As writers

I hadn't heard about the Jordon / Cook connection - thanks for mentioning it.

Before The Black Company was The Dread Empire - a wonderful series that sold so badly they pulled his contract part way through the series. He had a draft for one novel and plans for two more when they did it - and that was when Cook decided to never write another novel that wasn't pre-sold. Something about all the time he had invested in that book, which wasn't going to bring any money to his family, and how he could have spent that time writing something that sold. Not that he made much money - even when he was working on the first The Black Company series he was only 12k - 14k a year from his writing.

The Dread Empire was grim, not as gritty, but too sweeping for its day. He eventually finished it (after achieving fame with the later Black Company novels and Garrett series, with a single book that was longer than the average Dread Empire novel...

He also did the Starfishers series back then, a military/spy sci-fi series that had various gritty bits - and there was a spinoff novel set in the spaceship equivalent of a submarine (Passage to Arms) that should be read before the Starfishers books.

And I loved Wildcards - and still chuckle over the concept of "deuces" (people with minor, useless superpowers - such as the ability to change the colour of your urine while you are peeing).

I have to agree with trying different styles of writing to improve your overall skills. For the longest time I couldn't produce anything in the first person voice, then I forced myself to do it. It just seemed so weird typing (and thinking) that "I" did this then that. After several attempts I had a story that wasn't half bad and now the first person is just another voice I use. I've thought about trying the same with the second person, but second person present tense is hard. So hard that there are few professional writers who use it.

I did do a story in second person for a challenge here once, it was devilishly hard, but I enjoyed the experience and trying to stretch myself. Using different tenses, especially present tense, is also good practice. The only professional work I've seen using second person extensively was one of the codas in John Scalzi's Redshirts.
I like to switch between first and 3rd, not generally in the same story, though, although I did recently do one with 3 PoV characters, 2 were in 3rd person and the last one was 1st person, present tense.
Wildcards is still going. Martin doesn't do much more these days than add his name to it and some editing. Although there are two subjects that will make his eyes light up when you discuss them with him, one is A Song of Ice and Fire and the other is Wildcards.