Emmy Day

September 23, 2012 at 11:21 am

Just had brunch. Now I get to watch a couple hours of football, before it’s time to put on the Monkey Suit and hop in the limo for the Emmy Award Shuffle.

GAME OF THRONES is one of six nominees in Best Dramatic Series, and all Hollywood agrees that we are the longest shot of the six. Vegas puts the odds against us at 50-1 (still time to get down your bets). Others put it more succinctly: it will be snowing in hell before the Academy gives the “big one” to a fantasy or SF show.

But we shall see. It’s am honor to be nominated, and the HBO party will be the best in town, regardless of who wins the award.

Cross your fingers, uncross your legs, and light an offering to your favorite deity.

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Tags: awards, game of thrones

Bring Me the Head of Howard Phillips Lovecraft

August 14, 2012 at 1:26 pm

Actually, TWO heads would be even better.

It occurs to me that I have been so busy lately that I have not yet gotten around to announcing that (1) A DANCE WITH DRAGONS has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award in the “Best Novel” category, and (2) the World Fantasy Award jury has also selected me as one of the winners of their Lifetime Achievement Award this year.

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The World Fantasy Award is one of the more complicated honors in our field. Here’s how it works. A five-person jury is selected. The members of the previous World Fantasy Con and the upcoming World Fantasy Con receive a nominating ballot, and nominate two finalists in each award category. The jury adds three additional nominees. Then the jury selects the winner from among the five finalists.

This year’s finalists for Best Novel are:

!¢ THOSE ACROSS THE RIVER, Christopher Buehlman (Ace)
!¢ 11/22/63, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton as 11.22.63)
!¢ A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, George R.R. Martin (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK)
!¢ OSAMA, Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)
!¢ AMONG OTHERS, Jo Walton (Tor)

A very distinguished list. My congratulations to all the other finalists.

The rest of the ballot can be found here:

http://www.wfc2012.org/pr-wfawards01.html

The Lifetime Achievement Award is a different deal. That one is announced ahead of time. I was rather startled to learn that the jury had announced ME. After all, my lifetime is not nearly over, and I have lots more achieving ahead of me, I hope… (unless the World Fantasy Award knows something that I do not). I am such a young lad, and devilishly handsome as well.

However, it is a HUGE honor, and I am very thrilled to receive it… especially as the jury also named Alan Garner as the other Lifetime Achievement receipient. If you don’t know Garner’s work, well… you should, damn you. He’s the author of THE OWL SERVICE and THE WEIRDSTONES OF BRISINGAMEN and ELIDOR and all sorts of other great stuff, and was writing terrific fantasies long before fantasy was either popular or fashionable. It’s great to see Garner get some long overdue recognition for his contributions to our genre. Now I’d love to see someone put all his books back into print again.

Past receipients of the Life Achievement award include Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin, Theodore Sturgeon, Richard Matheson, Jack Vance, Jack Williamson, Stephen King, Fritz Leiber, Gene Wolfe, and many of my other heroes and role models, so I am going to be in very good company indeed with this one.

The awards will be presented at this year’s World Fantasy Convention in Toronto over Halloween weekend. Alas, I do not think I will be able to attend. My schedule is already pretty full for the rest of 2012, and this one came on me unexpectedly. (Also, I just appeared in Toronto early in the year). But I am sure it will be a great con.

(I do have one of Howard’s heads already, for my werewolf novella “The Skin Trade” from way back when. He proudly wears a Jets cap).

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Tags: awards, conventions, honors

Dancing With LOCUS

June 18, 2012 at 12:14 am

I’m very pleased to announce that A DANCE WITH DRAGONS has won the LOCUS Award as the Best Fantasy Novel of 2011. I wasn’t able to attend the awards banquet myself, but Ty flew out (he was also nominated, for LEVIATHAN WAKES in the SF category) and accepted on my behalf. Presumably he will even bring me back the award, if I can pry it out of his fingers.

For a full list of this year’s finalists and winners, go to the LOCUS website at:
http://www.locusmag.com/News/2012/06/locus-awards-2012-winners/

LOCUS, founded by the late great Charles Brown, is the trade magazine of science fiction and fantasy, and has been the bible for me and a lot of other professional writers for decades. Their annual awards poll draws more votes than the Hugo and Nebula Awards combined.

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS is the fifth volume in A SONG OF ICE & FIRE to be nominated as the year’s best fantasy by the readers of LOCUS, and the fourth to win. What can I say? Those LOCUS readers have really good taste.

Thanks to the good folks at LOCUS, and to everyone who voted, whether it was for me or for one of my excellent fellow nominees.

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Tags: a dance with dragons, awards, locus awards

Double Victory

February 5, 2012 at 2:10 pm

Last night in London SFX magazine announced the winners of their annual readers’s awards, and I am pleased and proud to report that A DANCE WITH DRAGONS won for Best Novel, and HBO’s GAME OF THRONES as Best New TV Show.

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I was not able to be in the UK for the awards (though I will be, come April, for Eastercon, and signings in Bath and London), so I taped my acceptance speech ahead of time.

Thanks for everyone who voted… and to all my readers everywhere, who waited for the book so patiently, and have received it with so much enthusiasm and acclaim.

(For a full list of winners, check out the SFX website. And do be sure to play Neil Gaiman’s acceptance speech, it’s a hoot and a half.)

((Now all I need to make the day perfect is a Giants victory in the SuperBowl. GO BIG BLUE!!))

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Tags: a dance with dragons, awards, game of thrones, hbo

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

Nominations, Nominations

January 20, 2012 at 12:19 am

If it’s an honor just to be nominated — and it is, it is — the cast and crew of HBO’s GAME OF THRONES is being honored all over the world.

CONGRATULATIONS to our wonderful costume designer, Michele Clapton, nominated by the Costume Designer’s Guild for outstanding achievement in the category of Period/ Fantasy Television.

CONGRATULATIONS to Aiden Gillen, Michele Fairley, Brian Kirk, Mark Huffam, and Ronan Hill and his sound post production team, who earned nominations in this year’s Irish Film & Television Awards as (respectively) best supporting actor (TV), best lead actress (TV), best director (TV), television drama, and sound (film/ tv drama).

http://www.rte.ie/ten/2012/0110/ifta.html

And CONGRATULATIONS to our crack visual effects team, nominated by the Visual Effects Society for awards in three categories.

All our nominees face formidable competition, but win or lose, it is great to get this kind of recognition from peers in the industry. And it’s proof positive of what a great team Dan and David and HBO have assembled to bring GAME OF THRONES to you.

http://www.rte.ie/ten/2012/0110/ifta.html

Break a leg, guys and gals. Hell, break a whole bunch o’ legs.

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Tags: awards, game of thrones, hbo

Win One, Lose One

January 19, 2012 at 4:47 pm

So I’m back from LA, once more catching up and digging out.

If you watched the Golden Globe telecast on Sunday, you already know that GAME OF THRONES lost out to HOMELAND in the Best TV Drama category. Ah, well. It IS an honor just to be nominated, of course, and HOMELAND is an excellent series and a very worthy winner. My congrats to their cast and crew… especially to my old friends (scary to realize just how old) Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, the showrunners. Back in the dawn of time, when Vincent ruled the underworld and dinosaurs roamed the earth, Alex and Howard and I all worked together on the writing staff of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. If we had to lose, I’m glad it was to “the Lads” and their show.

And GOT had its taste of victory too: Peter Dinklage won for Best Supporting Actor, for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister. A well deserved win over a stellar group of actors.

So… one win, one loss, but a great day, even for those of us who were “differently victorious” (to steal a line from Michael Cassutt). I got to walk the red carpet with my lady Parris, meet Paul Giamatti and Steve Buscemi, visit with Amy Poehler, party with David and Dan and Peter and Emilia and Bryan, not to mention lovely Lisa Bonet and sensational Stana Katic. And Jason Momoa almost twisted my head off. ((I really need to find some way to bring Khal Drogo back from the dead, I do, I do)) That doesn’t happen every day.

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Tags: awards, game of thrones, hbo

Hugo Nominations

January 18, 2012 at 12:50 pm

Chicon 8, this year’s World Science Fiction Convention, has opened nominations for 2011.

The nominating ballot can be found here:

https://chicon.org/hugo/nominate.php

You do need to be a member to nominate. A member (attending or supporting) of Chicon, the 2012 worldcon, OR Renovation, the 2011 worldcon in Reno, OR LoneStarCon, the 2013 worldcon in San Antonio. Any one of the three will do. If you’re not a member, and want to nominate, you can join. Even if you cannot attend. Supporting memberships are cheap, and get you all the publications as well as the right to nominate and vote.

All works first published or broadcast in 2011 are eligible.

The Hugo is the oldest award in our genre, the most prestigious, and the most important. It is a fan award. No juries. The readers choose the finalists, and the readers pick the winners. There will be five (sometimes six, in the event of a tie) nominees in each category.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again here: nominations are the most important part of the Hugo process. Hundreds of people cast Hugo ballots, but far fewer ever bother to nominate. You cannot win unless you are on the ballot, and sometimes the difference between being a finalist and an also-ran is a single nomination. Yes, even in the big categories, like Best Novel and Best Dramatic Presentation. And in the less popular categories, hell, people have been known to make the Hugo ballot with twenty votes.

So NOMINATE.

As to what you should nominate… well, that’s your choice, of course. Right now, all over Ye Olde InterWeb, people are making their recommendations and writers are reminding the world about their own eligible works. I’ll do the same, as I have in past years. But not in this post. Watch this space for my own favorites.

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Tags: awards, hugo awards, worldcon

Golden Globes

January 15, 2012 at 1:01 pm

It’s awards season in Hollywood, and I’m out in Los Angeles in the thick of it.

On Friday I attended the American Film Institute luncheon with David (Benioff), Dan (Weiss), Emilia (Clarke), Jason (Momoa) and other stalwarts from HBO, where GAME OF THRONES was honored as one of the ten outstanding television shows of 2011.

This afternoon it’s the Golden Globes, given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The AFI luncheon was a relaxed affair, since we already knew that we were getting the award before turning up. The Globes are an altogether different proposition; like the Emmys (and the Hugos), they’re nail biters, where all the nominees sweat it out until the envelope is torn open. (And the bigger celebrities also need to worry about what host Ricky Gervais might say about them). GAME OF THRONES is up for best drama against some pretty tough competition. BOARDWALK EMPIRE and HOMELAND are the two favorites going in… but GOT is very popular overseas, so maybe we have a shot at an upset. Peter Dinklage is also nominated, for supporting actor… he’s a strong contender, I think.

So… tune in tonight, and keep your fingers (and toes) crossed.

((And yeah, the Giants are playing the Packers at the same time. Very annoying of them to schedule it like that. Go G-Men!! Go Eli! Cruz, Cruz, Cruuuuz!))

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Tags: awards, game of thrones, hbo, nfl

Author of the Year

December 28, 2011 at 5:01 pm

Who, me?

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/story/2011-12-29/george-r-r-martin-is-author-of-the-year-2011/52256412/1

Hot damn.

What fine intelligent gentlefolk they are at USA TODAY.

Forgive me, whilst I blush prettily.

If I had a football to hand, I would gladly spike it.

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Tags: a dance with dragons, awards, game of thrones, honors

Not a Blog

Emmy Day

Bring Me the Head of Howard Phillips Lovecraft

Dancing With LOCUS

Double Victory

Two for the Edgar

Nominations, Nominations

Win One, Lose One

Hugo Nominations

Golden Globes

Author of the Year

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