On Sunday, the much-anticipated eighth, and final, season of HBO's massively popular series "Game of Thrones" will finally debut.
"The greatest setback I ever faced was the failure of my fourth novel, 'The Armageddon Rag,'" Martin told The Wall Street Journal in 2014. The novel, which combines elements of fantasy and a murder mystery, got Martin"the biggest advance I'd gotten" from his publishing house and garnered solid reviews from critics. But it didn't sell."Instead of taking me to the next level, it almost destroyed my career," Martin told Publisher's Weekly.
"There was a period there, when I couldn't sell my fifth novel, where I was looking to sell my house, and I took one of those courses in buying real estate for no money down in my desperation [to make money]," Martin said. "Oddly enough, the same book that essentially crippled my career as a novelist started my career in Hollywood," Martin said.