Westeros

Thanks to Peter Sagal’s co-interviewing of George R.R. Martin at Worldcon, Sagal managed to invite GRRM to take part in the popular quiz show he hosts for NPR,  Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me. The quiz has now aired, and is available online… and GRRM’s segment can be found at the official NPR page. It’s just ten minutes, and opens up with a few interview questions with Martin before moving on to the quiz portion.

Patrick Rothfuss, whose debut with The Name of the Wind made quite a splash both within and outside the fantasy genre, has organized the Worldbuilders charity drive on an annual basis. Last year, he helped mastermind a unique literary calendar, sales of which directly benefited Worldbuilders: it was a pin-up calendar, featuring photos inspired by works such as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Tom Sawyer.

Now Rothfuss has announced a 2013 pin-up calendar, but this one’s done with the support and permission of a number of contemporary authors… and, specifically, genre authors. So why is this here? Besides the fact that it’s a good cause, one of the authors who has given his support and permission is George R.R. Martin.

Though the livestream was sadly marred by a ridiculous claim of "copyright violation" that led to it being shut down—made all the more ridiculous by the fact that the Dramatic Presentation clips shown were all used with permission of the copyright holders, and were surely brief enough to merit a Fair Use argument—the Hugo Awards rolled on. Here’s the results for the fans:

It’s that time again, folks: the World Science Fiction Convention is presenting the Hugo Awards, the oldest literary award for works of science fiction and fantasy. A number of the nominees may be of particular fans of George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire, and HBO’s Game of Thrones:

Thanks to the latest “Not a Blog” update from GRRM, we’ve learned that Game of Thrones actor Ron Donachie—last seen playing Ser Rodrik Cassel—will be attending Chicon 7, the 70th Worldcon, as a representative of the show for HBO. Donachie also happens to be the audio book reader for the new audiobook of Fevre Dream—Martin’s award-winning horror novel set on the Mississippi in the Antebellum—which Martin announced back in June.

Martin has also shared his Worldcon schedule, which we’ll repost below, with an interesting possible caveat: in comments he mentions that instead of reading one of the chapters from The Winds of Winter that he’s read on previous occasions, he might instead read from The World of Ice and Fire (the book we’re co-authoring with him) as he did at Bubonicon (a report from which can be found here). GRRM asked for opinions. Personally, the chapters he’s read have generally been read several times, and there are extensive reports available on the “A Song of Ice and Fire” forum… whereas he’s only read once from TWoIaF, and there’s plenty of details from that reading that haven’t been shared with fans.

Here’s his schedule:

Over at “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin has published his schedule for Bubonicon 44 in Albuquerque, New Mexico between August 24th the 26th. As usual at these convention appearances, there’s a reading ... and this time, the reading’s a surprise: rather than read the extract from The Winds of Winter that Martin has read at his last few appearances, he’s treating everyone to the very first public reading of an extract from The World of Ice and Fire, the setting guide that Linda, George, and I have been working on, on and half, for… well, awhile. ;)

As GRRM’s hinted in earlier “Not a Blog” posts, he’s recently written a few historical pieces for the book, pieces that answer questions that some fans have had about the history of the Seven Kingdoms and the early reign of the Targaryen dynasty from the very start of the series back in 1996. If you’re in the ABQ area and don’t have plans for that Friday, you can get yourself a day pass for $15. And, hey, evenings? Parties are where you’ll find GRRM hanging out. His advice for those going to Worldcon holds for Bubonicon, and will give you a sense of how approachable GRRM can be at an SF convention.

Two weeks ago, we reported that George R.R. Martin was being honored with a World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award, shared with British fantasy author Alan Garner. And now we’ve learned that on the final ballot has been released, and Martin’s A Dance with Dragons, fifth novel in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, is nominated in the Best Novel category!

Thanks to the Kosmopolis International Literature Fest, George R.R. Martin is involved in a Q&A in Barcelona, and it’s being live streamed. Apparently A Dance with Dragons is part of the focus on the conversation,  so there may be spoilers for that novel. Also, bear in mind that Martin’s answers are translated and repeated in Spanish, so it takes a bit longer to get from one question to the next. Once a video archive is available, we’ll link it, just as we have been with others of Martin’s appearances in Spain via the So Spake Martin collection:

This was just announced today: the World Fantasy Convention has announced that this year’s World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievementwill go to George R.R. Martin and (the very excellent) Alan Garner. It’s an award that’s been given to a number of notable writers in the past, including Terry Pratchett, Jane Yolen, Peter Beagle, Urusula K. LeGuin, and more.

More information about the recipients can be found at the World Fantasy Awards site.

Garner is one of the writers Martin has admired, so it’s particularly nice that they are receiving the award in the same year. In fact, Martin has a noble house named after the British author, with the arms referencing his enigmatic, unforgettable novel The Owl Service (Order: Amazon US, Amazon UK).

(Thanks to @olafkeith for noting this to us.)

Tonight at 7PM, George R.R. Martin will be reading—almost certainly from The Winds of Winter—at Town Hall Seattle, part of the Summer Reading Series hosted by Clarion West, one of the leading SF/F/H writer’s workshops. George will also be available for a Q&A.

Tickets are already sold out through the official outlet, but according to Brown Paper Tickets:

So, worth a shot.

Over at “Not a Blog”, George has posted a lengthy update on various projects, from those that are done (The Lands of Ice and Fire poster map collection [Preorder: Amazon US, Amazon UK]) to those in-progress (such as The Winds of Winter, Dangerous Women and the fourth Dunk & Egg novella, the latest Wild Cards novel Lowball, and Old Mars), and on to those just in the planning stages (Old Venus).

One in particular might be of special interest to followers of Westeros.org, since it’s The World of Ice and Fire, the world book that we’re are co-authoring with George. Here’s what George has to say:

Speaking of that last stuff… yeah, there’s some really neat details in there, and perhaps a new mystery or two for fans to ponder. Some fans have long wondered just how Aegon’s Conquest was carried out, how the Vale of Arryn fell under their control, the status of Dorne in that time, even the order in which the Targaryens conquered each region… well, they’ll be wondering no more, on those topics, and quite a few others!

Over at George R.R. Martin’s Not a Blog, GRRM notes that he’s supporting a charity drive to support the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary—a non-profit organization that takes in and shelters abused or abandoned captive-bred wolves. To assist the sanctuary in its fund-raising efforts, Martin has donated 40 first edition hardcovers of A Dance with Dragons, which will come autographed and personally inscribed for the first 40 people to donate $100 or more to the charity. As he notes, the swelling attendance of his signing events has made personal inscriptions much less common than they once were.

Besides that, there’s also a chapbook available for those who donate $10, which he’ll sign (but not inscribe).

As George says, it’s all in a good cause, so please consider donating!

We’ve just learned that A Dance with Dragons—the fifth novel in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series—has been announced as the winner of the 2012 Locus Award for Best Novel. Presented each year, the Locus Awards are administered by Locus Magazine, the foremost SF/F publishing trade magazine. The yearly Locus Poll—open to everyone, although submissions by current subscribers are weighted—has been very kind to the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, with every novel taking first place with the exception of A Feast for Crows (which was #2 in the poll, just behind that year’s winner, Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys).

Congratulations to GRRM and, indeed, all the winners of this year’s Locus Awards! For those who are curious, China Mieville’s Embassytown took Best SF Novel, while Catherine Valente scored wins in three separate categories (YA, novelette, and novella). The full list of finalists can be found at here, while we’ll update when the official and complete results are available online.

UPDATE: The full list of winners and finalists can be found here.

Three interesting sets of articles about George R.R. Martin have surfaced in the last couple of days. We’ve added them to the So Spake Martin collection, of course, but for convenience here’s the direct links to the three pieces:

• Rolling Stone profiles GRRM at MisCon.
• The Financial Times has lunch with GRRM, discusses the books, sexposition in Game of Thrones, and more.
• Sports Illustrated talks football with George. Ser Bonifer the Good = Tim Tebow!

A bit belated on our part, as personal stuff has kept us busy these last couple of weeks, but GRRM has a number of updates at “Not a Blog” which we thought we’d make note of, with comments. See them below: