A Cause for Celebration

I've been away from the blog a long time. A much longer time than I'm normally away. My last post September 16, 2011. Part of that is because I haven't had much time for writing. For the past five months I've been working on a novel. The first draft began way back in July. July 24th of 2011 to be exact.

Today I typed the last sentence of Thronebreaker's final chapter.

It's a truly bittersweet feeling.

I'm excited because this is the first novel I've completed writing.

I'm sad because I've spent the last five months of my life with Thoros Thronebreaker, Faye Flamekisser, Rhezak, and Khul. Who am I going to spend my time with now? I know that there's editing and revisions to do (a lot of editing and revisions I'll admit), but that's not the same. While writing the first draft I was getting to know these characters. I learned what their personalities are like, what idiosyncrasies they have, what their viewpoints of the world were, etcetera etcetera. Once I start editing I'll refine all those things. I don't feel like there will be more to learn about these characters. Maybe there will be. I don't know.

I had planned on ending the book with an epilogue, but I don't want to pull a George Lucas.

The new year is starting off pretty well. I already have a cause for celebration. I'm also scripting a comic. My first comic script actually. I hope to finish that by the end of this week, or early next week. I'll keep you guys updated on the progress.

There are more posts to come.

Read More

Even Heroes Die

This will be a short post. I may do a more in depth, and more thought out blog in a few days. I just wanted to take a moment to remember one of my heroes.

This author made me fall in love with fantasy after not having read a fantasy novel in 9 years.

This writer made me fall in love with words, and made we want to write my own stories.

This man left behind a legacy that will never be forgotten.

On this day of September in 2007 James Olive Rigney, Jr., otherwise known as Robert Jordan, passed away.

Rest in peace, Mr. Jordan.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.

-Excerpt from chapter one of The Eye of the World

Read More

Words For Writers: Shock Factor

Ursula K. Le Guin must be one of the most brilliant women to ever live. I admire her so much. Not only is she brilliant but she is a prolific writer, whose stories are mind bending and intelligent, and are beautifully written. I don't believe there is a better writer of prose.

At 81 she doesn't publish as much as she once did. She recently released a book of poems. Her last novel was released in 2008. A book by the title of Lavinia. Stephen King included her novel The Lathe of Heaven in his list of 100 Greatest Horror Novels. You can find that list in his book Danse Macabre. Thankfully she regularly updates her blog. It is always an entertaining and enlightening read. Today she posted a blog titled Dangerous Writing, Dangerous Cover Copy. 


She opened the blog by talking about the word "edgy" is the fashionable word to praise books. Another word to go along with edgy is "gritty." Every time I read a review or check out a blurb or listen to someone talk about a newly published book - especially in the fantasy genre - the word gritty and other such words are heaped upon the novel. This is done to appeal to the readers of George R.R. Martin. Dude has built a gigantic fanbase because his books are edgy and gritty. What folks don't understand is that his books are to the fantasy genre that Alan Moore's Watchmen is to comic books. They are a commentary of fantasy, a look or a reflection of the genre.

The last few paragraphs of Ursula's blog killed me. I'm going to copy/past them here. However you should read the entire blog. Click here.

This excerpt from Le Guin's blog is going to knock your socks off. Enjoy!


    But I don’t think Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Bronte, Melville, or Steinbeck were writing to horrify, to shock or frighten or sicken, to sear eyeballs or to wrench guts. They were aware of audience, oh yes indeed, but their intentions were not violent. They were not in assault mode. A writer whose intention is to frighten and distress the reader has a very aggressive program and a very limited goal. Serious writers want to do something beyond asserting power over their audience, beyond self-satisfaction, beyond personal gain — even though they may want all those things very much.


    I think the mystery of art lies in this, that artists’ relationship is essentially with their work — not with power, not with profit, not with themselves, not even with their audience.


    If this is true, a writer’s relationship with readers has no need to be aggressive, exploitive, coercive, or collusive. To writers whose essential relationship is with their work, the shock, distress, and fear their work may cause their readers to feel are means to an end, their only way of saying what they have to say. They will use these dangerous means carefully, sparingly, at need. The effect can be immediate, long-lasting, and profound. It can last several thousand years.

    Writers whose work is not an end in itself but a means to gain fame, power, money, etc., may find that causing shock, fear, digust, etc. are a direct means to that end and can be hugely effective. They use them as a pusher uses drugs. The effect is immediate, brief, and trivial. It lasts until the next best-seller.


    Readers who want no more than to get their jollies from the latest exploitation of the latest shock fad are praised by the blurbs for their courage in daring to read dangerous revelations, but I suspect that they’re just as complacent as the readers of “cozy” fiction — risk-free, knowing exactly to expect.


    Good writers ask for our consent, in fact our participation in their work, our collaboration in its recreation on the stage as we watch it or on the page as we read it. I guess the reason they’re “good” writers is that they’re so good at winning consent and participation from us, persuading us to give them our trust, and rewarding it with something we did not expect.


    That’s quite different from asking us to sit there guzzling another jolt of starbug caffeine while reading a novel in order to have our panic buttons pushed again.


    Trust somebody who’s going to give us something we didn’t expect? But that could be dangerous!


    Never fear. You’re safe. Just trust the cover copy folks. They’re all out there, ready to wrench your guts and serve them up in a presentation of fried eyeballs and fugu in complacency sauce. Bon appétit!


** I can't figure out why the formatting of the blog is turning out so weird. I apologize. I'm not tech savvy enough to fix it. I hope you enjoyed the blog anyway.

Read More

Words for Writers: Writing Goals

Every writer who puts pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, wants to be great. I don't believe people are born great writers. I believe people can become great. Sure some folks are born with more of a knack for composing, but they must fine tune their craft. If they do not they'll have talent that'll become dull like a knife.

Before I sat down to work on this blog I wondered what makes a great writer . . .

Here are a few things that popped into my mind:

~ Creativity

~ A knack for words

~ Desire

~ Discipline

Those are by no means definitive answers. They are necessary to every writer's quest. He should keep those as handy as a carpenter would his hammer. This blog is going to focus on one aspect that makes a writer great.

Goals.

Every writer should have them. I don't think you can write a short story, let alone a novel, without having certain goals in mind. Since July 24th I've been working on a story called Thronebreaker. It's unlikely this story will been seen by the eyes of another reader. Part of Thronebreaker is being written to give me the thrill of writing. Part of Thronebreaker is being written to give me practice. Part of Thronebreaker is to establish the mythology of this fantasy world, and the Otherverse (a dimension that will tie all of my stories together). Since the 24th of July I've written 33,142 words. I've filled 135 pages. Thronebreaker started out as a short story. I had planned for it to be around 25,000 words, and I wanted to submit it to a magazine. It has outgrown that goal, and there is no end in sight. You have to understand, I am no outliner. I hate it. It kills my creativity. I'm a discovery writer. I sit down, start writing, and discover the story along the away. I take a lot of rabbit trails, I write a bunch of boring pages, but I stumble upon things, and they turn into beautiful moments of story. Editing will be a bitch, but will be worth it when I'm reading the final product.

I said all that to get to this . . . Before I made goals for myself I was undisciplined and started four novels that I've never finished. One of them is on my computer still and hadn't been thought about in a year's time. Writing Thronebreaker reminded me of this novel. I opened the document to check and see how many words I had written before I stopped. It was somewhere around 30k words. I vowed to myself that I would not stop writing Thronebreaker at that point. I then vowed that I would finish Thronebreaker. I'm close to finishing the fourth chapter of Thronebreaker, and have seven chapters, plus an epilogue, left to write.

Goals.

The kind of goals you make are up to you. I'll share with you the goals I've made for myself.

4. Word Count

Some writers are adamant about having no word count. They claim that the count gets in the way of the quality of words. There's a little truth to that, but I think it's a stupid belief. You can always go back and improve the quality of the words you've written. One of the most important things for me is getting words on a page. One of the ways I do that is having a specific number of words I want to get on the page that day. Back in July I started out with a goal of 500 words. I hadn't written in a while, because as I've said before I'm a lazy guy, and 500 words didn't intimidate me. Some days I slapped the words on the page in twenty minutes. Other days it took me nearly an hour. After two weeks I upped the count to 700. Two weeks later I raised my goal to 900. I'm now writing 1000 words every morning. On a good day I meet the goal in about thirty minutes. I'll keep writing until 9 a.m., and then go about my day. Other days it's a slug fest and it takes me until 9 a.m. to meet my goal. I usually start writing around 7:30 in the morning. Eventually I would like to stretch myself so that I am writing two thousand words a day.

3. Words

Some of you are seeing where words rank in, and are turning your nose up at my goals. Words are important. You can't tell a story without them. The problem is that sometimes words get in the way of a story. If you want to understand what I'm talking about read nearly anything by Ursula K. Le Guin. That's no slight against her. There is no finer writer of prose. I believe she is overlooked. One, because she's a woman. Two, because she unashamedly writes Science Fiction and Fantasy (unlike Margaret Atwood). Reading The Wizard of Earthsea is always a chore for me. It's so beautifully written I read passages two, three, four times. I'm admiring her prose and have forgotten what's going on with the story. I don't shy away from writing prose that is beautiful to read, but at the same time I do my best not to let it take away from the story I'm writing.

2. Write Everyday

Just before I started working on Thronebreaker I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts The Nerdist. The special guest was Neil Gaiman. Mr. Gaiman is one of my absolute favorite writers. The first book I ever read by him was Anansi Boys. To this day it's one my favorite books I read. I was then led to read American Gods which I enjoyed in an entirely different manner. If you're a writer you must read Neil Gaiman. The man is so brilliant, and such a phenomenal story teller, it pisses me off just a little bit. You should do yourself a favor and download the episode of The Nerdist he was a guest of. He made a comment that scared the day lights out of me, and is the reason I do not fail to write everyday:

If you don't writer everyday you'll never write a novel.

That was a hard pill to swallow. I'm naturally a pretty lazy guy. If I don't have to do something I won't do it. And if there is something that I must do I'll put it off until the last minute, and get it accomplished with haste. That's just the way I am. The above comment lit a fire under me and I wake up every single morning at 7 a.m., and I am writing by 7:30 or 8 o'clock because I'm determined to write and finish a novel.

1. Story

Of the goals I've listed Story is the most important goal of them all. You can't write everyday, put words on paper, or meet a certain count unless you have a compelling story to tell. Stories are why readers read. It's seldom for the words. The fact that Twilight has been guzzled by millions of readers is testimony to the fact that readers read for story. Whether or not Twilight is good story I cannot say, but people - millions of people - picked up a book and read. Kids around the word followed Harry Potter from beginning to end because of a great story. Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, C.S. Lewis, Homer, Dante Alighieri, J.R.R. Tolkien, etc. etc. have been read for years and years because they all told wonderful stories. All other goals pale in the light of telling a great story. Making the story the most important goal gives you the desire to write everyday. Words force themselves on the paper when you have a great story to tell. If the words you write aren't so beautiful at first the great thing is that you can go back and edit. Forget about the words you're writing and tell a story that will make someone pick up a book and read.

These are my goals. Each of these things motivate me to write when I don't feel like it. Over the past month I've wanted to stop working on Thronebreaker, but I've written no matter what. Except Sundays. I take that day off from writing so my mind can rest and refuel. If you have no goals when writing you should take some time, between now and the next time you write, and make some. Who knows what may happen.

Read More

The Help Helped Motivate Me To Blog

I haven't blogged in a while. I've been lazy. I do this often. I won't apologize. I'm not that sorry. ha.

Before I review The Help do know that I've seen a number of movies since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. Here's a rundown of the movies I've seen: Captain America, Cowboys & Aliens, and Crazy Stupid Love. The best of these by far was Crazy Stupid Love. Cowboys and Aliens is the most disappointing movie I've seen all summer. It ruined my whole Saturday. No lie.

Second on the agenda is to welcome a number of new people to the Madhouse. Thanks to everyone who has started following my blog. It's appreciated. Maybe this influx of new followers will motivate me to blog on a more consistent basis, but don't base your life on it. That's one of my charms. You never know what to expect. Here's a few things I can guarantee:

I. I will not blog consistently. This is why my blog will never see as many followers as George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, John Scalzi, or Patrick Rothfuss. Those are four blogs I follow regularly and in my dreams I aspire for the Madhouse to be as cool as their home on the net. You should check those guys out. You won't be sorry.

II. When I do blog it will not be a waste of your time. I don't want you to come here and waste your time. I've been working on a story called Thronebreaker. It's taken a lot of time away from the Madhouse. When I have planned to update the site I've been working on this story instead. Sorry but my personal writing time is more important than updating the Madhouse. This story is pretty important to the mythos of the universe my stories will be taking place. Earth is included in this universe and so are other planets. One named Nardanth. This is the planet Thronebreaker takes place on. All the planets are connected by a realm called the Otherverse. I'm going to stop talking there. A good writer is like a good magician. He doesn't give up all his secrets. In the next few weeks you can expect a single, or maybe a few, blogs on the topic of Writing Goals. I've been thinking about this topic a lot lately. When it's fully percolated in my brain it'll make it's way on here.

Now, on to the movie review . . .

A few weeks ago my wife and I decided to have a weekend get away. We try to get away from Tulsa as often as we can. The last time we did so it was for a vacation to Hawaii. That was how we celebrated our 2 year anniversary. That was back in May. Almost three months have passed since then, and we figured it was time for a pause from our life in Tulsa.

My wife was able to get us a king size room, in a grade A hotel, in OKC for $46. We jumped on the opportunity to get out of town. The icing and cherry on top for my wife is that a new outlet mall has just opened and I'll be spending my day there tomorrow while my wife spends my hard earned cash.

We're hanging out in the hotel now catching up on the latest episode of True Blood. We got into town about 3pm, checked into our badass room, and got ready for a night out on the town. Our night out on the town consisted of dinner and a movie. Unfortunately our dinner choice wasn't the best, and we'll have to redeem ourselves for lunch tomorrow. The movie choice was much better.

From the very first trailers I knew I wanted to see The Help. I'm no discriminators when it comes to movies. If it looks like I'm going to get the bang for my buck I'll go. The Help looked like one of those movies that would give me my money's worth.

The Help is set during the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement. It focuses on three main characters: Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny. Skeeter is a recent grad of Ole Miss and has aspirations of being a big time journalist. Aibileen and Minny both work as help for well off white families. Minny works for Hilly Holbrook the bitchtastic queen of the socialites, and Aibileen works for Elizabeth Leefolt who wants to be Hilly.

I didn't find out that The Help was based on a novel until a few weeks ago. This intrigued me even more. From the opening frames the movie was enjoyable. The help go to their jobs. They work in the white people's homes cooking, cleaning, and taking care of their children. The help are looked down upon. They do not eat with their bosses. They prepare their meals, and if they do eat the meal they prepared they do not eat at the dining room tables. They eat in the kitchen. Alone. Some are not even allowed to use the bathrooms in the houses.

Skeeter is different from the other white people. She enjoys the help. She had a close relationship with a woman who helped her family for years. She raised Skeeter until she went off to Ole Miss. When she comes home from school she finds this woman is no longer working for the family. Skeeter is told that she has woman has moved to live with her family in Chicago.

Soon after arriving in town Skeeter gets a job at the local newspaper writing an advice column on housekeeping. Skeeter knows little about keeping a house so she gets Aibileen to help her. The causes a relationship to bud between the two. As Skeeter grows closer to Aibileen she conceives the idea for a book written from the perspective of the help.

This is where the movie takes off. Some of the stories included in the help you see unfold on screen. Other stories you get to enjoy the telling of from different women. There is one particular scene that takes place that is one of the funniest moments I've ever seen in a movie. I'm not going to tell you anything about it. You'll need to see it for yourself.

The movie is extremely well written. I was taken in from the moment is started. Emma Stone is one of the best actresses coming up in Hollywood. I've enjoyed her since I first saw her in Zombieland. Before finding out much about the upcoming Spider-man I decided I'd see it because she was starring as Gwen Stacey. This is the first movie I've seen her in where she was the flagship actor. I believe one day she could go down as a Julia Roberts. She's a pretty all American girl who's charming, and is a fine actress.

The rest of the cast is fantastic. On many occasions Octavia Spencer (Minny) steals the show. I don't recall seeing her in much, but she is one funny lady. The said scene that is one of the funniest moments ever is one of Octavia's focal scenes. Man, I'm laughing just thinking about it. Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays the part of Hilly, also has many defining moments in the movie. She is one mean lady. Also, who knew Ron Howard could produce such a pretty daughter. There were times, though, when I hated her character regardless of how pretty she is.

My favorite character of the movie was Aibileen played by Viola Davis. She is the hero of the movie. You grow close to the character and you sympathize for her throughout the movie. She's not a weak character. She begins the movie as a timid woman but as she sets out on the trying path of helping Skeeter writer her book she becomes a strong woman. Like Minny, Aibileen has a character defining moment of the movie. It was much different than Minny's but just as satisfying.

My only complaint was the movie's ending. It's a minor complaint. I can't say why I want to complain. It was just bitter sweet, and I expected things to end on more of a high note. This by no means ruins the movie. For myself it was just meh.

All in all I give the movie an A+. It's one of my favorite movies I've seen all summer.

The summer movie season is coming to an end. I've done a pretty good job of reviewing the movies I've seen. There's only two movies I haven't seen that I planned on: Green Lantern and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I don't think I missed out on anything as far as GL goes. I'm sorry that I haven't got to check out Apes yet. I've heard great things. Next week I plan on seeing Conan the Barbarian. It'll be the last movie I see this summer. I'm exited about seeing this movie. Jason Momoa was awesome as Khal Drogo and I think he'll do a great job as one of the most recognized characters of fantasy literature. Personally, I hope he overshadows Arnold's legacy. His movies were good but I don't think they were true to what Robert E. Howard envisioned. We shall see.

Read More

The Year I Graduated From Hogwarts

Okay, the last few days have been really off for me. Usually as soon as I leave the theater, and get home, I sit down to review the movie that I saw. Sunday afternoon I wanted to wait so I could include something in the blog I'm very excited about. I'll get to that in a bit. Yesterday what I wanted to share was online, but I just didn't feel like taking the time to blog. Today I had no motivation. It was one of the most pathetic points in my life. My mornings usually work like this: I take an hour and a half to two hours and work on my novel. I'm currently in the outlining stage. I hate outlining. If I can find an excuse to get out of it. I will. After I work on my novel I take two hours for reading. I'm currently reading George R.R. Martin's "A Dance With Dragons." It's been stellar. Every word this morning seemed dead to me, and I didn't bother reading. I ended up spending my morning in a semi-comatose state starting at Facebook. I'm shamed to admit it. Now, I"m forcing myself to review Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Before I get to the review I must confess a sin, dear reader . . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

I have never read the Harry Potter series. I know. It's terrible. I champion myself as an avid fantasy reader and I've never read the most well known fantasy series of the last decade. I'll get to it eventually. I've obviously seen all the movies, and have enjoyed every single one of them. Up until Sunday my favorite movie of the series was Prisoner of Azkaban. There's no single reason that PoA was my favorite. I just remember being enamored with enjoyment throughout the whole movie. After having seen Deathly Hallows part 2 I must say that it is the best movie of the series. Without argument.

There's a few reasons that this movie is the best.

David Yates did a phenomenal job directing this movie. Mr. Yates has directed the last four Harry Potter movies. This is the best of his work. Having never read the book I can say whether or not he caught the essence of the book, but it felt like it. There was a sense of finality from the beginning. That was important. This film series has been going on for over a decade now, and having that sense of closure was important to me.

From the moment the film began I felt caught up in an epic scheme. I mean, we have arrived at the moment we've been waiting seven movies for. The battle of Harry Potter and Voldemort. Ah, the battle scenes were fantastic. A good portion of the movie was the battle of wizards good and evil. I wanted to grab up a wand, get down in a fox hole with the student, and shoot fire balls at bad guys. The special effects for this movie were on point. I felt as if I were in the midst of a war zone and may need to seek out coverage. Without this epic feel this movie would have crashed and burned.

I think Daniel Radcliffe deserves standing ovations all around. The kid has carried a franchise since he was eleven years old. That's a lot of responsibility. I don't even remember what I was doing at eleven. I was probably gaming it up on Super Nintendo. I sure as hell wouldn't have been starring in any movies. Radcliffe is Harry Potter. Not only that but he's a fine actor. I hope he isn't type cast the rest of his career, or denied parts because he's the world's most famous wizard. Personally I think he would be perfect for a John Lennon biopic. The rest of the cast deserves props as well. Rupert Grint and Emma Watson have been in these shoes as long as Radcliffe, and it's been fun watching them grow and mature on screen. I'll be first in line to see any movie this trio make.

Ya know, while I was sitting in the theater I kept thinking to myself, There's no way I can review this movie and do it the justice it deserves. When it all comes down to it you need to see it for yourself. Honestly, Harry Potter is a series that needs to be watched by one and all. There's a great message behind it, and I think Stephen King summed it up better than anyone.

Harry Potter is about doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend.

I love how he nonchalantly insults the Twilight series all while making a beautiful observation about Potter. But it's true. Today's entertainment is filled with characters of gray. The black and white battle of good and evil is slowly becoming a thing of the past. There are no clear cut heroes nowadays. The antihero is king of the hill. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Things aren't as black and white as they use to be. Slowly everything is fading to gray. It's nice to have a story about a kid, a hero, who stands for what is right, and will stand in the face of evil and do what is right. No matter what the consequences are. Even if it costs him his life.

See Harry Potter! It'll be worth your money.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has dethroned Super 8 to reign as my favorite movie of the Summer.

This weekend my wife and I will be seeing Captain America. I'm pretty excited.

Remember when I referred do something I wanted to talk about. I didn't forget. I hope you didn't either. Another reason you need to see the Harry Potter movie is because the first trailer for The Dark Knight Rises premiered along with it. This is the final Batman movie of Christopher Nolan's trilogy. Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite directors, and his take on Batman is the definitive film series of The Dark Knight. Since the trailer went online I've watched it about six times. I'm obsessive like that. I wanted to share it here on the blog. It's a great teaser. Your fed mysterious information and you get a short glimpse of Bane. Tom Hardy has transformed himself and turned into a monster. This movie is going to be epic. I. CANNOT. WAIT.

Here's the trailer:

Read More

"Oh, You're One of Those"

Yesterday was a big day for the fantasy world. George Rex Rufus Martin's fifth installment of his series A Song of Ice and Fire hit bookstore shelves. If you're not familiar with the series by name you've probably heard of HBO's new series Game of Thrones, which is based on the series of books, and took it's name from the first novel in the series. We, in the fantasy world, have been waiting on A Dance With Dragons for six years. It's been eleven years since we've read from the perspective of Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, and Daenerys Targaryen. Outside of the fantasy genre you don't have authors that write stories in a series. Fans of other genres can't understand or really sympathize with fantasy fans. Authors of other genres most often write stand alone novels, and sometimes write stories focused on characters from another book. The only writer I can think of who's written a sprawling series, and has taken years between books is Stephen King. Between certain books of The Dark Tower series there were six year gaps. Waiting that long to continue the journey with characters you've been relationship with creates anticipation and excitement. It can also be frustrating and saddening at times. The best you can do is re-read the previous novels. The worst you can do is lose hope in the writer, and quit reading the series altogether.

If you've never read George R.R. Martin you have neglected one of the most brilliant writers of our time. Notice that I did not say one of the most brilliant fantasy writers of our time. G.R.R Martin is such a fantastic writer that the New York Times dubbed him many years ago, "The American Tolkien." Personally, I've never been a big fan of Tolkien. Tolkien was an awesome world-builder, wrote beautiful prose, but told boring stories. Now, not everyone feels that way. That's just me talking. The Hobbit is one of my favorite books. It's one of the first fantasy novels I ever read. I have re-read it at least three times. One day when I have children I plan for it to be one of the first books I ever read to them. However, I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy once and vowed to never read it again. It weren't my cup o' tea. Coming back to my point. To only dub Martin as "The American Tolkien" is an injustice:

First, A Song of Ice and Fire and The Lord of the Rings are two different beasts. LOTR is a traditional hero's journey, and probably the prime example of such. Ice and Fire is a complicated story, the world of Westeros is much more brutal than Middle-Earth, it includes thousands of characters, and the most shocking plot twists ever written on the page.

Second, Martin and Tolkien are two different writers, from two different time periods, telling very different stories. As I said, Tolkien was a great world builder but wasn't the best story-teller. Martin has built an interesting world and is telling an engrossing story. Not only is Martin a great story-teller but he's a wonderful writer. I love his prose, his description, his language, and dialogue. He's the best example of fantasy done right.

This brings me to the point of my post. It bothers me that so many people, from the general public to the literary snobs, are so willing to turn their nose to the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre. Now, the general public is much more accepting of the SF&F genre. Literary snobs looks upon it with disdain. The New York Times said this about Martin:

Martin will never win a Pulitzer or a National Book Award, but his skill as a crafter of narrative exceeds that of almost any literary novelist writing today. Throughout the book I was reminded of Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad (which did win a Pulitzer), as well as Anthony Powell's (similarly floridly titled) A Dance to the Music of Time. But even Powell can't twist a plot like Martin. A Dance with Dragons is a big book, topping out at 1,016 pages, but it turns on a dime. Reading a novel is a little like commanding a battle: you're always reconnoitering, trying to guess where the author will go next, what's a feint and where the action is really heading. I don't know when I have ever been as comprehensively and pleasurably outgeneraled as I am when I read Martin. He raises and raises the stakes, long past when any other writer would have walked away from the table, and just when you think he's done, he goes all in. There is, apparently, no piece he will not sacrifice, no character that you (and one suspects, he) love so much that he will not orchestrate that character's doom.

If there's any fantasy novel that would be worthy of the Pulitzer it would be A Game of Thrones or even A Storm of Swords. G.R.R Martin has never said that he wrote the first novel to be reflective of our political landscape. He wrote the book all through the early 90's and A Game of Thrones was released in 1996, the book was written many years before much of what has happened in our government recently, but the situations of the book are so applicable. Of course, A Game of Thrones is loosely based around The War of the Roses.

The sad thing is this: George Martin will never be considered for a Pulitzer Prize or a National Book Award because of the genre he writes in.

Everyone where I work pretty much know that I write, and am aspiring to be a published author. I recently had a conversation with a co-worker that went something like this:

"What kind of novel are you writing?"

"A fantasy."

"Are there people?"

"Yes, but in a fantasy world. On a different planet."

"Oh . . . you're one of those."

With those words my co-worker turned and walked away. I've never really taken any flack for wanting to become a published author. I do, however, get made fun of a good deal for being an avid fantasy reader. It doesn't really bother me. Most people make their comments in good humor, and I can always remind them that geeks rule the world. Other people aren't so good natured. It's something that every fantasy fan and author has to deal with. You can be considered literary because you're not telling stories with that aren't taking place in the "real world," or fantasy authors are good story-tellers but not good writers. The latter comment really irks the shit out of me.

Reading George Martin's writing amazes me how true to life his characters behave. One of the frustrating things about the fantasy genre is that your heroes are honorable and good and the villains are evil and despicable. Basically the world's are black and white and most fantasy was written as such until Martin came along. Westeros is a world of gray. There is no black and white and no character is truly honorable. Eddard Stark does his best to remain honorable in all his decisions, but even his honor causes him to make mistakes. Martin's characters are selfish and they look out for their own tail's. They all want to sit upon, or have a piece of, the Iron Thrones. Whatever it takes to claim that seat let all others be damned. If Martin's story didn't take place in an imaginative world, have occurrences of magic, and allow the existence of fantastic creatures he'd probably be classified as Historical Thriller. His story is that true to life.

One of the worst blanket statements applied to fantasy writers/authors is that they're bad writers. When people make this statement I want to ask them if they've ever read China Mieville, Patrick Rothfuss, Neil Gaiman, or Ursula K. Le Guin (for God's sake!). They haven't and they can continue to make their blanket statement because you'll never see a fantasy writer's name included in a list with: Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Leo Tolstoy, James Joyce, et cetera et cetera. The thing is that some of the best writing I've ever read was written by fantasy writers. Of course I'm biased, but until you read Ursula K. Le Guin you can take your blanket statements and burn them. The lady is scary brilliant and writes words so tasty you want to lick them off of the page.

A Song of Ice and Fire is said to be the fantasy series for people who hate fantasy. I have a friend who wouldn't read any of the fantasy novels I recommended to him. Then one day I pressured him into reading A Game of Thrones. He checked it out and read it at break neck speed. As soon as he finished Thrones he moved on to A Clash of Kings. One day I asked him if Martin changed his opinion about fantasy and he told me while reading these books he was reminded of why he loved fantasy so much as a kid, and if I could recommend fantasy writers as good as Martin he'd be a lifetime fantasy reader. It's a good thing I've spend the better part of 26 years reading nothing but fantasy. Ha!

There are great fantasy writers out there. There are fantasy writers who stand toe to toe with the literary greats. There are fantasy writers who behead the literary greats with the ink of their pen. Will the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre ever have the respect of the literary snobs? No, but it doesn't really matter. I don't think the literary snobs respect a whole lot besides the writers they run in circles with (sniffing one another's butts). The most profitable writer in history is a fantasy writer. Of your Top 25 all time domesting grossing movies 22 of them are either Science Fiction or Fantasy movies. Money's not everything. Check out any Hugo or Nebula award winning Science Fiction and Fantasy author and you will find some of the best writing you've been exposed to.

ADDENDUM: Until you've read Gene Wolfe (!!!) you cannot make the statement that Science Fiction and Fantasy authors are not great writers. Michael Swanwick said of Gene Wolfe, "But among living writers, there is nobody who can even approach Gene Wolfe for brilliance of prose, clarity of thought, and depth in meaning." There is no one as skillful with the unreliable narrator as Gene Wolfe. He must be read.

Read More