Wild Cards Take Chicago

December 11, 2016 at 1:08 pm

New York City has been the center of the Wild Cards universe since 1946, when Dr. Tod met Jetboy in the skies over Broadway, and the Takisian xerovirus was unleashed upon the world. It’s past time the Second City got its due. So I am thrilled to report that I’ve just turned in the latest Wild Cards mosaic novel: LOW CHICAGO, set entirely in the city on the lake.

This is the second book in what we’re calling our ‘American Triad’ (MISSISSIPPI ROLL was delivered in October, and we’re still hard at work on TEXAS HOLD’EM), and the twenty-fifth volume of the overall series… but no, it’s not necessary to have read the first twenty-four to enjoy this one.

And it’s a helluva ride, I think. The cast includes old fan favorites like Mr. Nobody, Double Helix, Abigail the Understudy, Golden Boy, Natya, John Fortune, John Nighthawk, Hardhat, and the Sleeper, but some exciting new characters will be on hand as well. Wait till you meet Meathooks, Birdbrain, and Khan.

The table of contents:
John Jos. Miller “A Long Night at the Palmer House”
Kevin Andrew Murphy “Down the Rabbit Hole”
Christopher Rowe “The Motherfucking Apotheosis of Todd Motherfucking Taszycki”
Paul Cornell “A Bit of a Dinosaur”
Marko Kloos “Stripes”
Melinda M. Snodgrass “The Sister in the Streets”
Mary Anne Mohanraj “A Beautiful Facade”
Saladin Ahmed “Meathooks on Ice”

I had a great time editing this one. Hope you’ll all like it as much as I do.

And if you’ve yet to try Wild Cards, the world’s longest-running shared world anthology series (thirty years and counting!)… hey, what are you waiting for!

No publication date for LOW CHICAGO yet, but you’ll know as soon as Tor tells me.

Tags: anthologies, editing, wild cards

Two Weeks Till Xmas

December 10, 2016 at 12:37 pm

Only two weeks left till Christmas.

Plenty of shopping days left… unless you were planning to snag some autographed books from the Jean Cocteau Cinema bookshop. To get the books there in time for the holiday, you’ll either need to order soon, or else (less desirable) pay extra for overnight shipping.

We still have plenty of great signed books available as gifts. My own books, and those by many of the other writers who have appeared at the JCC. The WILD CARDS books and many of the other anthologies have multiple signatures.

Lots more titles to be found at http://www.jeancocteaubooks.com/

Happy reading. Happy giving.

Tags: jean cocteau cinema bookstore, signed books

Rock On

December 10, 2016 at 12:24 pm

So we were watching Dennis Leary’s rock comedy SEX&DRUGS&ROCK&ROLL t’other night. The plot of this episode involved Gigi firing her band, the Assassins, and bringing on a new band of younger musicians to take their place.

The name of new young (fictional) band was… wait for it… Red Wedding.

Sooner or later, everything comes around in a big circle, doesn’t it?

In 1983, when I wrote my rock novel THE ARMAGEDDON RAG, the name of my own (fictional) band was… wait for it… the Nazgul.

Rock on, friends.

Tags: novels, television, the writing life

More Wild Cards Coming Your Way!

December 7, 2016 at 4:40 pm

John Picacio never disappoints, and neither does Tor.com and their amazing art director, Irene Gallo. We have a couple of brand new original Wild Cards story coming up on Tor.com, with John providing the illustrations, and Irene has just shared his cover for the latest, a Drummer Boy novelette from Stephen Leigh.

Here ’tis. Enjoy.

“The Atonement Tango” will be available — for free — on Tor.com on January 18 of the new year.

You don’t need to wait quite that long for your Wild Cards fix, however. On December 21, Tor.com will upload another WC story, Carrie Vaughn’s “The Thing About Growing Up in Jokertown.”

And don’t forget to check out the older WC offerings on Tor.com, some amazing original fiction by David D. Levine, Daniel Abraham, Cherie Priest, Carrie Vaughn, Paul Cornell, and Walter Jon Williams. You can find them all with a simple search, and read them all for free. The Recycler, Jonathan Hive, the Button Man, Earth Witch, the Understudy and Elephant Girl and the Sleeper, Pop Tart and Golden Boy… they are all waiting for you on Tor.com.

Tags: tor, wild cards

Jets Game?

December 6, 2016 at 11:37 am

Jets Game? What Jets game?

Did the Jets play a game? On Monday Night Football, you say?

Surely not.

Those were not the Jets. That was the Weehawken High School Junior Varsity dressed up in Jets uniforms, surely.

The hardest hit of the night was the one the security guys put on the streaker.

Oh, well. Bryce Petty came in and showed flashes. That was something. One nice long TD pass… and a lot of misses. We’ll see him the rest of the way, I am told. Good. Maybe with some reps in practice, he can improve.

An APB has been put out for Gang Green’s once heralded D.

(The Jets being the Jets, now that they have been officially eliminated from the playoffs, they will probably win a few meaningless end-of-season games, just to mess up their draft position).

Life is meaningless and full of pain.

Tags: nfl

Speaking of Awards…

December 5, 2016 at 6:15 pm

As I was saying, 2016 was not a great year. It was not even a good year.

But that is not to say that some good things did not happen.

Worldcon is always one of the highlights of the year for me, and has been since I attended my very first in 1971. One of my favorite worldcons of all time was MidAmericon, the Kansas City worldcon in 1976 (you know how up to date they are in Kansas City, they’ve gone about as far as they can go). This year’s worldcon, MidAmericon II, was alas, not even close to that legendary innovative gathering in ’76… but we saw friends, ate barbeque, signed books, enjoyed panels and readings, and had fun in all the ways fans always do when they gather.

In 1976, I lost two Hugo Awards, and held the first Hugo Losers Party in my room (with the help of Gardner Dozois, my fellow loser). That was one of the highlights of the con, beyond a doubt.

As it happens, I reclaimed the Hugo Losers Party last year in Spokane, so I held one once again at Big Mac II. Since my old room in the Muehlebach was no longer available (that whole wing having been demolished in the interim), I rented the Midland Theatre instead and had the bash there. And once again, it was one of my favorite parts of the con.

In 1976, Hugo losers got nothing at the party but a lusty cheer, some cheap booze, and maybe a few cheez puffs. In 2016, however, at least a few of the lucky losers got Alfie Awards. (Which of course did not exist in 1976, since I just made them up last year). They’re made of old hood ornaments (as some early Hugos were), polished and replated by Tyler Eugene Smith.

Turns out most of the 2016 Alfie presentation was recorded, and has now been uploaded to YouTube. So for all of you who were not able to attend the Hugo Losers Party, here ’tis.

(Do note that the early part of my talk, where I explain the awards and talk about Alfie Bester and the first Hugo, is missing).

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Congrats once more to all the Alfie winners… and to losers everywhere.

Tags: awards, worldcon

Some Hugo Picks

December 5, 2016 at 4:07 pm

December has come, and the end of 2016 (thank god, what a bloody awful year) will be upon us in a few more weeks. Which means, inevitably, that people will soon be drawing up lists of the year’s best books, stories, television shows, and movies… for the Hugo Awards, the Emmys, the Oscars, the Dragons, the Tiptrees, the Nebulas, the World Fantasy Awards… or just for the fun of it.

For my part, I already know what two of my Hugo nominations for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form will be.

ARRIVAL, to start with. Terrific adaptation of a classic story by Ted Chiang. Brilliant performance from Amy Adams. (She is always great, I think, but this was her best role to date). A real science fiction story, not a western in space. Intelligent, thought-provoking, with some wonderfully alien aliens.

And WESTWORLD, season one, from HBO. Of course, as with GAME OF THRONES, one can nominate individual episodes of this one in Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form… but for me it makes more sense to nominate the entire season in Long Form. (GAME OF THRONES season one was nominated in this fashion at Chicago, and won). It really is one very long, complex, wonderfully rich story, with great acting, writing, and directing, and the usual spectacular HBO production values. Like ARRIVAL, this is one that bears repeated re-viewing, and requires some thought. The Academy will likely nominate WESTWORLD for a shelf full of Emmys. I hope fandom recognizes its brilliance as well. This is a story about the nature of sentience and the cost of being human, a commentary on our society and (especially) on the ways we choose to entertain ourselves, full of twists and turns and gut punches and reveals and surprises, all masterfully delivered by Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy.

(GAME OF THRONES is also eligible for Hugo nomination this year, of course. The entire sixth season in Long Form, or individual episodes of same in Short Form. However, because of the air dates and eligibility periods, GOT will not be in the running for the Emmy Awards this year, so WESTWORLD will have a clear run at those… contending, of course, with BETTER CALL SAUL, OUTLANDER, and all of the other terrific dramas out there).

There were other good movies and television shows released in 2016, and I have no doubt that some of them will find places on my own personal Hugo ballot as well… but honestly, I cannot imagine that I will like any of them as well as I liked ARRIVAL and WESTWORLD.

Tags: awards, television

Giants Lose

December 5, 2016 at 12:21 pm

I returned from Mexico last night just in time to watch the amazing WESTWORLD finale, and the Giants – Steelers game, which Parris had TIVO’d for me.

WESTWORLD won, but the G-Men lost. Can’t say I was surprised, but I was disappointed. My fears were confirmed: the six game Giants win streak was more an artifact of weak opposition than it was an indication of the strength of Big Blue.

Against a strong team like Pittsburgh, New York’s weaknesses were exposed. There’s still no run game — second worst in the league, at present — and the offensive line is a turnstile. Eli gets no time to throw, they can’t open holes for the RBs, and Flowers is still holding on every other play and getting beat on the others. Injuries have not helped. Justin Pugh was a huge loss. That being said, it would help if Eli threw the ball to someone besides Odell from time to time. Victor Cruz was not targeted once.

The defense still looks stout, but injuries there hurt as well. JPP going out was very worrisome. He’s desperately needed.

It should also be said that Odell was not wrong in his postgame comments: the officiating was terrible, and very one-sided. The Steeler DBs got away with mugging ODB repeatedly, but that was far from all. The Pittsburgh O-line was holding flagrantly on several big plays from Big Ben, but was never called on it.

Honest officiating would not have made a difference, however. The Steelers would have won anyway. They were the better team yesterday.

These next four games are all tough ones. The Giants need to step it up, or they could very well lose all four.

Tags: nfl

Wild Cards Website Debuts

November 29, 2016 at 12:41 pm

Here’s some cool news for all the Wild Cards fans out there: Wild Cards has a new home on the web.

Our brand-new official Wild Cards website debuts today. (There’s been a superb fan site for years at Wild Cards Online, and a great Wild Cards Wikia, and even a Wild Cards Facebook group, but this is the first time in a while that we’ve had a site that was all our own).

Check it out at:

http://www.wildcardsworld.com/

(We are still tweaking the site, so please forgive any errors or omissions).

There’s tons of content there, and we hope to be adding more regularly. Head on over and explore, and mark it down as a place to visit regularly.

And of course we’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you think of the place, and what would you like to see us add in the future? Comments welcome… but ONLY about Wild Cards and the Wild Cards website, please. Stay on topic.

Clear skies and tailwinds….

Tags: wild cards

South of the Border

November 28, 2016 at 2:55 pm

Strange to say, although I have lived in New Mexico since 1979, I have never really visited Old Mexico. Oh, I attended a Westercon in El Paso a few years back, and spent an afternoon in Juarez with some other fans and writers. And I spent a few hours in Tijuana back in the late 80s, I believe, while attending Comicon in San Diego. But that hardly counts. There’s a lot more to Mexico than the border towns.

My first real visit to Mexico starts tomorrow, when I jet down to Guadalajara for the Guadalajara International Book Fair: https://www.fil.com.mx/ingles/i_info/i_info_fil.asp

I’m one of the guests at the conference. I’ll be doing interviews, a press conference, a live streaming event, and a signing. I expect I will be doing some tequila tasting as well. I am informed that Guadalajara is the tequila capital of Mexico.

I am looking forward to meeting my Mexican publishers, editors, and fans.

This is my last scheduled event for 2016. My appearance schedule for 2017 is very limited, and will remain so until WINDS is completed. So if you want to meet me or get a book signed, this will be the last chance for a good few months…

See you south of the border.

Tags: conventions, signings, travels

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