Wonderful article in the NEW YORK TIMES about Jack Vance:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/magazine/19Vance-t.html?%20_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss

It is nice to see one of our genre's few authentic masters finally getting some recognition from the mainstream press. I agree with most everything that's said here: Vance is not only a great SF and fantasy writer, he's a great writer, period, and deserves a place in the canon of American literature.

Great blog post from TIME magazine's TV critic, urging HBO to pick up ICE & FIRE.

http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2009/07/06/hbos-next-i-hope-great-drama

Needless to say, I share his hopes.

Back home, safe and sound. Finland was great and I enjoyed my visit to Estonia as well. More on both later. The journey home was endless and exhausting, and god, I hate the TSA, especially the ones at Chicago O'Hare. Petty pseudopolice drunk on their authority. But never mind.

Tons of emails, a mountain of mail, much sleep to catch up on. I'll be digging out from under for a while. But lots of cool stuff happening too, on all sorts of fronts. I'll post what I can when I can.

Next trip on the schedule is worldcon in Montreal. I have my program for that, and will post it here soon. I'm hoping to complete a few more chapters for DANCE before taking off. Still tugging, slashing, and cursing that Meereenese knot.

We're back in Helsinki for one last night. Tomorrow at the crack of dawn (which cracks very very early here in Finland) we're off again. Parris returns to Ireland, and I head home to the cats, the green chile, and A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. We'll meet again in Montreal. Ah, the jet set life...

Estonia was great, and Turku was fun as well. I hope to write more about all these places once I'm home.

Thanks for all my Finnish friends, new and old, for making this is awonderful trip. Finncon rocks.

Finncon is fini. Parris and I have just staggereed back to our hotel room from the dead reindeer party. The party is still going strong and we would love to have stayed longer... till sunset, at least... but we have to be up early tomorrow to catch a ferry to Estonia, where I'll be doing a signing in Tallinn. Then the next day it's back across the sea to Helsinki again, just long enough to set off for Turku, where I've got another signing.

Finncon was terrific. The warmth and hospitality we've found here has completely ruined my image of Finland as a frozen wasteland. Who knew? The sauna was fun too. And then there were all the cute anime girls in costume offering free hugs...

Thanks to all my Finnish friends. Now off to Estonia!

So we're here in Helsinki, me from Santa Fe and Phipps by way of Ireland. Grey skies and rain, but the people are warm and friendly. Yesterday we visited Sveaborg, the great island fortress that I've written two stories about. "Gibraltar of the North," it was dubbed by John Quincy Adams. I can only conclude that JQA had never actually seen the Gibraltar of the south, since the resemblence between the two is nonexistent. Sveaborg is pretty cool in its own right, however, and I'm glad to have seen it.

The con proper starts tomorrow. Some come to Finncon if you can. It's free!

I am closing down book sales for a while, since I leave for Finland on July 5. Reopen in late July or August. If there's a signed book you want, please wait till then.

Just got word from the good folks at Valyrian Steel. They are now taking preorders for their full-size replica of Needle. (Arya not included).

To place an order or get more details, visit their website at http://www.valyriansteel.com/shop/swords/needle-sword-of-arya-stark/prod_3.html




And if you want be the first kid on your block to collect the complete armory, copies of Jon Snow's Longclaw are still available as well.




Don't be fooled by the pictures, the two swords are nowhere near the same size.

I almost hate to say anything here, for fear of jinxing it... but for what it's worth, the last six weeks or so have been the most productive period I've had on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS in... well... a year at least, maybe several. In the last three days I've completed three new chapters. Not from scratch, mind you, these were all chapters that had been partially written, and in some cases rewritten, for months if not years. But they're finally done, and I've just reread them, and I'm almost convinced that they're Not Crap.

We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Anyway, I know I don't talk about DANCE frequently here, and that's not going to change. Sorry, but I'm never going to be one of these writers who blogs daily about how many words they produced today. I don't like to talk about the good days for fear of jinxing myself (all writers are superstitious at heart, just like baseball players), and I don't like to talk about the bad days... well, just because. Writing is like sausage making in my view; you'll all be happier in the end if you just eat the final product without knowing what's gone into it.

But I am making a small exception now because... well, I'm feeling rather jazzed right now, and for the first time in a very long while, I think I can see a glimmering that might just be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Now if I can only slash through the Meereenese knot that I've been worrying at since 2005, I may actually start to get excited.

A very nice starred review from LIBRARY JOURNAL for our Jack Vance tribute anthology, SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH. Check it out:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6664389.html?industryid=47120




Copies of the illustrated trade hardcover of the book are still available from Subterranean Press via their website.

For all you Wild Cards fans out there, I've changed the WC sample on my website, replacing the BUSTED FLUSH scene with a cool one from SUICIDE KINGS, written by Ian Tregillis (look for his his novel next year from Tor!) and featuring Rustbelt.




You can check it out at http://www.georgerrmartin.com/wc-s.html

SUICIDE KINGS will be published at the end of the year. This is the concluding volume of the Committee triad. Besides Ian T, the writers are Caroline Spector, Melinda M. Snodgrass, S.L. Farrell, Daniel Abraham, and Victor W. Milan. Featured viewpoint characters will be Rustbelt, the Amazing Bubbles, Double Helix, Gardener, Bugsy, and the Radical, but the rest of the gang will be on hand as well.

Dark Sword has just released their long-awaited Tyrion Lannister miniature, previewed below. The figure is available in both 28mm and 54mm scales, unpainted. The new Theon Greyjoy figure and a couple of cool hedge knights sclupted by Jeff Grace have also been added to the 29mm range, along with lots of new additions from Dark Sword's other lines.





To order, visit Dark Sword's online store at http://darkswordminiatures.com/store.html

They take PayPal now as well.

I should mention that the Subterranean Press editions of our Jack Vance tribute anthology, SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH, are not the only versions. Luitingh will be offering a Dutch translation of the book in the Netherlands, Tor will be doing a trade hardback and trade paperback in 2010 and a mass market paperback the following year... and Harper Collins Voyager will be publishing the title in the UK, for all Jack's British and Australian fans.

The British version of SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH is now available for preorder from Amazon UK at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Songs-Dying-Earth-George-Martin/dp/product-description/0007277482



The stories, of course, will be exactly the same in all editions. Only the Subterranean Press editions will include Tom Kidd's interior illustrations, however.

Whichever version you buy, Gardner Dozois and I hope you will enjoy the read.

SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH, the big Jack Vance tribute anthology I edited with Gardner Dozois, is at the printers now, but you can get a free sample of the treats awaiting you therein, courtesy of Bill Schafer and the other good folks at Subterranean Press.

"Sylgarmo's Proclamation," Lucius Shepard's original novellette of the Dying Earth, is now available at Subterranean Online at http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2009/



So take a look... and if you like what you see, copies of the illustrated trade hardcover are still available from Subterranean. But don't wait too long. The lettered and numbered editions are already sold out, and Tor's hardcover won't be published until 2010.

For years now fans of my epic fantasy series A Song of Ice & Fire have been writing and emailing me to suggest... ask... beg for the books to be made into a videogame. I'm thrilled to be able to announce that, at long last, those requests are being answered. Cyanide Studios, an independent videogame developer based in Nanterre, France, has acquired an exclusive option to develop Ice & Fire as both an RTS (Real Time Strategy) and RPG videogame for next generation consoles and PC.

Cyanide will begin development immediately, with an eye toward rolling out the games for release in the summer of 2011. "We are all huge fans of 'A Song of Ice and Fire', so it is a true honour for our teams to be entrusted with creating the first video games inspired by this masterpiece" said Patrick Pligersdorffer, Managing Director of Cyanide. "The twists and turns of the plot will allow us to deliver an experience which can be enjoyed by both long-time fans as well as gamers new to the series. Its rich web of characters, set in a universe where nothing is just black and white, make it an ideal background for both an RTS and an RPG."



Cyanide first approached me about videogame rights five years ago. No agreement was reached at that time, but Patrick and his colleague Joe Ryan have maintained their interest in the series over the years, impressing me with their doggedness and determination. Since that first contact, Cyanide has opened a studio in Montreal and more than doubled its headcount, and now have the resources to produce both RTS and RPG games that will, we hope, satisfy all my fans and readers, and gamers unfamiliar with the books as well. I am pleased to be in business with the Cyanide, and look forward to working with them on the games.

Cyanide was founded in 2000, and has developed and produced games in numerous genres, including sports management, real time strategy, fantasy, and action RPGs. More information is available through the company website at www.cyanide-studio.com

Yes, I know, it wasn't even April 1st, but I couldn't resist.

Glad you folks enjoyed it.

I'd like to give credit to whoever created the South Park versions of my cast, but I'm afraid I don't know who it was. The pictures arrived some time ago -- last year, maybe even the year before -- and I meant to put them up on my From My Readers page. But then I had one of my periodic compuer glitches wherein all my email was eaten. I recovered most of it, but not all, and the letter that came with the cartoons was one of those lost. The pictures themselves, having been downloaded, were untouched.

So if the reader who created the pictures is out there reading this, please step up and take a bow. They're wonderful. Thank you.

(And by the way, people continue to send me pictures of their dogs, cats, babies, and tattoos for my fan page, along with original artwork and all sorts of other things. And I do mean to post 'em there, really... but I'm about a hundred pictures behind. Eventually I should get it all up, but I can't swear as to when. I'm kinda busy).

From now on I'll be good, I will, I will.

Yes, HBO has been holding auditions for the pilot of A GAME OF THRONES. In London, in Ireland, even in LA. It's been tough finding the right actors for the roles, however, so we've decided to take a different approach. We're scrapping the whole live action thing, and we'll be doing the show as an animated cartoon. And who better to take charge of that than the guys who have done such a great job with SOUTH PARK lo these many seasons?

They've jumped right into it, and we've already got our characters:

HOUSE STARK


HOUSE LANNISTER


HOUSE BARATHEON


HOUSE GREYJOY


HOUSE TYRELL


Can you dig it?

All together now. "You killed Ned. You BASTARDS!"

... but this is amusing.

Just because.

Here's another one from Jen Haley. This is the Night's Watch raven keeper figure from Dark Sword, but since I've already got several examples of him in NW black, I had her do this one as a Stark retainer. Not quite how I picture Maester Luwin, but maybe his predecessor.





And here is Jen's take on Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers, one of Tom Meier's most spectacular sculpts.




Jen is not the only painter I use (I no longer seem to have the time or energy to paint myself, but even when I did, I was nowhere in the class of the "hired brushes" I employ).

Here's a piece by Matt Verzani, Dark Sword's official house painter. It's the archer figure from the Night's Watch, another great Tom Meier piece, but in this case we've painted him as Theon Greyjoy. (We have an actual Theon figure coming, sculpted by Jeff Grace, and greens can be seen on the Dark Sword website, but that one hasn't been released yet).




Next we have another Verzani, this one his paint of Rattleshirt, the Lord o' Bones. This time the sculpt is by Jeff Grace.


Another fine painter that I commission from time to time is Dave Gulczynski of WarPaint Miniatures. Here's his version of the lady of the court.


And finally this one, Dave's version of one of Jeff Grace's wildling figures, the spearwife with the sword.



There's lots more, but that should hold you for now. Enjoy.

Here's something cool: the new miniature of Tyrion Lannister, soon to be rolling out from Dark Sword Miniatures.

The mini hasn't been released yet. This is a prototype, painted by the amazing Jen Haley in a color scheme to match her gorgeous versions of Jaime and Cersei, which can be seen below.



You can order your own Dark Sword miniatures at http://darkswordminiatures.com/

And Jen has her own website at http://www.paintrix-miniatures.com/ where you can see a lot more of astonishing brushwork. She takes commissions, too.

Comments welcome, but only about miniatures, painting, and Tyrion. Please stay on topic.