Winter is drawing to a close

Some quick news items:

• I finished A Dance with Dragons a couple nights ago, hence the title.  I'm off to join the tent city on George R.R. Martin's front lawn to pester him about the next book.
• I'm about to embark on another Subterranean expedition.  They were doing grab bags again earlier this week and I couldn't help myself.  I'm hoping for Lansdale and Scalzi books, as always.  
• The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett is my current read.  I'm gulping it down pretty quickly as it's a much easier read than the Song of Ice and Fire.
• The current reading plan is to read The Red Country, the Fractal Prince, and the new Babylon Steel book before resuming my regular detective reading.
• It's about time to think about writing again.  Camp NaNoWriMo part 1 is coming up fast!

A Thought About Author Behavior

Since the dawn of time, debate has raged on Goodreads about appropriate author behavior.  I read this blog entry that sums up my thoughts pretty well.

However, there's a flame war going on in the feedback group centering on an author who seems to think people who aren't authors shouldn't criticize author behavior.  Allow me to retort.

Saying people who aren't authors shouldn't criticize author behavior is like saying I can't complain if I find a pubic hair in my chile colorado at my favorite Mexican restaurant because I've never made it at home!  Furthermore, no good can ever come from an author coming down from his holy author mountain to put a reader in his place.

That's all I have to say about that.

The Man With a Keyhole For a Face

My nephew's 1st birthday was yesterday so Brittany and I made the pilgrimage to Holiday Shores.  Jack was in fine form as he amused everyone and demolished his birthday cake.  We got back to her house around dinner time and spend the evening watching such intellectual television shows as Honey Boo-Boo and Gypsy Sisters.  I got home around 11 and fell fast asleep.

This morning, I was thinking about how I didn't even remember getting undressed and didn't move until the alarm went off.  However, my phone still had the notepad app open when I took it from the charger just before leaving the house.  A cryptic note reading The Man With a Keyhole For a Face was on it.

As I drove to work, I started piecing the dream back together.  I was at some kind of creepy dinner party and at the end, a Victorian-era three-piece suit came into the room.  He took off his top hat and I saw that instead of a face, he had a eight-inch keyhole.

There was other creepiness going on but apparently the keyhole for a face was the only thing my dream-addled brain saw fit to typing before I went back to sleep.

Winter is still coming

I've spent much of my spare time in the last two and a half days gorging myself on Clash of Kings.  I'm going to have to alternate Song of Ice and Fire books with other books to put off the wailing and gnashing of teeth once I finally get caught up.

Spacing them out will also give me a chance to read books like The Red Country, The Fractal Prince, and The Daylight War.  I've been waiting a couple years for the Daylight War to finally see print.

On the news, they keep talking about the winter storm that's going to hit the east coast.  I keep thinking about snows forty feet deep and getting disappointed when they say 1-3 feet.

I Mustache You a Question

Just a few quick items:

1. So I was having serious issues with my beard trimmer this morning.  One thing lead to another and now I have a goatee.
2. I noticed I haven't posted any pictures in while.  I'll try to do that tonight.  Most of my recent pictures are of ice, though.
3. They're doing Camp NaNoWriMo in April and July this year, and hopefully so am I.  I just have to figure out what I'm writing before then.  The two month break in between makes it very tempting to try to do both.  With a little luck, my workload will be light and writing won't cut into my Brittany time.
4. Clash of Kings arrives in my mailbox tomorrow and I can't wait to tear into it.
5. I'm already thinking about rereading the Dark Tower books again in 2014.

Winter is Coming

After watching the first season of Game of Thrones over the weekend, I caved in and picked up the first book.  It's safe to say that I'm hooked.  I finished reading A Game of Thrones at lunch and am hard at work composing the review in my head.  Even after watching the first season of the show, it still gripped me pretty hard.

It reminded me more of Pillars of the Earth more than a typical doorstop fantasy novel.  I read an interview where GRRM said he was a big fan of historical fiction.  That's what Game of Thrones felt like.  Only the history was fictitious.

Martin thanks Roger Zelazny in the acknowledgments.  I already knew he and Zelazny were close.  Now I'm wondering if the machinations in Game of Thrones were in any way inspired by the ones of the family in Amber.

Another reason I entitled this post Winter is Coming?  It's supposed to be 8 degrees tonight!

Oh, and I almost forgot.  I saw the hawk again today so I'm bringing my camera to work with me tomorrow.

The Hawk

I was taking a post-lunch stroll around the parking lot when I saw something near the base of one of the light poles around the perimeter.  I thought it was trash at first.  It wasn't.

It was a downed hawk!  I inched closer and closer, all the while wishing I had my camera with me.  I got about ten feet away and the hawk looked me right in the eye.  For a few seconds, we just looked at one another.  I turned and walked away, remembering the scene in the Gunslinger where Roland uses the hawk David to shred Cort's face.  I looked over my shoulder and watched the hawk fly to a nearby low-hanging tree branch.