Driving cross country across the U.S. with my parents (my first visit home in 5 years, and since they needed to make the trip, I figured what better than to experience it with them? It also let me see my siblings and extended family), I noticed that I wasn't going to be that far from Santa Fe. So ... long story short, details were sorted out. Very cool.
The drive to Santa Fe was remarkably beautiful. I hadn't realized how high up the city is -- elevation over 7,000 feet! Parts of it reminded me rather a lot of Monterey, California, which also has its roots as a Spanish colonial town. It's a lovely place, and I can see why GRRM and Parris live there. On arriving at GRRMs homes (yes, homes -- one across from the other; each day he takes his "morning commute" over to the house that serves as his office), GRRM came out to say hello. While my parents took off to dinner, GRRM and I went into the office, where I immediately noticed several things:
Miniatures on display. Foreign editions of ASoIaF. All kinds of books, actually, some which looked like references. And the computer on which all the magic happens. I later noticed that he had a lot of the art from the Fantasy Flight Games CCG hung up on the walls around the work area. Wow! As we went to his den (after he called Parris to let her know I had arrived), I commented that I knew people who'd pay to get a look at his place. He casually gestured to a box on a desk and said with a smile that that's what people would really pay for. "That" being -- you guessed it -- the latest partial manuscript of AFfC, ready to be shipped off to his editors for their perusal. I should have touched it, or something.
We chatted for a bit, then Parris arrived. I didn't know it was possible for someone to be so friendly, but Parris managed it. ;) She was tremendously kind, and generous with her praise of the work Linda and I had done with Westeros.org, as well as how great all the Brotherhood are (with particular regards sent Lodengarl's way)!
From there, we went into the older part of Santa Fe, to have dinner at a place called The Bullring. Wonderful food, suffice it to say, and at a great location. Following are some brief snippets amounting to my recollections:
GRRM and Parris are both really pleased with "The Hedge Knight" comic book adaptation, and the work that the Dabel brothers, Ben Avery, and Mike Miller have done.
Comic books were discussed somewhat, and Wild Cards as well. This connects to ASoIaF because GRRM's response regarding how popular Dorne and the Red Viper were among readers was how it was rather the "Boba Fett" effect. He himself had witnessed this in the WC books, when an extremely minor "red shirt" (in this case, a character specifically introduced early in the series to be killed off later on) was killed, only to have a fan club for that character send him an upset letter to him. The character only had one line in all of his appearances!
GRRM's quite pleased with reports of people spending a great deal of time arguing about characters, rather than just plot details (though that, too, is great). Yes, this came out when I was trying to lure him into discussing Stannis and/or Jaime, but he wouldn't indulge me that far. ;)
There are wyverns in the setting, and we'll learn something about them in AFfC. This came out during a discussion of heraldry.
Long ago, someone (LindaElane?) learned from GRRM that his visit to New Zealand and Rotorura park (full of geysers, natural hot springs, bubbling mud, and the smell of sulfur) had inspired a location that would appear in the books. That location hasn't appeared yet, but it will in time. Linda and I are guessing Valyria, or possibly Asshai.
Parris and GRRM were both enthused with how beautifully the Lord of the Rings films came out. We all shared a particular like for the introduction to the second film, with its gorgeous vista of New Zealand's Southern Alps and then its entering through the window to the scene at the Bridge of Khazad-dum. ("Yeah. Gandalf should have stayed dead." -- GRRM) In connection to LOTR, GRRM recalled how popular it was in his college days, and that an expression of that love was the popularity of maps of Middle-earth. You were likelier to see a map than a drawing of a character or a scene. This, he says, shows how Middle-earth was practically a character in its own right in the book. I think he hopes that Westeros is as alive for readers as Middle-earth is, with its castles, ruins, wonders, and history.
GRRM said he wanted to have the series be done at six books -- then noted that Parris said it'd be seven. She grinned rather impishly, nodding her head.
Daemon Blackfyre rebelled so many years after Aegon the Unworthy's death for several reasons. One was his growing resentment at having the status of a bastard, and what it meant. Another was that he gained councillors who urged him to it. Among them was Fireball, a knight of House Ball in the Reach, who had been master-at-arms at the Red Keep during Aegon's days. Aegon promised him a place in the Kingsguard, when an opening made itself apparent, but he died before that could happen. When a spot finally opened up under Daeron, Fireball reminded him of his father's promise ... and was not given a place in the Sworn Brotherhood. GRRM said that Fireball was loosely inspired by Hotspur Percy, hence the name (referring to his fiery temper).
There was no discussion about when AFfC would be finished -- it'd be done when it was done. But as already noted, he is sending manuscripts to his publishers, so it's certainly progressing.
Once dinner was done, we went back to his office, where more cool stuff was shown off. I saw his miniatures displayed, including the Brian Rodden figures that the fans bought for him as presents (he noted that the blue serpent of the Dukes of Milan was his inspiration for making Prince Oberyn the Red Viper), having pride of place with the Robert figure that Parris had commisioned for him. I also saw his Prime Collection, as he called it, which was a copy of every single thing he had ever been published in, in their first editions.
Then it was time to go. It was one of the best meals I've eaten in a very long time, but the company was better. :)
[Note: The following is a mail sent to Les Dabel, of Dabel Brothers Productions, as part of their preparation for adapting an excerpt from "The Sworn Sword" in the second edition of the Hedge Knight graphic novel. Included at the end is a follow-up.]
Do you have LEGENDS II? There's a detailed description of Bloodraven, aka Lord Brynden Rivers, in "The Sworn Sword." He is the most distinctive of the three, an albino with a red winestain birthmark on his neck and cheek that looks (vaguely) like a raven in flight.
Daemon Blackfyre and Bittersteel, aka Ser Aegor Rivers, are both bastard sons of King Aegon IV (the Unworthy), although Daemon is Targ on both sides, while Bittersteel's mother was a Bracken. Bloodraven is also the king's bastard, by yet another mother.
At the time of the Redgrass Field, Daemon Blackfyre was 26, and his twin sons Aegon and Aemon, who squired for him, were 12. Bittersteel was 24, and Bloodraven 21. This was about thirteen years before "The Hedge Knight." Daemon was very much a Targaryen, albeit bastard born. He had the silver-gold hair, the purple eyes. He looked heroic; tall, muscular, handsome, wide shoulders, flat stomach. A great warrior. Clean-shaven, wears his hair long, like Marvel's Thor. Can be charming and charismatic too, with a winning smile. He used the arms of House Targaryen on his battle standards, but with the colors reversed: a black three-headed dragon on a red field. He'd bear the same sigil on his shield. I can imagine him in gorgeous, ornate plate armor, red and black, black dragon wings sprouting from his helm.
Bittersteel is also imposing in appearance, but since his mother was not a Targ, he does not have the coloring. He has the purple eyes, but his hair is black. A close-cropped beard, hardly more than a shadow. Somewhat of a Conan look to him; not the Frank Frazetta Conan, and definitely not the Arnold Conan, but more the Barry Windsor-Smith Conan, lean and lithe and hard. And angry. Handsome in a dark brooding way, but pissed off at his bastard's lot in life. No smiles here. No-nonsense grey steel armor with a horsehead crest on the helm. His white shield has a grey longsword displayed bendy sinister, with a black dragon's head above and a red horse's head below, both facing out.
Bloodraven is described in "The Sworn Sword," so I won't repeat that here. He's tall and wiry, but sscrawny compared to his magnificent half-brothers. Although a good swordsman, his main weapon is the bow; he has a tall longbow made of weirwood, and fires white weirwood arrows fletched with raven feathers. He is also, by repute, a sorcerer. Sharp features, vaguely sinister.
Also, Bloodraven and Daemon Blackfyre wield swords of Valyrian steel, as does Ser Gwayne Corbray of the Kingsguard, also prominent in the battle.
You did not have to draw any Valyrian blades in "The Hedge Knight," but now you're got a plethora, it seems. They all have certainly similarities -- the color ranges from smoky grey to almost black, the ripples in the steel -- but each one is unique as well. Bloodraven carries Dark Sister, Corbray has Lady Forlorn, and Daemon fights with Blackfyre, the sword of Aegon the Conquerer and all the Targaryen kings that followed him.
Blackfyre should be somewhat larger and darker than the other two, and its design needs to suggest flames.
...
Don't bother working up those arms for Bittersteel, I've already changed them. Came up with a much cooler image...
So here's Bittersteel: a winged red stallion on a golden field. Only the horse has big black dragon wings instead of the usual Pegasus-style feathered angel wings, and he's snorting fire.
Other meta-information, from the Q&A session: GRRM is at about 1000 pages; he anticipates maybe 300 more. He hasn't decided whether or not Bran will appear in AFfC, but if so will only appear briefly. Jon and Dany will be the two focal characters of AFfC (in the sort of way in which Ned was the focal character of AGoT). He's not averse to writing more stories in the ASoIaF world after he finishes the series (which perhaps may look more like seven books), but won't write direct sequels to the series. Future Dunk and Egg stories will be getting darker. (No detail was given as to when the next D&E story could appear.)
And both GRRM and Parris were wearing the Brotherhood T-shirts. I wish I'd remembered to wear mine.
...
Bran: somebody had asked whether the Starks would appear, and whether they would be a focus. GRRM mentioned Sansa and Arya, and said "of course Catelyn won't appear again" [this was previously known], and said "Jon also, if you consider him a Stark" [this was greeted with a lot of laughter]. He didn't explicitly mention Bran, so somebody asked whether Bran would appear in AFfC. GRRM's response was that Bran is one of the characters in training, and so at most he'll get a chapter or two, but that he hadn't decided yet. (He made a throwaway joke about kung-fu movies at this point.)
So, I think that Bran will play (at most) a minor role in AFfC, but he'll be back in future books. GRRM said explicitly that he doesn't like writing "training" chapters (hence the kung-fu references).
[Note: The following chat is made available through the Internet Archive.]
http://web.archive.org/web/20070206145733/http://www.scifi.com/transcripts/2004/asimovs.1.25.html
[Note: he following interview is made available through the Internet Archive.]
http://web.archive.org/web/20061112134543/http://www.brokenfrontier.com/columns/details.php?id=152
[Note: The precise date, beyond December 2003, is unknown.]
http://mezmera.posluh.hr/bazaar/interview_george_r_r_martin.asp
[Note: The following interview is made available through the Internet Archive. The precise date, beyond December 2003, is unknown.]
http://web.archive.org/web/20051103091500/nrctc.edu/fhq/vol1iss3/00103009.htm
Hi, short question. Will we find out more about the Dance of the Dragons in future books?
The first dance or the second?
The second will be the subject of a book. The first will be mentioned from time to time, I'm sure.
Did you ever read the classic book The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka? In the book the main character is a 'monster' by the name of Gregor.
Yes, I've read Kafka.
I was wondering if that book had any effect on when you named Gregor Clegane who is a monster in his own right.
Sorry, no.
Keep up the great work. I love books 1-3 and i cant wait for AFfC. :)
I'm still at work on A FEAST FOR CROWS. However, I have recently added a sample chapter to my website. That's the place to look for updates on completion and publication.
Keep reading.
Just wanted to share some great news. GRRM, my big retrospective collection from Subterreanean Press, got a terrific review today in the WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD. "... the most ambitious volume ever to come from an American specialty press" and "... one of the most important -- and generous -- single-author collections of recent years" are my favorite bits, but there's lots of other good stuff as well.
The entire review can be found online here.
I don't know if this would be of any interest to ICE & FIRE readers, but there's a BEAUTY AND THE BEAST fan site that has recently collected a bunch of posts that I made to the old GEnie B&B topic back in the early 90s, discussing various aspects of the TV show and my work for it. Lot of behind-the-scenes stuff there, and a few thoughts about violence, action, television, etc.
It's at this page if you're curious. You might find some there that reflects on ASOIAF.
[Note: This report fleshes out details given in Rhelle's report.]
OK, some more info:
That convo that was referred to above went like this:
Q: "Do you know how the books will end?"
GRRM: "YES" (emphatically)
Q: "So do you have it written down somewhere... just in case?"
GRRM: "Nope. It's all in my head. So if I die, you all are shit out of luck"
LOL, I wonder if Parris knows...
On POVs
George said that at first he was just going to use the original POVs from AGoT for the entire series, then he realized that he needed to see what Stannis was doing, but did'nt want to use Stannis as a POV. So he created Davos. Davos was his first added POV. The rest followed.
On writing his POVs, as Rhelle mentioned above, he uses their motivations and desires. What do they want? What do they want to achieve? What drives them? What SHOULD they do? Ethics, morals, ambitions, etc... all part of the mix.
On the 5 year gap this has probably already been discussed before, but here goes. George said that he was writing ADwD and was writing the flashbacks (he confirmed that they would have been flashbacks) and then he realized that he couldn't just skip things like Myrcella being crowned and the resulting dornish problems, for example. Originally he had wanted to skip the 5 years to make the kids older. But he said he realized that he was being impatient, and that those 5 years had too much important stuff to skim over. And as banditski noted above, Rickon will not be in AFfC. George's exact words: "no, he's not old enough yet." Hmmmmm. YET.
On Jaime
at a panel:
Q: "Did you know from the beginning that you would flesh Jaime out and make him a pov?"
GRRM: "I knew I would flesh him out, but no, I did not know he would be a pov."
Some pronunciations:
Lyanna = lye-anna
Catelyn = cat-linn
Maester = may-ster (that one's pretty obvious)
Moat Cailin = Moat Cah-lan
Sansa = Saun-sa
Khaleesi = Khal-eee-see
Missandei = mees-anday
Tommen = Toam-in
Davos = Dah-vos
Varys = Var-us
Many of you probably knew those, but they were new to me! So I thought I'd share
Something weird: I THINK he indicated that the dragons are NOT all the same sex. My question was intercepted, but I believe that was the answer. Cool. Reign of fire baby! One of my favorite things that George said: he was talking about how he uses ancient software on his computer and he said something like "no fucking dancing paperclip for me." LOL. we were dying.
I too picked up a few things in talking with him...
In no particular order:
We won't see any (or very little) of Rickon in AFfC.
I was talking with george and the dude from FFG [Fantasy Flight Games] who does the card game, and George asked the FFG guy how he was going to balance the power of the families (Stark, Lannister, Greyjoy, etc) once the dragons are full grown. He said something like "once dany lands in westeros with full grown dragons, they are gonna kickass all over the place" (paraphrasing - it was something more like "they will be tougher than anything we've seen since Aegon the Conquorer.")
We probably won't get the POV from an Other, but we will find out more about them (history, motives, etc.)
Oh, I also asked George if he could say what new map(s) there will be in AFfC. He answered the Free Cities.