Reginald and Roger

July 6, 2023 at 3:14 pm

When I’m not writing, you can often find me reading. I’ve been a voracious reader since grade school… and I love talking about books almost as much as I love reading them. So when a British fellow named Reginald asked me to come on his podcast to discuss one of my favorite books, I was pleased to agree. The hard part was picking a book. I have a lot of favorite books, and favorite authors. Tolkien, Heinlein, Lovecraft, Waldrop, Fitzgerald, Dickens, Bernard Cornwell, Stephen King, Jack Vance… the list goes on and on and on.

We could only do one, however. So I finally settled on Roger Zelazny.

Ah, but WHICH Zelazny, though? Roger wrote so many great ones. LORD OF LIGHT, EYE OF CAT, CREATURES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS, DREAM MASTER, DOORWAYS IN THE SAND… and the short stories, he was great at shorter lengths as well… as his shelf of Hugo and Nebula Awards bears witness.

Hard choice. In the end I went with NINE PRINCES IN AMBER… and the Amber series in general. (Soon to be a TV series, we hope).

We filmed the segment at Beastly Books in Santa Fe.

Reginald did not turn up. I gather he does that a lot. Fortunately, his friend Dominick Noble was on hand to fill in, as he does often. (Dom has a great YouTube channel of his own, LOST IN ADAPTATION, where he compares films made from books with their source material).

We had a lot of fun. You can watch the discussion here:

After you’ve had a listen, go out and read NINE PRINCES IN AMBER… or any of Roger’s books, really. They’re all great.

Current Mood: cheerful

Tags: Beastly Books, interviews, science fiction

Three Kings, One Throne

March 21, 2023 at 8:14 am

((No, no, not the Iron Throne. An entirely different throne, on an entirely different world. There are lots of worlds, you know. Lots of books. Lots of thrones)).

The queen is dead. Long live the king.

Ah… but which king? Charles III, you say? Well, maybe in this world. But not in the world of the Wild Cards, which diverged from our own reality on September 15, 1946, when Jetboy died in the skies over Manhattan. History was never the same.

Elizabeth II never took the throne of the United Kingdom in that world. It was her younger sister Margaret who ascended after the passing of their father, King George VI, and it is Queen Margaret I whose long reign has just come to an end there. Her eldest son is about to succeed her as King Henry IX… but his younger brother has his own designs on the crown, and dreams of being Richard IV… and if the whispers can be believed, there may be another claimant as well, a joker prince hidden away for half a century.

Who will claim the throne? To find out you’ll need to check out THREE KINGS, volume twenty-nine in the Wild Cards series (but have no fear, you do not need to read the first twenty-eight to enjoy this one). Tor is releasing the trade paperback edition today, and you will find it at your local bookstore or your favorite online bookseller.

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Melinda M. Snodgrass stepped up as editor this time around… no easy task, as THREE KINGS is a mosaic novel, with the storylines interwoven from start to finish. The writing team consisted of Melinda herself, Peter Newman, Mary Ann Mohanraj, Peadar O Guilin, and Caroline Spector. Featured characters included Double Helix, the Green Man, Badh, the Seamstress, Enigma, and the aforementioned three wannabee kings. Yours truly was the assistant editor.

Some of you like signed books, I know. Have no fear: we will have them soon at Beastly Books in Santa Fe, autographed by both of the editors, Melinda and yours truly. The other signatures you’ll need to run down yourself. You can place your orders with Beastly at https://www.beastlybooks.com/

Beastly Books has signed copies of all the other Wild Cards books as well… along with autographed editions (hardcovers and paperbacks both) of that other series of mine, the one where the throne is made of iron. (Queen Elizabeth II visited our GOT set in Belfast once, and declined to sit in it. Smart woman. That thing is dangerous. All those rusty old swords. You could cut yourself).

Current Mood: busy busy

Tags: Beastly Books, editing, signed books, wild cards

Wild Days Are Come Again

November 11, 2021 at 8:11 am

It will be a wild weekend at Beastly Books and the Jean Cocteau… a WILD CARDS weekend, that is.

Two new Wild Cards books are being released this week by our friends at Tor… or rather, two old Wild Cards books, unavailable for decades, are being re-released with smashing new covers. Looking to complete your Wild Cards collections? Your days of searching for old used copies on ebay are over. Pick up the new editions, and enjoy the read.

Both of these new/old books are solo novels.

DEATH DRAWS FIVE, by John Jos. Miller, was volume seventeen in the series, the second (and last) of the two originals published by iBooks, released a bare week before iBooks went under. Very few copies were ever distributed back then. John’s novel features the return of Fortunato, star turns from Billy Ray (Carnifex) and Jerry Strauss (Mr. Nobody), and introduces John Nighthawk and the unforgettable Midnight Angel (that’s her on the cover). The fate of John Fortune… and the world… hangs in the balance.

The new Tor edition is a hardcover.

TURN OF THE CARDS, by the late great Victor Milan, is the other novel to return this week. Volume twelve in the series, this globe-trotting adventure features Mark Meadows… aka Cap’n Trips… and all of his “friends,” including an old friend and a brand new one. It’s Vic at his finest, and it’s another volume that has been very hard to find since its original publication. The Tor edition is a trade paperback.

It goes without saying… we are celebrating the release of these two favorites with a cool event this Saturday (NOVEMBER 13) at the Jean Cocteau Cinema and Beastly Books, on Montezuma Street in scenic Santa Fe.

The festivities will start at 4:00 pm with a Happy Hour. Come meet the writers and your fellow Wild Cards fans.

At 5:00 we will shuffle into the JCC auditorium, where John Miller will talk about DEATH DRAWS FIVE, his Wild Cards characters, and his other work. After that we will have a panel, “Remembering Vic Milan,” wherein John and I and Melinda M. Snodgrass will share some memories of our lost friend and the stories he left behind him.

Finally, at 6:00 PM, we will adjourn next door to Beastly Books for the booksigning. John and I and Melinda will all be on hand, and there’s a chance a few more of your favorite Wild Cards writers may also swing by. Cross your fingers.

Come join us if you can. And if you can’t, well, signed copies of all the Wild Cards books, old and new, are always available via mail order from Beastly Books in Santa Fe. And hey, Christmas is coming up soon … autographed books make GREAT gifts.

https://jccwildcards.eventbrite.com/

Current Mood: pleased pleased

Tags: Beastly Books, signed books, signings, wild cards

Railroad Wars!

November 9, 2021 at 2:11 pm

Bestselling author JOHN SEDGWICK is coming to Santa Fe.

Beastly Books will be hosting a mixer and booksigning for him on Friday (November 12) from 4:00 to 5:00 pm.

John’s latest book is FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, a riveting account of the railroad wars of the nineteenth century, when the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe battled the Denver & Rio Grande for control of the Raton Pass, New Mexico, Santa Fe (Lamy!), and the road to California and the sea. It’s a great read, full of colorful characters and outrageous confrontations back when the west was still wild.

And we’ll have signed copies at Beastly.

ALL ABOARD!

https://jsedgwicksigning.eventbrite.com/

Current Mood: busy busy

Tags: Beastly Books, signed books, signings

The Candle is Coming

May 2, 2021 at 8:23 am

Remember the Candle?

No? Tsk. Obviously you are behind on your Wild Card reading. The Candle was one of the contestants on the first season of American Hero back in 2007, as chronicled in INSIDE STRAIGHT. You missed INSIDE STRAIGHT? That’s not a problem either. You can snag a nice hardcover edition from Beastly Books, my newly-reopened (yay!) bookshop in Santa Fe. At Beastly Books, ALL the books are signed, and INSIDE STRAIGHT has more signatures than most, with autographs from many of the contributors as well as yours truly.

But I digress. I was talking about the Candle. For all of you who might be wondering what the Candle has been up to since American Hero… and who he was, and where he came from, and how those amazing powers of his worked… our Hugo-Award-winning author Laura J. Mixon has some answers for you. So be sure to check out her brand-new, original Candle novella, “Ripple Effects,” upcoming on Tor.com.

It’s a terrific story, and if there is a whit of justice, it should contend for awards. But you can be your own judge. “Ripple Effects” goes live on Tor.com on MAY 19, and like all the Wild Cards stories on Tor.com, it’s FREE FREE FREE.

Give it a read, but be warned… Wild Cards has been known to be addictive.

Current Mood: pleased pleased

Tags: Beastly Books, tor, wild cards