But, on to book signing. There was a 3 book maximum per trip through the line. I was through the line in about 20 min. Which was nice. Mr. Martin had been through the dealers room and when I got up to have my books signed he asked about the swords and what we used them for. Turns out that he used to be a chess coach, and is very into the human chessmatch concept. I thought that was neat. I had brought the first two books in the series in paperback, but the 3rd in hardback, so I got a little more personalized autograph in the hardback. He signed it " To Chris- Keep your Swords Sharp! George RR Martin. " Which I personally thought was cool. After the signing he came back through the dealers room again and we got a chance to chat some more.
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When noon rolled around I went to George RR Martin's reading. He read a chapter from the new novel, A Feast for Crows. It was a Sam chapter. Sam is the coward of the series, but quite possibly one of the smartest characters as well. Is was a very good chapter and lent a lot of insight into the direction that the new book is going. After the reading there was indeed time for Q&A. A couple of people had questions, but I sat front row center in my Bellie dance garb and asked the majority of the questions. Everything from how hard is it to write from a kid's point of view. ( Very, why do you think that the 4 year old character is in hiding?) Are you going to do a time jump to age the kids? ( Nope too many balls in the air for the adults, but there has been 3 years already to pass in the books so they are growing up). Who is your favorite character? A cliche but I had to ask. ( Tyrion, For a lot of very detailed reasons that I don't have enough space to write.) My favorite character too. Where did you come up with the idea of writing from so many perspectives and why? ( Also a long answer, but the jist of it is from the Wild Cards mosaic novels, and so that you could see the stories from a lot of angles without the great author wink wink nudge nudge, so that you know what is going on even if the main character doesn't.)