Dear Mr. Martin,

I don't know if you still use this email. but it's worth a try. My name is Maxi Bolongaita and I'm from the small island of Cebu in the Philippines. Insignificant, I know, but please read on.

Seven or eight years back, a friend of mine, Miguel Ouano, introduced your book a Game of Thrones to us. Back then, books like that weren't popular in our country so there were very precious few copies going around. He introduced the book to us, first to his friends (my boyfriend included) and then to his friend's girlfriends. We had one copy, it was tattered and somewhat beaten up, but we all fell in love with it.

A few hours ago, this guy Miguel Ouano, died of a cardiac arrest. He had cancer of the nerves and he had been battling it for over a year until it relapsed. Sometime during the new year, the cancer reared its ugly head and the MRI showed that it had spread throughout his whole body. He was in a coma for the last few hours.

Miguel loved your books so much that he was fairly obsessed over the series and he even had the board game. We used to spend countless hours talking about Jaime and Cersei and how bad ass Tyrion was. When discussing who was the rightful King of the seven kingdoms, he was for Stannis Baratheon. He would go around and say he was Azor A'hai reborn. He would insert "for the night is dark and full of terrors" in ordinary conversations.

Essentially, this guy was probably your biggest fan in the whole of Cebu, Philippines.

If you would be so kind and if you could please share some kind words in memory of him, we, his friends and family, would greatly appreciate it. In retrospect, you and your books provided a respite for him in his time of great struggle.

thank you so much, sir.

Sincerely, Max B.

Great speech and Q&A! Thanks for posting.

I look forward to meeting you someday, George. I hope at a con or something where we can talk for about 5 minutes, beyond a simple 'hi, thank you' at a signing or something.

surely they told you that Gene Wolfe was a student there in Aggieland....

Thank you for the video :)

Is there a transcript of this lecture?

Thank you!!!!

Thanks for posting your talk -- it was wonderful and inspiring.

One of the few interviews/speeches I've seen you doing, mr. Martin. And I really enjoyed it.
I've also lived many lives and visited many places, and one of these is created by you, Sir. So, keep up the good work :)

I have waited years for you to come to Texas! I stood in line about 3 hours to meet you and for you to sign my books. I can't thank you enough for laboring hours in the book signing. The line I waited in was full of young, new readers of the series. They were very entertaining to say the least. I thought more than once you would get a chuckle from their comments.
I was the older guy who thanked you for coming to Texas while you signed my map. I meant every word. You are very gracious and deserving of all the attention.
Thank you for the characters that are so real to me.
Keegan

that was an interesting interview... i was sort of shocked when i heard about that 50 thousand dollar comic book you have. my cousin worked for the publishing company that published marvel comic books in the 90s so every single time i saw her she would bring me boxes of comics (sometimes multiple copies of each)... combining my DC, Image, Darkhorse (did DC buy them now) on top... all in all i had maybe 5-6 boxes. when i moved out of my townhouse apt two kids from india were coming to live there so i left it for them to read i wonder if it could have payed for my future children's college educations now lol. anyways, i only paid for 10-15% of them and i don't even have my highschool yearbooks anymore (i recently donated a song of ice and fire to the library... i own dance digital im gonna rebuy the rest of the series at some point for kindle as well) so i don't really mind. pay it forward

haha, well the good news is your childhood friend from texas will have less regrets and you still have it for sentimental value. everyone wins. on a side note... a lot of what you talked when you were saying what you wanted to your fans to feel applied to me. i started game of thrones at some point in high school and the memory or reading about ned's head getting cut off is still more clear to me than a lot of the things that were going on. i've also been in the position of rereading the novels (with the long intervals it is is nearly mandatory to fully appreciate the plot points and characters)... i knew i would enjoy reading those words again but i just remember the elation of the very first few chapters and seeing so much more at the feast ned holds for rob at winterfall... i am sure there are so many more out there like me. you've succeeded at exactly what u were trying to do i think... and as much as i want the next book to come out this summer i'd much rather have that masterpiece than just another good book. No pressure.

Edited at 2013-04-22 08:43 pm (UTC)

Loved the comments about reading and also more information about your background. Also, it is very interesting that Osha is on your mind as a writer. Perhaps we will meet her again in a Davos chapter some day?

Great interview!