Fantasy author George R.R. Martin posts on writing, television work, and book news.
HN links it for his Max Headroom writing story and for updates on the slow progress of A Song of Ice and Fire.
Holy moly, I don't know how I never knew about this.
https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2017/03/30/max-headroom-returns/
Mine was supposedly to be… hmmmmm, let me see now… the fourth episode of the series. My title was “Mister Meat.” Now, TV writing in those days was a two-step process: “story with option to teleplay,” they called it. You wrote a ‘story,’ a short plot outline with all the major beats and characters. Then, when the showrunners, studio, and network all approved it, you went on to write the teleplay.
“Mister Meat” never got that far, alas. The showrunners and my fellow Maxxies loved it, as I recall, but when ABC saw the story they reacted with horror. Way too disturbing and offensive, they announced, driving a spike firmly through my concept and sending me on my way. Which I why I never got hired onto MAX HEADROOM and wound up on staff on BEAUTY AND THE BEAST instead.
I got a second chance when MAX was picked up for a second season, however. As a freelancer, I got the choice assignment of writing the Christmas episode. And this time I went to town. Wrote the story, rewrote the story, wrote the teleplay, revised the teleplay. “Xmas” was the title of the episode, and it got as far as pre-production…
And then the show was cancelled. Rather suddenly and unceremoniously, I must say. America was spared from celebrating Xmas with Max.
Sorry, should have added a footnote for him: http://georgerrmartin.com/ There's also a wikipedia article, of course.
He wrote the first 3 books of his 7 book series at a normal pace, about every 18 months, but then slowed to a crawl for book 4 - something like a 5 year delay. Writer's block happens, but what makes people angry is that he continues to have an extensive "extra-curricular" schedule involving workshops, cons, and travel. And he's told his fans "I don't owe you anything," and has shown not only not-shame, but active antipathy to those who have the temerity to call him out on his irresponsibility. What's worse, is that his bad behavior is being rewarded with new interest thanks to the HBO miniseries of the books.
I mean, manipulating financial markets for gain, losing your bets, and taking taxpayer money to give yourself a bonus is one thing, but leaving fantasy readers in a lurch is quite another level of villainy.
The classic is Dying Earth by Jack Vance, but my favorite of the series is Eyes of the Overworld, and you'd be fine to read that first since the novels of the series are self-contained.
My opinion is that the subgenre should by definition be self-consciously set in that world or something similar, and some of the novels that do that are from
Michael Shea:
https://goodman-games.com/blog/2021/07/20/the-other-cugels-saga-michael-sheas-a-quest-for-simbilis/
GRRM: https://georgerrmartin.com/grrm_book/songs-of-the-dying-earth/
Mathew Hewes:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1743870.Majestrum
I know there are others, but I'd say start with Jack Vance. He's an underrated genius.
One suggestion:
Most artists like to promote other artists. For example: http://www.georgerrmartin.com/about-george/what-im-reading/
I like looking at John Scalzi's "Big Idea" section where he lets other authors talk about their books on his blog. Find it here: http://whatever.scalzi.com/category/big-idea/
He may be focused, but not on finishing A Song of Ice and Fire.
https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2022/03/21/this-that-and-tother-things/
That moved to a wordpress site in 2018. See https://grrm.livejournal.com/ and https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/