That would be why I love her

I’m still chuckling about the words that passed my wife’s lips fifteen minutes ago: “I try not to read books that encourage my homicidal tendencies.”

You see, I’ve finally gotten around to getting A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4) from the library and have just started in on it, after re-reading the first three volumes. Steph, on the other hand, read the first book and was thoroughly unimpressed. She said that by the time she was done, there were no characters in the book she liked. I can certainly understand why she feels that way.

Writing lesson for the day: I continue to be in awe of how George R. R. Martin can so thoroughly screw every single one of his characters over in such an impartial fashion, and in the process make you realize how much of your impression of a character is colored by the viewpoints you have of him, and how quickly that impression can change once you learn a few key facts. On my re-read, I watched carefully to see how he accomplished the redemption of one of the characters I most despised until the end of the third book. It was not as effortless as it appeared; he laid down a steady foundation for two books before dropping the final key scene that “suddenly” flipped my impression of this character. Had he not put in that time and effort (and made it look so effortless in the process), I’d not have reacted in the same way.