NEWS RELEASES FROM GRRM—2010:
WILD CARDS 1 REISSUED November 25, 2010
Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's... yes, actually, it IS a plane. Jetboy's plane. And a whole bunch of blimps.
Wild Cards is back. I'm talking volume one, originally published in 1987, the book that introduced a universe of high-flying aces and twisted jokers, and kicked off a series that is still going strong today, twenty-three years later. Tor has just released a reissue of the book in trade paperback format. It went on sale November 23 and you'll find it in your favorite local bookstore... most likely, right next to Songs of Love and Death.
 Now, maybe you're one of the hundreds of thousands of readers who already has a copy of Wild Cards sitting on your shelf, so you figure you don't need to snap this one up. Well, you'd be wrong. We didn't just re-release the original book, we improved it with extra added content -- three brand new stories, by Michael Cassutt, David D. Levine, and Carrie Vaughn, covering some of the "lost years" in the Wild Cards timeline. Secret histories and tales untold till now.
The new stories are "Captain Cathode and the Secret Ace" by Michael Cassutt, "Powers" by David D. Levine, and "Ghost Girl Takes Manhattan" by Carrie Vaughn, stellar additions to the original lineup of work from Howard Waldrop, Roger Zelazny, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Walter Jon Williams, Lewis Shiner, Victor Milan, Edward Bryant, Leanne C. Harper, Stephen Leigh, John Jos. Miller, and yours truly. Jetboy, Dr. Tachyon, Fortunato, Yeoman, the Sleeper, Golden Boy, Mark Meadows, Sewerjack and Bagabond, Puppetman, and the Great and Powerful Turtle... they're all back, and this time they've brought friends.
POCKET RELEASES SONGS OF LOVE & DEATH November 24, 2010
Just published: the hardcover of Songs of Love and Death, the latest crossgenre anthology I've edited with Gardner Dozois, featuring seventeen original never-before-published tales of star-crossed lovers, with a lineup that includes fantasy, paranormal romance, and SF, written by some of today's hottest writers.
The table of contents:
-Jim Butcher, "Love Hurts" -Jo Beverly, "The Marrying Maid" -Carrie Vaughn, "Rooftops" -M.L.N. Hanover, "Hurt Me" -Cecelia Holland, "Demon Lover" -Melinda M. Snodgrass, "The Wayfarer's Advice" -Robin Hobb, "Blue Boots" -Neil Gaiman, "The Thing About Cassandra" -Marjorie M. Liu, "After the Blood" -Jacqueline Carey, "You and You Alone" -Lisa Tuttle, "His Wolf" -Linnea Sinclair, "CourtingTrouble" -Mary Jo Putney, "The Demon Dancer" -Tanith Lee, "Under/Above the Water" -Peter S. Beagle, "Kashkia" -Yasmine Galenorn, "Man in the Mirror" -Diana Gabaldon, "A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows"
If you're a fan of Harry Dresden, the Kushiel series, the Outlander books, or any of the other featured writers, this is one you'll want to pick up.
Songs of Love and Death was released from Pocket Books on November 16, and should be available from your favorite bookstore right now.
DOWN THESE STRANGE STREETS DELIVERED October 1, 2010
Gardner Dozois and I have delivered the completed manuscript of our original anthology Down These Strange Streets to our editors at Penguin/ Putnam/ Ace. DTSS is the latest of our crossgenre projects, featuring a blend of urban fantasy, science fiction hardboiled mystery, noir, paranormal romance, historicals, and fantasy PI stories.
The lineup includes a Lord John novella from Diana Gabaldon, a SPQR story by John Maddox Roberts, a True Blood story by Charlaine Harris, a Garrett tale from Glen Cook, an Edge story from Melinda Snodgrass, a Gordianus yarn from Steven Saylor, an incredible WWII mystery novella by Bradley Denton, a Joe Lansdale story than can only be described as Gonzo Lovecraft, and wonderful contributions from Carrie Vaughn, Conn Iggulden, Simon R. Green, Laurie R. King, Lisa Tuttle M.L.N. Hanover, Patricia Briggs,and S.M. Stirling.
The table of contents: - "The Bastard Stepchild" (introduction), by George R.R. Martin - "Death by Dahlia," by Charlaine Harris - "The Bleeding Shadow," by Joe R. Lansdale - "Hungry Heart," by Simon R. Green - "Styx and Stones," by Steven Saylor - "Pain and Suffering," by S.M. Stirling - "It's Still the Same Old Story," by Carrie Vaughn - "The Lady Is a Screamer," by Conn Iggulden - "Hellbender,"by Laurie R. King - "Shadow Thieves," by Glen Cook - "No Mystery, No Miracle," by Melinda Snodgrass - "The Difference Between a Puzzle and a Mystery," by M.L.N. Hanover - "The Curious Affair of the Deodand," by Lisa Tuttle - "Lord John and the Plague of Zombies," by Diana Gabaldon - "Beware the Snake," by John Maddox Roberts - "In Red, With Pearls," by Patricia Briggs - "The Adakian Eagle," by Bradley Denton
No publication date has been set yet, but look for Down These Strange Streets sometime in 2011.
IDW TO PUBLISH DOORWAYS COMIC July 24, 2010
I am thrilled (really) to reveal that this morning at the San Diego Comicon IDW Comics announced their plans to publish a miniseries and graphic novel of DOORWAYS, the television pilot that I created, wrote, and produced for ABC from 1991 to 1993.
The first issue will be published in November. That's the cover you're looking at over there. Tom, an emergency room doc at a Los Angeles hospital. Cat, a half-feral fugitive from an alternate timeline. Thane, the manhound, part human, part animal, part cybernetic, stalking Cat from world to world at the behest of his alien masters.
This first DOORWAYS series will be based on the revised version of my script, not (not not NOT, please note) on the TV show as shot. In other words, the characters as they appear in the comic will not look anything like the actors who portrayed them in 1993, in the version (the bloated two-hour version) of DOORWAYS that was released on video way back when. (This is purely for legal reasons and should not taken as a reflection on the actors, all of whom were terrific, especially Anne Le Guernec, the young French actress who played Cat).
A graphic novel is only as good as its artwork, of course. The art for DOORWAYS will be provided by the amazing Italian artist Stefano Martino (well, born in Italy, but he's lived in France and is presently in Spain). Fans will know him for his outstanding work on IDW's DOCTOR WHO comic. I selected Stefano personally from among a dozen candidates, and I love what I have seen of his stuff so far.
Stefano is working directly from my original teleplay, so we have not needed to bring aboard a scriptor as on some of my other recent comic projects. This time around, the writer is me. And doing this as a graphic novel rather than a television show means that we are not straight-jacketed by studio budgets or the state of SFX in 1993... so, for instance, our manhounds no longer need to be guys in rubber suits, and we will should be able to have much more fun with the aliens and their technology.
DOORWAYS is the great "might have been" of my career in Hollywood. It was the closest I ever came to getting my own show on the air. Two years of my life went into it, and unsurprisingly, I came to love the characters and their world. Worlds, in this case. When DOORWAYS slammed shut on me, and I had to say goodbye to Tom and Cat and all those stories that would now remain forever untold, it felt as though a part of me had died. But now IDW has opened that door again and I can't tell you how pleased that makes me.
In the summer of 1991 when I pitched to pitched the concept for a new weekly science fiction series to the suits at ABC, network television had done plenty of space travel and time travel shows , but one of the great tropes of science fiction remained largely untouched—the parallel worlds story. "What if" stories, sideways-in-time tales, worlds where the South won the Civil War, where the Roman Empire never fell, where Pete Best was still drumming for the Beatles... we could do them all, in an action/ adventure framework with some romance and sexual tension and an on-going Fugitive overplot for garnishes.
And if IDW's new DOORWAYS comic finds an audience, it's my hope that we will do them all... starting with the first draft of my pilot script, which featured an entirely different alternate world from the shooting script, and then going to the six never-produced back-up scripts... and then maybe, just maybe, brand new original tales that will take Tom and Cat to worlds we never would have dreamed of doing on a weekly television budget...
The DOORWAYS open in November. Reserve a copy at your favorite comic shop.
FANTASY FLIGHT UNVEILS BATTLES OF WESTEROS July 14, 2010
Fantasy Flight Games, the folks who brought you the popular Game of Thrones board game, collectible card game, and living card game, have just shipped their latest: BATTLES OF WESTEROS, a war game/ miniatures game based on the BattleLore system.
The boxed set—with its gorgeous cover, seen here—will enable players to fight their own battles between House Stark and House Lannister. (Other houses will follow in due course). Complete with cool cards and fun miniatures.
Intrigue, alliance, battle, betrayal, and carnage! What more could you want?
(Aside from the new book, I know, I know).
 FORT FREAK DELIVERED June 16, 2010
FORT FREAK, volume twenty-one in the ongoing Wild Cards series, has been delivered to our editors at Tor Books. Six hundred and eight pages of Jokertown goodness.
After the wide-ranging global storylines of the Committee triad, FORT FREAK returns to New York City, the epicenter of the Wild Cards universe, to tell the stories of the cops and crooks of the historic 5th precinct of the NYPD—the Jokertown precinct. The lineup this time around includes stories by Wild Cards veterans Melinda Snodgrass, Stephen Leigh, John Jos. Miller, Kevin Andrew Murphy, and Victor Milan, and introduces newcomers Cherie Priest (Hugo-and-Nebula finalist), David Anthony Durham (still wearing his Campbell Award tiara), Mary Anne Mohanraj, Ty Franck, and Paul Cornell (Dr. Who scriptwriter).
No publication date has been set yet, but I'd look for FORT FREAK sometime in the spring of 2011. So mark that down on your calendar, and come meet Ramshead, the Rook, Tabby, SlimJim, Abigail, Sgt. Squinch, Ratboy and Flipper, Tinkerbill, the Infamous Black Tongue, Natya, Maggie Graves, Puff, Beastie, Dr. Dildo, and the other colorful denizens of Fort Freak and environs. Old-timers like Father Squid, the Sleeper, and the Oddity are also expected to turn up to enliven the proceedings.
 CLEARANCE SALE AT VALYRIAN RESIN April 7, 2010
All good things come to an end, alas.
Valyrian Resin's line of Ice & Fire minibusts is one of those. My license with Haute Products has now run its course and expired, so there will be no more releases.
 (A pity. Their sculptor Justice Joseph was working up some great figures). There's a silver lining in the cloud, however. To move its unsold inventory, Valyrian Resin has just anounced a special sale on the resin minibusts still in stock.
Jed Haigh writes:
We are having a sale to clear out the remainder of our inventory. This is a great opportunity for anyone who hasn't purchased pieces to get them at a discount. But don't worry, if you have already purchased pieces, we will give you even more of a discount if you wish to purchase more pieces.
Our new website is still at the same web address: www.valyrianresin.com.
Our new web-store is located here.
You can click on the Shoppe button on any page of our website to access our web-store. The Ice and Fire page of our website features some previously unreleased design drawings you may want to check out.
Here's how the sale will work. All Variants and Regular pieces when purchased individually, or two at a time are $10 off. If you buy a set of variants, or a set of regular pieces ( a set is a set of three variants or regular pieces) you will receive $40 off. If you are a repeat customer send us and email and we will further discount your purchase! Al of these discounts are already applied to the different products on our web store. So if you purchase individual pieces or sets the discounts are already applied. However, for repeat customers, you must email us to get the further discounts we are offering!
Also, if you are a retailer or just a group of Ice and Fire fans who have come together to purchase a bunch of pieces, you may qualify for a wholesale rate for even further discounts! Just send us and email (either by emailing jhaigh@valyrianresin.com) or simply by clicking on the contact button on any page of our web-site and we can discuss group and wholesale rates.
Thanks for your support
Jed Haigh, Valyrian Resin
Supplies are limited, and no more of these figures will be produced, so once these are gone, that's that. If you've ever wanted one of these collectibles, this is the time to act.
TED NASMITH ILLUSTRATES 2011 ICE & FIRE CALENDAR March 29, 2010
 Next year's official Song of Ice and Fire calendar has just moved into production, and will be available this summer, publisher Bantam Spectra has informed me. This year's calendar is illustrated by the acclaimed fantasy artist Ted Nasmith, featuring a dozen gorgeous paintings of the great castles of Westeros. A thirteenth castle (not shown here) will be included as a double-page centerfold.
Here's a sneak peak at what the calendar will look like. Feast your eyes.
 Plans are for the calendar to make its debut at this year's San Diego Comicon, so attendees should be sure to visit the Bantam Spectra booth in San Diego. By Labor Day, you should be able to find the calendar at your favorite local bookstore. But if you can't wait, you can get your pre-order in now.
For all those who still nurse bitter memories about the 2009 calendar (beautiful, but cursed), please be assured that we have changed publishers. Bantam Spectra is a division of Random House, the same great folks who publish my fantasies in the United States, and they solemnly swear that this year's calendar will be released on schedule, without any of the delays and other problems that plagued the last attempt. Their
hope (and mine) is to make the Ice & Fire calendar a regular annual treat for my fans, and award-winning artist John Picacio is already feverishly at work on the artwork for the 2012 calendar.
WINTER IS COMING ... TO HBO March 5, 2010
The Ides of March came early this year... on the 2nd, actually, when HBO ended months of suspense by giving us the green light with a ten-episode order (that's pilot plus nine) for the GAME OF THRONES television adaptation.
(If you have been living on the moon for the past few years, you may not know that HBO optioned the books a few years ago and ordered the pilot last year. It was filmed in October and November in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Morocco, and has been in post-production ever since). The show stars Sean Bean as Eddard Stark, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister, and... well, hey, better than list everyone, why don't I just show you in this [fan made, unofficial] video.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss scripted the pilot and served as executive producers. They will be the showrunners on the series and will also script most of the episodes. I will be a co-executive producer and will write one episode per season. Tom McCarthy (up for an Oscar this year, for his contributions to UP) directed the pilot.
The series will be based in Northern Ireland, with many of the scenes shot on the gigantic Paint Hall sound stage in Belfast, on the former Harland and Wolff shipyards. Castles, forests, and other sites in and around Northern Ireland will also be used. A return to Morocco is also possible, and other locations may be used as well.
No air date has been set as yet, but the likelihood is that we're looking at a debut sometime in April or May of 2011. It should be an exciting ride.
FANTASY FLIGHT ANNOUNCES'DAYS OF ICE & FIRE' February 22, 2010
Fantasy Flight Games (FFG), the good folks responsible for the popular Song of Ice and Fire card games and board games, will be bringing me up to Minnesota as a special guest 'Days of Ice and Fire,' a weekend-long celebration of Westeros. The event is schedule for November 12-14 at FFG's new Events Center in Roseville, Minnesota.
'Days of Ice and Fire' will focus on Fantasy Flight's three games taking place in the setting: A Game of Thrones: The Board Game, A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, and the just-announced Battles of Westeros board game. "We've been happy to have the opportunity to play in Mr. Martin's sandbox for the past seven years, and anticipate many more to come," said Jeremy Stomberg of Fantasy Flight Games. "It will be a great honor to have him here to help celebrate his amazing series and the games it has inspired!"
Events planned for the weekend include tournaments in all three games, discussions with the games' creators, and strategy panels.
There should be plenty of activity for readers as well. I expect to be doing several signing sessions and a question-and-answer hour. A reading from A Dance With Dragons and an interview are possible as well. More to come as we get closer to the event.
Located mere blocks from FFG's headquarters, the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center is a 7,500 square foot facility focussing on FFG's wide range of board, card, roleplaying, and miniature games, with daily open gaming, weekly league nights, themed game nights, and tournaments.
For more information on the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center, visit www.FFGEC.com.
MORE MINIATURES FROM DARK SWORD February 21, 2010
Dark Sword Miniatures just keeps rolling along, releasing one terrific figure after another in their "George R.R. Martin Masterworks" range of figures, based on the characters from my fantasy series, A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE.
It has been a long time (November 2007, to be precise) since we last updated you about the miniatures here on my news page (though I have mentioned them from time to time on my Not A Blog), so we thought we'd give you a look at some of the latest releases from the good folks in Minnesota. The newest batch of releases includes Arya, two versions of Sansa (one building her snow castle), Robb Stark (the Young Wolf), Lady Catelyn, and Brienne, Maid of Tarth.
 All the figures were sculpted by the incomparable Tom Meier, who's simply The Best. They are cast in pewter in 32mm scale and go well with Dark Sword's other fine ranges, based on the artwork of Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson, and other renowned fantasy artists. It should be noted that all these miniatures come unpainted, and will need to be cleaned, assembled, primed, and painted. The painted samples shown here are for purposes of display only, and were done for Dark Sword by the talented Marike Reimer of Destroyer Minis. Check out some more samples of her painting skills on her website at http://www.destroyerminis.com/.
To see the entire range of figures, including more Tom Meier sculpts and some gorgeous wildlings and ironborn figures from Jeff Grace, visit Dark Sword's own site at http://darkswordminiatures.com/.
    SONGS OF LOVE & DEATH DELIVERED January 14, 2010
Gardner Dozois and I have delivered SONGS OF LOVE AND DEATH: Tales of Star-Crossed Love to Pocket Books. This is another of our crossgenre anthologies, this time around featuring stories that blend fantasy, science fiction, and romance.
The lineup includes an Imperials story from Melinda Snodgrass, a Kushiel tale from Jacqueline Carey, an Outlander spinoff by Diana Gabaldon, and a Harry Dresden adventure from Jim Butcher, as well as thirteen other terrific yarns from Carrie Vaughn, Robin Hobb, Lisa Tuttle M.L.N. Hanover, Marjorie M. Liu, Neil Gaiman, and other leading writers of fantasy (both urban and epic), science fiction, and paranormal romance.
The table of contents:
-Jim Butcher, "Love Hurts" -Jo Beverly, "The Marrying Maid" -Carrie Vaughn, "Rooftops" -M.L.N. Hanover, "Hurt Me" -Cecelia Holland, "Demon Lover" -Melinda M. Snodgrass, "The Wayfarer's Advice" -Robin Hobb, "Blue Boots" -Neil Gaiman, "The Thing About Cassandra" -Marjorie M. Liu, "After the Blood" -Jacqueline Carey, "You and You Alone" -Lisa Tuttle, "His Wolf" -Linnea Sinclair, "CourtingTrouble" -Mary Jo Putney, "The Demon Dancer" -Tanith Lee, "Under/Above the Water" -Peter S. Beagle, "Kashkia" -Yasmine Galenorn, "Man in the Mirror" -Diana Gabaldon, "A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows" No word on a publication date yet, but sometime in late 2010 or early 2011 would be most likely.
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