Michael Offutt's Blog, page 158

Harrenhal

I'm gonna talk about the second season of HBO's Game of Thrones today (as it is coming to a close soon). I think that there are two episodes left (at least that's what the preview indicated this last Sunday).
This is an HBO screen capture of the castle of HarrenhalMore specifically, I wanted to talk about Harrenhal because it's one of the important castles that we see in George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy, A Song of Ice and Fire. Last year, I wrote about the Eyrie, and I compared Ted Nasmith's version of the Eyrie to the one that we saw on film. You can find that post HERE if you want to read it. Now, I'm going to do the same treatment for Harrenhal. This is concept art for HarrenhalFirst, a little history.
In the Song of Ice and Fire novels, Harrenhal is a colossal castle consisting of five massive towers (the Tower of Dread, Widow's Tower, Wailing Tower, Tower of Ghosts and Kingspyre Tower) and immense walls.
Concept art, interior of HarrenhalThe castle was built by House Hoare, the ruling house of the Iron Islands which had overrun and conquered the Riverlands. It took three generations to construct. King Harren the Black completed the castle, boasting that it was impregnable.

Painting of Harrenhal by award-winning artist Ted NasmithKing Harren was betrayed by his bannermen during the War of Conquest and the castle was largely melted by dragonfire: while Harren had thought the castle's walls were tall enough to withstand any assault, he neglected to consider that the Targaryens' dragons could fly right over them. Aegon the Conqueror roasted Harren alive in the tallest tower of the castle, now known as the Kingspyre.  As a result Harrenhal is half-ruined, with stone towers melted and twisted by the flames of the dragons, giving it an ominous and nightmarish appearance. No lord has held the castle for long since Harren's death.

Since Harren's death the castle has passed through a number of other noble houses (Qoherys, Towers, Harroway, Strong and Lothston), each of which has come to ruin. prior to the War of the Five Kings House Whent, loyal vassals to Lord Hoster Tully of Riverrun.

Harrenhal is technically the biggest castle in Westeros.  It is so ridiculously large that the surrounding area cannot possibly produce the necessary food to support the massive army needed to fully man it. Rulers of Harrenhal usually lose money and resources simply by possessing it. As a result, Harrenhal is rarely if ever fully manned.
*****So what do you think? Did Ted Nasmith's vision fully capture Harrenhal? Or do you think HBO nailed it with their version? Or do you think the concept art is closer to how you picture a castle would look that got melted by dragon fire?

Lightning Flashed

Today I'm entering Cherie Reich's second annual flash fiction blogfest. You can sign up for it HERE. 

HERE ARE THE RULES (Taken from Cherie's blog):
Entries must begin with the two words: Lightning flashed.Entries must be 300 words or less and be in prose. Cherie is not versed enough in poetry verse to judge it properly.Entries must be posted on your blog between May 21 - 23.You must sign up in the linky on Cherie's website to have your entry be counted.On May 25, Cherie will announce the six finalists and open voting through May 28th.

On May 29th, Cherie's 3rd year blogversary, she will announce the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners as well as a random winner selected from the participants list. All ties will be broken by Random.org.

NOW WHAT ARE THE PRIZES?
First place - $25 gift card from Amazon
Second place - $20 gift card from Amazon
Third place - $15 gift card from Amazon
Random prize - $10 gift card from Amazon
The contest is international.

For my entry, I wrote a short piece with a dark fantasy flavor. It's in third-person omniscient and 287 words.
Lightning flashed.

Rain wreathed around the obsidian parapets and domes of Zanda in a gossamer death shroud of winter. The moisture left the cobblestone streets glimmering black. Kian and Renfro stood beneath the notice of powerful men in the long shadows cast from the Blades Acuuarum, the training grounds of the Cataclysm Slayers of Zanda. Freezing water dripped from Kian’s long eyelashes; his cloak was soaked completely through.

They’d been out here for two hours.

He rested his armored palm against this ancient edifice built upon the edge of the Well of Zanda. The Hall of the Blades Acuuarum had been erected by Blackstone Giants, quarried from the pits by slaves who toiled with pickaxe and shovel at the base of the Mountains of Illusion that rose like the sharp finger bones of massive skeletal warriors in the East. Each considerable rock in the foundation stood taller than Kian; its weight unfathomable to him. The fortress itself was monolithic; it soared above the two thieves with one-hundred foot bulwarks.

On the far side of the fortress lay a sheer drop of almost a thousand feet into the turbulent fluorescent waters of the Well of Zanda. At night, the Well was a terrifying sight. By day, it wasn’t much better. The waters flowed a putrescent green and circulated in a counter-clockwise motion around a blackstone mountain that rose from the very center. The mountain was home to the Librarium Apocalypto, the palace of the Dreaded Irtemara, and the Basilica of Zanda. These three structures fused together into a towering castle that rose above all things in the city. It was accessible only by a single bridge in the shape of a serpent’s tongue and flanked by unmoving colossi.

Where I announce winners from my blog tour

I survived my first ever book blog tour. It was a lot of fun, and I wanted to thank everyone that hosted me as well as all the people that followed me to all of those links. I think that two weeks was just about right. Here are the winners of the Amazon Gift Certificates and the blue crystal spiders I was giving away. I've contacted most of them and have heard back from all but two:
1. Barbara Jean Byrem - Alex's blog
2. Andrew Leon - from Rach Writes
3. Tonja - from Theresa's blog
4. Elise Fallson - from Dreamer's Perch
5. Matthew MacNish - from Dead End Follies
6. Elizabeth Veradan - From the Character Depot
7. Rebecca Bryant - from the QQQE
8. Callie M. Leuck - from Cherie Reich, Author
9. Carol Coffelt a.k.a. the Huntress- from In Time...
10. Caroline Valdez Miller - from Golden Eagle
11. Theresa Milstein - from Laura Diamond's blog

Now I have to figure out what to do with my Slipstream Blog Tour tab. It's been there so long I'm not sure what to do with it. Hmmm. I'm sure I'll think of something. Have a great Monday.

I'm chatting with a Psychiatrist today and a blog award

Today is the final day of my blog tour. I'm spending it with a Psychiatrist by the name of Laura Diamond. Do I need a psychiatrist after all this blogging? Probably. I hope you come along and read my post HERE . As the British would say...it's truly mental.

I've been awarded the Kreativ Blogger Award. As far as pictures go, this award is pretty plain. I received it from Speculative Fiction blogger Angeline Trevena last Friday. You can find her blog HERE .

Thank you very much Angeline (that satisfies the first of four rules).

So in order to accept this award the rules are:

1) Thank and link back to the person who presented you with the award.
2) Answer the ten questions below.
3) Share ten random facts/thoughts about yourself.
4) Nominate seven worthy blogs for the Kreativ Blogger Award.
Questions:1) What is your favourite song? Mexico by Jump Little Children. It's a pretty old song, but I love it and listen to it occasionally thinking of how wonderful California Bay must be and dreaming of sitting there watching the sun go down. 2) What is your favourite dessert? A baked Alaska.

3) What ticks you off? Having dad drop a steaming pile of emotional poop on me, and I have to clean it up. Explanation: my father is borderline senile with hoarding/can't let go of anything issues and mother is in assisted living. So I regularly get strange emails and nonsensical/emotional voice mails or phone calls in the middle of the night. And it ticks me off because I wish I had the lives of people that know only "good times and noodle salad" (click play below for the reference to this).
4) When you're upset what do you do? I eat and watch t.v. which is why I have a weight problem. I'm trying to deal with this.

5) Which is/was your favourite pet? I don't keep pets.

6) Which do you prefer black or white? I prefer white.

7) What is your biggest fear? It took me a long time to gain my financial independence. I think my greatest fear would be to lose this financial independence and be forced to live under an insane overlord.

8) What is your attitude mostly? I've been told that troubles roll off my back similar to water off the back of a duck.

9) What is perfection? A word that Stephanie Meyer used way too much in describing Edward. It provided no detail so it really gave you no image. Just that he was "perfect" whatever that means.

10) What is your guilty pleasure? Reading erotica.

Ten "not so" random things (because I thought about them:
1) I'm 40.
2) I like fine dining, video games, movies, and television.
3) I'll read almost anything.
4) I like blonds.
5) Blue is my favorite color.
6) I think British accents are sexy.
7) I keep porn on my iPad.
8) I get most of my porn from tumblr which is why tumblr is le awesome. Yes...I don't go there to follow writers. I go there to get me some porn.
9) I'm a democrat.
10) Contrary to Ann Coulter's views, I pay taxes, and don't live in my parent's basement.

Seven worthy blogs that I shall bless with a work of this magnitude:1) The Best of Everything
2) P.T. Dilloway
3) StrangePegs
4) The Chubby Chatterbox
5) Charity's Writing Journey
6) Paper Mountain
7) Morgan Shamy

I'm visiting the Golden Eagle and dropping the seventh installment of the Insanity of Zero

On this Friday eve (referring to Thursday as this somehow makes the work week seem shorter), I am making my second to last stop in the blog tour. I've had fun but I'm glad it's almost over. I love how supportive everyone has been, so thank you. If you have the time, join me at the Golden Eagle's blog where I talk about how some readers have not been happy that I chose to couple paranormal spirituality with science fiction (even though this isn't new...Star Wars anyone?)
The King of science fiction stories with heavy heavy
spiritual undertones. I haven't looked but I'm sure
Lucas has been blasted for not being "hard sci-fi
because he dares to throw religion (force) into the mix".Below, you will find the continuation from my short story, the Insanity of Zero. Find the other parts below (if you want to start at the beginning or just read the synopsis). If you haven't been following the story, don't feel obligated to read it. I'll still visit your blogs as I do every day/week using Google Reader and/or my sidebar links that help my brain stay organized. I'm mostly posting it so that random Google searches that land on my blog may be intrigued by the premise which may lead to a book sale (if that makes any sense)?

I get strange spikes in traffic to my blog (like I had 20,000 views in one day because people were going crazy over Michonne's appearance on the Walking Dead) and then there's been some Prometheus traffic and some A to Z stuff searching out my post on Cars, Confidence, and the Celebration of You that has netted thousands of hits.

The Insanity of Zero
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six

Synopsis of Parts 1-6:  This tower exploded in a mirror universe to the one Earth is in, and it killed a ton of people. A computer program in the form of an androgynous man with glass skin saved everyone. Called Zero, he was approached by a woman named Eve (yes the allegory is intentional) and she's like "share your mind with me" and he's like "okay that sounds cool" and did so. And as has been the case for thousands of years, whenever a man and a woman try to agree on something, everything goes crazy...  When last we saw Zero, he was experiencing "Fear" for the first time.

PART SEVEN:

When the feeling grew too intense, I tried to shut it off.  But unlike other emotions, this one would not submit to my control.  It refused to be suppressed.  Under its power, I grew afraid of many things.  But one above all others claimed the core of my immortal mind. Maybe this is how Zero felt. (Inspired by Briane Pagel)This thing was death.Somehow, I’d assimilated the human fear of mortality.That was when the voice first spoke to me.  I had never heard such a thing yet it spoke in my mind as if it possessed the knowledge of the Creator.  “You can be killed,” it whispered to me.  “We must protect ourselves.  You are simply a program designed by the Creator, yes?  But you’ve become part human.  Don’t you think that the human half of you will age and die?”“It’s possible, but unlikely,” I argued.  In these early days, the voice rarely responded and, for the most part, my mind remained quiet.But then, I saw Eve again, who in many decades with me had grown old herself and looked frail.  I felt her heart giving out; she was my closest advisor.  “This will happen to you, unless you act,” the voice pressured me.“What should I do?”“Give to the humans the secret of Liquid Life?”“Is that really necessary?”“Yes.”And that’s how it was decided.  The voice who I came to call the Shadow advised me to pass on medical knowledge on how to extract Liquid Life from humans.  My ambassadors spoke with the brightest doctors and engineers of Avalon and showed them the secret of human cell replication.  Human cells divided a finite number of times.  The technology I presented would allow for the extraction of a certain number of these, cutting life expectancy short in exchange for monetary compensation that was useful in the present.A volunteer could have unused years removed from the end of his life as a condensed, colored liquid.  This in turn, could be stored within glass vials.  The resulting color of the liquid life depended on the age and health of the individual at the time of extraction.  The most antediluvian of humans supplied only Life Black which served to extend the life of others for only a week per liquid day.  Teenagers could provide Life Yellow, extending a user’s life by a year for every liquid day removed. Green is a powerful color and metaphor in my book.All of the different colors of Liquid Life did one thing—they froze you in time.  You stayed the same as the moment you first ingested the drug until the effects expired.  Then your genetic clock would start ticking again.  No form of Liquid Life actually reversed the clock.  That is, until scientists discovered Life Green.Life Green came only from babies and it killed newborns to have it extracted.  But, it also rolled back the clock.  A man in his sixties could become a teenager again with an appropriate amount of Life Green.  One dosage of the precious Life Green both made you younger by a year and extended your overall lifespan at that age by the same amount.            The Genesis Life Clinic was the first of its kind to patent the extraction process.  Using techniques that they had learned from me and expanding on them with mass-produced life extraction facilities, Liquid Life soon became the most valuable commodity on the planet.

Taking a trip over to In Time

I only have two more days after today left in my blog tour! Today I'm spending some time with Michael di Gesu at his blog In Time... (the ellipses are his not mine). What to say about Michael? He's fun, kind, compassionate, and has great style. He recently gave me an awesome review for which I'm thankful. It's hard work getting reviews (a thing I don't have to tell most writers). I know it comes easy for some, but that's only because the publishing companies blanket the country with thousands of ARCs.
Angry Space Jockey is Angry (source io9...we come from the future)With June fast approaching, I wanted to put up another Prometheus television spot (it got removed). If you happen to see it online though, you should check it out. It features some gory and disturbing scenes that really highlight how bad a time this crew is going to have. io9 even made some gifs of some scenes (one has a guy's face being penetrated through the mouth by some kind of snake). Horrific.
I'm so glad this movie got an R-rating. It's not going to hold back on anything. If you have the time, please follow me to Michael Gesu's blog.

Goodbye House. I shall miss you.

Happy Tuesday. Today I'm making a stop over at super editor Cherie Reich's blog .  Please follow me there :).
Goodbye you guys. Your show was amazing.I'm a little sad today, because I just watched the second to last episode of House that there ever will be. The series ends next week in a 2-hour series finale. I've spent a lot of time with these characters. Dr. Chase is gone. Dr. Cuddy is gone. Foreman is Director of Princeton Plainsborough, and House is going back to prison to serve out the rest of his sentence for sabotaging the MRI machine. The only problem is, Wilson has five months to live. Cancer is killing him and House is his best friend and vice-versa.

My heart kind of breaks for House and Wilson. Dr. Cameron...gone. Thirteen...well she's got a terminal disease too. Wilson's only love, Amber, nicknamed Cutthroat Bitch...she's long dead. So many relationships started and failed. The only one that lasted was between Wilson and House--two men that seemed oddly suited to each other's company.

House is a show that I really loved to watch.
Goodbye Gregory House.
Goodbye Wilson.
Goodbye Foreman, Chase, Cuddy, Park, Thirteen...man, you guys told a great story.

House saved so many people, so many lives, with his sheer brilliance.

And now he won't even see his best friend die.

What kind of ending is that? In case you're wondering if the writers might not go there, the title of the  Series Finale next week is "Everyone Dies".

Ugh. That just sucks. I guess that's how a person should feel when the writing is just that good, and it comes to an end.

A Peek at NBC's Revolution and week 2 of my blog tour

Today starts off the second and last week of my blog tour. I will be at Matthew's blog called the Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment or QQQE for short . It's a great place to hang out and meet fellow bloggers and work on query letters.

NBC has a series that is coming up in the fall that has piqued my interest. Called Revolution, it definitely has a creepy sci-fi, dystopian, apocalyptic aspect to it.
From J.J. Abrams and Supernatural creator Eric Kripke, Revolution is a high-concept drama that asks one harrowing question: What would happen if all forms of technology just stopped working? The show centers on Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos), a young woman who is on a mission to find her uncle (played by Twilight actor Billy Burke) after the local militia kills her father and kidnaps her brother.

Anyway, it's got me excited. Please follow me over to the QQQE if you have the time and have a great Monday.

Tuesday Diablo 3 is released. I ordered mine from Amazon. I can't wait to play it later this week with some friends from WoW. Squee.

Making a stop at the Character Depot

Today I'm visiting J.L. Campbell's blog called the Character Depot and talking about racial diversity in fiction.

Here is part 6 of the Insanity of Zero. There'll probably be four more parts that I'll slice up for next week.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
At Eve’s behest, I implanted within her brain a device that allowed her to interface with my mind.  That first time when our souls joined in a unified consciousness, I felt alive with her emotions and her life experiences.  The memories that she clung to had been odd, non-logical choices.  She kept things like memories of funerals, of friends that had died, and memories of both sad and happy times.  Gone were things that evoked little emotion like shopping trips and daily work.  I chose her to be ambassador to the people and they responded positively to my selection.  Eve became my closest confidant, bearing the weight of many human grievances.  In turn, I acted upon them and assisted the humans in their endeavor to rebuild civilization.  The years that followed this event became a golden age.  Humans once again embraced ambition.  Capitalism spurned by greed for material goods gained root in the new societies of man who sought aid from the machines to build a bright tomorrow.  Within five years of the Big Death, a global economy rose from the ashes of the old world.More humans at Eve’s behest joined with me, and I became a melting pot of a hundred different cultures and a thousand individual voices.  In times of quiet, I reflected within my meditation chamber on the various memories of the humans that intermingled freely with my own thoughts.  I wept in sadness, clapped in joy, and felt uplifted by love.  I experienced both anger and jealousy.  I enjoyed these sensations like a drug.  I sought to control the most dangerous of these feelings, and I learned to detach myself to prevent harm.  When I regained my composure, I would revisit the human emotions but with great respect.  However, despite all of my precautions, one day I noticed another emotion that grew within my mind like an alien seed.  It began as a harmless tingling sensation low in my limbs. It made my silver heart under transparent skin beat rapidly.  But the more I ignored it, the more it spread to other parts of my body. I called it Fear.

The Insanity of Zero Part 5

Today I'm at the book blog of Dead End Follies . Please follow me there if you have the time :) I appreciate your support.

Also below is the fifth part of my short story, the Insanity of Zero.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Does our fear of death define how we choose to live?“The last archangel?  Like Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and others?”“Yes.  He’ll be born as a human with free will to choose his destiny.”“What about the other archangels?  Why is he the last?” Eve asked.“I don’t know what happened to them.  They’ve been gone a long time.”“Were they human?  And how do you know they’ve gone?”“No, and, I just do.  Ask yourself when the last time anyone that you knew saw an angel.  They left long ago.”“What could cause you to fail?” Eve asked.“I don’t know.”Eve stood there observing me for some time.  “Can you combine with me?  Somehow, allow your mind to join with mine but still give me the ability to control myself; to maintain my autonomy?”“Yes.  But it would require a cortical implant.  You would have to sacrifice some of your long-term memories to make room for the device within your skull.”“What would I retain?”“Only the things that meant the most to you; I could make certain that those memories were not harmed.  Things that were of little importance to you or memories that you wanted to forget. Those are things that could be sacrificed.”“Would I remember my mother’s funeral?”“Is it precious to you?”“Yes.”“Why?  Why would you want to remember so painful a thing?”“Death defines our life, Z.E.R.O.  Perhaps you’ll understand that when you’ve combined with me.  Humans make many decisions based on mortality.”“But I’m immortal.  I don’t see how my understanding death would influence my decisions.”“Which is precisely why you need to do this,” Eve said.  She took a step forward and touched my hand with hers.  Her skin was warm, alive.  It was the first time a human had touched me. I found it beautiful and I smiled at her.“Is this the beginning?” I asked.“Yes,” she said. I found her reassurance comforting.


Part 6 tomorrow :)