History of the NAB: 2006

Welcome back for this edition of History of the NAB 2006!  In anticipation of the newest addition of NAB History, which will be complete in early July, I’m going to frequently repost each prior edition here. For those that don’t know I have painstakingly went through each and every post by George R. R. Martin, line by line, and offered my opinion when appropriate. Why you may ask? To show that people DO have a reason for being upset and impatient. I always provide the date and title of his post, so if you think I’m misquoting George you can easily go search and find out yourself; however, I do provide links from time to time. Thanks for reading and I hope you find this to be an interesting and entertaining read.  If you haven’t read NAB History 2005 you can find it here.

January 21st, 2006

back from the north

I am still getting emails from readers who could not make it to any of my myriad appearances, but would like an autographed copy of A FEAST FOR CROWS. No, I’m afraid I do not have any copies of the book for sale myself, and I don’t expect that I will for several years.

Wait…What…! What do you mean you don’t have any books to sell me!! I’m so depressed.

Parris and I are about to begin some major and much needed renovations to our house in Santa Fe, so our lives are going to be torn up and stored in boxes for most of the next four months. Renovations are hell, everyone assures me… but I have an escape. While our roof is being torn off in Santa Fe, I plan to be off walking the Wall with Jon Snow, or visiting Dany and her dragons in Meereen. Or so I hope….

Hmm…Meereen you say? I’m sure this isn’t the Meereenese knot he’s been talking about all these years.

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February 1st, 2006

Hugo nominations

Who you choose to nominate, of course, is entirely up to you. It is a secret ballot, after all.

However, I do have a few suggestions…

Thanks, I think.

February 5th, 2006

Super Bowl XL

So another NFL season is now done, which means that Sunday becomes a work day for me once again. That should please everyone waiting for A DANCE WITH DRAGONS.

…and waiting and waiting and waiting.
Lets check out some of the comments to this post and see what people think!

Anonymous commented:[quote]Football season.
I was just skimming through some of your old blogs. I am a huge fan of your writing and was VERY disappointed to see that you actually congratulated the Steelers for being handed the Superbowl by the poor officiating of a biased crew of refs.

No hard feelings though. Even I, a die-hard Seahawks fan, was pulling for the Giants after Feely failed at his third field goal attmept last season. I’m sure you remember.

See you on the gridiron!

p.s. If you like rock and roll check out my “metal” band at www.scorpiknox.com

Do you feel violated George? Looks like someone is using the NAB to promote their rock band, and I believe that someone also happens to be an administrator over at Is Winter Coming.
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March 7th, 2006

Remember the Hugo

*YAWN* nothing to see here, nothing to see here and then…

(And no, I am NOT going to forget about A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. That’s still my number one priority, and will remain so until it’s done).

Well that’s good to know because we don’t want to wait forever, now would we?

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March 28th, 2006

this, that, and the other thing

I meant to write an account of my recent trip to Boskone and New York, really I did, but somehow I haven’t found the time. Sigh. Sorry about that. Now you know why I call this “Not a Blog.” I will never understand how some folks find the time and energy to update their blogs daily. For what it’s worth, I was never very good at keeping a journal either.

Funny thing is I wish he’d forget about 99% of the stuff he blogs about now, and to think he was doing us a favor for so long, and we never knew.

I have finally been able to settle down and get back into A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. That’s where most of my time and energy has gone of late. For the last week or so I have been back at the Wall with Jon Snow and the men of the Night’s Watch. Jon, I think, will be one of the main beneficiaries of my splitting A FEAST FOR CROWS in two. I will have more room to deal with Jon and Stannis and the wildlings and the rest, which will allow me to flesh out their storylines more and bring them to a better resolution… but it’s more than that. Although I had “completed” something on the order of five Jon chapters before deciding to divide the book, I was never really happy with them, and rereading them now has reinforced my feelings. They need to be much stronger, and I believe I see how to do that now. Sometimes putting things on the back burner can work wonders. That where the muse lives (or the moose, as Parris sometimes calls her).

The back burner you say. Is that a prophetic statement or is it just me?

Anonymous wrote: i dont like all the secondary character viewpoints in a feast for crows, or some of their gay names (e.g. the soiled knight, wat did he wet his bed?) or how shortlived their chapters are.

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May 13th, 2006

Home Alone

Has it really been more than a month since my last update? Hard to believe. Sometimes I don’t know where the days go.

I think I may stab my eyes out…

Parris flew off to Ireland a few weeks ago for a well-deserved vacation, and left me here chained to the computer to work on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. Very cruel of her, I must say, but I am getting some writing done, so I suppose it worked. All the same, the two houses seem very empty without her.

He lives in two houses?

Oh, and I suppose you want to know how the DANCE is coming? Work continues. I finished the revisions on the Jon Snow chapters that I was talking about last month, and moved on to Tyrion for a while, but just now I am working on a new viewpoint character, and a chapter set in steamy harbor of Old Volantis. Where I shall be returning, first thing tomorrow.

The passion of George R. R. Martin is self evident here.  Time to check out what his readers think!

Anonymous wrote: The Jets Draft Picks?
Mr. Martin, no comment on the Jets’ Draft Picks? I was looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

I haven’t decided if this was a sarcastic post or not, but he received Georges first reply. Needless to say his reply was just as boring as they always are.

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June 30th, 2006

Belated Update

Surprise!! He’s late!!

Actually, I have added new entries to this journal half a dozen times since the last post you read here. In my head, anyway. It’s just getting the words down on pap… er, phosphor… that proves to be the problem. Of course, getting the words down has always been the hard part. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would be a writer.

See…he’s already finished aDwD he just hasn’t put it on his computer yet. No Wonder he gets so cranky with us.  We just don’t understand the creative process like he does.

Of course, judging by my emails, very few of you would have cared much about my visit to Chicago, or Howard’s visit here, or my home renovations, or even global warming (you SHOULD care about global warming, however, and if you don’t know why, go see the Gore film, Al explains it much better than I could). All my emails are about A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. I made the mistake of saying on my Update page that I would update again in April, and I didn’t. Mea culpa. The thing is, I have posted several updates here, and I thought that would suffice, but it would appear that a good percentage of the folks who visit my website go straight to Update and never check out any of the other pages or links, including this one.

Meanwhile, for those who do read this page… yes, I am still working on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, and yes, I still hope to deliver it this fall, or by the end of the year at the latest.

Awesome we may still see it by the end of 2006!! I’m so excited because I was thinking it may not be done before the decade was over.

Megan wrote: As for “A Dance with Dragons”…shame on people rushing you, I say! Though I am DYING to see what happens in that book, I and all the other fans are perfectly capable of going about our daily lives with patience until it’s out. I’ll be first in line, whenever it comes out. : ) Just my two cents!

Yeah!   Don’t rush him!  It’s on the back burner for a reason!!

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July 9th, 2006

Rain

Here is the short story, he has no roof because of renovations, and his house is  flooding.  Jeez, if there’s any of his old books floating around there, hopefully they’re still salvageable.

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July 14th, 2006

This, That, and The Other Thing

Oh, but I can tell you that we have officially started work on the first volume of the new WILD CARDS triad, which will be titled INSIDE STRAIGHT. Eight stories, featuring a cast of great new characters, and a terrific lineup of veteran Wild Card writers and talented young newcomers. Look for it some time in 2007… and if you haven’t tried a Wild Cards book before, you might want to pick up a few of the old volumes from Amazon or ABE to give yourself a taste,

If only I could just order an overpriced book marked off by .02% from you my life would be full of cheer and meaning.

Strangely, he doesn’t mention aDwD.  I assumed that was the other thing.   Guess not.

Madbard said: Don’t let all these side projects distract you from your central mission! There will be plenty of time for “travel” and “home ownership” and “personal hygeine” once you’ve finished Song of Fire and Ice! Stop reading this and get back to writing!

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August 9th, 2006

On the Road Again

This will no doubt upset all those readers who want me to stay home and write, write, write, but it looks as though I will be taking to the road again in the fall.

Not a big deal at all…I’m sure you can do a lot of writing on the road..

If you’ve ever looked at the Knights page of my website, you’ll know about my passion for collecting 54mm toy knights and medieval miniatures.

What!! No link!! I’m so depressed…

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August 10th, 2006

TSA Insanity

Political rant about going through security screenings at the airport.  Hey George! Who’s part of the instant gratification generation now?

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August 17th, 2006

Off to Worldcon

And to appease all those who come to my site mainly for updates about A DANCE WITH DRAGONS… sorry, guys, you’re not going to like this news any more than I do, but the last month has been a washout as far as writing is concerned. My home renovations have been very distracting, all sorts of other things have been breaking or demanding my attention, there were tax records to prepare for my accountant

Wait a second!  You didn’t go to work for an entire month because you were distracted because you had to pay taxes!  Nothing out of touch with that post.

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September 7th, 2006

Are You Ready for Some Football?

Not if your going to be the one talking about it…

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October 17th, 2006

Home for the Holidays

10 paragraphs of some of the most incredibly boring stuff I’ve ever skimmed over!

I have half a dozen different projects on my plate, but the big one is A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, and I am going to be pushing hard on that in the weeks and months to come, in hopes of wrapping it up by the end of the year.

No need to fear aDwD will be done by the end of 2006!! He says so right there!  Kind of, right?

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November 5th, 2006

PayPal Thinks I’m a Terrorist

You can read all about his pity-party right here.

He throws this in the middle of his little temper tantrum:

Right now I’m trying to finish A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, working on a breakdown of the contents and art required for THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE, editing the new Wild Cards book INSIDE STRAIGHT and writing my own story for same, beating out an outline for a comics project with John J. Miller, trying to stay on top of the various Ice & Fire spinoffs from Subterranean Press, Fantasy Flight Games, Testor’s, DBPro, Avatar Comics, and several other licenses, dealing with the aftermath of the Byron Preiss bankruptcy auction, trying to extricate my RPG rights from the collapse of Guardians of Order, living through major home renovations.

Actually George, if you were serious it would be: Right now I’m trying to finish A DANCE WITH DRAGONS…

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December 5th, 2006

Good News and Bad News

Good new is that he finished Wild Cards, and everything else no one cares about…

Bad news. Work. None of the projects I wrapped up was A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. Work has been going well, yes, but not especially on DANCE. I am not going to be able to finish it by the end of the year as I had hoped. I know this will disappoint all of you. Many of you will write me sympathetic and supportive emails (and I do appreciate those, even if I don’t have the time to reply). A few of you will write me nasty, intemperate emails about how I’m doing this all just to screw my readers. Sigh. My editors, agents, and publishers will be even more disappointed than my readers, but no one will be as disappointed as me. Believe that or not.

Oh well, maybe 2007 will be a better year, after all look at how disappointed he is.  Surely he will work harder now! And to show how serious he is he finishes his blogpost with this:

Go Jets. Go Giants. Go Dragons.

Total dedication!

Anonymous wrote: Take your time with Dragons, but I’m going to be going to live in Japan in Summer of ’08, and I don’t know how easy it will be to import books, so please have the series done by then.

Ha!! Their talking about the series being finished by 2008!

Madbard again wrote:You could always rename it, “A Slow-Dance With Dragons”.

Storm Dancer wrote:This is a series that will stand as a classic for years to come. In the long run, no one will remember that it was a few months late.

Just a couple months late. We’re around 60 months late now.

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December 11th, 2006

Wild Cards Returns!

Finally!

And for those of you who know me only for A SONG OF ICE & FIRE and have never read a WILD CARDS book… well, maybe it’s time you did. The two series are very different, of course, but then, I like to write (and edit) different sorts of things. Variety’s a great spice, in life, and love, and reading.

Perhaps he has too much variety.

baine_darkwolf wrote: A greater surprise to the fans then. The anticipation will grow even deeper!

Anticipation is nearing rock bottom.

parhelion_spark wrote: ..maaaaybe I’ll check them out. maybe.
but don’t think it lets you off the hook for I&F..
*shakes fist threateningly*

mercury_glitch wrote: I second this, though instead of the shaking of fist, I think I’ll shake my wallet temptingly.

Perhaps a bag of Shae miniatures would work better?

Anonymous wrote: Please . . .”When A FEAST FOR CROWS came out, I realized that something close to half the book had already been out there in one form or another — website samples, readings, promotional giveaways, excerpts in magazines, and so on. That was too much. I am not going to do that with DANCE.”  Besides if he gives us one more chapter, then we’ll practically be reading it at the same pace as he writes it. Zing!

kativy wrote: I would just like to say: please, George Martin, pleeease take your time on Dance. As much as I’m dying to read more of the series, I would rather savor an exquisite gourmet dish than get fast food at a drive-thru.

You want George to take his time?  Wish granted!

Anonymous wrote: This is stupid
Maybe if you stuck to one or the other you would’t have fans pissed about you making us wait.

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The rest of the year is some of the most boring commentary about football that’s ever been written this concludes the year 2006.  Optimism is beginning to rise as A Dance with Dragons is all but promised to be delivered in 2007!

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