Bring Along Your Best Weapons...Plus a Giveaway

        On Saturday I went to the St. Louis Listen to Your Mother show. Two writer friends were performing. Little did I know that a breathy, unknown-to-me storyteller would make me cry.

         She brought to the stage her best ammunition:  her story. It was told honestly and simply, and chronicled getting a lung transplant from a young man named Kyle.

         On Sunday I found a copy of one of my favorite books, George R. R. Martin's Fevre Dream. I found it at my favorite bookstore, Half Price Books (the Delmar one, baby--the fifth-largest one in the country!). It made me think of the battle that takes place in this novel (which is soooo much shorter than his G o T books).

        If I tell you there are vampires  in this book, don't be instantly dismissive. I don't read Anne Rice's novels (although perhaps I should). I definitely never did the Twilight books. Fevre Dream does have a vampire as a main character, but the story is so much more than thirsting after blood. It's the riverboat trade, indigo plantations, and a friendship between a riverboat captain and vampire.

        I'm currently working (yes, still) on my WIP that's affectionately called my NIP (nightmare in progress). I hope I'm bringing my best ammo when I sit in front of my laptop. There's a part in Pat Conroy's South of Broad that brought my first-of-several epiphanies while working on this female-dog of a project. I thought I knew exactly where it was in Conroy's novel, I thought I noted the page number somewhere, I thought I remembered it clearly enough to mirror one single Conroy-crafted remark in my manuscript...

       But apparently not, because now I've resigned myself to rereading the book and putting the page number on a billboard--'cause I don't want to prove true the "third time's a charm" phrase.

       I began this piece of writing with several for-sures. I knew for sure who the main characters were--the WWWPs. I knew for sure how it would end. And in the writing, things have changed. The characters have become fictionalized, and the ending is not what I was planning on.

       It seems the characters are in the driver's seat, not me. 

        If you tell me what is your best weapon as a writer (you can interpret that any way you want), your name will be put into a hat (a literal one; I don't know how to do those random-whatevers) for a copy of Fevre Dream. I'll draw names at the end of the month.

Off the Book

        Okay, so I admit it. I am a Game of Thrones-aholic. 

         The plot has completely seduced me, and the scenery can be quite impressive. (The mountains and hillsides are gorgeous, too.) It didn't start that way. I resisted for four years, and then binged last year to catch up. 

        The photo on the left is Jason Momoa. He played Drogo, and sadly, died way too early in the series. But hey! The straight women still had Jon Snow, played by Kit Harington, to sigh over.

        Jon Snow is no more... unless the Red Witch can bring him back to life. (And after what I saw from her on the first episode of the new season, I shudder to think what that would look like.)

                           
                                  Here is Kit Harington as Jon Snow.

        The crazy thing about this season is the series has lapped George R. R. Martin's books. Apparently our appetite is so insatiable and Martin isn't fast enough. We want our fix every year and by gum, we're gonna get it.

       Now perhaps the show's writers and creators had Martin outline the story for this season. Or they gave him some multiple choice plot events, and he bubbled in what he wanted to happen. I'm not sure. I'm just glad GoT is back.

       If you'd like to read George R. R. Martin's stuff and you don't also need something to prop up your car the next time you have a flat tire, check out his Fevre Dream. It's well-crafted, is set in the riverboat times and is about vampires. (I hesitate to include that detail, 'cause I don't do vampire stories, but this is the exception.) 

      Are you a Game of Thrones fan? If so, what is your favorite character and why? (Mine is actually not Drogo or Jon Snow... they were just so easy on the eyes.) And who do you hope has the longest, most painful death? (Ramsay is my choice.)