Editing George R. R. Martin (section)

=== Early writing career ===
Martin began selling science fiction [[short stories]] professionally in 1970, at age 21. His first sale was "The Hero", sold to ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction|Galaxy]]'' magazine and published in its February 1971 issue; other sales soon followed. His first story to be nominated for the [[Hugo Award]]<ref>{{cite web|title=With Morning Comes Mistfall |url=http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1974-hugo-awards/ |publisher=Hugo Awards |access-date=May 22, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303090430/http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1974-hugo-awards/ |archive-date=March 3, 2012 }}</ref> and [[Nebula Award]]s was "[[With Morning Comes Mistfall]]", published in 1973 in ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact|Analog]]'' magazine. In 1975 his story "...for a single yesterday" about a post-apocalyptic timetripper was selected for inclusion in ''[[Epoch (anthology)|Epoch]]'', a science fiction anthology edited by Roger Elwood and Robert Silverberg. His first novel, ''[[Dying of the Light (Martin novel)|Dying of the Light]]'', was completed in 1976 right before he moved to Dubuque and published in 1977. That same year the enormous success of ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]'' had a huge impact on the publishing industry and science fiction, and he sold the novel for the same amount he would make in three years of teaching.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/george-r-r-martin-the-complete-rolling-stone-interview-20140613|title=George R.R. Martin: The Complete Rolling Stone Interview|first=Mikal|last=Gilmore|date=June 13, 2014|website=rollingstone.com|access-date=December 21, 2017|archive-date=June 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612143713/https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/george-r-r-martin-the-complete-rolling-stone-interview-20140613|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The short stories he was able to sell in his early 20s gave him some profit but not enough to pay his bills, which prevented him from becoming the full-time writer he wanted to be. The need for a day job occurred simultaneously with the American chess craze which followed [[Bobby Fischer]]'s victory in the [[World Chess Championship 1972|1972 world chess championship]]. Martin's own chess skills and experience allowed him to be hired as a tournament director for the Continental Chess Association, which ran chess tournaments on the weekends. This gave him a sufficient income, and because the tournaments only ran on Saturdays and Sundays, it allowed him to work as a writer five days a week from 1973 to 1976. By the time the chess craze subsided and no longer provided an income, he had become much better established as a writer.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/song-of-ice-and-fire-author-george-rr-martin-on-success-chess-and-the-wrath-of-superfans-9652448.html|title=George RR Martin on success, chess and the wrath of superfans|website=independent.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.georgerrmartin.com/life/|title=Life & Times of George R.R. Martin|website=www.georgerrmartin.com}}</ref>