George R.R. Martin’s New Novel, ‘A Dance With Dragons,’ Released

Fans of the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series have been waiting years for this day to arrive: The fifth installment of the story has landed on bookshelves and e-readers, bringing with it the adventures of Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow and others who were split off from the story line in ‘A Feast for Crows.’

Author George R.R. Martin has made no secret that the growing complexity of his story has been a challenge that’s taken some time to work out. In the meantime, he’s been making a lot of promises – and not just to his fans. The author’s long-time partner, Parris, whom he recently married, told us all about the IOU’s she’s been amassing while he completes the much-awaited novel. “For the last three years, George has been saying, ‘As soon as I finish “A Dance With Dragons,” I will do X,’” Parris said. “And I’ve been keeping a list. ‘As soon as I finish “A Dance With Dragons,” we’ll go on a real vacation.’ OK, check.”

As the commitments piled up, Parris has found a surefire way of keeping George honest about getting his work done. “We got our first computer in 1983 – it was a 64k of RAM Televideo machine. And George got Wordstar word-processing software. George still writes in Wordstar. He has a separate DOS machine to run it. That’s one of the ways I can tell if he’s working, because the DOS is a black background with white letters. So when he’s goofing around, he’ll have the Windows machine on with a color screen. He’ll say, ‘I’m working on the novel …’ And I’ll tell him, ‘No you’re not – you’re looking at who the Giants are picking for the draft.’”

Martin will be appearing for signings at locations across the country.