"The Hedge Knight" is in my collection DREAMSONGS as well as the original Silverberg anthology LEGENDS.
"The Sworn Sword" is only in LEGENDS II.
Eventually I will collect the Dunk & Egg stories together and make a book (or two or three) out of them... but first I'll need to write and publish a bunch more of them.
Are any of these chapters getting bumped to Winds?
Well, it's possible, sure. If I knew they were going to get bumped into the next book, I wouldn't be writing them now, of course, so it's my intent that they be part of DANCE. But at some point, when the finished manuscript goes to my editors, it may be they will say, "this chapter would work better in the next book." Which is indeed what has already happened with the Sansa chapter, and with one Arya chapter I have completed as well.
One major factor will be how big the final book is. If I end up producing something longer than A STORM OF SWORDS, you can bet your firstborn that some chapters will get shifted. That's NOT the only factor, mind you... and don't worry, I am not there yet.
Though I am within spitting distance of 1200 pages.
When will "The Mystery Knight" novella be adapted to graphic novel form?
I do hope to do a MYSTERY KNIGHT eventually with the same team, but it will be at least two years after WARRIORS is released. That's the contractual period of exclusivity.
I recall Valyrian Steel fielding remarks on the sword's hilt being cruciform, whereas some people have imagined that the true bravo's sword is somehow different. I never had that impression, myself, but I admit to wondering if the bravo's swords are supposed to have more encompassing hilts (swept hilts, bell cups, and those other sorts you see on rapiers)..
No, I vetoed all the basket hilts, bell cups, etc. Those are artifacts of a much later period in the real world, and would not be appropriate for a blade made by a castle smith in Westeros.
Unfortunately, the HBO swords will use different designs. The show has its own armorers, who will do their own original designs on the weapons and armor as seen in the series.
As to why you might want to buy these... well, for the same reason you might want to buy a Valyrian resin of Ned that does not look like Sean Bean, or a Dark Sword mini of Jon Snow that does not look like Kit Harington. Do you want a keepsake of the books, or of the TV show? If the show goes forward, you will have your choice.
Also, in the specific case of these swords, I retained the right to license out high-quality steel replica swords, and that license is held by Valyrian Steel. HBO has the right to license inexpensive toy replica swords. So if you'd prefer something made of plastic that you can pick up at Wal-Mart, that may indeed be available at a later date... and will look just like the weapons in the series.
HBO also has exclusive rights to do lunchboxes, key rings, and bobblehead dolls, among other things. It was a VERY long and complicated negotiation.
[Note: This recounts an exchange a fan had with GRRM at the Denvention Worldcon. Ran would be your intrepid SSM maintainer. ;)]
Then he [William Lexner] said that Ran wanted to know how old Darkstar was.
George got that 'i don't fucking know' look on his face, then replied that he had Ran to answer those sorts of questions.[Note: This is taken from a chat hosted by the Spanish-language fan site, Asshai.com]
[Why did Balon Greyjoy rebel the first time?]
Yes. Obviously Balon was wrong, but he believed that Robert, as a usurper, might not have the strong support of the other lords the way that a Targaryen king would have. He also thought he could defeat Robert at sea.
[Did Littlefinger influence Joffrey to try and kill Bran?]
Well, Littlefinger did have a certain hidden inflouence over Joff... but he was not at Winterfell, and that needs to be remembered.
[Did Arya not kill the Hound because she didn't want to kill him, or because she wanted to make him suffer?]
si
[What is the cycle of a year? Why do they count years when seasons are strange?]
Twelve moon tuns to a year, as on earth. Even on our earth, years have nothing to do with the seasons, or with the cycles of the moon. A year is a measure of a solar cycle, of how long it takes the earth to make one complete revolution around the sun. The same is true for the world of Westeros. Seasons do not come into it.
[Are the seasons irregular only in Westeros or also in the eastern continent?]
The eastern continent (Essos) is further south than Westeros, and feels the North of the great sweep of the eastern sweep of the eastern lands is a huge ocean, the Shivering Sea. Only Westeros extends to the far north.
[Questions concerning Targaryen polygamy.]
Maegor the Cruel has multiple wives, from lines outside his own, so there was and is precedent. However, the extent to which the Targaryen kings could defy convention, the Faith, and the opinions of the other lords decreased markedly after they no longer had dragons. If you have a dragon, you can have as many wives as you want, and people are less likely to object.
[Why did Doran not join Renly against the Lannisters?]
Doran plays to win, whether at cyvasse or the game of thrones. Likely he did not see Renly as a winner. The emnity between Dorne and Highgarden also played a part, I am sure.
[Was Tywin the Hand who made the secret tunnel into Chataya's, to hide his visits?]
Interesting theory.
[What was the hardest death to write?]
The Red Wedding was the hardest thing I´ve ever written.I don´t know that I have actually enjoyed any of them. Even when you kill a bad guy, it can be hard... he´s one of your ¨children¨too. Besides, good villains are hard to find, and you always have the nagging doubt that maybe you´ll need him down the line.
[What is the Welsh influence in how you envision Dorne?]
Several genertaions of English kings tried to add Wales to the English crown, but never with much success. The Welsh successfully resisted for centuries... not by defeating the English in large battles, but by melting away into their mountains and hills and waging campaigns of small scale resistance... what today we would call "guerilla warfare" or maybe even "terrorism." The Dornish used the same approach.
[Why is Pycelle so loyal to the Lannisters?]
There´s backstory yet to be revealed, certainly, but if you asked Pycelle he would insist that he was acting in the best interests of the realm.
[Why does Melisandre believe Stannis is Azor Ahai? Did she seek him out or did Selyse bring her?]
More will be revealed in DANCE WITH DRAGONS.
[Maegor the Cruel's death on the Iron Throne: who and why?]
More will be revealed... somewhere or other.
[Is there any similarity between Jaime and the character Sawyer from Lost?]
Interesting suggestion. Could be some similarities. Ask me again when both series are done, and we see where the characters wind up.
[How many Dunk and Egg stories, and will they cover their lifetime?]
The number of stories is not set. Nine, ten, twelve, whatver it takes. They will carry the tale forward to the end of Dunk´s life. More than that I am not willing to reveal. The third story, The Mystery Knight, is finished and will be published in the anthology WARRIORS, edited by me and Gardner Dozois.
[Is there a reason for why A Feast for Crows headed with descriptive titles rather than names?]
si
[Did Aegon Targaryen convert to the Faith as a political maneuver?]
yes
[Lack of variety in noble titles.]
The number of titles of medieval nobility multiplied over times, as the feudal system became more complex and the social structure more layered, with various degrees of precedence, etc. In the earlier periods -- say, England around the time of Henry I and William II Rufus -- all those different titles did not exist. I prefered the simplicity of those times. In hindsight, I probably should have added a least one more title to differentiate the great houses from their vassals, but I am glad I stayed clear of using the whole roster of noble stylings.
[Is a character safe from death if a seemingly-deadly attack is told from their point of view?]
There are no rules. No one is safe.
[Why didn't Arya recognize the reference to Lord Snow in A Feast for Crows?]
I´ll leave my readers to think about that one.
[Why did Benjen join the Night's Watch?]
Good question. One day you will get an answer. But it will not be today.
[Are the ironborn's drowned men truly drowned?]
no
[What happened to Rhaegar's body?]
Rhaegar was cremated, as is traditional for fallen Targaryens.
[Is there any connection between Sansa's story and the song "The Bear and the Maiden Fair"?]
Well, we´ll have to see.
[How will things be reorganized in The Winds of Winter to take into account the splitting of A Feast for Crows?]
I will worry about that tomorrow... or rather, next year. Right now my focus is all on finishing A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, there will be plenty of time to agonize about THE WINDS OF WINTER later down the road.
[Will we see Asshai?]
Only in flasback and memory, if at all.
[Note: This is a Spanish-language chat, with GRRM's answers translated to Spanish by a moderator.]
http://forosfantasy.circulo.es/forums/t/446.aspx?PageIndex=1These notes are not representative of the whole session and might have errors, I am just trying to write down in good faith what I remember. My memory, handwriting and language skills all got failings so please keep that in mind.
The theme of the session was genre: fantasy, sf, horror from an author´s point of view. Moderator was Rogéério Ribeiro and the other participant was a portuguese author (of sf I think) called João Seixas. Saturday, 5th of July 2008, 16.00 at the auditorium of Biblioteca Orlando Ribeiro (Biblioteca de Telheiras) in Lisbon.
The discussion started with genre, in which field did GRRM feel more comfortable writing. GRRM replied he does not differentiate to any great extant, that he believes people write what they read and mentions the overlap of genre historically done, like Lovecraft´s sf stories, Jack Williamson´s work particularly "Darker than You Think". Discussion then turned to that in the USA there is strong differentiation of genres by the public, including separate labels and for younger writers breaking into the genre if they want to write in a different genre (or subgenre) name changes are suggested.
GRRM mentioned that in the USA fantasy is going much better than sf. Historically sf outsold fantasy but then in the 60s Tolkien and then in 70s the Del Rey imprints and authors like Donaldson and Terry Brooks started to show up in the bestseller lists. Currently it´s not clear, that now that bestselling authors like Asimov and Heinlein and Clarke died, which sf authors can emerge to have that sort of bestselling numbers and status.
GRRM - Fantasy outselling SF seems to be a worldwide phenomen, even more pronounced in Britain than in the USA, the exception seems to be Asia, Japan particularly. GRRM thinks that is because the Asian countries have more belief in the future, that in the USA maybe readers have lost the belief in the "sf future", that most americans when polled reply they think their children will have a worse life than they have, due to things to pollution and climate change. The attitude in Asia resembles 1950s America. Na example is the tallest building in the world. Through many years in sf that was a symbol of progress, giant towers of early sf, and they are not being built in the USA anymore. Through the beginning of the 20th century, American buildings suceeded each other higher and higher has being the tallest building in the world but now those supertall towers are getting build in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Malaysia, Dubai-- The obsession with the futuristic seems to have moved to Ásia.
Then some arguments from the portuguese sf author about role of science in asian societies, but I really did not agree with some of those points and can think of plenty of counterarguments so I did not bother with notes or trying to transcribe. Let me just say that a lot of science development happened and a lot of sf got written in post-1945 America IMHO.
GRRM then told an anecdote that when he was growing up, a lot of sf authors had a written future history, a universe defining how the future would develop. Heinlein, Asimov had it, got published as appendixes to their stories (personal note: much of GRRM´s own sf seems to fit the same universe, anybody ever tried to build a timeline or concordance for that? I love his sf stories as well). The one future history which GRRM did not think believable was Heinlein´s which seemed arbitrary and full of incoherences. Turns out Heinlein was closest to the truth, he was right that people did go to space and then stopped. Heinlein predicted the crazy years, predicted a theocracy dictatorship, Nehemiah Scudder as dictator, which some days does not seem so implausible. Perhaps Heinlein was the accurate one.
GRRM - that there are many types of sf, but that the story of space travel was central to the genre. Like in history historians talk of the Matter of Britain or Matter of France (Arthur or Charlemagne), to american sf its central core was The Matter of Space, and the space program was abandoned and it undermined sf. A lot of people present at the conference were too young to ever had somebody walk on the moon during their lifetime.
A new question, if sf has run out of new ideas? According to GRRM no, there are always new ideas and even fads coming up in sf, things like nanotech, but perhaps the problem is that people stopped imagining the future as a terrific place.
Another new question about the "american Tolkien" comparison, from a critic for Time magazine. GRRM did not adress that but mentioned a bit of ASOIAF publishing history, that since the beginning his publisher has been convinced that ASOIAF is very likely to appeal to people who do not like fantasy (personal note - I totally agree, I have had tremendous luck recommending it to people who do not like fantasy but love historical fantasy or just plain good stories). As an example the first cover of AGOT, which will now only be found in the ARC had a veyr fantasy feel, GRRM described it and it does not sound familiar at all (Catelyn mentioned perhaps? anybody knows?). It was precisely the same type of cover to a lot of fantasy novels which were selling very well. Publishers hoped a non genre cover would appeal much more widely so picked a "big book, important book" non genre cover to catch the eye of everyone, silver foil with a generic symbol and planned subsequent covers to be of the same style with a common metallic theme. The hardcover edition of AGOT turned out to be partially a failure so publishers panicked a bit, and when it came the paperback edition they picked a typical genre novel cover (the one we know, with jon Snow riding a black horse). The second book´s cover was a compromise, picking up the gold foil from the AGOT hardcover edition, but using an illustration box for the fantasy genre feel. With book 4 came a complete redesign, the publishers think they got all the fantasy fans aware of the series, time to go after the non-fantasy fans. GRRM mentioned that the difficulty on reaching, on perception of who are the readers who might like a certain book can be frustratring to an author.
New question about media and fanzines, GRRM mentioned that fanzines seem to have moved online and there is all sorts of electronic media to fulfill that role. That magazines are folding and the ones holding out are selling less and less every year and that sadly will probably be a matter of time, maybe even less than 5 years till Asimov and Analog close. F&SF might last longer not being part of a big corporation. As a journalism graduate GRRM has recently been very impressed when he received a chinese sf magazine who was serializing Skin Trade. He could not actually read the magazine but leafing through, it was a very thick magazine, full of ads for lots of things, full color, with articles on all sorts of media (games, interviews with authors) as well as fiction from several genres (or subgenres), that the american sf magazines are stuck on time and while they might print great fiction they don´t make appealing magazines. Oh and apparently men´s magazines (Playboy etc) are also dying out, it´s all in the internet now .
A new question, about if there is commercial pressure to write fantasy and if authors pick themes not chosen for literary reasons. GRRM mentions that there is a distinction between a career and a livelihood, that in the earlier days, a lot of writers were not fulltime writers. Heinlein was the exception, but Asimov was a college professor, Simak was a newspaper editor for example. In the 1970s it changed and a lot of emerging authors were able to be "just" writers, to have writing be their livelihood. That is now changing back, that for a lot of emerging authors it´s just as possible to have a great literary career but maybe they might still not be able to do it as a fulltime job.
Another question, this time as a former editor of New Voices magazine, what did GRRM look for? GRRM mentioned that there are many kinds of good writing and good stories, mentioned he is currently editing an anthology "Warriors" with Gardner Dozois, a cross genre anthology where the theme is an examination of the warrior mythos. They will mix up all the stories without labeling (genrewise) any story and hope it helps toe expand the horizon of readers . For example if somebody who bought it for the Joe Haldeman story finds out the Cecelia Holland story and likes it and vice versa. GRRM believes they are all stories and that genre is an artificial construct which creates genre expectations which affect the way a reader reads a story. Classic example, a story where a detective finds a body drained of all their blood. If it´s an horror story we expect vampires, if it´s a mystery we expect vampire wannabes and that affects the reading experience.
A short mention of sf setup books written by non sf authors, often of literary acclaim, and that for sf writers or fans it can be frustrating to read reviews which seem to think the concept is original and has just been invented. GRRM mentioned Cormac McCarthy´s The Road, another author based in new Mexico but they never met. Trivia : some New Mexico based genre writers meet for lunch once a month.
Recommendations of books aspiring sf/authors should read were asked. Just caught GRRM´s replies, he warned he would mention only classic writers, that he is relatively stubborn and his influences came mostly from his earlier reading, so he is not likely to be influenced by another writer anymore. Sf recomendations: Zelazny´s Lord of Light, Heinlein (his juveniles or The Puppet Masters, that Stranger in a Strange Land is not a particular favorite though it has many fans), Bester´s The Stars My Destination, Sturgeon´s Dreaming Jewels and Jack Vance who he considers the greatest living sf writer. For fantasy the recommendations were Tolkien, Ghormenghast, Vance´s Lyonesse and Dying Earth series, Robert E Howard ´s fantasy stories, Fritz Leiber. For horror he mentioned Lovecraft, Stephen King who is unavoidable in the genre, Clive Barker. Then a mention I can not quite decipher (Robert Bloch). And a particular recommendation of an almost forgotten author, Gerald Kersh who wrote strange little horror short stories and is mostly remembered by a mystery he wrote, Night in the City who was adapted twice to film, the last time starring Robert de Niro.
More comments about writing and fandom, that writers of other genres seem to write in isolation and not often meet the people who read their work, that sf/fantasy authors are much more fortunate than those in other fields. Sf fandom exists since the 1930s, possibly since the 1920s, conventions have been going on since 1970s. GRRM mentioned that he believes relations between friends are stronger in the sf world, gave an example from his post-college parties, that it´s his sf friends who still keep in touch.
Then some more discussion about the generics of awards, that GRRM thinks awards are good even when given to the "wrong" book, since they get people talking about books. That the purest awards are the ones directly given by fans, and that a problem with the Hugos is that so few people (of all those who could) vote for those, that 20 votes might be enough to put any work in a shortlist, so it´s very important that all those who can vote or nominate do so.
And that is about it. Any misquotings or misinterpretation (nevermind missspellings and assassinations of grammar) are all my own, for which I apologize.