George R.R. Martin and Parris McBride have long been supporters of the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary in New Mexico, a non-profit organization whose mission is to rescue and provide a sanctuary for captive-bred wolves, wolf-dogs, and othe related animals. The establishment of the Westeros Pack at the sanctuary—each wolf named after a character (or direwolf!) from A Song of Ice and Fire—is a natural extension of that. George and Parris have previously helped raise over $7,000 for the sanctuary by donating A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones memorabilia for a fundraising auction, and now they’re at it again—this time by supporting another charity auction on behalf of the pack.
The auction itself hasn’t launched yet, but in the interim you can learn about all the members of the pack, and even donate directly to adopt one of the wolves (or the whole pack of them).
When the auction goes live, we’ll be sharing a reminder…. but in the interim, Leyton Cougar, director of Wild Wolf Spirit Santcuary, answers a very important question:
Via George R.R. Martin, we learn that Dangerous Women (Order: US, UK) has been an absolutely smashing success for an original fiction anthology, placing on several bestseller lists. Most notably, the December 22nd edition of the New York Times hardcover fiction list, where it reached the extended list’s 18th position. As Martin notes, the book has also placed on the Ingram’s and USA Today lists.
Many congratulations to Martin and fellow editor Gardner Dozois, as well as all the involved authors, and the publisher, Tor Books!
George R.R. Martin is one among a number of notable SF/F authors—including Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, Joe Haldeman, Michael Swanwick, and Jone Yolen—who have contributed rare books, memorabilia, and other items to the Pearl Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by award-winning musician Janis Ian that funds scholarships for returning students. The biggest item going right now in their present auction? That would be a script from the first episode of the first season of Game of Thrones, signed by all the Stark actors. Notice the blades symbol under Sean Bean’s signature—he really is a a hardcore fan of Sheffield United!
With 4 days left to go, the script has encouraged 34 bids, and is presently sitting at a whopping $3,750. Also of note is a signed presentation copy of the limited edition of A Dance with Dragons with art by Marc Fishman, and a full set of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels signed by Martin.
The Pearl Foundation is definitely a worthy cause, so examine what’s on offer and see if anything might be of interest ... or just go ahead and make a direct donation!
IGN has reported that “multiple sources” have informed them that Telltale Games is “developing a game based on George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones.” While still a rumor—one that Telltale refuses to confirm at this juncture—the notion of Telltale, who has recently won a great deal of acclaim for their The Walking Dead adventure game (Order: Amazon US), creating a game based on the setting will certainly set many gamers to eager expectation.
Interestingly, IGN emphasizes that it’s not clear whether this rumored title would be based on the television show, or if in fact it’s based on A Song of Ice and Fire. However, given our understanding of the licensing arrangements between Martin and HBO, it seems extremely likely that the basis will be the television adaptation; the two previous computer games made by Cyanide were licensed prior to the HBO deal, and “grandfathered” in (and even then, the RPG worked out a license with the TV show to use its visuals and include vocals from actors), but going forward we believe HBO has exclusive rights to computer games.
It is, of course, a rumor, even if it comes from multiple sources. But IGN makes a case—if one reads between the lines—that Game of Thrones could well be the “dream IP” that Telltale executives have hinted at.
(Many thanks to @realcozur for the tip.)
George R.R. Martin has been visiting the lands Down Under, and in the course of it has met thousands of fans and signed thousands and thousands of books for said fans. But he’s been doing something else: giving interviews to the eager local media who seem as excited as the fans to have the creator of A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones on their shores. We’ve been dutifully collecting the interviews as they appear over at the So Spake Martin collection, but we’re going to include some of the more interesting ones below.
For fans of Game of Thrones. undoubtedly the most interesting will be Martin’s appearance with Lena Headey and Michelle Fairley at the Sydney Opera House. Martin enters at about the 34 minute mark, before which the actresses have the audience eating from their hands:
Another interview, from SBS 2, is shorter—but include Martin’s remarks on the Game of Bones pornographic parody film, as well as a reference to yours truly here at Westeros.org:
This past weekend, George R.R. Martin was the guest of honor at Capclave 2014, an annual SF/F convention in the Washington D.C. area. Besides hanging out with fans and signing books, Martin had not one, but two reading sessions. Thanks to fans on the scene, we’ve a number of reports from the event. On the first day, Martin read from “The Princess and the Queen”, his contribution to the Dangerous Women (Preorder: Amazon US, Amazon UK) cross-genre anthology that Martin has co-edited with Gardner Dozois.
Today marks the 65th birthday of George R. R. Martin, and of course fans across the Internet are showing their appreciation—there’s even a #HappyNamedayGRRM hashtag on Twitter. For our part, we were invited by Tor.com to write up a brief appreciation for George, part of a regular series of “On this Day” posts that the site (highly recommended for fans of SF/F/H) runs. We give a brief—all too brief, for a career that spans over 40 years—rundown of his beginnings as a writer, his rise to prominence, his time in Hollywood, and of course the massive success of A Song of Ice and Fire.
Have a good one, George—may there be many, many more to come!
Tor.com has been busily posting excerpts from the George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois anthology, Dangerous Women (Pre-order: Amazon US, Amazon UK), and today they have released the excerpt of Martin’s own entry, “The Princess and the Queen”.
The novella—which distills details Martin revealed for The World of Ice and Fire—recounts much of the Dance of the Dragons, the destructive civil war that tore the Seven Kingdoms apart from 129 to 131, and should provide some very interesting insights into the ancestors of Daenerys Targaryen. The excerpt is also accompanied by a longer, not too spoilerish review of the entire novella.
Dangerous Women will be published on December 3.
... to give Paul and Storm a little lesson:
All in a bit of fun, of course! The source of GRRM’s “ire” would be this popular song from the comedy music duo, “Write Like the Wind (George R.R. Martin)”:
Not long after we posted our video discussing all Dorne, its people, and its history, George R.R. Martin weighed in on the topic of the Dornishmen as a people, in relation to the casting of actor Pedro Pascal in the role of the Red Viper, Prince Oberyn Martell. Here is Martin on his vision of the “salty Dornishmen”, with our thoughts afterward:
As we reported yesterday, George R.R. Martin appeared on the Conan O’Brien show last night. In the course of his appearance, he discussed writing the novels and keeping facts straight, and (to our delight) mentioned us over here at Westeros.org:
There are other clips of his appearance on the site, and the full episode should be available for streaming some time tonight.
The latest anthology from George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, Dangerous Women, can now be pre-ordered in the US (Amazon: Hardcover, Kindle). Among noteworthy contributors are Sharon Kay Penman, Brandon Sanderson, Lev Grossman, Diana Gabaldon… and GRRM himself, with a novella set in the Seven Kingdoms titled “The Princess and the Queen”. It will recount events leading up to and including the civil war called the Dance of the Dragons, when Rhaenyra Targaryen fought her brother Aegon over the Iron Throne.
It’s adapted from material written for The World of Ice and Fire, distilled down to a narrowed focus on the titular characters… but the world book, we promise, will provide a wider picture of the conflict, and the historical figures involved in it.
According to George R.R. Martin at “Not a Blog”, he and co-editor Gardner Dozois have finalized and delivered Rogues, a cross-genre anthology featuring quite the list of contributors. The anthology, tied together by the titular concept, will be published by Bantam Spectra.
Martin provides a list of contributors and their stories, which include Joe Abercrombie, Daniel Abraham, Garth Nix, Neil Gaiman, Connie Willis, Scott Lynch, Carrie Vaughn, and many, many more. A full listing can be found below the cut.
Some rather unclear news came out of a HarperCollins show case, in which it was revealed that George R.R. Martin has licensed to them the publication of a small gift book collecting some of Tyrion Lannister’s more insightful and amusing quotes from the A Song of Ice and Fire series. As some might note, HarperCollins is not the publisher of the series in the US… but as it happens, they are in the UK, and it appears that the idea may have originated there. Now Thanks to HarperCollins UK, we now have the official press release:
HarperCollins is delighted to announce that we will be publishing a surprise Christmas gift book drawn from the works of George RR Martin.
The Wit & Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister will be a small gift hardback (978-0-00-753232-2 in Short Demy â`“ 203x135 â`“ £9.99 November) featuring quotes and quips from one of the central characters from the A Song of Ice and Fire series (on which HBO’s hugely successful television series, Game of Throens, is based).
It has been compiled by the HarperCollins George RR Martin’s UK editor Jane Johnson and will be illustrated by artist and caricaturist Jonty Clark. Although the book is authorized by George RR Martin no new material from the author is anticipated: he is hard at work on the sixth and penultimate volume of the series, The Winds of Winter.
Jane says: “The idea for a humorous gift book featuring quotes from Tyrion seemed irresistible. He is everyone’s favourite character from the series and George’s fondness for him is evident: he gets all the best lines, even though â`“ perhaps because â`“ he’s no one’s idea of a traditional hero. He’s a dwarf; he’s ugly and he has a penchant for whores. He’s not gallant or heroic, and he’s completely ruthless. But he’s also witty, self-deprecating and clever; and he’s both a reader and a thinker and in my view that makes him a properly modern hero and a great subject for a little book like this.”
UK & Commonwealth (excluding Canada) rights in the book were licensed from agent Christopher Lotts.
Thanks to Bleeding Cool, we’ve learned that Avatar Press executive Jim Kuhoric spoke at a panel at C2E2 about various Avatar Press projects, and in the course of it he discussed some of what’s coming from George R.R. Martin. First and foremost, of course, is the comic book adaptation of GRRM’s World Fantasy Award-winning novella The Skin Trade, to go along with their earlier adaptation of Fevre Dream. Thanks to that, Kuhoric revealed that GRRM will be at San Diego’s Comic-Con (which GRRM has previously announced), where he’ll make an appearance at Avatar’s booth and sign books.
The most intersting item, however, was Kuhoric revealing that there’s a “George R.R. Martin original” in the works, which “may” be superhero related. Kuhoric suggests this is a departure, as previously the works they’ve published have simply been adaptations. They’ll reveal more later, but what I suspect this is is a brand new Wild Cards original comic book story, which will almost certainly be scripted by someone other than GRRM (possibly Daniel Abraham, responsible for the adaptation of Fevre Dream and the Dynamic Entertainment comic Wild Cards: Hard Call?).
To see Kuhoric’s sremarks, watch below beginning at the 2:50 mark: