teams, you ask? Well, for starts, the Jets had to play the Patriots twice. That means 32-0 before you even consider the other fourteen games they played.

Just another reason to hate the Pats.

(Who, by the way, will pick seventh, immediately after the Jets, thanks to their trade last season with the 49ers. I think Pioli and Belichick must have incriminating photographs of all the other GMs and coaches in the league. How else to explain these trades they make? I mean, they picked up Wes Welker and Randy Moss for loose change and old jock straps, I believe. Great work there, Miami and Oakland).

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… but the bad guys won.

Arrrgh.

Life is meaningless and has no purpose.

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ESPN reports that Bill Parcells has signed with the Miami Dolphins to take over as their new director of football operations.

That sound you hear is me grinding my teeth. Why the hell couldn’t the Tuna have signed with the Falcons, as he appeared to be on the cusp of doing just two days ago?

I loved Parcells as the Giants coach. I loved him as the Jets coach. I hated it when he walked away from both teams. And I got really pissed when he went over to the enemy and rebuilt the Cowboys. And now he’s going to do the same thing for the Fins.

Things just got that much harder for my poor Jets. Belichick and Parcells both in the same division. Sigh.

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… but I have just been interviewed by one, about the legal system of the Seven Kingdoms, and the topic of law in fantasy in general.

You can hear my interview with David Hoffman the blogsite Concurring Opinions at

http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/12/law_talk_george_1.html

Dave is a law professor at Temple University as well as a fantasy fan, with a particular interest in the treatment of law in epic fantasies. If that topic interests you, you can check out some of the earlier discussion on those issues at

http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/05/fantasys_apocal_1.html

and

http://volokh.com/posts/chain_1179774041.shtml

and

http://lpcprof.typepad.com/law_and_magic_blog/2007/05/welcome.html

and also

http://www.stephenbainbridge.com/punditry/comments/hoffman_on_hard_fantasy_and_the_absence_of_law/

Myself, I enjoyed the interview with Dave, and found that all these discussions gave me a lot of food for thought. Maybe once I finish A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, I will do a legal thriller set in the Seven Kingdoms next. John Grisham meets J.R.R. Tolkien, as they’d say in Hollywood.

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Lately I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking me for the latest news about HBO and their prospective adaptation of A GAME OF THRONES.

I appreciate the interest, really, but there is no news. No good news. No bad news. No news of any sort. With much of Hollywood presently shut down because of the writer’s strike, I can’t even say when there will be news.

I try to keep my fans and readers updated on everything that’s happening — with this and with all my other projects — here on my Not-A-Blog, and on the News page of my website. If there was any news worth reporting, you’d read it there. Honest.

Meantime, check out this YouTube video that was recently brought to my attention:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szQ-ZhVxZSU

No, it’s not from HBO, it’s not for an actual film. It’s a labor of love that one of my readers put together, all unbeknownest to me, using clips from other films. It’s really cool, however. I don’t know about you guys, but I’d buy a ticket.

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Okay, the Jets lost and the Giants choked, but at least my Wild Cards team is doing well. Another good review just came in, this one from Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist. Check it out at

http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2007/12/inside-straight.html

And then hie thee off to an internet bookstore and preorder INSIDE STRAIGHT.

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