Not in San Diego

July 22, 2016 at 2:46 pm

I hope that everyone in San Diego is having fun at Comicon. HBO has a big presence there, I know, and a lot of our cast are on hand for the GAME OF THRONES panel and the usual endless rounds of signings and interviews. Also, Bantam is bringing out the 2017 ICE & FIRE calendar, which is always a great event. And Gary Gianni, who illustrated THE KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS, has a table and is selling a cool new sketchbook of his artwork.

Makes me wish I could be there as well.

But I’m not.

Now, normally, I would not feel the need to post about where I’m not and what I am not doing… only I am getting reports from friends in San Diego, and friends of friends, that I have been sighted at the con.

It’s not me.

Really. It’s not. It’s some other old fat guy in a Greek sailor’s cap and pair of suspenders, maybe. Who may or may not be consciously cosplaying as me.

((And you have no idea how weird it feels to be typing that sentence. Way back when the show was first starting, there were a couple of Daenerys Targaryen cosplayers at San Diego, and I thought that was way cool. Fans dressing up as my characters, hey, hot damn! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that anyone would ever want to dress up as me. But now I seem to encounter it wherever I go. Witness this picture from my 2013 trip to Australia.

Anyway… just for the record… I have a big Wild Cards event at the Jean Cocteau Cinema this weekend, with nineteen writers turning up from all across the country, so as much as I would like to be at comicon, I am not there. Accept no substitutes!!

((And just to be clear, no, I do not disappove of fans cosplaying as me. I do find it surreal, but hey, what they hell, have fun… so long as they don’t actually pretend to be me)).

Moving right along… one thing that is at comicon is the new ICE & FIRE calendar, with art by Didier Graffet. It’s gorgeous. Grab a copy if you’re at the con. And if not, the calendar should be available at your favorite local bookstore or online bookseller, and will certainly be available through the Jean Cocteau.

Tags: bantam spectra, calendar, comicon, travels

Hedge Knight In the Lists

October 16, 2015 at 3:11 am

Cool news from both sides of the Atlantic.

The new illustrated hardcover of A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS has debuted on the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller list as #2 in hardcover fiction. Over in the UK, the British edition has landed as #3 on the TIMES list (Bernard Cornwell’s new Uhtred novel is number 1, of course).

Pretty good for a collection of three previously published novellas.

My thanks go out to all my friends at Bantam Spectra and Harper Voyager… and of course to Gary Gianni, whose gorgeous artwork helped make the book such a rousing success.

Tags: bantam spectra, bestseller lists, dunk & egg, voyager

Dunk & Egg Are HERE

October 6, 2015 at 12:27 pm

Big day, big excitement. It’s publication day for A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS, with simultaneous hardcover releases scheduled for the US (Bantam Spectra) and the UK (Harper Collins Voyager).

This will be the first collection of the three Dunk & Egg novellas that I have published to date: “The Hedge Knight” (originally published in Robert Silverberg’s anthology LEGENDS), “The Sworn Sword” (from LEGENDS II), and “The Mystery Knight” (from the anthology WARRIORS, edited by Gardner Dozois and yours truly). All together in one place for the first time, so you no longer need to track down three separate (and in some cases, out of print) books.

British edition

Depending (of course) on which side of the pond you find yourself, one or the other of the two editions should be available today from your favorite local bookstore or online bookseller.

The American edition is on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Song-Fire/dp/0345533488/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444154684&sr=1-1

The British edition can be found on Amazon UK at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Song-Prequel/dp/0007507674/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444154759&sr=1-1&keywords=a+knight+of+the+seven+kingdoms

For those of you who have yet to make the acquaintance of Dunk & Egg… these are stories set in Westeros about ninety years before the opening of A GAME OF THRONES, when the Targaryens still sat the Iron Throne.. They chronicle the adventures of the hedge knight called Ser Duncan the Tall and his young squire Egg as they travel across the Seven Kingdoms.

And yes, before those of you from other lands across the sea speak up, it is true that the book has already been published in a dozen other languages. That’s because we wanted to do something rather special with the English-language editions, but many of my foreign publishers were not willing to wait.

For those who did wait, however, the “extra” is ART. Gorgeous, stunning, evocative, lovely illustration. We asked the amazing GARY GIANNI to illustrate the book, and Gary was so taken with the stories that he said he declined to do just the half-dozen pieces we originally asked for, insisting instead that he be allowed to illustrate the entire book. Needless to say, we LOVED the idea. I grew up and was weaned on the illustrated classics of my childhood with art by the likes of Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth, and the prospect of having one of my own books done the same way thrilled me no end.

And here it is, and believe me, it’s everything I could have dreamed of. Here’s just a sample, to whet your appetites:

Enjoy!

Tags: a song of ice and fire, bantam spectra, dunk & egg, game of thrones, publications, voyager

All Men Must Color (Inside the Lines, Please)

October 1, 2015 at 11:59 am

October is here, and it’s going to be a busy month for me and my publishers.

The new Wild Cards reissue, DOWN & DIRTY, comes out on October 27, as detailed below. But as it happens, that’s not the only book I have coming out that day.

October 27 is also the day Bantam will be releasing the new Ice & Fire Coloring Book.

Yes, I said “coloring book.” Not just for the kiddies either. No, it seems that of late adult coloring books have become quite the thing, so Bantam wanted us to do one too. And since I love seeing good fantasy art, I was of course thrilled by the idea.

Here’s a look at the cover:

You can preorder this one from your favorite local bookstore or online retailer, or from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Official-Game-Thrones-Coloring-Book/dp/1101965762/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443722280&sr=1-2

Anne Groell tells me there are also plans for a COLORING CONTEST down the line, with some cool prizes for the winners. No details yet, but I’ll post them here when I’ve got them.

I have seen the (uncolored) art for this one, and it looks spectacular. Probably will look even better once colored. So stock up on your colored pencils, boys and girls (or your crayons, if you dare), you’re going to need them.

Tags: bantam spectra, game of thrones, song of ice and fire

Dunk & Egg Ride Again

February 25, 2015 at 8:40 pm

Circle October 6 on your calendar.

My friends at Bantam have just informed me that will be the day that A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS in released in English, collecting all three of my “Dunk & Egg” novellas — “The Hedge Knight,” “The Sworn Sword,” and “The Mystery Knight” — between one set of covers for the first time.

AKo7K comps 18 high

Many of you, of course, will have read the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg in their original appearances in LEGENDS, LEGENDS II, and WARRIORS. But A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS will have a lot more than the three stories. We wanted this to be an illustrated book, so we went to the amazing Gary Gianni and asked him to do some art for us, thinking perhaps we could include seven or eight interior illustrations. Gary turned us down. He loved the stories, he said, but he’d only do it if he could illustrate the entire book, with art on virtually every page.

We said yes, of course, and Gary has been drawing for the better part of two years. Most fantasy fans know Gianni’s artwork from his work on PRINCE VALIANT, on the Wandering Star limited editions of SOLOMON KANE and BRAN MAK MORN, and of course for his stunning 2014 ICE & FIRE calendar, but we think A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS may be his best work to date.

This is going to be an amazing book, one I will be very happy to have my name on — beside that of Gary Gianni, surely among the very best fantasy artists of all time. (And damn it, folks, it is LONG past time that he was nominated for a Hugo).

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Tags: bantam spectra, dunk & egg, publications

New York, New York… and Providence Too

October 1, 2014 at 6:33 pm

October has arrived, the leaves are turning, and I am headed east.

The U.S. hardcover of THE WORLD OF ICE & F IRE is scheduled for release on October 28, and Bantam is bringing me to New York to help launch it.

I will be making an appearance on the Seth Meyers show on Tuesday, October 28 and doing an event at the 92nd street Y with Laura Miller on Sunday,October 26.

http://www.92y.org/Event/George-R-R-Martin.aspx

Tickets for the latter are still available, but they are going fast, so if you want one, move quickly. I will be signing a thousand copies of THE WORLD OF ICE & FIRE for the Y, and the ticket price will include the autographed book.

((Sorry, no plans for other signings while in the city)).

I will also be turning up in Providence, Rhode Island on this trip. Brown University is honoring me with the Harris Literary Collection Award, and I'll be attending a dinner there on October 23 to accept. My friend Tom Doherty, esteemed publisher of Tor Books, is also being honored. It will be a real delight to share the journey, and the moment, with Tom. Brown students will have first dibs on tickets to that one, I am told… I'll add a link here as soon as I have one.

((Never been to Providence before, aside from speeding through it on the Acela. If I have time, I will try to make a pilgrimage to H.P. Lovecraft's grave, which I believe is required of anyone who has ever written horror)).

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Tags: appearances, bantam spectra, travels, world of ice and fire

Seen on the Streets…

September 23, 2014 at 10:54 am

… of New York City.

The worldbook will be here next month!

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Tags: a song of ice and fire, bantam spectra, world of ice and fire

Comicon Coolness, Part the First

August 2, 2014 at 9:17 pm

Lots of cool stuff went down in San Diego at Comicon… parties, panels, parties, signings, parties, meals with friends, and much much more.

Too much to relate here, at least. But I can mention a few highlights.

For me, one of the highlights was the appearance of a couple of copies of THE WORLD OF ICE & FIRE.

The worldbook won't be released until October, so it wasn't for sale at San Diego, but Bantam had a couple of advance copies hot off the presses at the Random House booth, for lucky fans to open, peruse, and drool over. Not mock-ups, either. This is the real book.

Alas, the crowds at Comicon make it impossible for me to walk the floor anymore without a cordon of security, so I never made it to the Random House booth… but I was able to snag one of the samples and take it home with me.

It's everything I hoped for! A bloody gorgeous book. Wait till you see it.

Years back, when my editors at Bantam first approached me about doing a concordance for Westeros and its history, I was initially reluctant. I had seen a number of these 'worldbooks,' and, well, some were pretty good, but others were awful, cheaply made collections of previously published material with lots of bad art. If we do one of these, I declared, I want it to be the best one ever published. A coffee table book, big and beautiful, with lots of original content, histories and tales never previously published anywhere, plus maps and heraldry and family trees, all of it lavishly illustrated by some of the best fantasy artists in the world.

That's what we got. It took WAY longer than we thought it would, and required much more time and effort from everyone concerned, but I think the end result is worth it, and hope you all will agree. Hey, even Robby the Robot loves the book.

Will THE WORLD OF ICE & FIRE answer every question you ever had about Westeros and its history? Hell, no… I need to save SOMETHING for the novels and the Dunk & Egg stories. But it will answer a lot of questions, including some you never knew you had, and there are long meaty histories of all the major regions and great houses of the Seven Kingdoms, plus the Lands Beyond — the Nine Free Cities, the Summer Isles, the grasslands of Essos, even the Further East, beyond the Bones.

And the art… the art will knock you on your ass… Justin Sweet, Magali Villenueve, Marc Simonetti, Michael Komarck, Jae Drummond, Chase Stone, Ted Nasmith, and many many more.

My thanks go out to all the great folks at Bantam, in particular my editor Anne Lesley Groell and production manager Erich Schoenweiss, who labored long and hard to bring the worldbook to fruition. Also, a lot of credit goes to art director Dave Stevenson, and to Delia Greve and Rosebud Eustace at Becker & Mayer… and of course to my collaborators and partners in crime, Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson, without whose efforts THE WORLD OF ICE & FIRE could never ever have happened.

I wanted to give my fans the best fantasy concordance ever published. I think we did.

If you want to see for yourself, Amazon is offering it at a considerable presale discount right now

http://www.amazon.com/World-Ice-Fire-History-Westeros/dp/0553805444/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407035564&sr=1-1

and, of course, it is also available for preorder at many other online booksellers, and your favorite local bookstore.

I'm very proud of this one. Maybe you can tell…

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Tags: a song of ice and fire, bantam spectra, publications, random house, world of ice and fire

A Brave New World… Cover

May 7, 2014 at 4:53 pm

Bantam has changed the cover for our forthcoming concordance, THE WORLD OF ICE & FIRE, several times.

You've seen a couple of the earlier mockups here and on my website.

Now here's the latest and… I am told… final cover.

How do you like it?

WORLD OF ICE & FIRE will be out in the fall. It is going to be a gorgeous book, a big coffee table volume with lots and lots of stunning artwork, and tons of fake history. We were supposed to provide 50,000 words of text, but… ah… I got carried away.

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Tags: a song of ice and fire, bantam spectra

The Rogues Are Coming…

March 12, 2014 at 11:56 am

. . . and much sooner than expected.

Our good friends at Bantam Spectra have just informed me and my partner-in-crime Gardner Dozois that they have moved up the publication date of our next mammoth crossgenre anthology ROGUES. . . to June 17. Yes, this year. Three months from now, in other words.

If you enjoyed WARRIORS and DANGEROUS WOMEN, we think you'll love ROGUES. It may be our strongest anthology yet. We have some amazing writers and some incredible stories in this one. The table of contents, as previously announced:

George R.R. Martin “Everybody Loves a Rogue” (Introduction)
Joe Abercrombie “Tough Times All Over”
Gillian Flynn “What Do You Do?”
Matthew Hughes “The Inn of the Seven Blessings”
Joe R. Lansdale “Bent Twig”
Michael Swanwick “Tawny Petticoats”
David Ball “Provenance”
Carrie Vaughn “The Roaring Twenties”
Scott Lynch “A Year and a Day in Old Theradane”
Bradley Denton “Bad Brass”
Cherie Priest “Heavy Metal”
Daniel Abraham “The Meaning of Love”
Paul Cornell “A Better Way to Die”
Steven Saylor “Ill Seen in Tyre”
Garth Nix “A Cargo of Ivories”
Walter Jon Williams “Diamonds From Tequila”
Phyllis Eisenstein “The Caravan to Nowhere”
Lisa Tuttle “The Curious Affair of the Dead Wives”
Neil Gaiman “How the Marquis Got His Coat Back”
Connie Willis “Now Showing”
Patrick Rothfuss “The Lightning Tree”

Twenty stories not enough for you?

Okay, okay, we've decided to add a twenty-first, for all you fans of fake history.

"The Princess and the Queen," Archmaester Gyldayn's somewhat abbreviated account of the Dance of the Dragons, got a great response from all the folks who read it in DANGEROUS WOMEN, so we've dipped back into the archmaester's somewhat disorganized piles of scrolls and crumbling manuscripts, and brought forth another piece of his unpublished history. "The Rogue Prince, or, the King's Brother," will tell the story of the years leading up to the calamitious events of "The Princess and the Queen" during the reign of King Viserys I Targaryen, with particular attention to the role played by the king's brother, Prince Daemon, a rogue if there ever was one. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as you did "The Princess and the Queen."

(And yes, sadly, "The Rogue Prince" is an abridged account as well. For the full version, you will all need to wait some years, until we publish the complete history of House Targaryen in the GRRMarillion… which, by the way, I've decided I am going to call FIRE AND BLOOD, since the GRRMarillion joke has grown somewhat stale by now).

We're got something for everyone in ROGUES — SF, mystery, historical fiction, epic fantasy, sword and sorcery, comedy, tragedy, crime stories, mainstream. And rogues, cads, scalawags, con men, thieves, and scoundrels of all descriptions. If you love Harry Flashman and Cugel the Clever, as I do, this is the book for you.

Oh, and speaking of DANGEROUS WOMEN… it's now HUGO NOMINATION time, and we have lots of great stories in both DW and OLD MARS that are eligible, so I hope you'll remember some of them when filling out your ballots.

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Tags: anthologies, bantam spectra

Not a Blog

Not in San Diego

Hedge Knight In the Lists

Dunk & Egg Are HERE

All Men Must Color (Inside the Lines, Please)

Dunk & Egg Ride Again

New York, New York… and Providence Too

Seen on the Streets…

Comicon Coolness, Part the First

A Brave New World… Cover

The Rogues Are Coming…

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