Books

George R.R. Martin Interviewed Stephen King

At a Thursday event in Albuquerque, New Mexico, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin interviewed Stephen King for his End of Watch book tour. The two beloved authors talked shop at Kiva Auditorium in Martin's hometown.

End of Watch brings to a close King's Bill Hodges Trilogy, which began with Mr. Mercedes in 2014. The series follows Hodges, a former police officer, who comes out of retirement to catch a mass-murderer looking for his next rush.

Although few photos — and no videos — of the event have surfaced at the time of this writing, fans' accounts paint it as a pretty swell gathering. In a Friday morning tweet, King thanked the audience and said that "George R. R> Martin [ sic ] ... stole the show."

Notable in particular was Martin's comment about King's writing speed. Redditor jmsturm reports that Martin closed the show with a pointed, but funny, question:

George asked him "How the fuck do you write so fast? I have a good six months and crank out 3 chapters, meanwhile you wrote 3 books in that time!"

Stephen answered that he writes almost every day and demands 6 pages a day from him self. [sic] George was amazed by that.

He replied "You always get six pages? You never get constipated? You never get up and go get the mail, and think 'Maybe I don't have any talent and should have been a plumber?'"

Martin has made similar comments in the past. His fans have been waiting for the sixth ASOIAF book, The Winds of Winter , for quite some time. Game of Thrones , HBO's television adaptation of the series, went famously ahead of Martin's published work in its latest season.

It's interesting to note that King might be equally jealous of Martin. According to Blastr, the Under the Dome author "[got] more involved with [CBS' adaptation of his book] after seeing the stellar work [Martin had] done crossing over on ... Game of Thrones." King wrote the teleplay for Under the Dome's Season Two premiere. He told the L.A. Times, "I knew that George R.R. Martin had written a few episodes of 'Game of Thrones,' and I was very jealous."

Did you see Stephen King's interview with George R.R. Martin? Tell me all about it on Twitter.