Jane Johnson, head of the Harper Collins Voyager imprint in the U.K., had a chance to chat with GRRM while he was in London. Not only does Voyager publish the A Song of Ice and Fire series, they’re also publishing the recently-released Songs of the Dying Earth. In the course of her notes on the discussion, she touches on the HBO series, but she also wraps up by noting that the most exciting news is that GRRM seems confident he’ll be able to finish A Dance with Dragons quite soon. Has the break and watching the filming fanned the flames and given him an idea for how to finally slice that Meereenese knot?
New miniatures from Dark Sword Miniatures and the amazing Tom Meier in the George R.R. Martin Masterworks series. Robb Stark and Brienne of Tarth are Meier at the top of his game, and Brienne in particular is singled out by GRRM as being the best depiction of the Maid of Tarth that he’s seen in any medium.
Via their twitter page, HarperVoyager—George R.R. Martin’s publishers in the U.K.—have tweeted that they’ll be interviewing GRRM. They solicited twitters directed @_TheVoyager_ with questions for Martin; one will be selected, and the selected person will win a copy of his latest book, Songs of the Dying Earth.
Last month, Jeffrey Jones—an award-winning artist selected by George R.R. Martin as the first artist to illustrate the limited editions of A Song of Ice and Fire—teamed with Todd Adms of Glimmer Graphics to produce a high-quality, Giclée print from his cover art for A Game of Thrones. Produced in a limited edition run of 375 copies signed by the artist, plus another 25 proofs, more information about ordering the print can be found at the sale page.
After his signing in Belfast, George R.R. Martin and a number of fans gathered together at a nearby pub to while away the hours into the evening. We’ve links to the reports that followed over at the Game of Thrones site, but there’s a couple of pieces of information of interest to fans more interested in the literary side of things.
First, Starcrossed Lovers is going to be a straightforward anthology of fantasy stories with a romantic bent, unlike Warriors (US, UK), which features a mix of genres; Martin has written a third Dunk & Egg story, titled “The Mystery Knight”, for the latter anthology. Because of this genre mixture, it seems British publishers are more hesitant to sign on to publishing the book, but GRRM is confident something will be worked out for UK publication.
Second, in regards to A Dance with Dragons (US, UK, George reports he’s happy with his progress these last months, and reiterates he has 1100 manuscript pages written but will need some more before he’s done. He also confirms that in part the “Meereenese Knot” has to do with getting various characters where they need to be in a way that fits what we know from the previous novels.
George R.R. Martin will be signing books at the Eason’s booksotre at 20 Donegall Place in Belfast. The signing starts at 1 PM on November 3rd. More information about the event, including a post-signing meetup, can be found at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum. The meetup will include GRRM and his partner Parris, and possibly some members of the cast and crew of HBO’s Game of Thrones production.
One additional detail is that there will be a book raffle at the post-signing moot, in support of the Children’s Literacy Charity Teachers & Writers Collaborative. Prizes are listed at the link above, and it’s probable more prizes will be added by the day of the event.
German CGI artist Martin Gruber has completed a short rendered film inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire, as part of a graduate dissertation. We’ve notied the site last year when it just had some visualizations and concept art, but now Martin has placed the entire film, focusing on the Wall and the Night’s Watch, up on his site. Appropriately enough, it’s called The Wall.
Hat tip to Winter is Coming for pointing out that the film was completed! Definitely recommend fans go and see it. Martin is also the source of a popular fan-made trailer for A Song of Ice and Fire, which can be seen on his site.
While GRRM is flying to the U.K. tomorrow for the pilot shoot (and the signings we’ve reported on earlier), he reports that there’ll be “some cool news” at this weekend’s MileHiCon SF convention in Denver, Colorado. Could it be TV show related? Has renowned genre artist John Picacio agreed to illustrate the 2011 Ice and Fire calendar GRRM has hoped to get set up with a new publisher? Only those who attend will know, it seems.
If you are attending, keep your ears open, and please do share whatever the news is!
On top of the November 3 and November 5 signing dates in Belfast and Dublin respectively, GRRM now provides an opportunity for fans to get books signed in London at the Forbidden Planet megastore. The event is planned for November 11 at 17.30. The signing is primarily to celebrate the launch of HarperCollins Voyager’s edition of Songs of the Dying Earth, but GRRM will sign his other books for those who bring them (or purchase them at the store). There’s also the possibility of ordering signed copies over the internet from the store.
George R.R. Martin provides an update on the status of A Dance With Dragons. He indicates he’s now surpassed the page count of Game of Thrones and A Feast for Crows, although he hopes he won’t end up reaching the page count of A Storm of Swords. That counts only chapters more or less completed; he indicates he has “considerably more” in rough or partial form.
He’s completed a Jon chapter, and hints that he may stay around the Wall for the next day or two of writing, “and maybe visit Winterfell.” Finally, the “Meereenese knot”—the central structural problem that has refused to be solved so far—will be tackled again soon.
GRRM provides tentative signing dates in Ireland, in the run up to his visit for some of the filming of the pilot episode of Game of Thrones. He writes that on November 3, he’ll sign at Eason’s Bookstore in Belfast at 1 PM, and that David Benioff, Dan Weiss, and possibly some of the cast may attend the signing. There’s also a second signing on the 5th, at 5 PM, at Eason’s on O’Connell Street in Dublin. These are, again, tentative dates and not yet set in stone.
George R.R. Martin has shared the table of contents of the cross-genre anthology, Warriors, which he and Gardner Dozois are co-editing and contributing stories to. Martin and Dozois join Robert Silverberg, Tad Williams, Robin Hobb, Joe Haldeman, Naomi Novik, Diana Gabaldon, and many more stories centered around the eponymous character type. Publication is set for March 2010. Martin’s own contribution is “The Mystery Knight”, which he states is the third and longest of the Dunk & Egg stories set in the past of the Seven Kingdoms.
Having worried at the “Meereeneese knot” and not making much headway, George R. R. Martin reports that he turned his attention to completing a chapter for another character who is “far away from Meereen” and whose second chapter wraps up her part of the story. GRRM finishes claiming that he has 38 POV characters to go, but that’s certainly a teasing joke on his part. Speculation as to who the character whose final chapter was completed is can be found below.
George R. R. Martin shares a number of updates on several different topics at his “Not a Blog” journal, ranging from current progress on the book (his attempt to defeat the problem he’s termed “the Meereeneese Knot” hasn’t succeeded and it’s back to the drawing board) to comics (“Skin Trade” and “In The House of the Worm” to be published by Avatar Press, while Wild Cards: The Hard Call has its final issue still undrawn and with no set completion date) and anthologies (Songs of the Dying Earth has sold out, Warrior is due for a March publication, Star-Cross Lovers is progressing, and a new cross-genre anthology called Down These Strange Streets—mixing private eye mystery with fantasy and SF—has been contracted to Penguin/Ace.)
There is also a brief update on the progress of the pilot, with one more role cast, another role being offered to an actor, and a third role (and its selected actor) having to be written out of the pilot.
Over at “Not a Blog”, George R. R. Martin again mentions the Meereenese Knot, which is an especially problematic section of the book which has been puzzling him for a good while. Writing that he’s taking another hack at it, he mentions that he’ll split two large chapters into four smaller chapters so that he can change the order of events somewhat.
In comments, he also adds that he’s hopeful there’ll be news about a new A Song of Ice and Fire calendar soon.