Ice Buckets!

July 27, 2016 at 12:04 am

Remember all the madness of the Ice Bucket Challenge that swept the world not so long ago?

Sure you do.

If not, here are some reminders:

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There were more. Hundreds more. Thousands maybe. But you get the idea.

Silly, right? Celebs, regular people, rich people, poor people, men, women, all dumping ice on their heads and squealing and shivering… and for what? Some cynics compared it to stuffing phone booths or swallowing goldfish or doing the macarena.

Well, not so fast. Turns out all that silliness made a difference.

Read it here: http://nydn.us/2arKgDf

All those buckets of ice may have helped put the freeze on ALS. No, it’s not a cure… but it’s one battle one in the war against a truly horrible disease.

And I am so pleased that my friends and I could do our tiny little bit, with all the others around the world, in bringing this about.

Tags: charity

The Evening Star Rises

July 26, 2016 at 10:43 pm

The results of this year’s Locus Awards voting were announced this weekend in Seattle, and I am delighted to announce that OLD VENUS took home the honors as last year’s Best Anthology. Alas, I was not able to be there in person to accept. Nor was my co-editor, Gardner Dozois, who is still in hospital in Philadelphia recovering from a broken ankle. But we were both thrilled.

I did send LOCUS a few words to be read in the event of our victory:

“Gardner and I are both sorry that we could not be with you tonight, but we’re surprised and delighted to accept this award for OLD VENUS. As with all of our anthologies, the real credit belongs to our writers, who gave us such amazing stories. Nonetheless, we plan on keeping the plaque for ourselves. Two years ago the readers of Locus honored OLD MARS as best anthology. This year OLD VENUS. It’s very gratifying to know that the readers still appreciate new anthologies of old stuff… that is, new old stuff… well, you know what I mean… put together by old grey editors who were new young turks just yesterday. Keep your eyes out for OLD URANUS, coming to a bookstore near you soon….”

All kidding aside, I am very proud of OLD VENUS, and I know Gardner is as well. There are some terrific stories in there, and one that in any normal year would have been a surefire Hugo finalist. This is the third year in a row that one of the original anthologies that I’ve done with Gardner has won the Locus Award, and I can’t tell you how gratifying that is. Gardner and I both began our careers (a long time ago) with short fiction, and it pleases me no end to be able to provide a showcase for some of the extraordinary short stories, novelettes, and novellas still being written in this age of the series and the meganovel. If you don’t read anthologies, friends, you are missing out on some great stuff.

Oh, and before the crazy internet rumors start flying, I had better say that I was only kidding about OLD URANUS. I do want to do some more books with Gardner, but not until I have subdued the Son of Kong. Meanwhile, Gargy is flying solo on a couple of great new original anthologies of his own, and I know those will be full of awards contenders as well.

Anyway, thanks to all the good folks at LOCUS, and everyone who voted for OLD VENUS… or for the other nominated anthologies, which were pretty special as well.

You can find the full list of nominees and winners here: http://www.locusmag.com/News/2016/06/2016-locus-awards-winners/

And if any of who would like to check out OLD VENUS… or OLD MARS, or ROGUES, or DANGEROUS WOMEN, or any of my other anthologies…. signed copies remain available from the Jean Cocteau Cinema Bookstore at http://www.jeancocteaubooks.com/

Happy reading.

Tags: anthologies, awards, jean cocteau cinema bookstore, locus awards

Fire-Breathing Ants?

July 26, 2016 at 1:02 pm

No, not quite.

But dragon ants nonetheless. And pretty cool, even if they don’t breathe fire.

http://www.popsci.com/new-dragon-ant-species-named-after-game-thrones-character?src=SOC&dom=tw

I suspect there are dragon ants in my world as well… maybe out on the Dothraki sea…

Tags: song of ice and fire, weird sh*t

Coming in August

July 25, 2016 at 2:58 pm

We had an amazing, goofy, fun event at the Jean Cocteau Cinema yesterday, when more than a dozen Wild Cards authors got together and donned the personae of their characters, while my assistant editor Melinda Snodgrass (in the person of Noel Matthews, aka Double Helix) interviewed them. The whole thing was taped, so we hope to be able to upload it here soon.

Meanwhile, Tor has just sent us the final cover for the next original volume in the series: HIGH STAKES, scheduled for release on August 23 (though we will be launching it a little earlier in Kansas City at a special group signing event).

Cover art, as always, by the amazing Michael Komarck.

HIGH STAKES is the third and concluding volume in the triad that began with FORT FREAK and continued with LOWBALL. It’s the twenty-third volume in the overall series, but don’t let that intimidate you, boys and girls. It is NOT necessary to have read all of the preceding twenty-two volumes to make sense of this one… though it would help to have read the aforementioned LOWBALL and FORT FREAK.

This one is a “full mosaic,” like many of the other climactic volumes of our triads; there are no individual stories per se, but rather six storylines featuring six different viewpoint characters, interwoven so as to create a full on collaborative novel. Which is a lot of work for all concerned, yes, but our fans and readers seem to think it’s well worth it.

In HIGH STAKES, the participating writers (and their featured characters) are John Jos. Miller (the Midnight Angel), Caroline Spector (the Amazing Bubbles), Ian Tregillis (Tesseract), Melinda M. Snodgrass (Franny Black), Stephen Leigh (Babel), and David Anthony Durham (the Infamous Black Tongue). Editing by yours truly, assisted by Melinda Snodgrass.

Fair warning, this one is not for the faint of heart. HIGH STAKES is our Lovecraftian horror volume, and things get pretty dark. But it’s when things are darkest that heroes are most needed…

FYI, while we won’t have any copies of HIGH STAKES for another month, the Jean Cocteau Bookstore can now offer both hardcovers and paperbacks of many earlier Wild Cards books with lots of signatures from the authors. Me, yes, but not just me. We have WILD CARDS, ACES HIGH, JOKERS WILD, ACES ABROAD, INSIDE STRAIGHT, BUSTED FLUSH, SUICIDE KINGS, FORT FREAK, LOWBALL… and even the very scarce and hard to find volumes sixteen and seventeen, DEUCES DOWN and DEATH DRAWS FIVE. Email the JCC for details and prices.

Tags: jean cocteau cinema bookstore, signed books, signings, wild cards

Not in San Diego

July 22, 2016 at 2:46 pm

I hope that everyone in San Diego is having fun at Comicon. HBO has a big presence there, I know, and a lot of our cast are on hand for the GAME OF THRONES panel and the usual endless rounds of signings and interviews. Also, Bantam is bringing out the 2017 ICE & FIRE calendar, which is always a great event. And Gary Gianni, who illustrated THE KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS, has a table and is selling a cool new sketchbook of his artwork.

Makes me wish I could be there as well.

But I’m not.

Now, normally, I would not feel the need to post about where I’m not and what I am not doing… only I am getting reports from friends in San Diego, and friends of friends, that I have been sighted at the con.

It’s not me.

Really. It’s not. It’s some other old fat guy in a Greek sailor’s cap and pair of suspenders, maybe. Who may or may not be consciously cosplaying as me.

((And you have no idea how weird it feels to be typing that sentence. Way back when the show was first starting, there were a couple of Daenerys Targaryen cosplayers at San Diego, and I thought that was way cool. Fans dressing up as my characters, hey, hot damn! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that anyone would ever want to dress up as me. But now I seem to encounter it wherever I go. Witness this picture from my 2013 trip to Australia.

Anyway… just for the record… I have a big Wild Cards event at the Jean Cocteau Cinema this weekend, with nineteen writers turning up from all across the country, so as much as I would like to be at comicon, I am not there. Accept no substitutes!!

((And just to be clear, no, I do not disappove of fans cosplaying as me. I do find it surreal, but hey, what they hell, have fun… so long as they don’t actually pretend to be me)).

Moving right along… one thing that is at comicon is the new ICE & FIRE calendar, with art by Didier Graffet. It’s gorgeous. Grab a copy if you’re at the con. And if not, the calendar should be available at your favorite local bookstore or online bookseller, and will certainly be available through the Jean Cocteau.

Tags: bantam spectra, calendar, comicon, travels

Next Monday at the Jean Cocteau

July 17, 2016 at 1:36 pm

We have a very big Sunday coming up at the Jean Cocteau Cinema.

But that’s not the end of the excitement. There’s a great event scheduled for Monday, July 25 as well, one week from today.

That’s when Dutch author THOMAS OLDE HEUVELT will be be visiting us, to talk about his new horror novel, HEX. Heuvelt was the winner of a Hugo last year for his novelette “The World Turned Upside Down.” HEX is something very different, though…

Thomas does not get to this side of the pond very often, much less down here to the Land of Enchantment, so don’t miss your chance to meet him, and get your book signed. HEX is creepy and gripping and original, sure to be one of the top horror novels of 2016.

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You can reserve a seat and a copy of the book at the JCC website: http://www.jeancocteaucinema.com/

Tags: jean cocteau cinema bookstore, signed books, signings

Next Sunday at the Jean Cocteau

July 16, 2016 at 7:36 pm

If you’re going to be in Santa Fe a week from tomorrow — or anywhere in the Land of Enchantment, really — do swing by the Jean Cocteau Cinema.

We’ve got not one but two very special events planned for Sunday, July 24.

First up, at 2:00 in the afternoon, will be a Wild Cards Author Event, followed by a signing. Yes, most of the Usual Suspects will be on hand, the motley crew of New Mexico writers who started the series some thirty years ago, but they’ll be joined by some Wild Carders, new and old, who are coming in from afar to join us. Right now we have some nineteen (yes, I said 19!) writers scheduled to take part… from Chicago, from Denver, from New Hampshire, from Texas, from California, from Kentucky. Come by and meet them all! And get your books signed… not only your Wild Cards books (though we expect to have all the volumes presently in print on offer), but also some of the other great novels by the participating writers.

The format of this one should be fun. Melinda Snodgrass will be hosting, interviewing each of our guests in turn. But we’ll be doing this “in universe,” so she won’t be interviewing the writers, she’ll be interviewing their characters. And Weeds knows where all the bodies are buried, so I expect this to be a hoot and a half.

And that’s just the afternoon event.

Come evening, we’ll be putting Melinda to work again, with a very special screening of CHAOS ON THE BRIDGE, William Shatner’s tell-all documentary about the rocky beginnings of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. <lj-embed id=”748″/>

Melinda knows where the bodies are buried on the Enterprise as well; she was there, and she was one of the insiders that Shatner interviewed for the documentary. She will be hosting the screening, and answering questions afterwards… and if that was not enough, she’s arranged for DAVID GERROLD to join us as well, via the wonders of Skype.

It should be quite a Sunday. Be there. I will.

Tags: jean cocteau cinema, signed books, signings, television, wild cards, writing

Awards, Awards

July 15, 2016 at 12:01 am

All that great news about the Emmy nominations reminded me… there are other awards out there that you don’t need to be a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to vote on.

Voting for this years Hugo Awards has been open for some time, but will be closing at the end of the month. You do need to be a member of MidAmericon II, this year’s worldcon, to cast your ballot. To vote, go here: https://midamericon2.org/home/hugo-awards-and-wsfs/2016-hugo-ballot/

Even if you haven’t finished doing all your Hugo reading (I haven’t myself), you should still vote now, lest you forget. Don’t worry, you can change your vote as many times as you like between now and the voting deadline, if further reading gives you a new favorite.

I do urge all worldcon members to vote, and to vote “No Award” only if they feel that none of the works in the category are worthy of a Hugo. (Sadly, there are several categories where that is true, IMNSHO). Many of the slated nominees this year are hostages, and to punish those works and their authors by placing them below No Award seems very wrong to me.

I might also mention that there is a new award for SF and fantasy this year: the Dragon Awards, sponsored by Dragoncon, the big Atlanta media convention. Lots and lots of categories. As I understand it, anyone can nominate, anyone can vote. Just go here:

http://awards.dragoncon.org/2016/04/14/eligibility-period/

The nominations for the Dragons close on July 25, so their deadline is even closer than the Hugo deadline. ‘twould be nice if the culture war that has troubled the Hugos the past few years would leave this new award alone… but, alas, I fear that will not be the case. There’s already plenty of campaigning in evidence on the internet. Since the Dragons are brand new, that may or may not matter. Dragoncon itself is a huge beast, and if the turnout for their awards is large enough, any effort at slating or logrolling could be swamped. Depends on how many fans vote, I guess.

I’ve said since the very start of the Puppy Wars that it would be nice if the field had a true People’s Choice Award to stand as a complement to the older and more established Hugos. So I applaud Dragoncon’s effort, and will be interested in how this all turns out. Whether this dragon will fly high, or flap around for a few years and vanish like the Gandalfs and the Balrogs… I guess that all depends.

(I hope the Dragoncon people come up with a cool trophy. I am fond of dragons, as is well known. And two legs, please, not four).

Tags: awards

Three-and-Twenty Golden Gals

July 14, 2016 at 6:27 pm

This year’s Emmy nominations were announced this morning, and once again GAME OF THRONES and HBO kicked ass and took names.

HBO collected more nominations than any other network… once again.

And GAME OF THRONES was responsible for a big chunk of those… 23 nominations all told, more than any other series… for the second year in a row (we had 24 last year).

Last year we won Best Drama, and we’re nominated once again this year, so we have a chance to make it two in a row… against a formidable lineup of competitors in HOMELAND, DOWNTON ABBEY, MR. ROBOT, BETTER CALL SAUL, THE AMERICANS, and HOUSE OF CARDS.

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss got a nod for Writing, which they won last year.

For directing, two nominations: Jack Bender for “The Door” and Miguel Sapochnik for “Battle of the Bastards.”

And in the acting categories, GAME OF THRONES had its best year yet. Max Von Sydow was nominated for Best Actor in a Guest Role. Peter Dinklage and Kit Harrington both got nods for Best Supporting Actor. And in Best Supporting Actress, GOT snagged not one, not two, but three nominations; Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey, and Maisie Williams will all be vying for the Emmy.

I am thrilled and happy for all our nominees, of course… but it made me especially happy to see Kit and Maisie get some love from the Academy at last. About damn time, I say. They are several years overdue. (And I would have loved to see Sophie Turner on that list as well. I know, I know, I’m greedy).

For a full list of the nominees, go here:
http://variety.com/2016/tv/awards/2016-emmys-nominees-list-drama-comedy-acting-nomination-1201814021/

The awards will be presented on September 18 in Los Angeles. Two days ahead of my birthday this year, but maybe we’ll get some presents anyway.

Tags: awards, emmy awards, game of thrones, hbo, television

Wild Cards in Kansas City

July 14, 2016 at 12:32 am

As this year’s worldcon in Kansas City moves ever closer, schedules are starting to firm up, and there are going to be some exciting things in the works… especially for fans of Wild Cards.

HIGH STAKES, the concluding volume in the current Wild Cards triad and the twenty-third in the overall series, is actually scheduled for hardcover release on August 23, after worldcon is over. However (fingers crossed), Tor is doing all it can to get some advance copies to Kansas City ahead of time, so we can launch the book at worldcon. (This one is our Lovecraftian horror outing. For a taste, check the sample chapter on my website).

To celebrate the release of the new one… and hell, all the old ones too… we are planning to have a huge WILD CARDS MASS SIGNING at the con. It seemed only fitting; there will be more Wild Cards authors (old and new) present in Kansas City than at any other convention ever (yes, even more than at Nolacon in 1988, where Wild Cards lost a Hugo to Watchmen). At last count, the list includes Walter Jon Williams, John Jos. Miller, Gail Gerstner-Miller, Carrie Vaughn, Caroline Spector, Diana Rowland, Walton (Bud) Simons, Bob Wayne, Kevin Andrew Murphy, Stephen Leigh, S.L. Farrell, David D. Levine, Michael Cassutt, Marko Kloos, Saladin Ahmed, Pat Cadigan, Laura J. Mixon, Paul Cornell, Mary Anne Mohanraj… and of course Melinda M. Snodgrass and yours truly. So if you have a large collection of Wild Cards books you’d like defaced… or would like to start a large collection of Wild Cards books… MidAmericon II is the place to do it.

The signing will be sponsored by Rainy Day Books, and will be a ticketed event. It will take place in the Marriott Muhlebach (room tba) on Friday August 19, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Rainy Day Books should have all of the volumes currently in print for sale there, in addition to HIGH STAKES… and also a good selection of other titles by all of the participating writers, for those who would like to sample their non-wild card books. (However, I won’t be signing any Ice & Fire events at this event, I have two other general signings in the dealer’s room, three hours total, so there will be ample opportunity for readers to get their GAME OF THRONES books signed there).

The signing will not be the only Wild Cards activity at Big MAC II. With so many writers on hand, doing your traditional panel discussion would have been impossible. By the time all the panelists finished introducing themselves, the hour would have been up. Instead we’ve decided to offer WILD CARDS DEATH MATCHES. Kind of like Thunderdome with writers (and their characters). Sixteen writers enter (well, maybe only twelve, the count keeps jumping around as plans change), and one will emerge. The audience will pick the winners and losers of the fights. That one is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, August 20, 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Should be a hoot and a half… or a bloodbath. Who the hell knows? We’ve never done this sort of thing before.

Put the times and dates down in your worldcon calendar, and come join the fun.

(And hey, for all those who can’t be in Kansas City for the mass signing, autographed copies of all the books pictured above are available from the Jean Cocteau Cinema Bookstore, though admittedly they don’t have as many signatures as the ones bought in KC are like to have. And yes, we are now taking international orders).

Tags: jean cocteau cinema bookstore, signed books, signings, wild cards, worldcon

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