Shall We Dance or Not?
Well today is June 20th and the question is whether we'll get an announcement soon about George R.R. Martin's long delayed book, A Dance With Dragons. As my fellow long-time but not so silent sufferers well know, George is about to begin his fantasy convention travel season.
As he has proudly proclaimed in the past, he does not do any writing on the road. He says he can't but as we all know that it is really his choice as to whether he would apply himself to such an effort. We have seen years of his refusal to knuckle down and do anything that requires a true writer's discipline.
We know his 2009 convention schedule to be:
FinnCon July 10 - 12
WorldCon August 8 - 10
Bubonicon August 28 - 30
ValleyCon October 16 - 18
Given previous experience we can readily assume that his glacially paced writing will come to a complete standstill at least a week prior to his first convention and continue for a week or two after his last . Some delude themselves in thinking that he comes home from each trip and re-applies himself to his trade. This may be true if his trade were anything but writing. We can anticipate a flurry of activity on his blog including the posting of trip pictures and descriptions of time spent. We may even be treated to more exposure to his miniature collection. But all in all, there will be no joy for those of us who only want one thing from him, the ASoIaF book.
The next few days will reveal whether he will make good on his wish to have Dance done by June or whether he'll skulk off like he did last year.