George R.R. Martin's Blog, page 44

A million years ago when the world was young and dinosaurs roamed the Earth, I spent the best part of a decade working in Hollywood.   In television, mostly, though I did a few feature scripts as well, for films that never got made.   My television career began on the CBS revival of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, along about 1985-1986.   After that I wrote a couple of MAX HEADROOM scripts, but they never got made either.  The show was cancelled when one of them was still in pre-production.   Then I spent...

For Best Editor, Short Form:

GARDNER DOZOIS

Of course.

We lost Gardner last May.   A lot of love and laughter went out of the world when he died, and a tremendous amount of talent as well.   He was a gifted writer who did not write nearly enough… and an amazing editor, the single most important and influential editor in our field since John W. Campbell Jr.   It was my privilege  to co-edit half a dozen anthologies with him.   That was a joy and a pleasure, and I will always regret that we...

I have seen here and there that some people are suggesting A SONG OF ICE & FIRE (by that name, or as GAME OF THRONES) as a possible nominee for the new(ish) Best Series category of the Hugo Awards.   It fits worldcon’s very broad definition of a series, I agree… but as I said below in my post about FIRE & BLOOD, I don’t consider A SONG OF ICE & FIRE a series, and even it was, FIRE & BLOOD is not really part of it.   More a Related Work, the category where it fits best.

WILD CARDS, however, IS...

Nominating for the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist is always especially difficult.   There are so many terrific talents working in science fiction and fantasy just now, it is next to impossible to settle on just four or five as being worthy of a nod.   Nonetheless, that’s the way it works, so…

Once again, I’ve had the honor of working with some astounding artists during the past year.   Let me bring a few of them to your attention.

MICHAEL KOMARCK, who has been the cover artist for mo...

Best Fan Writer.   That’s a clear cut category.

My recommendation is ADAM WHITEHEAD, for his work on his blog THE WERTZONE.

He’s come close a couple times, but has yet to make the ballot.   Maybe this is the year.

Take a read, and judge for yourselves:

http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/

I’d also love to suggest KATY RASK, who writes the marvelous Wild Cards Reread posts for Tor.com.   However, my understanding is that Tor.com pays her for those columns, which makes her ineligible.   Which is a...

Back in the 80s, when Wild Cards was born, shared worlds ruled the racks.   THIEVES WORLD, ITHKAR, WAR WORLD, LIAVEK, HEROES IN HELL, GREYSTONE BAY, and on and on.  New series were popping up every month.  Today, only Wild Cards remains, still going strong after thirty-one years and twenty-seven volumes.

Writing for a shared world has some unique challenges, however.   In August 2017, a large group of Wild Carders assembled at my Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe for a mass signing, and we inte...

Anyone who has ever worked in a Hollywood writer’s room knows that lunch is a big part of the day.

The writers on Hulu’s new WILD CARDS shows are bellying up to help.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/black-history-lunch-one-writers-rooms-quest-diversify-staff-meals-1182727

This year’s SuperBowl kind of sucked, but as ever the commercials were fun — especially the Bud Light commercial.   No one was more surprised — and delighted — by the twist it took than I was.

Here’s an extended version:

Now that we’ve taken care of the Bud Knight, we need to send some dragons after Colonel Sanders and the Energized Bunny, I’m thinking.

I had a big new Westeros book published last year (official publication date November 20, 2018) — FIRE & BLOOD, covering the history of the Targaryen kings from Aegon’s Conquest to the regency of Aegon III.   It’s been doing rather well, thank you.   Debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and is still in the top ten two months later.  And just last week, we got a great review in KIRKUS, a notoriously tough journal.

The question of its Hugo eligibility is… well, trickier than usua...

Valyrian Steel  has relaunched sales for two of George’s favorite replicas; King Robert’s Warhammer and Longclaw.

Numbers are limited so get yours now!