At least, the return of the first Tyrion chapter in the official A Dance with Dragons samples. Read only if you want to be spoiled, as it’s the complete first chapter and answers the question of just where Tyrion goes after the end of A Storm of Swords.
George R.R. Martin shares links to several excerpts from the forthcoming Warriors anthology. The three excerpts come from Diana Gabaldon‘s Outlander-set story, Cecelia Holland‘s “The King of Norway”, and GRRM’s own “The Mystery Knight”, the third in the Dunk & Egg sequence of “A Song of Ice and Fire” prequel novellas.
According to author Jacqueline Carey, author of the Kushiel series, the Songs of Love and Death: Tales of Star-crossed Love (an expansion of the previous title, and a recapitulation of the original title, Star-Crossed Lovers) anthology edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois has received a publication date: November 16, 2010.
The anthology was turned in to the publisher last month (full table of contents at the link). Carey’s story, “You and Only You”, is set in her Kushiel setting, and concerns the character of Anafiel Delaunay.
Green Ronin has posted a PDF preview for their upcoming A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Campaign Guide, a resource for gamers that provides them a sourcebook of setting information and character writeups all in one place. Featuring fine production values, it looks like it’ll be a nice addition to gaming bookshelves.
GRRM has now shared that he’s been spending time in the rainwood (that’s a region of the Stormlands), and that the manuscript count is 1205 pages, making it the second longest novel in the series, 300 pages shy of A Storm of Swords.
GRRM shares the news of a group signing event at Barnes & Noble in the Coronado Center of Albuquerque, New Mexico, scheduled for February 20th. Other Wild Cards authors at the event, besides himself, include Daniel Abraham, Melinda Snodgrass, John Jos. Miller, Caroline Specter, Ian Tregillis, Victor Milan, and Carrie Vaughn. More information can be found at Barnes & Noble’s events page.
Fantasy Flight Games has announced the imminent release A King in the North, the next chapter pack in their Defenders of the North cycle for the popular Game of Thrones Living Card Game. They promise new cards for Margaery Tyrell, Osha, Varamyr Sixskins, and many more.
GRRM shares a fresh update on his progress on A Dance with Dragons, which is slightly spoilerish. Suffice it to say, he’s writing about characters in warmer climes, and thinks that with the pace he’s working at one or even two chapters could be completed by the end of the week. In comments he adds that he’s within “spitting distance” of 1200 pages of manuscript (which means roughly 800 pages, using a rough rule-of-thumb 1.5:1 ratio) while stating that it’s not impossible some parts of the novel might move to the next book if, when it’s turned in to editors, it’s longer than A Storm of Swords.
Over at “Not a Blog, GRRM has started a poll for fans to have a say as to what characters the next wave of miniatures from Dark Sword Miniatures will depict. Presently, Daenerys Targaryen-as-queen has a commanding lead, with Benjen Stark and Bran with Hodor neck-and-neck for second place.
There’s a profile of Peter Dinklage due to his role in an upcoming comedic film. In it, he discusses his views on playing roles which focus too much on the character being a dwarf. He adds that there are certainly great roles written for dwarves, and it seems that Tyrion Lannister may have come up in that context:
‘It would entail me being lazy, and I’m not interested in that,” he says. “It just becomes uninteresting for me and I think it becomes uninteresting for an audience.” Having said that, he notes: “There are great roles that are written for dwarves.”
‘That would include his current project, a planned HBO series called Game of Thrones, based on the popular fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. Dinklage plays the diminutive Tyrion Lannister in the pilot episode.’
Thanks to Ninepenny at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum for noting this item.
Tom McCarthy, director of HBO’s pilot for Game of Thrones, joins Robert Stromberg in the Oscars race. McCarthy was one of a number of individuals credited for the story of Pixar’s Up, which is a nominee for Best Original Screenplay.
The visual effects supervisor to the Game of Thrones pilot from HBO, Robert Stromberg, has been cleaning up of late in award seasons as previously reported. The streak continues, as he and Rick Carter have been nominated for an Academy Award in Art Direction thanks to their work on James Camerons’ blockbuster Avatar.
Twitter is presently awash with Brazilian fantasy fans excitedly reporting the news that A Game of Thrones will be published in Brazil in the native Brazilian Portuguse dialect. This is a major international sale, with Brazil being a rapidly growing book-buying market. From what I can make of this article, the book will be published by Brazillian publisher Leya, with A Game of Thrones due to be published in translation in the second half of 2010.
It’s not absolutely clear to me, but it’s possible that the Brazilian fantasy author, Raphael Draccon, may have been a key figure in bringing the publisher and GRRM’s representation to the table. Certainly, in the article linked above he is incredibly enthusiastic for the series and its prospects in Brazil.
Ian Tregillis gives us another look into the world of Wild Cards, this time with an account of how he was recruited at the last minute to write a key story in the span of two weeks for Inside Straight (US, UK).
GRRM’s official site has been updated with several new updates on “Not a Blog”. Among them, GRRM clarifies that he had in fact finished a Jon Snow chapter that he was happy with, and that he may be shifting back to the Meereenese point of views. Speaking of snow, he shares an image of a painted Sansa Stark miniature from Dark Sword Miniatures.
Finally, and sadly, he shares the news of the death of fellow writer, Kage Baker, due to cancer. Baker contributed a fine Cugel the Clever story toSongs of the Dying Earth, and wrote a number of award-nominated and otherwise notable short stories and novels besides. She will be missed.