Has it really been more than a month since my last update? Hard to believe. Sometimes I don’t know where the days go.

Parris flew off to Ireland a few weeks ago for a well-deserved vacation, and left me here chained to the computer to work on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. Very cruel of her, I must say, but I am getting some writing done, so I suppose it worked. All the same, the two houses seem very empty without her. More so since we are moving all the furnishings and most of the Stuff out of the main house so we can finally begin our long-planned and much-postponed renovations, which I fully expect to make my life a living hell for the next four months. Emptying the place out has been a major project in and of itself. It is staggering how much Stuff we have. Rooms and rooms and rooms of Stuff, books and clothes and books and furniture and books and music(vinyl) and books and music (CDs) and books and keepsakes and books and mementos and books and more clothing and books and more furnishings and books and… my unread shelf alone filled twenty-two boxes. (And those are just MY unread books, Parris has her own). I have enough unread books to keep me reading for several decades. I never need to buy another book. But somehow I suspect I will.

The end is almost in sight, though. We’ve filled up three storage lockers, and I am now living mostly in my “office house,” across the street from the main house. It’s crammed to the gills and chaotic, needless to say, but I suppose I am lucky. Not everybody has a second house across the street to take refuge in while their home is being renovated. Checking into a hotel for four months might be more pleasant in some regards, but I doubt that I’d be able to get much work done in a hotel room, so I’ll just grit my teeth and keep repeating, “It will be over in four months, it will be over in four months.”

Lots of other stuff going on that I can’t talk about yet… but do keep an eye on my news page. There are some exciting projects coming down the pike that I expect to be able to announce shortly. (I never like to announce anything until the contracts are signed. Superstition, I suppose, but it has served me in good stead. It’s embarrassing to tell the world about some exciting new deal or book or spin-off, and then have the thing fall apart on you).

Oh, and I suppose you want to know how the DANCE is coming? Work continues. I finished the revisions on the Jon Snow chapters that I was talking about last month, and moved on to Tyrion for a while, but just now I am working on a new viewpoint character, and a chapter set in steamy harbor of Old Volantis. Where I shall be returning, first thing tomorrow.

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I meant to write an account of my recent trip to Boskone and New York, really I did, but somehow I haven’t found the time. Sigh. Sorry about that. Now you know why I call this “Not a Blog.” I will never understand how some folks find the time and energy to update their blogs daily. For what it’s worth, I was never very good at keeping a journal either.

With no more travel on my immediate horizons (there’s Marcon in Ohio over Memorial Day, and then nothing until the summer), I have finally been able to settle down and get back into A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. That’s where most of my time and energy has gone of late. For the last week or so I have been back at the Wall with Jon Snow and the men of the Night’s Watch. Jon, I think, will be one of the main beneficiaries of my splitting A FEAST FOR CROWS in two. I will have more room to deal with Jon and Stannis and the wildlings and the rest, which will allow me to flesh out their storylines more and bring them to a better resolution… but it’s more than that. Although I had “completed” something on the order of five Jon chapters before deciding to divide the book, I was never really happy with them, and rereading them now has reinforced my feelings. They need to be much stronger, and I believe I see how to do that now. Sometimes putting things on the back burner can work wonders. That where the muse lives (or the moose, as Parris sometimes calls her).

Oh, and I’ve also come up with a new title for the seventh (and final, I hope, I hope, I hope) volume of the series — A DREAM OF SPRING. I like the sound of that a lot better than A TIME FOR WOLVES, which has been my working title for book seven up to now, and I also think it gives a better sense of the book that I want to write. So — A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, then THE WINDS OF WINTER, then A DREAM OF SPRING. Shouldn’t take me long (hah).

Other than that, well… I’m glad THE SOPRANOS is back, I haven’t made up my mind about BIG LOVE yet, and I miss ROME and wish the second season was starting next month. Saw V FOR VENDETTA last night with Parris and Melinda and Carl, and enjoyed it. Parris is still packing up our stuff so that our home renovations can begin. It has taken much longer than anticipated. We have WAY too much stuff. Comes of being packrats and living in the same house since 1983, I suppose.

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The Hugo ballot is out, and A FEAST FOR CROWS is one of the finalists in the “Best Novel” category. Thanks, to everyone who nominated me… and to those who didn’t as well, so long as you nominated someone. We need more people to take part the nominating process. Win or lose, it IS an honor just to be on the ballot.

I was also thrilled to see that Howard Waldrop is up in Novelette. Howard has few peers as a short fiction writer, and is long overdue for a Hugo. Maybe this year…

Elsewise, though, the ballot does not thrill me. I was disappointed that the SOUTH PARK’s “Trapped in the Closet” did not make the list in Short Form/ Drama, particularly in light of current efforts to make certain the episode is never shown again. And how Alan Lee and John Howe can continue to be overlooked in the Best Artist category, year after year after year after year, never ceases to astonish me.

Here’s the full list of nominees, courtesy of the good folks at LACon IV:

Best Novel
(430 ballots cast)
Learning the World, Ken MacLeod (Orbit; Tor)
A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin (Voyager; Bantam Spectra)
Old Man’s War, John Scalzi (Tor)
Accelerando, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit)
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)

Best Novella
(243 ballots cast)
Burn, James Patrick Kelly (Tachyon)
“Magic for Beginners”, Kelly Link (Magic for Beginners, Small Beer
Press; F&SF September 2005)
“The Little Goddess”, Ian McDonald (Asimov’s June 2005)
“Identity Theft”, Robert J. Sawyer (Down These Dark Spaceways, SFBC)
“Inside Job”, Connie Willis (Asimov’s January 2005)

Best Novelette
(207 ballots cast)
“The Calorie Man”, Paolo Bacigalupi (F&SF October/November 2005)
“Two Hearts”, Peter S. Beagle (F&SF October/November 2005)
“TelePresence”, Michael A. Burstein (Analog July/August 2005)
“I, Robot!, Cory Doctorow (The Infinite Matrix February 15, 2005)
“The King of Where-I-Go”, Howard Waldrop (SCI FICTION December 7,
2005)

Best Short Story
(278 ballots cast)
“Seventy-Five Years”, Michael A. Burstein (Analog January/February
2005)
“The Clockwork Atom Bomb”, Dominic Green (Interzone May/June 2005)
“Singing My Sister Down”, Margo Lanagan (Black Juice, Allen & Unwin;
Eos)
“Tk’tk’tk”, David D. Levine (Asimov’s March 2005)
“Down Memory Lane”, Mike Resnick (Asimov’s April/May 2005)

Best RelatedBook
(197 ballots cast)
Transformations: The Story of the Science Fiction Magazines from 1950
to 1970, Mike Ashley (Liverpool)
The SEX Column and Other Misprints, David Langford(Cosmos)
Science Fiction Quotations edited, Gary Westfahl(Yale)
Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion
Writers’ Workshop, Kate Wilhelm (Small Beer Press)
Soundings: Reviews 1992_1996, Gary K. Wolfe (Beccon)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
(364 ballots cast)
Batman Begins Story, David S. Goyer. Screenplay, Christopher Nolan
and David S. Goyer. Based on the character created, Bob Kane.
Directed, Christopher Nolan. (Warner Bros.)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Screenplay, Ann Peacock and Andrew Adamson and Christopher Markus &
Stephen McFeely. Based on the novel, C.S. Lewis. Directed, Andrew
Adamson. (Walt Disney Pictures/Walden Media)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Screenplay, Steven Kloves. Based
on the novel, J.K. Rowling. Directed, Mike Newell. (Warner Bros.)
Serenity Written & Directed, Joss Whedon. (Universal Pictures/Mutant
Enemy, Inc.)
Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were_Rabbit Screenplay, Steve Box
& Nick Park and Bob Baker and Mark Burton. Directed, Nick Park &
Steve Box. (Dreamworks Animation/Aardman Animation).

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
(261 ballots cast)
Battlestar Galactica !œPegasus! Written, Anne Cofell Saunders.
Directed, Michael Rymer. (NBC Universal/British Sky Broadcasting)
Doctor Who !œDalek! Written, Robert Shearman. Directed, Joe Ahearne.
(BBC Wales/BBC1)
Doctor Who !œThe Empty Child! & !œThe Doctor Dances! Written, Steven
Moffat. Directed, James Hawes. (BBC Wales/BBC1)
Doctor Who !œFather’s Day! Written, Paul Cornell. Directed, Joe
Ahearne. (BBC Wales/BBC1)
Jack-Jack Attack Written & Directed, Brad Bird. (Walt Disney
Pictures/Pixar Animation)
Lucas Back in Anger Written, Phil Raines and Ian Sorensen. Directed,
Phil Raines. (Reductio Ad Absurdum Productions)
Prix Victor Hugo Awards Ceremony (Opening Speech and Framing
Sequences). Written and performed, Paul McAuley and Kim Newman.
Directed, Mike & Debby Moir. (Interaction Events)
(There are seven nominees due to a tie for fifth place)

Best Professional Editor
(293 ballots cast)
Ellen Datlow (SCI FICTION and anthologies)
David G. Hartwell (Tor Books; Year’s Best SF)
Stanley Schmidt (Analog)
Gordon Van Gelder (F&SF)
Sheila Williams (Asimov’s)

Best Professional Artist
(230 ballots cast)
Jim Burns
Bob Eggleton
Donato Giancola
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio
Michael Whelan
(There are six nominees due to a tie for fifth place)

Best Semiprozine
(219 ballots cast)
Ansible edited, Dave Langford
Emerald City edited, Cheryl Morgan
Interzone edited, Andy Cox
Locus edited, Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong_Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
The New York Review of Science Fiction edited, Kathryn Cramer, David
G. Hartwell & Kevin J. Maroney

Best Fanzine
(176 ballots cast)
Banana Wings edited, Claire Brialey & Mark Plummer
Challenger edited, Guy H. Lillian III
Chunga edited, Andy Hooper, Randy Byers & carl juarez
File 770 edited, Mike Glyer
Plokta edited, Alison Scott, Steve Davies & Mike Scott

Best Fan Writer
(202 ballots cast)
Claire Brialey
John Hertz
Dave Langford
Cheryl Morgan
Steven H Silver

Best Fan Artist
(154 ballots cast)
Brad Foster
Teddy Harvia
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles
Frank Wu

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer of 2004 or 2005
[Not a Hugo Sponsored, Dell Magazines]
(186 ballots cast)
K.J. Bishop (2nd year of eligibility)
Sarah Monette (2nd year of eligibility)
Chris Roberson (2nd year of eligibility)
Brandon Sanderson (1st year of eligibility)
John Scalzi (1st year of eligibility)
Steph Swainston (2nd year of eligibility)
(There are six nominees due to a tie for fifth place)

There were 533 valid nominating ballots received from L.A.con IV and
Interaction members (434 electronically; 99 by mail and fax).

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Just popping up with a quick reminder that Hugo nominations close on Friday.

Many people vote for the Hugo Awards. Relatively few nominate. If you would like your voice to be heard, this is your chance. You do have to be a member of either the last worldcon (Glasgow) or the next one (LA). You can even nominate online, at http://laconiv.org/2006/hugos/hugoform.htm.

I made some suggestions as to worthy nominees a couple of posts down. Your own favorites may be very different. No matter. Nominate. The Hugo Award is only as meaningful as we make it.

I’ve been intending to post a report on my recent trip to Boskone and New York, but as usual I have been swamped since I got back. Maybe in the next day or so. It was a great trip, though. Boskone was fun, as ever, and the week in NYC was as exciting as it was exhausting. All sorts of interesting new books and projects are in the wind, and I expect I’ll be telling you about some of them when and if they become real.

(And no, I am NOT going to forget about A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. That’s still my number one priority, and will remain so until it’s done).

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It frightens me a little to realize that there have now been forty Super Bowls. I remember watching the first one in the dorm lounge of the North Shore Hotel in Evanston, Illinois, back when I was in college. I watched the second, third, and fourth in that same room. Damn, but the years do fly by…

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers and their fans. It was not the best of Super Bowls, but it was by no means the worst either. A halfway decent game, which can’t be said of all of them. And it was nice to see Jerome Bettis go out as a champion. Though he never played for either of my teams, I have always liked the Bus. He seems a class guy, a real team guy, and you like to see someone like that go out on top. I hope the same sort of ending awaits my own favorite guys, Curtis Martin (Jets) and Tiki Barber (Giants), somewhere down the line.

So another NFL season is now done, which means that Sunday becomes a work day for me once again. That should please everyone waiting for A DANCE WITH DRAGONS.

I am already looking forward to the NFL draft in April, however. The Jets have the fourth overall pick, in a draft where all the experts claim there are three great players. Sigh. Myself, I’d be happy if the Jets emerged with the big offensive lineman, D’Brickashaw Ferguson, someone to open holes for Curtis and protect Chad… always assuming that Curtis and Chad are still going to be with the team next season, which is by no means certain. The Jets have a new coach, after all, and new coaches traditionally like to clean house. If Reggie Bush falls to the four slot, that would be cool as well… but he won’t, and I don’t want the Jets to trade up to get him. I am still rooting for Chad Pennington to make a full recovery from his shoulder surgery and return to the form he flashed in 2002, so I don’t especially want the Jets to take either of the high-rated QBs, Leinart or Young. Based on their record, however, whatever selection the Jets make will turn out to be have been the wrong one… I swear, they have been under a cloud ever since Joe Willie sold their souls for that victory in Super Bowl III. Now that was a SUPER Bowl…

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LACon has sent out its Hugo nominating ballots. If you’re a member of the con, please nominate. If you’re not, but you intend on going to LA this August, this would be a good time to join. Then you could nominate as well. The Hugos are the most important and prestigious awards in the world of SF and fantasy, and this is your chance to participate in them. You do NOT have to have read every book or short story published during the past year to be able to nominate. Even if you have only read one or two things, but you think they were Hugo worthy, please do nominate them. You do NOT have to nominate in all the categories either.

I have always felt that the nominations are the most important part of the process. It IS an honor just to be nominated, after all, and if you are not nominated, you can’t win. Also, compared to the final ballot, relatively few people choose to take part in the nominating process, so one or two ballots can make the difference between being a Hugo nominee, or not. This is especially important for new writers and first time nominees. Once you get that first nomination the others come easier, since the voters tend to look back at previous years when trying to decide what names to write in. But that first nomination is hard…

Who you choose to nominate, of course, is entirely up to you. It is a secret ballot, after all.

However, I do have a few suggestions…

In the Best Artist category, I think it is a crime and a shame that I never seem to see the names of JOHN HOWE or ALAN LEE on the final ballot. There are no better fantasy artists anywhere in the world. The same five or six artists tend to be nominated in this category every year, and they are all very talented, to be sure… but it is past time that Howe and Lee were on the ballot as well. I’m nominating both of them.

The Best Editor category also tends to be dominated by the same group of “Usual Suspects.” All great editors, and well deserving of their nominations… but there are others working in our field, equally good, who have never gotten the recognition they deserve. One of them is my own editor, Bantam’s ANNE LESLEY GROELL. I urge you to consider her name when you are filling out your ballot.

No doubt the Best Dramatic Presentation/ Short Form category will be dominated by episodes of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, STARGATE, and the other ongoing SF dramas. That’s cool, but sometimes SF shows up in places where you don’t expect it. On SOUTH PARK, for example. I am going to nominate the hilarious episode called TRAPPED IN THE CLOSET, all about the evil alien overlord Xamu and L. Ron Hubbard. Join me. If we get SOUTH PARK on the ballot, maybe Matt and Trey will show up at the con…

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My Canadian book tour went very well, I thought. The bookshops did a great job, and we had good turnouts at all the events, especially those in Toronto and Vancouver. I had the chance to meet a thousand or so of my readers, and also managed to fit in a few late dinners with some old friends. Stayed at some great hotels as well. The Royal York in Toronto is full of fond memories for me, and the Empress in Victoria has to be one of the grandest places that’s ever let me through the doors.

All the same, I am glad to be home. I’ve spent most of the summer and fall touring and travelling, and it seems as though half my life has been lived in hotels and airports (I hate airports and airport security, as I am reminded every time I travel). I’ve signed in London, King’s Lynn, Norwich, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Colchester, Woking, Basingstoke, Portsmouth, Glasgow, Nashville, Lexington, Cincinnati, Dayton, Ann Arbor, Indianapolis, Madison, New York City, Petaluma, San Francisco, Berkeley, Half Moon Bay, Huntington Beach, San Diego, Seattle, Denver, Albuquerque, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria, and Vancouver. I have also done the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. and the Lucca Games & Comics Show in Tuscany. All swell places, to be sure, and I had a wonderful time meeting my fans and signing their books, cards, and games… but it’s past time that I returned to Westeros. I am looking forward to signing less and writing more during the rest of 2006.

I am still getting emails from readers who could not make it to any of my myriad appearances, but would like an autographed copy of A FEAST FOR CROWS. No, I’m afraid I do not have any copies of the book for sale myself, and I don’t expect that I will for several years. However, the good folks at the Signed Page tell me that they still have twenty-five signed copies of FEAST remaining, available through their website at http://www.signedpage.com/ . Some of the bookstores that hosted my events may also have autographed copies for sale. Try Joseph Beth in Lexington, Kentucky, the Tattered Cover in Denver, the University Book Store in Seattle (ask for Duane), or Page One Books in Albuquerque; I signed large amounts of stock at all of them.

On other fronts, my beloved New York Giants exited the NFL playoffs ignominiously, courtesy of the Carolina Panthers (probably just as well that I was flying to Toronto during that game, it would only have broken my heart), my beloved New York Jets lost their coach courtesy of the Kansas City Chiefs and hired a Kid Coach in his stead, and George W. Bush contines to subvert my beloved Constitution, spying on American citizens and supporting torture in Guantanamo. Sigh. And just for a little extra stress, Parris and I are about to begin some major and much needed renovations to our house in Santa Fe, so our lives are going to be torn up and stored in boxes for most of the next four months. Renovations are hell, everyone assures me… but I have an escape. While our roof is being torn off in Santa Fe, I plan to be off walking the Wall with Jon Snow, or visiting Dany and her dragons in Meereen. Or so I hope….

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Well, another year is done and gone. Have to say, 2005 was a terrific year… for me personally, at least (not for some of my friends, alas, and certainly not for America and our poor abused constitution, but that’s a different discussion). I finally finished and delivered A FEAST FOR CROWS (at long last, I know), saw it published, and watched in astonishment and delight as it climbed up to #1 on all the bestseller lists. I had some great tours as well, and met thousands of my readers.

Seems as though I just returned from my US tour, but already the road is calling again. On Sunday I leave for Toronto, for the first leg of my Canadian signing tour (details and dates on my Appearances page). And yes, my flights conflict with the playoff game between my Giants and the Carolina Panthers, damn it. No help for that. I will just need to grit my teeth and visualize Tiki running. Parris will TIVO the game for me, though I don’t know that I will able to stop myself from hearing the results. That worked on my English tour, since the Brits don’t give a damn about American football, but Canada is different… and these are the playoffs.

I would love to see a Manning v. Manning SuperBowl, but I don’t believe it can happen. Not this year.

All the travelling and promotion plus the usual demands of the holidays have not left me with much time and energy for writing of late, but I hope to rectify that soon. I have a big chunk of a new Dunk & Egg novella that I should be able to finish with a good solid week of work… and then I’ve got some dragons waiting for a dance. We’ll see how all that goes.

Meanwhile, I will be seeing some of you in the Great White North, I hope. ’till then…

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I love Tiki Barber.

I have been watching football for going on fifty years now, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better performance by a running back than the one that Tiki put on against the Kansas City Chiefs yesterday. It was just extraordinary. I’ve watched his long forty-one yard touchdown run a dozen times (I love Tivo too), often in slow motion, and I still can’t believe it.

What makes it even better is that Tiki seems to be such a great team guy. Sort of the anti Terrell Owens. Unselfish, courageous, intelligent, self-effacing. One could even say gallant.

The Giants have had some great running backs over the years. Rodney Hampton, O.J. Anderson, Dave Meggett, Little Joe Morris, and others who came before my time. But Tiki is the greatest of them all, I think.

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Finally got caught up on all the football games that Parris TIVO’d for me during my book tour. Yesterday I got to watch the Jets and Giants play live for the first time in six weeks.

Argh. You’d think with two teams, I’d at least have one kicker who could make a goddamned field goal. The Giants gave me three heart attacks, and the Jets added a fourth…

I take some solace from telling myself that, aside from the three missed field goals and all those false starts, the Giants played damn well against a tough Seahawks squad and are still in the thick of things.

As for my poor Jets, well, they should get a high draft choice, at least.

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