I just got back from a book signing with GRRM. Wow! It was relatively small, no reading, so my brother, two friends and I had the opportunity to stand around and pick the Great One's brain for nearly forty minutes. He was wonderfully accomodating and I was very pleased that he -exceeded- my expectations.
Varys was the other conspirator with Illyrio Mopatis on that stairwell beneath the Red Keep when Arya inadvertantly did some spying in AGOT...
This third Targaryen might very well be -not- a Targaryen, to quote his exact words... "Three heads of the dragon... yes... but the third will not nessesarily BE a Targaryen..."
We will meet Howland Reed, but not in the next book... he(Howland) knows just to much about the central mystery of the book...
We will learn lots about the Harrenhall tourney in the next three books, so, any prequel work he is considering will strictly be the continuation of the Dunk and Egg stories...
He has a meeting next week in Hollywood with a few execs' who want to make a TV mini-series out of these novels, I strongly tried to dissuade him... but he seemed leary of accepting thier proposal anyways...
About another two years for ADWD... but he is hoping to boost his production speed... hope he can...
The rest was just about his world building and how deeply he immerses himself in reference materials,... I tried to pick his brain for any writing tips he could give me... wow!
Quite a guy, it truly was an honor to have the opportunity to question him repeatedly, and enjoy his Tyrion-like wit... though he wasn't very forthcoming about many of the things I wanted to know, that's o.k. I am very happy...
As to his world building . . . he related how he is a monster reader. Always reading. Reading reading reading. On his holidays that is -ALL- he does. He plunges into whatever reference materials he can find that pertain to what he is writing. Seven Kingdoms? Medieval history, warfare, life and times. You got to live and breath it, know your world so intimately that there is no question what utensils they eat with. Even which hand they wipe with! Once one is this comfortable with their realm, diving in and finding stuff to write about is instinctual, done without coersion.
He told of how he started this tale of the Seven Kingdoms. 1991, he was about fifty pages into a sci-fi novel when he had a sudden inspiration, which in the written word, translated into the first Bran chapter from AGOT. It evolved from there. He had to put it aide for a couple of years as he was still screenwriting and had other commitments, but after that he found he had much to say about Westeros.
I also queried about the possibility of him endorsing a 'Legends' type book, allowing other authors to also dive into Westeros... Gods... he looked at me as if I were an Other who had jumped out of his subconciousness... ha! I wish you could have seen it! He loves his creation much and jealously will he guard it.
Oh yah... and he has finished the screenplay for 'Feverdream'. Disney bought the rights. It was very hard for him. He had to dismantle one of his own favorite works for a movie, it was very difficult for him.