ConCarolinas 2014 Recap

Run down of my ConCarolinas 2014 experience. Check out the website to see what they are all about and what is coming up in 2015.

cool logo created for 2014 by Rich Molinelli

I attended as an editor guest...here it comes...shameless plug...representing Devil in the Details Editing Services. 

My first panel, Start to Finish, was on Friday. I had no idea what it was about when I walked in. But I'm a fast learner. It was about writing a book and all the steps involved. There were 6 or 7 panelists and I was the only editor guest. Didn't get a chance to talk much, but I did throw in a useful comment or two and had some self pub authors ask for my card. So WINNING!

 We stuffed 220 packages of swag for the Beast Claws Street Team! We did not pack pizza, sorry.

That evening I went to the Faith Hunter, go read her books, Beast Claws swag packing party. I met lots of new and old claw mates. Faith was kind enough to buy us pizza. She is such a wonderful and elegant lady and appreciative of her fans.

Saturday I didn't have any panels so I hobnobbed around meeting all sorts of characters. This is the best thing about ConCarolinas, hobnobbing. I got to meet author of the Light Mage Wars Series Nancy Northcott too! She attended with her son (they live in the area). It was so nice to meet her face to face and talk. I hope to see her next time I am in Charlotte (waves at Nancy!)

Nancy Northcott, go read her books, and Roy Mauristen, go read his book (showing off his two books Shards of the Glass Slipper: Queen Cinder and Shards Of The Glass Slipper: Queen Alice Book two

James R Tuck being awesome as usual, go read his books, and I got to meet C. L. Wilson! Fabulous lady, go read her books.

I sat in on some cool panels, went to the costume contest and the charity auction. I Smell Sheep teamed up with Faith Hunter to auction off a whole signed set of Jane Yellowrock books and the vampire tree I made at Christmas. I also bought something! A complete set of 1974 original Rocky Horror Picture Show trading cards!!! Oh yeah baby! I won't admit to how much I paid <G> but it was for The NC Rescue Dog Association so I can still sleep with my self.

Here are some of the people Baaart met

 ERMERGERD! The Krampus was my favorite and the mechanical dude won first place.

 Curse you Red Barron!

It isn't a con unless the Star Fleet is there.

 Beam me up!

At night is when things got interesting. There was the very popular sex scene writing panel late that night. They carded you going in! It was a lot of fun and there were three crazy erotic authors: Alexandra Christian, Marcia Colette and Crymsyn Hart (go buy their books!) as well as CL Wilson and James Tuck. 

What is that they have? Moving on...

When it was over I ran into the brilliant comic artists/writers Bo Fader, Brockton McKinney and Tommy Lee Edwards (go buy their sh**), who along with Fried PIckle Noir author J.R. Mounts, had the funniest panel of the day talking about comic stuff. They drained a whole bottle of alcohol by the end of the panel. I hung out with the three outside for a bit and learned about baby skeleton legs.

Then I went to play Cards Against Humanity for the first time with some of the people from the sex panel. There were about 10 of us and there was alcohol involved. About 2 a.m. a bunch of us got hungry and hit the local Waffle House (there was a designated driver because we are responsible nerds). The place was packed! And three cops were stationed inside. Oh yeah. I got back to my room around 3 am.

Sunday I had two panels. One on social media with the fabulous Gail Z Martin (you guessed it! go buy her books) who knows a lot about the subject. I learned some stuff too. I even got a compliment on how I Smell Sheep interviews :) The other panel was Agents and Editors. That one was packed and I got to sit next to Faith Hunter on the panel! I felt so important. I was the only freelance editor. I think I made a contribution to the talk. I had many self pub authors ask me for my card so WINNING!

Oh, wait! George RR Martin was there! I only got to see him at the opening ceremonies because OMG the lines were long! He was funny and cheeky. I like the guy.

I think that about covers it all, and that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I am putting together a swag pack from the con but running a bit behind! Will get it up soon

Sheep Comic Review: A Game of Thrones Issue #1

A Game of Thrones Issue: Book One of a Song of Ice and Fire #1 graphic novel
Cover: Alex Ross (main), Mike Miller (1-in-10)
Writer: George R.R. Martin, Daniel Abraham
Artist: Tommy Patterson
Genre: Fantasy
Publication Date: Sept 2011
Format: Comic Book
Page Count: 32 pages


George R.R. Martin has been called "the American Tolkien" by Time Magazine, and now his landmark fantasy series is being adapted to a graphic format, starting with the first book of the series: A Game of Thrones. The premiere issue introduces readers to George's world, adapting the prologue and first three chapters of the novel, and bringing onto the graphic stage such iconic characters as Eddard and Catelyn Stark, Jon Snow, young Bran Stark, and Daenerys Targaryen. This novel has also been adapted as a major miniseries by HBO - with HBO's highest ratings to date, since having premiered on April 17, 2011!

Holy comic book orgasm! I went back to the comic book store and picked up some more comics with hot guys on the cover, 'cause that’s how I roll, and I saw A Game of Thrones with a sword wielding sexy warrior surrounded by direwolves. Now, I have never read the books (have you seen the size of them?) (Kalpar: Wimp! Wiiiimp! I read all of them, check the records!) or watched the HBO show (don’t have HBO) so I thought this would be a quick and easy way see what all the fuss is about.

Issue #1 covers the first three chapters of the novel A Game of Thrones and we are introduced to three storylines. In the first one we meet a band of warriors from The Wall looking for Wilding raiders. However these warriors are attacked by a group of malevolent phantoms who slaughter their leader, who then appears to come back from the dead. Next we meet Lord Ned Stark and his sons as he executes a deserter from the Wall. On their way home they find a dead Direwolf and her five pups, which is odd because Direwolves haven’t been seen this side of The Wall in over 200 years. Since the Direwolf is the emblem of House Stark, Lord Stark lets his sons keep the pups. At their home Ned and his wife Catelyn discuss preparing for the arrival of their old friend Robert Baratheon, now king, who is coming to visit with his entourage. Last we meet Viserys Targaryen and his beautiful sister Daenerys, heirs to the throne that Robert currently holds. Viserys has sold his sister to the barbarian Khal Drogo in a plan to take back the lands that were taken from his family so long ago by the Starks and Baratheons.

I can’t remember the last time a comic book sucked me in so quickly and had me wanting the next issue so bad. It is hard to imagine the talent it took to condense three chapters of such a complex story into 32 pages. Of course having vivid and absolutely stunning artwork helped.

In my opinion, this comic book had it all. I found myself re-reading it multiple times and immersing myself in the fantasy world depicted in the detailed art. I definitely got my money’s worth from it and will continue to do so as I will flip through it many more times. All my fellow romance fans will appreciate the smexy sword-wielding men, especially Khal Drogo. You meet him at the very end and he screams romance hero (sorry to all the A Game of Throne Nerds, but he is hot!)

5 impressed Sheep!

SharonS (edit and snark by Kalpar)

***Game of Thrones season two starts Sunday, April 1st on HBO***

A Dance With Dragons: Volume Five of A Song of Ice and Fire

Hokay, so as my two readers know, I have been working through Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and the newest book, A Dance With Dragons came out on July 12th. Yeah, I know I said the 21st, that was my fault and I'm sorry this review is basically a month late. However I would like to give my thoughts on the book since I managed to finish it. Oh, warning, this kind of contains spoilers in my analysis so you've been forewarned.

Like all of Martin's books the writing is very good and keeps me interested. The plot advances, granted at a slow pace, but at an appropriate level for the detail of this series. For those of you that love Danerys, Jon, Tyrion and Theon, you're in for a treat because the book focuses mostly on those four. It's a little confusing at first because this book begins chronologically at the same time as A Feast For Crows. I had to get used to the fact that some events that I already knew about hadn't happened yet. Eventually Dance With Dragons catches up with volume four and moves the overall plot a little further, but honestly not by much. Most of this book is playing catch-up with the other characters that got left out of the last book. However, I do appreciate it because some of my favorite characters, like Tyrion, Jon, and Davos got left out of Feast For Crows so it's good to catch up with them again.

However, I do have some complaints and concerns about the book and the series as a whole. Specifically with this book I am frustrated that Davos got three chapters and Bran got two or three. Now Davos is one of my favorites because he's an honest guy, seriously he's employed for that reason. Stannis relies on Davos to give his honest opinion every time. Davos doesn't say what the king wants to hear or what the king should hear, but tells Stannis how things actually are. I really like him for that and think he's one of the best characters in the series. However, Davos gets three chapters, thankfully doesn't die, but just starts doing interesting stuff and then disappears off the face of the earth. I wanted to know what happens with him! He was doing a really important mission! Graaaaah.

It's sort of similar with Bran, he gets two, maybe three chapter in the entire book. (Sorry I don't recall the exact number, I know it's at least two but not much more beyond that.) Now you might be thinking "At least he makes an appearance, right? He's not missing." Well, yes, but it's hard for me not to consider him to his sister, Arya. Both of them are going through a type of training. Bran to be a greenseer, Arya to be one of the Faceless Men. This is all well and fine, except Arya gets two chapters in this book as well. Now you may be wondering, "But Kalpar, if they have sort of similar stories and have the same number of chapters, why are you complaining?" And I would say, that's a very good question, dear reader. The issue I have is that Arya got somewhere around four or five chapters in the previous book as well, while Bran had none. This means that overall, I've seen Arya develop more than I've seen Bran develop in two books that started as one. I can't help but feel that Bran, and to an extent certain other characters are being neglected.

This brings me to my overall concern for the series as a whole, which is I'm worried that it's getting too big to be managed. For comparison let's look at the first book, A Game of Thrones, the number of point-of-view characters was eight: Ned, Catelyn, Sansa, Bran, Arya, Jon (All Starks), Danerys Targeryn and Tyrion Lannister. (I'm pretty sure I'm not forgetting anyone) For an eight hundred page book, everyone gets about a hundred pages on average (although this wasn't the case in fact) but it allows a fair amount of development for the plots. However, by the end of book five the number has increased to include Davos Seaworth, Theon and Asha Greyjoy, Cersei and Jaime Lannister, Brienne of Tarth, and numerous other characters that serve as viewpoint characters for maybe one chapter, sometimes more. And while the books have increased in overall length, we're not getting 100 pages per character anymore.

Basically I'm worried that the series is getting too big to be managed properly and give everyone good character development. Like I said, a lot of the book focuses on four characters, and everyone else gets a handful of chapters at best. If Martin really is planning on keeping everyone together in the next book, Winds of Winter then he's going to have the following plots to keep track of:

1. Bran's Training in the North
2. Conflict at the Wall
3. Davos's Mission
4. Stannis's War in the North
5. Littlefinger in the Vale
6. Jamie and Brienne's Quest
7. Cersei in King's Landing
8. Samwell's Training at Oldtown
9. The Ironmen Raiders
   
10. The Golden Company in Westeros
11. The Dornish Characters
12. Arya's Training in Braavos
13. Tyrion and the War in Slavers Bay
14. Danerys and her dragons.

See, that's at least fourteen plots going on at once, and we might get more before the book is finished. If Martin is continuing with his plan for his series, we have only two more books to go with the series. Yet I have this feeling that the conflicts keep proliferating and we're nowhere close to a denouement for the series as a whole. I guess I'll have to wait for the next book to come out, hopefully not five years, to see what happens to the series overall.

Now, the book alone I liked a lot and I'll give it four sheep because it's as good as many of its siblings in the series, but I'm worried about where the series is going overall.

BAK

Adventurer's Rule #17: Never borrow money you can't repay.

A Feast for Crows: Volume Four of A Song of Ice and Fire

Now I'm sure my two readers are thinking "He seems to be rushing to get all these Song of Ice and Fire books out of the way." Truth is, yes I am trying to get them out of the way because the new one, Dance with Dragons, comes out tomorrow, July 21st. Edit: I recently realized the book came out on the 12th and I mixed the day up. So we'll just pretend I'm competent and move on. So I wanted to pretend I was the slightest bit professional and get this done. Then there's the Deadpool comic and Captain America, not to mention that incident with the Tribbles, throne this has been a busy week. Hm? What's my opinion on Feast for Crows? Oh right, the review!

Quite frankly, if you haven't started reading A Song of Ice and Fire, you're not just going to pick up A Feast For Crows. You know how with some series there's always a brief explanation of characters and setting and history so people can jump in pretty much anywhere they please? Yeah, it's not really the case with this novel. On the one hand, it means people who haven't started reading the series have to go back to the very beginning. On the other hand, it means we don't have that chapter where we meet the characters for the fiftieth time. If you've ever read the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew you know what I mean. Always that chapter where we learn about the Hardy Boys and their father the detective and their crazy aunt and their fat friend. Sorry, I'm digressing again. Ultimate point was if you aren't here in the series yet, you're not going to be reading this book.

Originally Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons were going to be one book. How Martin's books are set up is each chapter follows a specific character, Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, Davos Seaworth, so on and so forth. As Martin was writing this book he realized it was getting too big and he had to cut it in half. And I have to admit, it kind of shows in this book. The first half of the book has the pseudo-Viking ironmen raiders being major characters but suddenly they drop off the radar and the book shifts focus to the people in Dorne to the south. Occasionally Sansa Stark and Samwell Tarly shown up too, but the meat of the book gets taken by three characters: Jamie and Cersei Lannister and Brienne of Tarth.

To be honest, Brienne's chapters were my least favorite. I don't know what it is, I just have a really hard time caring about her character. I was thinking I was going to hate the Cersei chapters because I hate her so much, but they ended up being some of my favorites. Watching Cersei surround herself with incompetent advisers and thinking she has everything well in hand just made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I just love seeing her tear the realm apart with her own incompetence, something she richly deserves. (Sorry kind of a spoiler) Jamie provides a nice contrast as his character continues to develop and I think it's interesting how these twins are starting to really grow apart. Meanwhile Samwell Tarly, everyone's favorite self-proclaimed craven, is being shipped of to become a maester. Most of his chapters are about his troubles getting to Oldtown, but his character shows promise. Also the Arya plot finally takes off.

Sorry, I guess I should explain myself a little about the Arya thing. Arya's a pretty cool character and I like seeing great things from her. Heck, I expect as much from Ned Stark's daughter. The problem is for the last two books Arya's just been kind of drifting from one location to the other with no real plan. Perhaps more frustratingly for me she kept getting captured. It's really frustrating to see her be basically a piece of luggage shifted from one group of men to another because that's really not fair to her character. But in Feast For Crows the Arya plot finally goes somewhere and she has more of a purpose now. I'm finally looking forward to more about her.

While this book isn't the greatest, the plots are pretty good. True most of my favorite characters like Jon, Tyrion, Davos, and Danerys aren't in the book, but most of the characters still in the book are pretty good to read about. Really it just gives me high hopes for Dance With Dragons which comes out tomorrow. I'd say about four sheep because it's still good, just not my favorite.

BAK

Adventurer's Rule #26: Even if it isn't socially acceptable to punch bards, sometimes they deserved getting punched.

A Storm of Swords: Volume Three of A Song of Ice and Fire

Okay, so as my two readers are probably sick of hearing, I am working through the A Song of Ice and Fire books by George RR Martin. And you're probably tired of this being the only news from me. Well the new book A Dance with Dragons is supposed to come out on the 21st this month so, tough cookies. I'm going to get this series finished by then and you can just deal with it. Why? Because I'm the reviewer and you both are the readers, that's why! I'm sure the two of you have more interesting things to do so I'll just ramble to myself for the rest of the review until I realize I should be doing something useful.

Okay, if anyone's still reading at this point, I think I'm just going to avoid talking about the plot as much as possible. The main problem is that there are so many spoilers that go on with so many different changes and surprises and murders, oh dear yes lots of murder. Really to try and talk about the book without spoiling would be nearly impossible. So I'm just going to talk about the book as a whole rather than delving into the plot. I know this is kind of a difference from my other reviews because this book series is very plot-driven so to ignore the plot is almost criminal of me. If you're going to read the book the plot is too good to spoil for you now, and if you already read the book then you know the plot and I don't need to discuss it here! So we'll pretend that's an adequate response and I'll just move on to my opinions of the book.

Quite frankly, Storm of Swords is my favorite book in the series by far. There are huge epic battle scenes where awesome people do awesome things. Davos Seaworth has some truly epic scenes, not so much battles as it is political and social intrigue, which cement him as my favorite character by far. Jon Snow does some epic stuff up north, Sansa Stark finally grows a spine, the Arya Stark plot finally moves forward, Danerys starts being awesome and we start seeing Jamie Lannister stop being such a jerk. (Sorry, I guess I ended up talking a little about the plot anyway.) The sheer amount of character development that goes into this book is just wonderful. And the awesome battles are pretty good too.

Okay, okay, there's smut in this book too. I've kind of accepted it's part of these books except for once the smut actually works in the book. It's not just "oh by the way they're having sex right now" it's smut relevant to the plot. Finally I wasn't really bugged by the smut because it was woven seamlessly into the plot rather than being some sort of extra. For that I am thankful and I hope it remains this way in the future.

As you can probably guess, I really liked this book and hope the rest of the series meet its standard. Very easily earns itself five sheep.

BAK

A Clash of Kings, Volume two of A Song of Ice of Fire

As my two readers probably remember, about a month ago I reviewed the first book of A Song of Ice and Fire, A Game of Thrones. Now as I mentioned in my review and in my brief interview with Following the Nerd, I really liked this series from George R.R. Martin. As I mentioned in my other review, the plot builds over a very long period of time, as the nerds called it a "slow-burner". We've got dozens of characters hundreds of miles apart working on different goals with about three or four different plots working at once. Sometimes with a book this complex it becomes a challenge to keep the plots and characters straight, much less interesting, but Martin really makes it work. His masterful storytelling continues to get me emotionally invested in the characters and eager to find out what happens next. Definitely a must-read for fans of epic fantasy. Before I continue I want to make a couple other points about this. Obviously with plots this intricate you have to start from the beginning of the series. I know in some other series you can pick up in the middle no problem, this is definitely not the case. Second, when I talk about the plot you're probably going to have to skip ahead if you haven't read A Game of Thrones yet because I really cannot avoid spoilers. I wish I could, but as I mentioned the ongoing plot is central to the book so, sacrifices must be made.

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD! Scroll on ahead for the rest of the review.

Okay, so since the death of King Robert Baratheon, no less than four men have sought the title of king in Westeros. On the Iron Throne in King's Landing, the boy king Joffrey continues to be an absolute jerk that I just want to strangle so thoroughly. Oh my god I just love to hate this guy, forcing men to fight to the death, firing crossbows into peasants for fun, this guy's a great villain. However, both of Joffrey's paternal "uncles" have sought the throne for themselves. On the island keep of Dragonstone Stannis Baratheon, brother of the late King Robert, has become the King in the Narrow Sea. He has the power of a new god and a new religion on his side which he hopes will let him subdue the usurper kings. Crowning yourself seems to be a family trait in the Baratheon family, because Stannis's younger brother Renly has also declared himself king. Renly's far more decadent, creating a new order of knighthood with the mounted knights of Highgarden in his army. The war in the south turns into a family bloodfeud, but this doesn't mean there's nothing going on in the north. Robb Stark, the Young Wolf, has been declared King in the North by his bannermen and remains a grave danger to Lannister power. As the realm begins to tear itself apart, other people begin their own designs on Westoros, both nearby and far abroad. It's a great mix of political intrigue, adventure, and epic battles.

SPOILERS END HERE

Okay, so one thing I noticed about this book is that religion has a greater influence in this novel than in Game of Thrones. In the first book, the old gods and the new gods are sort of mentioned, but not really a large deal. In this book we learn the seven aspects of the new god, the Drowned God of the ironmen, R'hllor the Lord of Light, and the old gods of the north. While it's sort of a new aspect of the book I appreciated the cultural differences brought up in this book. It helps reaffirm the deep world-building that went into this series and makes the story feel more real by comparison.

Another thing I want to point out is the issue of smut. (Down, Katie, down.) Now I know my puritanical views regarding smut are frowned upon by certain members of this blog, but this smut really has become downright distracting. There will be a deep well-thought out discussion of the political situation in Westeros and how this faction could affect the overall political balance and then the books like "Hey, they're having sex during all of this, by the way." Really awkward and really irritating. Really it just could have been left out and nothing would have changed overall. I know this is a big book so you have more room, but little details that are unnecessary are wasteful for a book whether it be three hundred pages or one thousand pages.

Anyway, if you liked the first one, you'll like this one and it's a continuation of a good series. Some issues here and there but they are outnumbered by the positive growth so I can't complain too terribly much. Getting four and a half sheep.

BAK

Adventurer's Rule #18: Crossing a river can be much harder than you initially think.

A Game of Thrones: Volume one of A Song of Ice and Fire

So, as you folks probably know HBO started doing a TV adaptation of George R.R. Martin's High Fantasy Epic, A Song of Ice and Fire. The first volume of this series, Game of Thrones got a multi-million dollar budget and has gotten great reviews. So when Katie asked me if I wanted to read the books for the blog, I said, okay sure. Also, for those of you watching at home, word on the intertrons is that HBO's already renewed it so we should be seeing more High Fantasy epic in the future. Well, you will. I'll be reading, but I digress.

Hennyway, so to start with A Song of Ice and Fire is a High Fantasy Epic. Now I'm sure my two readers know what High Fantasy is, but for any of you who stumbled onto this blog post by mistake I'll explain. High Fantasy is a story much in the same vein as Lord of the Rings. We have kingdoms, knights, princesses, castles. Usually the plot of such novels involves a political conflict between multiple nations. Or in the case of Game of Thrones within the same nation. You're not going to be seeing a lot of magic, or as we call it Swords and Sorcery. However, the storytelling is superb and definitely shows promise.

Martin's saga reminds me a lot of books like Dune or Tolkein's writings. Martin works very hard to build up an elaborate backstory explaining the history and culture of the world he has built. Although it can be somewhat tedious to read through the backstory, as a historian I enjoy learning it. Just the sheer amount of work that goes into the world-building is truly impressive.

Although I am loathe to admit it, Martin's a really good storyteller. Bad things happen to characters. Really bad things. I'd tell you, but it ruins the plot of the book and that's just not fair because you will want to read it for yourself. The reason I can say Martin's a good storyteller is because I am outright mad at what happens to some of these characters. I hate characters, I love characters, I want to see characters succeed and fail. I get mad when bad people win and the good guys lose. Generally I don't get emotionally invested in books, stuff happens and I'm like, "Okay, that was bad or disappointing or cool." With Game of Thrones I got so mad I threw the book across the room. I had never done that before, that's how invested I got in these characters. I think it's a testimony to Martin's ability as a storyteller to get me invested in characters so heavily. Game of Thrones is a good first act, sets up the conflict, leaves us with great potential for future stories, and leaves us emotionally invested in heroes we want to succeed and villains we desperately hope fail.

Now, I should warn you the book is 800 pages long, and looking at the sequels they get longer. This is definitely a major investment of time and I could only read about 100 - 150 pages at a time. And I'm a crazy reader. Quite honestly you have to be a fan of High Fantasy and willing to read a doorstopper book. I'll be honest this series is not for everyone and I'm sure plenty of people could get bored and frustrated with the series and I can't blame you. But if you like this sort of story, you'll be well-rewarded.

I want to take a moment to mention the HBO series as well. I've seen some of the episodes, and I thought it was well-done. And from my friends who watch the series, they seem to like it too. The TV series differs in two important respects though. First, as a TV series a lot of stuff gets glossed over. Much like the Lord of the Rings movies, some stuff has got to be cut. And I'm willing to accept that. But from what I've seen of the TV series, I feel like I understand better from reading rather than just watching. I mean you get a fair idea of the plot but I feel there are little things you lose in translation. Secondly the smut. Oh by the Throne, the smut. This is, after all HBO, and we need boobs to keep people paying attention. To be fair, the book has its fair share of smut, but it's about half as much smut as you get in the HBO series. Now if you're someone like Katie who lives for smut, that's all well and fine. For me, I find it distracting more than anything else. I could rant on with my puritanical opinions but that's really besides the issue. If you're not a heavy reader like myself I think you'll enjoy the TV series. What it does, it does well and I can't really quibble over the finer points. I just happened to like the books better, but I'm a stickler like that. For those of you who would like to watch the HBO series it can be found, legally mind you, here on the webs.

Ultimately, as frustrated as I got with this book I want to read more. I'm really pulling for the Starks and Tullys and really hoping the Lannisters fail. Martin's storytelling sets up a complex world with interesting characters that is well worth the read if you're willing to invest it. I'll give it four sheep.

BAK

Adventurer's Rule #6: Never pick up a talking sword. Just don't. It never ends well.