George R.R. Martin's Blog, page 27

A very dark year got even darker a few days ago, when I learned of the death of Kay McCauley in New York City.

Kay had been my literary agent for many many years, and a big part of my life for even longer.   I have been trying to recall the first time I met her, but the memories are blurry.   I suspect the first time we spoke was by phone.   I had signed on with Kay’s brother, Kirby McCauley, along about the mid 70s, when I was a struggling young writer and he was a struggling young agent.   Ki...

Every time Veteran’s Day comes rolling around, it brings to mind one of my favorite poems, the profoundly moving “Last of the Light Brigade,” by Rudyard Kipling.

To really understand this one, it helps if you know Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade.”   I am old enough to be part of a generation that learned that one in grade school.   It was not quite as ubiquitous in New Jersey as in the UK, but it was taught here, at least in the 50s.   In its own way the Tennyson is also a great poem… bu...

Sometimes I do get the feeling that most of you reading my posts here care more about what is happening in Westeros than what is happening in the United States.

So let me assure you that, when not sweating out election returns or brooding over other real world problems, I have continued to work on THE WINDS OF WINTER.

No, sorry, still not done, but I do inch closer.   It is a big big book.   I try not to dwell on that too much.    I write a chapter at a time, a page at a time, a sentence at a ti...

Joe Biden gave a marvelous speech tonight: eloquent, uplifting, stirring, a speech that spoke to all that is best in America, to our hopes and dreams rather than our fears.  Time will tell what kind of president he will be, but everything about the campaign he waged confirms the fact that this is a good, decent, and intelligent man.

It brought to my mind the classic Democratic hymn that was FDR’s campaign song, and later used by JFK, LBJ, and many others.

I fear that the next few months will be...

The past few days have been hard ones.   Like millions of others, I finally went to sleep on Tuesday night — very late, I stayed up as long as I could, watching the election returns trickle in — in a state of near despair.   Things did not look good at all.   By the time I woke up Wednesday morning, however, the picture had brightened considerably, and it has continued to brighten ever since.   A Biden victory now appears all but certain.  Arizona and Nevada are trembling on the brink, and Joe h...

Hard to believe… for me at least… but A STORM OF SWORDS was published twenty years ago, in 2000.

It is now 2020 (as if we could forget), so it was time for the 20th Anniversary Edition.

I thought the Anniversary editions of A GAME OF THRONES and A CLASH OF KINGS were stunning, but this one is the best yet.   It is lavishly and gorgeously illustrated by GARY GIANNI, one of the world’s leading fantasy artists, and includes an foreword by NEIL GAIMAN as well.

We just got a huge shipment of copies ...

The Jets played the world champion Kansas City Chiefs this afternoon, and the result was just what you’d expect.

That’s 0-8 now.

And Gase still has a job.

THREE KINGS is the twenty-ninth volume in the Wild Cards series, and the second to be set entirely in the British Isles, featuring a cast of English, Irish, and Scottish aces, jokers, and knaves.   It is a follow-up to KNAVES OVER QUEENS, but it is not necessary to have read KNAVES… or any of the preceding Wild Cards books… to enjoy it.   This one is a full mosaic, written by Peadar O Guilin, Peter Newman, Caroline Spector, Melinda M. Snodgrass, and Mary Anne Moharaj, and edited by Melinda, with...

Need I even mention that the Jets lost another one on Sunday?

It was actually the best game they played all season.   They had the lead for almost three full quarters.   Unfortunately, the game was four quarters long.

After a promising first half, Gang Green managed four yards of offense in the entire second half.

And this weekend they have to play the world champion KC Chiefs.   That could be very ugly indeed.

Writing these weekly football posts has gotten to be a very wearisome task.   I think...

Here’s another peek at the past, and the original pilot for GAME OF THRONES.

We shot the wedding of Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo in Morocco.   Ian McNeice played Illyrio Mopatis, a magister of Pentos, and I played one of the wedding guests, presumably another magister.

Both of us, alas, were left on the cutting room floor when Dany was recast and the wedding was reshot.   Ian McNeice was terrific as Illyrio, by the way, but a scheduling conflict made him unavailable for the reshoot.

I neve...