Book review: Game of Thrones

I'm coming late to the party, but I've just started reading the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. I tried once, a few years ago when A Game of Thrones first came out, to try to read it but I had a hard time dealing with the head hopping in the writing and I put it down.

I picked it back up after seeing a few episodes of the HBO series "A Game of Thrones". The series was interesting, but I didn't understand why the characters were doing what they were doing. I checked A Game of Thrones out from the library but I had to return it before I finished it. Later, I found four of the books at the local used bookstore so I bought them. I've finished A Game of Thrones and I've now started A Clash of Kings.

I found it hard to follow the book in the beginning. It was the same problem I'd had with it when I first tried to read it a few years ago. The head hopping was very distracting and I had a hard time following along with the story when he kept switching between people and places. As I continued reading this time, instead of giving up after the first few chapters, I grew invested in the characters. I wanted to know more about what was going to happen to them, what their world was like, what their fates were going to be.

My two favorite characters are Daenarys Targaryen and Arya Stark. As you progress through the books, their stories become more interesting. But I found myself looking forward to Daenarys' chapters in A Game of Thrones.

The writing was well done. Once I got into it I was transported into the characters' world. It got a little long winded in places but for a book the size of this one that's to be expected. I found I didn't care as much for certain characters as I did for others. I will admit I skimmed the chapters of the ones I didn't care about. I read enough to know what was going on and then I moved on.

The book was well written, the story for the most part is engaging, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series.

Sunday 'fess up - It's been a week

It's been a week, that's for sure.

I finally made a breakthrough on both of the stories I'm working on. I realized what was wrong with Rescue and with Birth of the Silver Lady. I'm hoping to have BotSL ready for publication around Christmas and Rescue in January. The other two to follow shortly after them, assuming I can find beta readers and critique partners to review the stories for me. I don't want to put out something that isn't polished to its finest. If you're interested in beta reading/critiquing leave a comment, message me on Facebook, or @ me on Twitter and let me know.

Thursday night I had another seizure and managed to give myself a concussion. I lost most of Thursday and managed to irritate Himself because of my insistence that we go to the emergency room. But it was a good thing we did. Knowing me, I'd have neglected to inform the necessary people until months from now that I had another seizure and by that point I could have had at least one other seizure, possibly more. By going to the ER they've increased my anti-seizure meds again and this time I have high hopes that it will work and keep me seizure free.

Himself is still working away on several projects. It's keeping him busy and though it leads to some cranky moments he's having a good time and that's what's important to me. He has high hopes that this business venture will finally pay off and some of the problems we've had in the past will disappear as a more steady and stable income will be provided for the family.

I'm reading a lot more now. I've finished Game of Thrones and I've moved on to Clash of Kings. It's definitely gotten a little easier to read now that I'm used to the head hopping. Though I will admit that the two characters I care most about are Arya Stark and Daenerys Targaryen. And I'm fairly sure I spelled that wrong. Arya fascinates me because of how strong she is for a 10 year old girl. And Daenerys has baby dragons. Who wouldn't love baby dragons?

I'm changing up the blog again. I realized that it's getting harder for me to write well thought out posts because I'm always scrambling to come up with ideas and the quality of my blog posts has been suffering. So I'm dropping down to three days a week. Monday will be my usual rambling on any subject that interests me. Wednesday will still be my posts on writing. Some will be informational. Others will be me putting up random snippets for your entertainment and possibly your help. Friday is vlog day and I'll post my vlog and some random music videos for you to enjoy. That way I'm not inundating everyone with badly written blog posts and I can get back to spending more of my time working on my WIPs.

My goal is to have the rewrites of Birth of the Silver Lady, Rescue, The Soldier and the Lady, and The Pigeon and the Fiddler finished by the end of September. That means I'm going to have to get cracking and quit goofing off but that's my goal. I at least want BotSL and Rescue done for sure.

That's it for this week. This will be the last Sunday 'fess up for a while, until I get things figured out. So keep an eye out for the new blog content and schedule. Thanks for sticking with me and I look forward to reading your comments on all things that I write.

Here's a vlog post (yes, I know it's been a while). Also, some music videos for your enjoyment.

Writing Wednesday - Multiple points of view

How many of us are not in at least some way familiar with George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series? (Game of Thrones and it's subsequent sequels, for those not familiar with the series name.) I'm still trying to plow my way through the first book, mostly because I get confused by the constantly switching POVs from one character to the next.

That got me thinking about my own stories. I tend to switch POVs between two people. I don't think I've got a full length novel written or planned out that doesn't switch POVs from one person to the next, though I do limit it to two people to avoid extreme confusion. (I hope.)

But what drives me to write it from multiple POVs? What gave G.R.R. Martin the idea to write his epic series from multiple POVs to the extent he did? I think both of us have the same situation: there's a lot of story to tell and we need to have more than one person telling their part of it. Martin's series would be a whole lot longer if he told the same events from different perspectives, repeating things in a book based on each character. We'd get bored. The same problem occurs with my stories. If I told the same events twice, once for each character in separate novels, I'd have an exceptionally long series with a lot of boring repetition.

A story with multiple POVs isn't easy to write. You have to maintain a balance that I'm still learning about. You have to give each person as close to equal screen time as the other so as to keep the audience informed about what's going on. Time lapses have to be explained or referenced at some point to keep people up to date on when in the continuity the events are happening.

Why would anyone put themselves through the trouble of trying to write a story with multiple personalities taking the lead? I'm doing it because I think it'll make my stories better. Or I'm out to torture myself and possibly my readers. I don't know which it is, but I'll figure it out eventually.