A Stop at Oxford

November 13, 2024 at 8:13 am

Oxford is a legendary place. One of the world’s great universities, and the literary capital of England, rich with history, it has figured in more novels than I can count, including many classic works of fantasy. Philip Pullman’s amazing trilogy HIS DARK MATERIAL is set there. So is BABEL, OR THE NECESSITY FOR VIOLENCE, R.F. Kuang’s Nebula-winning bestseller. It was the model for Hogwart’s in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, and a lot of the Potter films were shot there. And of course J.R.R. Tolkien lived and taught there.

Somehow I never made it there on any of my previous visits to the UK, but I was determined to not it miss it this time around. When the Oxford Writers House invited me to join Pullman for a panel discussion on Writing Fantasy, I had to say yes. I had never met Pullman … though I’m a huge fan of HIS DARK MATERIALS, with its daemons and armored bears. (Armored bears! So cool!!) It would have been a thrill to share a platform with him. I also wanted to pop into the Eagle & Child as well, the pub where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and the Inklings got together to share a pint and talk about books.

Alas, it turned out that the Bird & Baby (as the Eagle & Child was nicknamed by the locals) was closed for renovations. And then Philip Pullman got ill, and had to cancel, so I was left to fend for myself.

Fortunately I have lots of practice with fending for myself.

Instead of panel, the event turned into an interview and booksigning. We had a sold out crowd (about 450, they told me) lots of eager students and aspiring writers, and more questions than I could possibly answer if I had been there for a week instead of a day. And beforehand I got a short tour of Oxford itself, which was just as magical as I thought it would be. The library was astonishing, and they even showed me some of J.R.R. Tolkien’s working papers… including his first vision of Helm’s Deep, which he drew on the back of a student essay he was grading.

Oxford was kind enough to record the session, and upload it to YouTube.

After the questions, we moved to the side of the room to sign books. We had a wonderful group of fans and readers on hand. Not all of them were Oxford students; we had people there from all over England, and some from across the Channel as well. Several presented me with handwritten fan letters, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciated that. The letters were heartfelt, thoughtful, and very knowledgeable about my work. The sort of letters that Tolkien himself might have been moved by.

I had a wonderful time. I only wish our visit had been longer. Oxford was just as fascinating as I hoped it would be, and I could easily have spent days exploring it. But the road goes ever on, and I had promises to keep, so the best we could do was spend the night, and then head off back to London…

But not before we made a stop on the outskirts of town, to visit the graveyard where Tolkien and his wife were laid to read. I could not leave town without paying homage to the greatest fantasist of all time.

But I’ll save my thoughts about that for the next installment of my “travel blog.”

I hope I will be able to return to Oxford the next time I make it over to England. There’s so much left to see.

Current Mood: pleased pleased

Tags: a song of ice and fire, signed books, signings, travels, worldcon, writing

Here Comes Hodor

September 29, 2024 at 4:56 pm

I promised you all a report on our trip.

I haven’t forgotten. We left Santa Fe on July 15, and returned home on August 15. In between, we visited Belfast in Northern Ireland (and Ashford Meadow in the Reach), Amsterdam, London, Oxford, and Glasgow, where the World Science Fiction Convention was being held.

It was a splendid trip, and one that did wonders to restore my bruised and battered spirits and relieve some of the stress that I had been under before we left. The first few months of 2024 had been… well, no fun, let us say. January, February, March… things just kept getting worse until we came to April Fool’s Day, when it finally dawned on me that I was the fool, and had been for years. But I do not want to talk about that now. (Or maybe ever. We shall see).

But never mind about that. I wanted to talk about our travels. And I did… at Bubonicon, a few weeks after we returned, when I spoke about the trip and its impact on me during a speech called “Eighty Minutes With George R.R. Martin.” It was a pretty good speech — at least I thought it was — and one I had hoped to share with you. We did record it. Unfortunately, the iPhone malfunctioned, and the recording was lost. My staff has spent weeks trying to recover it, or as much as can be recovered at least, but it appears to be a lost cause. And of course I did not have a written text. I was speaking off the cuff.

I do recall some of the things I touched on. Only the broad strokes, though, not the exact words.

I had intended to do a lengthy Trip report once we got back to the Land of Enchantment, but unfortunately I managed to pick up a case of covid at worldcon (along with two of my assistants), so I found myself in no condition to write much of anything for a week. I am better now, though. Or at least I do not have covid. Sadly, a lot of the stress that I escaped during my travels has crept back in again, but I suppose there is no avoiding that. So let me begin at the beginning, in Northern Ireland.

GAME OF THRONES filmed all over the world, you may recall. Scotland, Morocco, Iceland, Malta, Spain, and Croatia… but our main location was in Northern Ireland, in and around Belfast and the Titanic Quarter, where the Paint Hall of the old shipyards had been transformed into four huge sound stages, among the largest in the U.K. That’s where the throne room was, and the Iron Throne, and most of the other interiors of the Red Keep. I visited there a number of times during our filming. It was in Belfast, and in Scotland’s Castle Doune the week before it, that I first met most of GOT’s amazing cast: Sean Bean, Mark Addy, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Maisie Williams, Sophie Turner, Lena Headey, Ron Donachie, Alfie Allen, and all the rest… among them Kristian Nairn, our one and only Hodor.

Which made it a delight that Kristian was the first old friend we encountered when in Belfast, the first stop of our trips. He still lives there, working as a DJ, doing some acting… and writing. He has a book coming out, a memoir called BEYOND THE THRONE, about his boyhood during the Troubles, his days on GAME OF THRONES, and so much more. He told us all about it during our lunch.

I have not read the book yet, but Kristian promised to have his publisher send me a copy, and I am eager to get my hands on it. It sounds fascinating. I am a little envious, though. I said to him, “You’re telling me, I’m twelve years late on my book, and you wrote yours over the summer?!” And he had all of his dialogue for the first season of GAME OF THRONES memorized the day after we cast him.

(We will not speak of my own acting, which mainly consists of having my head bitten off by a shark in Sharknado 3).

Kristian will be touring the USA to promote BEYOND THE THRONE, and we’re hoping to persuade him to come to Santa Fe for a signing at my Jean Cocteau Cinema. If we get him, I’ll be sure to announce it here. Watch this space, and cross your fingers. We’d love to host him. Maybe we could convince him to DJ for us too. And hold the door as well.

((More to come about the trip. Much, much more.))

Current Mood: pleased pleased

Tags: game of thrones, television, travels

Stuff and Nonsense

December 28, 2022 at 2:21 pm

Another Christmas has come and gone, and the New Year looms just ahead. Where the hell does all the time go?

I did take a few days off for the holidays, I confess. Shame on me, I guess. But now I am back in the salt mine, working… working on so many bloody things, my head may soon explode. Yes, WINDS OF WINTER, yes, yes. And HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, season two. And several of the other successor shows that we’re developing with HBO. (Some of those are moving faster than others, as is always the case with development. None have been greenlit yet, though we are hoping… maybe soon. A couple have been shelved, but I would not agree that they are dead. You can take something off the shelf as easily as you can put it on the shelf. All the changes at HBO Max have impacted us, certainly). We are also still developing the Wild Cards tv series for Peacock, based (largely) on FORT FREAK. And I have Wild Cards books to edit. Oh, and did I forget WINDS OF WINTER? No, of course I didn’t. But if I ever did, I know you folks will remind me.

There’s also the railroad, the bookstore, and the theatre. Thankfully, I have great people doing most of the work on those.

I was on the road, in New York City and Chicago, from late October through the middle of November, promoting the new illustrated book, RISE OF THE DRAGON. I was doing a series of blog posts about the trip, you will recall. The interview with David Anthony Durham, the visit to Kevin Smith’s theatre in Jersey, my appearance on the Colbert Show. You can find links to all of those down below.

I wasn’t FINISHED, though. I also did a talk with Neil Gaiman at the Symphony Space in NYC. I cannot link to that one, alas. There were reporters present, however, and there have been a number of stories online about our discussion about adaptations… a subject we both have strong opinions on. Neil and I talked about a lot of things as well. It was a fun event. I had dinners with Vincent d’Onofrio and Joe Tracz and my friends at Tor/ Macmillan and Random House/ Bantam as well, and saw a few Broadway shows (DEATH OF A SALESMAN, THE MUSIC MAN, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, and SIX, fyi). Then I flew off to Chicago for a presentation at Northwestern… which DOES deserve its own post, so I will try to get to that soon.

Since I do not travel with a computer, I returned home to 2000 emails. Took me a while to catch up, even though 1500 of them were spam.

I taped all the games the Jets and Giants played while I was on the road, and tried to avoid hearing the scores (not entirely successfully). Turns out both teams did pretty well while I was travelling (and not watching). Since I have been back, however… well, this past week the G-Men lost a heartbreaker to the Vikings, and the Jets failed to turn up for their game against the Jags. (Please, Mike White, get well soon). Life is meaningless and full of pain. Clearly, the Football Gods hate me. Maybe they are pissed off about WINDS being so late too…

I meant to say a few words about some TV shows and movies we’ve enjoyed. I can see why THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN is getting so much acclaim, even though there aren’t any banshees in it. Brilliant performances by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. A powerful story, one I will long remember… but damn, so sad. I see people calling it a comedy. Really? OK, but that’s dark humor. Parris and I have also been enjoying EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO. Not a new show, I gather, but it was new to us. (So much good TV right now). I hope there’s more coming of that one. We were very happy to hear that SANDMAN has been renewed for a second season. Took them long enough, but better late than never. And watching WHITE LOTUS 2 on HBO made me want to go visit Sicily… but I won’t, not until WINDS is done and delivered, I promised.

We also watched some holiday favorites. Several versions of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, A CHRISTMAS STORY, and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. And yes, I get it, life would really have been horrible for a lot of people if George Bailey had never been born… but hey, am I the only one who thinks that Potterville looks a lot livelier at night than Bedford Falls?

We haven’t seen the new AVATAR yet, but it’s high on our list. So is BABYLON, though that one is getting mixed reviews.

Oh, and awards season is at hand, and congratulations are due to HOUSE OF THE DRAGON and Emma d’Arcy for their Golden Globes nominations, and to Milly Alcock, Matt Smith, and the show for the Critic’s Choice Award nods. Well deserved. Finger and toes crossed for all of them. But hey, when the Emmy nominations come out, I will be hoping that Paddy Considine, Steve Toussaint. Olivia Cooke, and Emily Carey get some love as well. They were all extraordinary.

I also want to thank all my fans and readers, who made RISE OF THE DRAGON such a success. We have been hitting bestseller lists all over the world, I am pleased to say. I hope all of you enjoyed the art as much as I did. (And if you have not snagged a copy yet, autographed copies are still available from Beastly Books in Santa Fe. The Strand in NYC may have some signed copies left as well, though I would not bet on that).

Current Mood: busy busy

Tags: everyday life, television and film, travels

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

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

You Can Go Home Again

November 22, 2019 at 10:02 am

The last stop on my October travels was Asbury Park, New Jersey, where I was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

I was born and raised in Bayonne, as most of my readers probably know by now, but I left New Jersey in 1966 for Evanston, Illinois, to start my college education at Northwestern University. I never really returned, except for visits… but I do visit often, since almost all of my family is still in Jersey, along with a few old friends, a lot of memories (mostly good, some less so), and a big piece of my heart. Also, New Jersey still has the best pizza in the world (New York and Connecticut are very close, though). You can take the boy out of Jersey, I guess, but you can’t take Jersey out of the boy.

Asbury Park is one of the iconic Jersey shore towns. When I was growing up, a lot of my friends and schoolmates spent their summers down on the Jersey Shore. If not at Asbury Park, then at Atlantic City, Seaside, Tom’s River, Keansburg, or one of the other shore towns. Splashing on the beaches, eating salt water taffy, strolling the boardwalks, riding roller coasters and other rides in the old amusement parks. Not me. We were projects kids, we did not even own a car, so we spent our summers in Bayonne, mostly. Water all around, but no beaches (though once or twice each summer we’d get to take an excursion boat from Brady’s Dock across the street from the projects to Rye Beach or Far Rockaway). The only amusement park I got to visit was Uncle Milty’s, right down First Street, where I could blow my allowance playing Skee-Ball… and would eventually land my first job, running the Tubs O’ Fun for the kiddies one summer. I think I got paid twelve dollars a week (in a pay envelope, with a ten and, yes, a two-dollar bill).

I had never been to Asbury Park before this visit, but I have to say, I was charmed by the place. The sand, the surf, the boardwalk… iconic old bars like the Stone Poney and the Wonderbar… lovely grand houses and old hotels, a downtown that felt like stepping back in time… all in all, a cool town to visit. And of course the awards ceremony was great fun. As a Mets fan, it was a great honor for me to be inducted by Ed Kranepool of the Amazin’ Mets of 1969, and Todd Frazier of the current squad… and to share the night with Jason Alexander, Harry Carson, Bart Oates, Martha Stewart, Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and many more incredible Jerseyites.

Before the ceremony, I was also thrilled to be able to meet a couple of my favorite Giants from the Superbowl champions of 1986, Harry Carson and Bart Oates. Bart actually let me try on his Superbowl ring! And Harry showed me his Hall of Fame ring, which was big enough for four of my fingers.

Having my family present for the induction ceremony made it even more special.

I am told the permanent home of the New Jersey Hall of Fame will be in American Dream, the new mega-mall that just opened in the Meadowlands across the parking lot from Giants Stadium. Yes, the former Xanadu, decades in the building. Meanwhile, there are plaques of us at Newark Airport. That’s cool. I like the idea of being on an airport wall down from the Boss.

Current Mood: bouncy bouncy

Tags: awards, travels, writing

Bring Me My Pipe

November 18, 2019 at 9:42 am

I try to get to New York City once or twice a year. It’s one of my favorite cities in the world, and my visits there are always half business, half pleasure.

On the business side, I check in with all my publishers (I have several), my agents (I have several), with my editors (past and present), with my friends and colleagues at HBO (past and present). I often do a signing, an interview, or some other sort of public event. On this most recent visit, Raya Golden and I did a signing down at Midtown Comics for her wonderful graphic novel of my unproduced pilot, STARPORT. We scribbled in hundreds of books, and afterwards sat down for a short interview.

Autographed copies of STARPORT may still be available from Midtown Comics in Manhattan. Or not. We signed a lot of stock, but I am not sure how long they will last. In any case, copies are certainly available from Santa Fe: https://jeancocteaucinema.com/product/starport-graphic-novel-pre-orders/

On the pleasure side… well, we often try to get to a Broadway show or two, but I was too busy this year. I did find time to get together with my friends Ellen Datlow and Mr & Mrs X for a pizza crawl through the wilds of Jersey in search of bar pies. This year we managed to hit the Landmark Tavern in Livingstone and the Star Tavern in Orange, both of which were amazing.

((And if you don’t know what a bar pie is, you don’t know pizza)).

I also combined business and pleasure with a dinner at the historic Keens Steakhouse with Kay McCauley, queen of agents, and my friends from Tor, publisher Tom Doherty and our Wild Cards editor, Diana Pho. http://www.keens.com/

Keens has been a Manhattan mainstay since 1885, famous for their fabulous steaks and mutton chops… and for the hundreds of clay pipes that adorn their ceilings and walls. In ye older times, no meal was considered complete without a bowl at its conclusion, and the regulars at Keens traditionally left their long, fragile “churchwarden” pipes at the restaurant, to be called for at need.

Keens still displays the pipes belonging to Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Will Rogers,, Albert Einstein, George M. Cohan, J.P. Morgan, Stanford White, John Barrymore, David Belasco, Adlai Stevenson, Douglas MacArthur, “Buffalo Bill” Cody… and now me.

At the conclusion of the meal, Keens presented me with my own pipe and had me sign it.

My pipe will now join the other celebrity pipes in Keens display cases. And presumably I can call for it at need, the next time I visit New York City and have a hankering for a mutton chop and a bowl. Not that it’s likely to happen, since I don’t smoke. Never have.

And for that matter, Keens Steakhouse does not allow smoking these days, no more than any other Manhattan restaurant.

But it’s still a cool, and unique, honor. My thanks to Tom Doherty and Kay McCauley, who arranged it.

Current Mood: calm calm

Tags: comic books, dining, tor, travels

On to Washington

November 8, 2019 at 2:39 pm

After Chicago, I moved on to Washington, D.C. with my faithful minion Sid. There, on the evening of October 17, the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation presented me with the 2019 Sir Arthur Clarke Imagination Award. Scott Shannon of Random House, my publisher, came down from New York to introduce me and help present the award, to my delight.

(It should be noted that there is another Arthur C. Clarke Award. That one is a juried award given in the UK for the best novel of the year. This award is not that award, though both of them are sponsored by the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation).

I never had the honor of meeting Sir Arthur C. Clarke, but of course I read his work… pretty much all of his work, to the best of my recollection. Clarke was one of the giants of science fiction, and his stories and books had a profound influence on generations of writers who came after him. CHILDHOOOD’S END, A RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA, “The Nine Billion Names of God,” “The Star,” 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT… the list goes on and on, a body of work that has few equals. He was also an articulate and progressive voice on the issues of the day, and an unfailing champion of science… something sorely needed in these troubled times. I am pleased and proud to be the winner of an award bearing his name.

Imagination is also sorely needed in these times, a subject I spoke about after receiving the award, while being interviewed by Alyssa Rosenberg, the arts and culture columnist for the Washington Post. This was the first time I’d met Alyssa, but I’ve been reading her for years; her columns about GAME OF THRONES were always accurate and insightful, and she conducted a terrific interview… albeit one that got somewhat dark towards the end, as I contemplated the future of our planet. Not a lot of laughs there, truth be told, but I hope we gave the audience some things to think about. Clarke was all about thinking.

I did not attend any baseball games in Washington, but it was a kick being in town when the Nationals won the pennant and punched their ticket to the World Series. The whole town was giddy. And we also enjoyed our visit to the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum. It’s being renovated at the moment, so some exhibits were closed… but the remainder was just as wondrous as I recalled it from my last visit, years ago. The curators seemed somewhat surprised that I knew so much about the Bell X-1 and Friendship 7 and the various rockets on display. Hey, long before I set foot in Westeros, I was writing SF about starships, aliens, and distant suns. Pinto Vortando loves his rocket ships!

Thank you, Washington, for the warm reception, and thank you, Clarke Foundation.

Current Mood: thoughtful

Tags: awards, travels, writing

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