Jump to content

Back stories in the dedications and acknowledgments of each book


zionius

Recommended Posts

I've puzzled out some back stories in the dedications and acknowledgments of each books.

AGOT

Quote

Dedication: Melinda.

Acknowledgment: to Sage Walker, Martin Wright, Melinda Snodgrass, Carl Keim, Bruce Baugh, Tim O'Brien, Roger Zelazny, Jane Lindskold, and Laura J. Mixon, and of course to Parris. And a special thanks to Jennifer Hershey, for labors above and beyond the call.

The 1st book was dedicated to Melinda Snodglass, who aided GRRM in editing Wild Cards for years. Most acknowledgments are to fantasy writes, with the exception of Martin Wright & Carl Keim, whose help we'll discover later. Jennifer Hershey was the first editor for AGOT.

ACOK

Quote

Dedication: John and Gail.

Acknowledgment: Walter Jon Williams, Sage Walker, Melinda Snodgrass, and Carl Keim. His editors, publishers, and Parris.

The 2nd book was dedicated to John J. Miller & Gail Gerstner-Miller, who are also Wild Cards authors. As for the acknowledged, we'll find what they did in ASOS.

ASOS

Quote

Dedication: for Phyllis, who made me put the dragons in.

Acknowledgment: to my Archmaester Sage Walker, to First Builder Carl Keim, to Melinda Snodgrass my master of horse. And as ever, to Parris.

The 3rd book was dedicated to Phyllis Eisenstein for convincing him to put in dragons.

Quote

I did consider at a very early stage -- going all the way back to 1991 -- whether to include overt fantasy elements...The main question was the dragons: Do I include dragons? I knew I wanted to have the Targaryens have their symbol be the dragons; the Lannisters have the lions, the Starks have the wolves. Should these things be literal here? Should the Targaryens actually have dragons? I was discussing this with a friend, writer Phyllis Eisenstein -- I dedicated the third book to her -- and she said, "George, it's a fantasy -- you've got to put in the dragons." She convinced me, and it was the right decision. Now that I'm deep into it, I can't imagine the book without the dragons. -SSM, Apr. 2014

Someone complimented GRRM on his ability to write realistic swordfights, and he thanked the guy, and mentioned that he uses experts to help fact/feel check for him: he knows an architect who can help with the castle designs, an SCA combat expert to help with the swordfights and a horseowner (something he said made me guess Melinda Snodgrass, but not sure) to keep him from turning horses into "cars with legs," as one sees in lots of fantasy. All the names of the guilty parties :) are listed and thanked for their help at the end of the books. -SSM, Nov. 2000

 

Combine the ASOS acknowledgment and SSM, we see at once "First Builder" Carl Keim helped him with the castle designs, and "master of horse" Melinda Snodgrass helped him in writing horse. We have to wait till AFFC to see the role of "Archmaester". Meanwhile, the "SCA combat expert" was Martin Wright acknowledged in AGOT, whose CV confirmed he advised AGOT for battle scene, medieval weaponry, troop training techniques, and individual sword fighting training.

AFFC

Quote

Dedication: Stephen Boucher, wizard of Windows, dragon of DOS, without whom this book would have been written in crayon

Acknowledgment: editors, Brotherhood Without Banners, Elio & Linda. And thanks to Walter Jon Williams for guiding me across more salty seas, to Sage Walker for leeches and fevers and broken bones, to Pati Nagle for HTML and spinning shields and getting all my news up quickly, and to Melinda Snodgrass and Daniel Abraham for service that was truly above and beyond the call of duty. Lastly to Parris.

 

 

Quote

I write with WordStar 4.0 on a pure DOS-based machine. Mock if you must... but WordStar and DOS are both stable as rocks, and never give me the sort of headaches I get from Windows. -SSM, Jan. 2007

GRRM's 30+ year old computer stopped working during writing AFFC. PC expert Stephen Boucher saved it, so the 4th book was dedicated to him.

"Archmaester" Sage Walker helped with leeches and fevers and broken bones. Maybe she provided some sort of medical help? I'm still wondering the meaning of "guiding me across more salty seas". Pati Nagle is GRRM's web admin. Daniel Abraham advised him to divide the orginal ADWD into two books by geography.

ADWD

Quote

Dedication: Brotherhood Without Banners, Elio & Linda, Winter and Fabio of WIC, Gibbs of Dragonstone. for men and women of Asshai in Spain who sang to us of a bear and a maiden fair

Acknowledgment: editors and publishers, agents(especially Ralph Vicinanza), Stephen Boucher(PC expert), Melinda Snodgrass, Daniel Abraham, Pati Nagle(web admin), Raya Golden(artist), Ty Franck(one of his "faithful minions") and Parris.

WIC means winteriscoming.net. Peter Gibbs founded the earliest fansite "Dragonstone" in 1999. Spanish fans from asshai.com sang the bear and the maiden fair to GRRM&Parris when they came to Spain in July 2008.

Ralph Vicinanza was one of the earliest agents of GRRM. The 1993 outline of ASOIAF was sent to him.

Summary

Only Melinda Snodgrass and Parris are acknowleged in all five books, followed by Sage Walker(in four books). It reminds me of an SSM:

Quote

(Reader found the female characters in the books very well realized and wondered what Mr. Martin thought about this ability to depict women so well.)

I like women. Hell, I like women a lot. But in the end I try to write all my characters as people. All characters are built on observation -- observation of those around you, and observation of yourself as well, since all of us male and female have many of the same basic drives. I have written the viewpoints of dwarfs, aliens, werewolves, vampires, and many other fantastic creatures, all a lot more different from myself than a woman.

And besides, if I screw up, one of the women in my life is sure to tell me. -SSM, Oct. 1999.

Acknowledgment

Many thanks to @Ran for helping me to prepare this!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great quote from George RR on writing women! (and other bizarre species) Contrast this with the best selling romance writer (played by Jack Nicholson) from "As Good As It Gets", who describes his own process:

Quote

"I think of a man. And I take away reason and accountability."

Clearly, the romance readers depicted here have different preferences than us...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...