Teaser Tuesday for July 26th

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I'm reading A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin. Awesome epic fantasy. He's absolutely brilliant. This book also has the POV's of my favorite characters in the series: Daenerys, Jon and Tyrion. I love Arya's storyline, too, but she's not in this one.

Here's the teaser:
Viserion hissed again. Smoke rose between his teeth, and deep down in his throat they could see gold fire churning. (page 670)

Asking advice on critiquing something good

I finished Smokin' Seventeen last night and I finally got my copy of A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin. Oh, I've been waiting years for this. In terms of fantasy, grit, world building, characterization, and breaking all the rules, Martin is my idol.

I have to set the book aside for the moment and focus on critiquing a few short stories for my writer's group. We're meeting this Saturday. Sometimes it's hard to critique stories. I'll find a few technical errors, but the story is sound. I offer my compliments. Then that's it. I feel like I'm not doing my job as a critique partner. Yet I don't know what else to say! Any advice?

I got one of my short zombie stories short listed yesterday. It's a medieval zombie story from a zombie's point of view. It would be cool to get published.

I squeaked like a teenage fangirl

My favorite fantasy series is George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. It's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. We got HBO for the summer so I could watch Game of Thrones. I love the show. I think it stays true to the books. I'm reading the first book again as I'm watching the show. It's spot on. Okay, yes, there are a few things that are different, but I don't feel they've changed the story itself.

My husband watched the first few episodes with me. He dared to say: "This is like some medieval version of Gossip Girl." He didn't want to watch any more after that. I squeaked my indignation. All the political maneuvering and aristocratic egos are things which make the series great. I wish I could write such a rich and complex world as Martin. Gossip Girl, my behind!

I was lucky enough to meet Martin four years ago at a convention. I waited in line for a long time to get two books signed. Some guy ahead of me had over two dozen books. Martin didn't looked pleased. I practiced in my head what I would say. When I finally walked up to the table, he smiled and said hello. I said hello back and squeaked like a teenage fangirl. I then lost my voice. So embarrassing! Martin said a few more things, and smiled again, waving at me as I walked away. It was my chance to chat with one of my idols and I caught a case of fangirl spaz.

He did a couple of seminars while he was at the convention. One of them was titled "Heroes & Villains." I remember this one specifically because he kept repeating that he didn't know why he was on the panel. He stated that there are no heroes or villains in his novels, only flawed characters. I loved it. And it suits for A Song of Ice and Fire. There are no good guys or bad guys except those we deem as such in our own heads. Characters grow, they falter, they change, and they die. Martin is brilliant. I can't say that enough.

We also got HBO so I could watch True Blood. I'm counting down the hours. Oh, how I've missed you, Eric Northman.