Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the winter holidays. In Reno, we have snow on the mountains, and it rained here in the valley last night, so it’s chilly, but not frozen.  I know some of you are getting blasted by snow and rain as well.

Two things to cover with this blog post. I want to remind you about the holiday giveaway promotion, and I am going to tell you a little about my visit to the fantastic Game of Thrones Exhibition in Belfast! Pictures included.

First, my book Time Walker is in a group giveaway through the holidays, so if you haven’t gotten it already, now is a good time to grab yourself an e-book copy. My short story, The Wizard’s Gift, is also in the giveaway, so download that one too. Both are totally free, although it would mean a lot to me if you’d review after you read them. You can review on Amazon and or Goodreads even though you’re getting a copy through Prolific Works. In addition to my book, you can also download either full books or partial books from other science fiction and fantasy authors. Click on the image to check it out.

Now GOT…

Last summer, I went to Ireland to the World Science Fiction Convention. What a blast in such a great setting! Lots of panels, lots of people, and I never did make it the few blocks up the street to the building housing the art show. But there was so much to do, and honestly, if you got in one panel room, you tried to hang there as long as you could. The lines were long for each panel, and if you came out of one to go to another, the chances were pretty good you wouldn’t get in.

So, I cut a couple of days of the convention to do some touring on the east coast of Ireland. In particular, I wanted to see the Giant’s Causeway. I’d been there many years ago, but all of my pictures didn’t come out very well – this was pre-digital cameras. So I booked the Game of Thrones tour, which included the causeway. After I’d booked, I got a notice advising the GOT Exhibition in Belfast had just opened, and the tour would include it or the Titanic Exhibit. I went for the GOT. Now, the odd thing about this is I haven’t seen GOT. I don’t get HBO and only saw one episode at the World Con in Reno a few years ago when George R.R. Martin was a guest. In spite of that, I was keen to see the costumes and set pieces that were now in the museum.

First off, the exhibition is at the Belfast docks, and there’s still a set on the lot that we didn’t tour, but I could see when we pulled up. Our group was greeted by a fellow who’d been an extra on the series and took us inside where we got a dragon picture. It’s a pretty neat trick, don’t you agree?

After that, I strolled through room after room of costumes, jewelry, armor, banners, and set items from the series. All of the families were represented.  Here’s a few of the costumes and other stuff for your eyes to feast on.

The huge warehouse was split into large rooms with floor to ceiling walls and lighting to be perfect for digital photography from your phone. My camera wasn’t quite as good at picking up the images, so it took a little longer to process the photo since flash would disturb the lighting set up.

One whole section near the back of the warehouse was a dragon skull graveyard. It was amazing as these skulls were dramatically illuminated and were huge. Very realistic.  Other bones were scattered around.

By the way, this is a touring exhibition and parts of it will be going on tour. Our guide told us that some of the bigger set pieces will not be on tour, but the costumes, jewels, and swords, along with the smaller displays, will be making their way around the world. It is currently in Madrid. To check the progress, go to:

http://gameofthronesexhibition.com/

These photos are only a sampling of the numerous photos I took during the exhibition. If you’d like to see more, I’ve made the whole album at Flickr accessible for you to view. Simply click on the link below:

https://www.flickr.com/gp/12627639@N08/200S1N

That’s it for now. May your holidays be wonderful and Happy New Year! I’ll be write more in 2020.