0:05 hi well I'm back uh with my friend uh
0:07 and we're gonna
0:10 answer a few fan questions that have
0:12 been uh sent in here uh
0:14 uh
0:16 which of your characters
0:19 would you most like to have dinner with
0:25 uh well that would depend in part on uh
0:29 the purpose of uh the dinner
0:31 um if I wanted a wit and entertainment
0:35 uh Tyrion Lannister very few people as
0:39 uh you know funny or witty as a Tyrion
0:42 but he's also dangerous too if you uh
0:44 annoy him he could uh you know send you
0:46 to the dungeon or cut your head off
0:48 um if I was simply looking for a
0:50 wonderful meal uh go to Penthouse and
0:53 eat with illyrio mopatas he uh he has
0:57 some marvelous uh feasts uh set before him
0:58 him
1:00 or I suppose you could go to the uh you
1:02 know the Inn on the Trident and and see
1:06 what hot pie was uh whipping up um
1:10 another character that might be fun to
1:14 have dinner with would be uh Shea when
1:16 she was alive but uh probably for
1:18 reasons that I shouldn't go into um
1:20 um
1:23 is there a character that you would have
1:26 liked to explore and write more about
1:27 but not able to
1:30 in A Song of Ice and Fire or Fire and
1:33 Blood uh well yes there are in fact a
1:35 lot of characters um
1:36 um
1:39 one of the things uh about fire and
1:41 blood in particular
1:43 is its nature as a history meant I was
1:47 summarizing things and as I as I
1:50 summarize those things and characters
1:52 appeared be they major minor there was
1:54 always part of me the the novelist part
1:56 in the back of my mind said I could
1:59 write a whole novel about that that character
2:00 character
2:03 um oh boy I wish I had time to I could
2:06 at least write a story about them
2:10 um and I've been tempted to do that uh
2:13 many times
2:17 characters
2:20 it's hard to explain in some ways why
2:21 some characters
2:24 trigger something in me or or fascinate
2:27 me and others maybe don't but uh um
2:33 a character like us
2:35 the the Dragon Knight um
2:36 um
2:39 this very Gallant one of the greatest
2:42 knights in in the history of Westeros or um
2:47 or Nettles
2:49 um who you know is a is a dragon writer
2:51 in the dance where does she come from
2:53 where does she go to what is her life
2:55 like what is her life like after she
2:57 Fades from the public sphere
3:00 um those are interesting
3:01 um I have thought at various points of
3:04 writing an entire novel about uh carrot
3:06 we haven't gotten to you yet aegon the
3:08 fourth aegoning unworthy he's like the
3:11 Henry the eighth of uh
3:13 of West Rose except worse he has all
3:17 these Mr C's and he's he's not a nice
3:19 guy but he's an interesting guy and
3:21 that's that's something that uh you know
3:24 fascinates me what makes a villain what
3:27 makes a a hero um are there people who
3:29 are all good and all evil I don't I
3:31 don't know but there's a million
3:34 characters I I just need to live to be
3:37 you know 150 uh and I can write all of this
3:38 this
3:40 uh what was one of your favorite scenes
3:42 to write in a series
3:44 and one of your least favorite um
3:49 well one scene I don't know if I could
3:51 name one favorite scene and one least
3:52 favorite scene I did generally always
3:55 like writing about Tyrion the Tyrion
3:58 chapter seemed to write themselves and I
4:00 had a very hard time to struggle with
4:04 writing from bran because bran of all
4:05 the characters was the one who was most
4:08 involved in Magic and I think magic and
4:11 fantasy sorcery the supernatural all of
4:13 these things have to be handled with a
4:16 great deal of care or they can overwhelm
4:17 the uh the story
4:21 so um I rewrote some of those brand
4:24 chapters over and over again and I'm
4:25 still struggling with the new ones that
4:27 are in uh
4:29 in The Winds of Winter but uh hopefully
4:31 we're we're getting there um
4:33 um
4:35 what's seen from Fire and Blood are you
4:37 most excited is he brought to the screen
4:41 uh well yeah the battle over to guard time
4:41 time
4:44 although that battle that they did in
4:47 the season finale was pretty uh
4:50 pretty amazing too um
4:58 what is your favorite seemingly minor moment
5:00 moment
5:03 that changed the course of uh westeros's history
5:13 there are a couple of them um I think uh
5:15 in in the first in the Hedge night the
5:17 first Duncan egg story uh the death of
5:20 Baylor breakspeare who was the uh the
5:22 heir next in line to the throne and I
5:24 think would have been a very strong and
5:27 very competent King who who dies to
5:29 defend the um the honor of an
5:32 insignificant hedge knight uh how was
5:35 Westeros history different if Baylor
5:37 does not die
5:39 um that would be
5:41 very significant and similarly the whole
5:43 dance with the dragons I mentioned
5:45 earlier the the air and this
5:48 air in the spear I mean Harris the Old
5:50 King had 13 children it seemed a
5:52 succession was very
5:56 solid he had the proverbial air and a
5:58 sphere and two very competent
6:04 Sons amen and Balon and Eamon was killed
6:06 while flying on his Dragon to uh Tarth
6:10 to help defend the Isle against some you
6:13 know Pirates and mirish people and he
6:15 was killed by a crossbow well it was not
6:17 even meant for him there was you know
6:18 the the
6:22 even starve Tarth the the Lord was well
6:24 known to the mirrish and they were
6:26 determined to take him out and uh
6:29 crossbowmen didn't even recognize who
6:30 was this new guy who was walking
6:33 alongside him but he just missed and suddenly
6:35 suddenly
6:37 the whole succession was thrown into
6:39 doubt and in some ways you could say
6:43 that was one of the first things that
6:45 caused the dance of the dragons
6:48 uh when you first imagined characters in
6:49 A Song of Ice and Fire and Fire and
6:52 Blood were there any that changed in
6:54 unexpected ways as the story uh
6:57 developed yes
7:00 in fact there were so many that I couldn't
7:01 couldn't
7:04 even begin to tell you um it's the way I
7:06 write I've I've talked about this in
7:09 many interviews and many blog posts two
7:11 types of writers the architect and a
7:14 gardener and um the architect plans
7:16 everything ahead of time
7:18 but the gardeners just starts to write
7:20 the story and the characters come alive
7:22 and they take him in unexpected
7:24 directions so sometimes it's an
7:29 unexpected character who pops up and uh
7:31 captivates you and takes over the story
7:33 and does take it in unexpected
7:36 directions I remember one of the First
7:38 characters to do that was Brawn you know
7:41 Tyrion is on the road and he he meets at
7:43 an end he runs into these two cell
7:47 swords Brawn and chicken and uh
7:51 then he gets arrested by uh Catelyn
7:53 Stark and um
7:56 he has to travel to the irie and he's
8:00 put on trial and and Braun steps forward
8:03 uh to defend him um I needed someone it
8:05 could have easily have been chigging at
8:08 that stage but no I killed chicken I
8:10 just just I like to name Braun bitter
8:14 and the more time Tyrion spent with
8:16 Braun the more interesting the character
8:18 became to me I wanted to know who he was
8:20 and what about him and I liked his
8:22 dialogue I liked the sound of him he
8:25 played very well off
8:28 Tyrion so but that's only one character
8:30 there are many many other characters
8:33 that have done the same thing to uh to a
8:36 greater or less extent in uh
8:38 in these books um
8:39 um
8:42 if you could choose a time or place in
8:44 westerosi history then you could revisit
8:48 in future stories what would it be uh
8:55 you know virtually everything in Fire
8:56 and Blood
8:58 all the histories there's part of me
9:00 that would love to uh
9:02 flesh them out a little more tell the
9:04 tell the full story in the form of a
9:08 novella or a novel um
9:08 um
9:10 and we saw even more of that in the in
9:15 the TV show I mean it we had 10 episodes
9:16 um people have
9:18 said that time jumps were jarring to
9:21 them and you know raniera's relationship
9:23 with Harwin strong um
9:24 um
9:26 she had three children by him but we
9:29 never even you know we never see them
9:31 get together for the first time or cast
9:33 we never have a scene when they first
9:35 slept with each other we we don't know
9:37 uh exactly what has happened and how he
9:39 felt about that and how Lenor felt about
9:41 him there's a whole story there there's
9:45 a at least a novella maybe a a novel but
9:47 um we we simply did not have the time to
9:48 tell it
9:51 um and it did not fit the format of my
9:52 history book so
9:55 but it's a story and I would love to
10:03 Fire and Blood is strongly informed by
10:06 the biases of Washington gildane and mushroom
10:07 mushroom
10:10 well mushroom is only one of gildane's
10:13 sources there's also Eustis and uh
10:15 or a while who recount these events do
10:17 you consider House of dragon to be a
10:19 companion piece of the book that shows
10:20 the true nature of events as they
10:22 actually happened
10:27 or will only you ever know the truth
10:30 well how meta do you want to get I mean
10:31 there is no truth I make all this stuff
10:35 up uh Archer Mason gildane mushroom all
10:38 of those things and uh
10:41 what is the truth uh will we ever know
10:44 the truth of uh Hannibal uh or Spartacus
10:45 as in David's novel will we ever know
10:47 the truth of what happened at the black
10:50 dinner of Scotland
10:53 um will we ever know the truth of
10:55 any of these things
10:57 truth gets obscured um
11:03 so I say with Kipling there are 9 and 20
11:05 ways of constructing tribal lays and
11:12 are you team black
11:15 or Team Green well I don't know
11:17 read the book
11:20 you have to
11:22 make your own mind up on that
11:25 maybe I'm a bit of both teams um
11:31 what smaller house in Westeros
11:34 It's the Most Fascinating to you
11:36 and why um
11:45 again that's a that's a tough one um
11:46 um
11:49 I do get interested in the history of uh
11:51 many of these uh smaller houses
11:54 obviously House of valerion which was largely
11:56 largely
11:58 very much in the background in A Song of
11:59 Ice and Fire but is very much in the
12:03 foreground of
12:05 Fire and Blood and House of the Dragon
12:08 um is a house that has engaged me and
12:10 you know one of the successor shows
12:12 we're working on is called Nine voyages
12:15 it's the uh earlier Voyage of Corliss
12:18 valerion who was the Sinbad the Sailor
12:20 the Magellan
12:22 um the Captain Kirk on the water of
12:25 Westeros and he made these incredible
12:26 nine voyages to the far ends of the
12:29 Earth so house valerion is is uh one
12:31 that's interested in me I've always had
12:34 a soft spot for house Blackwood which
12:35 has an interesting history and they're
12:38 one of the few houses south of the neck
12:42 that still follows the old gods and has
12:44 a weary tree and they they have not
12:46 adopted the faith of the seven that's an
12:48 interesting to me how did they uh how
12:49 did they work out
12:52 some of the houses in Doran interests me
12:55 a great deal uh you know nymeria how she
12:59 uh unified all of Dorne all of the petty
13:01 kingdoms that's fascinating and I hope
13:03 we hope to tell that story too in one of
13:07 the successor shows uh 10 000 ships but
13:10 also how starful which is the ha uh the
13:13 the house Dane which is headquarters at
13:15 Starfall and they have the the sword
13:19 Dawn which is even more potent than the
13:21 Valerian steel swords it's forged from a
13:25 full-length star and the man who Wheels
13:26 it is called a sword of the morning and
13:28 they have a at least in my head they
13:31 have a very colorful Rich kind of
13:35 mysterious interesting background at uh
13:37 one day I would like to write about
13:40 there just need to be seven of me and
13:43 they need to be 37 hours in the day and
13:45 I need to be 35 years old again but uh
13:49 sadly none of these things are likely to occur
13:50 occur
13:52 and finally you asked a question I knew
13:55 I was going to get do you have an update
13:57 on the Winds of Winter um
14:01 you know it's the same update I've been
14:04 giving for a long time I'm I continue to
14:09 it continues to get longer and longer I
14:10 mean I was working on it the day before
14:13 I flew back here for three or four days
14:16 but I was
14:18 I was rereading some chapters that I'd
14:19 written earlier and I didn't like them
14:22 well enough and uh so I kind of ripped
14:24 them apart and rewrote them
14:26 um and I've had some ideas while I've
14:28 been on this trip I got to get back and
14:30 and hopefully get to it while the ideas
14:31 are still
14:33 fresh in my head
14:36 um it's a big big book I've said that
14:39 before it's a challenging book um
14:41 um
14:43 it's probably going to be a larger book than
14:44 than
14:46 any of the previous volumes in the
14:49 series The what
14:52 the um desert dragons and Storm of
14:54 Swords are the two largest books in the
14:56 series they were both about 1500
14:58 manuscript pages I think this one is
15:00 going to be longer than that by the time
15:02 I finish it and I think I'm about three
15:05 quarters of the way done maybe
15:08 um but that's not a hundred percent done
15:11 so I I have to continue to work on it
15:13 and of course then there's the issue
15:15 here of my friends at random house when
15:17 I deliver this monstrous book that will
15:18 be as big of this Dragon
15:20 are they going to try to make me cut it
15:22 in two or are they going to do something
15:25 other horrible to me ah no
15:27 we'll find out about that but first I
15:30 have to finish it I I have to get it all
15:32 done and uh I've given up making
15:35 predictions because people press me and
15:37 press me when's it going to be done and
15:39 I make what I think is the best case
15:41 estimate and then stuff happens
15:46 and um yeah that's um then everybody
15:48 gets mad that I lied and I've never lied
15:49 about these predictions that are best I
15:50 can make
15:55 but I guess I overestimate my ability to
15:56 get stuff done and I underestimate the
15:58 amount of interruptions and other
16:00 projects and other demands that will
16:06 distract me and uh so on and so on but
16:09 it's in progress I'm working on it um
16:11 um
16:19 one day it will be done
16:20 and then
16:22 it will come out
16:24 and then
16:26 the next day
16:28 someone will tweet me
16:32 when will we see a dream of spring so
16:34 so
16:37 uh yes I I can see the future I'm a
16:38 science fiction guy
16:40 anyway that's all we have for you tonight
16:41 tonight um
16:42 um
16:46 so I hope you've enjoyed this talk it
16:48 was great having David here
16:50 um I think we could uh
16:52 we could have talked for another two or
16:53 three hours um
16:54 um
16:56 but um he has to get home and get
16:58 working on the ice dragon
17:00 um so do um
17:03 do pick up Fire and Blood do pick up
17:06 this incredible art book that we have uh
17:10 rise of the dragons and uh also please
17:12 do pick up some of my Wild Card books
17:14 David David is in those along with a lot
17:16 of other marvelous writers and pick up
17:18 some of David's own novels his Acacia
17:20 High fantasy series his books about
17:22 Hannibal and pride of Carthage
17:26 um terrific reads and
17:28 I think you'll really enjoy them if you
17:31 like historical fiction historical
17:33 fantasy Epic Fantasy
17:35 any of these things so
17:37 so
