WAR AND SPACE next month!

Editor Steven Silver sent me this the other day -- the final jacket layout for NESFA Press' forthcoming WAR AND SPACE: THE BEST OF LESTER DEL REY, VOL. 1. NESFA's website says the book is slated for release next month, so I'm guessing that means they'll have copies available at the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal. Can't wait to see how it turns out....should be a winner. :) Cover illustration by me, and jacket design by Alice N.S. Lewis. Alice is also the designer responsible for the cool Boskone poster that's been distributed recently. Way to go, Alice!

Boskone 47 Mini Poster

Man, the NESFAns are like clockwork with their newsletters. The latest one includes this cool little full-color flyer pimping next year's Boskone 47 in February. They used my cover illustration for George Zebrowski's MACROLIFE and I couldn't help but smile when I saw it. Whomever is responsible for designing this flyer -- great job! :) I dig it and I'll hang up mine here in my studio. You can download your very own right here.

ALWAYS FOREVER is here!

Crazy good news for Mark Chadbourn's AGE OF MISRULE: BOOK 3 -- ALWAYS FOREVER! The book has sold out its first printing before it even hits the stores! Here's what that means -- bookstores liked what they saw from the first two books in the trilogy and they have confidence this third book is a solid bet to sell equally well, if not better. So they upped their orders and effectively bought up the entire first printing. What that means to you is this: if you want a first-edition copy of ALWAYS FOREVER, they should be at your local bookstore right now and it's best to buy soon because the distributors don't have any more in their warehouses. :)

My comp copies of Mark Chadbourn's ALWAYS FOREVER arrived the other day and the printing turned out great! I illustrated the cover for this one, as well as the previous two books in the series, WORLD'S END and DARKEST HOUR. It's fun to see the three books lined up, side by side.

Meantime, I'll soon be back to working on the covers for the next books in this story arc. Congrats to Mark and to Pyr!

2009 Chesley Award Noms!

Received fabulous news late yesterday! I'm nominated for four 2009 Chesley Awards. Wow!! Here's the complete list of nominees. And boy, what a list it is -- there will be some heavyweight decisions in several categories. Here are my four nominated works:


(Above)
Best Cover Illustration: Hardcover
VIEWPOINTS CRITICAL: SELECTED STORIES
Author: L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Publisher: Tor


(Above)
Best Cover Illustration: Paperback
FAST FORWARD 2
Edited by: Lou Anders
Publisher: Pyr


(Above)
Best Cover Illustration: Magazine
ASIMOV'S
September 2008


(Above)
Best Interior Illustration
ELRIC: THE STEALER OF SOULS
Author: Michael Moorcock
Publisher: Del Rey
(This selection is one of 20+ interior illustrations I did for the book, but I'd have to say this is my personal favorite. Here's an extensive gallery of some my other interiors from the book.)

And finally, shoutouts to Lou Anders -- a 2009 Hugo Award nominee for Best Editor, and a 2009 Chesley Award nominee for Best Art Director (a very rare feat) -- and also fellow Texan Vincent Villafranca for his well-earned 3D nomination. Congrats to all fellow nominees. I'm proud and honored to be amongst you!

My Interview with China's FANTASY ART

Yesterday, you saw the May 2009 cover of China's FANTASY ART Magazine. This morning, I received a PDF of my interview pages inside the mag. Above are four of the feature's eight pages. FANTASY ART says it'll be about three months before I see a physical copy of the mag. That's a mighty slow boat, but I'm sure it'll be worth the wait. Too bad I can't read Chinese, but the spreads are so beautifully done that they're still a pleasure. Huge thanks to Lizzy Carft and all at FANTASY ART for making this possible. :)

Wow! On the cover of FANTASY ART in China!

My illustration for Michael Moorcock's ELRIC: THE STEALER OF SOULS is featured on the May 2009 cover of China's FANTASY ART Magazine, the country's leading pro magazine celebrating fantasy art and design. Earlier this year, Lizzy Carft conducted an interview with me, which is reportedly inside this issue. I say "reportedly" because I've yet to see the actual magazine itself. I'm sure the good people of FANTASY ART will be sending a few to me and I can't wait to see how it looks. When they do, I'll likely need the mighty Xin to translate the read. :) Very cool!

The Little Antho That Could

Seems like FAST FORWARD 2 is the critical darling that just won't die, well over a year after initial release! :) Here's two more extensive reviews courtesy of SFSite (reviewed by Derek Johnson) and Fantasy Book Critic (reviewed by Fabio Fernandes). Happy to see this, as it's always been tough for anthologies to survive, even at the best of times. I've said this before, but I'm extremely proud to have illustrated this cover because books this good don't grow on trees, to say the least. If you love great sf, and wish to see anthos like FF2 continue, please consider buying one, if you haven't already. Your purchase doesn't affect me one way or the other. I certainly don't make any money from the sale, but literature is best when it's diverse. The sf field needs books like FF2 just as it needs its ubiquitous best-sellers.

What If? Jeff Ford & John Picacio Book?

No secret that Jeff Ford is one of my favorite authors. I've done covers for several of his books, including the wraparound cover art for THE EMPIRE OF ICE CREAM (pictured above). For years, we've talked about collaborating on a lush, illustrated book of his much-loved, Fountain Award-winning story "The Annals of Eelin-Ok". I'd love to illustrate this story, but so far, it's proved impossible to shoehorn a major project like that, on-spec, into my busy cover art schedule.

Well -- check this out: Jeff's story centers around the mythology of the Twilmish, a race of fairies who live in sand castles. Later this month, there will be a festival celebrating the Twilmish in Fairfield, CT. Big deal, right? Well, to the best of Jeff's knowledge, he made this mythology up, completely out of his imagination, and was shocked when he found that he was being invited to a celebration like this. The festival organizers believed his story so whole-heartedly that they were sure he was referencing an existing Celtic mythology. And they've now built a festival around it! Awesome!

So, back to this dream book -- he's a World-Fantasy Award-winning writer who's busy, busy writing, and I'm a World Fantasy Award-winning illustrator who's busy, busy illustrating. We both want to illustrate a beautiful hardcover edition of his story "The Annals of Eelin-Ok." Currently, there's no publisher for this book.

If an entire festival can be inspired from this simple short story, then how successful would an illustrated book be?

Moorcock Q&A at Mallozzi's

Over at Joseph Mallozzi's blog last week, Michael Moorcock answered an extensive battery of questions from Joe's fans, mostly about Elric and ELRIC: THE STEALER OF SOULS). It's fabulous stuff. Joe's blog is terrific because he's so well-read and makes every effort to help others be the same. He's the executive producer of the STARGATE: ATLANTIS series as well as the forthcoming STARGATE UNIVERSE series, and he's a mensch.