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

Home Again

November 16, 2022 at 6:04 pm

I am back in the Land of Enchantment, as of the day before yesterday. I’ve been away for three weeks or thereabouts, in New York City, New Jersey, and finally Chicago. I don’t lug a laptop around with me when I travel; on the road, I am only reachable by phone or text. Which helps keep me sane, but it did mean that I had 2,000 emails waiting for me when I got home. I am still digging out.

The trip… three weeks, I said, but at times it felt more like three months. My latest book, the illustrated Targaryen history RISE OF THE DRAGON, was released on October 25, so I had a lot of promotion to do. My sisters and their children and grandchildren and spouses still live in New Jersey, so I needed to see them too. The last time I got back east was in 2019, before the pandemic started. I had meetings with my publishers and agents and editors, and some meals with old friends.

I am not one for writing long trip reports… and this one would need to be VERY long. It was that kind of trip. Joy and sadness, tragedy, love, a lot of work. Highs and lows, and so much to do, it really took it out of me. I will tell you about much of that, but not right now, and not all at once. I think I will make a series of small blog posts, rather than doing one enormous one. The things that happened… well, it would not feel right to mush them all together.

Let me start with the original reason for the trip: the release of RISE OF THE DRAGON.

Rather than a traditional book tour, which could have taken months I did not have, we launched RISE with a virtual event at the Random House offices in New York City. I was thrilled to have David Anthony Durham interviewing me. David is one of my Wild Cards writers, and much much more. He’s written epic fantasy, historical fiction, westerns, YA books, and he has beenpart of the team on every one of prequels we have been developing for HBO for the last year and a half. Good guy, terrific writer.

If you missed our talk, no problem — it is online now.

I am pleased to report that RISE OF THE DRAGON is doing very very well, hitting numerous bestseller lists here and abroad.

(I will post more about my events in New York and New Jersey and Chicago in the days to come, once I’ve caught up on some of those damned emails).

Current Mood: tired tired

Tags: interviews, song of ice and fire, television, travels

Collecting Stuff

September 23, 2021 at 6:14 pm

I have a lot of stuff.

I can’t deny it. I got the bug when I was still a kid. The collecting bug. Books, comic books, magazines, trading cards, toys… all sorts of weird stuff. And y’know, it piles up over the years… and I have seen a LOT of years now.

Thankfully, I am not the only one with this odd affliction. Ryan Condal, the showrunner on HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, collects movie and television props, and he and his friend David Mandel of VEEP and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIAM fame have a wonderful podcast called THE STUFF THAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF, about their shared passion. They’ve just launched the second season of the podcast, and invited me to be their guest on the premiere episode.

I don’t actually collect props myself, though I have picked up a few over the years from the shows I have worked on. I do collect miniature heraldic knights, and of course I still have a zillion books, and… well, it was huge huge fun to talk about collections.

You can check out our conversation on Spotify and Apple, if you’re a collector yourself:

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5uh4D3iRwCHQbrxNw3tfbY?si=jn2xgkDVT86ODnqlFXXMeQ&dl_branch=1

Apple:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-stuff-dreams-are-made-of/id1535879222?i=1000536366347

If you’re NOT a collector, though, you might want to tread carefully and wear a mask. The bug can be contagious.

(Comments permitted — but ONLY about collecting. Books, comics, movie props, toys, miniatures — what do you collect? How did you start? Tell us about it. But off topic comments and questions will be deleted).

Current Mood: geeky geeky

Tags: hobbies, interviews

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Who Is That Strange Dude?

September 11, 2021 at 9:49 am

There’s a lot of strange stuff on YouTube. I never know what I’m going to stumble on.

Sometimes I stumble on myself. As in this interview from 1991 (or so it says), where I pontificate about science fiction and fandom.

(In those days, five years before A GAME OF THRONES was published, science fiction was what they asked about when they interviewed me. When they bothered to interview me at all).

I have absolutely no memory of this interview. Where I was, who was intervieweing me, why… none of that.

I remember those glasses, though.

I don’t remember that hair. My hair was dark brown when I was young. When I got older, it went to gray and then white. Judging from this clip, I guess 1991 was when it changed, but I don’t ever recall it being half-and-half like that, or having a dark beard with white hair. But I guess I did.

Blasts from the past.

Tags: interviews, science fiction

Let’s Go Mets

September 2, 2021 at 9:52 am

The year was 1986.

Was that a lifetime ago, or last week? Sometimes I am not sure.

For me, it was a pretty good year. I had my first job in television, writing for the CBS revival of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. I had gone through a very rough time financially the preceding couple of years, but now things were turning around. In the NFL, the Giants were looking damn good and winning a lot of games. And in baseball… in baseball, we had the Mets. After teasing us in 1984 and 1985, the Mets caught fire early in 1986, took charge of the National League from pillar to post, and made it to the World Series against the Boston Red Sox.

In a couple of weeks, ESPN will be bringing back those halcyon days with a four-part two-night documentary about that amazing season.

It should be a cool couple of nights. And you know the best part? I’m in the show. Can’t say how much or how often, but they came up to my cabin a few months back and interviewed me for an hour or so (and never asked once about THE WINDS OF WINTER or the new GAME OF THRONES successor shows I am developing for HBO). Maybe a couple of minutes of that will make it into the film, but hey, that’s cool… they have a lot of other exciting interviews in there as well.

But why should they interview a fantasy writer at all about the 1986 World Series???

Well, because… Parris and I were at Game Six.

And THAT experience I will remember till my dying day.

Happy Mets fans at the end of game 6. Find me and Parris (not the best pic of either of us, but we are there).

Somewhere around here I have my Mets cap and a baseball signed by Lenny Dykstra. Need to find those before showtime…

Current Mood: bouncy bouncy

Tags: baseball, interviews

Ryan the Collector

November 14, 2020 at 8:58 am

When Ryan Condal, the showrunner on HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, is not hunkered down in King’s Landing… er, London… casting roles and writing scripts, he likes to collect movie memorabilia.

And now he’s started a podcast about it, with his friend David Mandel of VEEP and SEINFELD fame.

Take a look at this interview with the two of them for a taste. (Ryan talks a bit about HOTD as well). Then check out their podcast.

Myself, I collect toy soldiers and miniature heraldic knights, as long time readers of this Not A Blog will know. Books too, though only by happenstance. I am more a reader than a collector; I never seek out rarities or firsts myself, though I admire those who do. So I understand the collecting passion, and movie (and television) props and costumes are a cool thing to collect. Actually I have a few old TV props myself… though more from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST than from GAME OF THRONES. A pity I never got that severed head… maybe on HOUSE, who knows…

Current Mood: geeky geeky

Tags: collectibles, interviews, television and film

Cover Boy

April 6, 2018 at 7:16 pm

Hot damn.

I’m a cover boy.

An ESQUIRE cover boy!

(On the Chinese edition of ESQUIRE)

Some fun pictures inside as well. And lots of text I cannot read.

Those of you who can read Chinese… enjoy.

Current Mood: amused amused

Tags: interviews

Aces, Aces Everywhere

December 1, 2017 at 2:44 pm

Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December…

And here we are again.

The good thing about December 1, though, is that we’re only four days from the publication date of MISSISSIPPI ROLL, the latest Wild Cards original.

And to bide the time till the Natchez hits the river, here’s another Wild Cards video from Tor, assembled from the interviews they did at MidAmericon II. This time the subject is aces.

Keep reading… and watch out for talkative ravens.

((Comments welcome: on WILD CARDS))

Current Mood: amused amused

Tags: interviews, wild cards

How It All Began

January 14, 2017 at 2:50 pm

Curious about where the Wild Cards series came from, lo these thirty years ago?

All your question… well, okay, some of your questions… are answered in the latest video from Tor Books, cut together from the hours of interviews they taped at last summer’s Kansas City worldcon, during the launch party for HIGH STAKES.

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This is the third in the series. You can find the first two on the new Wild Cards website.

There will be more.

(Please restrict your questions and comments to Wild Cards).

((Signed copies of HIGH STAKES and many other Wild Cards books are available from the Jean Cocteau Cinema bookshop)).

Tags: interviews, tor, wild cards

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