I've had the pleasure of meeting George R.R. Martin several times. Most of them being book signings, but when he's your favorite author every little bit is magic.

The first time I met him was in Pasadena CA. He wasn't quite the rock star that HBO's Game of Thrones has turned him into so the line was shorter than recent years, but still full of die hard fans. When my turn came to shake his hand, have my book signed, and take a picture with him I've no doubt I was babbling incoherent sentences. I've lived in Los Angeles for several years now so bumping into celebrities is not uncommon, but this man created the 7 Kingdoms out of thin air! How could I not be excited? I do know that in my ramblings I mentioned A Podcast of Ice and Fire. APOIAF is the longest running podcast dedicated to A Song of Ice and Fire and I'm fortunate enough to be one of it's hosts. He asked my name, Kyle. He signed my book, he shook my hand, and he took a picture. Then he smiled and continued greeting the rest of his eager fans.

The next time I ran into George was at the last day of the Game of Thrones food trucks in Los Angeles. A wonderfully delicious marketing campaign by HBO and Campfire to let people taste what the show had in store. On the last day of the event in Venice, George made a surprise appearance. After he feasted on head cheese created by Tom Colicchio he was approached by fans and media outlets. Not being a proper meet and greet, there wasn't a formal line and most of onlookers were being respectful and giving him space. So I walked up to George and said hello. Much more coherently this time, I might add. I introduced myself once again as Kyle and mentioned that I was from A Podcast of Ice and Fire and that we had met briefly before. He quickly said that he remembered me and I knew he was just being nice to one of his fans. Then he asked me a couple podcast specific questions and my my mind exploded. He did remember! Not only did he remember but he had obviously been to our site and taken a look around. Which scared me a little because who knows what he found on our definitely not PG rated site. But mostly it just put a huge stupid grin on my face. So I asked him if he would give the podcast a shout out and he happily agreed. I told him that we are a laid back podcast and something along the lines of "This is George R.R. Martin and you're listening to A Podcast of Ice and Fire. I don't know why. I'm not even sure these guys have read my books." would be very funny to our listeners. He looked me right in the eye. "I'm not saying that." I quickly moved to plan B. I agreed with him that it was a dumb idea and that anything he wanted to say would be great. He recorded a quick little audio bit and we put it before one of episodes. Unfortunately in the clip he didn't say that it was him and most of our listeners had no idea it was George when they listened.

A week later APOIAF was listed on George's website.

The last time I met George was at San Diego Comic-Con in 2011. He was doing a signing along side A Song of Ice and Fire 2012 calendar artist John Picacio. This signing was a bit different for me. I was planning on giving George a gift from the podcast. We had a project running on our forum where our listeners would each choose a chapter from A Game of Thrones and draw a scene from it until we had one picture for every chapter. They were then compiled into an art book. The catch was that the drawings had to be done in MS Paint. This helped create some unique pieces that ranged from beautiful to ugly, from hilarious to awkward. It was not fan fiction which we all know George hates, but rather an idea of how fans envisioned his book when they read it. I had two copies. One for him and one for myself that I was hoping he'd sign. As I approached his table I mentioned the podcast and quickly realized I needed to stop coming to these signings or else he might think I'm stalking him. I showed him the art book and told him what it was. He laughed at a couple of the pictures and put the book aside to sign my copy. HBO's Game of Thrones was in full effect and the line to see the man behind the magic was enormous. Even though we were told before hand that he would not be able to personalize anything, he asked my name. I told him Kyle and he quickly wrote it down followed by his signature. I thanked him and wished him good luck with the books and the show.

It wasn't until I was half way across the convention center that I finally looked at my signed art book. To Mike. -George R.R. Martin.

I laughed. This is going to be a funny story to tell.

-Kyle Maddock