Not a Blog

A Scottish Worldcon

April 2, 2025 at 9:01 am
Profile Pic

We spent a month across the pond last summer, from July 15 to August 15.   We started in Belfast and environs, where A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS was being filmed.  From there we went on to Amsterdam, where I paid a call on my Dutch publisher, and then London to call on Jane Johnson and the good folks at Voyager, my UK publisher.  Oxford was next.  The Oxford Writers House had invited me to deliver a talk on fantasy with Philip Pullman, the author of HIS DARK MATERIALS.  I was really looking forward to that.  Unfortunately Pullman was ill and had to bow out, so the event turned into a booksigning and Q&A, and I ended up flying solo.

It was an enjoyable afternoon in any case, and Oxford was amazing.  This was my first visit there.  I really must get back there one of these days.   Perhaps by then the Eagle and Child will have opened again, and I can raise a pint to the Inklings.

The last scheduled stop on our European travels was Glasgow, for the World Science Fiction Convention.   This was the third Glasgow  worldcon.  Parris and I attended the other two, the first in 1995 and the second in 2005, and have fond memories of both, so I was determined to make this one too.

I am glad we did.   No, I was not on any programming… but in the end I hardly missed it.  I attended my first worldcon in 1971 (that was Boston) and sat on my first panel in 1976 (Big Mac, in Kansas City) — those were the days of single track programming, and you had to pay your dues before they let you onto the podium with the big boys and girls.  I have lost track of how many panels I’ve done since.   Sometimes they were fun, and sometimes they were tedious; I suppose they were good promotion for my books.   That was never the point, though.  For me, worldcon was a family reunion, a gathering of friends new and old.  That was what drew me back, year after year after year.

Glasgow reminded of that.   I spent most of the con in the hotel bar, drinking and talking with fellow writers and fans, telling the old stories, remembering the old times, and raising a pint to all those we have lost.  Howard and Gardner, Phyllis Eisenstein and Gene Wolfe and Charlie Brown, Harlan Ellison and Fred Pohl, Isaac Asimov and Fred Pohl and Jack Vance, Michael Bishop and Ursula K. LeGuin , Jay Haldeman and Greg Bear and Poul Anderson and so many more.   We wandered the art show and the huckster’s room, and enjoyed some great meals in Glasgow’s restaurants… the most memorable being our visit to Mr. Singh’s with the Brotherhood Without Banners.  I love Indian cuisine,  but it’s so much better in England and Scotland than over here in the US… and nowhere is better than at Mr. Singh’s in Glasgow,  the best I have ever had.   (I have eaten there every time I’ve been to Glasgow, and it just keeps getting better and better and better).

Regular readers of this blog will know that for the past couple of years I have been producing a series of short films based on the works of Howard Waldrop, my oldest and dearest friend in fandom, and one of the greatest (and most original) short story writers in the history of the field.   We had five films in various stages of production (and a sixth, not based on a Waldrop story, underway), and were able to wrap  three of them before worldcon: NIGHT OF THE COOTERS (d. Vincent d’Onofrio), MARY MARGARET ROAD-GRADER (d. Steven Paul Judd), and THE UGLY CHICKENS (d. Mark Raso.)   We’ve had them out on the festival circuit, but I brought them to Glasgow as well, thinking I might screen them at the con.   That’s more complicated than it sounds, for various reasons, and I was never able to get anyone to return my phone calls to see what could be worked out, alas.  Fortunately, the hotel where we were staying had a small screening room in the basement, so at least I was able to invite a couple dozen friends over for a semi-private show.

I am pleased to say the shorts seemed to be well received.   We got a very nice review from the website WINTER IF COMING, for those of you who would like to know more about them:

https://winteriscoming.net/posts/i-saw-george-r-r-martin-s-howard-waldrop-short-films-and-they-re-delightful-exclusive-01j5xkrv0fx3

(Howard liked them too.   We were able to screen the final cut of MARY MARGARET for him just six days before he died in January 2014. I am so happy he was able to see it).    THE UGLY CHICKENS and MARY MARGARET ROAD-GRADER are still out playing festivals, so you still may be able to see them, depending on where you live.   The Chickens won the award for Best Short last week in San Jose at Cinequest, and will be showing again this weekend in Cleveland.   Catch it if you can; it is one of Howard’s classics.

The other highlight of my worldcon was the Alfie Awards banquet we held at our hotel

The Alfies are named in honor of Alfred Bester, one of the giants of the field, the author of THE DEMOLISHED MAN, “Fondly Fahrenheit,” THE STARS MY DESTINATION, and a long list of other great stories.  Bester was the winner of the first Hugo Award for Best Novel (for THE DEMOLISHED MAN, at the 1953 worldcon in Philadelphia).   He turned up at the very first Hugo Losers Party as well, in 1976 at Big Mac in Kansas City, and insisted he still counted as a loser since that first Hugo trophy was a made from an Oldsmobile hood ornament,  and had rusted and corroded over the years.   We all laughed, and let him in.

We created the Alfie Awards in 2015, at the worldcon in Spokane.  That was the year of Puppygate, when a number of writers and fans who would surely have been nominated for a Hugo Award were squeezed out when the Puppies (Sad and Rabid) stuffed the ballot with their own favorites.   There was no way to rectify that (though various people tried, with everything from wooden asterisks to rules reform to voting No Award).   My own approach was the Alfies;  trophies made of old hood ornaments, like many of the early Hugo Awards, given to writers and fans who missed out on nominations they likely would have gotten in a normal year.    (I don’t say they would have won, there was no way of knowing that, but it IS an honor to be a Hugo loser.   I should know, I’ve lost a fair number of them myself).  You can learn way more than you ever wanted to know about the Hugo brouhaha of 2015 in from the myriad accounts on the web.

I gave another set of Alfies out in 2016, when the worldcon was in Kansas City.   The Hugo rules were different that year, so I tweaked the Alfies as well… but the winners still seemed to appreciate them.  (And that’s what awards are all about, really).   By 2017, when the con was in Helsinki, the need for the Alfies seemed to have passed.  We threw a great Hugo Losers Party that year, but handed out no hood ornaments.   Come 2018, worldcon went to San Jose, where we awarded a single Alfie, to John Picacio for his Mexicanx Initiative, a commendable effort to put more world in worldcon.   We went international as well in 2019,  in Dublin.  Alfies were presented there to two titans of British publishing, Malcolm Edwards of Gollancx and Jane Johnson of Voyager, two of the leading editors in the history of our genre, neither of whom had gotten so much as a Hugo nomination in years past.   They were long overdue.

There were no Alfies given at the worldcons in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.   The New Zealand con had to go virtual, due to the pandemic, and I was not able to attend the 2021 con in Washington, DC or the Chicago con in 2022.   But the next one up was in Chengdu, China… and that’s where the problems came in.   The Chinese fans designed a handsome Hugo trophy, for certain… but when the nomination totals were finally revealed, it became clear that the vote counting had gone seriously awry.   The numbers did not seem right, and four possible contenders (a television show, a fan writer, a new writer, and a major novel) were unaccountably missing from the final ballot, despite having received more than enough nominations.  They had been disqualified and removed from the ballot.   Why?  No one would say.

I won’t attempt to describe what followed.   You can read all about it on line.

It was time for the Alfies to return.  Fortunately, I still had a garage full of old hood ornaments.  And our hotel had a room that was just the right size for a small-ish celebration to honor those who were wrongfully denied their chance to contend for a Hugo rocket.

The Chengdu Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, was won by EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE.   Short Form went to “Babylon’s Ashes”, an episode of THE EXPANSE.   Worthy winners both, but some of the competition was missing.  SANDMAN received 139 nominations in Short Form for “The Sound of Her Wings,” almost a hundred more than the EXPANSE episode, but was removed from the ballot for reasons never satisfactorily explained.  In Long Form, the first season of SANDMAN got 50 nominations, which would not have been enough to make the ballot… but the series was removed from that category as well (just to be sure?)

In the fan writer category, CHRIS BARKLEY was the winner.  He had received 90 votes during the nomination round, only one more than another perennial contender, PAUL WEIMER, who got 89… the third highest total, and more than enough to make the final ballot.  But Weimer’s name did not appear.  It was said that he was disqualified for the crime of visiting Tibet at one point.  Except he hadn’t.  Whoever removed him did not seem to know the difference between Tibet and Nepal, which he had visited.

Paul was at the con, but the concom had him working during our banquet, so he was not able to attend.   No one from SANDMAN was in Glasgow, sad to say.   (We got them their Alfies regardless.   And none of our trophies broke, I am assured).

Our final two winners were on hand, however.

Believe it or not, I was a new writer once, and in 1973 I was a finalist for a brand new award for Best New Writer, the first year it was given.   It was called the John W. Campbell Award then, and for many years thereafter.   Today it is called the Astounding Award, but it’s the same award.  “Not a Hugo,” by either name, it is awarded to the best new writer to break in during the previous two years.

XIRAN JAY ZHAO was a finalist for the Astounding Award in 2022.   They lost, just as I did in 1973 — but hey, it is an honor just to be nominated, and I certainly felt that way in ’73.   The first time is always special.    Jay got enough votes to make the ballot again in 2023, their second year of eligibility… 178, to be precise, the fourth highest nomination total.   But their name did not appear on the final ballot.

Why?  No idea.

Instead, we gave them an Alfie.

The final Alfie of the night went to R.F.  KUANG for her novel BABEL, OR THE NECESSITY OF VIOLENCE,, which received 810 nominations, the third highest total.   Nonetheless, there was no place on the ballot for her.  That was especially egregious, I thought, since BABEL would have had an excellent chance of coming out on top if the book had been nominated.  The novel had already won the Nebula Award and the Locus Award, among other honors; a Hugo would have given it a rare sweep of SF’s most prestigious awards.  Alas, BABEL never got the chance to contend.

But it did get an Alfie.  And Rebecca herself was there to collect it.

Will there be more Alfies in the years to come?  Only time will tell.

But Glasgow was fun.

I hope to see you all again this year, in Seattle.

GRRM

Current Mood: pleased pleased

A Voyage to Saturn

February 20, 2025 at 10:02 am
Profile Pic

The Saturn Awards were created in 1973 by  the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films, to honor the year’s best work in genre television, film, and home entertainment.   They have been given annually ever since.  This year’s  year’s awards ceremony, the 52nd, was held in the Hilton Universal City in Los Angeles, on February 2.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON had three finalists in the television division.

EMMA D’ARCY was nominated as Best Actress in a Televsion Series, and MATT SMITH for Best Supporting Actor.

The show itself was  up against AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER, FOR ALL MANKIND, THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES,  LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER, and PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS for BEST FANTASY SERIES.

Our congratulations go out to Emma and Matt.   It is an honor just to be nominated (as I’ve been told more times than I can count).  It’s true.  Matt and Emma did not win (this year), but they did outstanding work bringing Rhaenyra and Daemon to vivid life.

And there’s always next year.

I am pleased to say that HOUSE OF THE DRAGON itself did take home the prize, and claimed the Saturn for BEST FANTASY SERIES.

Here’s the full list of finalists and winners for the year, for those of you who like to keep track of these things.

https://www.saturnawards.org/

I was not able to attend the awards ceremony, but I am happy we won.   There was some tough competition, especially FOR ALL MANKIND, which is such a damn fine show, especially if you grew up during Mercury and Apollo, as I did.

Actually, I’ve managed to attend the Saturn Awards only once, and that was way way back in the 90s, where I went to one of their awards luncheons to represent BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.   We didn’t win that year, but I got a nice lunch.   The big winner was Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose acceptance speech was short and very very funny.

Looking back over the history of the Saturns between then and now, I was surprised to learn that GAME OF THRONES won six of them over its run. Our winners were:

2015      BEST LIMITED RUN TELEVISION SERIES
2015     BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUNGER ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES: MAISIE WILLIAMS
2019     BEST FANTASY TELEVISION SERIES
2019     BEST ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES: EMILIA CLARKE
2019     BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES: PETER DINKLAGE
2019     BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUNGER ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES: MAISIE WILLIAMS

That’s six Saturns for GAME OF THRONES and one for HOUSE OF THE DRAGON.

The weird thing is, this was the first I’ve heard of any of these.  The Saturns were broadcast this year (on Roko), but that hasn’t been true for most of their run… but you’d think someone would have told us.   No one did.  At least they did not tell me.   Maybe all the trophies are lined up on a shelf at HBO somewhere, surrounded by all the other awards HBO has won over the decades.  There have been a lot of them.

In any case, belated congratulations to Maisie and Peter and Emilia, and the rest of our amazing team, to David and Dan and Bryan Cogman,  to David Nutter and Alan Taylor and Miguel Sapochnik and all the other writers and directors who helped make GOT what it was… and to the cast and crew who worked beside them in 2015 and 2019.  Take a (belated) bow.

Current Mood: pleased pleased

A Day to Remember

December 21, 2024 at 8:48 am
Profile Pic

Sometimes you CAN go home again, no matter what Tom Wolfe said.   At least for a visit.

For me, home was Bayonne, New Jersey,  just south of Jersey City, on a peninsula sandwiched between New York and Newark.   I was born in Bayonne in 1948, and spent my childhood there, most of it in the federal housing projects on First Street, with the lights of Staten Island across the waters of the Kill Von Kull.   Bayonne was my world until 1966, when I went off to college at Northwestern, the first time I ever went beyond the borders of Jersey and NYC (except in books and comics, of course, where I could oft be found wandering Middle Earth, on  Barsoom, Trantor, or Venusport, or slinking down  the mean streets of Gotham City).

After college, I remained in Chicago for two years of alternative service with VISTA, and a couple of additional years directing chess tournaments throughout the midwest.  My years in Dubuque, Iowa came after that, until I finally settled down in the Land of Enchantment (Santa Fe) come  1979.   I spent time in Hollywood as well.

I still had family in Jersey, though, so I returned to Bayonne once or twice a year, most years.   It was always nice to come back, see my sisters and their kids and grandkids… and remember.   Bayonne has changed some over the years…the city has lost all its movie houses, along with Uncle Milty’s Amusement Park where I had my first job… but the projects are still there, and Brady’s Dock, and Mary Jane Donohoe School on 5th Street… the candy store on Kelly Parkway where I bought my comic books and Ace Doubles is still there, and so is the Fifth Street Deli-Ette… oh, and Hendrickson’s Corner, and Judicke’s sprinkle Donuts…

And the public library remains… changed some, yes… but better than ever.

I remember the library.  I always will.

And it would seem that the library remembers me.    They have just completed some renovations, and did me the honor of naming one of the new rooms after me: the George R.R. Martin Room for Popular Fiction.  To mark the occasion, they declared October 15 to be George R.R. Martin Day.

That is… so cool, so, so, so…  well, words fail me.   I have won a lot of awards over the course of my career: Emmys and Golden Globes, Hugo Awards and Nebulas, Lovecrafts and Stokers and Dragons. (I have lost a lot more, to be sure, but then that’s only fitting for a guy who helped found the Hugo Losers Club)… but I have never had a day before.   Few have.   After all, there are only 365 of them.

James (Jimmy) Davis, Bayonne’s mayor, presided over the ribbon-cutting ceremony.   Old friends and new attended.

 

 

Of course, we had a great turnout from the library staff.

The library also added a wonderful mosaic dragon to its decor.

I was asked to say a few words, and was thrilled to do so.   Given the circumstance I could probably have talked for hours.   So many memories, so much to say.  But I resisted the impulse.   We shook a few hands, and then went down to Hendrickson’s Corner.

This was a very special day for me.  One I will longer remember.

Current Mood: loved loved

Dodos Take Pittsburgh

November 28, 2024 at 10:32 am
Profile Pic

Winners have just been announced for this year’s Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival (November 21-24), and we’re pleased and proud  to announce that THE UGLY CHICKENS  took home the Jury Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

Mark Raso was in Pittsburgh to represent us, and accept the prize of behalf of our cast and crew and dodo lovers everywhere.  Felicia Day starred in the film, while Mark directed.   Michael Cassutt wrote the script, adapted from Howard Waldrop’s classic short story, winner of the Nebula and World Fantasy Award in 1980-1981.

Pittsburgh Shorts is one of the premiere short film venues in the country, and the competition is always tough.   It is a real honor take home the trophy, and I know Howard would have been thrilled as well.

Current Mood: bouncy bouncy

Lose One, Win One

June 29, 2024 at 7:07 am
Profile Pic

You win some, you lose some, some get rained out.

That’s how it goes in baseball, and in the awards game as well.

VOYAGING, Raya Golden’s lovely graphic novel adaptation of “The Plague Star,” the opening novella in my Haviland Tuf series, was a finalist for this year’s Locus Award in the category of Illustrated or Art Books.  The awards were presented on June 22, and, alas, we lost.   (Or you might say we were “differently victorious,” as the toastmaster did at the 1998 Nebula Awards).

The winner was The CULTURE: The Drawings, by Iain M. Banks, published by Orbit in both the U.S. and U.K.

It was an honor just to be nominated.   Congratulations to the winner (Iain M. Banks is terrific, by the way).

In other awards news, back in May of 2023, SFWA presented its Nebula Award for Game Writing to ELDEN RING, from Bandai Entertainment and From Software.   I did the worldbuilding for that project; Hidetaka Miyazaka and his team did all the rest.   We were both honored with trophies.   I was not at the awards banquet, however, and in any case only one trophy was on hand for the event.   That one went home to Japan, where it truly belongs.

The other Nebula was completed a few months ago, and made its way to Santa Fe just in time for our solstice party.   It was presented to me on June 22… so as fate would have it, I was winning a Nebula and losing a Locus the same night, almost simultaneously.

My thanks go to SFWA, to all the members who voted for me, to all the members who did not, and to Hidetaka Miyazake and his incredible team at From Software, who made ELDEN RING the best-selling (and best) game in the world for 2022.

 

Oh, and about those rumors you may have heard about a feature film or television series based on ELDEN RING… I have nothing to say.   Not a word, nope, not a thing, I know nothing, you never heard a peep from me, mum mum mum.   What rumor?

This is my third Nebula, for what it’s worth… and the first in thirty-nine years,  since “Portraits of His Children” in 1985.

I did lose quite a few in the intervening years, including the Best Novel awards for A GAME OF THRONES and A CLASH OF KINGS.  (I think.  Might be getting that wrong).

It’s an honor just to be nominated, though.   Gardner Dozois said that, laughing, when he welcomed me into the Nebula Loser wing of the Hugo Loser Club, along about 1974.

You win some, you lose some, and some get rained out.

Current Mood: cheerful cheerful

Awards Season

June 11, 2024 at 8:14 am
Profile Pic

CONGRATULATIONS

to Eboni Booth, winner of this year’s Pulitzer Price for her play, “Primary Truth.”

https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/eboni-booth

Never having won a Pulitzer Prize myself, I am at a loss to explain  why the medal shows Ben Franklin rather than Joseph Pulitzer, but Eboni has promised to fill me in after the ceremony.   She’s an amazingly talented young playwright, and a joy to work with; when not writing and producing her prize-winning plays on- and off-Broadway, she has been kept busy by me and HBO, working on a new pilot for TEN THOUSAND SHIPS, a GAME OF THRONES spinoff about Nymeria and the Rhoynar.   We’re all very excited about this one… though we’re still trying to figure out how we’re going to pay for  ten thousand ships, three hundred dragons, and those giant turtles.

And CONGRATULATIONS as well to composer Kevin Kiner, who took home this year’s BMI  TV/ MUSIC  for his work on DARK WINDS , our Navajo Detective series on AMC, based on the novels of Tony Hillerman, and starring Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, and Jessica Matten.   It’s great to see DARK WINDS getting some awards attention at last; it’s long overdue.   (Some Emmy love would be nice, hint hint, nudge nudge.  The third season is shooting even now, at Camel Rock Studios north of Santa Fe, and this year we’ll have eight episodes instead of six.  Meanwhile, the first two seasons are available to be binged on AMC+.

 

I count myself very lucky to have worked with so many talented people during my years in film and televison, from my earliest jobs in the mid 80s on TWILIGHT ZONE and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, to my current outings with HBO and AMC.

Current Mood: pleased pleased

Women of the Press

April 22, 2024 at 4:34 pm
Profile Pic

Last month I zipped down to the Isleta Resort south of Albuquerque for an afternoon, to deliver the keynote speech for the 75th anniversary luncheon of the New Mexico Press Women, and to receive their Courageous Communicator Award.

That was a singular honor, and one that really set me to thinking.   Our world needs courageous communicators more than ever in these dark divided days, when so many people would rather silence those they disagree with than engage them in debate and discussion.    I deplore that… but had I really done enough, myself, to be recognized for courageous speech?

I am not sure I have, truth be told.  Yes, I’ve spoken up from time to time, on issues both large and small… but not always.  It is always easier to remain silent, to stay on the sidelines and let the storms wash over you.   The more I pondered, the more convinced I became that I need to do more.   That we all need to do more.

I started by delivering a 45 minute keynote address, on the subject of free speech and censorship.   Which, I am happy to say, was very well received (I was not entirely sure it would be).

After the luncheon plates had been cleared away and the speeches delivered, retiring NMPW president Sherri Burr handed out the awards, including the Courageous Communicator.

The text on the trophy reads, “New Mexico Press Women On the Occasion of its 75th Anniversary Bestows its COURAGEOUS COMMUNICATOR AWARD on March 15-16, 2024 to George R.R. Martin for building new worlds and creating strong, yet nuanced, women characters in his books and television shows.”

My thanks to Sherri, and to all the members of the NMWP.

Current Mood: contemplative contemplative

Wrangled Again!

March 23, 2024 at 3:40 pm
Profile Pic

I am thrilled to announce that DARK WINDS has won a second Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, for the best television drama of 2024.  This is the second year in a row that DARK WINDS has taken the prize.

The winning episode was “Hozho nahasdlii (Beauty is Restored),” the finale from our second season, shown last spring on AMC and AMC+.   Chris Eyre directed,  from a script penned by John Wirth and Graham Roland, based on the novel PEOPLE OF DARKNESS, by the late great Tony Hillerman.   Zahn McClarnon starred as Joe Leaphorn, with Kiowa Gordon as Jim Chee, and Jessica Matson as Bernadette Manuelito.  The producing team includes Chris, Graham, Zahn, Jim Chory, Anne Hillerman, Vince Gerardis, Tina Elmo, and me.

https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/collections/awards/wha/hozho-nahasdlii-beauty-is-restored-dark-winds/

Here’s yours truly with last year’s Wrangler.   This year’s trophies will be presented in Oklahoma April 12-13.

(It’s a pretty formidable trophy, all in bronze).

Meanwhile, we are moving ahead with the third season of DARK WINDS, which will start shooting this week in Santa Fe, at the Candle Rock Studio and on location around the state.   And AMC is giving us EIGHT episodes this season, rather than six as with seasons one and two!  More Hillerman to savor!

If you haven’t seen DARK WINDS yet, check it out.  The first two seasons are streaming on AMC+.    It’s a damn fine show, and I think it’s past time Zahn McClarnon got an Emmy.   Maybe next year,

Current Mood: cheerful cheerful

A Rocket from Wisconsin

October 17, 2023 at 1:32 pm
Profile Pic

Back in March, we showed our short film NIGHT OF THE COOTERS at the Midwest Weirdfest festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and won the award for Best Science Fiction Short.

The trophy was not ready at the time, but it is now, and the good folks in Eau Claire were kind enough to send it to us.

 

It’s very cool, and we’re pleased to add it to the awards shelf.

NIGHT OF THE COOTERS had a good run on the festival circuit.   We exhibited the film at LA Shorts and NY Shorts, Genreblast (Provo, Utah), Midwest Weirdfest (Eau Claire), Atlanta Film Festival, Santa Fe International Film Festival, Dubuque Film Festival, and took home five awards.   At this point, though, COOTERS is retiring from the festival circuit for the time being, while we try to put together a distribution deal.  Meanwhile, we have two more Howard Waldrop shorts almost ready to go.  Watch this space.   When we have some details on times and showings, I will be glad to share them here.

NIGHT OF THE COOTERS was based on Howard Waldrop’s short story of the same title, with a screenplay by Joe Lansdale.   Vincent d’Onofrio directed, and also starred as Sheriff Lindley of Pachuco, Texas.

 

 

Current Mood: happy happy

The Wrangler Comes to Town

July 27, 2023 at 8:49 am
Profile Pic

Back in April, “Monster Hunter” (the premiere episode of the first season of DARK WINDS) won the Wrangler Award for the Best Television Drama from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma.

I posted all the details on my Not A Blog:  https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2023/04/16/dark-winds-wins-wrangler/

I was not able to attend the awards ceremony in person, alas, but the good folks at the museum promised to send the award.

I’m delighted to report that the Wrangler finally rode up here in Santa Fe.

The Wrangler is quite an impressive award, as you can see.   Solid bronze, I think.  I have a few spaceships and nebulae on my mantle, and some busts of literary luminaries as well, but this will be the only cowboy.   I’m thrilled to have him.   We’re very proud of DARK WINDS.

Thanks to the museum, the judges and voters, all the viewers at home, our amazing cast and crew, my producing partner Robert Redford.. and of course the late great Tony Hillerman, whose stories of Joe Leaphorn, Jim Chee, and the Navajo Tribal Police are the basis of DARK WINDS.

Speaking of which, the second season of DARK WINDS premieres on JULY 30 on AMC and AMC+.   It’s even better than the first season, I think.   Take a look and see what you think.

 

Current Mood: pleased pleased