For a more complete history, you may be interested in reading:

• History of the NAB: 2005
• History of the NAB: 2006
• History of the NAB: 2007
• History of the NAB: 2008
• History of the NAB: 2009

Before we get started lets start at the end.

Talking about the Dance. Here George does Dance by numbers, and breaks down how many pages he submitted over the years.  It is an interesting read so if you haven’t read it, head on over and give it a read.  If you already have then this graph should suffice.

(Graph courtesy of Mikey)

Lets begin our Dance through History.  On July 2nd 2005 George decides to start a blog because…

Last election I had a couple of political messages on my site that really irritated some of my visitors (and pleased even more, but never mind). There were various reasons for that, but one was that I stuck the commentary onto the page called ‘About A FEAST FOR CROWS.’ It was suggested that if I wanted to talk about politics, I should have a separate page for that. Well, no. If I had a political page, I’d need to update it, which would mean I would have to write a lot more about politics. No, thanks.

How lovely is that? Who knew that George W. Bush had a POV in Feast? However, George gave us fair warning about his blog, err sorry, I mean Not-A-Blog.

Be warned. Days, weeks, and even months may go by with no new entries to this journal. If so, that doesn’t mean I’ve died. Just the opposite, actually. It probably means I’m busy doing stuff. It may even mean that I’m writing. After a long day at the computer writing fiction, the last thing I want to do is sit at the computer some more updating my weblog.the computer writing fiction, the last thing I want to do is sit at the computer some more updating my weblog.

He sure does have a way with words doesn’t he? All warm and cuddly.  That by the way was his introductory post.  But it isn’t until January 3rd 2006 before we get our first real update from the Big Guy.

I have a big chunk of a new Dunk & Egg novella that I should be able to finish with a good solid week of work… and then I’ve got some dragons waiting for a dance. We’ll see how all that goes.

The keyword there is “waiting,” the dragons are waiting. At that particular time George had 542 pages of what would end up being 1,510 pages. January 21st we get our first glimpse of the infamous Meereneese Knot.

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….

Keywords: “so I hope….”

March 7th 2006:

(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).

On the very, very, very next day we get this update.

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).

In the world of George, number 1 priorities go on the back burner. Later in May, Parris flies off to Ireland to vacation, leaving George “chained to the computer to work on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS”

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.

Remember, this is when he was actually updating everyone on the progress of Dance, however on the last day of June he gives us a belated update.  So with no further ado here is our yearly update!

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.

So the plan was to update in April, but he didn’t get around to it until the 30th of June, and he still sounds pretty optimistic.  I’m assuming he’s still struggling with the 5-year gap but hasn’t decided to scrap it yet. Regardless of any struggles he lets everyone know what he’ll be doing that fall.

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.

This is where I think George starts rubbing people the wrong way.  It’s as if he’s trying to portray himself as a victim and we’re his slave drivers.  I’m sure most of his emails are from excited fans hoping to encourage him along, excitedly anticipating his finished product that fall.  Of course considering that it’s August at this point, George probably should have announced that Dance wouldn’t be completed by the fall.  Couple weeks later we get the cold hard facts about the progress of Dance.

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

Yes, it’s true, George is one of the few who have to pay taxes.  So this probably explains why he was so grumpy in the previous post, dude hadn’t been working on his “number 1 priority” for an entire month. In between this post and the next one he has several monotonous, who gives a shit posts, and then we get this gem!

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.

Despite everything, he still “hopes” to be finished by the end of 2006.  However, despite trying to finish Dance by the fall, and failing, it isn’t until December 5th that he announces that he won’t be able to finish it this fall.  This is despite the fact that it isn’t fall anymore it’s frickin’ winter.  Not all was lost though, he was able to finish every single one of his side-projects just not his #1 priority…

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.

At this point you may be questioning whether or not George’s priorities are in order, well he answers that question with his sign off.

Go Jets. Go Giants. Go Dragons.

2007 starts off very promising, Jets and Giants may end up in the Super Bowl, George invents a word, and his computer crashes, but not the one that has Dance on it, or so he says…

Lest anyone have a heart attack, let me hasten to add that this has NOT affected A DANCE WITH DRAGONS or any of my other work-in-progress. I do my writing on a completely different computer than the one I use for email and the internet, in part to guard against viruses, worms, and nightmares like this. My work machine does not even use Windows (which I loathe). I write with WordStar 4.0 on a pure DOS-based machine. Mock if you must… but WordStar and DOS are both stable as rocks, and never give me the sort of headaches I get from Windows. (I won’t even talk about Microsoft Word, about which I have nothing printable to say).

This is the golden year for the Not-A-Blog.  It really doesn’t get any better than this.  He spends almost a month trying to recover over 3,000 unanswered emails, some dating back to 1998, only to delete them all in the end.  The infamous Pizza Crawl, and a number of other things too. On January 17th, 2007 HBO optioned A Game of Thrones.  But in all, it isn’t until April 21st, 2007 that we get our next update.

It was the most productive day I’ve had in months, at least where DANCE is concerned (I have had very productive days working on the WILD CARDS, dealing with contracts and subrights, approving artwork and design and giving notes about some of the spinoff projects, and the like, but that’s a different thing).

Remember, this isn’t reality we’re talking about, this is George’s world, so…

• Production = Wild Card novels
• Number 1 Priority = Back Burner

One thing that helped that happen was that yesterday, for whatever reason, the world left me alone. The phone never rang. No one came knocking on my doors. None of my friends dropped in unexpectedly. I had no doctor’s appointments, no dinner dates, nothing on my calendar but work.

I need more days like this. Lots more days like this. That’s how DANCE will get done.

It was almost like he didn’t have any other projects but Dance.  Wow! That is fucking amazing! He ends his post on this high note!

In the past, though, one good day does often lead to another, and another, and another. So you’ll have to excuse me, friends. I’m going back to Westeros…

and starts his next post on this note.

Unfortunately, the last two days have been less productive, at least for DANCE.

As far as prioritizing goes George then announces that on Saturday he’ll be updating everyone on the players that the Giants and Jets select in that weekends NFL Draft.  We get little glimmers of truth later on as he talks about writing a bunch of garbage that he can’t use, and that Dance is coming along slower than expected. Like this is supposed to be some kind of revelation.  While at a convention he decided to read the prologue from Dance.

I’ve been struggling with this particular chapter off and on for years (not continuously, of course, when a chapter gives me as much trouble as this one has, I tend to put it aside, move on and write something else, and come back to it later with fresh eyes), writing and rewriting it, moving chunks of it around, trying different structures.

I have long suspected that George is a very unorganized man.

There’s a lot of flashbacks in the chapter — not just one flashback, but more like four, each to a different time in the viewpoint character’s life — and integrating those with each other and with the present action has proved to be a bitch and a half.

At this point it kind of sounds like he hasn’t decided to scrap the five year gap yet.  I don’t know, I’m not a professional author, but four different flashbacks for four different points of view sounds like a disaster.

I have always found convention readings to be very valuable, especially when I’m doing a chapter than I’ve never read before. No matter how many times you go over your work on a computer screen, somehow mistakes still slip past you… but when you’re reading aloud, they leap right up into your face, screaming and spraying spittle.

I’ve always laughed at that description.

And sometimes you see bigger problems too, as I did in this case. The audience seemed to like the chapter well enough, which pleased me. I talked to some of the BWB about it afterward, and was glad to hear that it mostly worked. There are still problems, though.

The problem with using the BWB for test subjects is that George could read the ingredients from a jar of Salsa Con Queso, and they’d say it was the greatest thing in the world.  Still it’ll be interesting to see if he kept the prologue with 4 flashbacks or if it got scrapped.

In August, George starts heading off the deep-end.

I am, however, getting bloody sick of all the off-topic comments, and the trolls who use any LJ post of mine, regardless of subject, as another excuse to slam me about DANCE being late. I can’t stop you from posting such comments, of course… but I can and will remove ‘em, and ban the posters. LJ makes that pretty easy, I’m glad to say. And life is too short to deal with trolls.

This by the way was at the end of a post about those marvelous Ice and Fire Miniatures that everyone loves! I guess we wore him down because on August 29th 2007 we get a very in depth update.  Here’s his post in its entirety!

Yes, yes, I’m still working on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS.

This may be around the time where he decided to scrap the 5-year gap, or he could just be an asshole. Later on in September we get a very sad post where George lets everyone know that…

Yeah, yeah, I know. I made the logical, adult, sensible decision, and stayed home to work on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS and my myriad other projects

Keywords: “and my myriad other projects”

We get a couple posts on Tyrion:

DANCE WITH DRAGONS? Yes, working on that too. Lately it’s been Tyrion and more Tyrion. When I finish these three chapters, I will need to double back and pick up some of the other POVs lest my devious dwarf get too far ahead.

and

Finished a Tyrion chapter yesterday, one I’ve been struggling with for months. Made a major change to the end of the chapter, one I think works much better than what I had before.

Also tackled another Tyrion chapter that had been giving me trouble, mainly by ripping Tyrion out of the scene entirely and rewriting the whole damn thing from another point of view. Not quite done with that one yet, but I think it will work better as well. However, I am keeping the old Tyrion POV version of the same events on my computer, just in case I change my mind later and decide to go back.

In someways George’s updates contain too much information. Don’t you think? Many of his updates give me the impression that he’s just floating around dazed and confused. Maybe that’s the byproduct of being a “Gardener” as opposed to an “Architect.”

Finally, George waves goodbye to 2007!

I had hoped to be able to finish A DANCE WITH DRAGONS during 2007. Way back around this time last year, I had even hoped that the book might be published during 2007. Neither of those happened, and to that extent the year was a disappointment… for me, as well as for my fans

Deja vu???

Still, the new year looms. I am not a big believer in New Year resolutions, but I do have some goals for 2008, both personal and professional, and the most urgent of those remains A DANCE WITH DRAGONS.

Apparently, he doesn’t believe in deadlines either.  Anyways, this is the perfect opportunity to look at Gimsy’s graph.

Basically by the time George waved good-bye to 2007 he had went from 542 manuscript pages down to 472 pages, a net loss of 70 pages.  During that time he had been working on the HBO legal work, miniatures, swords, Wild Cards just to mention a few, and lets not forget that he was distracted by his home renovations, nor should we forget that he had to pay taxes either.

Shawn Speakman has wrote a lot of articles about the need for authors to recharge their batteries, so they can keep their creative juices flowing, but I think he forgot that if you charge a battery for too long, it’ll stop hold a charge.  I think this was George’s problem, he spent so much time from 2006 – 2007 charging his batteries, that he forgot to use his batteries.

The Dance through History will continue…

…and when it does, it’s time to put the gloves on!

Some people are black from the waist down, apparently Scorpiknox is black from the neck down.

Not the greatest work in the world, but  ok for my first try… Isn’t it?

It was inevitable, George was going to finish the book.  With that Is Winter Coming decided to re-brand itself to keep itself relevant, and hopefully attract more members.

It’s not just about George anymore.    We want debate, and we’re not afraid to open any topic up for discussion!  This is a place that is also not afraid of the taboo topics of the genre.

So click the link and join up!

On this day, Bran gets to see, for the first time, his father kill a man by decapitation.  George doesn’t come straight out and tell us that it’s Gared who’s going to get his head whacked off, but he does leave us clues that it is. Eddard, Lord of Winterfell is about to pass judgment on a deserter, and brought the children along to watch. He hops off his horse with his personal ward Theon Greyjoy who grabs Eddard’s Long Sword ICE, and head off up the hill where they will hear Gared’s case.

Upon noticing the name of Ned’s sword Ice, I “realized” that this series wasn’t just about the Others, but about two swords, Ice and probably another one named fire…  Of course now that I’m rereading this book, I’m not distracted by the little things that I was the first time around.  I now know that Gared is a nobody, and that the series is much larger in scope than just a couple zombies, and a frickin’ sword. With that I now am concentrating on Bran, who’s sitting on a small pony, while his brother Robb is on one side of him, and his bastard brother Jon on the other, both sitting on large stallions, while they wait for the execution.

“Keep the pony well in hand,” Jon whispered. “And don’t look away.  Father will know if you do.”

Bran kept his pony well in hand, and didn’t look away.

His father took off the man’s head with a single sure stroke.  Blood sprayed out across the snow, as red as summerwine.  One of the horses reared and had to be restrained to keep from bolting.  Bran could not take his eyees off the blood.  The snows around the stump drank it eagerly, reddening as he watched.

That is life in Winterfell.  Seven years old, and the end of innocence.  Bran then watches as the head rolls over to Theon Greyjoy who laughs and kicks the head away.  This chapter not only allows us to view life in Winterfell through the eyes of a child, but also introduces us to Jon Snow.  In this chapter he takes the roll as “our” big brother.  First he expresses his disgust with Greyjoys actions regarding the deceased, and then he leans over to Bran to let him know that he did well.

On the way back Robb and Jon get into a debate about whether the deserter died well, or whether he died a coward.  This debate ends in an ADD/ADHD moment as they decide to race off to the end of the bridge, leaving Bran alone with his thoughts.  Unbeknownst to him, his father rides up beside him and asks if he is well.

“Yes, Father, ” Bran told him.  He looked up. wrapped in his furs and leathers, mounted on his great warhorse, his lord father loomed over him like a giant.  “Robb says the man died bravely, but Jon says he was afraid.”

What do you think?” his father asked.

Bran thought about it. “Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?”

“That is the only time that a man can be brave,” his father told him.

Eddard then goes on to explain why he had to carry out the sentence instead of having a headsman to do it, like other nations do.

“Yet our way is the older way.  The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.  If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words.  And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.”

I still love that scene, and often wonder if it is foreshadowing some future sentence that Bran or another Stark child may have to pass.  He goes on to talk about Bran’s future, but of course like his future this conversation is cut short.  Jon comes riding back, shouting, telling both his father and Bran to hurry up, and see what Robb found.

Once they get back to the bridge, they see Robb standing there holding a bunch of baby direwolves.  On the ground next to him is the mother, killed by another beast with the antler broken off and still left protruding from the animals throat.  Jory worries that this is a bad omen, but Ned dismisses this as nonsense.  Talk then moves onto what to do with the baby wolves.  Almost everyone decides that the best option is to kill them now, it would be the most humane thing to do.  Robb and Bran are upset by this, and want to keep them, but no one listens until Jon, once again steps up to talk and says:

“Lord Stark,” Jon said.  It was strange to hear him call Father that, so formal.  Bran looked at him with desperate hope.  “There are five pups,” he told Father.  “Three male, two female.”

“What of it, Jon?”

“You have five trueborn children,” Jon said.  “Three sons, two daughters.  The direwolf is the sigil of your House.  Your children were meant to have these pups., my lord”

Of course the numbers only ran correct because Jon had excluded himself.  Jon of course is his bastard son, and didn’t carry the name Stark, but Snow.  It’s a custom in the north that whoever is born without a surname would be named Snow.  I suppose out of curiosity, Ned decided to ask Jon why he didn’t want a direwolf for himself, from which Jon began to explain what Ned already knew.  However, Robb jumped in the middle of their conversation and assured his father he’ll take excellent care of the animals.  Excitedly Bran chimed in with a “Me too!”  OK, alright…the kids had twisted Eddard’s arm enough, and he decides to allow them to keep the wolves, but only under one stipulation, they had to take care them themselves.  Of course those words have been spoken by many parents through the ages, and of course only in fantasy do children listen to that stipulation.

With that decided they head down the road for home, when Jon suddenly stops and hears a faint whining.  Jon rides back, while the others watch as he kneels down by the dead wolf, and returns with something in his hands.  A sixth direwolf, but not only a sixth one:

“An albino,” Theon Greyjoy said with wry amusement.  “This one will dies even faster than the others.”

Jon Snow gave his father’s ward a long, chilling look.  “I think not, Greyjoy,” he said.  “This one belongs to me.”

Surely if the dead direwolf wasn’t a sign, and the 5 baby wolves, and 5 children weren’t a sign, then surely the 6 wolf that’s an albino would have to be a sign…wouldn’t it?  That ends the first chapter of A Game of Thrones.

Since A Game of Thrones was the second fantasy series I ever read,  I did not immediately appreciate this series for what it was.  I had been expecting something along the lines of Wheel of Time.  My first impression of the prologue was that it was boring, but this time around there was a level of suspense that I didn’t notice the first time around.

The prologue starts off north of the Wall, with three characters: Ser Waymar Royce a young lord, Will a former thief whose made a name for himself as a scout, and the grizzled veteran Gared.  They’ve been sent out by Mormont to bring back Wildlings.  Will returns from scouting and reports that he found the Wildlings, and their all dead.  Royce doesn’t believe him so he demands that they go find out for sure, despite Gared’s gut feeling that somethings wrong.
I’ve never noticed writing styles much before, but I noticed Georges this time.  He manages to get across to the reader that Royce is somewhat insecure, yet believes he’s better than the everyone he commands.  He gets this across by telling a story of Gared and other Night Watchmen laughing at him behind his back while having soup.  When he describes Royce’s clothing as being top of the line, fresh from the store, while painting a picture of all the other hardened men wearing used and abused clothing.  How he makes sure that his horse isn’t too close to the others while disregarding Wills advice that his long sword will get tangled up in the trees, and that he should use a knife instead.

All those things add up to a young, insecure, arrogant, yet proud man without the need for George to come right out and say it.  It also deepens and enriches the reading experience.  Once the Royce and Will find the camp they notice all the Wildlings are gone, so Royce sends Will up a tree to look for them.  The area soon gets extremely cold, and Royce becomes engaged in a life and death struggle with an Other.  Soon many more surround him and watch.  Will clings to a tree knowing that if he says a word he’ll die.  Eventually, Royces sword shatters, and bits and pieces impale his face, while all the Others butcher him.

Soon Will climbs down and grabs a shattered piece of sword as proof of what happened.  He turns around to see Royce standing behind him. Left eye ruined with a metal shard stuck into it, while his right eye burned blue.  Will sunk to his knees, closed his eyes while the life was choked from him.

I find it interesting that despite the fact that Royce was considered soft by his peers, he was the only one who stood his ground and fought.  While Will clung to a tree, and Gared eventually ran off and abandoned the Night Watch, Royce despite being the unsympathetic of the three characters, died honorably.  This I think is a subtle hint, not to expect everything to go as you think they will.  Other fantasy’s would have had Royce on the ground pissing his pants, while the grizzled veteran stood his ground.

In the end I have a better appreciation for this prologue than I did when I originally read it.  Most of all, because I know what to expect from the rest of the series.  The reason why I still don’t like it though is because it’s false advertising in a way.  After all, I don’t think we see the Others for the rest of the book, actually if memory serves me correctly much of the rest of the book reads closer to historical fiction than fantasy.  I realize now though, that George was letting his reader know that there is indeed strange and unnatural things in his world.  At the time though I was wondering where the Others went.

I’ve been been thinking about posting something like this for a while now, but kept kicking the can down the road.  Perhaps I’ll be ostracized for saying this, but if I’m thinking it, then I’m sure others are too.

Many of the “old timers” will remember that I used to go through the Not-A-Blog line by line and make comments.  I called it, not too creatively, History of the Nab.  Eventually, KrKreuk and I started the GRRuMblers blog, and I reposted the Nab History with the promise that the 2010 version was on its way.  Around this time I joined Shawn Speakman’s forum.  I was planning on joining in the debate.

Funny thing happened.  I soon realized that all my arguments, which were good at the time, had been used and reused, and reused.  Not only that, but they were dated too.  Going through his recent posts, I realized that I really didn’t have much to criticize. Sure, I could criticize him for his NFL posts, and Wild Card updates, but after 5 years of reading those posts, was I honestly upset?  Were those posts really that surprising?

The answer was no.  Of course that’s not all either. I noticed that there was a shift on how he handled criticism himself.  Sure he still has Ty censor, but they seem to let almost everything get posted, except probably personal attacks.  However, what’s wrong with that?  We don’t want to see porn posted on this site, and George and the majority of his readers don’t want to read about how he’s fat and going to die.

I realized that I was at a turning point.  I could criticize for the sake of criticizing, or I could admit that George is doing something right.  I realized that if I criticize just to criticize then I’m painting myself into a corner.  I almost have to say that “A Dance With Dragons” sucks, regardless if it does or not.  Then if I’m just going to read a book, and nitpick it apart, so I can say that it sucks, then I’m no longer a fan anymore, and what am I doing bitching about it?  No, George may not run his blog the way many of the members here would like him to, but it’s a far cry different from the “To My Detractor” days of when all things ADWD were censored.  I have to admit that he’s changed for the better because I do love these books, and I want to be a fan again.

For five years we’ve been waiting for this book, and for the last several our battle cry has been “Finish the Book, George.”  Granted, he hasn’t yet finished the book, but if he misses this deadline no one, not even Neil Gaiman, can come up with a good enough excuse for him.  That’s why I believe that on July 12, we’ll all see A Dance with Dragons on the bookshelf.

If we can’t be happy now, when will we be?  We’ve been yelling, finish the fucking book, and when he finishes it are we still  going to nitpick?  We’ll be just as bad as all those ass kissers, who say that George can’t do anything wrong because we’d essentially be saying that he can’t do anything right.

I like this forum.  It was the first forum that I enjoyed posting at on a regular basis.  I hope it gets popular, and grows in members, but it’s a one-trick pony.  George cut the legs out from underneath this forum when he finished the book.  New members will become scarce, old members will begin to fade away, and this forum will end up in the dustbin of fantasy history.  (A little Ronald Reagan there…)  Unless of course, this forum switches gears and becomes something more than a place to criticize George R.R. Martin.

So at the end, the real question is, where do we go from here?  Not just where will we move, but what this place will become?  Has this site served it’s purpose, or will it evolve?

I realize that everyone’s reasons are different.  Some believe that George’s series is so good that everything pales in comparison.  I’m not one of those fans.  I was waiting semi-patiently when I came across, his “To My Detractors” post, and that got me disgruntled.  I then noticed that many forums had little to no tolerance for the kind of debate that George’s tardiness generated.  IsWinterComing was soon born there after, and the rest is history.

What I recently noticed is that this argument, or debate about George is nothing new or special.  Matter of fact, it’s the same recycled argument as all the others, but perhaps juiced up on steroids.  As of right now I’m reading Towers of Midnight the new Wheel of Time novel, and so I’ve been in the mood to read some WOT theories.  One thread jumped out at me.  Someone asked, “Is Thom Merrilin a darkfriend?“  This reader, Night Walker is a huge fan and has read the series about 10 times, and he’s rereading it again. Of all the times he read the series it never occurred to him that Thom could be a bad guy, so he gives 7 reasons to support this theory, but ends his post by saying this:

Most of this can be explained through simple reasoning and nothing here is solid proof he is a Darkfriend but it is something to think about none-the-less. Additionally there is much more solid evidence for him being good then bad (Occam’s razor) that it is hard to consider this a real possibility.

Again, I know it is crazy, and I personally don’t believe this myself, but I think Thom is someone we know very little about. I could see the DO wanting to put someone near Rand, so if all else failed, the DO could still win. So why couldn’t it be Thom?

So he ends his post acknowledging that this scenario is highly unlikely, but it’s a fun little “What If” to think about since everyone has dissected this series over and over again.  What’s the “Fan Boy” reaction? Well they acted like…well like someone peed in the punchbowl.   Here are just a few responses.

• I don’t buy it.
• You’re confusing the rich mysteriousness of WoT’s beginnings for an actual mystery
• That’d be a pretty big deception…
• As crazy theories go, that’s pretty crazy…
• Just no. *NM*
• not even reading. Should I? *NM*
• Depends. Are you the type who laughs at silliness or the type who bursts blood vessels? *NM*
• I might eat silliness and poop laughters *NM*

As someone who doesn’t reread books often, and has never reread the entire WOT series, I’ve run into this kind of reaction before, which is why I don’t post at this site anymore.  There seems to be little to no tolerance for fresh ideas.  A lot of these fans have dissected the series, and have decided how it shall proceed.  They may be right, after all they’ve read the series more than I, but at the same time, I’m not allowed to have fun with my theories.   Needless to say, Night Walkers theory would, at the very least, have been fun to talk about.  What if he was working for the Dark One?  How would that change everyones predictions, not to mention how the final battle would be fought?  It was just a fun little theory that got no where, and was immediately shut down.

I got the same response when I asked, “who’s going to die in the final battle“?  No one’s going to die, was the reply spoken by most, and they answered with a certainty of already having read the final book.  I still think main characters are going to die, especially Rand.  Reason being real quick, everything is cyclical, and the dream world offers the perfect opportunity to reunite fallen heroes to provide for a happy ending.  Needless to say, Night Walker finally gave up:

Ya Know…

If I would have known, before I posted this, that it would fluster people the way it did I wouldn’t have bothered. I just thought it was interesting to look at a character in a different light. Frankly I would like to see a character who we “knew” was a good guy turn out to be a bad guy. It would at least tell me the shadow isn’t completely inept. Along those lines maybe Thom is a good guy working for the shadow because he thinks the DO can help him get Owen back. It would definitely add some depth to the story (again, I know this is crazy and I don’t believe it).

In any case I think you have to laugh at the silliness, then give yourself a minute to actually entertain the idea, it is interesting (and fun) to think about things in a different light.

I imagine the entire debate, argument, and censorship over George and his work ethic began in a simple innocent way.  Why is George late, was probably the question that sparked all these “detractor” sites.  That question probably gave birth to all those boring responses we’ve all come to loathe.  The only difference between the reaction of Night Walkers theory and George, is that we’re not talking about a fictitious person, but a real life breathing individual with poor communication skills.

One thing is for sure though, you have to laugh at the irony, that a man can write great books about political maneuvering, a game of thrones if you will, but yet be so inept at maneuvering around a few disgruntled fan boys.  After all, what is PR if not a game of maneuvering? 

Edited          by

James S A Corey

The Funeral

We’re sorry to announce that George R.R. Martin died last night in a tragic roll-over accident.  No alcohol was involved, nor was he crushed by the enormous tractor trailer he was often seen driving around in.  Instead, Parris rolled over late last night, and mistook George for a large body pillow, suffocating him to death.

To celebrate our fallen hero, and in remembrance of his lifes work, we will soon transform the Not-A-Blog into the newest and largest online auction site on the Internet.  Here you’ll be able to purchase thousands of worthless, limited edition miniatures, hundreds of unread, unwanted Wild Card novels, and of course the long lost, and long awaited manuscript of A Dance with. . . nah we’re just kidding!  Actually, as it turns out when he said he was “half way finished” and “almost done” he really meant that he was just about ready to get started. . .

Remember, the best way to open your heart is to open your pocket book, and your checkbook, credit cards, 401k’s, mutual funds, your children’s college fund, and lets not forget their piggy banks, we can also bill your cell phone provider as well as some of your utility companies, we can also claim your children on your tax returns.

LEAVE NO PENNY LEFT BEHIND!

DONATE TO THE GEORGE R.R. MARTIN MEMORIAL FUND

Thanks for your sympathy and understanding

George R.R. Martin

Last night I went ahead and tried to be a bit more creative again. When I was re-listening to the first audiobook, read by Roy Dotrice, I figured it would be awesome if someone would re-cut the whole thing to something else… kinda in the sense of the “Dirty Potter” series.
So I went ahead and tried for a bit. Turns out its a fucking lot of work and would require much more free time than I currently have. So all I came up with is this 56 second snippet.

I hope its still enjoyable for some. Maybe when I have more time, I’ll try more! I title this one “Wild Carts! The fat man said”. As a matter of fact there is not a single mention of any “card” or “cards” in the first book, so “carts” were all I had!
PS: It is not really a Photoshop job, but since there is no video thread and I seem to lack the permissions to make a new thread I threw it in here. If someone feels the need to move it, please go ahead.