GRRM Live!
Last night, George R.R. Martin was in Toronto, doing a talk at TIFF's Lightbox. I had heard about this very early on and managed to snag myself a ticket back in January before it sold out.
It was such a great evening :)
I started off by seeing the Game of Thrones exhibit there which was... ok. Well, for free, it was great :) There's not a lot to it and much of the exhibit is made up of production stills, but a few of the costumes are pretty neat (Jon Snow's gear looks so... fake seen close up, which I found very interesting), the dragon egg looks smaller than it did on tv, but the workmanship on Renly's sword and scabbard was amazing. I did not join the rather long lineup to have my picture taken on the Iron Throne because I wanted to get upstairs and join the queue to get into the theatre.
I got myself a good seat, saw a couple of friends in the crowd and went to chat with them, then it was time for the main event.
It was a great talk and GRRM covered topics from the regular stuff such as his favourite character (Tyrion, Dany and Jon) to who is the hardest for him to write (Bran), to where he gets his inspirations (he told a particularly great anecdote how a trip to Hadrian's Wall in the mid 80s stayed with him and gave him his inspriration for the Wall), to how difficult it is for him to kill off characters (he put off writing a particular scene in A Storm of Swords till the very, very end because he found it so difficult to write), to trying to adapt his work and the work of others for television. It was all quite interesting, and he's a very entertaining and funny speaker.
As an added bonus, he read us an excerpt from The Winds of Winter. I feel bad in complaining that it was a Victarion chapter (as I find the Ironborn chapters in any of his books the most boring), but still, I appreciated the peek.
GRRM was also kind enough to stick around and do a signing afterwards. I had lugged two of my massive hardcovers with me (Game of Thrones and Storm of Swords), and I must admit, I had a moment of geek superiority whilst in the lineup as I didn't notice anyone else around me with original hardcover editions of the book. I know, I know, not my finest moment, and I should just be happy that people are reading his books now, but I couldn't help it. Anyway, you really only get about 45 seconds with GRRM as he signs, so I just thanked him for everything, and he thanked me and then (in what is obviously a stock question that he asks fans), he asked who my favourite character is. "Jaime Lannister" I of course blurted out. He chuckled and said "Ah, you like the bad boys do you?" And I had to laugh, because that's not the first time I've heard that. I just said "I do. And he's a fantastic bad boy". GRRM thanked me again and I was on my way.
Such a happy, happy fangirl :)
It was such a great evening :)
I started off by seeing the Game of Thrones exhibit there which was... ok. Well, for free, it was great :) There's not a lot to it and much of the exhibit is made up of production stills, but a few of the costumes are pretty neat (Jon Snow's gear looks so... fake seen close up, which I found very interesting), the dragon egg looks smaller than it did on tv, but the workmanship on Renly's sword and scabbard was amazing. I did not join the rather long lineup to have my picture taken on the Iron Throne because I wanted to get upstairs and join the queue to get into the theatre.
I got myself a good seat, saw a couple of friends in the crowd and went to chat with them, then it was time for the main event.
It was a great talk and GRRM covered topics from the regular stuff such as his favourite character (Tyrion, Dany and Jon) to who is the hardest for him to write (Bran), to where he gets his inspirations (he told a particularly great anecdote how a trip to Hadrian's Wall in the mid 80s stayed with him and gave him his inspriration for the Wall), to how difficult it is for him to kill off characters (he put off writing a particular scene in A Storm of Swords till the very, very end because he found it so difficult to write), to trying to adapt his work and the work of others for television. It was all quite interesting, and he's a very entertaining and funny speaker.
As an added bonus, he read us an excerpt from The Winds of Winter. I feel bad in complaining that it was a Victarion chapter (as I find the Ironborn chapters in any of his books the most boring), but still, I appreciated the peek.
GRRM was also kind enough to stick around and do a signing afterwards. I had lugged two of my massive hardcovers with me (Game of Thrones and Storm of Swords), and I must admit, I had a moment of geek superiority whilst in the lineup as I didn't notice anyone else around me with original hardcover editions of the book. I know, I know, not my finest moment, and I should just be happy that people are reading his books now, but I couldn't help it. Anyway, you really only get about 45 seconds with GRRM as he signs, so I just thanked him for everything, and he thanked me and then (in what is obviously a stock question that he asks fans), he asked who my favourite character is. "Jaime Lannister" I of course blurted out. He chuckled and said "Ah, you like the bad boys do you?" And I had to laugh, because that's not the first time I've heard that. I just said "I do. And he's a fantastic bad boy". GRRM thanked me again and I was on my way.
Such a happy, happy fangirl :)