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A FIRE & BLOOD Excerpt just for YOU!

September 27, 2018 at 1:29 pm
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I’m back from the Emmys and happy to be the first to share this exclusive look at my upcoming history of Westeros and the Targaryen lords in FIRE & BLOOD.  I hope you’ll enjoy this tiny taste of what’s to come!

FIRE & BLOOD will be fully illustrated by Doug Wheatley and written from the perspective of Archmaester Gyldayn.

Portions of the book have previously appeared here and there.   The chapter about Aegon’s Conquest was published, pretty much as written, in THE WORLD OF ICE & FIRE.  But although much has been previously seen there are still hundreds of additional pages of new material which has never appeared before in any form, abridged or unabridged.

Madness, and Fire and Dragons OH MY!

 

FIRE AND BLOOD EXCERPT

 

Several years had passed since the king had last made a progress, so plans were laid in 58 AC for Jaehaerys and Alysanne to make their first visit to Winterfell and the North. Their dragons would be with them, of course, but beyond the Neck the distances were great and the roads poor, and the king had grown tired of flying ahead and waiting for his escort to catch up. This time, he decreed, his Kingsguard, servants, and retainers would go ahead of him, to make things ready for his arrival. And thus it was that three ships set sail from King’s Landing for White Harbor, where he and the queen were to make their first stop.

The gods and the Free Cities had other plans, however. Even as the king’s ships were beating their way north, envoys from Pentos and Tyrosh called upon His Grace in the Red Keep. The two cities had been at war for three years and were now desirous of making peace, but could not agree on where they might meet to discuss terms. The conflict had caused serious disruption to trade upon the narrow sea, to the extent that King Jaehaerys had offered both cities his help in ending their hostilities. After long discussion, the Archon of Tyrosh and the Prince of Pentos had agreed to meet in King’s Landing to settle their differences, provided that Jaehaerys would act as an intermediary between them, and guarantee the terms of any resulting treaty.

It was a proposal that neither the king nor his council felt he could refuse, but it would mean postponing His Grace’s planned progress to the North, and there was concern that the notoriously prickly Lord of Winterfell might take that for a slight. Queen Alysanne provided the solution. She would go ahead as planned, alone, whilst the king played host to the Prince and Archon. Jaehaerys could join her at Winterfell as soon as the peace had been concluded. And so it was agreed.

Queen Alysanne’s travels began in the city of White Harbor, where tens of thousands of northerners turned out to cheer her and gape at Silverwing with awe, and a bit of terror. It was the first time any of them had seen a dragon. The size of the crowds surprised even their lord. “I had not known there were so many smallfolk in the city,” Theomore Manderly is reported to have said. “Where did they all come from?”

The Manderlys were unique amongst the great houses of the North. Having originated in the Reach centuries before, they had found refuge near the mouth of the White Knife when rivals drove them from their rich lands along the Mander. Though fiercely loyal to the Starks of Winterfell, they had brought their own gods with them from the south, and still worshipped the Seven and kept the traditions of knighthood. Alysanne Targaryen, ever desirous of binding the Seven Kingdoms closer together, saw an opportunity in Lord Theomore’s famously large family, and promptly set about arranging marriages. By the time she took her leave, two of her ladies-in-waiting had been betrothed to his lordship’s younger sons and a third to a nephew; his eldest daughter and three nieces, meanwhile, had been added to the queen’s own party, with the understanding that they would travel south with her and there be pledged to suitable lords and knights of the king’s court.

Lord Manderly entertained the queen lavishly. At the welcoming feast an entire aurochs was roasted, and his lordship’s daughter Jessamyn acted as the queen’s cupbearer, filling her tankard with a strong northern ale that Her Grace pronounced finer than any wine she had ever tasted. Manderly also staged a small tourney in the queen’s honor, to show the prowess of his knights. One of the fighters (though no knight) was revealed to be a woman, a wildling girl who had been captured by rangers north of the Wall and given to one of Lord Manderly’s household knights to foster. Delighted by the girl’s daring, Alysanne summoned her own sworn shield, Jonquil Darke, and the wildling and the Scarlet Shadow dueled spear against sword whilst the northmen roared in approval.

A few days later, the queen convened her women’s court in Lord Manderly’s own hall, a thing hitherto unheard of in the North, and more than two hundred women and girls gathered to share their thoughts, concerns, and grievances with Her Grace.

After taking leave of White Harbor, the queen’s retinue sailed up the White Knife to its rapids, then proceeded overland to Winterfell, whilst Alysanne herself flew ahead on Silverwing. The warmth of her reception at White Harbor was not to be duplicated at the ancient seat of the Kings in the North, where Alaric Stark and his sons alone emerged to greet her when her dragon landed before his castle gates. Lord Alaric had a flinty reputation; a hard man, people said, stern and unforgiving, tight-fisted almost to the point of being niggardly, humorless, joyless, cold. Even Theomore Manderly, who was his bannerman, had not disagreed; Stark was well respected in the North, he said, but not loved. Lord Manderly’s fool had put it elsewise. “Methinks Lord Alaric has not moved his bowels since he was twelve.”

Her reception at Winterfell did nothing to disabuse the queen’s fears as to what she might expect from House Stark. Even before dismounting to bend the knee, Lord Alaric looked askance at Her Grace’s clothing and said, “I hope you brought something warmer than that.” He then proceeded to declare that he did not want her dragon inside his walls. “I’ve not seen Harrenhal, but I know what happened there.” Her knights and ladies he would receive when they got here, “and the king too, if he can find the way,” but they should not overstay their welcome. “This is the North, and winter is coming. We cannot feed a thousand men for long.” When the queen assured him that only a tenth that number would be coming, Lord Alaric grunted and said, “That’s good. Fewer would be even better.” As had been feared, he was plainly unhappy that King Jaehaerys had not deigned to accompany her, and confessed to being uncertain how to entertain a queen. “If you are expecting balls and masques and dances, you have come to the wrong place.”

Lord Alaric had lost his wife three years earlier. When the queen expressed regret that she had never had the pleasure of meeting Lady Stark, the northman said, “She was a Mormont of Bear Isle, and no lady by your lights, but she took an axe to a pack of wolves when she was twelve, killed two of them, and sewed a cloak from their skins. She gave me two strong sons as well, and a daughter as sweet to look upon as any of your southron ladies.”

When Her Grace suggested that she would be pleased to help arrange marriages for his sons to the daughters of great southern lords, Lord Stark refused brusquely. “We keep the old gods in the North,” he told the queen. “When my boys take a wife, they will wed before a heart tree, not in some southron sept.”

Alysanne Targaryen did not yield easily, however. The lords of the south honored the old gods as well as the new, she told Lord Alaric; most every castle that she knew had a godswood as well as a sept. And there were still certain houses that had never accepted the Seven, no more than the northmen had, the Blackwoods in the riverlands chief amongst them, and mayhaps as many as a dozen more. Even a lord as stern and flinty as Alaric Stark found himself helpless before Queen Alysanne’s stubborn charm. He allowed that he would think on what she said, and raise the matter with his sons.

The longer the queen stayed, the more Lord Alaric warmed to her, and in time Alysanne came to realize that not everything that was said of him was true. He was careful with his coin, but not niggardly; he was not humorless at all, though his humor had an edge to it, sharp as a knife; his sons and daughter and the people of Winterfell seemed to love him well enough. Once the initial frost had thawed, his lordship took the queen hunting after elk and wild boar in the wolfswood, showed her the bones of a giant, and allowed her to rummage as she pleased through his modest castle library. He even deigned to approach Silverwing, though warily. The women of Winterfell were taken by the queen’s charms as well, once they grew to know her; Her Grace became particularly close with Lord Alaric’s daughter, Alarra. When the rest of the queen’s party finally turned up at the castle gates, after struggling through trackless bogs and summer snows, the meat and mead flowed freely, despite the king’s absence.

Things were not going as well at King’s Landing, meanwhile. The peace talks dragged on far longer than anticipated, for the acrimony between the two Free Cities ran deeper than Jaehaerys had known. When His Grace attempted to strike a balance, both sides accused him of favoring the other. Whilst the Prince and the Archon dickered, fights began to break out between their men across the city, in inns, brothels, and wine sinks. A Pentoshi guardsman was set upon and killed, and three nights later the Archon’s own galley was set afire where she was docked. The king’s departure was delayed and delayed again.

In the North, Queen Alysanne grew restless with waiting, and decided to take her leave of Winterfell for a time and visit the men of the Night’s Watch at Castle Black. The distance was not negligible, even flying; Her Grace landed at the Last Hearth and several smaller keeps and holdfasts on her way, to the surprise and delight of their lords, whilst a portion of her tail scrambled after her (the rest remained at Winterfell).

Her first sight of the Wall from above took Alysanne’s breath away, Her Grace would later tell the king. There had been some concern how the queen might be received at Castle Black, for many of the black brothers had been Poor Fellows and Warrior’s Sons before those orders were abolished, but Lord Stark sent ravens ahead to warn of her coming, and the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, Lothor Burley, assembled eight hundred of his finest men to receive her. That night the black brothers feasted the queen on mammoth meat, washed down with mead and stout.

As dawn broke the next day Lord Burley took Her Grace to the top of the Wall. “Here the world ends,” he told her, gesturing at the vast green expanse of the haunted forest beyond. Burley was apologetic for the quality of the food and drink presented to the queen, and the rudeness of the accommodations at Castle Black. “We do what we can, Your Grace,” the Lord Commander explained, “but our beds are hard, our halls are cold, and our food—”

“—is nourishing,” the queen finished. “And that is all that I require. It will please me to eat as you do.”

The men of the Night’s Watch were as thunderstruck by the queen’s dragon as the people of White Harbor had been, though the queen herself noted that Silverwing “does not like this Wall.” Though it was summer and the Wall was weeping, the chill of the ice could still be felt whenever the wind blew, and every gust would make the dragon hiss and snap. “Thrice I flew Silverwing high above Castle Black, and thrice I tried to take her north beyond the Wall,” Alysanne wrote to Jaehaerys, “but every time she veered back south again and refused to go. Never before has she refused to take me where I wished to go. I laughed about it when I came down again, so the black brothers would not realize anything was amiss, but it troubled me then and it troubles me still.”

_____________________________________________________________

From the book FIRE & BLOOD by George R. R. Martin. Copyright © 2018 by George R. R. Martin. Reprinted by arrangement with Bantam, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. All rights reserved.

Find out more about Fire & Blood here.

 

 

 

Current Mood: accomplished accomplished

Starport a NEW Graphic Novel

September 6, 2018 at 8:45 am
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Fevre River is proud to announce STARPORT,  a new hardcover graphic novel coming March 2019 from Bantam!

Based on one of the TV pilots George wrote in the 90’s during his first run in Hollywood, this rarely seen story will be illustrated in full color by Hugo Award-nominated artist Raya Golden (Facebook – @rayagoldenillustration), and assisted by her artistic accomplice Rachel Hilley. (Instagram- @RLHilley) Both currently local New Mexican artists.

This one of a kind bright, bold and brilliant graphic novel brings Martin’s singular vision to rollicking life.

Read the short description below and watch for more news on STARPORT!

SECOND CITY. FIRST CONTACT.

 

Ten years ago, representatives from an interstellar collective of 314 alien

species landed on Earth, inviting us to become number 315. Now, after seemingly

endless delays, the Starport in Chicago is operational, a destination for diplomats,

merchants, and tourists alike. Inside, visitors are governed by intergalactic treaty.

Outside, the streets belong to Chicago’s finest.

 

Charlie Baker, newly promoted to the district that oversees alien affairs, is

eager to put to practical use his enthusiasm for all things extraterrestrial; he just

never expected to arrive on his first day in the back of a police cruiser. Lieutenant

Bobbi Kelleher is married to the job, which often puts her in conflict with Lyhanne

Nhar-Lys, security champion of Starport and one of the galaxy’s fiercest warriors.

Undercover with a gang of anti-alien extremists, Detective Aaron Stein has no

problem mixing business with pleasure–until he stumbles upon evidence of a plot

to assassinate a controversial trade envoy with a cache of stolen ray guns. Now

the Chicago PD must stop these nutjobs before they piss off the entire universe.

 

Based on a  1997 TV pilot script written by George R. R. Martin and adapted and

illustrated in full color by Hugo Award-nominated artist Raya Golden, this bold and

brilliant graphic novel adaptation brings Martin’s singular vision to rollicking life.

With all the intrigue, ingenuity, and atmosphere that made A Game of Thrones a

worldwide phenomenon, Starport launches a new chapter in the career of a sci-fi/fantasy superstar.

 

PRE-ORDER LINK:  http://a.co/d/8WgEf0Y

 

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ONE-EYED JACKS is hitting the streets again!

August 7, 2018 at 8:34 am
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Tor’s reissue of ONE-EYED JACKS comes out today, which has been out of print for more than twenty years.    Now back in print with a brand new cover by David Palumbo as well as a bunch of brand new stories to add to the ever growing Wild Cards World!

One-Eyed Jacks features the writing talents of Walton Simons, Chris Claremont, Lewis Shiner, William F. Wu, Victor Milan, Stephen Leigh, Melinda M. Snodgrass, and John Jos. Miller, along with previously unpublished stories from Carrie Vaughn and Kevin Andrew Murphy.

 

 

Pick up a signed copy from the JCC today!

http://jeancocteaucinema.com/product-category/author/v-z/wild-cards-trust/

 

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Worldcon Time!

August 6, 2018 at 7:31 am
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It’s August, and that means that worldcon is coming around once again.   (In a properly ordered universe, worldcon would be coming on Labor Day weekend but sadly that seems to be a lost cause since Dragoncon stole those dates).

This year’s gathering is in San Jose, California.   It ought to be called ConJose II, but it’s not.   I like my worldcons to have names, not numbers, however, so I refuse to accede to this new twitch of numbering cons instead of naming them.   The SanJose folks keep insisting that this worldcon is not ConJose II, though.   So be it.   In the tradition of my Not A Blog, and of course the famous John W. Campbell Award (Not A Hugo), I shall henceforth refer to this year’s gathering as Not ConJose II.

I have cut way down on the number of cons I attend, due to the press of work, but there’s no way I’d miss a worldcon, by any name.   I’ve only missed one in the last thirty years.   Dragoncon and San Diego Comicon and GenCon and many other cons are now much bigger, but worldcon remains the original, and the best, the heart of the fannish community.   Worldcon is like a family reunion.   And yes, like any large family, we have our share of drunken uncles, loony cousins, and snot-nosed kids… but still, family is family.   I’ll be there for the whole con.  I hope to see many of you in SanJose.  Worldcon is great time for getting together with old friends and making new ones.

I know that some of you will be hoping to get your books autographed at the con.   There will be several opportunities for that.

My week will start on Tuesday, August 14, with a special fundraiser on behalf of LOCUS, an evening with John Picacio.   That event is not an actual part of the con, so tickets will be sold separately.  I will not be signing at the fundraiser, no… but we will have hundreds of pre-signed books available for purchase at the event.

https://foxrwc.showare.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=210

I also have three scheduled signings at Not ConJose II itself.  Friday at noon and Sunday at 1pm, I will be signing in the official autograph area.   The lines will be capped, however; there’s a limit to how many books I can sign in an hour.   (No, my hand doesn’t fall off.   It’s my lower back that protests).  Sorry, I can’t do personalizations or inscriptions, and we have a limit of one book per person.   Mind you, if the lines are short, I will sometimes loosen the rules and sign a second book, etc.   Don’t count on that, though; my lines have not been short in years.   Oh, and yes, I will sign things other than books.   Games, cards, replica swords, photographs, program books, interesting body parts…. but still, only one item per person, and no personalizations.   And I don’t sign babies, pets, or books written by other authors.

Besides these two general signings, we also have the Wild Cards signing, scheduled for Saturday morning at 10am in the dealer’s room.   That’s a mass signing.  Melinda Snodgrass, Caroline Spector, Marko Kloos, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Kevin Andrew Murphy, and several other Wild Cards writers and creators will be joining me, to deface your books with their illegible scrawls.  But at that event we will be signing ONLY Wild Cards books, so please don’t bring copies of any of my other works… those you can get signed at the general signings.

I do prefer to limit my autographing to these four scheduled events.   I want to enjoy worldcon like everyone else, without having to scrawl my way through it.  So please do not approach me before or after panels, at the Hugos, in the corridors, at the parties, while I’m having dinner (or breakfast, or lunch), or in the restrooms to ask for an autograph.   Your understanding would be much appreciated.

Aside from signing things, what am I doing at Not ConJoseII? you may ask.

At 5pm on Friday I will be part of the Gardner Dozois Memorial.   A sad event, but I think we’ll have some laughs as well.   Gardner was the funniest man in our field for half a century, he’d want to hear us laughing.

There’s also to be a Wild Cards panel, though I am not sure just when.   The present time is a conflict for me.   Depending on where the panel gets moved, I may or may not be on it.  But there will be a Wild Cards panel regardless.

Oh, and keep your eyes on Thursday.   We’re looking at doing a presentation and trailer screening for the new NIGHTFLYERS television series that debuts this fall.   Details are still being worked out   When we have more definite news, I will let you know.

And that’s it, so far as my public participation in Not ConJoseII is concerned.   But of course, I will be there all weekend, wandering the dealer’s room, drinking in the bar, visiting the art show… and, of course, hitting the parties.   That’s what worldcon is all about.

 

Current Mood: busy busy

Nightflyers Panel at SDCC

July 31, 2018 at 1:28 am
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Here’s a video of the Nightflyers panel from San Dieago ComicCon

Pick up a signed editions from the Cocteau Cinema Bookstore:

Nightflyers Illustrated Edition

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Victor Milán Talks Wild Cards

July 27, 2018 at 9:00 am
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Follow the link below to check out this wonderful video hosted at Tor.com.

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Victor Milán Talks Wild Cards

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More Nightflyers Goodness

July 24, 2018 at 1:01 pm
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Here’s another slightly different also compelling trailer for SyFy’s upcoming Nightflyers

 

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Nightflyers At ComiCon

July 23, 2018 at 9:06 am
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Sadly, I was not able to attend ComiCon this year, but I hear the NIGHTFLYERS panel drew a huge crowd and was a rousing success.

Check out this New preview and poster the SyFy Channel dropped at the Con.

 

 

Current Mood: excited excited

WINDHAVEN gets a Graphic Novel make over!

July 10, 2018 at 9:06 am
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The classic fantasy novel co authored by GRRM and the talented Lisa Tuttle is being rereleased from Penguin Random House today in Graphic Novel form! 

Illustrated by Marvel Comics artist Elsa Charretier who has re-imagined the high flying political intrigue and sweeping sky scapes that will carry you away to the world of Windhaven. 

Get your beautifully illustrated hardcover edition of the Windhaven graphic novel today! 

FOR SOME DREAMS, THE SKY IS NO LIMIT.

Among the scattered islands of the ocean-bound world called Windhaven, no one holds more prestige than the silver-winged flyers—humans borne on handcrafted wings who cross treacherous seas, braving shifting winds and sudden storms, to bring news, gossip, songs, and stories to Windhaven’s far-flung communities. Maris of Lesser Amberly is only a fisherman’s daughter, but as much a descendant of the star sailors who founded her world as the flyer family who adopted her. She yearns to soar high above the water on the sky’s buffeting currents.

But it is Maris’s stepbrother who stands to inherit the irreplaceable wings when he comes of age—though he dreams of pursuing a very different path. So Maris dares to challenge tradition and the law by demanding that flyers be chosen by merit rather than inheritance. Determined to establish flying competitions and training academies for those not of the flyer-born classes, she wages a bitter battle for change. But even as she triumphs, a host of new troubles confronts her. For a brewing revolution now threatens to destroy the world she fought so hard to join, and crush her proud, rebellious spirit—unless she is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

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ThrillerFest XIII ThrillMaster

July 5, 2018 at 10:10 pm
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ThrillMaster 2018, George R. R. Martin will thrill you, chill you and if you’re lucky, kill you…not really, but ThrillerFest XIII promises to fulfill you with the blockbuster lineup of panels, workshops, awards, networking parties and special guests including Lee Child, Megan Abbott, Meg Gardiner and James Rollins.

Anne Groell, Penguin Random House Editor interviews ThrillMaster George R. R. Martin, Friday THE 13th at 12:20p.m. Ballroom I. Catch him if you can at the signing immediately following, but don’t dally…signing ceases at 1:40p.m. Saturday’s  schedule includes Jack The Ripper, Black Dahlia and Night’s King, oh my! This spine tingling panel starts at 1 o’clock in Ballroom I. Meet the Masters: Past & Present convenes in Ballroom I at 2p.m.  Jeff Ayers hosts ThrillMaster 2018, George. R. R. Martin and past ThrillMasters Heather Graham, Lee Child, David Morrell,  & R. L. Stine. Sure to be captivating.  thrillerfest.com

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