Not Dead Yet
I think I'm actually fighting off a cold, rather than succumbing to it. Day 3 and I'm feeling better rather than worse. Amazing. That's what lots of rest and vitamins will do...and having been well for the 2 weeks previous actually allowing my poor overworked immune system a vacation. I feel like I've been press-ganged into a part time job as a virus host--I certainly spend enough time at it! But I'm getting better this time, so all good.

Academics
My academic publication has appeared in print at long last. It'll put you back about $120 if you actually wanted to buy the darn thing (and keep in mind I only wrote 1 chapter, though I'm looking forward to reading everyone elses chapters!). But with luck it will be coming soon to a library near you. Since I've in fact managed to keep my full name off this blog in general, to keep it for friends and family rather than people trying to track me through web searches, I'll refrain from giving you the full info here. But anyone interested in Shakespeare or Platonic influences or just what I've spent a fair chunk of the last, er, 6 years doing (though very little in the last couple years; that's just been waiting), feel free to drop me a line and I'll send details.

Fiction
So, my book has now reached 10 chapters, only one of which is out of order (it will probably be chapter 12) and 26,600 words which is more than a quarter of the way through a normal fantasy novel. But I realized something today. It's a bit of a spoiler for my readers, but I won't tell you what timelines are involved....If you combine the story lines from the the different drafts (but not overlapping scenes) of the two books involved (yup, two), Geirrøth's character has the most story written involving a single character I've ever written thus far with right about 60,000 words. The next biggest would be Nirym with 34,000 words...although Nirym's stories are about 95% her viewpoint whereas Geirrøth is largely in the background.

It's kind of odd to me. I've got so many books-in-progress with female main characters. It's funny that I settled on Johan and Geirrøth's book (though Gynna is gaining importance steadily) to be my finish a book project, and that thus Geirrøth would take the lead as longest running character.

Well, only if you don't count the immortal demi-gods that feature even earlier in the same time line. But since the later books aren't about them in any way, I have to feel that they don't count.

Media
Game of Thrones premiered last night. It was beautiful and mesmerizing. I think the pilot would be a bit confusing for those who hadn't read the books, or at least studied the cheat sheet to the families they helpfully put on the show's website (there's a map too). I was a little confused just trying to match faces to the characters I knew had to be there! After all we had, at least 5 or so teenage boys who are plot important and a couple on screen that aren't really important. To say nothing of the grownups and younger children. The two teenage girls were at least crystal clear. That said, I think the casting was fantastic. I loved how with Joffrey and Arya in particular they got their characters across vividly and perfectly...without either saying a single line! Dead on.

Jon isn't quite as I imagined him. In fact, the whole set of teenagers seemed cast a little old...though I can see why. They have to cast the girls a little older, because a TV audience doesn't want to see 13 year old girls put in sexual situations. They're still said to be 13, but they look more like 15 or 16. And having done that, you can't use actual 15 boys to play the 15 year old boys...they have to look several years older than the 13 year old girls...so inevitably, the boys end up looking about 18. But while it means few in that set of characters match my mental image of them, I think it was a wise decision overall.

I'd have to get my hands on a copy of the book to know just how many chapters they clipped through in their 65 minute pilot--all the library copies are out with about 12 holds on each copy; no surprise there--but they're moving at a pretty fast pace. It seems they're going to stick to unfolding the whole arc of book 1 in season 1, not slowing down to do more episodic sub-stories. I think in the end that will be to the best, and far more intense, though I think that may make it harder for non-readers of the books to grab hold in the first couple episodes. Information comes hard and fast, and the political situation is already beginning to shift and change. Although you have to pay attention to catch it, I'm pretty sure they cover at least a month's time, if not a bit more all in that first hour!

Anyway, I think it was a mouthwatering intro to things to come. Red house is going to have a weekly ritual of watching together, about the only thing we watch on TV live. We had, oh, 11 people over watching!

But if they're going to go through one book a season, Martin had better hurry up and write the last books! He'd better hurry up anyway. I was fit to be tied when I got to the end of book 4 and realized I would have to wait till book 6 to find out what was going to happen to half the characters!! Ok, yes, I'm looking forward to finding out what's happened to the other half the character list in book 5, but good gracious! And then, will the story lines sync up again in book 6 or will we be leap frogging for the rest of the series? (I place no faith in the projection of finishing in 7 books...though however long it ends up being, I'm sure it will be worth it, unlike a few other massive series I could mention.)