Not A Blog

NOT A BLOG IS MOVING AWAY...

grrm — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 18:22:22 GMT

Greetings all,

Minion Raya here to let you know that we're moving the Not A Blog to a whole new location! So if you're looking for the latest news from GRRM hop on over to the website and check out the new Not a Blog: http://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/

****This message has been brought to you by the Minions of Fevre River****

Cover Boy

grrm — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 01:14:51 GMT

Hot damn.

I'm a cover boy.

An ESQUIRE cover boy!

(On the Chinese edition of ESQUIRE)

Some fun pictures inside as well. And lots of text I cannot read.

Those of you who can read Chinese... enjoy.

From Terra to Taos

grrm — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 05:20:31 GMT

(Actually, the Toolbox is now in Angel Fire, but Taos works better with Terran).

Walter Jon Williams has picked the recipient of the first Terran Prize, the scholarship I am offering to bring writers from overseas to our Land of Enchantment.

Here's his official press release:

The 2018 Terran Prize, founded by George R.R. Martin and consisting of a full tuition scholarship to the Taos Toolbox master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy, has been awarded to Joey Yu.

Joey Yu was born in Taipei, educated in Vancouver, and now works in Shanghai as a freelance creator. He is the author of several novels published in China, including The Sunlight Trilogy of futuristic fantasy novels, The Mirrored Truth, and The Locus, which won the Excellence Award of the Taiwan Fantasy Foundation.

Joey has also written indie comics, mobile games and is the co-author, with Dr. Weiru Chen, of the nonfiction bestseller Platform Strategy, about the internet era and the evolution of business models.

Joey says, "I believe storytelling--- the science and art of developing immersive metaphors and symbolism--- is an important way (maybe the only way)--- to bridge cultures and inspire empathy. In all met works I talk about the importance of unlocking an individual's potential through challenging and reshaping the system."

Taos Toolbox will take place over two weeks this June in Angel Fire, New Mexico, and will be taught by award-winning writer Nancy Kress and Walter Jon Williams, along with guests speakers Carrie Vaughn, George RR Martin, and E.M. Tippetts.

Hugo Nominations Announced

grrm — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 00:54:29 GMT

The San Jose Worldcon has announced this year's list of nominations for the Hugo Awards and the John W. Campbell Award.

LOCUS has the full list of finalists at:

http://locusmag.com/2018/03/2018-hugo-and-campbell-awards-finalists/

The Hugo is the oldest and most prestigious award in SF and fantasy. If you want your voice to be heard, there's still plenty of time to join the San Jose Worldcon and cast your vote. There's Attending memberships, if you actually plan to attend, and Supporting memberships, if you can't, but either way you get a Hugo ballot.

Congratulations to all the nominees. Some of you will carry home a silver rocket come August. More of you will be Hugo Losers, but that's almost as good. (I've lost lots of them myself).

Sad to say, Wild Cards did not get any love this year (sob)... but I was very pleased to see that our Wild Cards editor, Diana Pho, is one of the finalists for Best Professional Editor. You go, Diana. Win it for Jetboy!

Yowza

grrm — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 23:49:15 GMT

Hiya, kids, hiya, hiya.

Never mind The Count. Here's counting the Gremlin's Way.

OFF WE GO!

Even better!

Ooops, ouch, ouch ouch ouch.

Bing bang boom!

One for all and all for one.

The dragon has three heads.

Plunk your magic twangers.

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

Coming In October

grrm — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 18:42:26 GMT

This is going to be an epic year for all you Wild Cards fans out there.

Let's see. In June we have LOW CHICAGO, coming out from Tor in the US, and KNAVES OVER QUEENS, scheduled for release from Voyager in the UK. But that's not the end of it. On October 23, look for TEXAS HOLD 'EM.

TEXAS HOLD 'EM is the final book in the America Triad, and the twenty-seventh volume of the overall series... but no, it's not necessary to have read the first twenty-six to enjoy this one. In fact, it's not even necessary to have read MISSISSIPPI ROLL and LOW CHICAGO (though we hope you will).

The table of contents:

Caroline Spector "Bubbles and the Band Trip"
Max Gladstone "The Secret Life of Rubberband"
William F. Wu "Jade Blossom's Brew"
Diana Rowland "Beats, Bugs, and Boys"
Walton Simons "Is Nobody Going to San Antone?"
Victor Milan "Dust and the Darkness"
David Anthony Durham "Drop City"

That gorgeous cover is by Michael Komarck, who has been doing stunning work for Wild Cards since Tor relaunched the series. I hope you guys remembered to nominate him for a Hugo, he certainly deserves one. (And I hope to remembered to nominate Wild Cards for Best Series too. Thirty-one years, twenty-seven books, we're all pretty proud of the work we've done, and will continue to do).

TEXAS HOLD 'EM is available for preorder now.

On other Wild Cards fronts, check out the latest post on the WC blog at http://www.wildcardsworld.com/blog/ where Miss Wild Cards answers your questions. And keep an eye out for new Wild Cards stories over at Tor.com. If you haven't read Vic Milan's "EverNight" yet, you should... and we have new original WC tales coming up from Caroline Spector and Bradley Denton, Max Gladstone, and Marko Kloos. All FREE!

NIGHTFLYERS Trailer Debuts

grrm — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 18:34:12 GMT

SyFy has rolled out the first trailer for the NIGHTFLYERS tv series, scheduled to debut this fall.

Check it out:

I am amused to see my own appearances in the promo. SyFy sent a film crew to Santa Fe last month, and we spent most of an afternoon taping a long interview about "Nightflyers," its inspiration and publication history, my Thousand Worlds, horror v SF v hyrbids, and so on. I hope at some point they will use some of that material, beyond the two sentences that made it into the trailer.

Very cool to see the show coming together.

The British Are Coming!

grrm — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 02:47:23 GMT

The British are coming! The British are coming!!

The British Wild Cards, that is. Aces, jokers, deuces, and a few knaves too.

Oh, and an Irish guy as well.

They will be here on June 28. That's when HarperCollins Voyager has scheduled the hardcover release of the latest Wild Cards anthology, KNAVES OVER QUEENS, edited by yours truly (with the able assistance of Melinda M. Snodgrasss, as usual) and featuring all new stories by veteran Wild Carders Kevin Andrew Murphy, Caroline Spector, Melinda Snodgrass, Paul Cornell, and Marko Stross and newcomers Charlie Stross, Peter Newman, Emma Newman, Mark Lawrence, and Peadar O Gulian.

The one is something new for Wild Cards: the first time that the British edition of one of the books will be published in advance of the American edition. But it's only fitting in this case, since KNAVES OVER QUEENS harkens back to our very first volume (WILD CARDS, of course), and tells the story of the entire history of the Wild Cards universe in the UK and Ireland, starting back in 1946 and going right up to the present day.

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."

June will be a huge month for Wild Cards, actually, since we also have LOW CHICAGO scheduled for hardcover publication that month from Tor, on June 12. LOW CHICAGO will be available only in the US edition, and KNAVES OVER QUEENS will be available only in the UK, so completists and first edition collectors are going to have a challenge (yes, there will eventually be a British edition of LOW CHICAGO and an American edition of KNAVES OVER QUEENS, but those will be a bit down the line). Fans of the Wild Cards universe will have a great time, though. Just thing of all those great new stories!

Keep reading, friends. You can't die yet, you haven't seen the Jolson Story.

See Ya Later, Kids

grrm — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 19:24:35 GMT

All's good, boys and girls... lots of exciting things going on.

LOTS of exciting things.

Maybe too many. I am buried in work, so much that it is starting to overwhelm me. Even with my army of loyal minions.

So I am going to step back from blogging -- okay, from NOT-a-blogging -- for a while, till I get a few of these monkeys off my back.

In the near future, you'll likely see fewer posts here. And some of those will be by my minions.

I'll return eventually. Just don't know when.

See ya later, alligators.

Wild Cards Artwork

grrm — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 18:21:59 GMT

The Wild Cards series has been blessed with some really amazing artwork since we've been published by Tor. Let me introduce you to some of our artists.

MICHAEL KOMARCK Has been our main cover artist since INSIDE STRAIGHT, and he's still hitting it out of the ballpark. Here's his cover for LOW CHICAGO, due out in hardcover in June.

The amazing JOHN PICACIO has been doing all the "cover" art for the Wild Cards stories on Tor.com. Here's his two latest, for Vic Milan's "EverNight" and Melinda Snodgrass's "When the Devil Drives."

David Palumbo has been building quite a buzz for his recent cover work. If you haven't seen his cover art for Nnedi Okorafor's BINTI, look it up, it's stunning. We're thrilled to have snagged him for Wild Cards. Here's his cover for the forthcoming reissue of ONE-EYED JACKS.

Bastien Lecouffe Deharme is another artist new to Wild Cards, but he did a knockout cover for our most recent mosaic, MISSISSIPPI ROLL. See below. We want to get him back for more covers!

Remember those four names when you are making out your Hugo nominations for Best Professional Artist: Michael Komarck, John Picacio, David Palumbo, Bastien Lecouffe Deharme. You can find lots more examples of their art on their respective websites.

An Evening with Joe

grrm — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 17:56:41 GMT

We had a great fun evening last night at the JCC with Joe R. Lansdale and the premiere episode of season 3 of HAP & LEONARD. Joe brought along writer director Jim Mickle and actor Douglas M. Griffin, and a terrific time was had by all.

The first two seasons of HAP & LEONARD were very entertaining, but if the opening episode is any indication, this third season is really going to kick ass. It's based on Joe's novel TWO BEAR MAMBO, for those of you who've read the books.

And speaking of the books, we have lots of AUTOGRAPHED Joe Lansdale title available at the JCC Bookstore. Check it out at http://jeancocteaucinema.com/product-category/author/i-l/lansdale-joe-r/

Cool New Wild Cards Stuff

grrm — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 20:48:30 GMT

Katie Rask has done a lovely tribute to Vic Milan and two of his iconic Wild Cards characters over at Tor.com:

https://www.tor.com/2018/02/28/a-wild-cards-tribute-to-victor-milan/

Do check it out, and feel free to jump in with your own thoughts about Vic's contributions to Wild Cards, which were numerous and important.

Meanwhile, over on our official Wild Cards website, we've added some new blog posts from Max Gladstone, Melinda Snodgrass, and David Anthony Durham. You'll find them at:

http://www.wildcardsworld.com/blog/

In other Wild Cards news, the reissues continue apace, and I've just delivered a new and expanded version of volume nine, JOKERTOWN SHUFFLE, to Tor. We've added two brand new stories to the original text from the 1991 Bantam edition: a Ramshead tale by Cherie Priest, and a Lady Black story from Carrie Vaughn. JOKERTOWN SHUFFLE has been out of print in English for more twenty years, so we're pleased to make it available to a new generation of readers... but be careful, if there was ever a Wild Cards book that required trigger warnings, it's this one.

((Comments permitted, on Wild Cards only. Stay on topic)).

Hap & Leonard Are Coming...

grrm — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 01:39:51 GMT

Hap & Leonard are coming back to the Jean Cocteau Cinema, and they're bringing Joe Lansdale with them.

Put it in your calendars. Thursday, March 1, 7:00 pm at the JCC. We'll have a special screening of the premiere episode of HAP & LEONARD, season 3.

Joe Lansdale His Own Self will be joining us once again, to shoot some sh*t with me, answer your questions, and sign a bunch of his books.

Joe is always a hoot and a half, and we're thrilled to have him back in Santa Fe. Come join the fun.

Reading Vic

grrm — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 01:21:27 GMT

Vic Milan has left us... but his words and his work live on, so long as he is being read.

Tor has asked me to announce that his new story, "EverNight," is now available to purchase in ebook on Amazon and other retailers. Here are the links:

https://www.amazon.com/Evernight-Tor-com-Original-Victor-Mil%C3%A1n-ebook/dp/B079Y7NC1N/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519227187&sr=8-1&keywords=evernight+victor+milan

http://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250198167

For those looking for his recent books, the first three volumes of his DINOSAUR LORDS series are available via mailorder from the Jean Cocteau Cinema:

http://jeancocteaucinema.com/product-category/author/m-p/milan-victor/

All the dinosaur books are autographed.

Some of his fans have emailed to ask if there will be more dinosaur books coming. My understanding is that he had done an outline for three more volumes, and had written some portion of the first of those, but did not have a contract to continue the series. How much material he left behind, or whether he would have wanted someone else to finish the books, I cannot say. If I learn more, I'll be sure and let his readers know.

He does have one more Wild Cards story coming out in TEXAS HOLD 'EM, scheduled for release in hardcover in October. It features a new character, Dust, and Candace Sessou, the protagonist of "EverNight," and I know Vic was very pleased with it.

Another Ace Falls

grrm — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 05:18:55 GMT

Our writing community here in New Mexico, and the world of SF and fantasy in general, took a blow this afternoon when our friend Victor Milan died after two months of suffering and struggle in a series of Albuquerque hospitals.

I first met Vic not long after I moved to Santa Fe in 1979. Outgoing, funny, friendly, and incredibly bright, he was one of the cornerstones of the New Mexico SF crowd for decades, a regular at Bubonicon in Albuquerque, the perennial masquerade host at Archon in St. Louis, a fan, a lover of ferrets and collector of guns, a gamer (I can't tell you how many times we stayed up till dawn playing Superworld, Call of Cthulhu, and other RPGs with Vic, and laughing at the outrageous antics of the characters he created). But above all, he was a writer.

He wrote all sorts of things, in and out of our genre: westerns, historicals, men's action adventure, more books than I could possibly list... but it was in science fiction that he did his best work. CYBERNETIC SAMURAI and CYBERNETIC SHOGAN were two of the best known from the old days. More recently, he was finding new readers by the score all around the world with his DINOSAUR LORDS series.

He was also a Wild Cards writer, of course; one of my aces. In a sense he was the father of Wild Cards. It was Vic who gave me the Superworld game as a birthday present back in 1983, and it was those long long nights of playing Superworld that eventually inspired me to start Wild Cards.

Vic was an integral part of the series right from the very start, and the characters he created were among our most popular. Among them were the Russian ace Molniya, the Harlem Hammer, the twisted German psychopath Mackie Messer, Dr. Pretorius, Ice Blue Sibyl, Flipper, Dust, the Darkness... and above all, Mark Meadows, aka Cap'n Trips, and his "friends" Jumpin' Jack Flash, Starshine, Moonchild, Aquarius, Cosmic Traveller, Monster... and the Radical. The long saga of Mark Meadows began in volume one, and was brought to a close in volume twenty, SUICIDE KINGS. It was a long strange trip indeed, and every step of it was exciting, thanks to Vic.

Sadly, Vic's health has not been good in the past few years, and it finally gave out on him. But his warmth, his wit, and his talent will be long remembered by everyone who knew him, and his words will live on after him.

And, as irony would have it, he has another story coming out tomorrow on Tor.com. It's a Wild Cards story called "EverNight," set in the catacombs of Paris and featuring Candace Sessou, the Darkness, a character he introduced in SUICIDE KINGS. The link will not go live until 9 am EST tomorrow, but once it does you can read the story here, for free:

https://www.tor.com/2018/02/14/wild-cards-evernight-victor-milan/

It saddens me that Vic did not live long enough to see his story on Tor.com, or appreciate the gorgeous piece of John Picacio art that adorns it (he was a huge fan of John's)... but I hope that many of you will read "EverNight." If you like it, do leave a comment. I think that would have pleased him.

I believe that Vic may have another book or two in his DINOSAUR LORDS sequence coming out, but I am not sure of that. I do know that he will be represented in two more Wild Cards books. He has a story in TEXAS HOLD 'EM, due out in October, and a collaboration in the book we're doing now, JOKER MOON. Would that I could say that there will be many more after that, but I fear those will be the last.

Fare thee well, Vic. It was an honor knowing you.

Hugo Nominations Open

grrm — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 19:41:20 GMT

Nominations for the 2018 Hugo Awards have now opened, I am informed. If you are a member of last year's worldcon in Helsinki, this year's worldcon in San Jose, or next year's worldcon in Dublin, you are eligible to nominate. You should be receiving an email with a link to the ballot. (I have not actually received mine yet, but I'm told that others have, so I expect mine Real Soon Now).

I have a few things eligible for nomination myself this year... more for editing than writing, however.

GAME OF THRONES is eligible in the Dramatic Presentation category, of course. The whole of Season 7 can be nominated in Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, and any or all of the individual episodes can be nominated in Short Form. GOT has won in both categories in the past. Last year in Helsinki, three episodes actually had enough votes to make the ballot, but the new rule limits any series to no more than two places on the ballot, so we had to withdraw one. But you can nominate as many episodes as you like.

Wild Cards had a big year last year. We celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the series, and our twenty-fourth mosaic novel, MISSISSIPPI ROLL, was published in the fall. A couple of the older books were reissued, and we had two original Wild Cards story on Tor.com -- "When the Devil Drives" by Melinda M. Snodgrass, and "The Atonement Tango" by Stephen Leigh. The two Tor.com stories are both novelettes and are eligible in that category. MISSISSIPPI ROLL is a more complex case. Like most Wild Cards books, it is a mosaic novel, with individual stories by half a dozen writers woven together to make a whole that is, we hope, more than the sum of its parts. One could argue that our mosaics are anthologies, I suppose... but they feel more like collaborative novels to me. If the former view prevails, the individual components of MISSISSIPPI ROLL are eligible in the short fiction categories, Steve Leigh's "In the Shadow of Tall Stacks" in novella, the other stories as novelettes. If the latter, the volume as a whole could be nominated in novel.

In either case, I'm eligible for nomination in the editing categories. Short Form, most likely, for the stories in Tor.com as well as the book. (If you consider MISSISSIPPI ROLL a novel, then it counts for me as a Long Form editor, but I don't think one book is enough to make me eligible in that category). My Wild Cards work was the only editing I did in 2017. The big cross-genre anthologies I co-edited with Gardner Dozois all came out in previous years.

Wild Cards as a whole is definitely eligible for nomination as Best Series. That's a new category that first appeared on the ballot last year, as an experiment, but now it has been made permanent.

The only writing I had published in 2017 was "The Sons of the Dragon," which was published in THE BOOK OF SWORDS, Gardner Dozois's massive anthology of original sword & sorcery stories. Like "The Rogue Prince" and "The Princess and the Queen" before it, "Sons" is more of my (fake) history of the Targaryen kings of Westeros. By length, it is a novella... but it's not a traditional narrative. By design, it reads like history, not fiction; but since the history is entirely imaginative, it's still fiction, even if dressed up as (fake) non-fiction.

It has been pointed out to me that the publication of "The Sons of the Dragon" makes the entirety of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE eligible to be nominated as Best Series. I suppose that's so. All I can say to that is : please don't. If you like fake history and enjoyed "The Sons of the Dragon," by all means nominate the story as a novella... but it's really not part of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, and sneaking in the entire series by means of a technicality seems wrong to me.

If I may broaden the discussion a bit, while I think it is good that the Hugo Awards now have a category to recognize series books, I would quibble somewhat with how a "series" is defined. The rules were written very broadly, to include not only true series, like last year's winner, the Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold, but also any grouping of stories set against a common background, what we used to call "future histories," as well as what I'd term "mega-novels," those massive epics too long to be contained in a single volume. Three-quarters of the SF I wrote back in the 70s was set against a common background, but I never considered that I was writing a series when I visited the Thousand Worlds; it was a future history, made up of stories set hundreds of years apart, on planets separated by thousands of light years (though within the future history there was a series, the Haviland Tuf stories). On the other extreme, I don't consider A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE a series either; it's one single story, being published in (we hope) seven volumes. FWIW, Tolkien wasn't writing a series when he wrote LORD OF THE RINGS either. He wrote a big novel and his publisher divided it into three parts, none of which stands on its own.

Anyway, that's my own perspective on the matter. Obviously, the good folks who drafted the Best Series rules disagree. Ultimately I think the fans will decide the matter by what they choose to nominate. Worldcon committees have traditionally been reluctant to overrule the fans, even in cases where a nominated work would seem to be ineligible for one reason or other.

FWIW, Wild Cards is a series, plainly, so if you want to consider any of my work for Best Series, that's the one I'd ask you to look at. Thirty-one years and twenty=four books is something to be proud of, and I am.

Regardless of whether or not you nominate any of my own work, I do urge all the worldcon members reading this to be sure to nominate. There are a lot of awards being given in SF, fantasy, and horror these days, but the Hugo was the first, and it's still the one that means the most. It is, of course, important to vote on the final ballot too... but you can't vote for works that have not been nominated, and it is crucial to have widespread participation in the nominating stage.

((Comments and debate allowed, but ONLY on these subjects. Stay on topic)).

Another Night, More Flyers

grrm — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 01:50:26 GMT

With the NIGHTFLYERS television series deep in the throes of pre-production and set to start filing over in Limerick soon, my original novella will soon be available again... twice.

Tor is going to reissuing NIGHTFLYERS & OTHER STORIES, the short story collection we released originally in 1985. More details on that one in my post of January 18, below.

Bantam Spectra is also going to be publishing NIGHTFLYERS, as a stand-alone deluxe illustrated hardcover. The text will be the original novella, in its expanded 30,000 word version. The Bantam edition will also include fifteen interior illustrations and two endpapers from the astonishing and talented David Palumbo, printed in four color. Release is scheduled for May 29.

The cover is by Larry Rostant:

A few months later, in late August, Bantam will release a trade paperback tie-in edition, featuring key art from the TV series on the covers, with Palumbo's interior illustrations in black & white.

If you haven't read "Nightflyers" yet, you will have plenty of opportunity. Hope you enjoy it.

((Comments permitted, but stay on topic)).

Worldbuilding in Seattle

grrm — Sat, 27 Jan 2018 23:38:14 GMT

Every great story requires interesting characters, an engrossing plot, evocative prose, an important theme... but epic fantasy also requires a memorable setting. A "secondary universe," as J.R.R. Tolkien termed it, a world both like and unlike our own, with its own rich history and geography and customs, its own beauties and terrors. Tolkien himself was a worldbuilder without peer. It was not happenstance that when Lord of the Rings first achieved national popularity on the college campuses of America in the 1960s, the poster that appeared on tens of thousands of dorm rooms across the country featured neither a character portrait nor an action scene, but rather a map of Middle Earth.

The best fantasy carries us far from the fields we know, to worlds beyond the hill, worlds that, once visited, live on in our imaginations for the rest of our lives. They assume their own reality, these imaginary worlds. Millions of people have never visited Rome or Paris, yet they know the Colosseum and the Eiffel Tower by sight. Rivendell, the Shire, and the Mines of Moria are instantly recognizable in much the same way to countless readers around the world. The history of fantasy is rich with such imagined landscapes. Robert E. Howard gave us the Hyborian Age, Roger Zelazny showed us the way to Amber, Stephen R. Donaldson the Land, Terry Pratchett the Discworld. Jack Vance took us to the Dying Earth, Fritz Leiber to Lankhmar, Ursula K. Le Guin to Earthsea, Andre Norton to Witchworld. Oz, Neverland, Narnia, Wonderland, Zothique, Gormenghast, the list goes on and on and on...

These days, the world is more need of wonder than ever before. To that end, I am pleased to announce that I am sponsoring a new annual scholarship at the Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle. https://www.clarionwest.org/ An intensive six-week course for aspiring authors of science fiction and fantasy, Clarion West is one of the longest-running and most successful workshops in the world. Its instructors and graduates make up an honor roll of the best and the brightest in science fiction and fantasy. This summer the instructors will be Daniel Abraham, Ken MacLeod, Karen Lord, Yoon Ha Lee, Karen Joy Fowler, and Ellen Datlow. The deadline for applying is March 1.

Our new WORLDBUILDER SCHOLARSHIP will cover tuition, fees, and lodging for one student each year. The award will not be limited by age, race, sex, religion, skin color, place of origin, or field of study. The winner will be selected each year in a blind judging to an applicant who demonstrates both financial need and a talent for worldbuilding and the creation of secondary universes. For further details, query Clarion West at info@clarionwest.org

Clarion West offers a wide range of other scholarships and financial aid packages, but you can never have too many. I remember very well what it was like to be a writer starting out, struggling for sales, and counting every dime. It is my hope that the Worldbuilder Scholarship will help the next great fantasist on the long journey ahead. As Tolkien himself wrote, every journey begins with a single step

Ursula K. Le Guin, RIP

grrm — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 21:40:49 GMT

I was very saddened to hear of the death of Ursula K. Le Guin, one of the great SF and fantasy writers of the past half century.

Over the years, I had the honor of meeting Le Guin a few times, but I cannot claim to really have known her as a person. Our encounters, such as they were, were all at conventions or Nebula banquets or writer's workshops, and they were all brief and forgettable.

But I certainly knew her work... as anyone who calls themselves an SF fan surely must. She was one of the giants. A gifted storyteller, dedicated to her art, she influenced a whole generation of writers who came after her, including me. THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS ranks as one of the best science fiction novels ever written, in my estimation, and THE DISPOSSESSED and THE LATHE OF HEAVEN were splendid works as well. The original Earthsea trilogy occupies a similar lofty position in the fantasy pantheon (though it was badly served by its television adaptation).

The Golden Age of Science Fiction is usually reckoned to have been the Campbell Era at ASTOUNDING, and its Big Three were Heinlein, Asimov, and Van Vogt. Yet as important as that era was, for me the true Golden Age will always be the late 60s and early 70s, when the Big Three were Roger Zelazny, Samuel R. Delany, and Ursula K. Le Guin. We shall never see their like again.

The world is poorer today.

The Wolf Meows Again

grrm — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 22:18:59 GMT

Las Vegas, beware. Meow Wolf is coming.

(That's Las Vegas, Nevada, not Las Vegas, New Mexico. Which is not to say that Las Vegas, New Mexico is not a cool place in its own right).

Hot on the heels of the unveiling of Meow Wolf's expansion to Denver, we're thrilled to reveal that a third permanent exhibition is planned, this time at Bugsy Siegel's favorite oasis in the desert.

The new Las Vegas exhibit will be twice the size of the original here in Santa Fe (though smaller than Denver's), and will anchor the city's new Area 15 development. It's hard to stand out in a city that boasts a castle, a giant pyramid, a Roman palace, a circus, and a volcano that erupt on the hour, but knowing the talents of the men and women of Meow Wolf, Area 15 should be equal to the challenge.

You can find more details here:
https://bestoflasvegas.com/article/meow-wolf-plans-expansion-to-proposed-area-15-in-las-vegas.html
https://www.azcentral.com/story/travel/2018/01/18/meow-wolf-las-vegas-expansion/1046258001/
http://www.westword.com/arts/meow-wolf-las-vegas-will-open-in-2019-meow-wolf-denver-in-2020-9902725

And yes, tickets are already available:
https://lasvegas.meowwolf.com/

It's true... Meow Wolf is taking over the world. I blame those Charter Agents.

((Comemnts allowed, on Meow Wolf only. Stay on topic)).

A New Year and a New SoI&F calendar!

grrm — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 17:06:08 GMT

Minion Raya here,

It’s a brand new year, and we’re proud to announce next years Song of Ice and Fire official calendar. 2019’s calendar will feature the stunning work of John Jude Palencar, who will bring his uniquely haunting visions of the SoI&F world to your home eleven months from now.
Check out some more of Jean’s work here at his website http://www.johnjudepalencar.com.
The calendars will be available from Random House, Amazon and other book seller later this year, so be sure and look them before the supply is gone.
Check out this cover art exclusive featuring a forlorn unnamed member of the Nightswatch. Keep and eye out for updates on John Jude Palencar’s 2019 calendar.

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MINIONS OF FEVRE RIVER.

Hats! Hats! Hats!

grrm — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 01:06:37 GMT

Hey, you guys missed it. We had a wonderful time last night at the Jean Cocteau Cinema, when Ellen Datlow and four of her writers arrived to promote Ellen's new anthology of original Alice in Wonderland theme stories, MAD HATTERS AND MARCH HARES.

In honor of the occasion, we had a MAD HAT CONTEST, and some of the entries were just wonderful.

And of course, we had a signing after the hat contest... so for all the autograph hounds out there, you can pick up a copy of MAD HATTERS AND MARCH HARES, signed by editor Ellen Datlow and writers Stephen Graham Jones, Matthew Kressel, Katherine Vaz, and Kris Dikeman from the Jean Cocteau bookstore. The anthology is available in both hardcover and trade paperback.

NIGHTFLYERS Re-release Scheduled

grrm — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 21:55:08 GMT

With SyFy's new NIGHTFLYERS television series fully cast and deeps in the throes of pre-production, I am pleased to say that my original novella will be returning as well. In several forms.

Tor will be the first out of the gate, with a reissue of my 1985 short story collection, NIGHTFLYERS & OTHER STORIES... with (thankfully) a gorgeous new cover by Stephen Youll.

The collection contains the expanded 30,000 word version of novella "Nightflyers," and five additional stories:
"Override"
"Weekend in a War Zone"
"And Seven Times Never Kill Man"
"Nor the Many-Colored Fires of a Star Ring"
"A Song for Lya"

"A Song for Lya" was my first Hugo Award winner, and is also a novella, one of my strongest works. "And Seven Times Never Kill Man" was one of my Hugo losers (and the basis for the famous John Schoenherr ANALOG cover that some say inspired George Lucas to create the Ewoks, for which I accept absolutely no blame). Both of those are part of my Thousand Worlds future history, like "Nighflyers" itself. "Override" and "Nor the Many-Colored Fires..." were SF, but not part of the same continuity, and "War Zone" was a near future dystopia, and a bit of an experiment for me. In other words, this is a real grab bag of a collection.

The publication date is May 29.

((Comments allowed, but stay on topic please)).

The Mad Hatters Are Coming...

grrm — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 19:22:07 GMT

... to the Jean Cocteau.

If you're in Santa Fe or Albuquerque, or just passing through, mark Sunday evening down on your calendar. That's when we'll be hosting a special author event at the Jean Cocteau Cinema for the Hugo-award-winning editor and anthologist ELLEN DATLOW and her new book, MAD HATTERS AND MARCH HARES, featuring original stories set in the world of Alice In Wonderland.

It should be quite an evening. Ellen is always a delightful guest, and she'll have four of her writers with her: STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES, KRIS DIKEMAN, KATHERINE VAZ, and MATTHEW KRESSEL. Here's your chance to get your copy signed by all five contributors.

Not only that, but we'll also he having a MAD HAT CONTEST with prizes for the three maddest hats, as judged by our distinguished guests.

Admission is free with the purchase of a book. The madness starts at 7pm.

Aliens In Taos

grrm — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 21:45:30 GMT

When astronauts look down on Earth from orbit, they don't see borders, national boundaries, or linguistic groups; they see one world, a gorgeous blue globe spinning in space, streaked with clouds. I don't know if humanity will ever reach the stars (though I hope we will), but if we do, it won't be Americans who get there. It won't be the Chinese or the Russians or the British or the French or the Brazilians or the Kiwis or the South Africans or the Indians or the folk of any other nation state either. It will be humanity; in the language of the SF of my youth, it will be Terrans or Earthlings or Earthmen. The future belongs to all the peoples of the world.

With that in mind, I want to announce that I am sponsoring a new scholarship, to bring an aspiring SF writer from a non-English-speaking country to the Taos Toolbox, the graduate level writing workshop that Walter Jon Williams and Nancy Kress run every summer in the mountains of northern New Mexico. The TERRAN AWARD, as I am calling it, will be given annually, and will cover all tuition and fees to the Toolbox (travel and meals not covered, alas). Applicants will need to speak and write in English, but must be from from a country where English is not the primary language. Walter Jon and Nancy and the Toolbox staff will select the winner. For more information on applying for the workshop, and the scholarship, check out the Toolbox website at http://www.taostoolbox.com. If you have further questions, you can contact WJW at wjw@taostoolbox.com

Oh, and while we're speaking about Walter Jon Williams... he's got a new book out, volume one in a new fantasy series, called QUILLIFER, and he'll be signing copies of it on Sunday at the Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe.

The event starts at 3:00 pm on Sunday. I'll be there as well, so we'll open with an interview and discussion, then open for some questions from the audience, then put Walter to work signing.

See you at the JCC on Sunday... and in Angel Fire come summer.