{"id":6103,"date":"2020-04-02T12:53:28","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T18:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/?p=6103"},"modified":"2020-04-02T12:53:28","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T18:53:28","slug":"no-fooling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/2020\/04\/02\/no-fooling\/","title":{"rendered":"No Fooling"},"content":{"rendered":"

April is here, though up where I am there is still a lot more snow than flowers.<\/p>\n

The weirdness continues, all around the world.\u00a0 Sometimes it is hard to recall how much has changed in just one month.<\/p>\n

Regular readers of my Not A Blog and the Wild Cards website know that I usually do an April Fools post.\u00a0\u00a0 We have had some great ones over the years, even fooled a few people.\u00a0\u00a0 Not this year, though.\u00a0 None of the ideas we were playing with seemed quite appropriate, with everything that is going on.\u00a0 Or maybe I just wasn’t feeling very funny.<\/p>\n

Science Fiction writers are supposed to be good at predicting the future (that’s a myth, actually, but never mind), but I have to confess, I have no notion where or when any of this is going to end.\u00a0\u00a0 I can see half a dozen branching alternatives, some of which are very grim indeed, and some much less so.\u00a0 One does not want to be too alarmist, of course.\u00a0\u00a0 But at the same time, it would be folly to be too dismissive of the dangers.\u00a0 All we can do is shelter in place, keep an eye on the news, and take this day by day.<\/p>\n

The Jean Cocteau Cinema and Beastly Books remain closed.\u00a0\u00a0 When I first shut them down a few weeks ago, it was only for a month… the idea being that we would re-evaluate on April 15 and see where things stood then.\u00a0\u00a0 As I write this, on April 2, that April 15 date is looking wildly optimistic.\u00a0\u00a0 If things change at all in the next two weeks, they are likely to be changing for the worse, not the better.\u00a0\u00a0 Most likely, then, both cinema and bookstore will need to remain closed… for how long, I have no idea.<\/p>\n

Our mail-order service at Beastly Books remains open, however.\u00a0\u00a0 Unlike Amazon, we don’t sell toilet paper or medical equipment, so nothing will take priority over your book orders.\u00a0\u00a0 Take a look at the selection at https:\/\/jeancocteaucinema.com\/product-category\/signed-books\/<\/a><\/p>\n

All\u00a0 our books are autographed, and reading is one of the best ways to pass the time while quarantined.\u00a0 (I know I am doing a lot of it).\u00a0 Also, truth be told, your book purchases will help us keep paying our staff at the cinema and bookstore, since there is no other source of income at present.\u00a0\u00a0 And we have some great, great titles in stock.<\/p>\n

In other virus-related news, conventions and festivals and sporting events continue to cancel or postpone all over the world.\u00a0\u00a0 Including SF cons.\u00a0\u00a0 Some of them, I fear, may never come back, since — in some cases, not all — venues and hotels are refusing to let the events out of their contracts, which means the sponsoring organizations could have huge debts with no income to help offset the costs.\u00a0\u00a0 This year’s Nebula Weekend is going virtual.\u00a0\u00a0 Some of the writer’s workshops at which I sponsor scholarships — Clarion, Clarion West, Odyssey, and the Taos Toolbox — may need to do the same.\u00a0\u00a0 None of them have made that determination yet, since the workshops are still months away, but I know all of them are exploring their options.<\/p>\n

The biggest news in that regard is that this year’s worldcon, CoNZealand, has also decided to go virtual.\u00a0\u00a0 I know what a difficult decision that was for the Kiwis, who have worked so hard bidding and winning the con, and dreamed so long of bringing fandom to their magical island.\u00a0\u00a0 New Zealand is one of my favorite places in the world, and Parris feels the same way.\u00a0 We have been there several times before, and I know we will visit again… just not this year, alas.\u00a0 I gather that pushing the con back to late 2020 or early 2021 was not feasible, for various logistical reasons, which meant that going online was the only real alternative to cancellation.\u00a0\u00a0 How that will work, I have no idea.\u00a0\u00a0 No one does, really.\u00a0 It has never been done before.\u00a0\u00a0 The technical aspects are going to be daunting, no doubt… but I know that everyone concerned is going to do their best.\u00a0\u00a0 Fingers crossed.<\/p>\n

If there is a silver lining in these clouds, this will give me more time to finish WINDS OF WINTER.\u00a0\u00a0 I continue to write every day, up here in my mountain fastness.<\/p>\n

Want something to read while you’re waiting?\u00a0 This would be a good time to check out my Wild Cards series, if you haven’t done so already.\u00a0 There are twenty-nine of them (some still in the pipeline), which should keep you reading for a good long time.\u00a0\u00a0 If it is more Westeros you want, and you just know A SONG OF ICE & FIRE, take a look at A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS (the Dunk & Egg novellas) and FIRE & BLOOD (wherein you will find the source material for the new HBO series, HOUSE OF THE DRAGON).\u00a0\u00a0 And there are some other wonderful writers out there as well.\u00a0\u00a0 The QUILLIFER series by Walter Jon Williams is the best work WJW has ever done, and I am really enjoying the new AFTERSHOCKS series from Marko Kloos.<\/p>\n

Need something to binge watch?\u00a0 The third season of OZARK is riveting, HBO’s recent Stephen King mini-series THE OUTSIDER is a faithful, engrossing adaptation of his novel, and the DOCTOR SLEEP film is very good as well.\u00a0\u00a0 I am also really enjoying THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA, an adaptation of the Philip Roth novel that seems more timely than ever before.\u00a0\u00a0 And WESTWORLD and BETTER CALL SAUL are must watch too.<\/p>\n

However you spend your days, my friends, stay safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April is here, though up where I am there is still a lot more snow than flowers. The weirdness continues, all around the world.\u00a0 Sometimes it is hard to recall how much has changed in just one month. Regular readers of my Not A Blog and the Wild Cards website know that I usually do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[32,58,19],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6103"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6109,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103\/revisions\/6109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}