GRRM: When Tolkien began writing The Lord of the Rings, it was intended as a sequel to The Hobbit. "The tale grew in the telling," he said later, when LOTR had grown into the trilogy we know today. That's a line I have often had occasion to quote over the years, as my own Song of Ice and Fire swelled from the three books I had originally sold to the seven books (five published, two more to write) I'm now producing. Much of your own work has taken the form of multi-part series. Are your tales too 'growing in the telling,' or do you know how long your journeys will take before you set out? When you wrote that first Sharpe book, did you ever imagine how long and how far you would march with him and Harper? Did you know how many books Uhtred's story would require, when you first sat down to write about him?
BC: No idea! I don't even know what will happen in the next chapter, let alone the next book, and have no idea how many books there might be in a series. E.L. Doctorow said something I like which is that writing a novel is a bit like driving down an unfamiliar country road at night and you can only see as far ahead as your somewhat feeble headlamps show. I write into the darkness. I guess the joy of reading a book is to find out what happens, and for me that's the joy of writing one too!

WiC: Last season the direwolves were played by real dogs, and while they were cute, they reportedly had trouble following direction. This season they’ve decided to use CGI wolves instead

[Ed. note: since asking this question, it has come to light that they may be using a combination of CGI, animatronics and live animals]. Which is harder, acting with real animals or imaginary ones?

NT: Last year it was tricky working with them because in scenes where the dogs were meant to growl at you they would instead come up and lick your face!!!

Starts here on August 10. Pleasantly surprised, since that seems to be around the same time you guys are getting it. Normally it's at least a few months after.

If I knew how to type in a 'fingers crossed' emoticon, I so totally would right now. Looks great, and thats an understatement.

I've just started watching this through HBO on demand and so far I'm hooked. There are already a few characters I hate, Joffrey(however it's spelled) being one of them man that kid is an ungrateful punk. I would love for him to get his comeuppance

Seems as though I just got back from Toronto, and tomorrow I am off again -- this time for England and Portugal.

The UK comes first. Signings in Bath and London (details on my website), a visit to the London Book Fair, and best of all, EASTERCON at Heathrow. I hope I will see some of you there, and we can hoist a pink or three.

And from there it's on to Portugal, and appearances in Lisbon and Porto. Not nearly as long as visit as I'd like, but I'm looking forward to it.

I expect that the UK will be a No Tebow Zone. That will be a relief.

I've just started watching this through HBO on demand and so far I'm hooked. There are already a few characters I hate, Joffrey(however it's spelled) being one of them man that kid is an ungrateful punk. I would love for him to get his comeuppance

I liked the new version of Robb Stark's wolf Grey Wind.