Anyone who knows me knows I’m obsessed with both the A Song of Ice and Fire series and the “Game of Thrones” TV show. I mean ob-sessed. Like in a don’t get me started kind of way. I’ll talk theories until you hate me.
Proof: My coworkers got me a cardboard Jon Snow cutout for Christmas.
On January 2nd, George R. R. Martin (henceforth referred to as GRRM) posted a note on his LiveJournal (yes, he still uses LiveJournal and yes, I’m okay with it) announcing that he would be unable to finish his new book, The Winds of Winter, before the season 6 premiere of “Game of Thrones”. I mean, it was clear that the whole series wasn’t going to be finished ahead of the show, but there was still hope for the 6th installment.
While I found this to be rather disappointing personally, I can’t help but feel for the guy. I’ve currently completed approximately 95,000 words in the novel I’ve been working on for two years, Heartswell. Comparatively, that’s around 275 printed pages in a book. I’m no GRRM, but I’m here to tell you that that shit is hard as hell. And deadlines? Ptheh. How you gonna put a writer on a deadline? I mean, hell, I’m having a hard enough time coercing myself to post on the blog this evening. Imagine trying to complete your sixth 1500-page book.
Damon will take credit for getting me into the show. He invited me to watch it early on (prior to me reading the books) and after the episode where [SPOILER ALERT]* Lady gets killed, I was like, f this garbage. I don’t DO animals being injured on TV. (This includes those effing ASPCA commercials with Sarah McLachlan singing over the top. ESPECIALLY those.) I got spoiled about the Red Wedding online during a time when I was watching bits and pieces of the show from walking past when it was on. Then I became intrigued and started after the books, which were some of the best I’ve ever read. Not to mention, once I read the books after season 3, I realized I could find out ahead of time what would happen to the characters, so I knew when to cover my eyes. That’s my biggest fear about the season ahead. Blood, gore — when can I look? Ick.
Now. On a positive note about The Winds of Winter not being finished: to be completely honest, my time frame for getting that book read before the show started back up was looking preeeeetty sketchy. I finished books 1-5 over the course of about 8 weeks a couple of years ago, including a business trip to India that was an 18.5 hour flight each way, spending an inordinate amount of time “working” at my desk with my Kindle in my lap and I’d wager I probably managed to speak 5 words aloud to Damon over that time frame. So, I can’t say I’m fully disappointed that I won’t have that pressure to finish the book as fast as I can. You gotta take your time with these things or you’ll miss something.
In closing, I love A Song of Ice and Fire and “Game of Thrones”. Don’t make me choose, because I won’t.
*Also, like, sorry if that spoiled anything for you but like seriously the show came out 6 years ago and if you haven’t started watching it yet or reading the books I don’t feel sorry for you because those started like TWENTY years ago and also it’s the best thing ever and like I DON’T think Jon is dead because did you see how Melisandre was conveniently showing up at Castle Black there at the end of the season and ALSO like I think I know who his parents are and what the hell are they supposed to do with Sansa and Brienne and Stannis now because they are not where they are supposed to be and it’s really confusing me and — um…whoops. SEE?
Leave a Reply