He may seem to delight in traumatizing fans by murdering their favorite characters in gruesome ways, but even George R. R. Martin won’t stoop so low as to kill an innocent 13-year-old boy. Not for a mere $250, anyway.
Martin recently spearheaded a Prizeo campaign to help Santa Fe’s Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, and one of the Kickstarter-style rewards for donors was the opportunity to be brutally slaughtered in an upcoming Song Of Ice And Fire book. An anonymous woman and some dude who works at Facebook both coughed up the $20,000 necessary to receive such an honor, but 13-year-old Jack B. from the United Kingdom, presumably banking on the fact that kids with British accents are the cutest thing ever, decided he’d try to game the system. He sent a letter to the campaign donating his allowance/life savings of £153 (between $250-$260) and telling Martin that, although his parents won’t let him watch the naughty bits of Game Of Thrones, wolves are his favorite animal, and could he please die a “gruesome grizzly death” in an upcoming book.
Touched by the boy’s love of animals and shameless fame-mongering, Martin declined Jack B.’s offer, but donated $10,000 to the UK Wolf Conservation Trust in his name instead. And he also wrote his precocious young fan a letter, explaining why he just couldn’t kill him.
Dear Jack,
Thank you so much for your heartfelt, touching note.
I’ve heard that you donated all your £153 pocket money savings to my Prizeo fundraiser on behalf of the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary. I cannot tell you how much that moved me. It pleases me no end to know that my novels, and the TV series based on them, have inspired readers as young as yourself to rally to the support of these majestic and too often stigmatized animals.
Alas, I cannot promise you a grisly death in THE WIND OF WINTER. Those spots have already been filled by some very generous donors, and there’s a limit to how many people even I can kill.
However, inspired by your example, my friends at Prizeo and I would love to follow your lead with a $10,000 in your name to the UK Wolf Conservation Trust. That’s a wonderful organization that I’ve heard much about, and they are lucky to count people like you as supporters.
I wish you the best of luck in your future career as a wolf conservationist, and hope that you inspire many others to follow your lead.
Yours,
GRRM