Random House, Inc.

File:Random House Corporate Logo 2011.jpg
Type	Division of Bertelsmann
Industry	Books, Publishing
Founded	1925
Founder(s)	Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer
Headquarters	Random House Tower, New York City, NY, USA
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Markus Dohle (Chairman & CEO, Random House Worldwide/Random House, Inc.) Núria Cabutí (CEO, Random House Mondadori) Anne Davis (Executive Vice President & CFO, Random House Worldwide) Brad Martin (President & CEO, Random House of Canada) Dr. Frank Sambeth (Chairman & CEO, Verlagsgruppe Random House) Gail Rebuck (Chairman & CEO, The Random House Group) Frank Steinert (Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer, Random House Worldwide)
Products	Books
Revenue	€1.828 billion Euros (2010)
Owner(s)	Bertelsmann
Employees	5,262 (as of December 31, 2010)
Website	www.randomhouse.com

Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films, of which the most recent release was One Day. The company is also currently developing a division responsible for creating story content for media including video games, social networks on the web, mobile platforms, in print and on film.^[1] Random House is considered one of the "Big Six" publishing companies, along with Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster^[2].

Random House, U.S.A.[link]

Random House Tower headquarters, New York City

Random House was founded in 1927 by Americans Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two years after they acquired the Modern Library imprint. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random," which suggested the name Random House.^[3]

Its American divisions currently include the Crown Publishing Group, the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, the Random House Publishing Group, and Random House Children's Books.

Random House entered reference publishing in 1947 with the American College Dictionary, which was followed in 1966 by its first unabridged dictionary. Today it publishes the Random House Dictionary of the English Language and Random House Webster's College dictionaries, probably the main competitors for Merriam-Webster reference titles.

The American publishers Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and Pantheon Books were acquired by Random House in 1960 and 1961, respectively; works continue to be published under these imprints with editorial independence, such as Everyman's Library, a series of classical literature reprints. Random House has been the distributor for Shambhala Publications since 1974. They also currently distribute Rizzoli Books, National Geographic Books, Steerforth Press, Wizards of the Coast, Vertical Inc., Welcome Books, New York Review of Books, Titan Books, Other Press, Kodansha Manga, Hatherleigh Press, North Atlantic Books, Monacelli Press Books, and DC Comics. In 1998, Bertelsmann AG bought Random House and it soon went global.^[4]

The publisher's main U.S. office is located at 1745 Broadway in Manhattan, in the 684-foot Random House Tower, completed in 2003 and spanning the entire west side of the block between West 55th Street and west 56th. Its lobby showcases floor-to-ceiling glassed-in bookcases filled with books published by the company's many imprints. Earlier addresses were 457 Madison Ave., New York 22, N.Y.; 20 East 57th St., New York 22, N.Y.; and 201 East 50th St, New York, NY 10022.

International Branches[link]

Random House, Inc. maintains several independently managed subsidiaries around the world.

The Random House Group is one of the largest general book publishing companies in the UK and is based in London. The Group comprises five publishing companies: Cornerstone Publishing, Vintage Publishing, Ebury Publishing, Random House Children's Books and Transworld Publishers, boasting more than 40 diverse and highly respected imprints. Its distribution business services its own imprints as well as 60 other UK publishers. The Random House archive and library is located in Rushden in Northamptonshire.

The Random House Group also operates branches in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa (as a joint venture under the name Random House Struik), and India as part of its overseas structure. In Australia offices are in Sydney and Melbourne.^[5] In New Zealand it is based in Glenfield, Auckland, while Random House's Indian headquarters are located in New Delhi.

Verlagsgruppe Random House was established after Bertelsmann's 1998 acquisition of Random House, grouping its German imprints (until then operating as Verlagsgruppe Bertelsmann) under the new name. It is the second largest book publisher in Germany with more than 40 imprints, including historic publishing houses Goldmann and Heyne, as well as C. Bertelsmann, the publishing house from which today's Bertelsmann AG would eventually evolve. Verlagsgruppe Random House is headquartered in Munich (with additional locations in Gütersloh, Cologne, and Aßlar), employs about 850 people, and publishes roughly 2.500 titles per year.

Random House of Canada^[6] was established in 1944 as the Canadian distributor of Random House Books. In 1986 the company established its own indigenous Canadian publishing program that has become one of the most successful in Canadian history. Until January 2012 it used to hold a 25% stake in McClelland & Stewart, with the remaining 75% being controlled by the University of Toronto. It is now the sole owner of McClelland & Stewart.

Random House Mondadori is Random House's Spanish-language joint venture with Italian publisher Mondadori, targeting markets in South and Central America and Spain. It is headquartered in Barcelona with locations in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

In late 2009 and early 2010, respectively, Random House discontinued their Japanese joint venture Random House Kodansha, which had been established in 2003, and also divested their four-year ownership of Random House Korea. The company has since named Random House Australia managing director Margie Seale responsible for exploring and evaluating potential future business opportunities in Asia.^[7]

Divisions and imprints[link]

[edit] Random House, U.S.A.^[8]

[edit] Random House International^[8]

Fenn/M&S^{[clarification needed]}

Fenn/Tundra^{[clarification needed]}

See also[link]

Children's literature portal

• List of English language book publishers
• List of largest UK book publishers
• Media of New York City
• Publishing

References[link]

External links[link]

• Random House official website
• The Random House Group official website
• Verlagsgruppe Random House official website
• Random House of Canada official website
• Random House Australia official website
• Random House New Zealand official website
• Random House India official website
• Random House Mondadori official website in Spain
• Random House Mondadori official website in Mexico
• Random House Struik official website
• Random House Publishing Group official website

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2011)

George R. R. Martin
Martin at the 2011 Time 100 gala
Born	(1948-09-20) September 20, 1948 (age 63) Bayonne, New Jersey
Occupation	Author
Nationality	American
Genres	Science fiction, horror, fantasy
Notable work(s)	A Song of Ice and Fire
Spouse(s)	Gale Burnick (1975–1979) Parris McBride (2011–present)
Influences Robert A. Heinlein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Stan Lee, William Faulkner, Roger Zelazny, Bernard Cornwell, Jack Vance, J. R. R. Tolkien, George MacDonald Fraser
Influenced Daniel Abraham, Scott Lynch, David Anthony Durham
www.georgerrmartin.com

George Raymond Richard Martin^[1] (born September 20, 1948), sometimes referred to as GRRM,^[2] is an American author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He is best known for A Song of Ice and Fire, his bestselling series of epic fantasy novels that HBO adapted for their dramatic pay-cable series Game of Thrones. Martin was selected by Time magazine as one of the "2011 Time 100", a list of the "most influential people in the world".^[3][4]

Biography[link]

George R. R. Martin was born on September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey,^[5] the son of a longshoreman. The family lived in a federal housing project near the Bayonne docks. As a child he wrote stories about a kingdom populated by his pet turtles. The turtles died frequently, and he decided that they were killing each other in "sinister plots".^[6] He attended Marist High School, where he developed interest in the superheroes of the Marvel Comics titles.^[7] He avidly read and collected 1960s comic books. Fantastic Four #20 (Nov 1963) featured a letter to the editor he wrote. He credits^[where?] attention garnered from this letter as inspiration for his becoming a professional writer. In 1965, Martin won an Alley Award for his story "Powerman vs. The Blue Barrier", the first of many awards he would win.

Eligible for the draft during the Vietnam War, to which he objected, Martin applied for and obtained conscientious objector status;^[8] he instead did alternative service work for two years as a VISTA volunteer. In 1970, Martin earned a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.

Martin began to write science-fiction short stories in the early 1970s. His first story nominated for the Hugo Award^[9] and the Nebula Award was With Morning Comes Mistfall, published in 1973 by Analog magazine.

In 1976, for Kansas City's MidAmeriCon, the 34th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), Martin and his friend and fellow writer-editor Gardner Dozois conceived of and organized the first Hugo Losers Party for the benefit of all past and present Hugo-losing writers, their friends, and family the evening following the convention's Hugo Awards ceremony. Martin was nominated for two Hugoes that year but ultimately wound up losing both awards, for the novelette "...and Seven Times Never Kill Man" and the novella "The Storms of Windhaven", co-written with Lisa Tuttle^{[citation needed]}. The Hugo Losers Party became an annual Worldcon event thereafter, its formal title eventually evolving into something a little more politically correct as both its size and prestige grew.

Although much of his work is fantasy or horror, a number of his earlier works are science fiction occurring in a loosely defined future history, known informally as 'The Thousand Worlds' or 'The manrealm'. He has also written at least one piece of political-military fiction, "Night of the Vampyres", collected in Harry Turtledove's anthology The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century.^[10]

The unexpected failure of Martin's fourth book, Armageddon Rag (1983), "essentially destroyed my career as a novelist at the time", he recalled. It began his television career, however,^[6] by causing him to be hired to write for a revival of Twilight Zone and the dramatic-fantasy series Beauty and the Beast. As a book series editor, he oversaw the development of the lengthy Wild Cards cycle, which takes place in a shared universe in which a small slice of post-World War II humanity gains superpowers after the release of an alien-engineered virus. In Second Person Martin "gives a personal account of the close-knit role-playing game (RPG) culture that gave rise to his Wild Cards shared-world anthologies".^[11] Martin's own contributions to the multiple-author series often feature Thomas Tudbury, "The Great and Powerful Turtle", a powerful psychokinetic whose flying "shell" consisted of an armored VW Beetle. Twenty-one volumes had been published in the series as of June 2011. Earlier that year, Martin signed the contract for the twenty-second Wild Cards volume, to be called Low Ball when published by Tor Books.

Martin's novella, Nightflyers, was adapted into a 1987 feature film of the same title.

GRRM signing books in a bookstore in Ljubljana, Slovenia (June 2011)

Martin was also a college instructor in journalism and a chess tournament director. In his spare time, he collects medieval-themed miniatures, reading and collecting science fiction, fantasy, and horror books, and treasuring his still-growing comics collection, which includes the first issues of Marvel's "silver age" Spider-Man and Fantastic Four.

On February 15, 2011, Martin married his longtime paramour Parris McBride during a small ceremony at their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home; the couple exchanged custom made, Celtic-inspired wedding rings made for them by local artisans. Area friends were in attendance and helped them celebrate the occasion.^{[citation needed]}On August 19, 2011, they held a larger wedding ceremony and reception at Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention, in Reno, Nevada for their larger circle of friends within the fantasy and science fiction fields.^{[citation needed]}

A Song of Ice and Fire[link]

In 1991, Martin briefly returned to writing novels and began what would eventually turn into his epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire (reportedly inspired by the Wars of the Roses and Ivanhoe), which will run to at least seven volumes. The first volume A Game of Thrones was published in 1996. In November 2005, A Feast for Crows, the fourth book in this series, became The New York Times #1 Bestseller and also achieved #1 ranking on The Wall Street Journal bestseller list. In addition, in September 2006, A Feast for Crows was nominated for both a Quill Award and the British Fantasy Award.^[12] The fifth book, A Dance with Dragons, was published in July 2011, quickly becoming a huge international bestseller, including a #1 ranking on the New York Times Bestseller list and many others. The series has received critical praise from authors, readers, and critics alike. In 2012 A Dance With Dragons made the final ballot for science fiction and fantasy's Hugo Award, Locus Award, and the British Fantasy Award.

HBO series production[link]

During completion of A Dance With Dragons and other projects, George R. R. Martin was also heavily involved in the production of a television series adaptation of the A Song of Ice and Fire books named after the first book, A Game of Thrones. Martin's involvement included the selection of a production team and participation in scriptwriting; he is listed in the opening credits as an executive producer of the series.

HBO Productions purchased the television rights for the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series in 2007. Game of Thrones (the series title) began airing the fantasy series on their U. S. premium cable channel April 17, 2011; it ran weekly for ten episodes, each approximately an hour long.^[13] The series was renewed shortly after the first episode aired. The first season was nominated for 13 Emmy Awards, ultimately winning two for the freshman pay-cable series. Its second season of another ten episodes, based on the second Ice and Fire novel A Clash of Kings, began airing on HBO in the U. S. April 1, 2012.

Themes[link]

Critics have described Martin's work as dark and cynical.^[14] His first novel, Dying of the Light, set the tone for most of his future work; it is set on a mostly abandoned planet that is slowly becoming uninhabitable as it moves away from its sun. This story, and many of Martin's others, have a strong sense of melancholy. His characters are often unhappy or, at least, unsatisfied – trying to stay idealistic in a ruthless world. Many have elements of tragic heroes in them. Reviewer T. M. Wagner writes, "Let it never be said Martin doesn't share Shakespeare's fondness for the senselessly tragic."^[15] This gloominess can be an obstacle for some readers. The Inchoatus Group writes, "If this absence of joy is going to trouble you, or you’re looking for something more affirming, then you should probably seek elsewhere."^[16]

Martin's characters are multi-faceted—each with surprisingly intricate pasts, aspirations, and ambitions. Publishers Weekly writes of his ongoing epic fantasy A Song of Ice and Fire, "The complexity of characters such as Daenarys [sic], Arya and the Kingslayer will keep readers turning even the vast number of pages contained in this volume, for the author, like Tolkien or Jordan, makes us care about their fates."^[17] No one is given an unrealistic string of luck, however; so misfortune, injury, and death (and even false death) can befall any character, major or minor, no matter how attached the reader has become. Martin has described his penchant for killing off important characters as being necessary for the story's depth: "...when my characters are in danger, I want you to be afraid to turn the page, (so) you need to show right from the beginning that you're playing for keeps."

Major themes and areas of exploration in his short fiction include loneliness, connection, tragically doomed love, idealism, romanticism, and hard truth versus comforting deceit. Many of these occur in his magnum opus as well, but most of them are more abundant and obvious in his shorter works.

Relationship with fans[link]

Teaching at Clarion West, 1998.

Martin is known for his regular, decades-long attendance at science fiction conventions and comics conventions and his accessibility to fans. In the early 1970s, critic and writer Thomas Disch identified Martin^[where?] as a member of the "Labor Day Group", writers who regularly congregated at the annual Worldcon, usually held on or around the Labor Day weekend.

Martin's official fan club is the "Brotherhood Without Banners", who have a regular posting board at the Forum of the westeros.org website, which is centered upon his Ice and Fire fantasy series.^{[citation needed]}

Martin has been criticized by some readers for the long delays between books in the Ice and Fire series, notably the five-year gap between the fourth volume, A Feast for Crows (2006), and the fifth volume, A Dance with Dragons (2011).^{[18] [19]} In 2012, musical duo Paul and Storm, in a song dedicated to Martin, asked him to "write faster".^[20] In 2010, Martin responded to these concerns, saying he was unwilling to write his Ice and Fire series exclusively, saying that other writing and editing different projects has always been part of his working process.^[21]

Martin is strongly opposed to fan fiction, believing it to be copyright infringement and a bad exercise for aspiring writers.^[22][23]

Bibliography[link]

Author[link]

Novels[link]

• Dying of the Light (1977) – Hugo Award nominee, 1978;^[24] British Fantasy Award nominee, 1979^[25]
• Windhaven (1981, with Lisa Tuttle) – Locus SF Award nominee, 1982^[26]
• Fevre Dream (1982) – Locus SF^[26] and World Fantasy Award nominee, 1983^[27]
• The Armageddon Rag (1983) – Locus SF^[26] and World Fantasy Award nominee, 1984^[27]
• Hunter's Run (2007, expanded version of the novella "Shadow Twin", with Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham)
• A Song of Ice and Fire series:
  • A Game of Thrones (1996) – Locus Fantasy Award winner,^[26] Nebula and World Fantasy Award nominee, 1997^[27]
  • A Clash of Kings (1998) – Locus Fantasy Award winner,^[26] Nebula Award nominee, 1999^[28]
  • A Storm of Swords (2000) – Locus Fantasy Award winner,^[26] Hugo^[24] and Nebula Awards nominee, 2001^[29]
    • Part 1 Steel and Snow (UK edition only; US edition published as a single volume)
    • Part 2 Blood and Gold (UK edition only; US edition published as a single volume)
  • A Feast for Crows (2005) – Hugo,^[24] Locus Fantasy,^[26] and British Fantasy Awards nominee, 2006^[30]
  • A Dance with Dragons (2011) - Hugo Award nominee ^[31]
    • Part 1 Dreams and Dust (UK Edition)
    • Part 2 After the Feast (UK Edition)
  • The Winds of Winter (forthcoming)
  • A Dream of Spring (forthcoming)

Selected novelettes[link]

• "A Song for Lya", originally in Analog, June 1974.
• "Night of the Vampyres", originally in 'Amazing, 1975,^[32] re-published in The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century
• "The Skin Trade" (1989) from the three-author collection Dark Visions; optioned for film by Mike the Pike Productions^[33]
• "Tales of Dunk and Egg" series – set in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire
  • "The Hedge Knight" (1998)
  • "The Sworn Sword" (2003)
  • "The Mystery Knight" (2010)
  • "The She-Wolves of Winterfell" (forthcoming)
• "Shadow Twin" (2004) with Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham
• Shadow Twin (2005) published in hardcover as an illustrated, signed, and numbered limited-edition from Subterranean Press
• Sandkings, Hugo, Nebula awards winner.
• Meathouse Man, first published in 1976, in Orbit 18.

Children's book[link]

• The Ice Dragon

Collections[link]

• A Song for Lya (1976)
• Songs of Stars and Shadows (1977)
• Sandkings (1981)
• Songs the Dead Men Sing (1983)
• Nightflyers (1985)
• Tuf Voyaging (1987, collection of linked stories)
• Portraits of His Children (1987)
• Quartet (2001)
• GRRM: A RRetrospective (2003); reprinted in 2006 and 2007 in two volumes as Dreamsongs

Television[link]

• The Twilight Zone
  • The Last Defender of Camelot (1986) – writer (teleplay)
  • The Once and Future King (1986) – writer (teleplay), story editor
  • A Saucer of Loneliness (1986) – story editor
  • Lost and Found (1986) – writer (teleplay), from a published short story by Phyllis Eisenstein
  • The World Next Door (1986) – story editor
  • The Toys of Caliban (1986) – writer (teleplay), from an unpublished short story by Terry Matz
  • The Road Less Travelled (1986) – writer (story and teleplay), story editor
• Beauty and the Beast
  • Terrible Saviour (1987) – writer
  • Masques (1987) – writer
  • Shades of Grey (1988) – writer
  • Promises of Someday (1988) – writer
  • Fever (1988) – writer
  • Ozymandias (1988) – writer
  • Dead of Winter (1988) – writer
  • Brothers (1989) – writer
  • When the Blue Bird Sings' (1989) – writer (teleplay)
  • A Kingdom by the Sea (1989) – writer
  • What Rough Beast (1989) – writer (story)
  • Ceremony of Innocence (1989) – writer
  • Snow (1989) – writer
  • Beggar's Comet (1990) – writer
  • Invictus (1990) – writer
• Doorways (1993, unreleased pilot) – writer, producer, creator; (IDW Publishing issued the pilot's storyline as a graphic novel miniseries in 2010)^[34]
• Game of Thrones
  • "The Pointy End" – writer (story, teleplay, 1st season)
  • "Blackwater" – writer (story, teleplay, 2nd season)

Editor[link]

• New Voices in Science Fiction (1977: new stories by the John W. Campbell Award winners)
• New Voices in Science Fiction 2 (1979: more new stories by the John W. Campbell Award winners)
• New Voices in Science Fiction 3 (1980: more new stories by the John W. Campbell Award winners)
• New Voices in Science Fiction 4 (1981: more new stories by the John W. Campbell Award winners)
• The Science Fiction Weight Loss Book (1983) edited with Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg ("Stories by the great science fiction writers on fat, thin, and everything in between")
• The John W. Campbell Awards, Volume 5 (1984)
• Night Visions 3 (1986)

Wild Cards Series Editor (also contributor to many volumes)[link]

• Wild Cards (1987; contents expanded in 2010 edition with three new stories/authors)
• Wild Cards II: Aces High (1987)
• Wild Cards III: Jokers Wild (1987)
• Wild Cards IV: Aces Abroad (1988)
• Wild Cards V: Down & Dirty (1988)
• Wild Cards VI: Ace in the Hole (1990)
• Wild Cards VII: Dead Man's Hand (1990)
• Wild Cards VIII: One-Eyed Jacks (1991)
• Wild Cards IX: Jokertown Shuffle (1991)
• Wild Cards X: Double Solitaire (1992)
• Wild Cards XI: Dealer's Choice (1992)
• Wild Cards XII: Turn of the Cards (1993)
• Wild Cards: Card Sharks (1993; Book I of a New Cycle trilogy)
• Wild Cards: Marked Cards (1994; Book II of a New Cycle trilogy)
• Wild Cards: Black Trump (1995; Book III of a New Cycle trilogy)
• Wild Cards: Deuces Down (2002)
• Wild Cards: Death Draws Five (2006; solo novel by John J. Miller)
• Wild Cards: Inside Straight (2008; Book I of the Committee triad)
• Wild Cards: Busted Flush (2008; Book II of the Committee triad)
• Wild Cards: Suicide Kings (2009; Book III of the Committee triad)
• Wild Cards: Fort Freak (2011)
• Wild Cards: Lowball (forthcoming 2012; sequel to Fort Freak)

[edit] Cross-genre anthologies edited (with Gardner Dozois)

• Songs of the Dying Earth (2009; a tribute anthology to Jack Vance´s seminal Dying Earth series, first published by Subterranean Press)
• Warriors (2010; a massive, cross-genre anthology featuring stories about war and warriors; winner of the 2011 Locus Poll Award for Best Anthology)
• Songs of Love and Death (2010; a cross-genre anthology featuring stories of romance in fantasy and science fiction settings, originally entitled Star Crossed Lovers)
• Down These Strange Streets (2011; a cross-genre anthology that blends classic detective stories with fantasy and science fiction)
• Dangerous Women (tentative title; forthcoming; a cross-genre anthology focusing on women warriors and strong female characters, originally titled Femmes Fatales)^[35]
• Rogues (planned, a cross-genre anthology featuring stories about assorted rogues)^[36]
• Old Mars (planned, an anthology featuring new stories about Mars in retro-SF vein)^[37]
• Old Venus (planned, an anthology featuring new stories about Venus in retro-SF vein)^[38]

Awards[link]

• "A Song for Lya" 1975 Hugo Award for Best Novella
• "Sandkings" 1980 Hugo Award for Best Novelette and Nebula Award for Best Novelette (the only one among Martin's stories to achieve that double)
• "The Way of Cross and Dragon" 1980 Hugo Award for Best Short Story
• "Portraits of His Children" 1986 Nebula Award for Best Novelette
• "The Pear-Shaped Man" 1988 Bram Stoker Award for Long Fiction
• "The Skin Trade" 1989 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella
• "Blood of the Dragon" 1997 Hugo Award for Best Novella
• A Game of Thrones 2003 Premio Ignotus for Best Foreign Novel
• A Clash of Kings 2004 Premio Ignotus for Best Foreign Novel
• A Feast for Crows 2006 Quill Award and British Fantasy Award (nominated)
• A Storm of Swords 2006 Premio Ignotus for Best Foreign Novel
• Warriors (co-edited with Gardner Dozois) 2011 Locus Poll Award for Best Anthology
• Declared by Time Magazine "One of the Most Influential People of 2011"^[3]

A more complete list of Martin's awards and nominations can be found at The Locus Index to Science Fiction Awards.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: George R. R. Martin

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: George R. R. Martin

• Official website
• Not A Blog: George R. R. Martin's Livejournal
• George R. R. Martin's Podcast
• George R. R. Martin at the Internet Movie Database
• George R. R. Martin Complete Bibliography
• George R.R. Martin at the Internet Book List
• George R. R. Martin at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Works by or about George R. R. Martin in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Lauren Kate is an internationally bestselling author of young adult fiction. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages and include The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove and Fallen, which reached #3 on The New York Times Best Seller List for children's chapter books on January 8, 2010. As of Wednesday, April 6, 2011, Fallen had spent one year and four months--with brief interruptions--on the List.^[1]

Torment, the sequel to Fallen, was released on 28 September 2010. It debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List (Fallen came in that week at #2), remaining at that position through the week of October 17. The paperback edition of Fallen debuted at #1 on the list, as well. The third book in the Fallen series, entitled Passion, was released on June 14, 2011. A new edition of Natalie Hargrove was also released on the same day as the paperback edition of Torment. On June 23, Passion reached Number 7 on the USA Today Bestseller List, for books overall. On July 3, 2011, Passion qualified the Fallen books for the Series section of the New York Times Bestseller List; it entered the list at Number 2, behind the Hunger Games books. Each of the aforementioned books has appeared atop many other countries' bestseller lists, as well.

Fallen in Love--a collection of novellas set in the Middle Ages that tell the back-stories of several of the Fallen series' main characters--will appear in January, 2012. Rapture, the final installment of the series, arrives in June, 2012.

Disney optioned the film rights to the entire series on the day of Fallen's release (December 9, 2009).

Books[link]

Fallen series

• Fallen (December 9, 2009)
• Torment (September 28, 2010)
• Passion (June 14, 2011)
• Fallen In Love (January 24, 2012)
• Rapture (June 12, 2012)

Other books

• The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove (November, 2009)

Biography[link]

Kate was raised in Dallas, Texas, and attended college in Atlanta, Georgia. Kate has stated that her experience of the "Old South" in the Atlanta area inspired her to set Fallen in a Civil War era academy .^[2]

Kate has stated that her high school did not provide the basis for Sword and Cross in the Fallen series. In fact, she based the high school setting of The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove on the Dallas high school she attended (Plano Senior High School).

The Fallen series employs Kate's many months of theological research. She has stated she got the idea for the series from a line in Genesis that she came across whilst studying the Bible in graduate school in California.

Kate currently lives in Los Angeles.^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Fallen Books website
• Official Lauren Kate website
• Official Australian Fallen Books website

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This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2007)

Troy Denning
Troy Denning
Born	1958 United States
Occupation	writer, game designer
Nationality	United States
Genres	role-playing games, fantasy

Troy Denning (born 1958) is a fantasy and science fiction author and game designer.

Career[link]

Denning joined TSR as a game designer in 1981, and was promoted a year later to Manager of Designers, before he moved to the book department.^[1] He then worked for two years managing the Pacesetter game company, and had a stint at Mayfair Games, before going freelance.^[1]

Denning wrote the third novel in TSRs "Avatar Trilogy", Waterdeep (1989), which he wrote under the house pseudonym Richard Awlinson,;^[1] the book became a New York Times bestselling novel.^[2] He wrote the novel with Scott Ciencin, and the choice of the surname Awlinson was an inside joke which sounds like "all in one".^{[citation needed]}

In October 1989 he rejoined TSR as a senior designer, co-creating the Dark Sun setting with Tim Brown and Mary Kirchoff.^[1] According to Denning, the three designers envisioned "a world for experienced DMs that would push the AD&D game to its limits and let people do things like play half-giants and thri-kreen and superstrong characters—in short, all the really neat stuff we wanted to do ourselves, but that everybody kept saying would ruin game balance."^[1] Denning felt in 1998 that Dark Sun "did what we wanted it to, and it has attracted a devoted following. When I go to conventions, it's still what people want to talk about. Talking Brom into being the lead artist early was very fortunate for us; he would sketch weird creatures and settings and equipment, and we’d work them into the game."^[1]

Denning returned to freelance writing again in 1991, writing the bestselling "Prism Pentad" for the Dark Sun setting (1991–93), and the Forgotten Realms "Twilight Giants" trilogy (1994–95).^[1] Denning also wrote the Planescape hardcover Pages of Pain (1996): "It had to be from the Lady of Pain’s viewpoint—which is something of a problem, since (as every Planescape player knows) she never speaks—and (this was the really good part) the reader must know less about her at the end of the book than he does at the beginning, and nobody knows anything about her at the beginning."^[1] Denning recalled that Pages of Pain "really made me rethink the way I approach stories, and for that reason alone it was worth writing. It also ended up being a much deeper book than I had ever written before, which I think was a result of the extreme approach I was forced to take. Those who have [read it] seem to think it's my best work. It was certainly the most challenging and—forgive the pun—'painful' to write."^[1] Denning continued the story told in Waterdeep's sequel, Prince of Lies (1993) by James Lowder, with the novel Crucible: The Trial of Cyric the Mad.^[1] Denning then authored another Forgotten Realms novel called Faces of Deception.^[1] Denning's other notable works are Dragonwall and The Parched Sea.

He is also the author of a number of Star Wars Expanded Universe novels. Including Invincible, the ninth and final book in the Legacy of the Force series, was released in May 2008. He also authored the third and sixth books in the series. He has also been the author for three books in the Fate of the Jedi series.^[3] And the 9th book in The New Jedi Order: Star by Star and the Dark Nest Trilogy.

Troy was one of the founders of Pacesetter Ltd, a game company formed by a group of former TSR, Inc. executives.

Denning lives in Wisconsin with his wife Andria.^[3] He enjoys outdoor activities, and practices American Kyuki-do, a form of martial arts.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Troy Denning at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Bibliography at Fantastic Fiction
• SciFan Page for Troy Denning
• Troy Denning at Wookieepedia
• Troy Denning at Boardgamegeek