At the San Diego signing, I asked GRRM at the Q&A, "Besides Dany's dragons, have all the Targaryen dragons been descendants of Aegon the Conquerors three?" GRRM answered "yes".
Not much to add to the San Diego signing information, except that yes, GRRM is very tired. I got him to laugh by asking if I could scold the BwB on this board for keeping him up late (as he cited the partying until 2am as one of the contributing factors to his fatigue), but as I kept him up 'til midnight talking about the new Battlestar Galactica vs. the old, and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger when he had a 6am wakeup time for an 8am flight to Seattle, that would probably be hypocritical. smiley2.gif Mostly, dinner conversation was centered about the antics of the BwB during various Worldcons past, as he attempted to convince me I really really really needed to go to LACon.
I think one of the other reasons contributing to the fatigue is that he's used to smaller crowds showing up for his signings. My impression is that it's only now starting to dawn upon him that he's a superstar, and he's rather surprised and amused by total strangers in Italy giving him gifts (and bottles of wine) and asking to get a picture taken with him. It doesn't seem to have changed him any, though.
BTW, how I got invited to dinner essentially goes back to Wild Card days, when I gave him a folded Montroll turtle at Comic-Con, and then showing up at every SoIaF signing at the same store, and handing him an origami three-headed dragon and the like, culminating in one year giving him a boxful of origami house-sigil-animals and an origami chess set. This year, I bought my way in with this. Instructions here.
He did confirm that, yes, those shields were indeed superhero comics references. And that one of the things he regrets losing from the POV split is that he was doing point and counterpoint with the Dany and Cersei scenes--showing how each was ruling in their turn. He also seemed happy that someone out there recognized Bakkalon.
[Note: The following mail refers to information revealed in this report.]
Actually he said around the time of the Trident or just after. Something about the "Just after" comment struck me, especially as he then launched into a discussion of why Robert was the logical king if Viserys or an as yet unborn Dany were not desired as king.
[Note: The following report provides clarification and further details regarding the information reported in the previous report.]
He means to address the AFFC cliffhangers in ADWD even?
Yeah, he mentioned this today in Huntington Beach and I was pretty happy. I was talking with someone right before the signing and we were wondering why he wouldn't consider this. Seems like he is considering. However:
I'm pretty sure he said that's something he might do depending on how he finishes the original POVs he has planned. He said that he has to write at least 1100 pages and he can go up to 1300-1400 without upsetting his publishers. He has 500 pages now, so first he'll finish those and look at the page count. "If" it seems like he can be done with those in about 1000 pages, that leaves him some space for extra stuff, so he may revisit some of the cliffhangers from AFFC. About the POVs in ADDW, he said they are the ones that are missing from AFFC (Jon, Danny, Tyrion, etc..) plus Asha and Arya. He added "And possibly more from AFFC, but we'll see.)
However, hot off the press from Huntington Beach California he said at today's signing that he plans Dance with Dragons to be at least 1100 manuscript pages (at least as long as FfC and aGoT) and probably into 1400 pages (the same size about as Clash of Kings). He thinks the events in Dance with Dragons orginally slated to go into Feast for Crows will be covered at the 1000 manuscrpt page mark or so. That will leave him a "few hundred pages" (his quote) to deal with events AFTER Feast. He then will return to some of the viewpoints and events of A Feast for Crows and maybe even resolve some of the cliffhangers written there.
He is very hopeful that he can finish A Dance with Dragons next year and start signing books again this time 2006.
Also of interest is that GRRM repeats that Tyrion is his favorite character . . . but that that doesn't make him safe. He says that Tyrion has already lost a nose and that WORSE THINGS WILL BEFALL HIM in the future volumes. Not necessarily death but more pain and suffering. sigh . . . I do feel sorry for our little friend.
The conflicting reports of Dornish numbers (Tyrion's estimate vs. AFFC) are due to rumors and inflation. Highgarden remains the most powerful, with plenty of soldiers in peasants. Conversely, Winterfell is pretty spread out population-wise.
I asked him two questions while he signed my books.
A group of people who routinely student the human body would surely notice a crossdresser in their midst, right?
...not necessarily.
Some of the female members of hte BWB would like to know if there are any upcoming steamy scenes with svelte, good looking men.
(pieceing together from memory here) Maybe. Do you mean just with a good looking man? Or maybe with a pretty lady...or two? A person who attended a signing in New York asked me if there would be any boy on boy action. We'll see. I do like the steamy scenes, so if there is enough of a demand...
George also said he would only consider a ASOIF video game if it was with a stable company with honest dealings--he wouldn't just give the rights to anyone. Also, although he admitted he wasn't a gamer, he wanted the gameplay to be a good system.
"No first person shooter in Westeros where the player is a knight, and then he walks around and meets another knight and KILLS the other knight, and then he meets a maiden and rapes her...No Grand Theft Auto in Westeros."
To which a fellow boarder responded, "No 'Travels of Gregor' then?"
In an e-mail to a fan a few years back GRRM stated that Dorne could raise roughly the same number of troops as the North and the Vale. Is this still true?
Did not technically answer the question. He mentioned the size difference between the North and Dorne and talked about the climates for each. He also mentioned that Dorne likes to exaggerate their numbers a bit so as not to seem militarily weak to the other great houses. Reminded us that the men in Westeros have medieval type education. Not every man can count, not every man can read. Gave the example of different mens viewpoints regarding the same army. The first mans count would be 10,000 men. The second man seeing the same host would say it was 5,000...
When did Robert proclaim his intention to take the throne? At the outset of the war, or was it a relatively late development?
Robert proclaimed his intention to take the throne ... around the time of the Trident. Would not elaborate any further. Mentioned Robert's claim being stronger than Eddard Stark's and Jon Arryn's, the leaders of the two other great houses that spearheaded the revolution, due to blood ties to the Targaryen's.
...
He has had numerous offers to get a video game made based on world of Westeros. However, no company has stepped up to the plate in meeting his three major concerns. The three concerns he listed were:
1. Money. He will not give up the rights without getting some form of payment up front.
2. Size of the video game company. He will not hand over the rights to a fly by night video game company that may or may not be in business next year.
3. Type of game. He is only interested in creating an RPG type video game. Absolutely no first person shooters.
Jon Targaryen has already reported the important stuff, so there's not much to add. It looks like the Jaime/Loras shippers are out-of-luck, as are those wishing for an explicit flashback to Renly and Loras in bed. Caress of Cersei was entertaining throughout. She said "We've had descriptions of Tyrion's bulbous purple head, and Sam's fat pink mast, when are we going to get a detailed description of Rhaegar's cock?" George laughed all such suggestions off, good-naturedly but you could tell he found the idea dubious at best. Sally/Arya/Asha from Berkeley was very outspoken about wanting Sansa to die and George kept a straight poker face through that and all similar serious pronouncements about where people wanted the plot to go. The same sort of breakdown was evident at the Half Moon Bay signing. He was quick to squash suggestions that Brienne and Tyrion might be a couple, but gave no reaction at all to questions about R+L=J. I think we can trust that if George says no, it means no, and if he says nothing, it could go either way.
At both signings George talked mostly about the history of his writing career, the ups and downs of being an author (at Half Moon Bay he told some anecdotes about Stephen R. Donaldson, who also lives in New Mexico and is a long-time friend of George's), and stories about past signing tours. The one about the -4 turnout in St. Louis has been reported here already. At Kepler's he told another story about being upstaged in Dallas by Clifford the Big Red Dog, with some miming of a person in a dog suit signing books with a big red paw print. He didn't say much at all about the plots or characters of Song of Ice and Fire unless asked by the audience. The Half Moon Bay audience asked more of those questions than the audience at Kepler's did. I got the impression that the audience in Half Moon Bay was younger than the audience in Menlo Park, probably because of the time. It's easier to cut work in the early afternoon than to cut school...
[Note: Teri is asked about GRRM's Donaldson anecdote.]
Well, let's see. It came up in a context of someone asking him if, after he completes Song of Ice and Fire, he intends to write more stories in that world, or whether he will switch to something different. To which he said that he would prefer to do something new, but he really likes his work to be read (the biggest reason he left the film industry was frustration at writing pilots and concept treatments that nobody but the studio execs ever saw). Then he listed a number of authors who had trouble selling anything set outside the world and characters that made them famous, including Arthur Conan Doyle with Sherlock Holmes, Frank Herbert with Dune, etc.
That led into an account of Donaldson's publishing career. He told about how Donaldson wrote all three volumes of the first Chronicles of Thomas Covenant before sending any of them to a publisher, and he sent the whole package of three books to all 43 companies that were publishing science fiction and fantasy at the time, and got rejected by them all. The publishers all felt the basic premise was unmarketable. "Who is going to want to read about a leper?", they asked. Then he started over at the beginning of the list, modifying his cover letter to address some of the objections. He finally got someone to take a risk on it, and it became a best seller. Suddenly the publishers were all over him to write more of the same. The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant was also a big hit, and he got begged to do a Third Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. But Donaldson was wanting to try something different. So he wrote "Mordant's Need", and, as George quoted Donaldson "lost three quarters of his audience". Not learning his lesson, he followed that with the Gap series, and "lost three quarters of the readers he had left." He found that his best sellers were not due to millions of Stephen R. Donaldson fans, but to millions of Thomas Covenant fans. After that, publishers wouldn't touch a non-TC Donaldson novel with a ten foot pole. Finally he came back in 2004 with The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, which is selling again.
Then GRRM recapped his concern that he hopes he doesn't just have Song of Ice and Fire fans, and suggested that the audience buy the reprints of his earlier works like Fevre Dream, Dying of the Light, and Armageddon Rag, to prove to his publishers that there's a readership for GRRM works set outside the world of Westeros.
...
I asked "Will we get information in A Dance for Dragons to resolve any of the cliffhangers from A Feast for Crows, or will we have to wait for book 6 to find out what happens?" And his reply was that first he wants to bring all the POV characters not in A Feast for Crows up to roughly the same time period that A Feast for Crows ends. Then, depending on how many pages that ends up being, if he has room he will start mixing in points of view from the characters in the south. So probably we will get some information on the cliffhangers in A Feast for Crows, unless the North and East storylines end up taking more pages than he expects them to.
This was in the kitchen when we were both topping up our wine glasses. I don't think anybody else was in the kitchen right then.
One thing to consider is that for each book, he likes to end each point of view either on a cliffhanger, or on a full resolution (like a definite death), or on a major change of scene (someone leaving for a new destination or arriving at one.) So he may be a bit reluctant to continue from a particular cliffhanger if he doesn't have time to develop that character to the next good stopping point.
We had some rather interesting discussions both of science fiction/fantasy in general, ASOIAF specifically and many other topics. Several notes:
1. George was asked "Will we find out more about Jon Snow's mother", his answer was "yes".
2. When asked if Maesters could earn multiple links in the same discipline, he said "yes".
3. WRT Dornish troop counts, that Dorne's strength in numbers varied from person to person. Tyrion might have one perspective, Daeron (the young king) another, and Oberyn Martell a third. Each POV is of course right in his/her own mind, and the reader must judge who has the best info. I'll vote for Doran Martell on this one, rather than Tyrion.
4. A very young child asked if Brienne and Tyrion would make a good couple, which George answered "no". My comment: "Can you imagine a four foot tall dwarf in bed with a 6'6" giantess?"...probably not.
In response to the why was LF fostered at Riverrun when he was a insignificant lord question: GRRM said that Petyr's father and Hoster met up during the War of the Ninepenny Kings and became friends. Apparently that was a time when a lot of people from all over the realm forged friendships. LF's dad later "cashed in" on the friendship to get LF fostered at Riverrun.
The next Dunk & Egg story will largely involve a wedding and a tournament. He hasn't decided on a title.
George's Speech
Brief History
At half of the signings George went into a brief history of his writing career. How he published his first story in 1971 and won a lot of acclaim with short stories in the 70's. The early novels he published (Dying of the Light, Windhaven, Fevre Dream) culminating with Armageddon Rag in 1983. He said Armageddon Rag was supposed to be his breakout bestseller that would make him a household name. At the Booksmith he asked us if any of us had heard of AG and a half dozen of us raised our hands. He then said we were the only ones that bought the book. tongue.gif
After the Rag he couldn't get a bite in the novel publishing world so in desperation he went to Hollywood. There he worked on the Twilight Zone and the Beauty and the Beast, writing and producing 12(?) episodes for the latter show. That lasted a few years. Then he entered the world of developing or, as some call it, "development hell." Apparently you can make a lot of money writing and re-writing pilots and such but only the network execs get to see em and George said he needs to have an audience.
ASOIAF is born
Around the summer of 1991, George didn't really have anything on his plate so he decided to give another go at prose which he had been away from for some time. He started work on a novel called "Avalon." Sometime into his writing of that, he woke up one day with the first Bran chapter vividly in his mind. It took him two or three days to write that chapter. Then the next chapter was in his mind. And the next and so forth until he had half a dozen chapters give or take.
However, at that time, Hollywood called. A pilot he had been trying to produce, "Gateways", about alternate dimensions was going into production and George was needed. So he spent the next three years working on that while ASOIAF sat in a drawer.
The Architect and the Gardener
At the Booksmith signing, George went into how he sees a general division between writers. Some are "architects." They create languages, write character biographies and map out plot points all before ever writing a word of their series. Then there are the gardeners, of whom George is one. They plant a seed, water it and let it grow. The thing is, they usually have to water it or it dies. Unfortunately, Avalon and something George worked on right after AR died. But AGOT refused to do so. George said Tyrion kept whispering in his ear over the years and when he went back to it in 1994 it was as if he had left it for three days instead of three years.
The Tours
George told the now familiar story of St. Louis a few times over the last two days. I laughed each time as he has great elivery. "Some authors say no one showed up to their signings. Well, I can beat that. I drove four people away!" lol.gif Teri Pettit covered the Big Red Dog which was also hilarious. Unfortunately, Texas is SOL unless someone can convince George's publicist it won't be like AGOT. Kepler's is one of the only bookstores George has made for all four ASOIAF books. He was surprised in 1996 to see a huge AGOT display in the window and learned later that Kepler's sold the most hardcover AGOTs of any bookstore in the nation.
NYT List and Thanks
At all the events, George mentioned debuting at #1 on the NYT list and made sure to give many thanks. There were a lot of people at Bantam and his agents. He thanked the independent bookstores and their employees who handsell ASOIAF. Finally, he thanked all of us. He said some books go on the list because they have million-dollar advertising budgets, some go on the list because a celebrity writes them and some go on because Oprah likes them. But AFFC is there because of word-of-mouth and fans like us who introduce the series to everyone we know that ever periodically opens a book.
Shout-outs to the BWB
At every signing where Lodengarl, Caress of Cersei, Skylark the Red and Bronn Stone were in the back, George would somehow make sure to mention the Brotherhood without Banners as being the largest ASOIAF fan group. Lodey even spoke a few words at Kepler's. At the Booksmith, he also mentioned Ran and Linda in connection with "compendium" type resources and getting help with details. He said he goes to Westeros.org if he really needs to remember something. He also mentioned Dajamieson as someone he can call if he's really stumped since he wins all the trivia contests.
Q+A
In my arrogance, I thought I could remember most of the Q+A without writing it down so I didn't write down the questions for Stacey's and the Booksmith. Alas, when I tried to post at the Best Western I was in for a rude awakening. Chastised, I bought a notebook and wrote down the Q's for Kepler's and Bay Book.
Q: Are there logistic aides?
A: It's all in his head aside from some charts, maps and word documents.
Q: Any type of film project?
A: He doesn't really see how it could work. An old-school miniseries of Shogun type length might work but the networks aren't really into those anymore. OTOH, if someone wants to give him a "dump truck full of money" and try their hand at the series then he will consider it. His Hollywood agent is getting alot of calls recently with the dubbing of GRRM as the "American Tolkien" but George thinks they will run screaming into the hills after they get ahold of the books. George also mentioned he would pen the screenplays if the films are made after the completion of the series.
Q: Action figures?
A: Testors will have a miniature's game with three sizes. Not sure on this but I think 33mm, 54mm and 118mm.
Q: Did the publishers have a problem with killing main characters?
A: No, apparently everyone liked it. smiley2.gif He went into how he likes to play for keeps by killing someone important early on. He wants the readers to feel the suspense of the character's predicaments. He mentioned how Indiana Jones would always win even against the 47 Nazis.
Q: 5-year gap?
A: It worked for characters like Arya and Dany but not so much for the adults or those who had a lot of action coming. He was writing chapters where Jon thought, "Well, not a lot has happened these past five years, it's been kinda nice." And Cersei chapters where she thought, "Well, I've had to kill sooo many people the last five years." So he ended up dropping it. He said he would have done it sooner if he hadn't told so many fans about it. And there is no gap anymore. "If a twelve-year old has to conquer the world, then so be it."
Q: Companion Guide to ASOIAF?
A: He prefers we read the books over again rather than have a companion because they are meant to be re-read and pored over. He will not do a synopsis in the beginning of each book as he sprinkles little nuggets to the books mysteries throughout the books and if he had to do a synopsis he would either leave those out or include them and reveal them to everyone. He then mentioned the Art of ASOIAF book, the RPG and Westeros.org and the chapter summary site.
Q: Do you play the games?
A: GRRM has played the board game but not the collectible card game.
Q: Do you have a history background?
A: History was his minor in school. He likes historical fiction and ASOIAF is meant to have a HF feel but he won't write it because we all know how it will end already.
Q: Do you know the entire story already?
A: It's like a journey from the West Coast to NYC. He knows his final destination, the interstates he will take, the hotels he will stay in. But he doesn't know what detours there will be along the road, where he will eat, what hitchhikers he might want to pick up, etc.
Q: How much does a character lose through death?
A: "Death is hard." lol.gif The character gets more and more removed from his or her former life. The main thing remaining, what brings Beric back, is the sense of purpose, the mission he has yet to accomplish.
Q: Will we see Willas Tyrell?
A: Yes. (now we can all speculate how)
Q: How long until next D+E story?
A: The story is half-written. It will not be in Legends are there are no more Legends. He wants to do 9-10 D+E stories covering their life. There will be comic book covering TSS.
Q: Favorite character?
A: Tyrion - smart mouth, very driven and tormented and easy to write about. He likes all the POV characters and understands them. He thinks everyone thinks of themselves as the good guy.
Q: Which characters are based on which aspects of personality?
A: All character are based on George to some degree. The close ones are easier to write about and the different ones are harder. The writer can't say, "What would a twelve-year old girl do?" he has to say, "I am a twelve year old girl. What do I do?"
Q: Did you envision Brienne as an XXY?
A: She is supposed to be freakish. She was an answer to the bad fantasy cliche of warrior women.
Q: When creating a character, do you have their fate envisioned?
A: Yes, to major character, no to minor characters.
Q: Are we ever going to learn about Jon's mom?
A: Yes. (Asha flat out asked if Jon was the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna just to see George's reaction)
Q: How many books?
A: Seven.
Q: What books stuck with him as a child?
A: LOTR, Robert Heinlen
I did get to ask GRRM a question, though I'm sure this isn't really news to Ran and other devotees. I asked if we'll ever get maps of the whole world, or specifically areas like the Free Cities or Asshai. He said that he adds one map per book, but didn't expand on that. (if that's interesting enough for SSM, feel free, I just assume that isn't news to you).
The Q&A in SF was rather standard stuff.
Do you plan to give more information about Joffrey's murder, regarding involvement of Margaery or whether it was the chalice or pie, or do you think we pretty much have enough to know the answer?
Maybe a tidbit here and there, but I think you have the answer.
We have never had a POV near Casterly Rock. Can you tell me more about the lions of Westeros? Are any still around?
A few survive in the outlying hills. For the most part, they have been hunted down. In antiquity, they actually made dens in the rock itself".
Anyway, George was pretty close to being on time...by the time he arrived, there seemed to be a pretty good SRO overflow crowd nestled in among the book shelves on the second floor. George was entertaining...brief remarks, most pertinent being the new (to me, I guess it was first mentioned at his signing last night) information that he just got advance word from his publisher that Feast will debut at #1 on next week's NYT bestseller list. He said the previous two books had made the list, but the highest they'd reached was #12, and he liked this position better. He told the GoT St. Louis signing story which seems to be a staple at stops on this tour, but he has a nice delivery, so it was fun to hear in person. There was a brief Q&A, maybe 5-6 questions, nothing of note (in my opinion, at least--I hate "process"" questions, like "how do you keep all the details straight"? and "what is the writing process like for you"? both of which we got variations on...oh well, people would probably find my questions boring, too. If I had a chance to get called on, I would ask "I hear Dunk & Egg III is almost done. Can you tell us 1) where it's set (e.g. do they make it up to the Wall), and 2) how long after The Sworn Sword does it take place?"" Maybe he would have refused to answer, but, no risk, no reward).
I left after the Q&A, since they were acting pretty firm about enforcing the "you must buy Feast here to get it signed" policy...that, and there looked like there were about 200 people in line, at least, and I had to get back to work. It was fun though...first time I'd seen George in person, and he presents well, meaning personable and down to earth.
George RR Martin recieved the news that on the November 27th edition of the Bestseller list, Feast For Crows will be #1. He got that news just a few hours before his booksigning in Petaluma California, which I got to attend. Good news, he looked to be in very descent shape, full of vigor, and hopefully no where near kicking the bucket without finishing A Song of Ice and Fire.
I got the chance to ask George a question tonight, and I asked him what he thought of being called the American Tolkien in Time Magazine. He said he would like to take the person home, marry them and have thier children. He said it was the best compliment he'd ever heard and he was humbled by it.
Oh, one more thing, I am traveling to Texas this morning, so I'll be brief. My father is getting married on Saturday, but we held up leaving a day so that I could go to the signing. I took 3 teenage boys with me, they were the youngest there, but they had a great time. Alot of people there felt especially priviledged to know that this was the day that George first found out that he was the top selling author in the land. You could feel the excitement,and the humility there as well. George will be signing 200 books for the Webmaster here at terry brooks site for the Signed Page when he is in Seattle, and I also got to tell him that a great guy named Andreas (King Grub here) was the person that introduced me and many others here to a Song of Ice and Fire. George's comments on being Called "the American Tolkien" were fantastic too. Anyway, I had a great time.
