A couple of posts down, I announced that I had decided to cancel a couple of my planned appearances for 2015, namely the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga and the San Diego Comicon.

As seems to happen with everything I post these days, this was immediately misinterperted and misreported.  The usual game of internet telephone took place, and suddenly it was being said that I had cancelled ALL my planned appearances for 2015.  This immediately triggered a flood of emails, and comments here on the blog, from fans who had bought memberships in Norwescon or Conquest or Sasquan in order to see me, and were now worried that I was not coming.

No.  Not so.  Listen, please.  I am skipping San Diego Comicon and World Fantasy Con… but as of this writing, I am still planning on making all of my other scheduled appearances.  Okay?  Clear?  That means, yes, I will be in Seattle for Norwescon next week, and yes, I will be going to Kansas City for Conquest over Memorial Day.  And so forth.  And so on.

Please note that at both of these cons, I am a guest of honor. They invited me years ago, and have been advertising my participation for many months.  Fans and readers have planned accordingly.  I would not feel right in pulling out of an obligation like this, except perhaps in cases of medical or family emergency, and that does not apply here.  At San Diego and Saratoga I was not a GOH, just a program participant, attending largely on my own hook.  Makes it much easier to withdraw.

It is possible that I may withdraw from some other announced appearances later in the year… most likely in the summer and fall… but if I do, it won't be from cons where I am the featured guest of honor.  I would prefer not to have to cancel anything, but that depends on how the work is going.

And by "work," I mean WINDS OF WINTER, of course… but not exclusively WINDS OF WINTER.   When I say, "my plate is full," I don't just mean with WINDS.  I am still editing the latest Wild Cards volume, HIGH STAKES.   I have an overall deal with HBO, and three new television concepts in various stages of development, with a variety of collaborators and partners.   I am consulting on a couple of videogames.   There's the Wild Cards movie at Universal, where I'm a producer.  And I've recently formed a new production company to make low budget short films based on a trio of classic short stories by… well, no, not yet, that would be telling.  Premature telling.

(Many of these other projects may come to nothing.  Such is the dance of development as they do it in Hollywood.  If anything ever actually comes to fruition, you will read about it here.  Till then, don't hold your breath).

Anyway, I'm busy.  But please note, most of these other projects involve me editing, producing, consulting, or financing.  The writing I'm doing is all on WINDS OF WINTER.

Speaking of which… after wrestling with it for a month or so, I've decided not to script an episode for season six of GAME OF THRONES.  Writing a script takes me three weeks, minimum, and longer when it is not a straight adaptation from the novels.  And really, it would cost me more time than that, since I have never been good at changing gears from one medium to another and back again. Writing a season six script would cost me a month's work on WINDS, and maybe as much as six weeks,  and I cannot afford that.   With David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Bryan Cogman on board, the scriptwriting chores for season six should be well covered.  My energies are best devoted to WINDS.

So… back to it.