The other details including the content of his talk and the Q&A have already been reported, so I won't repeat it, except to say that I was the one to ask if he intended to issue a pronunciation guide. I've always been a stickler for pronunciation, going back to being a lifelong Tolkien fan (the Professor was extremely particular about this, of course), so I've always wanted to know how Martin himself pronounces names. But I guess it's nice to know that Martin is pretty flexible about. His exact words were "You can pronounce it however you like."
Since I got to ask my question during the Q&A, I didn't want to hog the signing time with another question, so I just thanked him for taking the time to do this, and for writing the books and for introducing me to Jack Vance. I could tell he was pretty tired from the tour, yet he was very gracious to everyone. Although, I did notice this exchange between him and someone ahead of me: He asked her how she was doing, and she said she was tired. He said "YOU'RE tired?" He left unsaid the obvious "...how do you think I feel."
All in all, a very good experience for my first signing/meeting ever, mainly because I was extremely lucky to be have been 'upgraded' as it were. I'm positive it sucked for 75% of the people who were there who couldn't sit/hear/etc.
Not to be biased as a native New Jerseyan [ok, stop with the jokes, besides GRRM's from Jersey, too], but they really should hold these things in more spacious venues - the B&N in Paramus or Clifton would be perfect - they're huge. Plus half the crowd was probably from Jersey anyway. Or at least they could have a NYC signing and Jersey signing. I guess the organizers just didn't expect the crowd they got, but how could they not?? He's a best-seller and this was basically the only signing in the NE corridor. Ah well, I can't imagine what time he left the place, there were probably about 400-500 people there when I left. Cheers to him for putting up with it - it's gotta be harder on him than us.
I thought the funniest part was when the Hodor POV question was asked. Although a wasted question, it was still hilarious when he again mocked his editor by wondering what she would think if he had 27 pages of "Hodor hodor hodor hodor..." That drew a big laugh. (For the sticklers, btw, it's pronounced HOE-door.) Also his pronunciation of Brienne threw me, too. BREE-eh-knee, accent on the 1st syl. Always thought it was bree-EN. Well, since he gave us license to pronounce how we like, maybe I'll go with my original.
I do wish he would have read. At first they said he was doing a reading, but then he didn't do it. Maybe because the signing was so big they realized he wouldn't have time to both read and sign, or maybe he's just exhausted from the tour - I don't know. Either way, I'm glad I got to see him and when he signed I asked him a question about whether he originally intended for the theme of religious fanaticism to become so prominant in the story or if that was partially informed by our real-world events of the last five years. He said that no, it was really pretty much his intention and that Melisandra was kind of the beginning of that. It's totally fitting for the setting, though. The Middle Ages were all about Crusades, Jihads and a lot of general religiously induced lunacy. If anything, Martin's inclusion of these elements were maybe more prescient about our world than the result of what's going on in our world.
P.S. - I didn't think he would sign so many books, otherwise I would have brought more. I only brought AFFC and my old, 1977 hardcover edition of "Dying of the Light." He kind of liked seeing the old book and commented about it.
That was fun even if it was very hot and he did not read.
I got there around 12:20 and much to my surprise noone else was there so I was first in line to get my wristband (there were maybe 7 people in line when they started giving them out at 1). When I returned around 5 they still had wristbands which shocked me and made me rue giving up my lunch to go down there.
Whoever thought that having this at the Astor Place B&N was a good idea needs to not be in charge of picking locations in NYC any more. The second level was jammed with people and it was so hot. The second level is narrow and long and while there were speakers I'd imagine it was very difficult to hear what he was saying if you were not seated.
I even got to ask a question. Apparently we will not be getting a Hodor POV chapter any time soon.
When I left the line went all the way down to the first level and almost out the door into a rainy night. I don't want to think what time George will get to leave.
I just got back from George R.R. Martin's New York City signing. I got there at about six for a seven o'clock event, and the 150 bracelets that allowed you to get a seat were already gone. It was packed! The Astor Place B&N is not a large space so it got hot and yucky. I stood for like an hour in the back until the lady running the show asked people to raise there hands if there were free seats that bracelet people weren't taking so I managed to get up front! Score!
George didn't come out until about 7:05 or so, to loud applause. He talked to some people before they gave the official introduction and then he got up. He said that his flight from Michigan had left without him this morning so he didn't think he'd get there. But he did hurrah!
He was pleased with the turnout and told the -4 signing story. He spoke about why the five year gap didn't work and why this book took so long. He talked about how he liked to end books with stopping points and that's why he didn't just cut the thing in half.
Then people asked questions. Someone asked if Syrio was dead. And he said to "draw your own conclusions" based on the fact that his sword was broken, etc, which I took to mean yes. Someone asked if he had to go back and change things so information in ADWD wasn't revealed in AFFC and he said not really but he did do some retouching in spots.
Someone asked about R+L=J and if he would change the story because everyone seems to be on to that. I thought it was interesting that he didn't restate the part about Rheager/Lyanna when he repeated the question so everyone to hear. He restated it as, would you change something because people online have theories (ie to make them be wrong). And he asked how many people talked on internet boards and only a few people raised their hands, so he pointed out that theories that are rampant on the internet aren't known by everyone.
He also says he doesn't read the online posting boards so he doesn't see the theories unless someone emails it to him.
Someone asked if he forgets details and has to look them up in the old books. He said yes. He mentioned that people have pointed out to him that his horses tend to switch genders and he said mocked his editor for not catching these sex changing horses.
Someone asked about his future plans and he said to collect social security. Basically he wouldn't commit but did say he wanted to write different stuff.
My favorite question was when someone asked if he would consider writing a pronunciation guide to the series. He laughed and said no because he doesn't really know how to pronounce them himself. He did say that the Audio Books do have errors in pronunciation. (Petyr is just Peter, for example.)
Some he did say during the course of the evening:
Cersei = Sir-say
Jaime = Jamie (I think that was obvious but just in case)
Sansa = Sahn-sa
Tyrion = Tear-ion
Brienne = BriennE (pronounced long e at the end there)
Arya = Ar-Ya (Ex, Are ya?)
Daenerys = Dane-err-is
That was the end of the questions, there were a lot more people with their hands up but he couldn't accomodate them all.
I did get to ask him a question when I went up to have my book signed. The guy before me had the British AFFC and he asked the guy if he had finished and the guy said no. So I spoke up and said I had finished it. And he was like, "yeah?" and I said I had lots of questions but I couldn't ask without spoiling people who just got it today.
So I asked if there would be any new POV characters in A Dance With Dragons and he said he hadn't really sat down to deal with that yet, but that the way he plans it now (which could change) he does hope to include one new POV character in ADWD.
I can't remember who wanted the question asked, but I asked about the gold cloaks. My phrase and his answers as best I can remember:
Q: What were the gold cloaks called before Robert's Rebellion?
A: Probably gold cloaks.
Q: Did they still wear gold or some other color?
A: Still gold and black.
After dinner we went straight to the store, arriving there about half an hour early. It was already standing rooming only by then even in a store that had a decent sized events area. The enthusiasm was palpable. By the time they introduced George, which happened 10 or 15 minutes latter than announced, it was packed shoulder to shoulder in any area that had any kind of visiblity of where George was going to be speaking from. After a brief introduction by a staff member of the store (who coincidently was the person who convinced me to read AGoT way back 7 or so years ago) George spoke for about 30 minutes or so. He talked some about his history with the Madison area, having come up here back in his college days at Northwestern for away football bames against UW and latter attending WisCon and other events. He then went through the history of the develpment of AFfC a story that is so very familiar to us on these boards.
He seems very confident that the the PoV split while, not ideal, was the best way to address the problems he was dealing with. There was then about a 15 minute question and answer period. All of the questions that were asked were of a more general sort, about his writing process and the like. The one thing I did take note of, though I'm sure he's said this before, is that he admits ,that while he still intends to finish in 7 books, it may not be possible to do so. After the they cut off the questions the signing started, which was still going strong ( and probably would for quite a while) by the time we got out of there. I did get my copy of Feast signed but not able to do much more than say hi to the man and introduce him to my eldest daugther, who had waited in line about as patiently as a 6 year old could just to meet him.
What really impressed me was not only how many people were there, and there were a lot, but also how really excited everyone was both about George and about the book. Having worked for that border's years ago, when they were in a smaller location half a block down, I knew this by a far exceded the turn out for any event I had worked there. Speaking to the staff, some of who are still around from back then, the turnout they had for this is matched only by the most important 2 or 3 mainstream writers they had in. At least at that location Feast has been selling very, very well. It made me feel very, very positive about the future of the series in terms of exposer and publicity. This kind of response, if its any indication of what's out there, has to be getting the attention of a lot of people in the industry.
After dinner, we headed over to the bookstore. We had trouble finding parking. We ended up parking in the lot for the Walgreen's that's two store over.
By the time we got to the bookstore, there was already a crowd. All the seats were taken and the standing area right next to the reading area was packed already. We stood at the outskirt and just sort of chilled. More book talk, yay, geeks are us.
Then Martin was introduced and then he spoke about the series and the latest book. Most of what he said has been reported elsewhere, like the -4 attendance for his first book tour in St. Louis, so I won't repeat it here. But a couple of added highlight:
In speaking on the 5 year time it took (Martin emphasized that it's only 3 years late, since he is allowed to have 2 years to write the book) to write the book, he mentioned the fact that he had to scrap the idea of a 5 year break in the story line. He mentioned that it works really well for the children, but not so much of the adult. He said that when he was trying to write, he'd ended up with something like:
Jon is at the Wall, and he thought to himself, "Boy, has it been a quiet 5 years. Nothing much happened. We thought that there was a big threat, but oh well, it wasn't that urgent."
So that didn't work, so he toyed with doing things in flashbacks, like:
A character sat and thought: "Jeez, it sure has been an eventful five years! Last year, there was this huge war and lots of people died. Then the year before, I was married and the wedding was something else all together. Then the year before that, there was this huge thing over in the Free Cities. And then, the year before THAT, there's this..."
So that didn't work, either. The rest of the story you all know.
After speaking, Martin allowed for some questions. Some of them are repeated (wish they all had read OUR board. tongue.gif). Some of the non-redundant ones are reported here:
Q: Do you keep an appendix for all the characters and events to help you keep track of the complicated plot and the large cast of characters?
A: Well yes, and I published the Appendix in the books. There are some that I haven't published obviously, and they never will be. But not everything has been written our or typed up. Most of the notes are in my head. The parts of the brain that normal people use for daily life I use for Westeros. I will probably forget your name in 5 minutes, but I'll know the heraldry of the knights.
Q: The maps in the books are not very accurate. Is that deliberate?
A: If you think about the maps from the medieval time, they were not very accurate either. Someone in France would know France and England very well, and they would know that Spain is down there somewhere, but outside of that, they only had a fuzzy idea. It's like the New Yorker cartoon where they ask someone from New York city to draw a map, and they'll have Broadway, and the 7th, and the 8th, and then New Jersey, and then California. This is true for the characters in the books as well. If they only have a fuzzy idea about the world, then so should the readers. I try to include a new map in every book. There'll be a new map for the Free Cities in the next book, and in this one we have a more detailed map of the Iron Isles.
Q: How much planning did you have before starting to write this series and how much planning goes into each book?
A: I didn't plan to write this series at all. At the time, I was writing for a TV show and I thought that it has been a few years since I wrote a novel, so I should do one. I started on a project called Avalon, which is a SF series based on the futuristic world I created with a few other short stories like Tuf Voyage and Dying of the Light. (Then I missed the next part because someone else's cell phone rang!). I don't know where the story came from, maybe there's a psychological thing with the ego and the super-ego and the id, who the hell knows, but the story came from somewhere within me.
Q: (Didn't quite catch all the question, but it's about what he plans on doing with the series after the end.)
A: I'm still doing Dunk and Egg stories. My plan is to have 9 of them, following them through their lives. At the end there will probably a collection to put them into a book, or maybe two books.
Q: So when you write and you let other people read the book, do you change stuff from their feedback?
A: Other people read the book? What do you mean?
Q: Well, you know, like other people read the books.... *stuttering silence*
A: No, nobody reads the book while I'm writing it. I may stand here appearing to be very sure of myself, but in reality, I'm riddled with doubts. This is especially true during the writing process. I make mistakes along the way. I think all writers probably have this thing about them, that there's a creative side and a critical side. Maybe it's a left-brain right-brain thing or maybe it's the ego and super-ego thing, but I think a lot of authors, especially beginning authors, have a very strong Critical Side. They would sit down and they would write a sentence. Then the Critical Side would say. "that's no good." So they'd erase and write another sentence, then the Critical Side would say "That's not as good as Tolstoy." So you just have to shove that Critical side away and lock it in a closet in the beginning and let your creative side come out first. For instance, when I was writing the original prologue, it was going to contain multiple shorter POVs. Then my critical side took a look and said, you know, it's 200 pages into the book before your reader sees a familiar character... that's not going to work. Or when I was writing a five-year gap in the story, my critical finally said: That's a stupid idea. Why on earth did you do it?!
I didn't get to ask any of the questions from the board during the Q&A because it was crowded and we were standing way back. But I got a chance to ask them with the help of the BwBers because I assigned each of us one question to ask while waiting for Martin to sign our books. Hehehe. I'm smaht like dat.
Q: Will there be a new POV in the next book that we haven't seen before?
A: There might be one.
Q: Was Sandor part of Tywin's Party at the sack of King's Landing?
A: Yes.
Q: Was the Vulture King a Blackmont? If not, what House did he belong to?
A: Not necessarily. There are several culture kings and they set up a place in the mountains. One of them might have been Blackmont, but not all of them.
Q: What is House Blackfyre's motto?
A: Oh, I don't know. I haven't thought one up yet.
By the way, I mentioned that these questions were mostly from Ran, and Martin sort of rolled his eyes and groaned. Heh.
After the signing, we ended up calling a night of it, so we were party-poopers and no party was had. Alas. Otherwise, it was a great experience and I was glad to be able to see everyone again and to meet Ser Arthur Dayne.
I'm surprised noone has posted about it yet considering the excellent turnout. There were at least 200 people there, the person from Barnes and Noble in charge of public relations was quite pleased and called it his biggest turnout yet.
The signing was at 7 with tickets being distributed at 5. I showed up at 3:30 and bought the book then sat in the cafe to wait. When I bought the bok the cashier asked if I was coming back for the signing at 7. I told her I was planning to stay in the store until then. She expressed some doubt about how many people show up for book signings and I sort of chuckled and told her I would be very surprised if it was a bad turnout. At about ten to five they started giving out tickets in groups of 30. I'd estimate 20-30 people were in line when they started giving out tickets. I sat in the cafe again (I have a broken collarbone and can't stand for long periods of time or I start to ache). About 20 minutes later I noticed the line was about 20-30 people deep still so I got a chair while I could. I'd say by 6:00 90% of the chairs were taken. By the time GRRM arrived, it was beyond SRO with people standing aisles away and taking down the section signs to see better.
GRRM was a little late, he went to the wrong store at first. He arrived, told the story about -4 people, how his book was three years late, how he had too many manuscript pages, split the book, and is 40-50% done with aDwD. He then opened it up to questions. He was being careful not to spoil the series for anyone in the audience who hadn't read it yet and noone asked any in-depth questions about the series, which was kind of nice, actually.
Someone asked about "Beauty and the Beast" on DVD and he said he didn't know why it wasn't out and was surprised that "The Twilight Zone Revival" was out first since it got worse ratings. He said B&B was out on lasrdisc and that may have caused some delays for the DVD release.
My favorite question of the evening was when someone asked him if he found it difficult to kill his characters. He said the Red Wedding was the hardest scene for him to write and he actually finished the book before going back to fill in that scene. He feels character deaths are important so that when a hero is surrounded by armed men, you can't be secure in the knowledge that he will escape. He wants us to feel the peril his characters are feeling. He wants us to be hungry when we read about eating, be horrified when we read about battles and gore, be
Someone asked how he goes about writing, or something like that. He explained that he had been writing since he was a boy in the projects and that the stories are just inside him and he has a desire to get them on paper to share. He related a dinner he had with other authors (I'm sorry, I forget who) in which one said he wished he could win $10 million so he could stop witing and he was asked "What if you were given $10 mill with the requirement you never write again". He replied that he couldn't do it. That is how GRRM feels true writers are.
Anyway, the final turnout was definitely >150 (the PR manager said they were getting out group 6 of the tickets - 30 people/group) but I'd imagine it was >180 when all was said and done. GRRM signed in groups of 3 books, I think he was briefed on that by the PR manager since other signings were 5.
I just remembered that someone at the back of the room asked "Who can we expect to live through the series?" GRRM misheard this as "How many"... His answer was "I don't know. 6, 4, 7? 7 has been a good number so far." He did say that he really didn't know "how many" nor did he answer "who" but I doubt he would have anyway.
He also mentioned there were 19 POVs. I think this number was for the book that was AFfC but got broken in twain. He pointed out that in the previous books, one POV character died and was replaced by two new POV characters... no word on if this rule still holds (if we were at 10, 9 would have to die, I suppose).
I was at the Ann Arbor signing while I was there I asked George if a year was a year and George said that a year was indeed a year. And that the seasons have to do with the tilt of the axis and not the length of the year. I do not know why I asked it this way I wish I worded it slightly differently. I wished I asked him if a year was 365 days.
Today, George R.R. Martin was in Ann Arbor, signing copies of "Feast for Crows." I'd picked it up fifteen minutes before the signing, and we ended up near the back of the line. A very, very long line. The signing started around 7; when we got up to get our books signed, the store was making its 10:45 closing announcements.
"Your hand must be tired," I said. "No," he responded cheerfully. "Well, maybe a little. But your feet must be more tired, standing all this time."
"Maybe a little," I agreed, "But I could read while I was waiting, so it wasn't so bad."
"Ah," he said, switching to my next book, "You've started the book already?"
"Yes. I have to say, though, as soon as I started reading about someone who seems nice and sweet and had never appeared in the books before, I knew that things weren't going to turn out well."
He chortled. "I know. I'm sorry. I'm evil."
"You are evil, but you shouldn't be sorry. I love it."
In any event, I'm impressed that he was so nice and gracious after so long a time signing.
While driving in, there was unnaturally bad traffic for the couple of miles from the freeway to the campus area. We're talking worse than rush hour bad traffic. We're talking as bad as a UM home football game traffic. We're talking bumper to bumper here. My husband was teasing me and saying that all of these people were heading to Borders for the Martin reading. As we got closer to the bookstore, and it became clear that everyone was heading to the Martin signing, it wasn't funny any more.
At Borders they gave out colored tickets depending on what time you arrived. There were hundreds and hundreds of people there. I have no idea how many hundreds, as so many people were everywhere, not only in the open area where they had set up chairs for the reading (the chairs were all filled and so was the standing space) but all of the shelving units in that part of the store, including those behind the podium, were all filled with people. I stood behind a shelving unit filled with dvd's and peeked over the top to be able to see GRRM. Pretty much the whole second floor of a building that takes up most of a city block was filled with people.
Martin was very surprised to see so many people. He was surprised that he was completely encircled. "There are so many of you and you are all around me!" His talk was warm and funny. He gestures a lot with his hands. He talked about previous trips to Ann Arbor when he was a college student at Northwestern and he would come over for football games. He talked about when he started out as a writer he couldn't pay his bills on what he made with his pen, so he also had a job running chess tournaments, and Ann Arbor was one of his regular stops.
In reaction to the large crowd, he told a funny story about how the smallest crowd he ever had at a signing was -4 (that's right; negative four) in downtown St. Louis for A Game of Thrones.
He spoke of how he thinks of A Song of Ice and Fire as a symphony with the individual books as the movements and the characters as the instruments.
He spoke of the notorious originally planned "five year gap" and why he had to scrap it, and restart the book, and how that delayed the book. He spoke of why the book had to be split into two. If anyone is interested, ask, and I will share his answers. He said that he hopes to be back in Ann Arbor this time next year to do a signing for A Dance with Dragons, and that he hopes to be done with the series in about six years and a total of seven books (four of the seven are now out and he is well on his way with the fifth), but he admitted it might take more than six years. He would like to write some science fiction and horror again someday, after he finishes this series.
He took questions from the audience.
He does not see them ever being able to make a movie, though he said he would consider it for a large dumptruck filled with money (that was a joke). He pointed out that LOTR in its entirety is shorter than ASOS alone. If LOTR took three long movies to film, it would take more and longer movies for ASOIAF. He says that a miniseries is also unlikely, due to the length of the material, as these days many miniseries are only four hours long.
He loves all of his characters, including the bad guys, but his favorite character to write is Tyrion, as he is witty and active and emotionally tortured. His least favorite to write is Bran, as he is the youngest so you have to look at every word to see if an eight year old would know it and every situation to try to see it as an eight year old would understand it, he is crippled and therefore more reactive than active, and his chapters have the most magic thus far. Martin compared magic in fantasy novels to anchovies on pizza. A little adds flavor and spice, too much can overwhelm it.
When he writes he will write chunks for one character at a time. Perhaps he will write 2-3 Jon chapters, then will find something he has to write in another character's POV to go with what he just wrote for Jon, so then he will work on a couple of that character's chapters. And when he puts them together in the books, he will often change their order several times before he finds the optimum order, which will make him do minor rewrites to fit them in together just right.
Someone asked why the seasons are so messed up. Martin said he couldn't give an answer necause that would be telling! He did say that there would eventually be an answer in one of the books, and the answer would be a fantasy (as opposed to a science fiction/science based) answer.
He has a good chunk (I seem to remember over 500 pages) done in A Dance with Dragons and he has part of a third Dunk & Egg novella also finished.
Then came the two hour wait (I was in the middle color of the five colors used; some people had a considerably longer wait) to get my copy autographed. People had come from all over the place to get to this signing. It was interesting talking to them in line. It was also torture, as the line snaked through the music section, and I saw many jazz and classical CD's I would have liked to have looked at more closely. When I finally got up to the table, Martin was very warm and friendly and happy. I am a very shy person but he put me to ease right away.
So I just got back from getting A Feast For Crows and my Game of Thrones RPG signed. George was looking very good despite all his traveling.
The Border's in Ann Arbor was packed. In fact, George seemed a bit overwhelmed by the number of people who were there. I personally was unable to find anyone of the Brotherhood or even people I'd planned to meet who aren't members of the Brotherhood. Sorry to miss you guys!
George began by talking about how pleased he was to see so many people there. He told a story about a signing he gave in St. Louis for A Game of Thrones. Evidently he'd been sent to St. Louis to sign during Archon. Which was ironic, because that's a con he's visited many times and enjoys quite a bit. But it's actually about 30 miles outside of St. Louis in Illinois (and coincidentally, the first Con I met George at, as well as got my introduction to the BwB care of Trebla, Terra, Hauberk, and Gareth).
So he was set up to sign books in downtown St. Louis on Saturday night. Come to find out, however, the Guest of Honor at Archon that year was an author "you might have all heard of, Ray Bradbury. And Bradbury had brought along a friend of his some of you also might have heard of, Harry Harrison. Both of whom were signing books Saturday night."
So there's George, at this very liberal, feminist bookstore in downtown St. Louis on the one night of the year that the science fiction and fantasy community are all in Illinois 30 miles away. He walks into the store and is taken to the section where he's supposed to be doing his reading. It's a cafe, of course, and there are four people sitting in the cafe, drinking their cappuchinos. They waited for a while to see if anyone else would show up, and George decided he's not too concerned; he know's it's Archon that weekend and he's read to four people before. No problem. So the store manager gets up to the podium and does a nice little introduction. At this point all four people in the cafe stand up with their cappuchinos and take them to drink on the sidewalk outside.
That's how George ended up giving a signing to -4 people at a bookstore.
It was a great story and everybody really enjoyed it. George then talked about visiting Ann Arbor in his college days and he told the story of the five year skip of A Feast for Crows. Nothing new there.
Because there were so many people, he then opened the floor for a few questions. The first one was about the movie possibilities, disappointingly. No new info there. Then the question about his favorite character: Tyrion. His most difficult to write character he explained at the same time: Bran. Someone asked about magic, and he told the Anchovies on the Pizza story per the other thread in this forum.
Someone did ask about Dunk and Egg before I got a chance too. He said the next short story is about half done. Another question about favorite characters from a personality, non-writer perspective. He said he loved them all.
Then there was pretty much the signing. I got in pretty quickly and while Geroge was signing I asked if he had a publisher for the next Dunk and Egg story. George said he doesn't yet, as the story isn't finished yet and he's still looking around for the best presentation and some contractual agreements and the like. There were so many people in the bookstore, and he had promised to sign for everybody, that I didn't ask anymore questions. Introduced him to someone I was with and he was very gracious, and then I wished him a good night, shook his hand, and that was about it.
Got the pleasure of meeting Martin tonight at Books & Co. here in Dayton, Ohio. Great night, George was extremely gracious toward his fans and a fairly good speaker. During the formal Q&A and during the signings I asked the following questions:
I asked George about a title for the seventh book and he said that The Winds of Winter could work for 6 or 7 and he doesn't have a new title yet that he likes (and he's not that fond of TWoW).
Asked if he'll ever tell which character is Dunk's descendent. Got a rather acerbic, "I gave a pretty strong hint in the new book," to which I sheepishly replied "Yea, but I read it real fast, in three days."" I told him I suspected Brienne but thought that she was too obvious and that he'd be more subtle than that and he said, "You think?" Coy bastard.
Asked him how he was going to handle the sheer # of the POVs in the sixth book when all these separate narrative threads come back together and he answered, "I'm going to kill a lot of them." The crowd laughed so hard they started applauding his answer.
Martin was asked about favorite and least favorite POVs to write and gave his usual Tyrion for the former and the children for the latter. Children are hard to write since he hasn't been one for decades and doesn't have a youngster readily available to take advantage of.
The highlight of the night was George coming over after finishing off the 2-hour line of signings to chat it up for 15-20 minutes with the three of us (me, my friend, and a co-worker I met there whom I had no idea was also a Martin fan). Kinda amusing to hear about his skinny dipping days back in the '70s at hotels during conventions, though George isn't the most svelte of men and readily acknowledges his physique's shortcomings. I asked George about royalties and he said he pulls about 10% of the hardcover's price, but only after his advance has been covered. I asked if he's ready to pull an "Asimov" and go with a $1 advance and he said he's not quite ready to do that, which surprised me considering the popularity of these books.
There was no reading, although he did talk for quite a bit (better part of an hour, I think, but I wasn't watching the clock) before he started signing. Seems like a real interesting person. Nothing really new discussed as far as Ice and Fire goes. Although there were a couple of interesting points I took notice of. (Some of this was probably known before, just not by me.)
Dunk and Egg: IIRC, he said he already has contracted with some outlet for the publishing of Dunk and Egg #3. He currently has in mind about 9 D&E stories, following them throughout their entire lives. Eventually he plans to plublish a compilation book(s) containing all D&E stories. (Said it would probably be 3 novels.)
DwD: I was suprised to hear how much work he still has ahead on DwD. He said he has approximately 500-600 manuscript pages, and intends to have 1100-1200 when finished. So, he's somewhere around %50 done, but he thinks it should all go very quickly. (And obviously he won't touch it until at least next month, since he's touring all this month.) Although he repeatily stated that he is not making any promises, and won't swear anything in blood, his goal is to have DwD out by next Christmas.
Names: The only surprise I had on name pronounciation was Brianne. I had always asuumed that it was pronounced like "Bree ann". There was once when Martin mentioned her, and I'm 99% sure he prounced it "Bree ann ee" (Note the prounced "E" at the end.) This may even be a common pronounciation, but it just suprised me.
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Obviously I could have hear incorrectly, but here is what I heard. Three syllables. Frist one stressed, and rymes with "knee". Second sylable was very short, but sounded like "ann", and then the final e again would be sound as in "knee". So to me, it sounded basically like "BREE annie". Does that make a little more sense?
Also at this signing was the first time I had actually seen the other hardback books with the new covers. (I had previously seen the new paperbacks.) So I purchased GoT and SoS with the new covers, and got them signed as well. Unfortunately, when they ordered the new CoK, they were sent the old covers, so I still need to get my hands on one of those, if anyone sees them anywhere, let me know. Last time I check on Amazon, they were still showing the old cover for the hardback.
One other item I just remembered that caught my attention. George mentioned (I think even a couple of times), how he really hopes to try and keep the series to 7 books now, but he's not going to make any promises. Obviously I can understand, after everything that has happened, him not wanting to make any guarrantees, but the statement, and the way he said it, just struck me as odd. It just seemed that his resolve too keep the series from growing too large is quickly disolving. I would not be surpised at all to see it suprise 7 books.
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So sorry for the scattered info. I can't remember right now about the outlet for the 3rd D&E story. I seem to recall him either mentioning that he was in talks with, or now in contract with someone for publication. He definately mentioned that the Legends series was now defunct, and there was no possibility of a Legends 3.
Another tidbit that I just remembered. Someone asked about the possibility of a compainion book for the ASoIaF world. GRRM mentioned that there wasn't one now. He said your best bet for now was the RPG manual, of which he showed a copy of the deluxe edition (which looked very nice). He talked about it for a few minutes, and said that even if you were not a gamer, you could simply ignore the game rules in the book and it made for very nice companion book, or compedium, if you will. He did specifically mention the possibilty of some type of companion book or compendium a couple of years down the road.
GRRM also had a quote about pizza / magic that was quite amusing. George talked about growning up in NJ, and how Pizza was the nice thin kind. Nice thin crust with cheese on it, and mabey a little pepperoni. Good stuff. Then he moved to Chicago (was it for school, mabey?). Anyhow, he talked about how there he was introduced to the pan style pizza. He said in particular, some of his running mates like "garbage pizza", which was basically a pizza with everything you could think of thrown on it. So one day he decided to try some garbage pizza. And it has a little anchovie on it. Hmm... he says... never had an anchovie. So he tries it. "Man that's good!". So, some days later, he is sitting around, studying or some such. Hmmm... a pie would be real good right about now, he thinks. So, remember how good that anchovie was, he orders up an anchovie pizza. Piled high, and covered with nothing but anchovies. Well, needless to say, it was the most discusting thing he ever ate. So, his conclusion was, that Magic is a log like Anchovies. A little bit will go a long way in making something interesting, while a lot will ruin something good.
Just a quick note from the Nashville book signing on November 8, 2005. The Q and A didn't really cover anything that I hadn't already seen the answer to, so I'll skip it - except to say that George was a remarkably nice guy. When it came our turn in line, I presented, among other things, my copy of The Armageddon Rag for signing. I explained that I had no dust jacket for it because, shamefully, I had bought it used - not shamefully for me (it was out of print, I had to find it someway), but shamefully that somebody had sold such a wonderful book. George responded that it was the book that had almost killed his career. He went on to say that he's been trying to get it reprinted for ages, but the big hangup is getting the rights to all the rock lyrics he quoted. He emphatically told us he was NEVER going to quote rock music again. Just thought I'd pass along that tidbit for those, like me, who are fans of some of his older works.