George R.R. Martin's Blog, page 36

NEW REPLICAS FROM VALYRIAN STEEL

Jalic Blades has just opened pre-sales for these lovely new swords from Jalics official World of Ice and Fire and GoT licensed replica shop Valyrian Steel. Both are limited edition, we have listed details below: Heartsbane Stainless – Limited Edition of 3000 http://www.valyriansteel.com/shop/swords/heartsbane/prod_100.html Heartsbane Damascus – Limited Edition of 1000 http://www.valyriansteel.com/shop/swords/heartsbane-damascus/prod_101.html Here’s their official copy announcing this...

RIP Mike

I was deeply saddened this week to read of the death of Mike Resnick, one of the true giants of contemporary science fiction. Mike has been battling serious illness for some time, so the news did not come as a complete surprise… but it came too soon, too soon, and our field and our community will be the poorer for his absence.

I don’t recall when I first met Mike, but it was a long, long time ago, back in the 1970s when both of us were still living in Chicago. I was a young writer and he was...

Hugo Nominations Open

CoNZealand, this year’s World Science Fiction Convention, has announced that nominations are now open for the 2020 Hugo Awards. To nominate, you need to be a member of either this year’s worldcon, or last year’s Dublin convention. You can nominate either electronically, or with a paper ballot (though very few chose the latter method these days).

Details can be found at https://conzealand.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2020-Hugo-Nominations-Ballot-Printable-US-Letter.pdf

Members can nominate...

Toolbox Opens

Walter Jon Williams informs me that he is now taking applications for the 2020 version of the Taos Toolbox, his “graduate level” workshop for aspiring writers of science fiction and fantasy. This year’s gathering will be June 7-20… not actually in Taos, confusingly, but nearby in Angel Fire, in the Land of Enchantment. Walter Jon and Nancy Kress will be the instructors, once again, and I’ll show up myself one day for a guest lecture and a meal. You can find all the information here: ...

BEASTLY BOOKS IS HERE

We’ve been doing amazing author events at the Jean Cocteau Cinema ever since we reopened the theatre in August, 2013. Dozens of terrific, award-winning, bestselling writers have appeared at the JCC to speak, read, and sign their books… SF writers, mystery writers, historical novelists, romance writers, thriller writers, mainstream literary writers, YA authors, non-fiction writer and journalists… the list goes on and on.

And all of them have signed stock for us. The only problem was the Jean...

In the Fish Bowl

A couple of months back I did a long Skype interview with NFL star Chris Long, a star with the Rams, Patriots, and Eagles.

It was a lot of fun, a long free-ranging talk about all sorts of things.

And now it’s up on YouTube, in five parts. Check it out.

You Can Go Home Again

The last stop on my October travels was Asbury Park, New Jersey, where I was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

I was born and raised in Bayonne, as most of my readers probably know by now, but I left New Jersey in 1966 for Evanston, Illinois, to start my college education at Northwestern University. I never really returned, except for visits… but I do visit often, since almost all of my family is still in Jersey, along with a few old friends, a lot of memories (mostly good, some less...

Bring Me My Pipe

I try to get to New York City once or twice a year.  It’s one of my favorite cities in the world, and my visits there are always half business, half pleasure.

On the business side, I check in with all my publishers (I have several), my agents (I have several), with my editors (past and present), with my friends and colleagues at HBO (past and present).   I often do a signing, an interview, or some other sort of public event.  On this most recent visit, Raya Golden and I did a signing down at Midtown C...

World’s Greatest Award

In between Washington and New York City on my awards tour of America, I dropped by my hometown of Bayonne, New Jersey to visit my family.

While I was there, my sisters Darleen and Janet presented me with the WORLD’S GREATEST AWARD.  They said they did not want to be the only stop I made in October where I did not get an award.

It’s a wonderful award, and I was delighted.   The trophy was accompanied by a Jersey bar pie (best pizza in the world) and some Judicke’s sprinkle donuts (best sprinkle donuts in...

King’s Anniversary

Hard to believe (at least for me), but it’s been twenty years since A CLASH OF KINGS was first published, in 1999.

That being the case, however, we wanted to do something special to mark the occasion.  And we have.

The anniversary edition of CLASH from Bantam is gorgeously and lavishly illustrated by Lauren K. Cannon, with black and white line drawings and full color plates.   The new edition also contains a special introduction by Bernard Cornwell, father of Richard Sharpe and Uhtred son of Uhtred, a...