George R.R. Martin's Blog, page 219

... have begun at Suvudu: http://www.suvudu.com/

Jaime doesn't fight till Wednesday, but the first bouts are already underway. Michael Moorcock's Elric versus Stephen King's Gunslinger. Conan versus Harry Dresden. Gandalf versus Hiro (no, not the one from HEROES).

Make your voice heard. Your votes determine who will win.

March Madness begins on Monday at Suvudu, the Spectra/ Del Rey/ Bantam/ Ballatine website. You can find it here:

http://www.suvudu.com/

I'm going to need all my fans and readers to check out that site to help defend the honor of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros against a loathesome creature out of Hogwart's.

What does that mean, you ask? Well, I'll let the good folks at Bantam Spectra explain:

"Kaitlin Heller and David Pomerico—two obviously busy editors at Del Rey and Spectra—thought that it wou...

I was startled looking at my website today when I saw the hit counter, which tells me the site has had more than 23 million hits since December of 2000.

Of course, I have to put that in perspective. It's really just the same forty-two people coming back again and again to see if DANCE is done yet, isn't it?

(I suspect the Not A Blog actually gets MORE visitors than my main site. A mention here -- of a forthcoming appearance, a book sale, a news item -- seems to generate a lot more response ...

Like rust, the NFL never sleeps.

The offseason is already in full swing, and the Jets just acquired Antonio Cromartie from the Chargers for a third-round draft pick... in 2011! Wow. Sounds like a great deal to me. Cromartie is a first round talent, led the league in interceptions just a few years ago. And paired with Darrell Revis, he'll give Gang Green the best CB tandem in the league... which should make our #1 ranked defense even better. (We'll get Kris Jenkins back as well).

Hey, maybe...

My stock of those "Washington's Birthday" copies of INSIDE STRAIGHT (see below for details) signed by seven of the contributing writers, is almost gone. Something like four left. It's first come, first served, so if you want one, this is the time to move.

Once those last few copies are gone, the special's over, and it will be back to the usual price for copies signed only by yours truly.

Thanks, everyone. The outpouring of enthusiasm has been amazing. The comments are piling up here faster than Ty can unscreen 'em, my phone is ringing off the hook, and my email is exploding. And of course the story is all over the internet. Quite a day.

For the six of you who may not have seen it elsewhere, here's a production still from the pilot sent out by HBO.



Lots, lots more to come in the days and weeks and months ahead. I will probably not be the best source for most of it, however....

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/hbo-will-play-game-of-thrones/

http://www.thrfeed.com/2010/03/hbo-greenlights-game-of-thrones-.html



http://tv.ign.com/articles/107/1073428p1.html

http://scifiwire.com/2010/03/hbo-says-yes-to-game-of-t.php

... and many more.

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist is running a giveaway for Advanced Reading Copies of WARRIORS, the big crossgenre anthology I did with Gardner Dozois.

For more details, go to

http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2010/03/win-copy-of-warriors-anthology-edited.html




And for those of you who don't win, WARRIORS will be in the bookstores on March 16.

So... March is upon us. The month when HBO will announce its decision on A GAME OF THRONES.

(Yes, I know, I know, it is not actually the Ides until March 15, but the phrase is so fraught with drama I could not resist).

I have absolutely no idea whether "March" will translate to "early March" or "the end of March." The decision could be announced today, for all I know. Or maybe they will make us all wait until March 31. The Ides... well, maybe not. I don't know if I can wait another fifteen...

Parris and I watched a fair amount of the Winter Olympics. 'twas okay. Some stirring moments, some excitement, drama, grace, all that.

Some of these sports are silly, though. I mean, really. Two man luge? The top guy lying on the bottom guy, both of them flat on their backs, careening down an ice chute? Why not eight-man luge? Just stack 'em up, keeping the stack together would be real exciting.

And really -- this one is going to get me in trouble, I know -- if you don't know who won unt...