by Shane Dayton

Created on: July 28, 2008   Last Updated: July 08, 2009

George R.R. Martin, famous American writer and screenwriter, was born September 20, 1948 in Bayonne, New Jersey. Martin grew up in a common blue collar family, his father worked as a longshoreman while his mother stayed at home. He was the only son, but has two sisters.

Martin wanted to be a writer from a young age, and also became a major fan of comic books. He started fiction writing for comic fanzines, which is ironic since he now states he is against fanzines and believes they are not only copyright infringement, but also that they are harmful to the young writers who need to learn how to write their own complete characters and settings.

George R.R. Martin's first professional sale occurred in 1970, when he was only 21. The story "The Hero," was sold to "Galaxy" magazine, and many more sales would follow in the future. 1970 was also the same year that he received a B.S. in journalism from Northwestern. He completed his M.S. in Journalism in only one year, also at Northwestern University.

During Vietnam Martin was a conscientious objector, and he chose to do alternative service with VISTA from 1972-1974. He continued to write part time even as he held other jobs, including as a journalism instructor at Clarke College, located in Dubuque, Iowa. He was married briefly, but divorced in 1979. He became a full time writer shortly afterward.

By this point Martin was very well known in the science fiction community, and had already won several Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards for his short fiction before switching to novels. Many of his early works were science fiction, although later works mostly shifted to horror and fantasy.

While many fans are now aware of George R.R. Martin's absolutely epic fantasy adventure series, "A Song of Ice and Fire," a series that has permanently etched his name among the best fantasy adventure authors ever, many of his new fans don't realize that for years Martin wrote for television, working as a story editor for the Twilight Zone in the mid 1980s.

Martin has also done remarkable work as an editor, especially in regards to the now very lengthy "Wild Cards" cycle. Other critics often cite Martin's work as being particularly dark and cynical, not using fantasy as a "good always wins" genre as many others have, but really exploring and expanding the darker part of the genres.

Martin currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is working on finishing "The Song of Ice and Fire" series, which will also eventually be made by HBO into a show, with one season dedicated to each novel in the series.

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