For years now, George R.R. Martin has committed to cutting back on public appearances so he finish the long-gestating sixth book in his Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter. It’s in that context that TitanCon, a science fiction and fantasy convention going since since 2011, has announced that Martin will be this year’s guest of honor.
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Now, could we jump to conclusions and say that this is proof that Martin has finally finished The Winds of Winter and that we’ll be getting a release date any day now? We could…but we probably shouldn’t. True, we’ve had reports lately of Martin trying to complete the book, but just because he’s going to an extra con this year doesn’t mean anything definitive.
And this may just be a matter of convenience. While it’s true that Martin has eased off public appearances in recent years, he’s always made an exception for the World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon. That’s where they hand out the Hugos, a subject in which Martin is deeply interested. This year’s Worldcon is going down in Dublin, Ireland from Thursday, August 15 to Monday, August 19, and Martin will be there. TitanCon, meanwhile, always happens in nearby Belfast, Northern Ireland; this year, it runs from Thursday, August 22 to Sunday, August 25. Maybe Martin has something big to announce, or maybe he thought he might as well go to two cons as long as he was in the area.
Also, this year’s TitanCon will be of special significance. For one thing, it’s playing host to Eurocon, a traveling science fiction convention that attaches itself to an already-existing convention each year. Additionally, TitanCon has been closely associated with Game of Thrones since its beginning. The convention proper was preceded by a couple of smaller “moots” that included visits with Martin and several of the cast members, before they all made it big. With Game of Thrones finally ending this year, appearing at TitanCon may be a way for Martin to bookend his experience with the show. Remember: Belfast is where the bulk of filming on Game of Thrones is done. And like we said, Martin will be in the area anyway, so…
Or he’s already turned in The Winds of Winter to his publisher and we’ll be reading it by the end of the week. Either way, you can get tickets and find out more about the event here.
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h/t Los Siete Reinos