Michael Moorcock: 2008 SFWA Grandmaster!!

Huge congrats, Mike! Thrilled to see you become the 25th individual honored by the Science Fiction Writers of America with the Damon Knight Memorial Grandmaster Award. Full details here. SFWA's press release says that "the Grand Master represents SFWA's highest accolade and recognizes excellence for a lifetime of contributions to the genres of science fiction and fantasy." Based on that, I can't think of anyone who's done more to earn this. The honor will be bestowed to Mike at the Nebula Awards Ceremony in Austin, TX this April. You can bet I'll be there.

SHIMMER -- The Art Issue, 2008

Hear ye, hear ye -- now available from the good folks at SHIMMER -- their 2008 Art Issue. Most magazines commission art to complement a story, but for this special issue, art director Mary Robinette Kowal has instead flipped those roles. She selected art first, and SHIMMER then invited authors to write their stories based on the art. The cover illlustration is by me, and Kurt Kirchmeier crafted a cool story from it entitled "Penny Wise". SHIMMER also interviews me for the issue. Therein, we discuss, art, marriage, lightbulbs, and I manage to craft one of the most spectacular jinxes in modern sports history. See for yourself when you pick up the issue available here.

Thank you, Austin

Wow...the Austin Books signing for ELRIC: THE STEALER OF SOULS was a massive success, to say the least. Thanks to everyone who came out and patiently stood in line Saturday. It was a pleasure to be there with you. Mike Moorcock kicked it off with a reading from the novel THE STEALER OF SOULS, and then he and I did a quick Q&A. During that time, the people just kept streaming into the store. From there, it was a solid two hours of signing books and visiting with good people. Take a look at the photo above....I made the grievous mistake of looking up from signing books and assuming the end of the line visible in the photo was the "end of the line." Then someone informed me that the line wrapped behind the bookshelves, and kept going. Wow.




Huge thanks to Brad Bankston, Brandon, and all at Austin Books for putting this together. 1/3 of the store is under a major renovation and Bankston shrewdly housed the signing event in that space, while the other 2/3 of the store was the usual comics nirvana that makes it one of the finest comic-book stores in America.

Special shoutout to Eric (pictured above), who came all the way down from Minnesota just to attend this event and meet Mike and me. He flew in the day of the event, did it, dined with us afterwards, and then flew back home six short hours later. You're an animal, man! That was impressive. Great to meet you....we'll be in touch. Speaking of dinner, we all had dinner afterwards at the excellent Clay Pit, a nouveau-Indian restaurant near downtown Austin. Traci and I loved it, and we're sure to return. Joining Traci and me, and Mike and his wife Linda, were my good friend Brian Farrens (who took the photos here....thanks, man.), Eric from Minnesota--and a terrific surprise--Allison Baker of MonkeyBrain Books fame. It was a great, great day....I'm ready to do it again! :)

Hungry for Elric

World Fantasy Award-winning author Jeff Vandermeer is one of the featured columnists for Amazon.com's blog Omnivoracious. His latest post there spotlights ELRIC: THE STEALER OF SOULS and quizzes me about my illustration work for the book. Check it out.

Also, check out RevolutionSF where the folks there are giving away free autographed copies of the new Elric book, and they also sport a nice gallery featuring some of my Elric interiors (scroll down this link). I dig all of it, but for some reason, seeing that big close-up banner of Elric on their front page really pumps me up. :)

Elric's Back!

Spotted on the shelves, shiny and new, at 3pm, Borders Books, Alamo Quarry, San Antonio, TX. According to Amazon.com, Michael Moorcock's ELRIC: THE STEALER OF SOULS wasn't supposed to release until tomorrow. However this weekend, Moorcock's Miscellany said the book was selling at Forbidden Planet, London (thanks, Guy) and Barnes & Noble in Virginia (thanks, Blackwood Buzz). Today, Pyr's Lou Anders saw the book at Books-A-Million in Birmingham and my pal Brian Farrens spotted it up in far northside SA (again, Borders). So the wait is now officially over. Elric's back and he's everywhere, at least across North America.

I'm thrilled to be a small part of this, and this weekend Mike and I will be celebrating with a book signing/launch party for the new Elric book. Details as follows:

Where:
Austin Books
5002 N. Lamar
Austin, TX
email: info@austinbooks.com
(512) 454-4197

When:
Sat. Feb. 23
4-7pm

I've said it before, but Austin Books is one of the finest comic-book emporiums in the country. It's worth a trip just for its sheer comic-book goodness. For those who can't make it (I'm looking at you, Moorcock fans in the UK), Austin Books has set up a convenient "buy it" button where you can reserve a signed copy of ELRIC: THE STEALER OF SOULS that Mike and I can sign and/or personalise for you this weekend. Scroll down to just below the Elric cover. Hope to see everyone on Saturday! :)

ELRIC: TSOS Sneak Peek #5

One more glimpse of the new Elric drawings....and then next week ELRIC: THE STEALER OF SOULS finally releases in bookstores across North America (and cyberspace). Also next week, I'll have details on a cool gallery of new Elric drawings over at RevolutionSF.

"Elric and the Horn of Fate" -- interior illustration from Michael Moorcock's forthcoming ELRIC: THE STEALER OF SOULS, due out February 19 from Ballantine/Del Rey. Pencil on Crescent illustration board, 11"x14".

Tor Podcast: Book Covers

Was out in California the last few days, so I'm catching up, but something I wanted to mention:

Irene Gallo has posted a Tor podcast featuring her, Lou Anders, Jacob Weisman, Tom Kidd and yours truly. It's a panel discussion from the '07 World Fantasy Con, on the subject of book covers. Check it out.

Best of 2007 / Talk Soup

Some talk soup about a few notable books that I'm proud to have done covers for:

* Congrats to Bruce McAllister and Golden Gryphon Press. McAllister's THE GIRL WHO LOVED ANIMALS is amongst Graham Sleight's Top Five Books of the Year, according to his Year-End Round-Up in the latest issue of Locus Magazine.

* Congrats to Lou Anders, Pyr and FAST FORWARD 1. An amazing FIVE stories from FF1 will appear in David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer's YEAR'S BEST SF 13. Wow! More details here at Lou's blog. In addition to several nods on this year's Locus Recommended Reading List (including Nick Gevers selecting it as one of the very best anthos of '06), Bookgasm.com says: "...so good that I suggest Pyr wait a year and republish it with the title BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF 2007. This is an important book that can move science fiction one step closer to the 'literature' shelf, if it so desires....Anders has coaxed such incredible goodness out of these writers that if you only read one or two stories a month, it's better than a year's subscription to most of the genre magazines out there...With a deep bench of talent and a perfectly paced setlist, Lou Anders has made a book that truly represents its own theme. FAST FORWARD has the potential to be the future of short-form science fiction."

That's good to hear, as I'm currently working on the cover for FAST FORWARD 2....

* In other news, Joseph Mallozzi's super-popular blog announced today that discussion of Jeffrey Ford's THE EMPIRE OF ICE CREAM will begin April 21. (Even though EMPIRE is actually a 2006 release, I just wanted to pass it along.)

ELRIC: TSOS Sneak Peek #4

"Elric summons the Wind Giant" -- interior illustration from Michael Moorcock's forthcoming ELRIC: THE STEALER OF SOULS, due out February 19 from Ballantine/Del Rey. Pencil on Crescent illustration board, 11"x14". (p.s. Happy Birthday, Mama. :))