All right, Game of Thrones fans: The bad news is that George R.R. Martin still hasn’t finished writing The Winds of Winter, his long-anticipated next installment in the Song of Ice and Fireseries. The good news is that the novelist knows a place where you can score some books to tide you over while you wait.
Martin announced on his blog that he’s opened Beastly Books, a store specializing in autographed books by him and other authors, next door to the movie theater he owns in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Martin said that he was inspired to open the store after hosting several author events at his Jean Cocteau Cinema. “The only problem was the Jean Cocteau lobby was far too small for us to display all of these wonderful autographed books,” he wrote.
So he decided to open Beastly Books, “in honor of Cocteau’s most famous film…and a certain TV show I worked on in the ’80s.” (For non-cinephiles, and readers too young to remember the Ron Perlman/Linda Hamilton series, that would be Beauty and the Beast.)
Martin posted several pictures of the bookstore on his blog, including ones featuring the store’s café counter and a large statue of the titular character from the 1999 film The Iron Giant (“No, he’s not for sale”).
If you’re in the market for an autographed book by Martin or another writer but have no plans to visit the City Different, don’t despair: You can always order books online through the store’s website. (But you still can’t order The Winds of Winter. Sorry.)
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas–based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
