Over at Tom Meier’s website, Thunderbolt Mountain, a gallery of user-contributed pictures of Tom’s models that they’ve had painted. The latest addition comes straight from GRRM, who sends a lovely picture of a mounted ranger of the Night’s Watch (an early casting for the forthcoming Andy Chambers-designed wargame from Testors). The paint job was commissioned from Dave Gulczynski of WarPaint Studios, who did an excellent job.
GRRM’s official site has been updated with the announcement in “News” of Tuf Voyaging being nominated for Best Translated Novel in Japan’s Seiun Awards, the addition of Germany and Taiwanese covers for A Storm of Swords in “Covers”, and an addition to the “Kits & Castings” section of “Knights”.
Locus, the premiere trade magazine of the SF/F publishing industry, runs a yearly poll which culminates in the Locus Awards (given out the same weekend as the Nebulas). Lately, the poll has been open to anyone who’ll take the time to go through and vote on it. If you’re interested in voting in such categories as Best SF Novel, Best Fantasy Novel, Best Young Adult Novel, Best Artist, and more, go here. The deadline is this Saturday.
Fantasy Flight Games, makers of the A Game of Thrones board game, have released new details regarding the latest expansion, titled A Storm of Swords. Among the material are the rules for the new expansion.
GRRM’s official site has been updated with the announcement of the availability of Testors’s Ruby Ford miniatures set in “News”, as well as a picture of fan-made miniature of Brynden Tully in the “Knights of Westeros” section and some Spanish plastic miniatures in the “Plastic Chivalry” section of “Knights”.
At the forum on official site, Tom Meier—sculptor for Testors’s newly released line of 54mm miniatures depicting characters and scenes from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire—reveals what figures he’s currently working on: knights from the Hand’s tourney.
Other, completed figures that are alluded to in the thread have previously been reported.
GRRM’s official site has been updated with comments about A Feast for Crows‘s Hugo nomination in “News” and a new appearance date in “Appearances”.
This years Origins Awards—a gaming industry award—have a few A Song of Ice and Fire-centric nominees. Among them are Fantasy Flight Games’ The Art of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire for “Nonfiction Publication of the Year” and their CCG Game of Thrones: Winter Edition expansion for “Collectable Card Game or Expansion of the Year”. Congratulations to GRRM, FFG, and all the creators and artists involved in these products!
Sci-Fi Wire has brief article about GRRM’s reaction to the nomination of A Feast for Crows for a Hugo award for best novel.
The So Spake Martin collection has been updated with a new interview from Afterburn SF.
We’ve received word from Testors that the first of their 54mm miniatures are now on sale. Press release follows:
Patrick, of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, has posted a teaser for his forthcoming interview with George R. R. Martin. The rest of the interview will be posted in May, to coincide with the U.S. paperback release of A Feast for Crows.
GRRM’s official site has been updated with a new entry at his Not a Blog. In it, he remarks about several HBO dramas, his inability to write a journal with any regularity, the fact that he has been working on A Dance with Dragons (the last week of work has been focused to Jon and the Wall, a storyline which he thinks is greatly benefiting from the split), and finally that he has settled on a new title for the seventh (and hopefully final) novel in the series.
From John Scalzi (who’s one of GRRM’s competitors in the Best Novel Category at the Hugos for his novel, Old Man’s War), we learn that those who pre-order his forthcoming book about writing from Subterranean Press and mention him and his blog, “Whatever”, in the comment field for the order will get 30% off their entire order (for most items; A Storm of Swords, for example, isn’t part of this special deal). Which means you could also buy the limited/lettered editions of Fevre Dream or GRRM: A Rretrospective all at 30% off. It’s a great opportunity, which comes to a close after tomorrow, so order quickly!
More information can be found at Scalzi’s blog.
George R.R. Martin has been unstinting in his thanks to Robert Jordan for his support for the series (including providing the key blurb which helped secure a great number of readers at the start of the series), and Jordan has been equally-unstinting in his praise for GRRM’s work. So, we are saddened to report that all those foolish rumors of the past have now come to pass, as Robert Jordan himself writes to Locus magazine to report that he has been diagnosed with a rare, likely-terminal blood disease. All the details can be found in the linked letter.
Our thoughts are with Mr. Jordan, his wife, and his family. We hope he gets the 30 years he wants so as to be able to write all the stories he wishes to write.