Questions for George R R Martin

[Teggers]

We're getting through the TV series pretty quickly and it seems the books will go on for a while yet so i'm wondering if this will cause any problems i.e. added pressure to rush books out for the show timetable in a couple of years time.

[Eyehavenofilter]

My question would be.... What was it, that inspired you to write this story in the first place?
Was it visual? Like the Throne of Swords?
Was it a particular character, or family of characters?
Was it an idea of a story about the land and its cultures?
Was it a combination of several or all of these things?
Or was it none of the above?
I'd love to know what that spark was.

[Rik]

Teggers wrote: "We're getting through the TV series pretty quickly and it seems the books will go on for a while yet so i'm wondering if this will cause any problems i.e. added pressure to rush books out for the s..."

I can actually answer your question as I read an article about this issue today on some news site. The people behind the show openly are stating that due to expense there is no way HBO is going to fund the show even as far as seven seasons. And since the current plan is to split book three, with a few elements of book four drawn in, into two seasons its unlikely the TV show will in fact catch the books. If the show lasts long enough they also expect to split books four and five into multiple seasons.

So a better question, one Martin probably doesn't know the answer to, is how will the TV series resolve things since it will likely end before the book series?

[Teggers]

Thanks for that Rik :) and that is an interesting question you raise.

[Karen]

--Has the TV adaptation caused him to rethink and/or change any of the characters' futures?

--Does he have a rough idea about when the next book will be out?

--Just a plea to have some Ned Stark backstory so Sean Bean can come back for a little while.

--Would it be possible in the next book to have better maps? One thing that's been frustrating is to not have detailed maps that follow the action happening in the book. I know there's some companion book coming out--will that be detailed?

[Yamil]

I second Rik's question.

Are we allowed to ask questions outside of A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones? If so, what's GRRM's favorite Wild Card story that he didn't write?

On second thought, I'll tie it to A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones. Whad does GRMM think of a A Song of Ice and Fire/Wild Cards comic book style crossover?

[Eyehavenofilter]

We've discussed, hashed out, pleaded, and begged for a back story in many other chats and it seems that everyone is ALL for it, but lets not get ahead of ourselves, PLEASE!
Let the man finish this tale first. He only has a certain amount of time left, and being a selfish person, I want to know what is in store for the characters I've grown to know and love, dispise, admire, fear, and emulate.
THEN.... By all means, as far as I am concerned, he can go do exactly as he pleases, and write whatever his heart desires, hopefully a backstory, that will give us the skinny on what happened before.... A Game of Thrones....
Anyone with me on this one?

[Russ]

So, the characters talk about thousands of years of history, but still use torches for light, bladed weapons for fighting, and animals for transport. Will the reason for this lack of technological progress be revealed?
PS
Don't spend a lot of time answering this. You should be writing! :o)

[Rik]

We've discussed, hashed out, pleaded, and begged for a back story in many other chats and it seems that everyone is ALL for it, but lets not get ahead of ourselves, PLEASE!
Let the man finish this tale first. He only has a certain amount of time left, and being a selfish person, I want to know what is in store for the characters I've grown to know and love, dispise, admire, fear, and emulate.
THEN.... By all means, as far as I am concerned, he can go do exactly as he pleases, and write whatever his heart desires, hopefully a backstory, that will give us the skinny on what happened before.... A Game of Thrones....
Anyone with me on this one?

I'm with you. In an interview I read just yesterday he talked about how he is working on a Dunk and Egg prequel novella. That made me want to pull my hair out because while I liked the first one of those I read I'd rather him finish the main story first.

I hope Martin lives to be a 100 but two prominent fantasy authors, Robert Jordan and Joel Rosenberg, both died in recent years leaving long running stories unfinished. In Jordan's case he knew it was coming so he did a lot of prep work that Brandon Sanderson was able to use to finish but Rosenberg's death was very unexpected.

Perhaps it sounds selfish of me but I love this series and want to see how it comes out. I'd love prequels someday but not at the expense of the main story.

[Becca]

I'll second any of the "where'd the spark come from?" questions that have come up.

Have always wondered what character(s) have been the hardest for him to write? Have we seen less of a POV figure than originally intended because of this, if its been a problem at all?

[Melanie]

Selmy Barristan is touted as an honorable member of the Kingsguard, yet he stood by while atrocities were committed by King Aegon before the war. He even would have sworn his sword to Joffrey except that this particular mad king wouldn't have him. Only then does he leave and go in search of Danaerys.
I personally never thought of Selmy as particularly honorable or good, only that he was an unthinking pawn who obeyed the king he served without question. If Joffrey hadn't decided to "retire" Selmy, how would this honorable knight have reacted to some of Joffrey's more questionable orders, particularly regarding using the Kingsguard for beating Sansa. Would he have joined the rest in beating her or would he have refused?

[Ian]

I would ask him if he has any concerns about how televisual books 4 and 5 will be. The first book is the one that seems easiest to adapt but it seems to me it will get a lot harder to adapt as the complexity grows and the themes get darker, the characters are all scattered etc.

[Zerofever]

While reading Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and books like it I noticed how much it read like a historical account, much like Fevre Dream seemed to. Have you ever thought of using an actually historical figure to write a fictional biography about or maybe just continuing the Fevre Dream series?

[Peter]

As a Hungarian I would like to know how he came up with the names of Janos Slynt and Sandor Clegane. Those names (Janos, and Sandor) are Hungarian names. Does he have anything to do with our country?

[Locke]

In most cultures shadows are seen as dark reflections of ourselves, but according to the Lord of Light shadows serve the light, since shadows dont exist in the dark. Why did you decide to build a religion from physics stand point rather than a traditional metaphysical point of view?

Will we ever see you at Dragon*Con?

[Kevin]

Was Glen Cook's The Black Company a big influence?

[Tamahome]

Was Guy Gavriel Kay an influence? :)

[W.R.]

Will we ever see you cross the line back into "laser" territory with some more sci-fi? (devoted Haviland Tuf fan)

[Tamahome]

Are we asking you too many questions?

[Alex]

To avoid the assumption that all changes on the TV show are "their" ideas... how involved are you in adapting the books and what would you say is the ratio between changes for the sake of the medium and changes you feel are improving on things that didn't work too well in the books?

Or short:

Which (if any) changes have been added or suggested by yourself and why?