Foolish Man, insert proverb here...

I have mentioned that things have been - let's say, "unsettled" - in my home lately. I will spare you the details: it is enough to know that the economic situation has its effect on people, and I have thrown my lot in (one way or the other) and now I must ride out the storm.

I realized just now, while preparing leftovers for lunch, that I'm living wrong. I am living like a man holding his breath, and waiting to exhale. I allow myself moments of levity. It seems that "taking a break" from the pressures of the world and/or my domestic dilemnas, allows me to relax and enjoy my life and not get too stressed out. In general, that would be good advice.

I am stringing together those moments like a man holding his breath - or taking punches to the head in the boxing ring, waiting for the bell. Waiting for the unsettled feeling to go away.

Do we do this, with life? I think we do. I think we make for ourselves a set of circumstances that will allow us to do what we truly want.

I'll get back to writing and revising as soon as I'm less stressed.

But there's always going to be stress. Life doesn't stop just because you need a time out. I suspect the best writers learn how to tune the world out, make it go away.

Instead, I am here, holding my breath and hoping it will go away. This is why I am unpublished. I can analyze the impact of A Game of Thrones (I even watched True Blood last night, along those lines), and I can offer myself all of the comforts of why I should press on with epic high fantasy fiction - and yet, day after day for weeks now, I'm only allowing myself moments of pleasure to ease the discomfort of my situation.

A young child rides his dirtbike outside my window. "Oh, it's too noisy, I can't concentrate." "I'm too tired." "I have to work tonight."

There's always a reason to not do what you want to do. And the world carries on. My situation approaches what we can call a deadline, and the other people involved don't seem terribly concerned.

It'll be fine. Well, things tend to resolve one way or the other, if that's what you mean by fine. Fine shouldn't be good enough. Circumstances shouldn't stand in the way of passion, determination.

"When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap." - Cynthia Heimel

I don't know if any of this helps you, but it helped me. Writing always does. Have a great week.

HBO's Game of Thrones, Season 1

Been a little busy this week, but truly what can be said that hasn't already been said? No, really... check it out.

Winter Is Coming - Episode 10 Recap Roundup

For what it's worth, I was extremely pleased with the season finale - in fact, as far as I'm concerned, it was the best finale of the year on television. (Yes, I'm still grieving over the idiocy of the House season ender.)

There's no one like me.
Hit me with that rock again, and I'll still talk smack.

Joff, our favorite bastard, count your blessings
that you didn't get stuck with the other sister.

As noted last week, the characters (love 'em or hate 'em) have grown into their roles, and for those viewers not familiar with GRRM's brand of brutality - well, I think going into season two, it has been established that no one is safe.

I like to kill fat boys!

Summarily, as far as the season goes, most of my thoughts were shared last week. But what we're looking at is a strong cast of unexpected characters (so many children actors), each now with enough screen time to warrant viewer sympathy and emotional investment, all going into season two with increased stakes - in an environment where no one is safe.

There was a lot of "sexposition" in Season 1 - and while sex and violence are a big part of what occurs in Westeros, Season 2 - based on A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 2), shouldn't require as much background information. Clearly, there's going to be war and the political machinations shouldn't necessarily require hooker scenes to pull off. We'll see.

There's been a lot of positivity regarding the CGI dragons - and I agree, they were well done. But again, the role of the dire wolves becomes increasingly relevant to the story of the Stark children, and I hope that in this filming, they give the pups some more screen time. Which, to their credit, they did manage in the final episode. It's symbolism, it's a magic that can't be ignored, and can't be focused exclusively on the dragons, because that's only one story arc amongst several.

Some puzzles remain for the viewer to chew on in the next several months, and despite what's been done in other fantasy stories, one shouldn't think that baby dragons are anything but a novelty at this point. Dany has no army, the dragons are vulnerable, and meanwhile all the rest of Westeros is armed, ready and marching. This will take awhile to unfold. Even if there are Targaryen loyalists, she still has to get to them (before they get killed under some other banner).

That would be the dilemna, from one perspective, if GRRM were a simple man. But he is not.
Before I digress, a funny or two.






And my favorite feature on WIC, Twitterers gone wild.

*

HBO's motives are clear. Convert this best selling fantasy series into something that will translate into subscribers and merchandise sales.

Long before the first episode aired, I told anyone else who would listen that the significance of the success of this series had a potential impact on publishing.

We've seen how True Blood and Twilight gave rise to urban fiction, to the point where agents and publishers were saying "enough vampires already" by last year.

We've already had a successful Lord of the Rings movie trilogy - and The Hobbit (part 1 of 2) is set to release in December of this year.

This should mean a huge boom for the epic fantasy literature genre. I'm counting on it. Martin is not a prolific author, Tolkien's film adaptations will likely end in 2013, and that's going to leave a void for people who want more.

While the success and quality of A Game of Thrones (as well as Peter Jackson's film projects) are great in entertainment value alone, the bigger picture suggests that this is only the beginning of a huge spike in the popularity of Elves, Dragons, Dwarves, Knights and magic.

Video: Coyote vs Canadian

Things are a little hectic on this end lately, and content may be a little thin in coming days. But there's always time to show a coyote video!



Beautiful pup. For those concerned about the man's sanity, note that there was no growling or barking, the tail was wagging and the neck fur wasn't bristled. Having said that, I think he toed the line between having fun and needing a rabies shot.

Enjoy!

Music: Cats in the Cradle by Harry Chapin

My father never wanted me to be a writer. It was (and presumably, remains) too impractical. I grew up in the sort of household where it was expected that I would be a doctor, a lawyer, maybe even a teacher.

Even with our ideological differences, I turned out a lot like my father. Some of my strongest personality traits could only have come from him and the patriarchal side of my family. It's often been a great inspiration to me in writing, ironically. I could probably bore you with all sorts of anecdotal evidence.

After all, we are all - one way or the other - our father's children.

Happy Father's Day.

Reading and Watching, June 2011

I'm going to be busy for a couple days, so I thought I'd go ahead and put up my latest reading journal.


Between the ending of House, Borgias, and Game of Thrones (forthcoming Sunday), I've kept my eyes peeled for some summer television shows for when I take a break from reading/writing.

Covert Affairs, USA. Season 2. In the "true confessions" department, I admit that I don't watch this sort of thing (I was never sold on Matt Damon as an action hero. These are the same folks who did the Bourne Identity series), and that the only reason I watched was because I've had a crush on Piper Perabo since her role in Coyote Ugly.

And in Season One, she wasn't entirely convincing in the role. However, by the end of the season, the story got interesting, and she was handling herself better in the action sequences. S2E1 was hit and miss with the action editing... the car scene was amateurish, unfortunately.

But, who cares? Sexy girl and a fun espionage storyline. They kicked off the season with a bang, rebooting the disappearance of the love interest Ben, got her back into the field bucking the system, and above all else, the supporting cast and story arcs are being nicely handled. I'm looking forward to the season.

White Collar, USA. Season 3. Guilty pleasure. I like the Ocean's Eleven vibe. I think they kicked off this season well, with Neal Caffrey (played by Matt Bomer), appearing to slide back into his old ways. What can I say, I'm a fan of the anti-hero, and between him and Mozzie (Willie Garson), it doesn't get more "unlikely savior". It'll be interesting to see how far they take the "this is the white whale of cons" arc, but all the same, it's off to a good start.

Burn Notice, Psych, Royal Pains. USA Network has the best summer line up on television. But, I don't watch THAT much TV.

I picked up The Hedge Knight - Second Edition [Graphic Novel] last week, as I find myself more and more excited by not only HBO's series, but also the release of A Dance with Dragons next month. Beautiful art, and of course, a great story within. Fascinating to read the prequels in light of all the buzz about A Song of Ice and Fire, and really, George R. R. Martin tells a good story.

It was only afterwards, while looking for the next novella (I've already read the third installment, The Mystery Knight, in the Warriors anthology), that I learned that The Hedge Knight (1st) and The Sworn Sword (2nd) were released in other anthologies. (Legends: Stories By The Masters of Modern Fantasyand Legends II: Dragon, Sword, and King, respectively.) I'm going to have to go back and get those now, because as much as I enjoyed the art, I love GRRM's prose and I want to read every detail of the prequel stories. (For those of you who have read through AFFC, you'll understand the interest in Dunk and Egg.)

While I'm on the topic...
- Win an autographed copy of ADWD.

Annnd, on the topic of epic stories brought to HBO - what about I, Claudius? (Nice catch, Adam!) That is also gonna be must see tv for me.

Turns out, in the Songs of Love and Death anthology that I've been reading, there's a huge easter egg for fans of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart. Anafiel Delaunay's backstory! He and Rolande.

And finally, to complete my reading journal, I started upon R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series, with The Darkness that Comes Before (The Prince of Nothing). I must say, and I'm not alone in this (based on the review blogs I read), that this is NOT a quick read.

I find it a little fitting that Steven Erikson does the cover blurb on this version, because after two pages, Erikson is exactly who I thought of. The styles are different, yes, but the density of the prose is similar.

Having said that, I'm 131 pages in and enjoying the story. At this point, though, I could only recommend this if you are a fan of Steven Erikson.

Oh, and while we're talking about R. Scott Bakker, three very esteemed book bloggers joined forces and did this interview of him recently.

That's all I've got for now. What are you reading?