Not A Blog

Hey, hey, hey, Wild Cards fans. Good news. We're only a couple of weeks away from the release of our latest all-new all-original mosaic novel: MISSISSIPPI ROLL, the twenty-fourth volume in the overall series and the first book in what we're calling the 'America Triad.' LOW CHICAGO and TEXAS HOLD'EM will be following in due course.

DECEMBER 5 is the official publication date for the US hardcover from Tor, and the Australian edition from Harper Collins Voyager (Voyager's UK edition will follow along next year). Have a look at the two covers:

Tor

Voyager

MISSISSIPPI ROLL features the work of Stephen Leigh, John Jos. Miller, Carrie Vaughn, Cherie Priest, David D. Levine, and Kevin Andrew Murphy, edited by yours truly with the able assistance of my right hand, Melinda M. Snodgrass. You'll be rolling on the river from New Orleans to Cincinnati with old favorites like Carnifex, the Midnight Angel, Hoodoo Mama, Ramshead, Sewer Jack, Wild Fox, and the Jokertown Boys, and making the acquaintance of Steam Wilbur and the haunted steam packet Natchez. We think you'll enjoy the ride.

MISSISSIPPI ROLL can be preordered from your favorite local bookstore or online bookseller. Amazon has it at https://www.amazon.com/Mississippi-Roll-Wild-Cards-novel/dp/0765390523

Although this IS the twenty-fourth book in the Wild Cards series, still going strong after thirty years, let me stress that it is not necessary to have read the first twenty-three to understand it. MISSISSIPPI ROLL stands perfectly well on its own, and the story it tells is complete in one volume. A bit of a departure for us, that last...

Oh, and speaking of Wild Cards, there's a new post up on the WC blog. Kevin Andrew Murphy details the history of Wild Cards Hollywood at http://www.wildcardsworld.com/blog/ Check it out.

((Comments permitted, on Wild Cards ONLY. Please stay on topic)).

Lots of cool new stuff coming down on the Wild Cards front of late.

Earlier this month we had our big Wild Cards event at the Jean Cocteau Cinema, hosted by yours truly. Local New Mexico authors Melinda Snodgrass, John Jos. Miller, Victor Milan, Sage Walker, Daniel Abraham, and Walter Jon Williams were joined by out-of-towners Diana Rowland, Christopher Rowe, Caroline Spector, Walton (Bud) Simons, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Kevin Andrew Murphy, David D. Levine, Leanne C. Harper, David Anthony Durham (and his son Sage), Carrie Vaughn, Michael Cassutt, and... last but not least... the one and only Howard Waldrop, father of Jetboy, the kid who never saw the Jolson Story.

It made for an amazing evening, for those lucky enough to be there. And for those of you who weren't, hey, no problem. We're put the whole thing up on YouTube:



After the interviews, the whole WC crowd adjourned to the lobby for a mass signing (which included not only the Wild Cards books, but also their own non-series novel), where they were joined by Ian Tregillis and Laura J. Mixon. The result being that we have TONS of autographed books on hand, the WC mosaics often with multiple signatures. While the supply lasts, you can pick up copies of WILD CARDS, INSIDE STRAIGHT, ACES HIGH, JOKERS WILD, SUICIDE KINDS, BUSTED FLUSH, FORT FREAK, LOWBALL, HIGH STAKES, DOWN & DIRTY, DEAD MAN'S HAND, ACE IN THE HOLE, ACES ABROAD, and many other titles at the Jean Cocteau bookstore http://jeancocteaucinema.com/product-category/author/

We've also added a number of new posts to the Wild Cards blog at http://www.wildcardsworld.com/blog/ , with the most recent contributions coming from David D. Levine, Victor Milan, Laura J. Mixon, and John Jos. Miller. Check it out.

((Comments welcome, but ONLY ON WILD CARDS))

Heads up, Wild Cards fans! This weekend some of the your favorite Wild Cards authors will be gathering at the Jean Cocteau Cinema for an author event and mass signing.

The list of attending authors will include (but not necessarily be limited to):

GEORGE R.R. MARTIN (Lohengrin, Popinjay, the Great and Powerful Turtle)
MELINDA M. SNODGRASS (Dr. Tachyon, Dr. Finn, Double Helix)
WALTER JON WILLIAMS (Golden Boy, Modular Man, Pop Tart)
VICTOR MILAN (Cap'n Trips, The Darkness, Dust)
JOHN JOS. MILLER (Carnifex, Yeoman, the Midnight Angel)
GAIL GERSTNER MILLER (Peregrine)
CARRIE VAUGHN (Earth Witch, Curveball, Wild Fox)
CAROLINE SPECTOR (The Amazing Bubbles)
WALTON (BUD) SIMONS (Mr. Nobody, Mr. Dutton, Little Fat Boy)
CHRISTOPHER ROWE (Theodorus, Hardhat)
DANIEL ABRAHAM (Jonathan Hive)
LEANNE C. HARPER (Bagabond)
DIANA ROWLAND (The Mosquito Whisperer)
DAVID ANTHONY DURHAM (Infamous Black Tongue)
LAURA J. MIXON (Lamia, The Candle)
SAGE WALKER (Zoe, the Animator)
MICHAEL CASSUTT (Cash Mitchell, Stuntman)
MARY ANNE MOHANRAJ (Natya)
DAVID D. LEVINE (The Cartoonist, the Recycler)
KEVIN ANDREW MURPHY (Captain Flint, the Jokertown Boys, Will O Wisp)

and... last but certainly not least... the guy who started it all, Jetboy's daddy...

HOWARD WALDROP (Jetboy)

Here's your chance to get all your Wild Cards books signed... and signed... and signed.



And we'll have plenty of stock of the non-Wild Cards books by our attending writers (yes, we let them write other things too), which they will be glad to scribble in as well.

The fun will start at the JCC at 4:30 on the afternoon of Sunday, October 8.

Aces, jokers, deuces, even nats: all of you are welcome. See you there!

((Comments welcome... about Wild Cards and the JCC. Off topic comments will be deleted))

That Finnish Worldcon wasn't all vodka and beer. It was also tea!

Maybe you missed the fun in Helsinki. If so, you certainly missed my guest appearance on TEA & JEOPARDY, Emma and Peter Newman's Hugo (and Alfie) Award winning podcast.

But have no fear, it's on line now:

http://teaandjeopardy.geekplanetonline.com/podcast/bonus-episode-live-tea-and-jeopardy-show-worldcon-75/

Enjoy. I know I did.

It's been a while since I visited the Jean Cocteau to sign books, so my staff dragged me down there yesterday, thrust a pen into my hand, and confronted me with a couple mountains of books.

For you Wild Cards fans, I signed a hundred or so copies of the new trade paperback reissue of DEAD MAN'S HAND, the Wild Cards noir mystery story I co-authored with John Jos. Miller.



And if you're fond of funny books, I also signed several towering piles of the new Dunk & Egg graphic novel, THE MYSTERY KNIGHT, scripted by Ben Avery with art by Mike S. Miller, the same terrific team who did the HEDGE KNIGHT and SWORN SWORD graphic novels.



Both titles, and dozens of others -- by me, and by a host of other writers -- are available via mail order from the Jean Cocteau at http://jeancocteaucinema.com/product-category/merchandise/

Speaking of signing, though... I think I may have set a personal record in Russia when I signed 900 books in two hours at my St. Petersburg event. I have signed more, at events in Slovenia and Dijon, France, but those of those events lasted a LOT longer than Russia. Four hours in France, seven in Slovenia. I barely survived the last...

More about Russia in another post.

Aces! Jokers! Once more into the breach... or close the wall up with our English dead.

Which is another way of saying that I've just finished editing and assembling our latest Wild Cards book, KNAVES OVER QUEENS, the twenty-seventh volume in the overall series (assuming the current projected publication schedule remains unchanged, which might not be the case), and our first in-depth visit to the British Isles.



Past Wild Cards books have taken our characters all over the world (once literally so, on the world tour that formed the spine of volume four, ACES ABROAD), and we've called a few times in England and Ireland for a scene or maybe a story, but we've never lingered there long enough to see how the virus affected Great Britain and Ireland... until now. KNAVES OVER QUEENS is, in a sense, a bookend book for our very first volume, WILD CARDS. Both books begin in 1946, with the release of the wild card, and both carry the story through the decades up to the present... 1986 for WILD CARDS, and 2017 for KNAVES OVER QUEENS. In the former, the focus is on New York City and the US; in the new book, it's on the United Kingdom and Ireland.



The lineup this time around:

KEVIN ANDREW MURPHY: “A Flint Lies in the Mud” and “But a Flint Holds Fire,"
PEADAR O GUILIN: “The Coming of the Crow,” “Cracks in the City,” and “Feeding on the Entrails,”
CAROLINE SPECTOR: “Needles and Pins,"
PAUL CORNELL: "Night Orders,"
CHARLES STROSS: “Police On My Back,”
MARKO KLOOS: "Probationary,"
PETER NEWMAN: “Twisted Logic,”
MELINDA M. SNODGRASS: “Ceremony of Innocence,”
EMMA NEWMAN: “How to Turn a Girl to Stone,”
MARK LAWRENCE: “The Visitor."

If you've ever wondered about the backstories of Captain Flint and Double Helix, this is the book for you... but most of the stories will be given over to brand new characters rather than established ones. I can't wait for you to meet them. By the time you put the book down, I think you'll be wanting more. I know that I certainly do. And as you've undoubtedly noticed, we've recruited a bunch of terrific new writers to the consortium ranks as well. Expect great things.

I know, I know, I am hardly objective, but I think we have some great tales in KNAVES, and I'm very proud of this one. I'll confess, I was a wee bit disappointed when Wild Cards didn't even get a whiff of a nomination in the Hugo Awards for Best Series, considering that we've been doing some great work IMNSHO for thirty years now. Only one thing to do about that: try to do EVEN BETTER books in the future. I think we will...

KNAVES OVER QUEENS will be published by Tor in the US and Voyager in the UK. No publication dates yet, but you'll know when I know. While you wait, keep your eyes peeled for MISSISSIPPI ROLL, LOW CHICAGO, and TEXAS HOLD' EM, the next three volumes in the pipeline... and for more all new, all original Wild Cards stories on Tor.com. Oh, and check out the blog on the Wild Cards website at http://www.wildcardsworld.com/ -- new content there every two weeks.

Our friends at Tor have uploaded another Wild Cards video, spliced together from the interviews they did last year at the Kansas City worldcon.

This time we're talking about jokers.



Check it out... then go read some Wild Cards books!

(Speaking of which, I finished correcting the page proofs for MISSISSIPPI ROLL this afternoon, so our twenty-fourth volume is rolling ahead towards its December pubdate).

Kevin Andrew Murphy takes the stage on the Wild Cards blog today, with a tribute to his favorite WC character (aside from his own), Mister Nobody.

Check it out at: http://www.wildcardsworld.com/

Lots of other fun content there as well.

And speaking of Wild Cards, we're almost done with another new volume. I hope to be able to deliver it to our publishers within the week. More details when I do.

Another new post just up on the Wild Cards blog.

This time our blogger is David Anthony Durham, and his subjects are Spartacus... and werewolves.

Ahoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

http://www.wildcardsworld.com/on-the-trials-and-tribulations-of-werewolves/

Some cool new stuff out there for Wild Cards fans.

Over at Tor.com, the Wild Cards Reread continues with Katie Rask's insightful look at the fourth volume of the original series, ACES ABROAD. Check it out and join the discussion at:

https://www.tor.com/2017/07/18/religion-revolution-and-80s-politics-wild-cards-iv-aces-abroad/

And there's some new content on the Wild Cards website as well. A new blog post by Mary Anne Mohanraj about writing an intertwined story

http://www.wildcardsworld.com/how-do-you-tell-an-interlinked-story/

and some great art uploads of work by some of our favorite artists: John Picacio, Marc Simonetti, and Michael Komarck.

((Meanwhile, development continues on the Wild Cards television series. I could tell you all about that as well, but then I'd have to kill you. Oh, yes, and the latest Wild Cards mosaic novel is nearing completion as well. Seven of ten stories in, and the last three expected soon)).