A Spanish-language impromptu interview (try Google Translator or Babelfish to make sense of it if you don’t read Spanish) and an interesting chat hosted by Asshai.com have been added. GRRM reveals the name of the eastern continent in the latter. These were from July, but I’ve only recently stumbled across them.
Also added is a new correspondence between GRRM and the fan (and Polish translator of the series) Bastard of Godsgrace, dating from June 2001. It covers a very wide range of topics, and provides an interesting story concerning Maege Mormont. As always, remember that until actually published in the series or some other canonical work, statements made in on-line chats, e-mails with fans, etc. are not canonical and may be changed, contradicted, or discarded.
As posted at George R. R. Martin’s “Not a Blog”, a thief or thieves broke into his office during a two hour period in which he was away, aided by the fact that there’s currently construction going on to expand the space to make room for his library. Fortunately, no one was harmed, and for the most part the objects taken are replacable. Most upseting for GRRM is the loss of a sword that was given to him by fans. As far as A DANCE WITH DRAGONS goes, other than having the computer monitor knocked down, the computer with it is fine; GRRM also keeps backups on disk, so even if the computer had been taken, it would not have presented any real problem as far as the manuscript goes
Dark Sword Miniatures have posted images of the latest green from Jeff Grace, depicting the feared wildling raider Alfyn Crowkiller. As some might recall, Crowkiller and a company of raiders were encountered by Qhorin Halfhand and a company of rangers on their way to join Lord Commander Mormont at the Fist of the First Men. Crowkiller was killed, as were a number of his company.
In related news, Dark Sword Miniatures has teamed up with Bookspot Central to run a weekly contest with a different miniature as a prize. The first figure up for grabs is Jon Snow.
The good folk at Valyrian Steel have posted an amusing “Life of Longclaw” photo-journal, showing Longclaw’s paling about with Aragorn’s sword and Glamdring, telling Eragon’s sword he isn’t cool enough, and maybe a little marital bliss that’ll lead to a wee sword name Needle.
The Longsword replica sword is available for order, using credit card, check, or money order. More information can be found here.
Dabel Brothers Productions have released a third entry in their series of stunning A Song of Ice and Fire prints created by Michael Komarck. There’s a limited print run of 500, so don’t delay. The print can be ordered directly from the Dabel Brothers store. There’s also a limited number of Ned Stark prints remaining.
GRRM’s official site has been updated with “Not a Blog” posts pointing out that Subterranean Press has just thirty copies of the Tom Canty-illustrated limited edition of A Feast for Crows remaining. The post includes pictures of the two dust jackets to be used for the books. Subterranean also reports that they’ve uncovered a handful of Fevre Dream limited editions still remaining.
A previous post also highlighted a competition at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist for an advance reading copy of Busted Flush.
Dark Sword Miniatures have now made Wave 1.5 in the George R.R. Martin Masterworks Series available for order. This set includes a number of gold cloaks, a Westerlands lady, and several wildlings. It also includs the 54mm Daenerys Targaryen following the birth of the dragons, beautifully sculpted by Tom Meier.
Dark Sword has also announced that after this, figures will be released as they’re completed, to speed up the process by which fans and collectors can get a hold of the miniatures.
Dabel Brothers Productions have informed us that the A Song of Ice and Fire 2009 Calendar, featuring stunning artwork by Michael Komark that helps bring George R. R. Martin’s bestselling fantasy series to visual life, can now be pre-ordered from Amazon.com. The calendar is expected to be ready for shipping on December 12, just in time for the holidays.
Subterranean Press reports that Tom Canty has turned in the last of the art he was commissioned to provide for the A Feast for Crows limited edition. The art in question is depicted, in part, at the link above. Once Subterranean completes their review of everything, the book should be ready to be sent to the printers shortly afterwards. Subterranean also notes that only 30 copies of the Limited Edition remain to be ordered.
The recent cracking of Google’s captcha system (along with a number of other, similar systems) has led to an absolute flood of attempts by spam bots to sign up for the forum.
What does this mean for new registrants? For the time being, registration to the forum will require not just signing up via the sign-up page, but also sending an e-mail to us with the sign-up information you provided (user account name will be sufficient for identifying purpose) using the same e-mail account as you registered with.
It’s just impossible to wade through dozens of new sign ups (we’re getting a spam attempt approximately every ten minutes) and figure out which are legitimate and which are not at this time.
GRRM’s official site has been updated with a “Not a Blog” post concerning George’s participation in a fundraiser for the Barack Obama campaign. He, along with hundreds of other authors including Michael Chabon, Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin, Garrison Keiller, Amy Tan, and Jonathan Lethem are contributing packages of autographed books that will be randomly distributed to donors. His own contribution to the fundraiser includes some twenty books.
GRRM’s official site has been updated with a News item discussing the availabilty for pre-order of the Longclaw display sword made by Valyrain Steel. The lengthy news item includes information of future plans from Valyrian Steel, such as a display model of Needle, and a brief history of Jon Snow’s sword.
Today is George’s 60th birthday. Happy birthday, GRRM, from your fans and friends at Westeros.org!
David Barr Kirtley kindly notes that a new anthology of zombie fiction, The Living Dead, contains a reprint of GRRM’s creepy science fiction story, “Meathouse Man”, part of a series of two or three stories in a science fiction setting where technologically-reanimated corpses are used in various capacities as labor, entertainment, and more. Other stories in the collection include reprints of stories by Stephen King, Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg (in a rare collaboration—I didn’t even know about this one!), Michael Swanwick, and many more. David also notes that he will appear with the editor of the anthology and another writer at an event in New York. You can find more information at David’s site.
GRRM shares encouraging news on his “Not a Blog”, stating that HBO has exercised its option and has bought the full television rights for the proposed A Song of Ice and Fire TV series. HBO could have chosen to extend its option to buy the rights, so its committing itself to purchasing the rights is a very positive sign. GRRM cautions, however, that this is still not the greenlight for production that will bring the show to fruition. Anything can still happen, but it’s a good sign. In related news, he adds that Spain and the Czech Republic are leading contenders for the location shooting if it goes into production.