Very important warning for all who go near the water this summer:
Rescuing drowning children: How to know when someone is in trouble in the water. – Slate Magazine.
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English: George R.R. Martin signing books in a bookstore in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Slovenščina: George R.R. Martin med podpisovanjem knjig v ljubljanski knjigarni. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Saturday: 3.8.2008 (Photo credit: Jesse757)
To those that would leave HBO because of the Red Wedding:
Have you watched HBO?
Have you read A Song of Fire and Ice?
What did you expect?
I have been waiting to see how the Red Wedding would play out. I was shocked at quite a few of the things that happened during that scene and I have read A Storm of Swords twice. Except for Robb’s wife being at the wedding, the new wife of Edmund not crying as she should have, and the lack of an old fool (that is the second fool that is left out of the show), everything played out exactly as it had in the book. As with other choices to pull away from George R. R. Martin’s books to translate on screen, choices are often for brevity and focus.
Let me take a moment to prove my understanding at the violence and misogynistic themes throughout the books, take a look at my GoodReads reviews of the books. But don’t take it out on HBO or the directors/producers of the series. They are staying close to the books as possible, giving great homage to GRRM’s genius.
Another point I want to make: Even as I had just finished reading my second go round of A Storm of Swords, I was shocked at the playing of The Rains of Castamere. How had I missed that the Lannisters, primarily Tywin Lannister, was a part of this massacre. In my reading, even the second time, I had thought it was just a local song that everyone played. Seeing it on the show last night made me read that chapter once again. Sure enough, it was there.
Violence and machismo are a part of Westeros. But Mr. Martin gave life to the women who either by choice or destiny, grow beyond the male roles and into leading roles. Other kingdoms accept women in roles of power. The show draws that out even more plainly than the books, especially for those of us who need that visual aid. Looking back at the books it is there.
So those who would threaten to leave HBO because of portraying the truth in the books are pansies that should go back to the Disney channel. How have you survived in our world without knowing that violence exists and is awful to watch? Those of us who were teens during the Vietnam War saw far worse daily. I am a pacifist but I realize that ugly happens daily. Maybe drones leave out the personal touch of killing that our fore-parents had to deal with before guns. Even guns remove hand to hand combat. The blood spilled was dirty and icky. To leave these scenes out of the show would certainly dull the story-line. Read the books!
Even if you don’t like the world portrayed, the writing is immaculate. George R. R. Martin is the type of author I would like to be. No, my books aren’t nearly as violent. But to keep track of so many characters and plot-lines and to hold true to a story are what I want to make sure are there.
There are some good ideas here for those of us working on a series.
Writing a series is not as simple as just writing several books in a row. Nor is it as easy as taking one long story and breaking it into several parts. There are a lot of nuances to writing a series that many writers just do not think about until they’re smack in the middle of it, and by that time its either too late OR you’ve just created a mountain of work for yourself that you might have avoided.
Maybe, just maybe, I can help you avoid some of that work.
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In my ‘random things about me’ on my Leibster Award blog (need I mention again: Squee!), I mentioned that last Christmas I was so poor that I couldn’t afford to buy anything for my peeps. Then I suddenly looked around and saw a ton of plastic bags from stores. Sorry, I think of my recycle bags when I go to the store but the rest of my household forget on a regular basis. I looked up plastic bags and found a ton of patterns for crocheted plarn. I thought I should share some of my own creations.
I started out with the soap dishes and scrubbers.
I was told that the scrubbers work very well on bathroom mirrors. I use my own to clean the bathroom sink.
Then I made water bottle carriers or can cozies.
Have you ever wanted a bookmark with a pencil holder?
Now I can keep my journal and pencil all together. Works will for students who need a highlighter on hand for the textbook.
Then for a change I went fancy I decided to make a hat.
It was too ruffly and HUGE.
“Frogged” it and made it with not so many ruffles and a little smaller. But it wasn’t small enough for me or my friends, even though we all had a good laugh about it. It wouldn’t have been good in anything but the calmest of weather as it is too light to stay on a head. SO:
Frogged again and made a planter. 🙂
This looks SO yummy!
I can’t believe I made it home just in time to catch the end of asparagus season!
Inspired by Laura, co-owner of Riverbank Farm, my housemates and I decided to try making some asparagus pasta. Who knew that it would be so amazingly tasty? Freshly blanched asparagus pasta immersed in creamy asparagus sauce, and topped with broiled asparagus. wow.
This is definitely my new favorite meal! Too bad I will have to wait another year for more asparagus. If you have some left, I highly recommend making this tasty dish while you can.
Serves 5
Ingredients:
4-5 bunches of asparagus
GF pasta, I really like this Quinoa garden pagoda pasta
1/4 cup olive oil, plus some for frying
1/4 cup minced sun-dried tomatoes, plus extra for topping
1 avocado
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
3 tbsp soy free vegenaise
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp So Delicious coconut milk (not canned coconut milk)
Juice…
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So love Steampunk Dream!
Here are some of the music and events from last weekend’s Steampunk World’s Fair. If you are around NJ in Mid-May next year you should try to make this event. It is so much fun. Come in costume or in regular cloths. Everyone is welcome.
Music-
Steam Powered Giraffe:
First of all, these guys are so fun to watch in person. They look, act, and sound like robots. It’s a little freaky (in the good kind of way.)
I had no idea how popular they were. They filled a massive tent and overflowed into the parking lot around the stage. Much fan girl screaming was had.
Check out their site here.
The Folks Below:
My family fell in love with this band and stalked them throughout the event. Not creepy stalking… just making sure to hit their performances.
Check out their site here.
Kate Kat:
A lovely Opera…
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Blood-Red Pencil: Tips for Productivity: Terry Odell, Mark L. Lefevbre of Kobo, David Boop I had the great fortune of winning one of two Kobo scholarships to a local writing se…
Part two of the fun my friend had!
The beautiful people were everywhere at Steampunk World’s Fair 2013. Everyone was so sweet when we accosted them asking for photos. No one turned us down and everyone posed and smiled on queue. It was fabulous.
I chased this lady down the hallway to get her photo crying “Monarch Lady! Monarch Lady!” It was worth it. A friendly Jedi helped catch her attention for me.
The friendly Jedi. He really was a trip. His light saber had a power pack that lit up attached to his belt that looks so snazzy.
Even though it was drizzling outside this gentleman posed for us to snap his pic. I fell in love with his hair. Can’t explain it. All I know is he looked particularly dapper.
His parrot moves and talks. Need I say more? When I was wearing my wings he actually stopped me and said “I love your wings, and…
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What fun my friend had!
Am breaking this up into a few posts because there was just so much to see and do.
Steampunk World’s Fair (SPWF) 2013 is officially over. I’m back home on the west coast and beginning to return to normalcy.
There is so much to say and show I’m not entirely sure where to start…
…I’ll start with me. (Call me self-centered. It might be true…)
I was dressed in red as the Fairy Catcher Extraordinaire on Friday. Then I saw Steampunk C3PO, accosted him, asked for a hug, and made Juana take a photo. One of my fav moments of the night.
Next day I was the Raven Lady. Lots of black and feathers, although I don’t think you can see the feathers too well in the photos. My bustle was made entirely of them, and the faux iron wings were lined with feathers on the top.
The lovely Juana…
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Mystery Writing is Murder: Twitterific: by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Twitterific is a compilation of all the writing links I shared the previous week. The link…
Darswords 
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