Signed Books – International Edition

June 18, 2016 at 4:03 pm

Ever since the Jean Cocteau Cinema began offering autographed books from our author events for sale via mailorder, we have been getting queries from readers in Europe, South America, Asia, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand about placing orders. We haven’t been able to fulfill those requests, alas. Up till now, books were only available within the US.

The problem is shipping. There is, unfortunately, no simple, easy, and inexpensive way to ship books (or anything else, alas) outside the US. Not any more. Once upon a time, a shipper could choose between air mail (fast but expensive) and sea mail (slow but cheap). Then sea mail got abolished. After that, for a time, there was a thing called an M-bag (slow but cheap). That got abolished too. Within the US, there is Media Mail, formerly known as Book Rate, which saves a lot of money… but Media Mail does not work beyond the borders of the US. Internationally, there is only air mail… oh, and the various express services, like DHL and FedEx. So effectively the shipping options for our friends overseas are limited to Expensive and Very Expensive and Very Very Very Expensive (for overnight).

I’ve had my JCC staff working on this problem for many months, trying to find a solution. Sadly, there does not seem to be one. Yet even so, the queries still come in. So we’ve decided to bite the bullet — for a short time, at least, as an experiment — and offer the signed books from the JCC bookstore for sale to everyone around the world. We’ll see how much demand there is, and how much time order fulfillment requires from my already overworked staff.

But please take note. The process is complicated and onerous, and shipping costs will be high. In many cases, depending on what you’re ordering, shipping will be more than the actual cost of the books themselves. ALSO, please note, there could be additional charges on your end. We have no control over taxes, tariffs, customs costs, and import duties. Every nation has its own rules. Once the shipment leaves the Jean Cocteau, it’s out of our hand… so if your customs people stop the package and ask for fees, there’s nothing we can do about it.

((All these problems are among the reasons why we have not been taking international orders up until now. Too many complications, too many complaints)).

So… if I haven’t discouraged all of you sufficiently, here’s the complex and expensive procedure for placing orders from outside the USA:

1. Guest selects item(s) from the JCC website. http://www.jeancocteaubooks.com/

2. Guest has to email: jeancocteausantafe@gmail.com. The email should contain the following: item(s), and destination.

3. JCC will review the order and weigh the item(s)

4. JCC will enter destination, weight, value, dimensions of shipping box on USPS website to get the shipping cost. Unless instructed to use FedEx of DHL or other more expensive method, we will always look for the cheapest method.

5. JCC will email the guest with the total cost of the order (books, shipping, handling).

6. If the guest agrees, JCC will invoice him/ her via PayPal. PayPal is the ONLY payment method we can accept for international orders, sorry.

7. Guest pays invoice.

8. Books are shipped.

All of the books pictured above are available, along with many more. Visit the Jean Cocteau website for the full list. Stocks are limited, however. We do sell out.

ALL the books sold by the JCC are signed by the author and/or editor. Some of the anthologies and Wild Cards books have multiple autographs, though we cannot guarantee that. However, we cannot offer personalizations or inscriptions. Just signatures.

At the moment, we are only offering English-language editions… but if this system does not prove too costly for the readers, or too burdersome for my staff, we may be able to offer limited amounts of foreign language editions and translations in the future. Watch this blog for announcements to that effect from my minions. (And if you are looking for one of my books in a specific language, feel free to write the JCC at the email above and request it. We may have some).

We know this system if far from ideal, and for that we apologize… but we wanted to do something to show that we do value all the readers around the world who have written us, and would like to do our best to serve them.

Happy reading.

Tags: jean cocteau cinema bookstore, signed books

The King and I

June 17, 2016 at 1:40 pm

What a great time last night in Albuquerque, at the Kiva Auditorium.

Stephen King is on tour to promote his new novel, END OF WATCH, the third and concluding volumes in his ‘Mercedes killer’ trilogy, and the good folks at Bookworks were kind enough to ask me to sit down with him for an hour of conversation.

We talked about childhood, writing, reading, naked day, the nature of evil, and rats.

Went for an hour, but we could have gone for ten. Steve’s an amazing guy, and a great writer.

(We hope to be able to offer a video soon. Watch this space).

Tags: author events, signed books

Pat Conroy Literary Center

June 16, 2016 at 12:06 am

Pat Conroy was one of the great novelists of the last half-century.

Regular readers of this Not A Blog know what a huge fan of his work I am. No, he did not write science fiction or fantasy… but (surprise!) despite my love for our genre, I read a lot of stuff outside of it. And once I had sampled Pat Conroy, I read every book of his eagerly as soon as it came out. THE PRINCE OF TIDES is probably his masterpiece, but I loved BEACH MUSIC and THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE and THE GREAT SANTINI and THE WATER IS WIDE as well. Oh, and his non-fiction memoir, MY LOSING SEASON, another engrossing read.

The movies based on his books were pretty damned good as well, even if the film version of THE PRINCE OF TIDES did omit… well… the prince of tides. SANTINI is the best of those. Amazing performance by Robert Duvall, once of the best of his career.

A couple of years ago, I had the honor of meeting Pat, and hosting him for an author event and booksigning at the Jean Cocteau Cinema. It was a rare privilege, and one I will always remember, and I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to learn that he’d read and enjoyed my own books.

Pat passed away in March… but his books will live on, and so will his memory.

In his memory, his family has now establishing a Pat Conroy Literary Center in his beloved home town of Beaufort, South Carolina. You can read about it here:

http://patconroyliterarycenter.org/

A worthy project, I think. I’ll be donating. I urge all of you who love good writing to do the same.

Tags: author events, charity, jean cocteau cinema, jean cocteau cinema bookstore

Baltimore and NYC

June 12, 2016 at 5:37 pm

Feeling much better now, though I am still sipping tea with lemsip a couple times a day to keep the chest congestion down. The coughing has largely subsided.

Anyway, as I was intending to say before I got the crud, we had a great time in Baltimore and NYC.

Balticon was celebrating its fiftieth birthday this year. Half a century of cons, pretty extraordinary. To mark the occasion, they brought back as many of their previous GOHs as they could (some were unavailable, and some had died), to join me, the current year Guest of Honor. It’s always great to see old friends like Connie Willis and Joe Haldeman, and especially friends like John Varley, who I hadn’t run into for a couple of decades. Of course, a lot of new friends were on hand as well. Balticon moved back downtown for this year’s con, so we were right at the Harborplace, across the street from the Constellation and the dragonboats, and within sight of the Hyatt Regency where the first Baltimore worldcon was held. Brought back a lot of memories.

I did a lot of signing, a kaffeeklatch, a special fund-raising dinner where I changed tables for every course, an interview, the opening ceremonies (crabs and paddleboats and pirates, ph my), and read the Damphair chapter from THE WINDS OF WINTER.

And we ate crabs, and pronounced them good.

(We also ate “the best pizza in Baltimore” and pronounced it less good).

And then it was time for the Acela, and New York City.

New York City was mostly business, as it usually is: meetings with my agents, publishers, editors, and of course HBO. But we found time to fit in a couple of pizza tastings, both in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Also managed to get into the Carnegie Deli, which I fear is falling on hard times. We always try to catch a show when we’re in the city. This time it was HAMILTON.

Guys, gals, go see HAMILTON. Everything you’ve heard is true. It is going to win a bunch of Tony Awards. The performances are incredible. And after the show, we got to sneak backstage and hang some with King George III, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton his own self.

Even that was not the highlight of the New York part of the trip, though. That came a day later, when Parris and I headed over to Bayonne to visit with my sisters and brothers-in-law, my niece and nephews and their partners… and meet, for the first time, my great nephew Brady, born a few weeks earlier. It would appear that I am now a gruncle.

Tags: conventions, travels

Chesley Nominations

June 10, 2016 at 7:16 pm

ASFA has announced this year’s nominations for the Chesley Awards.

I was very pleased to see that Magali Villenueve was nominated for her extraordinary and beautiful work on this year’s Ice & Fire calendar.

My congratulations to Magali. She faces some formidable competition, but we’ll be rooting for her. She’s a very talented young artist, and I hope we’ll be seeing a lot more of her work in the years and decades to come.

Also, I see that Richard Anderson is up for best hardcover cover for his cover for my friend Vic Milan’s novel DINOSAUR LORDS. Well deserved. It’s a stunning cover.

FILE 770 has the whole list here:

http://file770.com/?p=29364

((I do wish that the Hugo Awards would get rid of the ‘Best Professional Artist’ category, and go with a Best Cover award instead, like the Chesleys. Reward the work, not the person)).

Tags: artwork, awards

Jean Cocteau Book Sale #GRRMinion

June 8, 2016 at 5:22 pm

Jenni the Ogre here (nope, not George) with some books for sale! The Jean Cocteau Cinema Bookstore will offer the following titles at 50% off for the next two weeks.

Joe R. Lansdale's Hap & Leonard: NOW $8.00

Joe R. Lansdale’s popular Texan crime-fighting duo are immortalized in this complete collection of Hap and Leonard short stories and tall tales. Additionally, you'll find one brand-new story and an original introduction by New York Times bestselling author Michael Koryta (So Cold the River). Learn more!

Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black's Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles Boxed Set: NOW $16.50

Just when it seemed the book had closed on the Spiderwick Chronicles, a new chapter begins far from the old-fashioned charm of New England. Under the hot Florida sun, Nick Vargas and his annoying new stepsister, Laurie, stumble upon the faerie world. A nixie asks for their help to save her sisters and before they know it, Nick and Laurie are outrunning giants, negotiating with mermaids, and battling a monster that's bigger than they'd ever imagined! Along with Nick's brother, Jules, and some familiar faces, the kids find themselves in a race to save not only themselves, but all of Florida! Learn more!

Susan Orlean's Rin Tin Tin: NOW $8.00

He believed the dog was immortal. So begins Susan Orlean’s sweeping, powerfully moving account of Rin Tin Tin’s journey from abandoned puppy to movie star and international icon. Spanning almost one hundred years of history, from the dog’s improbable discovery on a battlefield in 1918 to his tumultuous rise through Hollywood and beyond, Rin Tin Tin is a love story about "the mutual devotion between one man and one dog" (The Wall Street Journal) that is also a quintessentially American story of reinvention, a captivating exploration of our spiritual bond with animals, and a stirring meditation on mortality and immortality. Learn more!

See you at the Cocteau!

Tags: holly black, jean cocteau cinema, joe r. lansdale, susan orlean, tony diterlizzi

Home Again… with Ick

June 8, 2016 at 1:24 pm

I am back home again in Santa Fe, after two weeks on the road in Baltimore and New York City.

Great trip… but I seem to have brought the plague home with me.

Some kind of con crud was going around at Balticon. My assistant Jo was stricken with it, as was my friend Lezli Robyn, though in both cases it did not manifest until after the con. Coughing, fever, headache, congestion, more coughing.

I got it too, albeit a milder case. And then my assistant Lenore was stricken. (So far Parris has been spared, knock wood).

We’re all still under the weather, though recovering.

So I will keep this short. Lots to report on, lots to catch up on, but just now I don’t have the energy. More sleep and more fluids… I should be my old self shortly….

Tags: travel

Stardom

June 7, 2016 at 1:26 pm

I’m a star!

But I’m a brittle one, it seems.

http://nerdist.com/meet-the-game-of-thrones-brittle-star-ophiohamus-georgemartini/

It is all very Lovecraftian. But I’m flattered. And bemused.

Tags: fame

A Few Quick Thoughts

May 24, 2016 at 12:59 pm

I am off to Baltimore tomorrow for Balticon 50, which promises to be a real blast. In honor of half a century of great cons, the fans of Baltimore are bringing in lots and lots of their past GOHs, along with me, their current GOH, so we should have an amazing crowd on hand. Connie Willis, Joe Haldeman, John Varley… oh, the list goes on and on. Go to the Balticon website and see for your own self. And then come to the con. Panels, readings, parties… and there will be CRABS.

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On other fronts… we had an amazing time at the Jean Cocteau last night, when a sellout crowd assembled to hear Joe Hill. Joe gave a dynamite reading from his new novel THE FIREMAN, led the audience in a kazoo concert, told us about all his forthcoming television and film projects, and signed stacks and stacks of books. Most of which were promptly carried off by his eager fans. But we did lay in extra supplies, so if you’re looking for autographed copies of THE FIREMAN, or HEART-SHAPED BOX, or LOCKE & KEY, or any of Joe’s stuff, it’s available — while the supply lasts — from the Jean Cocteau Bookshop at http://www.jeancocteaubooks.com/ — along with signed books from Neil Gaiman, Stephen Graham Jones, Diana Gabaldon, Joe Lansdale, and many many more.

Heated discussions continue about this year’s Hugo ballot, and the various proposals being brought forth to reform the voting procedures to defend the integrity of the award against future attacks by Rabid Puppies and other varieties of fuggheads. Some of the proposals are worth considering. I have severe doubts about others. But I don’t have time to get into all of that now, so it will have to wait until I return.

Meanwhile, I am doing my Hugo reading, and I urge all of you who are members of Big MAC II to do the same. Read, consider, vote.

And if you’re not yet a member of Big MAC II… well, if there’s any chance at all that you can get to KC this August, you ought to join and attend. There’s nothing like a worldcon. And the original Big MAC in 1976 was, in my not-so-humble-opinion, the best worldcon that I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending, so I have high hopes for this year’s. The KC fans know how to party. And while they cannot match Baltimore for crabs, they do have BARBEQUE!

(I will keep comments open on this one only through tomorrow morning. I expect to be away from my computer while traveling, and don’t want hundreds of screened comments awaiting my return).

Tags: conventions, jean cocteau cinema, travel

Jean Cocteau Presents: Joe Hill #GRRMinion

May 18, 2016 at 5:34 pm

From the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Heart-Shaped Box comes a chilling novel about a worldwide pandemic of spontaneous combustion that threatens to reduce civilization to ashes and a band of improbable heroes who battle to save it, led by one powerful and enigmatic man known as the Fireman. The fireman is coming. Stay cool.

A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one: Boston, Detroit, Seattle. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies—before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote. No one is safe.

Harper Grayson, a compassionate, dedicated nurse as pragmatic as Mary Poppins, treated hundreds of infected patients before her hospital burned to the ground. Now she’s discovered the telltale gold-flecked marks on her skin. When the outbreak first began, she and her husband, Jakob, had made a pact: they would take matters into their own hands if they became infected. To Jakob’s dismay, Harper wants to live—at least until the fetus she is carrying comes to term. At the hospital, she witnessed infected mothers give birth to healthy babies and believes hers will be fine too. . . if she can live long enough to deliver the child.

Convinced that his do-gooding wife has made him sick, Jakob becomes unhinged, and eventually abandons her as their placid New England community collapses in terror. The chaos gives rise to ruthless Cremation Squads—armed, self-appointed posses roaming the streets and woods to exterminate those who they believe carry the spore. But Harper isn’t as alone as she fears: a mysterious and compelling stranger she briefly met at the hospital, a man in a dirty yellow fire fighter’s jacket, carrying a hooked iron bar, straddles the abyss between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who has learned to control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the hunted . . . and as a weapon to avenge the wronged.

In the desperate season to come, as the world burns out of control, Harper must learn the Fireman’s secrets before her life—and that of her unborn child—goes up in smoke.

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-THIS MESSAGE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MINIONS OF FEVRE RIVER-

Tags: fire, jean cocteau cinema, joe hill, the fireman

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