Talking to Canadians

March 17, 2012 at 1:30 pm

And for those of you for whom that long interview on Strombo’s show was not enough, here’s even more footage of me talking (and talking, and talking, an even reading a bit) on my recent visit to Toronto.

These are from my appearance at the TIFF Lightbox, where I was interviewed by the delightful Terry Hart. I yakked so much we had to break this down into three parts.

Part, the First
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Part, the Second
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The final third also contains a taste of what’s to come in the form of a short (very short) reading from THE WINDS OF WINTER. However, if you have not read up through A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, you may want to skip this. Spoilers lurk ahead.

Part, the Third
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Enjoy.

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Tags: a song of ice and fire, game of thrones, interviews, travel

Gianni to Illustrate 2014 Calendar

February 14, 2012 at 6:17 pm

Cool news for everyone who likes great ICE & FIRE artwork (starting with me).

The 2011 Ted Nasmith calendar and the 2012 John Picacio calendar both did very well, and Random House has extended our deal for three more calendars: 2014, 2015, and 2016 (the 2013, featuring art by Marc Simonetti, is already in the works, and will debut in July at the San Diego Comicon).

And if that wasn’t exciting enough, we’ve just signed GARY GIANNI to provide the art for the 2014 calendar!

The comic book fans among you probably know Gianni best for his work on the PRINCE VALIANT comic strip in your Sunday paper, where he took on the daunting task of following in the footsteps of the immortal Hal Foster, and brought it off wonderfully.

But I’ve been a huge fan of Gianni’s ever since I first stumbled upon a copy of the Wandering Star limited edition of THE SAVAGE TALES OF SOLOMON KANE (my favorite Robert E. Howard character, fwiw). Until I saw the Wandering Star book, the notion that any other artist could ever do a Solomon Kane to compare to Jeff Jones’s version would have struck me as rank heresy, but Gianni’s art blew me away.

Gianni went on from that to illustrate one of Wandering Star’s gorgeous CONAN volumes, to provide some lovely interiors for Michael Chabon’s GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD, to Prince Valiant, and assorted other triumphs too numerous to mention.

He’s an amazing artist, and I cannot wait to see him bring my world and characters to life for the 2014 calendar.

So now the only question is… who can we possibly get for 2015 and 2016?

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Tags: a song of ice and fire, calendar

Amazon Exclusive

October 11, 2011 at 10:34 am

If you’re reading this journal, the odds are good that you’ve already read the first four books of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, and have them sitting on your shelves…

But if you’re looking for hardcovers to replace your worn paperbacks, or want a nice matching set, or are just one of the completists who wants to own every edition… Amazon has just opened pre-orders for a boxed set of A GAME OF THRONES, A CLASH OF KINGS, A STORM OF SWORDS, and A FEAST FOR CROWS. You can order them here:

http://www.amazon.com/George-Hardcover-featuring-Thrones-Exclusive/dp/0307292134/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317326305&sr=1-3

These editions are an Amazon Exclusive. Under the terms of the deal they cut with Bantam, the set will be available only through Amazon, and will not be sold in any bookstore, be in chain or independent.

I’ve seen some jpegs of the cover designs, which look pretty cool, but have not actually a set of the books myself yet. Looking forward to it, though…

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Tags: a song of ice and fire, amazon

A Feast of Ice and Fire

October 1, 2011 at 1:05 am

Congratulations to Chelsea and Sarianne, the lovely ladies and demon cooks behind the Ice & Fire themed food blog, THE INN AT THE CROSSROADS, who have been busily cooking up all the dishes mentioned in my novels for the better part of a year, and blogging about it… with recipes and mouth-watering photographs that never fail to make me hungry.

They have just signed a deal with Random House for a Westerosi cookbook. It will be called A FEAST OF ICE AND FIRE.

But I’ll let them tell you about it, here:

http://innatthecrossroads.com/2011/09/30/cookbook-of-ice-and-fire/

Read all about it… and check out their blog while you’re at it, and you may be baking lemocakes in no time.

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Tags: a song of ice and fire, food

One Million… and Counting

September 27, 2011 at 2:56 pm

With all my travel, I never got the chance to hoot about my induction as the newest member of the Kindle Million Club.

So here’s my hoot, a little late.

Read all about it:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1607936

That’s some cool company. Or some hot company, as the case may be.

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Tags: a song of ice and fire, e-books, publishing

I’m Number One…

July 4, 2011 at 11:12 am

… and also number four, number six, and number eight.

http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2011-07-10/mass-market-paperback/list.html

When GAME OF THRONES was first published in 1996, it failed to make any bestseller lists (well, maybe it made the LOCUS list, don’t recall), and certainly never got within shouting distance of the Top Ten in the TIMES. While I still recall the highlights (Joe Beth in Lexington, Kentucky and Kepler’s in Menlo Park, California) of that first signing tour, I recall the lowlights even better — the St. Louis signing where the only four people in the cafe/ bookstore actually LEFT when I got up to speak, and the Dallas signing where I drew a dozen people while Clifford the Big Red Dog drew hundreds. And here we are, fifteen years later, with GAME at number one on the list. Where’s that dog now, I want a rematch!

Thanks to David and Dan and HBO, they had a lot to do with this.

And thanks to you, my readers, as well. No promotion, no advertising, no marketing campaign can ever hope to match word of mouth. Without the loyalty and enthusiasm of my fans, none of this would ever have happened.

I hope you all have a great Fourth. It’s certainly going to be a good one for me.

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Tags: a song of ice and fire, game of thrones

Stuff and Nonsense

July 2, 2011 at 11:12 am

Just flipped over the page on my World Wildlife Fund calendar (a day late, sue me), and was amused to see that the featured animals for July are gorillas. Nothing could be more fitting for the month in which Kong is finally loosed upon the reading public. heh

On other fronts… I mentioned below that WARRIORS won the Locus Award as the best anthology of 2010, which pleased me no end… but I forgot to mention that Gardner Dozois and I have just signed with Tor for a sequel of sorts. A mammoth crossgenre book featuring contributions from an all-star lineup of award-winning writers and bestsellers from half a dozen different genres and subgenres. This one has the working title DANGEROUS WOMEN. Whether that will be the final title or not, I am less sure. Must admit, I do not love it; too generic for my taste. I wanted to call the book FEMMES FATALE, but our editor suggested that no one younger than forty would have any idea what that phrase meant. Which boggles the hell out of me, but what do I know? Could be we’ll settle on WOMEN WARRIORS. Though that’s limiting in a different sort of way. But whatever title it goes by in the end, it should be a helluva anthology. We have some great writers lined up, as we did with WARRIORS.

And yes, DANGEROUS WOMEN will include the fourth Dunk & Egg novella, the long-promised tale of their visit to the North, where they encounter the She-Wolves of Winterfell. I could tell you more than that, but then I’d need to kill you.

Meanwhile, Ice & Fire continues its slow conquest of the world, nation by nation and language by language. I’ve just signed a deal for Turkish editions, and we’re negotiating with a Vietnamese publisher as well.

And my US book tour is coming up fast, so these days have been busy ones. At the moment I am finishing up the first draft of my script for the second season of the HBO series, hammering out the overplot of the new Wild Cards book LOWBALL, and of course doing what seems like ten interviews a day. Would that there were four of me.

These are exciting days.

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Tags: a dance with dragons, a song of ice and fire, anthologies, dunk & egg, foreign editions

Some Pretty Pictures

February 19, 2010 at 7:34 pm

My books are published all over the world, in many different languages. Sometimes my foreign publishers just re-use the cover art from my American and/or British editions. Sometimes they slap on something vaguely appropriate (or not) from the Big Box o’ Bad Fantasy Art down in their cellars. But sometimes they commission brand new cover art, often from artists in their own countries. (And that’s certainly my preference, whenever I get a vote).

The quality varies, of course, just as it does with American and British covers. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good, sometimes downright hideous… but every once in a while, we get something spectacular. And I’ve been very pleased with some of the covers I’ve seen recently, so I thought I would share them with those of you who enjoy pretty figures.

First, from Estonia, a wonderful new FEVRE DREAM cover. Varrak, my Estonian publisher, really pulled out all the stops on this. I love the look of a classic antebellum steamboat, and the artist here actually got it right and gave me a sidewheeler, not a sternwheeler.

Meanwhile, in France, my French publishers are repackaging and reissuing all the books in A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE in new one-volumed editions (previously the French translations have been divided into three or four parts), with stunning new covers by Marc Simonetti. Here a couple of them: his takes on the Wall and Tyrion in King’s Landing.

You can check out almost every cover that I’ve ever had on “Cover Art” page of my website (click on second shield on the bottom, black and green, House Fell)… though admittedly I’m a little behind on updating the gallery.

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Tags: a song of ice and fire, cover art, fevre dream, foreign editions

Not a Blog

Talking to Canadians

Gianni to Illustrate 2014 Calendar

Amazon Exclusive

A Feast of Ice and Fire

One Million… and Counting

I’m Number One…

Stuff and Nonsense

Some Pretty Pictures

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