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Stuff and Nonsense

June 16, 2010 at 12:34 pm
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Busy days.

The reaction to the teaser that HBO ran before TRUE BLOOD has been amazing. Of course, it’s turned up all over the internet, and people are analyzing it frame by frame. Makes me wonder what it would have been like in those dark days before Tivo and YouTube, when those fifteen seconds would have flashed by once, with no way to rerun ’em, let alone freeze frame.

Casting continues apace. Mycah, Janos Slynt, Gendry, Tobho Mott, Old Nan, Shagga, Syrio, Marillion, Doreah, Alliser Thorne, Grenn, Pyp, Rast, Osha… oh, why oh why did I invent so many blasted characters??? Didn’t I know what it would cost? Oh, wait… in a book, a cast of thousands and a cast of two costs the same. For some roles, hard choices between lots of very qualified, talented actors. For other roles, hard searches, where no one seems to be quite right. Nina Gold is finding some great people, though. And the search goes on.

Another monkey may soon be off my back. All but two of the stories are in on DOWN THESE STRANGE STREETS, the latest crossgenre anthology I’m editing with Gardner Dozois. We hope to be able to deliver that one by month’s end. A great lineup once again.

Meanwhile, I’ve been wrestling with Kong. For more than a week I’ve been pounding on the epilogue, but still can’t get it to gel. This morning I put that aside for a bit and went back to rewrite a Tyrion chapter, and that’s going much better. (Don’t get too excited over me mentioning the epilogue, please. I don’t always write these chapters in the order you read them. The epilogue will close the book, but it won’t be the last chapter written. For instance, the last chapter written on A STORM OF SWORDS was the Red Wedding).

Come July, I’m off to San Diego to teach a week at Clarion. There will be a signing at Mysterious Galaxy as well, I believe.

But, alas, the San Diego Comicon is looking less and less likely, so that will probably be the only visit I make to San Diego this year. On the other hand, there’s now a good chance I’ll be at the NYC Comicon in October. We shall see.

I need more hours in the day, more days in the week, more weeks in the month.

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Can’t Shut Me Up

April 28, 2010 at 8:29 pm
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For those who haven’t had enough of hearing me pontificate, there’s a new podcast up on the Dragon Page at http://www.dragonpage.com/2010/04/27/cover-to-cover-405a/

Hear me talk with Mike & Mike (no, not Greenberg and Golic) about WARRIORS, A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, and the HBO series.

No football talk. I’m saving that for when I’m a guest of the other Mike & Mike.

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Locus Awards Shortlist

April 20, 2010 at 4:45 pm
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LOCUS has announced the shortlist for its annual awards, and I’m pleased to report that SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH, the Jack Vance tribute anthology I co-edited with Gardner Dozois, has been nominated in the Best Anthology category.

((Three of the five nominees in Best Anthology were edited or co-edited by Gardner, who is also up himself in the Best Editor category. Despite which, he is convinced he is going to lose both awards. That’s why we call him Eeyore.))

Neil Gaimain’s story for SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH is also a finalist, in Best Short Story, and Vance’s autobiography has been nominated in Best Related Book.

For the full list, check here: http://www.locusmag.com/News/2010/04/locus-awards-finalists.html

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More on Warriors

April 4, 2010 at 10:37 pm
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Robin Hobb, Joe Lansdale, Cecelia Holland, and Carrie Vaughn talk about the inspiration for their contributions to WARRIORS on Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist:

http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2010/04/little-more-information-on-warriors.html

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Love. Death. Sex. Heartbreak.

March 31, 2010 at 2:34 pm
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What more could you want?

Coming in November, the latest original anthology from me and my sometime-partner, Gardner Dozois (former editor of ASIMOV’s and winner of umpty-ump Hugo Awards as our field’s best editor): SONGS OF LOVE AND DEATH.

The good folks at Pocket Books have just sent us the cover. Have a look.

The lineup:
-Jim Butcher, “Love Hurts” (a Harry Dresden story)
-Jo Beverly, “The Marrying Maid”
-Carrie Vaughn, “Rooftops”
-M.L.N. Hanover, “Hurt Me”
-Cecelia Holland, “Demon Lover”
-Melinda M. Snodgrass, “The Wayfarer’s Advice” (an Imperials story)
-Robin Hobb, “Blue Boots”
-Neil Gaiman, “The Thing About Cassandra”
-Marjorie M. Liu, “After the Blood”
-Jacqueline Carey, “You and You Alone” (a Kushiel story)
-Lisa Tuttle, “His Wolf”
-Linnea Sinclair, “Courting Trouble”
-Mary Jo Putney, “The Demon Dancer”
-Tanith Lee, “Under/Above the Water”
-Peter S. Beagle, “Kashkia”
-Yasmine Galenorn, “Man in the Mirror”
-Diana Gabaldon, “A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows” (an OUTLANDER spinoff)

The anthology will be released as a hardcover under the Gallery imprint.

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On Sale Today

March 16, 2010 at 1:07 pm
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WARRIORS was officially released today, and should be available at your favorite local bookstore.

For the latest adventure of Dunk & Egg, a new Lord John story from Diana Gabaldon, an Emberverse tale from S.M. Stirling, and original stories by Joe Haldeman, Howard Waldrop, David Morrell, Tad William, Naomi Novik, Lawrence Block, James Rollins, Robin Hobb, and many many others, go ye forth and snag a copy.

Enjoy the read!

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Win A Warrior

March 1, 2010 at 12:51 pm
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Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist is running a giveaway for Advanced Reading Copies of WARRIORS, the big crossgenre anthology I did with Gardner Dozois.

For more details, go to

http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2010/03/win-copy-of-warriors-anthology-edited.html

And for those of you who don’t win, WARRIORS will be in the bookstores on March 16.

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WARRIORS Excerpts

February 12, 2010 at 4:45 pm
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With WARRIORS scheduled for hardcover release on March 16, there are a number of places on the web where readers can get a taste or two of what the book will offer.

Diana Gabaldon has posted an excerpt of her brand new Lord John novella, “The Custom of the Army,” on her website at http://66.147.244.179/~dianagab/excerpts/lj_army.html

Macmillan offers a sample from Cecelia Holland’s Viking tale, “The King of Norway,” on its own site at http://us.macmillan.com/warriors

And of course there’s an excerpt from my new Dunk & Egg novella, “The Mystery Knight,” up at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist at http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2010/01/exclusive-excerpt-from-george-r-r.html

Coming soon to a bookstore near you.

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Love & Death…

February 11, 2010 at 1:55 pm
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… is coming in November.

The good folks at Pocket Books have just informed us that SONGS OF LOVE AND DEATH: Tales of Star-Crossed Love, the latest big crossgenre anthology from me and my partner in crime Gardner Dozois, has been slated for publication on November 16 of this year.

The lineup for this one:

-Jim Butcher, “Love Hurts”
-Jo Beverly, “The Marrying Maid”
-Carrie Vaughn, “Rooftops”
-M.L.N. Hanover, “Hurt Me”
-Cecelia Holland, “Demon Lover”
-Melinda M. Snodgrass, “The Wayfarer’s Advice”
-Robin Hobb, “Blue Boots”
-Neil Gaiman, “The Thing About Cassandra”
-Marjorie M. Liu, “After the Blood”
-Jacqueline Carey, “You and You Alone”
-Lisa Tuttle, “His Wolf”
-Linnea Sinclair, “Courting Trouble”
-Mary Jo Putney, “The Demon Dancer”
-Tanith Lee, “Under/Above the Water”
-Peter S. Beagle, “Kashkia”
-Yasmine Galenorn, “Man in the Mirror”
-Diana Gabaldon, “A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows”

The anthology will be released as a hardcover under the Gallery imprint.

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Another Monkey Off My Back

January 13, 2010 at 2:35 pm
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Gardner Dozois and I have delivered SONGS OF LOVE AND DEATH: Tales of Star-Crossed Love to our editor at Pocket Books.

SONGS OF LOVE AND DEATH is another of our crossgenre anthologies, this one featuring stories that blend fantasy, science fiction, and romance. (I hear you jeering. Pfui. Those of you who know my work only from A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE may not be aware that I was once considered the most romantic science fiction writer of the 70s, back when I was doing my Thousand Worlds stuff).

We’re got another terrific lineup. Our table of contents:

Jim Butcher “Love Hurts”
Jo Beverly “The Marrying Maid”
Carrie Vaughn “Rooftops”
M.L.N. Hanover “Hurt Me”
Cecelia Holland “Demon Lover”
Melinda M. Snodgrass “The Wayfarer’s Advice”
Robin Hobb “Blue Boots”
Neil Gaiman “The Thing About Cassandra”
Marjorie M. Liu “After the Blood”
Jacqueline Carey “You and You Alone”
Lisa Tuttle “His Wolf”
Linnea Sinclair “CourtingTrouble”
Mary Jo Putney “The Demon Dancer”
Tanith Lee “Under/Above the Water”
Peter S. Beagle “Kashkia”
Yasmine Galenorn “Man in the Mirror”
Diana Gabaldon “A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows”

The Butcher is a Harry Dresden story, the Carey tells a long-awaited tale from her Kushiel series, the Gabaldon ties into her immensely popular OUTLANDER series, and the Snodgrass is from her IMPERIALS space opera series.

No word yet on publication date, but you’ll know when we do.

So… one more project done, one more book delivered, one more monkey off my back.

(Yes, I know. King Kong is still perched up on my shoulders. He was a king in his world, but I’ll teach him fear).

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