GRRM’s official site has been updated with a detailed announcement regarding the Art of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, including a partial list of contributing artists (among them fan artists such as Jenny Dolfen and Maria Luisa Gilibreti, and the promise of a portrait of Aegon the Conquerer and his sisters by the legenday John Schoenherr). Also new is the reopening of George’s Books for Sale site.
A webcast of GRRM’s talk and Q&A at the National Book Festival has now been posted. George discusses his early days as a writer, his brief stint as an intern journalist in Washington, D.C. in the early 70’s, and a number of other topics. Particularly notable among his remarks is his plan to write a total of "nine or ten" Dunk & Egg stories (primarily between novels) and collecting them into book-form.
In fact, the previously reported downtime did not take place due to a snafu on the provider’s side. It has now been re-scheduled for today, beginning at 2000 CST and ending at approximately 2400 CST.
This one is rather special, because it’s a piece Jamie Sims painted for himself rather than Testors. Just to remind everyone, he’s not "just" an artist who was hired on—he’s a huge fan of the novels, as well. When he started getting into the process he was particularly drawn by the scene of Bran climbing a tree one last time. So, he painted it for himself, and now he’s allowed us to share it with everyone.
You can find the new piece of art in the new gallery for Jamie’s art.
The server Westeros.org is hosted on will be down for several hours this evening (American EST) for a hardware upgrade. It should be back up once the upgrade is completed.
The Artwork section has been updated with a new artist, Andrew Kurz, who has contributed some very strong, stark black-and-white images drawn from the series with a diverse range of subjects from people to places and on to specific events.
Wrapping up our series of posted images from Testors for their resin statute line, we’ve put the final three of the current series today: a colored piece of Arya during her time in Flea Bottom, and black and white pieces of Ned Stark with Ice and Tyrion Lannister. One thing we didn’t mention before , is that all the images we have up are approved by GRRM. For example, he says Jamie Sims’s Tyrion is the nearest to his own mental image of the Imp.
Keep an eye out on this site in the future, because we hope to be able to share more concept art, plus images of the resins and the miniatures, as product development progresses!
GRRM’s official site has been updated with a news item concerning the 17th Wild Cards novel, Death Draws Five, written by John J. Miller. The book has been scheduled for a January release in hardcover. More information regarding the novel can be found on the news page, as well as in this entry, which includes information concerning how to buy older volumes of the books straight from John. Also updated has been the "From My Readers" section, with a new entry in ASoIaF-inspired baby names.
For those who are really big fans of the series, it should be noted that John has been posting at the ASoIaF board, in the Other Authors forum, where he’s happy to answer questions.
Fantasy Flight Games has announced that the Winter Edition of the A Game of Thrones CCG is now shipping and should be in stores by September 30th. Additionally, they note that on the 27th of September, they will be holding a chat with developers Eric Lang and Casey Galvan.
Continuing our series of posted images from Testors for their resin statute line, we’ve put three more up today: a colored piece of the Old bear at his desk and black and white pieces of Sansa with Lady and Hodor, Bran, and Summer.
Check in again on Sunday when we finish up with Arya, Ned, and Tyrion, and a special treat.
According to Guardians of Order, the A Game of Thrones Roleplaying Game is nearing the point where it can be shipped. The linked post provides a breakdown of where the various editions (the signed and unsigned Deluxe Limited Edition, and the Standard OGL edition) stand. Pre-orderers should start seeing these massive tomes arrive at their doorsteps as early as mid-October.
For those who simply can’t wait, the PDF of the OGL version is still available at DriveThruRPG, marked at half-price compared to the printed OGL.
Best wishes to GRRM on the occasion of his 57th birthday!
GRRM’s official site has been updated with news announcing the opening of the BwB Fanclub site, as well as an update in the links section to include the site. Also added are the covers for the Spanish edition of A Storm of Swords.
The announcement that Testors will be producing several lines of figures based on A Song of Ice and Fire has drawn a lot of interest. Details of Testors plans have previously been reported on here, here, and here. Now we’ve more than just news to share, however: now there’s concept art.
Subterranean Press has posted several of the interior illustrations, produced by Charles Vess, that will be gracing their A Storm of Swords limited editions.