New George R. R. Martin Interview

George R. R. Martin is one of the formidable forces in the fantasy genre.
He also is one of the nicest and sweetest men you will ever meet and he genuinely cares for all around him.
The first time I met him was at the San Jose Worldcon in 2002. I had been invited by Terry Brooks to attend the convention and while flying there discovered I was sitting next to the best friend of George’s wife Parris. Upon landing and claiming our baggage, the friend asked me at the curb if I needed a ride to the hotel and convention. I told her I didn’t want to impose. Then a rented town car pulled up and out stepped George. Almost clucking like a motherly hen, he quickly ushered me into the car where we all talked about the flight and the convention and how nice a weekend it was going to be.
At that time, I had not read A Game of Thrones. I really had no idea who George was. Much later I realized how paramount he was to the industry.
I still marvel over his generosity that day at Worldcon.
While at this weekend’s current Worldcon in Montréal, Quebec, Gazette writer Matthew Surridge met up with George and did a short 10 minute interview/podcast with him.
Key points:

George has over 1000 finished manuscript pages for his next book, A Dance With Dragons.
His previous four books in the series have come in between 1100 manuscript pages and 1500 manuscripts pages.
He thinks the book will be around 1200, although he will not put an expected finish date on the project
HBO is moving forward with the Ice & Fire pilot. It is going to be shot in October in Ireland.
Originally, the story of A Dance With Dragons was meant to be the second book of a trilogy, but the first book grew in the telling.
Sean Bean has been cast as Ned Stark.
George talks about why Dance is late, due to the complexity of the series and the amount of rewriting he does.
Listen to the podcast for the rest!