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George R. R. Martin and his partner Parris have placed a number of interesting items up on Ebay in support of the Match it for Pratchett fund, an attempt to match Terry Pratchett’s £500,000 donation towards Alzheimer’s research following his announcement that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Among the auctioned items is a limited illustration of Fevre Dream, the A Game of Thrones Deluxe RPG, autographed copies of The Ice Dragon and Wild Cards: Inside Straight, and galley proofs of Pratchett works such as Good Omens (written in collaboration with Neil Gaiman) and Only You Can Save Mankind.
Dreamsongs Volume I has been nominated for an Audie Award for best science fiction audiobook. Featuring unabridged selections from the first half of Dreamsongs, the audiobook has George R.R. Martin reading introductions to each section which touches upon the start of his career and its development to the present day, while a host of readers—including the likes of Roy Dotrice, Claudia Black, and Adrian Paul—read the selected stories.
Dark Sword Miniatures have announced the line up for the second set of figures that Tom Meier will sculpt for their Geore R. R. Martin Masterwork series. Two of the figures were chosen by vote from fans via GRRM’s “Not a Blog”.
The So Spake Martin collection has added a link to his audio interview for World Fantasy Con 2008, as well as a new piece of fan correspondence discussing the use of Valyrian steel and twist endings.
GRRM’s official site has been updated with news in his “Not a Blog” that he has completed a Bran chapter that has been giving him trouble for six years. Normally completion of a chapter would go unremarked, but the Bran chapter was exceptionally difficult for him. In the comments he also discusses his drafting process, his ideal of not publishing the series until all the books were written, and a small hint about whether anyone would find the chapter surprising or not.
Valyrian Resin has updated their blog with pictures of the factory samples they’ve received back for the Sandor Clegane, Eddard Stark, and Daenerys Targaryen resin busts that will be the first releases in their line of A Song of Ice and Fire resins. Also included are photos of variant editions of each resin. The post also notes that they will be reworking the on-line store to make it friendlier, but that process is not quite completed.
The renowned artist Marc Fishman has been signed by Subterranean Press to illustrate their limited edition of A Dance with Dragons, as announced by GRRM in his “Not a Blog”.
GRRM has made a series of posts on his “Not a Blog”, urging fans who are members of the 2008 Worldcon in Denver to nominate for the Hugo Awards. He also discusses several of the awards, suc as the John C. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, Best Artist, and Best Editor. If you have a membership but haven’t yet nominated, the deadline is March 1st. Online voting is available.
Although the headline is rather over the top, a lead designer at Relic was asked what he’d like to base a game on and he cited A Game of Thrones. This is no way means that Relic Entertainment is pursuing or planning to pursue the license, but it’s interesting to see what game creators think of the possibilities for a computer game series based on the book. This follows on the heels of the well-known fact that the creative team for Bioware’s Dragon Age have cited A Song of Ice and Fire as one among a number of inspirations for the tone and style of the story.
Given the new style of covers, perhaps not such an exciting announcement. Still, it is now out there and can for example be viewed at Amazon, where one can also preorder the book. For those who prefer the British editions, or want to bet on it being out first once again, Amazon.co.uk also accepts preorders.
It should be noted that the dates given by Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk are, as always, nothing more than speculation.
The Dabel Brothers have provided the Captain Comics forum a sneak preview of the forthcoming Wild Cards: Hard Call miniseries written by Daniel Abraham with art by Eric Battle. Among other things, you can see Croyd (the fellow with the lobster claws) in action, and see what happens when you draw the Black Queen.
George has provided some information concerning the second wave of miniatures sculpted by Tom Meier for Dark Sword Miniatures. Two of the six featured characters have already been decided upon: Daenerys Targaryen and Ser Gregor Clegane. The other four are to be selected by fans via this poll at GRRM’s “Not a Blog”.
GRRM’s official site has been updated with news that Bantam’s special SpectraPulse sampler magazine will contain a special, slightly abridged chapter from A Dance with Dragons that has not been published previously. Read the News page for some information about the character it’ll feature, and how the story starts. The magazine will only be available as a free giveaway at the New York Comic-Con, the San Diego Comic-Con, the Worldcon in Denver, and the World Fantasy Convention in Calgary.
Unlike some of the past comics, this one makes an indirect—but prominent—reference to A Song of Ice and Fire by featuring Dabel Brothers Production‘s limited edition print of Eddard Stark, painted by Michael Komarck. Tim Buckley, the creator of CTRL+ALT+DEL, adds this post plugging the prints.