Word is flying that Amazon.co.uk has begun to ship copies of A Feast for Crows to customers who have pre-ordered it. Currently, the listing at Amazon.co.uk seems to confirm this, as it now indicates that the novel is now "usually dispatched within 24 hours". If you’ve been holding off on ordering, this may well be the time to do it if Amazon.com really is delivering the book prior to the official release on the 17th.
GRRM’s official site has been updated with some more information regarding Testors’s wargame and resin statues, as well as a few more pictures from fans.
C-SPAN’s Book TV aired a panel program featuring several book reviewers, titled NYT Great Read in the Park: Book Reviews and Publishing (RealVideo stream available).
The FAQ has been updated to include links to Brotherhood without Banners and our history of the War of the Usurper.
The Testors goodness keeps coming, as the legendary Tom Meier has posted images of the first four Night’s Watch wargame miniatures that he’s completed.
As mentioned earlier, we had high hopes of getting more images from Testors down the road ... and now we have them. Check out the Gallery to see how Jamie Sims’s art has been translated into three dimensions thanks to this series of pictures of the Hodor, Bran, and Summer scene in "green" form.
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.