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

NFL Draft, Day 1

Ah, NFL draft weekend... nothing like it... it still amazes me that ESPN has somehow made an annual television event out of what used to be a bunch of guys sitting around a hotel ballroom writing names on index cards every fifteen minutes or so... but now it's must-watch TV for all NFL fans, a media extravaganza telecast live on two networks, and covered by all the rest. And god help me, I watch religiously every year, with all the draft magazines and a big bowl of chile con queso (thanks, Phip

My Tower o' Babel

The renovations on my office house that have been going on since last June are finally almost complete, and I've started moving my stuff in at last.

Two stories plus a basement (a big deal in Santa Fe, no one has basements here). The basement is just a basement, with a laundry, a furnace, and a wine cellar. The second story is for my library... books by other people.

The first floor, though, that combines my brag library -- the many and various editions of my own books -- with lighted glasse

Fresh Blood for Wild Cards

The Wild Cards series began in New Mexico in the mid-80s with a group of writers and friends who all gamed together, players in an epic years-long campaign of the role-playing game SUPERWORLD. That gaming group included me, Melinda Snodgrass, Walter Jon Williams, John Miller and Gail Gerstner Miller, Parris, Chip Wideman, and Victor Milan... but when we decided to pitch Wild Cards as a shared world anthology, I reached out to some other writers who shared our love of comic books and superheroes

Winter Is Coming... to HBO

At last it can be told.

The news has finally been made public, so I'm finally free to whoop and holler and share the great news -- the HBO pilot of A GAME OF THRONES will start filming in October, in Northern Ireland. The announcement was made in Belfast. Here you go:

http://www.northernireland.gov.uk/news/news-ofmdfm/news-ofmdfm-210409-hbo-to-film.htm

Yes, I'm thrilled. Ireland should be a great place to film. And the facility we'll be using, the Paint Hall, is amazing as well:

http://www.north

Signed Calendars Mailed

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

BUSTED FLUSH signing

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.

Calendar Cancelled

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

Maurice Druon, RIP

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

Back in Business, Kinda Sorta

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

I Hate Computers

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,