Source: theatlantic
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN’S A SONG OF FIRE AND ICE
Over the course of July, I ripped through the four published books in George R.R. Martin’s planned seven-book series, A Song of Fire and Ice. The story of a nation torn apart by civil war after the death of a king who killed the last ruler in a previous dynasty, the books begin tightly focused on a single holdfast and expand out across continents and cultures. The story also begins with one version of history that is gradually, vigorously contested. It’s one of the most impressive feats of world-building I’ve ever read, but while I was discussing this with my friend Amber, she pointed me towards this passage in Kerry Howley’s piece on cryonics:
Shortly after they met, Peggy and Robin decided to read each other’s favorite works of literature.
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Source: telegraph
JUSTIN CRONIN: DARKER SIDE OF TWILIGHT
Many parents will, at some time, have played the game with their children of making up a story together. Usually, this exercise in dreaming up a plot and characters is a ploy to improve youngsters’ reading and writing skills, or just to encourage them to complete their homework. But for American academic, Justin Cronin, it has turned him into the most talked-about writer of the summer.
He was talking plot lines with his eight-year-old daughter, Iris, while he pounded the streets of their native Houston, Texas, in his running shoes and she cycled alongside him on her bicycle, little knowing that the pair had come up with the template for his novel The Passage, for which he would receive an advance of £2.5 million.
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