George R.R. Martin: “A Writer Who Needs to Get Writing”
George R.R. Martin is profiled by The Huffington Post today in a piece titled “13 Writers Who Need To Get Writing.”
Martin is the poster child — his smiling face is at the top — but the article also pokes Philip Pullman (“We want him to write The Book of Dust, the latest companion book to the His Dark Materials series”), George Saunders (“His quirky, disturbing sci-fiesque suburban short stories have critics fighting over each other… write a goddamn novel already”), and The Night Circus author Erin Morgenstern (“Morgenstern says her next book is “a film noir-flavored Alice in Wonderland“… WE WANT TO READ IT NOW.”)
In other GRRM news “The Princess and the Queen,” a new novella set in the world of A Song and Ice and Fire, will appear in Martin and Gardner Dozois’s upcoming “massive crossgenre anthology” Dangerous Women. Here’s the scoop from Martin’s blog:
Mine own contribution… well, it’s some of that fake history I have been writing lo these many months, the true (mostly) story of the origins of the Dance of the Dragons. The stand-alone stories, not part of any series, feature some amazing work as well. For those who like to lose themselves in long stories, the Brandon Sanderson story, the Diana Gabaldon story, the Caroline Spector story, and my “Princess and Queen” are novellas. Huge mothers.
Read the complete details at Tor.com.
As much as I want the next verse of A Song of Ice and Fire, I’m really happy to see a GRRM novella. The world needs more novellas.
Me, I’m still waiting for the third Shattered World book by Michael Reaves.
I’d also love new Martin, Pullman and Morgenstern, of course, but I’d rather wait for good new Martin, Pullman and Morgenstern than have them just rush something out.
Gerrold’s War Against the Chtorr series anyone? It’s only been 20 years since the last installment. I’d really like to know if anything short of “fall back to Mars and sterilize Earth” will work.
> I’m really happy to see a GRRM novella. The world needs more novellas.
Sarah,
Well said. I’d like to see more of your novellas, in particular.
> Me, I’m still waiting for the third Shattered World book by Michael Reaves.
Holy cats… there was a second SHATTERED WORLD book?
Jeff,
> Gerrold’s War Against the Chtorr series anyone? It’s only been 20 years since the last installment.
I have no idea if Gerrold’s War Against the Chtorr was successful enough in its 3rd and 4th installments to keep both the publisher and author interested. So many genre writers succumb to that curse that I always suspect that first when a series comes to a premature end.
>Holy cats… there was a second SHATTERED WORLD book?
The Burning Realm — came out couple years after the original and used copies are pretty easy to track down. Be warned that it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, which is why I keep hoping against hope for more. (I made a comment on Facebook and Reaves said that his daughter is interested in collaborating with him on it, but I don’t know if anything will ever come of that.)
John, my understanding is that Gerrold very much wants to complete the Chtorr series, but he’s taking the time to make sure he does it right.
Thanks, John! I’m coming back around to the high fantasy novellas any day now, and excited about getting into those manuscripts again.
The collection of contemporary fantasy novellas is so close to ready to be delivered to its publisher that every hour I’m astonished again that it’s not already out the door. If I can’t deliver that thing within the next 48 hours, I’ll eat my hat. In any case, there will be word about its release date Very Soon.
> I made a comment on Facebook and Reaves said that his daughter is interested in collaborating
> with him on it, but I don’t know if anything will ever come of that.
Interesting. Certainly a lot more opportunities are open to writers who want to complete series now than there used to be, what with Kickstarter and digital publishing options.
I wonder if we’ll see a sudden surge of new novels from fantasy writers of the 70s, 80s and 90s? The barriers to publishing aren’t what they used to be, and even a few hundred readers willing to pony up in advance can make a book possible on Kickstarter.
> my understanding is that Gerrold very much wants to complete the Chtorr series, but he’s taking the time to make sure he does it right.
Jeff,
Excellent news. I was always interested in them – they looked like the kind of fast-action SF that always appealed to me, and Gerrold is a fine writer.
> If I can’t deliver that thing within the next 48 hours, I’ll eat my hat. In any case, there will be word about its release date Very Soon.
Marvelous! Keep us posted, Sarah.