George R.R. Martin's Blog, page 23

Way behind on my Meow Wolf updates, so…

The House of Eternal Return, the original Meow Wolf installation in Santa Fe, reopened on the Five Year anniversary of our debut.   Covid restrictions are in place, so capacity has been limited… and what better time to revisit (or visit for the first time), than now, when the crowds are thinner?   The madmen at Meow Wolf took advantage of the lockdown to repair, restore, and improve the attraction too, adding some amazing new rooms, like the Temple of Tras...

Remember the Candle?

No?  Tsk.  Obviously you are behind on your Wild Card reading.   The Candle was one of the contestants on the first season of American Hero back in 2007, as chronicled in INSIDE STRAIGHT.   You missed INSIDE STRAIGHT?   That’s not a problem either.   You can snag a nice hardcover edition from Beastly Books, my newly-reopened (yay!) bookshop in Santa Fe.   At Beastly Books, ALL the books are signed, and INSIDE STRAIGHT has more signatures than most, with autographs from many ...

Come June, I won’t be able to play cards with Nelson Algren any more, I guess.

I am very pleased and proud to announce that my alma mater, Northwestern University, will be presenting me with an honorary doctorate at this year’s commencement, on June 14.   Here’s the official announcement about the event:

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2021/04/commencement-gwynne-shotwell/?utm_source=nnow_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=commencement

This year’s commencement will be virtual, so the...

He is the common-born son of the steward to the Lord of Blackhaven.   He has no claim to lands or titles, all he has is his honor and his skill with sword and lance.

He is a challenger, a champion, cheered by the commons, beloved of the ladies.

He is a lover (or is he?), a seducer (or is he?), a betrayer (or is he?), a breaker of hearts and a maker of kings.

FIRE & BLOOD readers know him as Ser Criston Cole.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON viewers will know him as FABIEN FRANKEL.

In some of his other roles...

Way back when on LiveJournal, when I started this column or journal or whatever it is, I called it my “Not A Blog,” because I could see that regular blogging was a lot of work, and I didn’t think I had the time to devote to it.   I was late on a book even then, though I do not recall which one.  I figured I would just make posts from time to time, when I had an important announcement, when the mood struck me, whatever.

Somehow, though, over the decades, the Not A Blog became a blog, and what I h...

Hey, Wild Cards fans… the moon is rising in July.

The JOKER MOON, that is.   The latest Wild Cards mosaic novel, volume thirty in the overall series (but you don’t need to read the first twenty-nine to enjoy it,  I promise).

Theodorus was a dreamer.   As a child, he dreamt of airplanes, rockets, and outer space. When the  wild card virus transformed him into a monstrous snail centaur weighing several tons, his boyhood  dreams seemed out of reach, but a Witherspoon is not so easily defeated.

Year...

My dear friend Sibel Kekilli — Shae, for all you fans of HBO’s GAME OF THRONES — emailed me recently to alert me to some distressing news out of Turkey.   (Sibel is German, born and raised in Germany, but of Turkish descent).    Turkey, under the Erdogan regime, has officially withdrawn from the Istanbul convention that combats violence against women.

Here are the details:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/20/europe/turkey-convention-violence-women-intl/index.html

Sibel herself has first hand knowl...