Men Are Men, Vows Are Words, And

Lords Are Gold And Knights Steel, But Two Links Can't Make A Chain. You Also Need Silver And Iron And Lead, Tin And Copper And Bronze And All The Rest, And Those Are Farmers And Smiths And Merchants And The Like. A Chain Needs All Sorts Of Metals, And A Land Needs All Sorts Of People.

When You Smell Our Candles Burning, What Does It Make You Think Of, My Child?" Winterfell, She Might Have Said. I Smell Snow And Smoke And Pine Needles. I Smell The Stables. I Smell Hodor Laughing, And Jon And Robb Battling In The Yard, And Sansa Singing About Some Stupid Lady Fair. I Smell The Crypts Where The Stone Kings Sit. I Smell Hot Bread Baking. I Smell The Godswood. I Smell My Wolf. I Smell Her Fur, Almost As If She Were Still Beside Me. "i Don't Smell Anything," She Said.

The Truth Of It Is, Writers Do Have Peculiar Relationships With Their Characters. They Are Our Children In More Senses Than One. They Are Born Of Our Imaginations, Carry Much Of Ourselves In Them, And Embody Whatever Dreams We Dream Of Immortality.

The Best Fantasy Is Written In The Language Of Dreams. It Is Alive As Dreams Are Alive, More Real Than Real, For A Moment At Least, That Long Magic Moment Before We Wake.

I Believe That A Writer Learns From Every Story He Writes, And When You Try Different Things, You Learn Different Lessons. Working With Other Writers, As In Hollywood Or In A Shared World Series, Will Also Strengthen Your Skills, By Exposing You To New Ways Of Seeing The Work, And Different Approaches To Certain Creative Challenges.