San Diego, Here I Come

July 14, 2022 at 9:29 am

Yes, it’s true. I will be heading to San Diego for Comicon at the end of the month, for the first time in… ah… a bunch of years.

That’s not news to most of you, I know. There have already been a raft of stories out there about HBO’s plans for promoting HOUSE OF THE DRAGON at Comicon (which plans are pretty mind-boggling, by the way), and my name has popped up in a good many of them. So I’m not revealing any secrets here, but I can confirm. I’ll be joining the HOUSE OF THE DRAGON panel in Hall H, together with showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik and eleven of our cast members. I will be as excited to meet them as you are. I was not able to visit the Hot D sets, so this will be the first time I have met any of them… well, aside from Matt Smith, who I did meet for about two minutes in the lobby of the Hard Rock Hotel at a previous Comicon, but he was the Doctor at the time, not Daemon Targaryen, and that’s not at all the same.

I will also be doing a couple of signings at San Diego. One for my publisher, Bantam Spectra/ Random House. I will be signing copies of FIRE & BLOOD and my other novels. And one for Marvel Comics, with Paul Cornell, to promote the new Wild Cards graphic novels that Paul has scripted. Raya Golden, ace minion, art director, and illustrator, will be travelling with me, and she’ll be on hand to sign copies of STARPORT, the graphic novel she adapted and illustrated from an old unproduced television pilot of mine (which may come back to life as a feature film, but that’s a tale for another day). This being Comicon, where the crowds are immense, all these signings will be capped and strictly limited, so if you want me to scrawl on one of your books, join the queue early.

(Sorry, I will NOT sign while walking the floor, eating lunch, or taking a piss in the men’s room. Don’t ask, okay?)

In June 2021, I went to Chicago for a week to accept an honorary doctorate from Northwestern. Aside from that, this will be the first time I have left home since the pandemic struck in March 2020. I am looking forward to it… but, truth be told, I am also a tad anxious. I have managed to avoid getting covid so far, knock wood… but if this Comicon is like the last one I went to, I am going to be in one big room with 150,000 other people, some of whom may not have been as careful as we have. That could be a challenge. Yes, I am fully vaccinated and double boosted, but that’s true of a number of friends of mine, who have still contracted omnicron despite that. (Mild cases, mostly, but still).

I do not want covid, not even a mild case, so please be advised, I will be doing all I can to prevent that. I will be masked almost all the time. I will not be shaking hands, sorry. Or even bumping fists. You can take my picture when I am signing your book, but stay on your side of the table, please. No selfies. No hugs. In past years, I was always glad to do all that, to make myself available to my readers, but these are not normal times. Once covid goes away for good — if it ever does — perhaps I will be able to do all that again. But not now. I cannot get sick. I have too much work to do.

I ask for your understanding.

And I hope all of us have a great time in San Diego, regardless of these challenges.

Current Mood: anxious anxious

Tags: conventions, signings, travels

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 Amazing Ellen

August 22, 2020 at 8:23 am

Ellen Datlow won another Hugo at the Virtual Worldcon that was supposed to be in New Zealand, but wasn’t. For Best Editor, Short Form. I have lost track of how many rockets Ellen has racked up at this point, but it’s a hell of a lot, and all very well deserved. She’s an amazing editor and anthologist.

If you want to see her editing prowess at work, check out our selections at Beastly Books. We’ve had the honor of hosting Ms. Datlow on several occasions, and we still have a few AUTOGRAPHED copies of some of her anthologies in stock.

Mad hats and creepy dolls, what could be more fun! Both terrific books, and signed.

For those, and many many many more titles, check out the Beastly Books website at https://jeancocteaucinema.com/beastlybooks/

We have a fabulous selection of titles, and almost ALL our books are autographed.

Tags: anthologies, Beastly Books, jean cocteau cinema bookstore, signed books, signings

New York New York (And Jersey Too)

November 28, 2018 at 5:11 pm

We are back home in the Land of Enchantment after ten epic days in the east, mostly in New York City, but with a few visits to my old stomping grounds in New Jersey, across the bay.

I was able to enjoy Thanksgiving with my sisters Darleen and Janet and my various nieces, nephews, grand-nephew, and a couple of new-born grand-nieces. First time in more than a decade that I’ve been able to spend the holiday with family, so that was very special. We were able to enjoy some Broadway shows and even a Giants game (the G-Men won, wonder of wonders), and of course I saw my various agents and editors and publishers, many of whom are based in the city.

It wasn’t all pleasure, though. Most of the trip was business: the long-planned launch of my new Westeros book, FIRE & BLOOD.

I had barely gotten off the plane when I had to report to Random House to sign (ahem) “a few copies.”

a few copies

“A few” in this case translates to 1600 copies, all earmarked for the official FIRE & BLOOD launch on November 19 at Loew’s Jersey, an enormous 1930s movie palace in Journal Square, Jersey City. I spent many a Saturday afternoon at Loew’s (and the other great movie palaces in Journal Square, the State and the Stanley), when I was a kid growing up in Bayonne. It’s a magnificent theatre, a real treasure… and it came within a hair’s breath of being torn down a few years ago, before a group of cinema lovers and preservationists called the Friends of the Loew’s stepped in to save it. Being featured on the marquee of this amazing theatre where once I saw films like BEN-HUR and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA was a real joy for me.

The evening was a HUGE amount of fun, in no small part thanks to my friend John Hodgman, who hosted the event and conducted the interview. If you weren’t able to get into Loew’s, you can find the entire thing on the net:

(The organ was amazing as well. Another cool thing about the Loew’s).

The crowd was wonderful, the theatre was beautiful, John was a delight; all in all, it was a great evening, and the perfect way to introduce FIRE & BLOOD to the world.

It was not my only event, however. The next night, I appeared on THE LATE SHOW with Stephen Colbert (inside another historic theatre, the Ed Sullivan, the same stage where Elvis, the Beatles, and Topo Gigio once trod). Stephen and I have a lot in common: we’ve both Northwestern alums and comic book fans, and he loves Tolkien even more than I do. We could have talked for hours, but we had only a few minutes:

New York is indeed a helluva town, like the song says. It’s always good to come back for a visit, and this trip was especially satisfying. My thanks to all those who helped make it special: John Hodgman, Stephen Colbert and his producers, Anne Groell, Scott Shannon, David Moench and my wonderful team at Random House, my agents Kay McCauley and Chris Lotts, my fearless minions Lenore and Sid, my family… and of course, Parris.

I hope all of you reading this had a great Turkey Day. Gobble gobble.

(FIRE & BLOOD is now available from your favorite local bookshop or online bookseller. If you want a signed copy and missed the Loew’s event, however, you can place a mail order with the Jean Cocteau Cinema).

Current Mood: cheerful

Tags: bantam spectra, fire & blood, signed books, signings

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