Westeros

For those in Europe, here’s some news regarding George R.R. Martin’s appearances starting this weekend, as well as our own!

First up, George will be in Hamburg for the Harbourfront Literature Festival, where he’ll be reading a chapter from The Winds of Winter, and likely to be answering questions as well. Despite early reports that this event would be livestreamed, this event is apparently not being streamed at all. It’s not impossible there’ll be an after-the-fact video from the event (as there have been with a number of GRRM’s public speaking events), but we’ve no information as yet whether that will be the case.

From there, George is off to Stockholm—and so are we! On Tuesday, the SF Bokhandeln bookstore has invited George to speak at the Royal Armoury. Although this event is sold-out, it’s worth noting that SF Bokhandeln’s three branches—Stockholm, Malmö, and our own Göteborg—will all offer livestreams to customers who could not attend the event. So far as we know, there will be no internet-wide stream, but again, there may be post-event videos. And for those in Stockholm, prior to the event—at 5PM—Linda and I will be at the bookshop to sign copies of The World of Ice and Fire, for those who want us defacing their copies!

After that, we’re all off to Ã…land for Archipelacon, the SF/F convention (sold out, alas!) where George is Guest of Honor, and his partner Parris is the Fan Guest of Honor. The convention has posted its schedule, and there’s a deal of interest for fans—we’ll share the highlights below:

• Friday: George will be joining Parris, Gary K. Wolfe, and Johan Angelmark to discuss their expierences and lives in fandom. After that, George will be holding a reading—no word on what he’ll be reading. Later that evening, Linda and I will join GRRM’s minion Jo Playford and Titancon chairperson Phil Lowles to discuss A Song of Ice and Fire fandom.
• Saturday: GRRM’s holding a signing session at noon, and then later that day there’ll be a viewing of The Lion and The Rose, the 3rd season episode GRRM wrote, followed by a Q&A.
• Sunday: George will join Linda and I on a panel to discuss The World of Ice and Fire.

And with that, we’ll all be heading out to various destinations, whether they be home or otherwise. For our part, Linda and I will be enjoying a vacation before we head off to historic Visby during the famous Medieval Week to speak about The World of Ice and Fire, A Song of Ice and Fire, and Game of Thrones on August 5th, 6th, and 7th, all courtesy of GoGotland. We even have a pretty amazing auditorium! We’ve never been to Visby during this festival before, so we’re quite excited by this chance, and hope to meet some fans there. (While no book signings are scheduled, we’re of course happy to sign The World of Ice and Fire after the event or, indeed, at any point during our stay at Visby—just ask!)