George R.R. Martin's Blog, page 240

Just got an email from Les Dabel, who assures me that, "ALL the signed Calendars are now out except 60 of them which we will drop off the post office tomorrow morning. Thanks."

So those of you who ordered an autographed calendar should be getting those soon. These are the calendars with the Jon Snow cover. I know there was confusion about the covers and which was which and which was limited and which was not. I wasn't involved in any of that, so I won't elaborate. I know I signed 250 copies

Thought I'd share a few pictures from last month's mass signing for BUSTED FLUSH at Page One Bookstore in Albuquerque. We had a good crowd, lots of enthusiasm, and the whole gang had a great time. And afterwards there was barbeque at Powdrell's, nothing wrong there.






We signed a lot of extra stock before we left, so if there's anyone out there who'd like to get an autographed copy of BUSTED FLUSH in hardcover, contact Darrek at Page One Bookstore in Albuquerque.

I regret to announce that Michael Kaluta will not be illustrating the 2010 Ice & Fire calendar for DB Productions. I've seen some of the work Mike had done on the calendar to date, and it was gorgeous... but he's pulled out, and his reasons for doing so are good and sufficient. I am in complete support of his decision to wash his hands of this, and regret all the problems that his involvement in this project has caused him.

I have reached the end of my patience as well. I have instructed my ag

French novelist, historian, and World War II resistance fighter Maurice Druon has died at 90. He lived a pretty extraordinary life. You can read his obit here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/world/europe/16druon.html

I never had the honor of meeting M. Druon, and I have not even read all of his work (yet). But I am a huge fan of his best known novels, the wonderful "Accursed Kings" series of historical novels. I have often said that my own SONG OF ICE AND FIRE was inspired as much by histor

Well, Ty returned to work today and was able to effect a partial salvage of my computer disaster.

First he hunted down and killed the malware. Took half the day. And it turns out that this particular virus had nothing to do with the loss of my saved emails. (Just as some of you commenters had suggested). The timing of it all was just a coincidence. Still, it's nice to have a clean machine again.

Then he was able to restore my lost emails. Well, some of them, anyway. Turns out that AOL can o

Well, I hate Windows and the internet, anyway.

I've wasted all day dealing with a computer catastrophe. I have no idea what's happened, but all of a sudden I've lost all of my saved incoming unanswered emails. Several thousand of them, including important business correspondence from agents, editors, interviewers, convention runners.

I have four different virus protection programs, two of them supposedly running constantly, and Ty just ran a complete scan two days ago. Despite which, somehow,

All you Vance fanatics out there... if you'd like a taste of the treats that we have in store for you in the forthcoming Jack Vance tribute anthology, SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH, be sure to check out the new issue of Subterranean Press's online magazine, SUBTERRANEAN.

This issue was guest edited by Gardner Dozois, the most honored editor in our genre and my partner on the Vance book and WARRIORS. Among other treats, it contains a brand-new Dying Earth story from Lucius Shepard. "Sylgarmo's Procla

After a long, unfortunate delay, the fifth issue of the new Wild Card miniseries, "The Hard Call," is finally out from DB Productions, and should be available soon at your favorite local comics shop. Daniel Abraham wrote the script, and Eric Battle did the art.

Check it out.



One more issue after that one. I have hopes that this time the delay between issues will not be as long... but don't write that down in blood, please.

Lots of other exciting Wild Cards news as well, but I can't talk about t

Want to be the first kid on your block to read all the swell stories in our Jack Vance tribute anthology, SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH??

Well, here's your chance. Pat's Fantasy Hotlist is doing it again, offering up an Advanced Reading Copy of the gorgeous Subterranean Press edition, illustrated by Tom Kidd.



To check out the details of the contest, go to:

http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2009/04/win-advance-reading-copy-of-songs-of.html

Good luck. And remember, cheaters will be blasted with the Exc

Spoilers Below

Don't read this if you haven't yet watched the season finales of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and/ or LIFE ON MARS. I've finally seen both (we are TIVO junkies, so we don't always watch shows the night they air), and... well...

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA ends with "God Did It." Looks like somebody skipped Writing 101, when you learn that a deus ex machina is a crappy way to end a story.

And now LIFE ON MARS ends with "It Was All a Dream." Curiously, I actually found that a bit more satisfying t