Portugal was grey and rainy, but the fans here could not have been warmer. We had amazing turnouts in both Lisbon and Porto, I did a hundred interviews and defaced thousands of books, stocked up on port and ginja, and now it’s back to London for a few more days. Come Wednesday I will be flying home… just in time for the NFL Draft!
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Busy, busy… still in England, now in the heart of London… we had a smashing visit to Bath, with a great event at Toppings and tourist visits to the Roman Baths, the spa, the Assembly Rooms, and the Royal Crescent… then it was back to Heathrow for the (sold out) Eastercon. Biggest and best Eastercon ever, by all reports. It was great to see so many old friends, and to make some new ones.
Meanwhile, back at home, GAME OF THRONES won the prestigious Peabody Award.
This evening is the big London signing and interview at the Bloomsbury Theatre. See (some of) you there!
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For my readers in Portugal… some details of my visit there…
See you in Lisbon! See you in Porto!
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Got back from my latest trip to Toronto yesterday afternoon.
(The avatar pic here is from my FIRST visit to Toronto, in 1973, for Torcon 2. My second worldcon, and first trip ever outside the United States. Yes, I was that young once. Yes, there was a time before the beard.)
A fun four days, albeit frantic. The signing at Indigo Books drew a huge crowd, with a line that snaked out the store and way, way, down the block. They told me afterwards that it was the biggest signing the store has ever hosted, breaking the record previously established by Bill Clinton. Hey, cool! That 1996 encounter with Clifford the Big Red Dog still rankles, but I outdrew the Big Dog Bill, so…
It really was great to meet so many of my Canadian readers, and I am sorry that our meetings were of necessity so very short. That would not be my choice, by any means, but when the line is so long you need to keep it moving. As it is, some people got there that morning before the shop opened, and were waiting all day… my hat’s off to them, and also to those brave fen who drove all the way in from Montreal just to get my illegible scrawl.
I hope everyone also managed to drop in on the GAME OF THRONES exhibit at TIFF Lightbox, and get your photo taken on the Iron Throne. The exhibition was a hoot and a half, with one piece that… well, let us say, it startled even me.
Besides the signing, and a couple of presentations at TIFF (one open to the general public, one for film and television students from the TIFF ‘master class’ program), HBO Canada and Random House Canada also set me up for lots and lots of interviews, so I’ve been popping up all over Canadian television and radio these past few days.
Here’s one, for those who missed it: my guest shot on Canada’s late night talk show TONIGHT, with George Stroumboulopolous.
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I will embed and/or link to some of the other interviews when and if they go up on the net. Meanwhile, it’s back to work for me. As usual when I travel, I have lots of catching up to do.
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And here’s my appearance in Seattle, courtesy of Vimeo, Suvudu, and the University Book Store.
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Any resemblence to my pre-signing remarks in Burlington, New York City, Indianapolis, San Diego, LA, Redwood City, Denver, and Lexington is entirely… ah… intentional.
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Done with Denver. Another great event. Thanks to the folks at Tattered Cover, and all the fans who turned out.
Now it’s off to the airport again, for the last stop on my DWD dance — JoeBeth Books in Lexington, Kentucky.
See you there!
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A thousand people turned up at Town Hall last night for my Seattle signing, sponsored by the University Bookstore.
Seattle also included visits to Bungie (I could tell you what they are doing, but then I’d have to kill you) and Amazon (where they are selling lots o’ books). Cool stuff, great people.
Comicon, LA, and Redwood City already seem to be receding into the distant past. The trip has become one long blur… but tiring as it is at times, it means a lot to me to meet so many of my readers. I appreciate all of you coming, in spite of the crowds and long lines.
This morning we’re off to Denver. Tomorrow I sign at Tattered Cover. See you there.
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I’m off to San Diego tomorrow morning, for comicon.
Tickets have been sold out for months, alas. But for you lucky 150,000 who will be lucky enough to get in, here’s my current schedule of signings, panels, and other public events.
THURSDAY, JULY 21
10:00 am – 12 noon Daniel Abraham and I will be signing copies of the FEVRE DREAM graphic novel at the Avatar booth (#2701),
12 noon – 1:00 pm EPIC FANTASY panel, rm 6A
1:30pm – 2:30 pm The panelists from Epic Fantasy will be signing in autograph area AA1
3:00pm – 4:00 pm The GAME OF THRONES panel, an hour long discussion of the HB0 series with showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and actors Lena Headey (Cersei), Peter Dinklage (Tyrion), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys), Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Nicolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime). I’ll be moderating.
4:30pm – 5:45pm The GAME OF THRONES cast and I will be signing posters at the Warner Brothers booth #4545.
FRIDAY JULY 22
10:00 am – 11:00 am I will be signing copies of the DOORWAYS graphic novel at the IDW
booth (#2643)
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm John Picacio and I will be signing copies of the 2012 Ice & Fire calendar in the autograph area, AA 21 I will also be signing A DANCE WITH DRAGONS and my other Ice & Fire books during this appearance.
SATURDAY JULY 23
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm I will be signing A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, the other Ice & Fire books, and anything else you care to bring in the autograph area, AA 18.
5:00pm – 6:00 pm Tor Books will be giving away complimentary copies of INSIDE STRAIGHT at their booth, and I’ll be on hand to sign them, along with Melinda Snodgrass, Daniel Abraham, Carrie Vaughn, and other members of the Wild Cards crew. We’ll also be glad to deface FORT FREAK and any other Wild Cards books you care to present to us.
SUNDAY JULY 24
10:30 am – 11:30 am WILD CARDS panel. Half a dozen of your favorite Wild Cards writers will assemble to talk about the past, present, and future of the long-running shared world series in the field.
12:00 noon – 1:00 pm The Wild Card panelists will adjourn to AA1 to sign your books.
Later that afternoon, I will heading over to Mysterious Galaxy for my signing there, but that’s offsite, and not an official part of the SDCC schedule.
A couple of notes about the signings:
1) as on my tour, I will be autographing your books, but I won’t be able to inscribe or personalize them (unless by some chance you catch me at a slow time when there’s no line),
2) many of these signings are keyed to particular books and projects. At Avatar, I’ll be signing FEVRE DREAM, at IDW it will be DOORWAYS, for Tor WILD CARDS. The place to get your DANCE WITH DRAGONS signed is at the big general signings on Friday and Saturday. We’ve scheduled me for four hours of signing between those two days… so please, respect my other publishers and DO NOT ask me to sign your Ice & Fire books at the booth signings. Those are meant to promote my other projects.
[[AFTER THE CUT IS NSFW. ]]
Of course, there are certain things I am always willing to sign.
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Had a great birthday party for Parris yesterday (thanks to Melinda for lending us her house). Today I try to catch up a bit on my email. Tomorrow morning I am back on the road again. First stop is the San Diego Comicon. I will post some more about SDCC a bit later. After that, it’s the second half of my DANCE WITH DRAGONS book tour.
The schedule:
SAN DIEGO
July 24, 4:00 p.m. Mysterious Galaxy, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
LOS ANGELES
July 26, 7:00 p.m. LOS ANGELES – Barnes & Noble, 189 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles
BAY AREA
July 27, 7:00 p.m. REDWOOD CITY – Fox Theatre, 2215 Broadway Street, Redwood City
event hosted by Kepler’s
SEATTLE
July 29, 7:30 p.m. SEATTLE – Town Hall, 1119 8th Ave, Seattle
event hosted by University Bookstore
DENVER
July 31, 2:00 pm DENVER – Tattered Cover LoDo, 1628 16th Street, Denver
LEXINGTON
August 2, 7:00 p.m. LEXINGTON – Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 161 Lexington Green Circle
For more information on these signings — including rules and procedures — check out the story on Suvudu at http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2011/06/on-tour-george-r-r-martin.html?ref=twt_Suvudu_stream or contact the individual bookstores.
As for all those places I am NOT visiting (sorry, sorry, but I can’t tour forever, can’t go everywhere)… there are still ways you can get an autographed book. Try contacting some of the bookstores on the tour. Most of them would be glad to take your mailorder, I’m sure.
You can also try the Signed Page at http://signedpage.com/ They specialize in selling signed books via mailorder, and I will be swinging by their cavernous warehouse on my tour, to scrawl illegibly in all of their pre-orders.
(Sorry again, but no personalizations this tour, just signatures).
See you… somewhere or other, I hope. And if I look a little dazed and don’t seem to know what city I am in, well, do forgive…
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