Monkeys on My Back

June 23, 2012 at 2:57 pm

This is for those who complain I never blog about my work. (I do, but not often. I prefer to announce when something is finally done, rather just endless reiterations of “I am working on X, I am working on Z,” and I am never going to be one of those “I wrote three pages today” writers. Sorry, that’s not how I roll).

One little monkey off my back:

THE LANDS OF ICE AND FIRE — also known as “the map book” — is now DONE AND DELIVERED, and scheduled for publication at year’s end.

Monkeys remaining on my back? Lots o’ them:

THE WINDS OF WINTER. Also known as “Son of Kong.” Working on it. Lots to do.

THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE. The concordance. Elio and Linda are my partners on this one, a compendium of the history and legends of the world of Westeros. A coffee table book, lots of gorgeous art from such talents as Ted Nasmith, Justin Sweet, and others. Making good progress on this one of late, lots of great historical stuff that I think my readers will enjoy. Never before revealed details of Aegon’s Conquest, the War With the Faith, The Dance of the Dragons, the Paramours of Aegon the Unworthy, etc.

Poul Anderson story. An original short story for the Poul Anderson tribute anthology. Way, way overdue, but I am getting to it.

Dunk & Egg #4, An original novella of Dunk & Egg. Working on it. Hope to have it done by worldcon. It’s scheduled to be published in

DANGEROUS WOMEN. A huge crossgenre anthology that Gardner Dozois and I are doing for Tor. Largely complete, except for Dunk & Egg. Well, we’re waiting for three rewrites, but my own story will likely be the last one in, then we can move this one to “done and delivered.”

LOWBALL. Volume twenty-two in the Wild Cards series. Working on that one with Melinda Snodgrass, my co-editor. Late, but almost done, a few last sections remain to be completed.

OLD MARS. Original anthology for Bantam, coedited with Gardner Dozois. Three-quarters done, a few stories still due in, three or four rewrites in progress. Not due quite yet.

OLD VENUS. The sequel to Old Mars. Well back in the pipeline, not due for a year.

ROGUES. Big crossgenre anthology I am doing with Gardner Dozois. One story already in, several in progress, but there’s lots of time on this one too.

So there we are…

No more monkeys, please. Don’t write to me with any tempting offers or cool new projects. I am practicing saying No.

No, no, no, no, no. Sorry, can’t, pass, no way, count me out, too busy, no, no, no, thanks but no thanks, no thanks, no thanks.

I love my monkeys, but I have enough.

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Tags: anthologies, the winds of winter, writing

Two for the Edgar

January 20, 2012 at 11:20 am

VERY cool…

The finalists for this year’s Edgar Awards have just been announced, and I was thrilled to learn that two of the stories from DOWN THESE STRANGE STREETS, the fantasy/ mystery anthology that Gardner Dozois and I edited for Penguin, have been nominated for Best Short Story.

The nominees are:
“Lord John and the Plague of Zombies,” by Diana Gabaldon,
and
“The Adakian Eagle,” by Bradley Denton.

The Edgar Awards, named after Edgar Allen Poe (that famous Baltimore Ravens fan), are the mystery equivalent of the Nebula, awarded annually by the members of the Mystery Writers of America. It’s quite a coup for a fantasy story to be nominated.

A full list of this year’s Edgar nominees can be found here:
http://www.theedgars.com/nominees.html

Congratulations to Brad and Diana. If you’d like to check out their stories, you can find DOWN THESE STRANGE STREETS on Amazon, or (I hope) at your favorite local bookshop. Lots of other good stuff in the book as well.

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Tags: anthologies, awards

“Mystery Knight” Vies for Howie

August 6, 2011 at 5:18 pm

Dunk and Egg are contending in another tourney. The third of my Dunk & Egg novellas, “The Mystery Knight,” has been announced as a finalist for this year’s World Fantasy Award.

Here’s the full list of this year’s nominees:

BEST NOVEL
* Zoo City, Lauren Beukes (Jacana South Africa; Angry Robot)
* The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
* The Silent Land, Graham Joyce (Gollancz; Doubleday)
* Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada; Roc; Harper Voyager UK)
* Redemption In Indigo, Karen Lord (Small Beer)
* Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)

BEST NOVELLA
* Bone and Jewel Creatures, Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean)
* The Broken Man, Michael Byers (PS)
* !œThe Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon!, Elizabeth Hand (Stories: All-New Tales)
* The Thief of Broken Toys, Tim Lebbon (ChiZine Publications)
* !œThe Mystery Knight!, George R.R. Martin (Warriors)
* !œThe Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window!, Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer 2010)

BEST SHORT FICTION
* !œBeautiful Men! , Christopher Fowler (Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels and Heavenly Hosts)
* !œBooth’s Ghost!, Karen Joy Fowler (What I Didn’t See and Other Stories)
* !œPonies!, Kij Johnson (Tor.com 11/17/10)
* !œFossil-Figures!, Joyce Carol Oates (Stories: All-New Tales)
* !œTu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us!, Mercurio D. Rivera (Black Static 8-9/10)

BEST ANTHOLOGY
* The Way of the Wizard, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Prime)
* My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, Kate Bernheimer, ed. (Penguin)
* Haunted Legends, Ellen Datlow & Nick Mamatas, eds. (Tor)
* Stories: All-New Tales, Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio, eds. (Morrow; Headline Review)
* Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror, S.T. Joshi, ed. (PS)
* Swords & Dark Magic, Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders, eds. (Eos)

BEST COLLECTION
* What I Didn’t See and Other Stories, Karen Joy Fowler (Small Beer)
* The Ammonite Violin & Others, CaitlÃn R. Kiernan (Subterranean)
* Holiday, M. Rickert (Golden Gryphon)
* Sourdough and Other Stories, Angela Slatter (Tartarus)
* The Third Bear, Jeff VanderMeer (Tachyon)

BEST ARTIST
* Vincent Chong
* Kinuko Y. Craft
* Richard A. Kirk
* John Picacio
* Shaun Tan

SPECIAL AWARD, PROFESSIONAL
* John Joseph Adams, for editing and anthologies
* Lou Anders, for editing at Pyr
* Marc Gascoigne, for Angry Robot
* StÃ©phane Marsan & Alain NÃ©vant, for Bragelonne
* Brett Alexander Savory & Sandra Kasturi, for ChiZine Publications

SPECIAL AWARD, NON-PROFESSIONAL
* Stephen Jones, Michael Marshall Smith, & Amanda Foubister, for Brighton Shock!: The Souvenir Book Of The World Horror Convention 2010
* Alisa Krasnostein, for Twelfth Planet Press
* Matthew Kressel, for Sybil’s Garage and Senses Five Press
* Charles Tan, for Bibliophile Stalker
* Lavie Tidhar, for The World SF Blog

The winners will be announced Halloween weekend at the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego, California. The award is a wonderfully gloomy bust of H.P. Lovecraft sculpted by Gahan Wilson.

I have one Howie on my awards shelf already, a best novella award for my werewolf story “The Skin Trade,” published lo these many years ago when the world was young… but he has a lonely look about him, and ‘twould be nice to have another. Hey, it’s always nice to get a little head. Not that I’m expecting to win. Unlike the Hugo and the Nebula, the World Fantasy Award is juried, so one never knows how it’s going to turn out.

“The Mystery Knight” was published in WARRIORS, the big crossgenre anthology I edited with Gardner Dozois. If you’d like to check it out, paperback copies are available from Amazon and other on-line bookshops.

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Tags: anthologies, awards, dunk & egg

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

WARRIORS Wins Locus Poll

June 29, 2011 at 10:30 am

I’m delighted to announce that WARRIORS, the gigantic cross-genre anthology that I co-edited with my old friend Gardner Dozois, has won the Locus Award as the Best Anthology of 2010.

The award is given by LOCUS magazine, the PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY of science fiction and fantasy, and is decided by an annual poll of of the magazine’s readers. You can check out the full results on Tor.com here: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/06/announcing-the-2011-locus-award-winners

Gardner and I are very proud of WARRIORS, our tilting-at-windmills attempt to smash down some genre barriers, and we’re thrilled to see it cop this prize over some terrific competition, all of them pure SF and fantasy. My thanks to all our contributors, who helped make the book what it is. Without them, WARRIORS would be… well, a big book of blank pages. And thanks as well to Tom Doherty, Patrick Nielsen-Hayden, and all the other folks at Tor.

In other categories, Neil Gaiman took home the prize for Best Short Story for “The Thing About Cassandra,” originally published in another of the anthologies that Gardner and I have edited, SONGS OF LOVE AND DEATH. Congratulations to Neil. A well deserved award for a great story.

In novella, my own contender “The Mystery Knight” was among the finalists, but lost out to Ted Chiang’s “The Lifecycle of Software Objects.” Tough competition, that. Congratulations to the winner… and don’t worry, Dunk & Egg will have other chances in the years to come.

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Tags: anthologies, locus awards, tor

Monkeys On My Back

June 1, 2011 at 12:42 pm

Now that Kong has fallen, all the smaller monkeys who were hiding in his fur have come out and began to howl and chatter and beat me about the head and shoulders.

I got one off my back yesterday (though not one that most of you will care much about): my bloody taxes. At least, I got them to my accountant, so he can file my returns by the June 15 deadline. I had to take an extension back in April, since I was deep in the throes of wrestling Kong and did not have the time to deal with all those little bits of paper. I try not to bitch about taxes too much, mind you. As a good liberal, I don’t actually mind paying taxes. (And I pay a LOT of taxes). I know taxes are the price of a civilized society. That being said, I hate DOING taxes. It has gotten easier in recent years, with Ty doing a lot of the prep work and my accountant doing the final prep and filing the return… but somehow it still always seems to come down to me at three in the morning, zonked on coffee and staring at a faded receipt for $8.17 and trying to figure out what it is, where it’s from, and whether it’s deductible.

Anyway, that’s done. For one more year, at least.

Which is not to say that my back is without monkeys.

Here’s the stuff I am dealing with right now:
— reviewing pitch proposals and putting together the overplot for the new Wild Cards mosaic novel, LOWBALL,
— writing the first draft of my script for episode nine of season two of the HBO series GAME OF THRONES, “Blackwater,” and damn, but this one is a bitch of an adaptation, the original author made the damn battle way too big and too expensive,
— working on a Nicholas van Rijn story for the Poul Anderson tribute anthology Gardner Dozois and Greg Bear are editing (an especially noisy monkey, since the deadline was today and the story is a long way from being done),
— getting back into THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE, the long-promised concordance I am doing with Elio and Linda, which is almost three years late at this point, and needs to be finished and delivered by year’s end,
— roughing out the next Dunk and Egg novella, the next story in the queue after I finished the “Blackwater” script and the Poul Anderson story,
— planning for a long summer of travel: the visit to Poland and Slovenia, the book tour, San Diego comicon, worldcon in Reno, Bubonicon, and maybe another trip overseas in the fall for the HBO show, depending,
— working on a complete redesign of my website, much needed and long potsponed,
— supervising and reviewing and approving materials for the games, the cards, the video games, the comic books, the replica swords, the miniatures, etc, etc.

I am exhausted just typing about it.

And behind all that, of course, lurks Son of Kong: the WINDS OF WINTER.

Why am I writing this damned post??? I need to get to WORK!

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Tags: anthologies, appearances, editing, everyday life, writing

Albuqerque Signing

December 10, 2010 at 3:21 pm

The Wild Cards gang — the New Mexico chapter, anyway — will be gathering tomorrow at Page One Bookstore in Albuquerque to sign copies of the new Tor reissue of WILD CARDS, volume one, the book that started it all (with Extra! Added! Content!!). I’ll be on hand, natch, along with Melinda M. Snodgrass, John Jos. Miller, Victor Milan, Walter Jon Williams, Ian Tregillis, and Daniel Abraham. Seven signatures, one stop!

WILD CARDS will be the featured volume, but copies of INSIDE STRAIGHT, BUSTED FLUSH, and SUICIDE KINGS will also be on hand, and available for autographing.

So will a whole bunch of my other recent releases, including

— the new Tor edition of SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH

— the hardcover of SONGS OF LOVE AND DEATH

Books by Melinda Snodgrass, Daniel Abraham, M.L.N. Hanover, Victor Milan, Walter Jon Willianms, and Ian Tregillis will also be available. So will ACES & JOKERS, the latest game supplement from Green Ronin, by Steve Kenyon and our own John Jos. Miller.

Page One is at 11018 Montgomery NE in Albuquerque. Check out their website at http://www.page1book.com/

If you cannot make the signing in the flesh, it is still possible to order a signed book or three by phone, mail, or email. The Page One staff will be glad to take your order, set the book aside, have it signed, and ship it to you. Call their toll free number at 1-800-521-4122 or email the service department at books@page1book.com.

Signed books make great Christmas presents… so if you’re anywhere near Page One tomorrow, stop on by. The signing begins at 3:30 in the afternoon. See you there!

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Tags: anthologies, appearances, signed books, signings, wild cards

Look! Up in the Sky!

November 23, 2010 at 9:30 pm

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s… yes, actually, it IS a plane. Jetboy’s plane. And a whole bunch of blimps.

WILD CARDS is back. I’m talking volume one, originally published in 1987, the book that introduced a universe of high-flying aces and twisted jokers, and kicked off a series that is still going strong today, twenty-three years later. Tor has just released a reissue of the book in trade paperback format. It went on sale today, and you’ll find it in your favorite local bookstore… most likely, right next to SONGS OF LOVE AND DEATH.

Now, maybe you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of readers who already has a copy of WILD CARDS sitting on your shelf, so you figure you don’t need to snap this one up. Well, you’d be wrong. We didn’t just re-release the original book, we improved it with extra added content — three brand new stories, by Michael Cassutt, David D. Levine, and Carrie Vaughn, covering some of the “lost years” in the Wild Cards timeline. Secret histories and tales untold till now.

The new stories are “Captain Cathode and the Secret Ace” by Michael Cassutt, “Powers” by David D. Levine, and “Ghost Girl Takes Manhattan” by Carrie Vaughn, stellar additions to the original lineup of work from Howard Waldrop, Roger Zelazny, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Walter Jon Williams, Lewis Shiner, Victor Milan, Edward Bryant, Leanne C. Harper, Stephen Leigh, John Jos. Miller, and yours truly. Jetboy, Dr. Tachyon, Fortunato, Yeoman, the Sleeper, Golden Boy, Mark Meadows, Sewerjack and Bagabond, Puppetman, and the Great and Powerful Turtle… they’re all back, and this time they’ve brought friends.

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Tags: anthologies, wild cards

Now On Sale

November 23, 2010 at 5:42 pm

November’s a big month for me. Look around, and you’ll find my stuff everywhere.

First out was the hardcover of SONGS OF LOVE AND DEATH, the latest crossgenre anthology I’ve edited with Gardner Dozois, featuring seventeen original never-before-published tales of star-crossed lovers, with a lineup that includes fantasy, paranormal romance, and SF, written by some of today’s hottest writers.

The 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”

If you’re a fan of Harry Dresden, the Kushiel series, the Outlander books, or any of the other featured writers, this is one you’ll want to pick up.

SONGS OF LOVE AND DEATH was released from Pocket Books on November 16, and should be available from your favorite bookstore right now.

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Tags: anthologies

Another Monkey Off My Back

September 30, 2010 at 10:23 am

No, not Kong. Sorry.

However, I’m pleased to report that Gardner Dozois and I have completed work on our original anthology DOWN THESE STRANGE STREETS and delivered it to our editors at Penguin Putnam. The final lineup:

THE BASTARD STEPCHILD (introduction), by George R.R. Martin
DEATH BY DAHLIA, by Charlaine Harris (a True Blood story)
THE BLEEDING SHADOW, by Joe R. Lansdale
HUNGRY HEART, by Simon R. Green
STYX AND STONES, by Steven Saylor (a Gordianus story)
PAIN AND SUFFERING, by S.M. Stirling
IT’S STILL THE SAME OLD STORY, by Carrie Vaughn
THE LADY IS A SCREAMER, by Conn Iggulden
HELLBENDER, by Laurie R. King
SHADOW THIEVES, by Glen Cook (a Garrett story)
NO MYSTERY, NO MIRACLE, by Melinda Snodgrass (an Edge story)
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PUZZLE AND A MYSTERY, by M.L.N. Hanover
THE CURIOUS AFFAIR OF THE DEODAND, by Lisa Tuttle
LORD JOHN AND THE PLAGUE OF ZOMBIES, by Diana Gabaldon (a Lord John novella)
BEWARE THE SNAKE, by John Maddox Roberts (a SPQR story)
IN RED, WITH PEARLS, by Patricia Briggs
THE ADAKIAN EAGLE, by Bradley Denton (novella)

DOWN THESE STRANGE STREETS is another of our crossgenre projects, this one a mix of fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy, hardboiled mystery, historicals, and private eye stories. We’ve got some great stories in the book, and I think you’ll all enjoy the read. No word yet as to when the book will be released, but I’ll be sure and let you know once it’s scheduled.

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Tags: anthologies

Not a Blog

Monkeys on My Back

Two for the Edgar

“Mystery Knight” Vies for Howie

Stuff and Nonsense

WARRIORS Wins Locus Poll

Monkeys On My Back

Albuqerque Signing

Look! Up in the Sky!

Now On Sale

Another Monkey Off My Back

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