#it reminds me a lot of George RR Martin (who has his own issues as a writer

[twelvebooksstuff]

Well, I’d like to start by saying I’m glad I was able to make him worth not skipping, I genuinely appreciate that! I mean, Hammond and Lex Murphy and Gennaro are all awesome in the own rights, and quite frankly, the whole cast is stacked with AMAZING characters (imo). It was really one of the things I enjoyed most about the book, all of the characters (to me) were very intriguing and I was never bored with any of their perspectives. I also think the characters in general walk a good line between being characters and being symbols, without being too weighted down by either.  Also, spoilers for the whole book of Jurassic Park abound in the post, fair warning to any readers!

The sexism in the story and the narration is very blatant at points. I honestly thought it would be a lot worse going into it, so I can say I’m relieved it wasn’t worse! I totally get why Malcolm as the insert for Mike (who would be pretty if he smiled more) can come across as annoying, but I honestly thought he raised some interesting points, and was pleasantly shocked that his spiels were generally very progressive and had some solid critiques of society (which the marratation had made me question if would be the case). LOLOL I love the attention to Malcolm as a physicist/sociologist, because I 100% thought (when I first read it book), if all references to his field were removed but everything else character wise stayed the same, I’d guess he was a sociologist!! Tbh I think even as written, he at least meets the definition of an anthropologist, and that’s part of what draws me to him (studying anthropology myself). It’s funny because we aren’t the only ones to make this connection, either-when making decisions for how he would portray Ian Malcolm in the film, Jeff Goldblum had improvised a tattoo for Ian, a rectangle, that was supposed to be a “vaguely anthropology thing” from some previous adventure (there’s a whole podcast episode investigating it lol). I’d have loved to see some of the more socially oriented ones make it to the film, at least partially (I realize they have a runtime limit LOL). TBH my favorite quote from Book!Malcolm is the one that references Marshall Sahlins (someone who’s work I really have been inspired by in my own personal and professional life). It’s this one, from Aviary “But there hasn’t been any progress, not really….” They JOY I felt when reading this was immediately and immense, and the kind of spark that reading should have. I’ll admit that I’m aware this is personal, so it’s not something everyone will relate to, but it’s still one of many things that endears the character of Ian Malcolm and the whole of the book Jurassic Park to me in a way I never could have possibly expected without reading it! So, again, in my bias, I think this quote should have made the cut of the film, and I think it does a good job of putting the story in a broader historical and academic context, but I can see why the scriptwriters didn’t include it. (OH YEAH THAT BOTHERED ME WHEN READING THE BOOK SO MUCH. I had initially thought Malcolm was the first to refer to Dr. Sattler by her offical title-“so long as you leave me Dr. Sattler and ample morphine” which also seemed nicely passive aggressive to Dr. Harding, who wholeheartedly deserves to be called out (especially by the patient he let bleed out) and this is also part of the myriad of things that made me like him as a character, but then I saw a post on here a while back that pointed out Muldoon actually does it a couple chapters earlier via the radio and getting the car back, and then when re-reading the book for Jurassic Pel daily realized Malcolm is the first to refer to her as Dr. Sattler, but does so in the same comment as “You’re very pretty…” so quite frankly that kind of cancels out. He still does get the distinction, and yes I think the “Dr. Sattler and ample morphine” line was hilarious, but that’s not the first time she’s referred to as Dr. Sattler. I can’t think how the movie addresses this off the top of my head, but it something I would hope they handled better)!

YES!! That was SUCH a great scene! Realizing how deep the selfishness of Hammond goes (to his core) when he’s thinking, essentially “I don’t want him to die because that would make me uncomfortable and I don’t want to me uncomfortable” was perfect! And how his desire to leave Malcolm’s deathbed is what kills Hammond in the end (well, that and Dr. Harding’s incorrect assessment of what is safe) is just…poetic! I really enjoy that! I’ll admit I was less of a fan of Hammond and Malcolm having very similar “death” scenes (Malcolm technically isn’t dead at that point, he just slips into a coma) because I wanted Hammond to have a death that made Nedry’s book death look tame LOL. Still, I actually thought the symbolism was quite poignant and moving, and really drove home the point that they were foils. I also liked how when Hammond is running through his head all the issues with his park and his employees, when it comes to “lack of vision” he never mentions Malcolm in this. Even though he’s like, the easy target for Hammond to critique in general, and especially for having a worldview that doesn’t align with Hammond’s in a spiel about vision, he still doesn’t take aim at Malcolm. And I think that’s because, deep down, even Hammond knows that in spite of having a vision that’s VERY different from his own, Malcolm still does have vision. And I think that realization is so neat!! As for why Malcolm goes, I’m sure a small part of it is getting to say I told you so to Hammond’s face/geuinue curiosity to see if they would somehow be able to get his approval (what Gennaro hopes for originally. He’s able to trust Malcolm to tell the truth even if no one wants to hear it, so an invite is sent). But I do think the main reason Malcolm goes to the island is to try to stop the madness before it gets worse. Malcolm has this 200+ page research paper on why the park will fail, a paper he truly believes in, and some of his conclusions involve catastrophic consequences for the island, and loss of human life. I think the idea of inaction is something that really gets to Malcolm and convinces him to go. If he doesn’t go and try to stop it, who will? We see Gennaro take on this man of action arc throughout the course of the story (a thrilling and intriguing arc I wish made it to the film) and I think that’s what Malcolm is also trying to do, in his own way. I kind of see them as a bit of a tag team . Anyway, I love the idea that Malcolm is doomed from the start, it is very fitting with chaos theory and with his character arc as a whole. That interpretation is fantastic!! As for his stupid human moment, to me that was when Malcolm ran from the t-Rex attacking the car. Why on earth he thought he could OUTRUN a creature whose stride alone is many tens of feet is truly a lapse in judgment. I understand he wanted Grant to give advice, and I totally get why Grant felt unprepared to give a suggestion on what to do, but picking “flight” as his reaction to the loose dinosaur was just not Malcolm’s best moment. Malcolm even says later on “It was my own damned fault, he was too close, but I was panicked.” Which, an admission of him making a mistake alone is pretty impressive, but that aside, it definitely seems to indicate even the character eventually realized how bad of a choice this was! But still, the idea that this character who’s definitely more on the passive side (especially when compared to other characters in the story) has already made is fatal mistake is beautiful, I like that interpretation a lot too!

And for what it’s worth, I really love hearing your thoughts on this book! :)

Shortly before midnight, he stepped on the plane at the Dallas airport, a tall, thin, balding man of thirty-five, dressed entirely in black: For example today he was wearing a black corset with matching lace around it and a black leather miniskirt, pink fishnets and black combat boots. He was wearing black lipstick, white foundation, black eyeliner and red eye shadow.

-Malcolm, Jurassic Park

[drpepperhateblog]

“A queen’s words, a whore’s work.” - Daemon, Nettles, Mysaria, and Rhaenyra

One of the weirdest parts about Fire & Blood to me was Rhaenyra declaring that Nettles had seduced her husband and used magic to claim her dragon and calling for her arrest. Perhaps even weirder that Mysaria was the one who provided that information. Initially I read it as Daemon simply getting tired of Rhaenyra and declaring her to be a whore, similar to what Criston Cole did when he turned against Rhaenyra, but his final actions was to save Nettles and kill Aemond in what appears to be some sort of bizarre murder-suicide, yet his body was never found. What gives? Annoyingly, very little, because George RR Martin insists on leaving a lot of mysteries in Fire & Blood.

So let’s speculate around this.

Initially, I read “A queen’s words, a whore’s work” as being Daemon insulting Rhaenyra by calling her a whore. I’m now realizing that the queen is Rhaenyra and the whore in question is Mysaria, who left the information.

Nettles and Daemon’s relationship

Maester Norren claims Daemon treated Nettles like a daughter, while Mushroom claims he treated her as his lover. Frankly, knowing George R.R. Martin, chances are both of these are true and that this is yet another situation where Daemon is grooming an underage girl. However, Mushroom has been consistently shown during Fire & Blood to provide surprisingly plausible information (albeit information where he greatly exaggerates his own importance). Although, it’s also worth noting that Mushroom was with Rhaenyra this entire time, so chances are that Mushroom hearing Daemon sharing a bed with Nettles is based on what he heard from Mysaria. Could it perhaps be that he is wrong in this scenario and Maester Norren is right?

Mysaria’s motivation

So what’s Mysaria’s motivation here? She has nothing to gain by making the black faction fall apart.

Honestly all I can see is that it might be connected to her relationship with Daemon and their unborn child. When she was pregnant with his child, he brought a dragon egg for her. After Viserys forced him to return it, she miscarried.

The motivation might be as simple as jealousy, as underwhelming as it might sound, but specifically envy of Nettles - not just for receiving attention from Daemon, but for being Daemon’s bastard daughter, the daughter Mysaria would’ve had had she not miscarried on that boat, and Nettles’ ability to tame a dragon whereas Mysaria was forced to have her dragon egg returned.

In short, I think Mysaria took advantage of the betrayal of the other dragonseeds to paint Nettles as suspicious because she was bitter that her child with Daemon never got to live and ride dragons as she did. This also explains why she never betrayed Rhaenyra despite her also needing Daemon’s affections. A simple betrayal of jealousy because she wanted Daemon for herself doesn’t make sense since Rhaenyra is right there, and Rhaenyra evidently doesn’t mind Daemon sleeping with other people as Mysaria is right there. So Mysaria specifically had an issue with Nettles because she reminded her of her own miscarriage and would-be child with Daemon, so she twisted Rhaenyra’s paranoia in her favor.

Hence why Daemon says “a queen’s words, a whore’s work”, because Mysaria was behind this entire accusation. In reality Nettles is Daemon’s daughter and his final act is to save her, then go to face Aemond.

[dangos2]

John Stark and: “Live Free or Die.”

So, this is a meta (I thought it was gonna be small, but it ran away from me- oops) on why I do not believe Jon Snow has actually bent the knee. 

We all know that the Northerners in Game of Thrones- and A Song of Ice and Fire, have fought long and hard for their independence. We know that it was out of character for Jon to bend the knee to a foreign ruler he hardly knew. Thereby sacrificing the North’s hard won independence and his own power. Power he didn’t want, and definitely did not want for his own sake. But power that gave him a greater ability to defend his beloved home, the North, and his family. The same family that he has canonically, in both the show and the books, been shown to abandon honor and duty for in the past. 

We know that A Song of Ice and Fire draws a great deal from history. The weapons, from Valyrian steel to wildfire are based on ancient weapons we have been unable to recreate in the modern day. The struggle for Westeros is specifically meant to mirror The War of the Roses. The First Men = The Celts, The Andals = The Angles and Saxons. A big issue in the series is the conflict between the nobles and the small folk, and a glacially paced transition to a more democratic system. 

So, when I was reading up on the source of my state motto: “Live Free or Die (This is New Hampshire’s motto, for those who don’t know) I was struck by the similarities between General John Stark’s story and Jon Snow’s own story line. And I think it will be hugely ironic if George I’m a Huge History Nerd RR Martin, didn’t base Jon off this guy, at least partially. 

John Stark was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire. When he was a teenager he was captured by a group of Abenaki Native Americans and brought all the way to Quebec, Canada. While there he and another captive were forced to “run the gamut,” as in charge a line of armed warriors. He surprised one of the men, stole his spear and attacked. The Abenaki were reportedly impressed by his bravery and quick thinking and adopted Stark into the tribe. John Stark was ransomed later that year and sent home to his family. 

Later, John Stark fought in the French and Indian War as a member of Roger’s Rangers. He was second in command to Robert Roger and gained a lot of experience fighting in the war. However, when the Rangers were ordered to attack St. Francis, Canada, Stark, refused to join the attack as his Native American foster parents resided in St. Francis. He instead, returned home to his wife. 

 John Stark later fought at Bunker Hill and reached the rank of Brigadier General in the Continental Army. He later resigned his post because he was disgusted that a less experienced general got a promotion over him. Then he accepted a post here in New Hampshire as Brigadier General, but only on the condition of, wait for it:

Not having to ever answer to Continental Army authorities. (Gosh, I really like this guy) He served with distinction in the battle of Saratoga and became a war hero for his work and famous rallying cry: "There are your enemies, the Red Coats and the Tories. They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!"

Our motto comes from a letter he wrote to his comrades after his retirement saying, “Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.” 

In short: this guy was a badass.   

But, can you see now where I’m going with this? They both grew up in a northern state. They both were captured by and adopted by a people living in what could easily be called the far north. They both learned to respect those people and then later fought against those same people. However, when push came to shove both Jon Snow and John Stark could not forget their love and respect for their foster family. They both served as member of a rangers group and were disgusted by the politics that plagued their society.  

Also, JOHN STARK.

So, for Jon Snow to bend the knee to someone who does not truly know his people- regardless of whether they help with an overwhelming threat, have a technical right to rule, or the best of intentions, it would be a huge departure from his characterization. Whether he has any affection, like many non-Tory colonists did for Great Britain, for this aforesaid foreign power it would be enormously strange for him to bend the knee. 

But- it would not be out of character for Jon to act the fool. To lie. To gain the trust of his current enemy. Like he did with the Wildlings. Like he did with Stannis.

For him to bend the knee, it would take either a horrific and deliberate character assignation by the writers, a bout of canonical insanity, or shrewd calculation on Jon’s part that a lie is necessary in order for him to get what he wants. If Jon Snow has really bent the knee I can guarantee you, it won’t be for long.

(Also, sudden, idea. Ghost is supposed to be a metaphor for Jon. And Ghost not only has weirwood coloring (in other words he is Northern to the bone), but additionally, a white coat on a wolf also kinda reminds you of the phrase “A wolf in sheep’s clothing.” doesn’t it?)

"If we die, we'll die, but first, we'll live."―Ygritte to Jon Snow.[src]

  There is no way in all the the Seven Hells that Jon has bent the knee. 

He might die, but, first, he’ll live free.

[thenobleartist]

Industry interviews: Mark Lawrence

Recap and introduction:

If you read the post for Industry interview #1 you’ll know that I have started to arrange some Q&A sessions with some of the people I’ve met in the creative industries in an attempt to answer some questions you might have if you are in the industry yourself or on your way to getting involved.

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After last week’s interview I thought things couldn’t get better. Joel Norden answered some awesome questions on getting traction in the industry and being able to network among our peers, including those big names. That’s exactly how I have met my guest speaker, by making connections and networking. It’s so important in the digital age that we live in, and although you might like to be an armchair writer, or an artist in solitude, it’s really important to build relationships with other people in the industry.

So with that in mind, I’m incredibly lucky to have have spoken to an awesome guest speaker from the fantasy field. He has forged an ‘Empire’, albeit ‘Broken’… He has fought wars for a ‘Queen’ although she was ‘Red’… And now he is with his ‘Ancestors’ but not in the traditional sense. I have Mark Lawrence, acclaimed fantasy author of the The Broken Empire trilogy, the Red Queen’s War trilogy and the upcoming Book of the Ancestor. Mark has become a world-renown author, selling over one million books and has won David Gemmell awards, been a finalist in Goodreads Choice Awards and made the Sunday Times Bestseller list.

Interview #2: Mark Lawrence- Becoming a recognised fantasy author

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TNA: Hi Mark, thanks for being with me today. I really appreciate you taking the time to speak to us. You might be able to tell by the introduction that I’m pretty excited to have you here… There’s so much I’d like to cover, but today we’d really like to find out from a successful author’s perspective, how you’ve made your career happen, and how you maintain it. I know that you’re really vocal on social media, and talk directly to your readership via Facebook, but how did they discover you in the first place?

ML: The unsatisfactory answer is that I have no real idea. I joined Facebook and Goodreads around the time that early copies of Prince of Thorns were being sent out, and Twitter about a year after it was published. My publishers have put my FB and Twitter address on the inside flap of my books. I now have the maximum 5000 friends on FB without ever have sent a friends request, around 16,000 twitter followers, and 9000 on Goodreads. From observation it’s activity that draws people in, but it has to be interesting activity, not spamming book links.

TNA: What was it about your novels, that took you from writing for pleasure, to becoming a global success? Is there a format you use? Plot-twist that is guaranteed to work? Or character relationship that engages people more than others?

ML: -Tell me the secret formula!

-There’s no sec-

-TELL ME!

Publishing success is a collection of many small and moving targets. Rather than trying to aim at them it is better to do your own thing. That way at least you’ll be enjoying yourself. And if you can get that passion onto the page then you may well enthuse a readership too.

TNA: What’s your process on a daily basis? How much is planned and how much just flows out the finger-tips?

ML: I don’t plan or have a process. I just start typing and see what happens. Sometimes elements of the story run ahead of what needs to be written down at that point, and when that happens I will make a few bullet points to remind me when I get to where those ideas might be useful.

Discovery writing is much more exciting to me. Sometimes you can write yourself into a corner, but as a scientist I’m a problem solver, so I enjoy the puzzles I inadvertently set myself.

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TNA: If you were head teacher at the ‘Prince of Thorns School for Writers’, and you had five periods to fill what would your curriculum be for the day?

ML: I would make a terrible teacher. Teaching is predicated on the belief that a process is more learned than innate. It’s then broken down into digestible chunks and rolled out for inspection. Certainly practice can make you a better writer, but I’m not convinced that it can make you a writer if you’re not one. Creativity is the key element and I’m not sure that can be taught. I know nobody could teach me to sing. I don’t have the mechanical or mental equipment required. I croak and I can’t tell two notes apart. I do however, like listening to music. The parallel is probably that enjoying reading doesn‘t mean that you will be able to write a book that someone else wants to read.

TNA: I know you have said you felt you halfheartedly approached an agent and were surprised you ended up with a global publishing deal, but for those who haven’t had such instant success is there a method to finding your stepping stone into the marketplace? Would you have ever considered self-publishing?

ML: Becoming an author doesn’t enter you into a secret world. My experience after selling a million books is very similar to the experience before selling any. I tap away on my laptop in my house … well … I didn’t use to have a laptop, so that has changed. Eight years ago I sent off 4 emails to some names on a list. That’s my encounter with the business of agent finding. I haven’t had any further interaction or insight on that front, so I’m even less able to offer helpful advice now than I was then.

It may be different for those who attend fantasy conventions. Possibly chatting to lots of authors and agents around the bar would furnish a wealth of relevant anecdote, but I’ve never been able to do that owing to the caring responsibilities I have for my disabled daughter. I suspect though that even that immersion wouldn’t offer much. Like many readers, I think many agents don’t know what they want until they see it. They are looking for a story that knocks their socks off, and if the agents knew what would knock readers’ socks off before they saw it … they would be writing it themselves or aiming their other authors at it.

I didn’t consider self-publishing at the time. I put Prince of Thorns away for three years after writing it without once thinking of self-publishing. Things have changed a lot for self-publishing since 2007 though, with much easier access to a readership (on the technical side – actually getting them to read any particular book is still monstrously difficult though), so I might look at it differently if I was starting out today.

TNA: Relating your field to mine, I’ve always found that doing the projects/genres/topics I enjoy yield the best natural results. For me that’s fantasy and sci-fi and I’ve always found that because I enjoy it, I am more inclined to do more of it, therefore gaining practice and appreciation for it. Is that how you feel you’ve found your place and excelled?

ML: I’ve certainly only ever written things I wanted to write. The chances of commercial success are so small that there seems to me no point in investing all that time unless the act is itself its own reward. And while it isn’t impossible to write a book that you personally don’t like but that others will … I am sure that it is much much harder to do.

TNA: I like to try and compare creative roles; like learning to play guitar (which I’ve never mastered) as a reference point for trying to write. I found my best way of learning, was by learning covers, and the same for art, by studying and sketching other people’s work. I found that what I gained was foundation of mulched up knowledge from different sources that as a whole influenced how I worked. Is that similar to absorbing works of other authors for you?

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ML: I learned to write by taking part in writing groups and critiquing other people’s work. Most folk join such groups to splash down their own writing, and it is very hard to get them to give feedback on anyone else’s. It’s a club where everyone is shouting “Look at me! Look at me!” But you learn much more by looking at what other people are doing. It’s far easier to see mistakes and problems in something someone else has written than in your own work. And it’s easier to see those issues in the efforts of less accomplished writers. George RR Martin and Stephen King make it look easy. You can’t see the mechanics under the hood. But look at the stories written by fellow members of an amateur writing group and you can see their failings front and centre. And then you start to spot those same failings in your own work. At which point you start learning to avoid them.

So the TL:DR is that I learned much more from “bad” writers than from good ones.

TNA: My favourite question to ask is always; if you could go back and tell yourself a few dos and do nots that you wish you’d known at the start of your writing career what would they be? What did you do ‘wrong’ or what was a real waste of time and effort, that could have been better placed elsewhere?

ML: A perfectly reasonable question and one for which I don‘t have good answer. I don’t feel that I wasted any time or that there was much I could have done differently. I guess maybe if I had made an effort to get Prince of Thorns published immediately after I had written it then I might have been seen as standing beside Joe Abercrombie rather than as an “inheritor”, but then again it might have been the success of his books that made my path into print relatively easy, and if I had tried and failed in 2007 I may have just given up.

There are too many imponderables for me to feel that I have any worthwhile advice for the Mark of ten years ago.

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TNA: Now you have a solid readership, how do you maintain it? Do you spend lots of time engaging people on social media? Do you sometimes feel like you’d rather just hide away so you can get stuck into the word count? For me I go through fits and spats of being really creative and wanting to just do art, then other times I really enjoy connecting with people and get carried away doing interviews with superstar authors… How do you find the time to keep your readers engaged between releasing new novels?

ML: I only do social media because I enjoy it. It makes a nice break between chunks of writing. I’m not able to travel, so it gives me the chance to see what readers think of the books I’ve put out. I’m far from certain that social media has real impact on book sales. I know of a number of authors with genuine and larger social media followings than I have and who sell rather few books. People follow them because they are entertaining individuals. People keep buying an author’s books because they are good reads. These are separate things with an unknown degree of overlap but one that is, I suspect, much smaller than most believe.

TNA: I do love the fact that you broadcast if you get a negative review. It’s both refreshing and often quite amusing. Is that a way of coping with negativity? Or is it your way of addressing faults you can identify? I know how painful it can be to hear critics, because as a creative you can pour your heart and soul into something. 

ML: Honestly, it’s more to do with being entertaining. People enjoy it. Nobody following me is going to not read one of my books because someone gave it a 1*. The anger and outrage in some 1* reviews is amusing. It’s publicity.

I’ve never changed anything I do because of a review. I don’t write by committee.

TNA: How do you feel the fantasy genre is moving? We have seen real interest in screen adaptions of Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter; all epic sagas. Even the Hobbit was ‘spread feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread’ across three films. Is it all about the epic? I know you’ve written short stories too, is that something you’d like to do more of and compile into a printed work?

ML: If anyone has an idea of that it’s going to be publishers with their access to sales statistics. As an individual your idea of how things stand is warped by where you hang out. In some forums particular authors or subgenres are made to look central to fantasy, but when you stand back you see quite how small are the ponds in which those fish are swimming.

Dystopian fantasy like The Hunger Games massively outsells George RR Martin who in turn massively outsells all the rest of epic fantasy. Vampire fantasy and paranormal romance massively outsell the kind of fantasy I write. YA fantasy is a far bigger market than fantasy written not for YA.

Short stories are deeply unpopular with modern readers. That doesn’t stop me writing them, but there’s no money in it.

TNA: Thanks for talking to me today Mark. To finish up, what’s coming up for you in the next year?

ML: I guess like every year since 2011 what’s coming up is that I have one new book out!

This year it’s Red Sister at the start of April. You should buy it!

TNA: Thanks again Mark. If you enjoyed this interview and you’d like to stay informed of Industry interviews and much more please sign up to the newsletter in the side bar to your right, and ‘like’ The Noble Artist Facebook page here.

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