Sorry to those awaiting breathtaking news, but the MG signing didn't reveal a whole lot of new information, most of the questions were geared on the how-do-you-write-such-and-such level. Someone asked if everything was planned out in advance and GRRM replied that while he had to outline in Hollywood he doesn't do it naturally. Although some writers do outline to a fare-thee-well, and he knows the broad strokes going in, it works better if some of the twists and turns are spontaneous along the way. And in the event of his untimely death, we're just SOL. Comments about his writing women characters really well (which he was pleased to hear, because when identifying with a character not of your own gender, you have to do it purely on empathy, and it's nice to hear you got it right). The reading we got was from the Jon Snow meeting Mance Rayder scene. He mentioned that he's picking a different passage for every reading.
I had dinner with him afterwards (weep with envy!), but being a spoiler-phobic person, I talked about a lot of Other Things instead (collecting things off e-bay, origami, comic books, cons, the Frankfurt bookfair (which he said was BIGGER than the ABA with ten halls and attendance in the 100,000s, waiting to see who was president [he'd stayed up until 3:00am while in Toronto the night before], Ran's working out of the Targaryen succession, etc., etc.) But I did get up the courage to blurt out one small SoIaF query, which was if we've met a descendent of Dunk's in the SoIaF. He said yes. I also asked if his older books were coming back into print and he said that Bantam does intend to re-release them, in the order of most-like-SoIaF to least-like: so (I think. I have teflon brain) Dying of the Light, Windhaven, Fevre Dream, and then Armageddon Rag.
I don't think I was very entertaining during dinner, and it was just me and him (or it could be the fact that he'd just lost three hours [shifted from Toronto, the signing was actually 10:30p, and he'd stayed up until 3am for the voting results]. As to how I managed it, I'm still not quite sure, but it started about a dozen years ago at the San Diego Comic-Con. GRRM was still guesting the SDCC because he was doing Wild Cards. At that time, I was having fun learning origami out of books, and I had learned to do a turtle. So, while at a panel, I folded one, and then gave it to him afterwards (for the Wild Card virgins, GRRM wrote a superhero character called The Great and Powerful Turtle for that series). I apparently did this in successive years, although, with my teflon brain, I'd forgotten.
But when I wrote him my first fan e-mail this last August after reading SoS, he remembered, and asked me in the e-mail if I was the person who'd handed him an origami turtle, and was I coming to the signing. I said yes and yes, and he sent me another e-mail asking if I'd like to have dinner with him aftewards. After recovering from the heart attack :^), I said "HELL YES!!!" So, I've had about a month to choose a restaurant and fold origami, and specifically one particular model from a book I had.
[Someone mentions GRRM's statement about how hard it was for him to kill characters, and that he would play computer games to distract himself.]
I loved that, too. Also the mention of Lord Vance as a tribute to Jack Vance (GRRM mentioned that the Dying Earth books are back into print as one volume), and that he starts to put in those kinds of names when he has to fill out a list of minor lordlings and can't come up with anything.
Oh, for the historical fiction fans, the author that GRRM most enjoys is Nigel Tranter (whom he said was often depressing because he wrote about Scottish history :^). We had an interesting conversation, because we were sort of mirror images of each other in our Scottish historical reading. I'd read one Tranter, and all but one (King Hereafter) of Dunnett, while he'd read a little bit of Dunnett and all of Tranter. He mentioned his frustration that Tranter books don't have maps since Tranter tends to describe journeys using ALL the available landmarks (I also stupidly complained about there not being a map of the landmass Dany's on in the books, and he VERY politely pointed out to me that there was one in SoS [O the shame!]). He also recommended that I compare and contrast how both Tranter and Dunnett write about MacBeth, going off in very different directions with essentially the same historical material. And also that while he'd read some of the Niccoló series, he'd never read Lymond. I told him to stop reading Niccoló and start reading Lymond, or he'd be really confused by Unicorn Hunt. He said he hadn't got that far with Niccoló, yet.
I asked GRRM if we'd met one of Dunk's descendents in the SoIaF, and he said Yes. I didn't ask him who, because I'd rather find out by reading or reason, only I'm lousy at the reasoning part and want to make you guys do it for me.
Found out from GRRM over dinner last night that the BosKone book will have four pieces in it. The two previously unpublished pieces already mentioned [the script for the pilot of Starport, a proposed SF tv series, and the first part of what would have been a mainstream historical/horror novel set during the height of yellow journalism in the late 19th century, Black and White and Read All Over, "Blood of the Dragon", and "The Skin Trade."
God, my teflon-brain worsens. Another driplet missing from my reports: I asked if we were going to Dorne in DoD, and GRRM said "Yes. Briefly." I guess that means we're gonna see at least a few more Dornishmen.
A couple more drips and dribbles of what I remember: I mentioned that Beauty and the Beast scene (in the episode "Snow") I'd found where Snow dressed all in black (Lance Henriksen) says to Gabriel (Stephen McHattie), "Cold Night." and Gabriel replies "Yes. Winter is coming." He laughed pretty hard and said something along the lines of no harm in using a good image over. I then got cute and asked him if Winter was ever gonna frickin' arrive. He said, "Yes. In Book 5: the Winds of Winter."
LE's description of the Rock jiggled loose another small piece from the San Diego signing. Someone complimented GRRM on his ability to write realistic swordfights, and he thanked the guy, and mentioned that he uses experts to help fact/feel check for him: he knows an architect who can help with the castle designs, an SCA combat expert to help with the swordfights and a horseowner (something he said made me guess Melinda Snodgrass, but not sure) to keep him from turning horses into "cars with legs," as one sees in lots of fantasy. All the names of the guilty parties :^) are listed and thanked for their help at the end of the books.
Min and me went to the Frankfurt book fair to meet George. I think Min will keep you posted on how it was. But here is just a short overview on new information that we got:
Since George has not started writing DWD everything though can be changed ...
DWD will be thinner and quicker.
No new POV
Catelyn will not be a POV
More attention on Casterly Rock
No introduction on what has happened between ASOS and ADWD, but POVs will "reflect" on what happened (so no flashbacks either).
A new story (presumably Dunk) after ADWD, quicker if we can get Silverberg to do a "Legends 2" and he'll as George to contribute. Action please, Ladies and Gentlemen!!!!
A Television station has asked for a meeting regarding an ASOIAF TV-Series. But nothing serious till now. Could change though, if LOTR becomes a box-office smash hit.
George was very precise on "reflections" as opposed to flashbacks. Flashbacks would be "Tyrion remembered being resurrected from the dead ...." while reflection would be "Tyrion wondered why anybody would have tried to resurrect him ..." (of course that resurrection thing is my own theory).
One more bit. George said that the male lead from "Beauty and the Beast" (I forgot his name) would be perfect for playing Sandor. And that the Eyrie is based on Neuschwanstein and Casterly Rock is based on Gibraltar.
... His reason for the gap is simply that he thought each of the first three books would cover a longer timespan. He told us that since he was able just to write down a fictional span of 1-1 1/2 years in these books he had to make the break, otherwise he ASOIAF would be 10 books long.
He said on The Eyrie that he imagines it like Neuschwanstein (esp. how he walked up there) and that CR should be like the Rock of Gibraltar. That means not a fortification on a rock, but a rock as fortification.
One more note. George said that there is no written plan on how ASOIAF will end. So let's all pray for his good health.
...In fact he did not state that he did not know how it will end, he just said that there were no notes on it...
...George _will_ continue the Wildcards series. He thought the books constantly lost appeal since they became too dark, but he really wants to revive the series.
I had planned to go to the Frankfurt Bookfair, where George had said to appear. Min was not too sure whether she'd find the time but she sent a mail to George, asking for a meeting the next friday. On wednesday he called her at work, very politely and quietly waiting to be redirected, even to dial again as she was not there- and confirmed to have lunch with us (Min, her boyfriend and me, that is) at friday, 13:00. We should pick him up at the Fanpro booth. Now Min _was_ sure that she'd go and off we went on Friday morning. Traffic was not too dense so we were there way early. We looked a bit around to find Fanpro and saw George sitting there already and all alone. So Min went up to him, introduced us and asked whether it's a problem or not to start right now (it was 11:00 !!). George said no and so we sat down and chatted a bit. He seemed to be very happy to meet fans as only recently people begin to be interested in him (He told us of an incident where he had a signing session and no-one had appeared for a few hours).
Half an hour later, he invited us to dinner in a restaurant inside the fair where we presented him our present, a Cambridge History of Germany. He was very happy about that since he'd tried to find a book about that topic in English in Germany, but couldn't find one. Then he talked about Leipzig, meeting Omer, and other writers. We talked about Jordan, Tolkien, Cook and Howard, about Arya, Sansa, Sandor, Catelyn (he said that he himself was very surprised by what she did, but he'd had to let her have it her way). About movie business, epublishing, Armageddon Rag, Gothic Rock and Beat-bands, Wild Cards (he constantly came back to that topic), written notes and why people should buy proofs for over $1000. I showed him my drafts for the Castles of Westeros, which he approved.
We went back to Fanpro, still talking about various subjects and later met Werner Fuchs, George's German agent, who showed us the t-shirts (George gave Min the pile to choose one from as gift and she actually picked a Stark one for me! Lady Enchantress, that is.). George willingly signed all the books we gave him. Later he told us that he'd be in Cologne next tuesday, so we agreed on meeting there in the eveing to have lunch together. This first meeting was 4 hours long!
On tuesday, George again called Min to pick him up at a cafe near the Cathedral, which he'd visited after he'd been to the Romanic-German Museum in Cologne. As the chinese restaurant was closed that day, they agreed for a Balinesian one. We met there at 18:30, George bringing Andreas with him, who is his translator. Another friend of Min came with us, so we were 6 people happily eating the balinesian rice-table offered to us. Again lots of talk about ASOIAF, about translations, about Kane and LOTR, about Role-playing with fellow authors and why John Maddox Roberts was not allowed to take part in it. Lots of anecdotes which I won't tell here, and after some beers George even said the one or other not-so-nice thing about some fellow authors, but all with his very warm, nice and touching humour he possesses. Around 23:00 we went to a local in-house-brewery, where Min presented George her personal present while George recollected some incidents that happened to him, e.g. how he was responsible for the fall of the berlin wall. Finally we said good-bye to each other (everyone of us equipped with t-shirts) about 01:00. I had volunteered to drive George back, which took about an hour in which we talked about more serious things, such as history, christianity, ethnic leansing, asimov etc. So after 02:00 I said good-bye to him at the reception of his hotel.
I've met a lot of famous people in my life, but not somebody like George. He was very easy to be around, very witty, funny and good-humoured. It was more like having a beer with your neighbour than with a guy who's received several awards. On two occasions I heard him talk to other people (his agent and his translator) about how proud he was having such "cool" fans. And although he meant Min, D. and me, I think he included the board itself too. He was so enthusiastic about the in-con Asoiaf con and was very proud about it. I'm very proud to have met him.
...About Asimov, I had asked him if he thought about writing an auto-biography, but he said that it would be too boring. He referred to the second part of Asimov's biography where he just writes about when and where he wrote which book and how much money he got out of this, but didn't give away any personal information on his divorce.
...George said that although he has no talent at all to remember people's faces in real life, keeping a cast of thousands inside his head was much easier. He'd forget you in real life, but if you were one of his characters he'll know you.
Yes, in fact he stated he was surprised by what Catelyn did. Those characters seem to have a life of their own that's what makes them so unpredictable.
...I'll not go into details but may point out that GRRM confirmed that there are parallels between christianisation and what's going on in Westeros.
[Note: The report concerning two new WILD CARDS books is confirmed in an e-mail here.]
There are gonna be two new WILD CARDS books, as well as reissuing some of the oldies.
And about A Dance with Dragons, Martin said that he could easily put in a new PoV character, but he probably won't, because it'll make the book thicker, and he has to make ADwD thinenr than ASoS.
... Martin said A Storm of Swords was on the Limit of how large a book can get. So it just CAN'T be any thicker.
And I'm pretty sure Martin's gonna edit the Wild Cards book, probably with Snodgras's help.
He also said he has 200 pages of an unfinished Historical Horror novel that are gonna be published at some sort of an anthology in the near future.