Not a Blog

And Stranger Still

March 19, 2020 at 11:28 am
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The world is changing so quickly around us these days that it is hard to keep up.

New Mexico has requested that all non-essential businesses close, to help fight the spread of the coronavirus.   Accordingly, we are going to go ahead and shutter our bookstore, Beastly Books, on Montezuma Street in Santa Fe.   As with the adjoining theatre, the Jean Cocteau Cinema, the store will remain closed until April 15, at which point we will re-evaluate and act accordingly.

 

I am going to continue to pay the Beastly Books staff during the closure, just as we’re going with the JCC.  I urge all small business owners… and all large business owners, for that matter… to do the same.   The economic consequences of the virus are going to be severe enough without throwing people out of work and cutting off their paychecks.

Although the brick-and-mortar side of Beastly Books will be closed, we will continue to sell books via mail order.   You can choose from among our large stock of autographed books in all genres at https://jeancocteaucinema.com/product-category/signed-books/

JCC and Beastly Books will be back as soon as it’s safe, better than ever.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.   And do keep safe, friends, wherever you are.

 

 

Current Mood: sad sad

BEASTLY BOOKS IS HERE

December 13, 2019 at 4:14 pm
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We’ve been doing amazing author events at the Jean Cocteau Cinema ever since we reopened the theatre in August, 2013.  Dozens of terrific, award-winning, bestselling writers have appeared at the JCC to speak, read, and sign their books… SF writers, mystery writers, historical novelists, romance writers, thriller writers, mainstream literary writers, YA authors, non-fiction writer and journalists… the list goes on and on.

And all of them have signed stock for us.   The only problem was the Jean Cocteau lobby was far too small for us to display all of these wonderful autographed books.

With that in mind, on November 30, we opened our own bookshop right next to the theatre.

BEASTLY BOOKS, we call it, in honor of Cocteau’s most famous film… and a certain TV show I worked on in the 80s.

 

You’ll find the Beast at 418 Montezuma in Santa Fe, right next door to the Jean Cocteau Cinema.   We’re open from 8 am to 8 pm, Tuesday through Sunday.  Closed on Mondays.

Needless to say, we have a huge stock of my own books — A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, WILD CARDS, and all the rest.  All signed.

But we have a lot of other fantastic books by other authors too, and all of them are AUTOGRAPHED as well.

We also offer coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and soft drinks, and plan to be adding pastries soon.

You can visit the Iron Giant as well… but no, he’s not for sale.

And yes, of course, we still do mail order… and autographed books make wonderful Christmas gifts.   If you’d like to check out our current stock, head over to our website at https://jeancocteaucinema.com/beastlybooks/

We have a huge stock of the wonderful 20th anniversary edition of A CLASH OF KINGS, magnificently illustrated and all signed… plus titles by James S.A. Corey, Leonard Maltin, Janis Ian, Diana Gabaldon, Walter Jon Williams (his QUILLIFER books are terrific), Melinda Snodgrass, Lee Child, Anne Perry, Carrie Vaughn, David Levine, John Scalzi, Joe Lansdale, Mary Robinette Kowal, Connie Willis, Marlon James, Marko  Kloos, Erica Jong, Jo Walton, S.M. Stirling, Michael Cassutt, Dennis Lehane, the late great Victor Milan, Ellen Datlow, Alan Brennert, Stephen Graham Jones, and many many many more.

Do come by and visit us the next time you come to the Land of Enchantment.  Beastly Books.  Hear us roar!

 

Current Mood: excited excited

More Maltin

July 5, 2019 at 3:29 pm
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For those who missed it…

A video of our event with Leonard and Jessie Maltin at the Jean Cocteau is now available.   Enjoy it at:

A selection of SIGNED books by Leonard Maltin is available from the JCC bookshop:

https://jeancocteaucinema.com/product-category/signed-books/

 

Current Mood: bouncy bouncy

Two Fanboys

July 1, 2019 at 12:16 pm
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Leonard Maltin, a legend among film critics, and his daughter Jessie Maltin were in Santa Fe last week, for a visit to the Jean Cocteau Cinema.   I taped a segment with Leonard for his podcast, and afterward Leonard and Jessie did a talk, a Q&A, and a booksigning at the theatre.  Great fun.

We discovered that Leonard and I sprang from the same roots.   We were both Jersey boys who got involved in fanzine fandom at an early age.   While I was writing superhero stories (Manta Ray!  Dr. Weird!  Garizan the Mechanical Warrior!!!) for the comic fanzines of the 60s, he started his own film fanzine.

You can hear our whole conversation on his podcast, Maltin On Movies http://maltinonmovies.libsyn.com/george-rr-martin

Leonard also blogged about his fanzine days and his visit to the JCC.   You can read the full text here:

We filmed the talk by Leonard and Jessie as well, and will be uploading that to the JCC website soon.

Meanwhile, for all you Leonard Maltin fans out there, we have autographed copies of four of his books available from the Jean Cocteau website — along with signed books by Alan Brennert, Neil Gaiman, Lee Child, Marlon James, John Hodgman, Lisa See, Diana Gabaldon, Carrie Vaughn, Melinda Snodgrass, Robert Jackson Bennett, Rebecca Roanhorse, Daniel Abraham, and many many more… along with yours truly.  Check out the full listings at:

https://jeancocteaucinema.com/shop/

Current Mood: geeky geeky

Author Events

June 10, 2019 at 9:09 am
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If you’re not fortunate enough to live in the Land of Enchantment, you’ve missed out on all of the wonderful author events we have at the Jean cocteau Cinema.  But of late, we’ve started recording the events for streaming and later viewing.

Here are three of our most recent events, with

— LEE CHILD (Thrillermaster, and creator of Jack Reacher),

— ALAN BRENNERT (from my days on TWILIGHT ZONE, author of DAUGHTER OF MOLOKAI).

— MARLON JAMES (author of BLACK LEOPARD, RED WOLF)

Author Events

Autographed books from all of our featured writers are available from the Jean Cocteau website.

Enjoy.

 

Current Mood: pleased pleased

More Stuff, More Nonsense

May 19, 2019 at 8:01 am
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Aside from the idiocy on the internet, what else has been going on of late?

Well, I went to LA to moderate the Q&A at the premiere of the new TOLKIEN biopic in Westwood.  The picture is lovely, by the way, and I had a great time.   Got to meet Nicholas Hoult and the lovely Lily Collins, the stars of the film, as well as director Dome Karukoski.   Afterwards I flew home to Santa Fe, and we did the New Mexico premiere at the Jean Cocteau.

The JCC followed that up with two nights of magic, comedy, and juggling featuring Ben Seidman and Marcus Monroe.  Wonderful shows.   The audience had a great time, howling and laughing.   Ben is a great magician and very funny, Marcus the juggler is hilarious, and the two of them together make for a helluva evening.

While I was at the JCC, of course, my staff forced me to descend into the basement and sign books for a couple of hours.   So if you are looking for autographed copies of FIRE & BLOOD, A GAME OF THRONES, or any of my other titles, check out the JCC website, they have plenty of stock once again… while it lasts.  And lots of signed books by the other writers who have appeared at the theatre as well.

Oh, speaking of FIRE & BLOOD… very pleased to learn that it has been nominated for a Locus Award by the readers of LOCUS magazine, the Publisher’s Weekly of SF and fantasy.  It’s a finalist in the “Best Collection” category:

2019 Locus Awards Finalists

Oh, I should mention that while I was in LA, I spent a few hours at the Petersen Automobile Museum and had a great time.  They have just opened a special new exhibit of cars from television and film, so I got to gawk at a couple of cars from MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, the DeLorean from BACK TO THE FUTURE, various Transformers, the VW from DEATH RACE 2000, Kit from KNIGHT RIDER, and all sorts of other cool stuff, along with the usual displays of classic automobiles through the ages.

 

If you love cars, check it out.

I also met with the writing staff for the WILD CARDS tv shows being developed by UCP for Hulu.   Had a great dinner, and was blown away by their talent and enthusiasm.   I think we could have something very special coming your way.

And I visited another writer’s room as well, for another show.   But if I talk about that one, they will kill me.

I am back home again now, and back once more in Westeros, working on WINDS… which, let me add once more, has NOT been finished and hidden away for years.  (sigh)

 

Current Mood: busy busy

Stuff and Nonsense

May 4, 2019 at 9:24 am
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Just a few jots about various things going on these days, in my life and in the world at large.

Saw the new Avengers movie last night.  ENDGAME is amazing.  Kudos to the writers and director.  I cannot believe they got all those characters into one film, and still managed to do them all justice.   The final battle was epic, exciting, thrilling, full of twists and turns… and strangely beautiful.  But the character scenes earlier in the film really made it for me.   The opening with Hawkeye, the Ant-Man scenes, Tony Stark’s moments communing with his helm… so many more.  There’s plenty of action here, but this is not just A Big Dumb Action movie, of which there are far too many these days.   Stan Lee would have been proud.  Could he ever have dreamed that all those characters he and Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and the rest of the Marvel team created in the early 60s would one day come to dominate global culture?  There’s an amazing story for you.

Oh… and yay for the rat.   The unsung hero.   They should make him an honorary Avenger.

On other fronts… my imaginary history book, FIRE & BLOOD, had a good long run on the NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller List, hanging on for more than three months in the top ten before finally sliding off.   But hey, hey, hey, as of this week, I’m back!   My Targaryen history has reappeared at #9 on the hardcover fiction list, up from #12.   You can’t keep a good dragon down.

(You can get autographed copies of FIRE & BLOOD from the bookstore at my Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe.  We also have signed copies of all my other books, as well as novels by many other writers… most recently, Alan Brennert and Marlon James).

The graphic novel of STARPORT, adapted and drawn by the talented Raya Golden from a television pilot I wrote in 1994, is also out, and doing nicely.   Raya did a beautiful job, and there’s a chance that there will be more STARPORT graphic novels coming your way in the future.  ((Based on my world and characters, but no, not written by me, I don’t have the time, so calm on down)).   Who knows?  Maybe even the TV series it was originally meant to be.  And wouldn’t THAT be wonderfully exciting.

Oh, and speaking of television, don’t believe everything you read.   Internet reports are notoriously unreliable.  We have had five different GAME OF THRONES successor shows in development (I mislike the term “spinoffs”) at HBO, and three of them are still moving forward nicely.   The one I am not supposed to call THE LONG NIGHT will be shooting later this year, and two other shows remain in the script stage, but are edging closer.   What are they about?  I cannot say.   But maybe some of you should pick up a copy of FIRE & BLOOD and come up with your own theories.

Purely as a viewer, no connection whatsoever, I am enjoying the hell out of the new HBO drama GENTLEMAN JACK.  Only two episodes in, but it’s very well done.  And of course, VEEP is as funny as ever… much funnier than real politics.

Out in the real world, I was pleased that Joe Biden finally announced his candidacy for president.   There are a lot of good Democrats running, maybe too many, and I’d probably vote for any one of them over the present blot upon the Oval Office.  The main things I want in a nominee, however, are twofold: (1) someone who can beat Trump, and (2) someone who would actually be a good/ great president.   Biden qualifies on both counts.  Also, the speech he gave announcing his run was kickass… and so, so true.  I wish him well.

Lots lots more going on, but I have pages to write.   ’nuff said.

 

 

 

Current Mood: busy busy

Twenty Years?

December 19, 2018 at 7:43 pm
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It was twenty years ago today Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play.   But for the guys in the band, it probably did not seem that long.

A GAME OF THRONES was published in 1996.   In 2016, to celebrate the twentienth anniversary, Bantam Spectra published a special deluxe leatherbound edition of the novel, lavishly and beautifully illustrated, with an introduction by John Hodgman.

The anniversary edition was a big success, and is still selling strongly two years later.   (If you’d like to snag an autographed copy, you can get one from the bookstore at the Jean Cocteau.   We are out of stock at the moment, but we have more on order, and I will be defacing them with my illegible scrawl as soon as they come in — which will, alas, probably not be in time for Xmas).

So… drum roll please… we’ve going to do it again.

The second volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, A CLASH OF KINGS, was published in 1999.   (Seems like yesterday, honestly.  And I still recall the three years between books, when readers would email me to ask what was taking so long for book two, since Other Fantasy Author [fill in your choice] put out a book a year, rain or shine, and why was I taking so long?  Sigh.   Those were the days, when I was only two years late).  Next year will mark the twentieth anniversary of its release, so Bantam Spectra will be doing a deluxe leatherbound edition of CLASH as well.

As with GOT, the anniversary edition will be lavishly illustrated with both color plates and black and white.

Our artist this time around will be an amazing young talent named LAUREN CANNON.   You can see some samples of her work on her own website, here:  http://navate.com/   I love her paintings, and we’re all looking forward to working with her, and seeing her unique take on my world and characters.

 

 

Current Mood: cheerful cheerful

Wild Cards Take Texas

November 6, 2018 at 7:30 am
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The Jokertown Mob is heading for San Antonio, along with Rubberband, Rustbelt, and the Amazing Bubbles.

And yes, they will be in your favorite bookstore TODAY.   It’s publication day for TEXAS HOLD ‘EM.

TEXAS HOLD ‘EM is the final book in the America Triad, and the twenty-seventh volume of the overall series… but no, it’s not necessary to have read the first twenty-six to enjoy this one.   It’s a stand-alone, like MISSISSIPPI ROLL and LOW CHICAGO.   This one is lighter in tone than most Wild Cards books: a bit of a romp, if truth be told, blending Wild Cards action with a touch of screwball comedy.

The lineup this time:

Caroline Spector “Bubbles and the Band Trip”
Max Gladstone “The Secret Life of Rubberband”
William F. Wu “Jade Blossom’s Brew”
Diana Rowland “Beats, Bugs, and Boys”
Walton Simons “Is Nobody Going to San Antone?”
Victor Milan “Dust and the Darkness”
David Anthony Durham “Drop City”

The spectacular cover is by Michael Komarck.

You can get TEXAS HOLD ‘EM from your favorite local bookstore on online retailer.   If you would like to snag an autographed copy, we will have some available from the bookstore at the Jean Cocteau Cinema.   (The JCC also has autographed copies of many of the earlier Wild Cards books available, most of the signed not only by myself but by several contributors as well).

 

 

Current Mood: pleased pleased

Football, Fire, and Other Stuff

November 5, 2018 at 2:47 pm
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Tomorrow is the official publication day for TEXAS HOLD ‘EM, the latest original mosaic novel in the Wild Cards series.   Grab one from your favorite local bookstore or online bookseller.   If you want an autographed copy, those will be available from my Jean Cocteau Cinema bookshop.

FIRE & BLOOD comes out on November 20.   There are two sources for autographed copies of that one: preorder from the JCC, or attend the launch event in Jersey City on November 19, at Loew’s Jersey in Journal Square.   We’ve sold more than a thousand tickets for that event and the rest are going fast, so act soon if you want to come.   The theatre is expecting a sellout.   Please note: personalizations and other inscriptions are not available either from the JCC or from Loew’s, just straight signatures.   No use asking, I just can’t personalize that many books, it would take forever.   Please understand.

That’s the cover of the trade hardcover from Bantam Spectra above, fyi; this is the edition that is being offered at Loew’s and the JCC.

Many other editions will be coming out on November 20 as well, however.   Some cool covers on those as well.

Here’s the cover for the Brazilian edition:

Here’s the British cover for those of you in the UK, from Harper Collins Voyager:

Here’s the German edition:

 

Feuer und Blut – Erstes Buch von George RR Martin

And this one is the Gary Gianni cover, for the Subterranean Press limited edition:

Speaking of the JCC… our November 12 NIGHTFLYERS premiere is now SOLD OUT, sorry.   We still have seats (and books) available for Lee Child on November 11 and Cixin Liu on November 14, however.  Reserve a book (and a place) now if you would like to attend, those two may sell out as well.

On other fronts… the Giants did not lose this week, because they did not play.  A mercy.   The Jets played, and lost.  Badly.   The score was close, but the game was painful to watch.   The defense played hard and looked good, as they have in several other games, but the offense could not move the ball, and our kid quarterback Sam Darnold threw four interceptions.   Darnold threw too many INTs in college, the biggest strike against him leading up to the draft, and he appears to be repeating that pattern in the NFL, which does not bode well for Gang Green’s future.   I don’t care how good a quarterback’s arm may be, if he throws INTs he will kill you.  Nothing hurts worse than a turnover.   Darnold was hailed as the new Joe Namath, but I would have settled for a new Chad Pennington… Chad was deadly accurate, and did not throw INTs.   Sam needs to stop doing that, or the future will be as painful as the past.   Oh, and what the hell is going on with the center?  All those bad snaps… c’mon, coach, isn’t there another center on the bench?  One who can deliver the snaps into Sam’s hands rather than three feet over his head?

As for the G-Men, Eli is getting a lot of blame, but not all of it is deserved.  Look at his numbers.   He is still throwing for a lot of yards, and Odell and Saquon are both playing great.  Our other receivers cannot seem to catch the ball, however, even when Eli delivers it right into their hands.  And the O line, shockingly, impossibly, seems to playing even worse than last year.   No QB can perform well when he is being sacked on every drive.   There are too many stupid pre-snap penalties as well.   The Giants seem to start half their drives at 1st and 15th rather than 1st and 10.  That doesn’t help.

Oh, I should also mention… HBO has informed me that the Jane Goldman pilot is not (yet) titled THE LONG NIGHT.   That’s is certainly the title I prefer, but for the moment the pilot is still officially UNTITLED.  So… mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.  Elsewise, the pilot is coming along well, with casting falling into place.   I could tell you more, but I am not supposed to.   We also have a couple of other successor shows still in development, but I cannot tell you about those either.   Sorry.   And some exciting things are happening with the Wild Cards television series, but I can’t talk about those.   Nor can I say much about WHO FEARS DEATH, based on Nnedi Okorafor’s wonderful novel.   Hush hush, it’s Hollywood, they like news to come through officially approved channels out there.

That’s all in television.  In feature films, one of my best known short stories is being developed, and another of my best known short stories may soon be under option for a big movie… and my team is doing its best to set up another of my novels with an actor I adore and a director I worship… but those are not yet ready to be talked about either, so all I can do is tease.   Consider yourselves teased.

I CAN plug the Meow Wolf documentary at least.   That will be opening on hundreds of screens nationwide by month’s end, be sure to catch it if it turns up near you.   It tells the whole history of the crazy bunch of wild dreamers who call themselves Meow Wolf, and I turn up in there as well.

I better go.  Lots more to do today.   Believe it or not, I am working hard on a lot of things (yes, including WINDS), even though I am not allowed to talk about most of them.   Eventually, I hope, you’ll all be able to enjoy the fruits of my labors.  I hope…

Current Mood: busy busy