Anyway, George was pretty close to being on time...by the time he arrived, there seemed to be a pretty good SRO overflow crowd nestled in among the book shelves on the second floor. George was entertaining...brief remarks, most pertinent being the new (to me, I guess it was first mentioned at his signing last night) information that he just got advance word from his publisher that Feast will debut at #1 on next week's NYT bestseller list. He said the previous two books had made the list, but the highest they'd reached was #12, and he liked this position better. He told the GoT St. Louis signing story which seems to be a staple at stops on this tour, but he has a nice delivery, so it was fun to hear in person. There was a brief Q&A, maybe 5-6 questions, nothing of note (in my opinion, at least--I hate "process"" questions, like "how do you keep all the details straight"? and "what is the writing process like for you"? both of which we got variations on...oh well, people would probably find my questions boring, too. If I had a chance to get called on, I would ask "I hear Dunk & Egg III is almost done. Can you tell us 1) where it's set (e.g. do they make it up to the Wall), and 2) how long after The Sworn Sword does it take place?"" Maybe he would have refused to answer, but, no risk, no reward).
I left after the Q&A, since they were acting pretty firm about enforcing the "you must buy Feast here to get it signed" policy...that, and there looked like there were about 200 people in line, at least, and I had to get back to work. It was fun though...first time I'd seen George in person, and he presents well, meaning personable and down to earth.