Season 6 Is Coming

March 17, 2016 at 12:37 pm

GAME OF THRONES is coming back. Mark down Sunday, April 24 on your calendars.

HBO has released the first full-length trailer. Here’s a taste:

<lj-embed id=”717″/>

And yes, it’s true. After last year’s unfortunate leak, HBO is not sending out any press screeners this year, to try and cut down on the piracy.

They have also eliminated all the regional premieres, including (sob) the one we had scheduled at my own Jean Cocteau Cinema. This year the only premiere will be the big one in LA at Grauman’s Chinese.

The Jean Cocteau will, however, go ahead with our season 5 marathon. Admission is free, so watch our website and newsletter for show times.

And we’ll all just have to wait to see what season 6 has in store.

Tags: game of thrones, hbo

Odds and Ends

March 3, 2016 at 1:45 pm

Got back from MystiCon on Monday. It was a fun weekend, and did much to restore my spirits. After all the internet rancor that has dominated on-line discussion of late, it was good to be reminded of what cons are all about… and how warm, welcoming, and open fandom can be. The Roanoke crowd seemed like good folks. And it was great to see how many young people and first-timers were at the con (I asked for a show of hands on several occasions). All the alarums about the demise of traditional SF fandom may be somewhat premature, I’m thinking.

Back home, of course, I had the usual thousand new emails waiting in my inbox. But among them, at long long last, was my Hugo PIN from MidAmericon II. I can finally begin nominating for this year’s awards. I urge all of you to do the same. (And will have a few more Hugo thoughts and recommendations in subsequent posts).

We had a great event at the JCC with Tony DiTerlizzi of THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES. And one last week, before I left, with Joe Lansdale and HAP & LEONARD. Plenty of signed books from Tony and Joe both are now available in the Cocteau bookstore. If you’re an autograph hunter, strike now while the supply lasts.

We have more fun events coming up in the next few months as well. Magician Francis Menotti will be making a return appearance, with the trick that fooled Penn & Teller, and we have booksignings scheduled with Darynda Jones, Joe Hill, and Stephen Graham Jones. And a little further out, Neil Gaiman will be appearing with some gigantic Tasmanian cave spiders. Go to the JCC website and sign up for our email newsletter if you’d like more details on forthcoming events at the theatre.

Meow Wolf’s opening comes closer every day. The gang down at Silva Lanes is working overtime right now, getting a little frantic as they labor to make sure everything is ready for opening weekend.

Oh, and GAME OF THRONES season six is drawing nigh as well. You may have heard. Before the season six debut on April 24, the JCC will be running a season five marathon. Weekly screenings, two hours per week, of the S5 episodes on our ~~big~~ medium-sized screen. And admission is FREE. First come, first seated.

I am sure there’s more. Life is busy. Hope yours is too.

Tags: everyday life, fandom, game of thrones, hbo, hugo awards, jean cocteau cinema bookstore, signed books

Me and Ryan

March 1, 2016 at 12:19 am

For all those who can’t seem to get enough of me talking… and were not able to make our COLONY event at the Jean Cocteau Cinema… IGN has uploaded a video of my conversation with COLONY’s co-creator Ryan Condal.

Have a look… and do check out the show. It’s good.

<lj-embed id=”685″/>

Tags: colony, game of thrones, interviews, television

Screening of ‘The Forest’ and an exclusive Skype Q&A with Natalie Dormer

January 10, 2016 at 1:42 pm

/>Music: Wailing and Screaming
Hello from Ogre Jenni! I am not George R.R. Martin. Not even close. Believe me, I’m just as sad about this as you are!

And I'm sorry.

On Saturday, January 16th the Jean Cocteau will screen Natalie Dormer’s latest film, The Forest. Following the film screening, we will meet up with Natalie via Skype for an exclusive Q&A with this talented and incredibly charismatic actress. That’s right—audience members get to ask her any question they want! Within reason…don’t get too weird.

Dormer is well known for her roles in Game of Thrones (Margaery Tyrell), The Tudors (Anne Boleyn), The Hunger Games (Cressida), and more. She gets ALL the amazing costumes!

The Forest is a supernatural horror film about a woman whose identical twin sister has mysteriously vanished. While investigating her sister’s disappearance, she receives a cryptic phone call suggesting that her twin entered Japan’s notorious (and very real) Suicide Forest at the base of Mt. Fuji. She hurriedly travels to Japan, and despite several warnings enters the dangerous and bewildering woods. She soon discovers her sister’s abandoned tent—along with a host of malicious spirits.

Which really shouldn’t come as a surprise. C’mon, it’s clearly haunted as all hell.

<lj-embed id=”663″/>

As the forest’s macabre moniker plainly suggests, this place is a well-known destination for suicides—especially by businessmen at the end of the fiscal year. The only location in the world with a higher suicide rate is the Golden Gate Bridge. How’s that for depressing?

Many people in Japan believe that the numerous suicides have created a terrible supernatural force that permeates the trees and generates a ghastly array of paranormal phenomenon. There are also ancient beliefs and traditions surrounding the forest, including the practice of “ubasute,” which involves leading an elderly or sick person to a remote place to die of exposure, thirst, starvation, or animal attacks.

Delightful!

And on that note—if you live near Santa Fe or are just visiting our lovely city, drop by the Cocteau!

*If you are suicidal, please seek professional help or call a suicide prevention hotline. Your life is well worth saving, and we don’t need more spooky ghosts flying around.

Tags: game of thrones, jean cocteau cinema, natalie dormer, suicide forest, the forest

Last Year (Winds of Winter)

January 2, 2016 at 12:24 am

Just consider. Mago, Irri, Rakharo, Xaro Xhoan Daxos, Pyat Pree, Pyp, Grenn, Ser Barristan Selmy, Queen Selyse, Princess Shireen, Princess Myrcella, Mance Rayder, and King Stannis are all dead in the show, alive in the books. Some of them will die in the books as well, yes… but not all of them, and some may die at different times in different ways. Balon Greyjoy, on the flip side, is dead in the books, alive on the show. His brothers Euron Crow’s Eye and Victarion have not yet been introduced (will they appear? I ain’t saying). Meanwhile Jhiqui, Aggo, Jhogo, Jeyne Poole, Dalla (and her child) and her sister Val, Princess Arianne Martell, Prince Quentyn Martell, Willas Tyrell, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Lord Wyman Manderly, the Shavepate, the Green Grace, Brown Ben Plumm, the Tattered Prince, Pretty Meris, Bloodbeard, Griff and Young Griff, and many more have never been part of the show, yet remain characters in the books. Several are viewpoint characters, and even those who are not may have significant roles in the story to come in THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING.

GAME OF THRONES is the most popular television series in the world right now. The most pirated as well. It just won a record number of Emmy Awards, including the ultimate prize, for the best drama on television. It’s an incredible production with an incredible cast and crew.

WINDS OF WINTER should be pretty good too, when it comes out. As good as I can make it, anyway.

Which is a long way of saying, “How may children did Scarlett O’Hara have?”

Enjoy the show. Enjoy the books.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep writing. Chapter at a time. Page at a time. Word at a time. That’s all I know how to do.

((And yes, this is my final Cliff’s Note for the day. You can all go to bed now)).

Tags: a song of ice and fire, game of thrones, publishing, writing

And Now For Something Completely Different

November 21, 2015 at 4:09 pm

Okay, this was a hoot and a half.

<lj-embed id=”623″/>

Tags: game of thrones, politics, television

Sibel Is Coming…. Back

November 18, 2015 at 7:23 pm

Big doings at the Jean Cocteau next week.

Starting on Tuesday, when the amazing SIBEL KEKILLI visits Santa Fe once again. Last time she was here, I introduced her to margaritas and chile con queso, so of course she had to return.

GAME OF THRONES fans know Sibel best as Shae, of course, but she’s much much more than that. In her native Germany, Sibel has twice won the prestigious Lola Award (the ‘German’ Oscar) as Best Actress.

Last time she visited us, we screened the first of her Lola-winning films, her feature debut in HEAD ON. So this time it seemed only right that we show the second, WHEN WE LEAVE.

<lj-embed id=”622″/>

We’ll be showing WHEN WE LEAVE only twice, on Tuesday night and again on Wednesday, and Sibel will be on hand to introduce the film and answer your questions afterward… about WHEN WE LEAVE, about GAME OF THRONES (yay Shae!), about her current starring role in the hit German crime series TATORT, about her work with Terre des Femmes, or whatever. You might even be able to persuade her to sign your GAME OF THRONES books, who knows?

Advance tickets can be purchased on the Cocteau website.

See you at the movies!

Tags: awards, films, game of thrones, jean cocteau cinema

The Sexiest Woman Alive…

October 15, 2015 at 2:51 pm

… is Emilia Clarke, our own Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea.

It’s official. ESQUIRE magazine has proclaimed it so.

Read all about it here: http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/interviews/a38719/emilia-clarke-swa-2015/ Good interview, and lovely (and sexy) art.

Having been in Emilia’s company at numerous GAME OF THRONES event, I can only applaud ESQUIRE’s good taste. She is indeed a beautiful woman, and a terrific actresss.

Congratulations, Emilia! And applause to the fine folks at ESQUIRE.

Tags: awards, game of thrones, hbo, sex

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

Not a Blog