George has updated!!

[Tansy]

I really find all this name calling and accusations absolutey mad. Just because you enjoy someone's work does not give you the right to tell them how to live their life and spend their time. If he choses to work on different projects, attend a conference, or god forbid take a holiday even.. then let him, it must get pretty intense wrting the same story for years. I think I'd be wanting to work on something else to just to stop me getting bored of it, and with everyone scrutinising his every move I'm suprised the poor guy hasn't just said sod it and stop writing them for awhile.

It must be hard to get motivated when working hard to complete the next book and all he gets are so called fans complaining he isn't working hard enough or spending too much time on other things. He's probably under enough pressure from himself and the publishers without the "fans" adding to it. Writing is hard work and I'd rather he takes as long as he needs to produce the story he wants to tell the way he wants to tell it, in the meantime there are plenty of other good books for me to read and far more important things to get stressed about

 

[Werthead]

His latest blog entry is about Warriors and Songs of the Dying Earth, which will probably infuriate people who want more ASoIaF and nothing else (although you're going to get it: the new Dunk 'n' Egg story The Mystery Knight will be in Warriors).

However, he's assembled some Grade-A talent for these two books. Robert Silverberg and Neil Gaiman will be contributed to both. Robin Hobb is doing a historical story about the First Punic War for Warriors, and Kage Barker has done a new Cugel story for Songs (Cugel is one of the greatest creations in fantasy history, and it's been 25 years since we last caught up with his misadventures). Very impressive stuff.

 

[Tansy]

Sounds good - I'm pleased he is working on other projects as it should enable him to keep ASOFAI in perspective and fresh.

I've been looking to read The Hedge Knight but can only find it in Graphic Novel format - I was sure it was actually a text story but could be wrong?

 

[Culhwch]

No, you're right, it was published in the first Legends collection, edited by Robert Silverburg. A good read - it was actually what got me into Martin in the first place. But the graphic novel does the tale justice, so if you can't turn it up you haven't missed much...

 

[Tansy]

Thanks Culwch I was wrongly assuming it was a standalone work

 

[Werthead]

Sounds good - I'm pleased he is working on other projects as it should enable him to keep ASOFAI in perspective and fresh.

I've been looking to read The Hedge Knight but can only find it in Graphic Novel format - I was sure it was actually a text story but could be wrong?

It's also in Dreamsongs (the second volume if you can only find the split edition).

The Sword Sword - the second Dunk 'n' Egg story - is in Legends II, but that seems to be going out of print as well. The comics adaption I believe is now complete, and the graphic novel will follow in the autumn, I believe.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

The best luck I had with finding the actual short stories in the Legends books was at my local used bookstore. They actually had both books.

 

[The Curious Orange]

Just to clarify - My problem with AFFC wasn't that half the characters were absent. My problems were with what was in the book, not what was left out. Over half of AFFC is taken up with Cersei and Brienne chapters, which I personally found not-all-that-interesting, and bloated. Brienne wanders across the map encountering various minor characters from earlier books. All well and good, but I just didn't feel this particular story strand was interesting enough to sustain the rather large page count. Ditto the Cersei chapters - the last few chapters - her plotting against Margaery and her eventual downfall - were fun to read, but there was way to much bloat in this storyline.
By contrast, the other storylines achieved quite a lot in an relatively short number of pages - The Samwell chapters and the Dorne chapters displayed an ecconomy of words that the cersei and brienne chapters lacked.

 

[TK-421]

GRRM has reposted the preview Tyrion chapter on his website today. It seems it has been slightly revised but on the whole it remains the same.

 

[TK-421]

GRRM has just posted in his blog the information on the new Valyrian Resins (busts of some of our favourite characters) that will be available at Comicon and soon in comic book stores. He also says that he will not be going to Comicon. He also has information on his upcoming appearances in Portugal and Spain. (Darn, he is hitting more places in those countries than what he did when he came briefly to Canada on his promo tour of AFFC).

Nothing on ADWD except a small mention last week that he is still working on it.

 

[Wiggum]

Nothing on ADWD except a small mention last week that he is still working on it.

One would hope so, lol.

I'm not a pushy fan, but from the previous updates/information I have a hard time beleiving he'll be able to turn in a finished draft to the publishers by the end of June.

Le sigh.

Just in general, le sigh.

 

[Khale]

This book is taking so long that I am losing faith in whether GRRM even has an interest in the story sufficient to put out a good product. Ok, maybe I am just tired of waiting and am venting.

 

[TK-421]

Le sigh. Le sigh.

I'm pretty indoctrinated to not lose faith.

No offence intended to anyone in particular, but what a sign of the times for demands of instant gratification all the time, even from authors. I would think that Twain, Tolstoy, Hemmingway, Dostoyevski, Steinbeck, Tolkien, etc., etc. are rolling in their graves at such demands.

Sorry, horse, for that extra beating but I vented as well.

 

[The Curious Orange]

Why do people read unpublished, ongoing series of this nature if they don't enjoy the waiting for the next volume? To me, it's like Christmas - the best part is the anticipation!

 

[Tansy]

Ah but you know Christmas is gonna turn up every year regular as clockwork

With the next book, well...

 

[Rainswept]

I am absolutely willing to wait. I'll wait another 5 years so long as the book turns out as high a quality as possible.

My favorite novel of all (Atlas Shrugged) took 12 years to write, and I think it was worth every scratched storyline to every reworded sentence.

Take your time, George, and do it right.

 

[Tansy]

If I was George I'd make all the whiners wait and take my time and write the lot before publishing

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

But that just wouldn't be fair to those of us who have waited patiently.

 

[Boaz]

I've been checking the update page three or four times a day for the last two weeks.

He just updated his Not A Blog page with information that he's in Ireland in transit to Portugal and Spain for a month. In his own words, "No, I didn't finish the novel, though not for want of trying. Nothing to be done about that but push on when I return."

So it looks like August/September for ADWD.

Poor guy. He tries to help us with an ASOIAF update page and a blog and all we can do is chart his progress. He seems a patient man.

 

[The Curious Orange]

My kindly and benevolent employer has added Livejournal to the list of "blocked" pages, so it looks like I'm reliant on the kindly people on this forum to keep me posted...

He has long stated that this trip represented his absolute stretch deadline for finishing the manuscript. I don't think anyone expected he'd ever do it.