Dance with Dragons virtual reading/Q&A

leatherman · by **leatherman** on Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:06 am

this book may be released by next decade.

maybe the series will be finished in our lifetimes.

Jack's Sorrow · by **Jack's Sorrow** on Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:30 am

George FINALLY has had enough of trolls on his LiveJournal questioning his dedication to finishing the series, as well as the odds of George dying from advanced age before such time as the series is complete. Amusing.

I haven't lost my enthusiasm for writing A DANCE WITH DRAGONS.

I have, however, lost my enthusiasm for answering questions about it.

And I have REALLY lost my enthusiasm for people writing that I am "not a young man" and speculating about my possible death.

I am not working "only sporadically" on DANCE. But it's not simple equation: x many hours does not necessarily produce X many pages. Oh, sure, some writers can do that. Not me.

For me, especially on this book, there's a lot of rewriting (and restructuring) involved. I write a chapter, sometimes several, decide later it isn't working, go back and rewrite and cut it all out.

These are aspects of the creative process that are NOT FOR PUBLIC VIEW. I am wrestling with my story, my characters, and my muse, and that's one wrestling match you won't see on Pay Per View.

Someday I will die, and I hope you're right and it's thirty years from now. When that happens, maybe my heirs will decide to publish a book of fragments and deleted chapters, and you'll all get to read about Tyrion's meeting with the Shrouded Lord. It's a swell, spooky, evocative chapter, but you won't read it in DANCE. It took me down a road I decided I did not want to travel, so I went back and ripped it out. So, unless I change my mind again, it's going the way of the draft of LORD OF THE RINGS where Tolkien has Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin reach the Prancing Pony and meet... a weatherbeaten old hobbit ranger named "Trotter."

And that's about as much as I'm going to say on this subject. Which is probably too much. I guarantee you, I will now get a bunch of letters from those who want to read this deleted chapter. (No. Thank you, but no).

I'm working on it.

It will be done when it's done. When it is, I'll let you know.

Why isn't that enough?

George also had this to say about the feeling by some felt the last book was sub-par.

Obviously, I don't agree with the folks slamming FEAST, but I believe I understand some of the negativity.

The gap between A STORM OF SWORDS and A FEAST FOR CROWS was a long one. That creates quite a build-up of anticipation. The longer you look forward to something, the more wonderful it is in your imagination, the easier it is to be disappointed by the reality.

Also, as I realized when I split the book, the nature of the divide meant that many readers would find that I had left out their favorite characters. Jon Snow, Tyrion, and Dany are three of the most popular characters in the series, and none of them were in FEAST. And Arya, the other member of the "big four" (I am speaking strictly in terms of reader popularity here, and basing my estimates on the emails I get and the things people say to me at signings and conventions) only had a few chapters.

That being said, A FEAST FOR CROWS was still a #1 New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the Hugo Award. So don't be misled by the naysayers, as vocal as they are. There were people who liked the book as well. Quite a few of them, actually.

I agree with George that the gap between the books created more anticipation, but I think it also had to do with just how fucking awesome 'Storm' was, and then how much of a slowdown there was in 'Feast' after all that previous action. I thought the Jaime and Cersei chapters in 'Feast' were really very good, and those were really the heart of the book. Things were moving pretty slowly in a lot of the other chapters, though, even though things were moving toward more interesting ends. But really, 'Feast' seemed like sort of a set-up book, a link in the middle of the series between the first three books and the last three books maybe. The absence of Jon, Dany and for the most part Arya didn't really bother me, since none of those characters were in the most interesting situations (Arya I thought was in an interesting situation, but then I read some chapters with her and then I didn't really care that she disappeared from the book). The absence of Tyrion I must agree is certainly felt, and he is probably the thing I am most looking forward to in the next book. Jon is still at the Wall, which I've never found to be the most interesting place. Usually when a Wall chapter came up in previous books, I'd look to see what was coming after it. Dany I'm looking foward to a little more, partly because I've read a Dany preview chapter and it was quite good. I've also read a Tyrion preview chapter, and it was very, very good. So, after that there is Bran, his younger brother who screams a lot, and the Reeds and Coldhands. I almost forget about this storyline, but it was getting pretty interesting in the latter part of 'Storm'. Then there's the new POV, which people claim is verified to be Quentyn Martell, and that sounds promising.

Quasar · by **Quasar** on Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:53 am

Yeah, I'd definitely say that one of Feast's problems is that it had to follow up Storm, which besides being insanely awesome, also seemed to have quite a finality to it. So when Feasts starts off to the usual slow pace, there's not a whole lot of momentum to it.

Jack's Sorrow · by **Jack's Sorrow** on Thu Dec 13, 2007 8:13 am

Martin mentioned on his blog that he has possibly finished a couple more Tyrion chapters (one of which apparently stopped being a Tyrion chapter as Martin says he changed the perspective to another character. Martin has claimed in the past that there will only be one new POV character in this book (and no new ones after that for the rest of the series) outside of prologues and epilogues. So that would apparently mean Tyrion has hooked up with another POV character in this chapter. Who could it be? POV characters across the Narrow Sea would include Dany, Arya, and probably the new guy Quentyn Martell. Also, that one guy, one of the Greyjoys, was apparently about to be headed that way at the end of the last book, but the events in the new book are going to be largely concurrent with the last book so he seems unlikely.) Martin seems to only mention working on Tyrion chapters lately. Maybe it's just because he knows the fans like to hear that? Martin seems to have become wise to the idea that it helps to mention in passing in his blog updates that he is getting work done on the books. He didn't used to do that, and would periodically get trolls going nuts about all the stuff he's doing that doesn't include writing. Now, no more trolls.

Also, HERE is a brief article on the status of the HBO version of 'Ice and Fire'.

Jack's Sorrow · by **Jack's Sorrow** on Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:20 pm

Martin suggests that people stop emailing him asking about the potential HBO series adapted from his books, as the evil WGA currently has the TV industry's neck under their boot, so nothing is happening in TV land on any front. Someone did send Martin THIS trailer edited together from other epic movies. It starts out kinda cool, but then doesn't really go anywhere. While I was at youtube, I also found THIS kinda neat video made of various Ice and Fire illustrations set to music by Nightwish.

Jack's Sorrow · by **Jack's Sorrow** on Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:08 am

Martin updates progress on 'Dance'. Surprise, it's not done yet!!

THE DANCE GOES ON... AND ON... AND ON
The problem with doing these updates is that each of them is an attempt to predict the future, and if there's one thing that I have proved beyond a doubt these last few years, it's that I'm very bad at predicting the future, especially when my own work is concerned. I suppose I incline too much toward optimism.
My last formal update on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS was dated February 15, 2007.
If that seems like a long time ago to you, join the queue. It seems like forever and a day to me. When I wrote that update, I was sick of writing updates. So I tried to make that last update the final update, and ended it by saying, "The next update will be the one that announces that the DANCE is done."
Like all my other predictions about this book, however, that one turned out to be wrong. Ten-and-a-half months have passed, the book is still not done, and lately my mailbox has started filling up once again with readers pointing out that my last update is ah, quite old. So in the spirit of the holiday season, I decided, well, I can't give them DANCE, but I suppose I can give them a new update and a new sample chapter.
The new chapter you'll find on the Ice & Fire / Sample page of the website. For most of the past year, I've been rotating the first Daenerys chapter and the first Tyrion chapter on that page, changing back and forth every few months. By now, I fear, many of you have probably committed those two chapters to memory, so I'm adding a third wheel to the rotation, and giving you a taste of the first Jon Snow chapter as well. I hope you will enjoy it. And if you missed the Tyrion chapter and/or the Daenerys chapter, have no fear, both of them will be back up again in the months to come. I only offer one sample at a time, but my webmaster and I do try to change them out regularly.
As for the update part of the update... well, what can I say? The book's still not done.
Last February, when I wrote the previous update, my intent was to finish and deliver A DANCE WITH DRAGONS by the summer, so I could take off for the worldcon in Japan with a clear conscience, and follow it with a book tour through several other Asian countries. Obviously that didn't happen. I ended up cancelling the whole Asian tour and missing worldcon for the first time since 1985, so I could stay home, focus on the book, and make an all-out effort to finish it by the end of 2007. Unfortunately, that didn't happen either.
It is now 2008. I'm still working. There are no short cuts. It's a chapter at a time, a page at a time, a word at a time. I'm further along than I was, but not as far as I would like. During the last year, I had some good days (and months), some bad days (and months), and some days (and months) that I thought were good that turned out to be bad. The book is getting longer, and more importantly, the book is getting better. I've changed my mind about some of the things I said in earlier updates and on my Live Journal, and I reserve the right to change my mind again, though I am hoping I won't have to. Believe me, no one wants to finish this book more than me.
Sorry, I won't give you chapter and verse about the details of what I've been doing and undoing. I've never liked to talk much about a work-in-progress. Too much can and does change. Seeing as how I made you wait so long between updates, however, I'll throw out one small teaser, and mention I'm adding some chapters from the point of view of one of the characters featured in the first lot of Ice & Fire miniatures from Dark Sword, a character who has never had a POV in any of the earlier books.
This summer I am scheduled to travel to Spain to speak at Semana Negra in Gijon, make some appearances in Madrid and Barcelona, and then head over to Portugal to visit with my publishers and readers there. I want to have A DANCE WITH DRAGONS done and delivered before I leave. If that happens, the book will likely be published in the fall of 2008 in the U.S, and somewhat earlier in the U.K. I am pleased with the way the writing is going at the moment, and I think these projections are realistic ones... but as you all know, I've been wrong before. So I am not swearing any blood oaths here.
I probably won't update this page again for quite a long while, so let me close by saying once again that when A DANCE WITH DRAGONS is finished, I will post that news here. The moment I finish the book, I will log on and make the announcement. You guys will be the third ones to know, right after Parris and my publishers.
Until then, let me suggest that you check out HUNTER'S RUN, the new SF novel I wrote with Daniel Abraham and Gardner Dozois, and INSIDE STRAIGHT, the first volume in our new Wild Cards triad from Tor. They are not A Song of Ice and Fire, true, but I'm very proud of them both and I think a lot of you might enjoy them. Both books will be on sale in January in hardcover. And if it's more epic fantasy that you're yearning for, there's never been more good fantasies being published than there are right now. Try Daniel Abraham, try Scott Lynch, try S.L. Farrell and David Anthony Durham and Peter S. Beagle, try Lisa Tuttle and Robin Hobb and Ellen Kushner, or any of myriad other authors whose work is making fantasy such an exciting genre to be a part of... and if you want a change of pace, hop over to historical fiction and sample some Bernard Cornwell, some Cecilia Holland, some Steven Pressfield, some David W. Ball. You'll be glad you did.
Meanwhile, I'll keep working.

I read the new Jon chapter he put up. The timeline confused me a little, as the chapter is set before Jon sent Sam and Gilly and Maester Aemon south. I know the next book of course will be set during the same time period as the last book, but I just figured any Wall chapters would be set after Sam went south, since that is kinda where we parted with the Wall in the last book.

Quasar · by **Quasar** on Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:11 pm

I will be emailing Martin a minimum of 13 times a day until he finishes the book. That'll teach him to make me wait!!

Jack's Sorrow · by **Jack's Sorrow** on Sat Mar 22, 2008 5:46 pm

Bizarrely, Martin mentioned Widgette's site in his most recent not-a-blog post:

And DREAMSONGS (vol 1) is also up for the Golden Chazzie. Actually, it's up for two Golden Chazzies -- one for Best Fiction, and one for Best Audiobook. To tell the truth, I don't know much about the Golden Chazzie. If you go to http://www.needcoffee.com/2007-chazzie-nominations/ you will know as much about the Chazzies as I do. It appears to be an award given by some guys who need coffee. Hey, if I win, I'll send them some! (Or would that be considered to be bribing the judges?) I hope it's made of real gold.

I think I just blew my own mind. No, wait, I didn't. Or maybe I did, but just don't realize it. No, no, I didn't, I'm sure of it this time.

Jack's Sorrow · by **Jack's Sorrow** on Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:15 pm

At long last, and completely against my expectations, Martin actually gave a slight update on the status of the possible HBO adaptation of the series. This is actually nicer news than it seems, IMO, because I had half expected the next thing I heard about the show to be that it was long since abandoned. He also gets amusingly snarky about fan emails.

George RR Martin wrote:The latest news on HBO front is that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have turned in the second draft of the pilot script for A GAME OF THRONES, and their rewrite is presently being read and evaluated by the powers-that-be at HBO. In other words, it's the normal process, which is long and often slow. So far, the reports are good, and HBO seems to like what they're seeing... but no, there's no greenlight yet, A GAME OF THRONES remains a script in development, not a series in production.

The one hard bit of news is that HBO has reached agreement with the BBC for them to come in as a partner on the series... IF it goes ahead. That's very cool news, and I'm excited and pleased to have the BBC involved... but even so, we're still in the crossed fingers stage here, not the shooting-off-fireworks stage.

I get emails about the HBO adaptation of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE almost daily, by the way, so let me say a few words about that.

Look, guys and girls, I appreciate all the enthusiasm and interest, but please stop sending me your resumes, your head shots, your audition tapes. We're not hiring anyone as yet. We won't be hiring anyone for some time, most likely. And should that day arrive when the show gets the greenlight and we start looking for a cast and crew, it won't be me doing the hiring and casting. I'll visit the set from time to time, I'm sure (how often may depend on whether we're shooting in Ireland, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Rumania, or wherever), but the final decisions on these matters will be made by HBO, the BBC, the showrunners, and the director. I can't help you. Especially if you're not actually professionally involved in film and television, but are still "desperate to be involved in the show in any capacity, even just standing around in the background." I get a lot of those emails too. Those people who stand around in the background are called "extras," for what it's worth, and I'm not in charge of hiring them either. Again, we thank you for the love, but that's not how television works.

I also get a constant stream of emails asking me for news about the HBO project. Guys, that's why I have a News page on my website, and that's why I post here. When there's some news to share, I share it. Honest. No news is no news. Sometimes long periods pass when nothing is happening, or things are happening behind the scenes that even I am not aware of. Whenever there is a significant development -- like the BBC coming aboard -- I will post it here. I'm not going to try to disseminate it in individual emails to whoever happens to write that day to ask what's new with HBO.

Thanks for your patience. Thanks for your understanding. Keep your fingers crossed.

Quasar · by **Quasar** on Fri Jun 20, 2008 6:00 am

That snarky bastard.

leatherman · by **leatherman** on Fri Jun 20, 2008 8:42 am

yeah yeah yeah...finish the damn book already.

or has he announced that it is finished yet?

Jack's Sorrow · by **Jack's Sorrow** on Fri Jun 20, 2008 8:50 am

No. He claims to be working pretty hard on it. GRRM has said that he wanted to have it finished by the end of June, since he has a vacation/promotion trip to Scotland (or Ireland; can't recall) and Spain coming up at the end of the month. Skeptics like myself of course have been cautious about whether he'd make it, and George himself has recently admitted to being pessimistic (he also missed a couple of weeks of work a month or so ago because of bronchitis or the like). Basically at this point I'm just looking forward to him being forced to give us an update on the status of the book once his vacation starts in a couple of weeks. The upside is that he seems to feel he's near finishing. The downside is that this vacation is scheduled to last like a month, and George has said many times that he's no good at writing away from home. At this point I'm expecting the book will be finished sometime this year, but probably not in time to get the book on shelves before early '09.

Jack's Sorrow · by **Jack's Sorrow** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:38 pm

25 June Update:
GRRM has left on his tour of Spain and Portugal, and from the lack of an announcement on his blog* it has been speculated that ADWD was indeed not completed according to schedule. At the same time, Voyager (GRRM's UK publisher) put back the release date of the book to April 6th, 2009, although Bantam have not yet followed suit. This has led to increased speculation that the book will now not make it out until early 2009, but GRRM himself has not confirmed or commented on this as yet.

*Shortly after the above was posted, GRRM did post a comment on his blog that the book was incomplete and work would resume once he returned home. In a possibly unprecedented move, Voyager posted an official apology to Amazon.co.uk stating that the book would miss their planned mid-November release and they were hoping it would instead be published in spring 2009.

2 July Update:
During a signing in Portugal, GRRM confirmed his intention to have the book done by the end of the year, with publication following in spring 2009.

leatherman · by **leatherman** on Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:22 pm

yeah, right, whatever.

this is going to come out when Chinese Democracy comes out.

Thurston McQ · by **Thurston McQ** on Sun Jul 06, 2008 3:46 pm

Like Chinese Democracy even *has* to come out.

Chinese Democracy is gayer than Liberace.

Quasar · by **Quasar** on Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:00 pm

Chinese Democracy is like the Donner cut of Superman II. It has a chance at achieving cult fantasy as long as it never sees an actual release.

Jack's Sorrow · by **Jack's Sorrow** on Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:28 am

2 July Update:
During a signing in Portugal, GRRM confirmed his intention to have the book done by the end of the year, with publication following in spring 2009. He also said that the series is currently at its widest scope and scale, and we will see a narrowing of the focus going into the last two volumes in the series

17 July Update:
During a signing in Spain, GRRM said we might learn the motto for House Clegane, and that more information on Benjen's fate will be revealed in ADWD.

24 July Update:
During a signing in Seville, GRRM said that there are no Tyrell POVs in ADWD, meaning that the new POV is almost certainly Melisandre. He has also requested a picture of Daenerys riding a dragon for the Spanish cover of ADWD.

leatherman · by **leatherman** on Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:40 pm

at this rate I'm going to need to read a primer to remember everyone and where they were/what they were doing when the last book ended.

Quasar · by **Quasar** on Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:33 pm

I think we'd need one of those regardless.

Thurston McQ · by **Thurston McQ** on Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:47 pm

[Martin] has also requested a picture of Daenerys riding a dragon for the Spanish cover of ADWD.

Am I the only one disappointed that he didn't request a picture of Daenerys dancing with a dragon?

And after cock-teasing us with a title like that!

Quasar · by **Quasar** on Thu Jul 24, 2008 4:04 pm

The last 2 books were also supposed to be called Dance of Dragons. Apparently this time it's finally going to stick.

Jack's Sorrow · by **Jack's Sorrow** on Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:12 am

30 July Update:
A new spoiler chapter has been released, this time on Amazon.co.uk. It is Theon Greyjoy's first chapter in the book, previously available in the Bantam Spectra Pulse Magazine.

Amazon.com have also changed their release date to 30 April 2013. The reasons for this are being looked into. The current plan remains for the book to be released in the spring of 2009. It is likely this was a simple error.

Sounds like somebody at Amazon.uk is having some fun; or they get their info straight from leatherman.

Quasar · by **Quasar** on Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:28 am

PUBLISH THE BOOK ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jack's Sorrow · by **Jack's Sorrow** on Wed Sep 10, 2008 10:35 am

George RR Martin wrote:I have some exciting news to share.

(But please, guys and gals, don't get TOO excited. This is what it is, and so far that's all it is, so don't make any assumptions).

HBO has just exercised its option, and purchased the television rights to A GAME OF THRONES.

For those of you who don't know Hollywood, an option gives a production company the right to buy a property (a book, a screenplay, whatever) at a certain agreed-upon price for a certain period of time (a year, six months, whatever). When that time runs out, they can let the option lapse, renew the option, or exercise the option and buy the property. The last is what HBO has just done.

What they have NOT done is greenlight the project. A GAME OF THRONES remains in development. They're still budgeting, still looking at locations (Spain and the Czech Republic at present, I hear). No decision has been reached, so any celebration would be premature. In Hollywood it is always best not to assume something is going to happen until it actually happens.

Even so... this is a very encouraging sign, and one that suggests a continued high level of enthusiasm and commitment for A GAME OF THRONES at HBO.

So keep your fingers crossed.

Jack's Sorrow · by **Jack's Sorrow** on Wed Nov 12, 2008 3:47 am

Hmmmmmmmmmmm . . . .

George RR Martin wrote:HBO has given the production order.

They will be filming the pilot episode of A GAME OF THRONES.

It's just the pilot so far. They'll need to see that before they decide whether to proceed with a full season's episodes. So let's all hope the pilot will kick serious ass.

It should. David Benioff and Dan Weiss did a terrific job with the script. And yes, all of you can relax, it's very faithful. Dan and David will be the executive producers for the pilot and (we hope) the eventual series.

More details when I have 'em. The news is very fresh. HBO just issued their own press release, which should be up on their website soon, if it's not there already.

Winter is coming to HBO. Hot damn.

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