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Black Friday Books

November 25, 2016 at 3:41 pm
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It is Black Friday, the day when Christmas shopping begins in earnest.

So let me say again: books make great Christmas presents, and autographed books are even better. Being hard to fine and all.

We have a great selection at the Jean Cocteau Cinema, including two very special Anniversay Editions. The GAME OF THRONES anniversary hardcover, signed by yours truly, and the OUTLANDER anniversary edition, autographed by Diana Gabaldon.

And if anniversary editions are not your thing, we’ve got all sorts of other signed books as well. Here are just a few of those.

For these, and many other titles, head to http://www.jeancocteaubooks.com/

And yes, the JCC does now accept international orders… but you’ll need to act soon (or pay a lot more) to get the books there by Christmas.

Gobble Gobble

November 24, 2016 at 2:23 pm
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Turkey Day is here.

Friends, family, food, and football. The Four Freedoms. What’s not to love?

We will be heading up to Melinda’s shortly for her annual feast.

It’s been a hard year and a harder month, but I still have a lot to be thankful for. Parris, my friends, my agents, editors, and publishers, my fans and readers.

Here’s hoping that everyone reading this has a great Thanksgiving.

Xmas Shopping?

November 23, 2016 at 12:48 pm
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Books make great Christmas presents.

Autographed books are even more special.

Here are a few of the signed books we have available at the Jean Cocteau Bookstore.

There are lots more. For the full list, go to http://www.jeancocteaubooks.com/

(Some of the anthologies have multiple autographs).

Hey, and meanwhile… hope everyone has a great Turkey Day tomorrow.

Five in a Row

November 22, 2016 at 4:57 pm
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The Giants won their fifth game in a row on Sunday.

It was, admittedly, not as convincing a win as I would have liked. The opponent was the woeful (this year, anyway) Chicago Bears, with the worst offense in the NFL, but even so the Giants came out sleepwalking during the first half and let the Monsters of the Midway take an early lead.

Thankfully, they woke up in the third quarter and took command, with a couple of nice touchdown drives that put them well ahead. Not far enough ahead for my comfort, mind you. Come the fourth quarter, the playcalling turned absurdly conservative. One more score would have sealed the game, but instead the G-Men played run, run, run, kick, trying to run down the clock… a rather dangerous tactic, given how much our run game sucks this season. The Bears could still have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat up to the last moment. It took a late Jay Cutler INT to nail down the win.

Landon Collins, who made the pick, looks like the real deal. A star in the making. The whole defense played well. They get better every week. Kudos to Spags, and all the guys on D, especially Snacks, Vernon, and JPP.

It was great to see Victor Cruz back as well.

So… five in a row… and a good shot at a wild card berth. Maybe even more, if the Cowboys stumble. The G-Men are the only team to beat them this year.

(The Jets avoided losing by having a bye).

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Another Win, Another Loss

November 16, 2016 at 12:14 pm
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I was in Arizona at Tuscon this past weekend, so I did not see the Jets game. Good thing, that. From what I heard, it was a truly abysmal performance. The only point of interest is that Bryce Petty started at QB, and did moderately well. I hope he continues to start for the rest of the year. The season is over, might as well see what we’ve got in Petty. Neither Geno nor Fitz is going to be on the team next season, I figure, and we do need a quarterback.

The Giants played Monday night, and won their fourth game in a row, a hard-fought one-point win over the Cincinnati Bengals. I did catch that one. Good game, too. Big Blue’s offense is still not the explosive juggernaut I was hoping for pre-season (Victor Cruz is badly missed, and there’s still no running game), but the defense is looking better every week. This victory belonged to the D. Let’s hope they continue to improve. And come back soon, Victor!

Tuscon was a pleasant, friendly, low-key con, by the way. They took good care of me, and I had fun. Signed a lot of books too.

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R.I.P. Leonard

November 10, 2016 at 10:31 pm
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Leonard Cohen is gone, and the world is a little poorer.

I’d say “a little sadder,” but Cohen was the bard of sadness. He spoke to all the broken hearts out there, sang of shattered dreams and lost hopes. There was no one better to listen to when you were melancholy, depressed, lonely, despondent, or suicidal.

There was a certain time in my life when I listened to Cohen’s SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE album obsessively, drowning in his voice and his words. That was in the Age of Vinyl, and I believe I wore out several needles on that one.

I’ve loved so many of his songs… “Hallelujah,” of course, and “Famous Blue Raincoat.” But I will leave you with my favorite:

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Back in the day, when I was young and music was good, a number of my short stories were inspired by lyrics in my favorite songs. “Suzanne” was the inspiration for my short story “Bitterblooms,” which remains one of my favorites to this very day.

Goodbye, Leonard.

Odds, Ends, Fun Stuff

November 10, 2016 at 4:49 pm
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Lots of gloom and doom around, but today I just want to burble about good stuff, the little things that make life worth living. Books, movies, TV shows, friends, fun.

Let me start with television. How many of you have been watching HBO’s big new drama WESTWORLD? If not, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s intriguing. The old Yul Brynner / Michael Crichton movie was just the seed, this one goes way way way beyond that. It’s gorgeous to look at, and the writing and acting and directing are all first rate. And hey, how many of you spotted Yul in last week’s episode?

I am also watching the two new time travel shows, TIMELESS and FREQUENCY, mainly because I am an SF geek who loves time travel yarns. FREQUENCY is based on the film of the same title, one of the very best treatments of time paradoxes and the butterfly effect I’ve ever seen. The show started out strong as well, though lately, I don’t know, I worry that it’s spinning its wheels. I don’t mind that they changed the present day character from a man to a woman, I only mind a little that they changed the past character from a fireman to a cop… but I hate that they lost the Amazin’ Mets, one of the great parts of the movie.

On other fronts, we hope to have a brand new official Wild Cards website up soon. Watch this space for further details. My crack staff of minions and ogres are revamping and updating the Jean Cocteau website as well.

We had a great event with Emily St. John Mandel at the JCC on Monday night, before Black Tuesday. What a delightful person, and what an amazing writer. If you haven’t read her STATION ELEVEN yet, grab yourself a signed copy from the JCC Bookshop, it’s a brilliant book. We also have autographed copies of her first three novels, which I mean to check out myself.

This weekend the JCC will host the magic of George Tovar. Tickets available from our website. We could all use more magic in our lives about now.

I won’t be able to see the show myself, alas, since I will be in Tucson for Tuscon, where I am Guest of Honor. If you have a ticket, I will see you there. If you don’t, alas, I can’t tell you where to get one; they have been sold out for months. (This whole idea of SF cons selling out is strange to an old phan like me). I have been cutting way back on my travel lately but Tuscon has been on my schedule for several years. It’s my last convention for 2016… though next month I will be flying to Mexico for the Guadalajara Book Fair, which has been booked even longer. Tuscon should be fun; I am looking forward to spending some quality time with old friends, and to making some new ones. And yes, I’ll be signing books there. Lots and lots of books.

Latest fun read: the new Melinda Snodgrass novel THE HIGH GROUND, first volume of her space opera series. Space cadets! This is her best work yet, I think. Looking forward to the next. Next up is the new Lisa Tuttle, THE SOMNAMBULIST AND THE PSYCHIC THIEF, a Victorian supernatural mystery featuring the two characters she originally introduced in stories for a couple of my anthologies.

President Pussygrabber

November 9, 2016 at 10:14 am
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There are really no words for how I feel this morning.

America has spoken. I really thought we were better than this. Guess not.

Trump was the least qualified candidate ever nominated by a major party for the presidency. Come January, he will become the worst president in American history, and a dangerously unstable player on the world stage.

And the decimated Democrats, a minority in both House and Senate, do not have the power to hinder him.

Over the next four years, our problems are going to get much, much worse.

Winter is coming. I told you so.

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This, That, and t’Other Thing

November 6, 2016 at 6:10 pm
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Another football Sunday has come and gone, with mixed results for yours truly.

The Giants won, hanging on by the skin of their teeth to defeat the Iggles of Brotherly Luv. Gifted with an early 14-0 lead by two Carson Wentz INTs, they still almost managed to blow it. Eli threw his own INT just when it looked as if Big Blue was about to put the game away, but fortunately the defense saved him. Biggest worry coming out of the game was an injury to Victor Cruz, which I hated to see. He’s one of my favorite players. I hope he’s back next week.

The Jets, meanwhile, managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. After trailing for most of the game, they seemed poised to take the lead in the fourth quarter, only to have Fitz throw a devastating pick in the end zone. Yet somehow they managed to get the ball back, and this time Fitz redeemed himself, tossing the go-ahead touchdown. But the joy did not last for long. On the ensuing kickoff, the Dolphins ran the ball all the way back for a TD, and that was that. Gang Green now has as many losses as they did all last year. The season is effectively over. Bryce Petty looked pretty good in the short stretch they had him in after Fitz got clocked. I hope we get to see more of him in the game to come. Much as I like Fitz, we have to start thinking about the future.

On other fronts…

The election still has me in a state of high anxiety. I am not sleeping well, and I think I check 538 about three dozen times a day, hoping for some good news. Tuesday cannot come fast enough for me. I think I speak for a lot of Americans when I say that I desperately want this thing to be over. It has been SO ugly. Come Tuesday night, I will either be relieved or suicidal. I think I speak for a lot of Americans about that as well.

Oh, and speaking of that: the Trump PACs have rolled out two new television ads in New Mexico this weekend. Both attack ads, natch. One is a cartoon with animated Bill and Hillary characters rolling up to the White House unpacking boxes of scandals. The other features an actress badly made up to be Hillary, in wig and pants suit, destroying phones and hard drives with hammers, drills, chain saws, and the like. Both ads are stupid and offensive, and both confirm and underline the main point I made in my “Simple Observation” post. Hillary’s ads feature real footage of the real Donald J. Trump saying the things he really said. These Trumps ads, on the other hand, have to resort to cartoons and over-the-top impersonators because they can’t actually find any real footage of Hillary saying or doing anything reprehensible, comparable to the stuff Trump has said.

I cannot possible imagine that any actual voters will be swayed by this stuff. “Hell, damn, I’m going to vote for Trump, did you see what Cartoon Hillary was doing?” But what the hell. Even Honest Abe admitted that you could fool some of the people all of the time…

I’m still excited about Emily St. John Mandel coming to the Jean Cocteau tomorrow. If you’re in the neighborhood, come join us.

The crowds at Meow Wolf of late have been astounding. Since we first opened in late March, more than 300,000 people have visited the House of Eternal Return. It’s become one of Santa Fe’s premiere attractions, and I am so pleased to have played my small part in creating it.

Oh, and last night Parris and I went to see DOCTOR STRANGE at the Violet Crown (in part to escape the crowds seeing TRUMPLAND at the JCC). ’twas fun. As many of you know, I’m a Marvel fanboy from way back, and Doctor Strange was probably my favorite single character… well, him or Spider-Man, both drawn by Steve Ditko, whose art I loved. (I say single character because I always loved the group books as well, the FF and Avengers and X-Men). How much did I love Doctor Strange? Well, let me just say, one of the characters I wrote for the comic book fanzines of the 60s was called Doctor Weird, so…

The movie is NOT the best Marvel superhero movie, as I was hoping it would be… it’s more middle of the pack, I’d say… but it looked great, did justice to the character, and had some scenes that were downright Ditko-esque. Of course, they had the obligatory Stan Lee cameo. Now, if they had managed to include a Steve Ditko cameo, that would really have been something. (Yes, I know, I know). I do hope that Ditko saw at least a little money out of this. He was a genius in his own way, and Doc would never have been half as interesting without Ditko’s unique and idiosyncratic vision.

Move Along, Nothing to See

November 6, 2016 at 5:15 pm
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In case you missed it, here’s the latest statement from FBI director James Comey on the bureau’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails.

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