Walking in the Shadow of the George…

Aphorism of the Day: No man is a biosphere.

Ever since A Dance with Dragons came out my fantasy sales rankings have taken a frickin nose-dive. I'm not complaining, simply because I don't think The Darkness that Comes Before would have even been published were it not for A Game of Thrones. In fact, I sometimes think of The Second Apocalypse as a long, skinny tapeworm in the great belly of A Song of Ice and Fire. George, it sometimes seems to me, is the truly viral meme. People read him then ask, "What next?" and, lo, my name comes up.

Whenever I pitched the commercial premise for the fantasies I would discuss the fantasy continuum, beginning with Harry Potter and ending with me. I would describe The Prince of Nothing as epic fantasy that could not be 'outgrown,' that would continue rewarding the reader even if they went on to complete a literature PhD. "There's this huge market of fallen fantasy readers," I would say, channelling my inner Bill Shatner. "We just… need… to reach them."

Well, maybe not so huge, after all.  Just huge enough.

Anyway, I thought I should throw out a word of thanks to all the ASOIAF fans who have done so much to spread the word. Perhaps the TSA tapeworm will grow big enough to merit a tapeworm of its very own.