20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About George RR Martin
18. He Writes All His Books On A Thirty-Year-Old PC
A Song Of Ice And Fire is one of the most involved and complex book series in history. Even by the characteristically obtuse standards of fantasy novels, there's a terrifically dense world of allegiances, double-crosses, grudges, warring families, back story, and vocabulary to delve into with Westeros. You'd think he'd write it with a lot of notes, on some fancy word processor, to keep track. And you'd be wrong, since George R.R. Martin has written all of his books on the same old-school machine he has since the start. Bear in mind that his first novel, the melancholic science fiction yarn Dying Of The Light, was published all the way back in 1977. Yes, Martin continues to write on the same DOS computer he did back then. Admitting as much in an interview with Conan O'Brien, the talk show host described the machine as made out of wood. Martin has a separate computer that I browse the Internet with, and that I get my email on, and that I do my taxes on, but has stuck with his old DOS machine and WordStar 4.0 word processor because he's used to it, and doesn't need it to don anything but type.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
