Coming in August

July 25, 2016 at 2:58 pm

We had an amazing, goofy, fun event at the Jean Cocteau Cinema yesterday, when more than a dozen Wild Cards authors got together and donned the personae of their characters, while my assistant editor Melinda Snodgrass (in the person of Noel Matthews, aka Double Helix) interviewed them. The whole thing was taped, so we hope to be able to upload it here soon.

Meanwhile, Tor has just sent us the final cover for the next original volume in the series: HIGH STAKES, scheduled for release on August 23 (though we will be launching it a little earlier in Kansas City at a special group signing event).

Cover art, as always, by the amazing Michael Komarck.

HIGH STAKES is the third and concluding volume in the triad that began with FORT FREAK and continued with LOWBALL. It’s the twenty-third volume in the overall series, but don’t let that intimidate you, boys and girls. It is NOT necessary to have read all of the preceding twenty-two volumes to make sense of this one… though it would help to have read the aforementioned LOWBALL and FORT FREAK.

This one is a “full mosaic,” like many of the other climactic volumes of our triads; there are no individual stories per se, but rather six storylines featuring six different viewpoint characters, interwoven so as to create a full on collaborative novel. Which is a lot of work for all concerned, yes, but our fans and readers seem to think it’s well worth it.

In HIGH STAKES, the participating writers (and their featured characters) are John Jos. Miller (the Midnight Angel), Caroline Spector (the Amazing Bubbles), Ian Tregillis (Tesseract), Melinda M. Snodgrass (Franny Black), Stephen Leigh (Babel), and David Anthony Durham (the Infamous Black Tongue). Editing by yours truly, assisted by Melinda Snodgrass.

Fair warning, this one is not for the faint of heart. HIGH STAKES is our Lovecraftian horror volume, and things get pretty dark. But it’s when things are darkest that heroes are most needed…

FYI, while we won’t have any copies of HIGH STAKES for another month, the Jean Cocteau Bookstore can now offer both hardcovers and paperbacks of many earlier Wild Cards books with lots of signatures from the authors. Me, yes, but not just me. We have WILD CARDS, ACES HIGH, JOKERS WILD, ACES ABROAD, INSIDE STRAIGHT, BUSTED FLUSH, SUICIDE KINGS, FORT FREAK, LOWBALL… and even the very scarce and hard to find volumes sixteen and seventeen, DEUCES DOWN and DEATH DRAWS FIVE. Email the JCC for details and prices.

Tags: jean cocteau cinema bookstore, signed books, signings, wild cards

Next Monday at the Jean Cocteau

July 17, 2016 at 1:36 pm

We have a very big Sunday coming up at the Jean Cocteau Cinema.

But that’s not the end of the excitement. There’s a great event scheduled for Monday, July 25 as well, one week from today.

That’s when Dutch author THOMAS OLDE HEUVELT will be be visiting us, to talk about his new horror novel, HEX. Heuvelt was the winner of a Hugo last year for his novelette “The World Turned Upside Down.” HEX is something very different, though…

Thomas does not get to this side of the pond very often, much less down here to the Land of Enchantment, so don’t miss your chance to meet him, and get your book signed. HEX is creepy and gripping and original, sure to be one of the top horror novels of 2016.

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You can reserve a seat and a copy of the book at the JCC website: http://www.jeancocteaucinema.com/

Tags: jean cocteau cinema bookstore, signed books, signings

Next Sunday at the Jean Cocteau

July 16, 2016 at 7:36 pm

If you’re going to be in Santa Fe a week from tomorrow — or anywhere in the Land of Enchantment, really — do swing by the Jean Cocteau Cinema.

We’ve got not one but two very special events planned for Sunday, July 24.

First up, at 2:00 in the afternoon, will be a Wild Cards Author Event, followed by a signing. Yes, most of the Usual Suspects will be on hand, the motley crew of New Mexico writers who started the series some thirty years ago, but they’ll be joined by some Wild Carders, new and old, who are coming in from afar to join us. Right now we have some nineteen (yes, I said 19!) writers scheduled to take part… from Chicago, from Denver, from New Hampshire, from Texas, from California, from Kentucky. Come by and meet them all! And get your books signed… not only your Wild Cards books (though we expect to have all the volumes presently in print on offer), but also some of the other great novels by the participating writers.

The format of this one should be fun. Melinda Snodgrass will be hosting, interviewing each of our guests in turn. But we’ll be doing this “in universe,” so she won’t be interviewing the writers, she’ll be interviewing their characters. And Weeds knows where all the bodies are buried, so I expect this to be a hoot and a half.

And that’s just the afternoon event.

Come evening, we’ll be putting Melinda to work again, with a very special screening of CHAOS ON THE BRIDGE, William Shatner’s tell-all documentary about the rocky beginnings of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. <lj-embed id=”748″/>

Melinda knows where the bodies are buried on the Enterprise as well; she was there, and she was one of the insiders that Shatner interviewed for the documentary. She will be hosting the screening, and answering questions afterwards… and if that was not enough, she’s arranged for DAVID GERROLD to join us as well, via the wonders of Skype.

It should be quite a Sunday. Be there. I will.

Tags: jean cocteau cinema, signed books, signings, television, wild cards, writing

Wild Cards in Kansas City

July 14, 2016 at 12:32 am

As this year’s worldcon in Kansas City moves ever closer, schedules are starting to firm up, and there are going to be some exciting things in the works… especially for fans of Wild Cards.

HIGH STAKES, the concluding volume in the current Wild Cards triad and the twenty-third in the overall series, is actually scheduled for hardcover release on August 23, after worldcon is over. However (fingers crossed), Tor is doing all it can to get some advance copies to Kansas City ahead of time, so we can launch the book at worldcon. (This one is our Lovecraftian horror outing. For a taste, check the sample chapter on my website).

To celebrate the release of the new one… and hell, all the old ones too… we are planning to have a huge WILD CARDS MASS SIGNING at the con. It seemed only fitting; there will be more Wild Cards authors (old and new) present in Kansas City than at any other convention ever (yes, even more than at Nolacon in 1988, where Wild Cards lost a Hugo to Watchmen). At last count, the list includes Walter Jon Williams, John Jos. Miller, Gail Gerstner-Miller, Carrie Vaughn, Caroline Spector, Diana Rowland, Walton (Bud) Simons, Bob Wayne, Kevin Andrew Murphy, Stephen Leigh, S.L. Farrell, David D. Levine, Michael Cassutt, Marko Kloos, Saladin Ahmed, Pat Cadigan, Laura J. Mixon, Paul Cornell, Mary Anne Mohanraj… and of course Melinda M. Snodgrass and yours truly. So if you have a large collection of Wild Cards books you’d like defaced… or would like to start a large collection of Wild Cards books… MidAmericon II is the place to do it.

The signing will be sponsored by Rainy Day Books, and will be a ticketed event. It will take place in the Marriott Muhlebach (room tba) on Friday August 19, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Rainy Day Books should have all of the volumes currently in print for sale there, in addition to HIGH STAKES… and also a good selection of other titles by all of the participating writers, for those who would like to sample their non-wild card books. (However, I won’t be signing any Ice & Fire events at this event, I have two other general signings in the dealer’s room, three hours total, so there will be ample opportunity for readers to get their GAME OF THRONES books signed there).

The signing will not be the only Wild Cards activity at Big MAC II. With so many writers on hand, doing your traditional panel discussion would have been impossible. By the time all the panelists finished introducing themselves, the hour would have been up. Instead we’ve decided to offer WILD CARDS DEATH MATCHES. Kind of like Thunderdome with writers (and their characters). Sixteen writers enter (well, maybe only twelve, the count keeps jumping around as plans change), and one will emerge. The audience will pick the winners and losers of the fights. That one is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, August 20, 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Should be a hoot and a half… or a bloodbath. Who the hell knows? We’ve never done this sort of thing before.

Put the times and dates down in your worldcon calendar, and come join the fun.

(And hey, for all those who can’t be in Kansas City for the mass signing, autographed copies of all the books pictured above are available from the Jean Cocteau Cinema Bookstore, though admittedly they don’t have as many signatures as the ones bought in KC are like to have. And yes, we are now taking international orders).

Tags: jean cocteau cinema bookstore, signed books, signings, wild cards, worldcon

MAC Nattering

July 13, 2016 at 11:48 am

Worldcon is coming up soon… MidAmericon II in Kansas City, Missouri, the long awaited successor to the original 1976 MidAmericon, which some of us old pharts still consider to be the Greatest Worldcon Evah. (It was certainly the most innovative, a true game-changer, for both good and ill).

I will be there, along with hundreds of other writers, artists, and editors, and thousands of fans. If you have never been to a con before, this is the one to go to… assuming you’re a reader. Worldcon has always had a strong literary slant, and while costuming, television, films, comics, and games are all included as well, it is the written word that occupies center ring here.

If that interests you, you can join here: http://midamericon2.org/

Join now, and you’ll be able to vote for the Hugo Awards (and to nominate next year).

For readers who would like to meet and talk with their favorite writers (including me), a worldcon is a MUCH better place to do so than a booksigning.

For what it’s worth, however, there are also booksignings AT worldcon, so you’ll have plenty of opportunity to get your books scrawled in, be they rare limited editions or battered paperbacks. I have committed to four (count ’em, 4) booksignings at MAC myself:

— I’ll be doing two ninety-minute signings in the convention autograph area, signing whatever you want me to sign, be it books, comics, swords, games, Funko Pop dolls, t-shirts, or body parts, (but only one item per person, please, and no personalizations or inscriptions, sorry),

— I will also be doing a one-hour signing in the dealer’s room at Gary Gianni’s booth, but at that one Gary and I will be signing ONLY copies of A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS, and the new Gianni sketchbook that GG will be debuting at MAC,

— and in conjunction with Tor Books and a local bookstore, I’ll be part of a huge WILD CARDS signing, joined by more than a dozen other Wild Cards authors new and old. My “no personal inscription” rule will still hold for that one, alas, though many of the other writers will inscribe. However, I am suspending my “only one book per person” rule for this event. I’ll sign as many books as you want here… so long as they are all Wild Cards books.

Dates, times, and locations will all be forthcoming, so watch this space.

And yes, of course, I’ll be doing other stuff in Kansas City as well. A couple of panels, a reading, maybe some other stuff.

See you at Big MAC! And save me some burnt ends!!!

Tags: signed books, signings, wild cards, worldcon

Cool Stuff at the JCC

May 8, 2016 at 3:02 pm

We had a great author event last night at the Jean Cocteau Cinema, when Stephen Graham Jones dropped by to read to us from his new werewolf novel MONGRELS. Who knew the danger posed to werewolves by french fries and pantyhose? I certainly didn’t. We made Stephen sign a large stock of MONGRELS hardcovers before let him leave, so if you’d like to check it out, autographed copies will be available from the Cocteau bookstore. http://www.jeancocteaubooks.com/ ((Signed copies of Ernie Cline’s ARMADA and lots of cool titles from Neil Gaiman, Diana Gabaldon, Joe Lansdale, yours truly, and lots of other great authors are still available as well)).

Next up: JOE HILL. You will be here on Monday, May 23, to sign copies of his new novel THE FIREMAN. And we’ll have the usual interview and Q&A as well. Reserve your seats now from the JCC website; we’re expecting a sellout.

Meanwhile, we have some terrific movies showing. On Friday we opened THE MERMAID, a blockbuster out of China; highest-grossing film in the history of Chinese cinema.

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And next Friday, we’re very excited to be opening HIGH RISE, based on the novel by J.G. Ballard. Ballard, as every SF fans knows, was one of the giants of the British “New Wave” in science fiction, the author of such classics as THE DROWNED WORLD, THE CRYSTAL WORLD, “Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan,” CRASH, VERMILLION SANDS, EMPIRE OF THE SUN, and “The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered As a Downhill Motor Race.” HIGH RISE is one of his major works, an important (and disturbing) novel, and we’re all excited to see the film.

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See you at the movies!

Tags: jean cocteau cinema, jean cocteau cinema bookstore, movies, signed books, signings, stephen graham jones, the mermaid

Speaking of Signed Books…

April 20, 2016 at 3:42 pm

[… we had a terrific, sold-out evening with Ernie Cline last Sunday at the JCC. Ernie presented a slide show about his life in writing, answered questions, and signed copies of his latest, ARMADA, and we all swilled lots of Easter Eggs, the signature cocktail our mixologist Nik designed in his honor (complete with miniatures Rubik’s Cubes).

Of course, we made him sign lots of stock before we let him go, so autographed copies of both ARMADA and READY PLAYER ONE are still available from the JCC bookshop… along with lots of other titles (including a good selection of Neil Gaiman titles, but those are going fast!).

Tags: jean cocteau cinema bookstore, signed books, signings

This Week at the JCC

April 16, 2016 at 6:29 pm

We have a big week coming at the Jean Cocteau Cinema.

ERNIE CLINE will be here tomorrow (Sunday) for an interview and booksigning. He’ll be talking about the film adaptation of READY PLAYER ONE, and signing copies of ARMADA, his new one… and READY PLAYER ONE as well, of course. For more details, see Jenni’s post below.

The next day, Monday night, we’ll show the last two hours in our season five marathon of GAME OF THRONES. That’s “Hardhome” and “Mother’s Mercy,” two huge episodes. If you haven’t seen “Hardhome” on the big (well, medium sized) screen, you haven’t seen it at all. And best of all, admission is FREE. First come, first seated. Don’t be late.

And we another special event scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. For TWO DAYS ONLY, we will be screening the new Project Itoh anime blockbuster out of Japan, EMPIRE OF CORPSES.

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Only a few selected theatres in the US will be showing EMPIRE OF CORPSES. We’re very pleased that the JCC will be one of them. Come join us — and remember, this special screening is for two nights only.

Then, come Saturday, we’re thrilled to announced that our midnight movies are returning. First up will be FLASH GORDON. No, not the old Buster Crabbe serial (and not FLESH GORDON either), but the Sam Jones version from 1980. Brian Blessed and Ming the Merciless, what more could you want?

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Come in costume, you pathetic earthlings.

See you at the movies.

Tags: jean cocteau cinema, movies, signings

Seveneves at the JCC

November 20, 2015 at 12:35 am

Next week should be epic at the JCC.

Yes, we have Sibel Kekilli and WHEN WE LEAVE on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thursday, well, Thursday is Thanksgiving. Turkey and football and (I hope) Melinda’s epic apple pie. (Pumpkin pie has its fans, I know, but I’m an All American apple pie guy. With a slice of cheese on the side, please. ‘Apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze,’ my mother used to say). That will be fun… but it won’t be at the JCC.

On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we have another very special event. That afternoon, at 3:30, NEAL STEPHENSON will be dropping by for a visit, to talk about his new novel SEVENEVES.

I haven’t had the chance to read SEVENEVES myself, though I am looking forward to it. There’s been a lot of critical buzz about this one, and some great reviews; right now, it looks as if SEVENEVES will be a strong contender come Hugo time. Neal Stephenson is no stranger to that, of course. He’s won (and lost) Hugos before, and his wins include ‘the Big One,’ the Hugo for best novel. We will also have a good selection of his backlist available for sale… and signing… at the JCC.

So if you’re in New Mexico this Sunday, come by and meet him, enjoy a cocktail, and hear how it happened that the moon broke up.

Tags: hugo awards, jean cocteau cinema, signings

Cocteau Author Events

October 29, 2015 at 1:50 pm

We had a great time Tuesday night at the Jean Cocteau. Melinda Snodgrass handled the interview task, with me as the subject, and did a wonderful job. Sellout crowd, and of course I signed a lot of books — DOWN & DIRTY, KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS, and the new coloring book.

((Autographed copies of all three will soon be available from the JCC website)).

Next up, in November…

DEBORAH HARKNESS returns on November 8, to sign THE BOOK OF LIFE.

And two days later, on November 10, we’ll have a launch for the WHEEL OF TIME companion.

Books and seats for both events can be reserved on our website. Do remember, our last three author events sold out… and we do hate turning people away at the door, so reserve your place soon.

Tags: jean cocteau cinema, signed books, signings

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