SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A correction now. We did a story last week on a new anthonlogy of poems by Amiri Baraka. We said that Mr. Baraka had been a member of the Black Pather Party. He was not. We regret the error."Game Of Thrones" fans have learned this week that winter is not coming, at least not this year - that's "Winds of Winter," the latest installment in George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series, "A Song Of Ice And Fire." But a book proposal from the author in 1993 was leaked from his publisher HarperCollins this week. It revealed some of George Martin's earliest ideas for the series.
Now, some are familiar - the Lannister-Stark rivalry, murder and revenge plots, a cascade of sudden and bloody deaths. But there are others that have not come to pass, including an unorthodox love triangle and a couple of dragon eggs in the forest. Hey, you can't make an epic without cracking a couple of dragon eggs.
What has stayed true over 22 years is the promise that George Martin made to his publisher - the cast will not always remain the same, he wrote. Old characters will die and new ones will be introduced. I want the reader to feel that no one is ever completely safe, not even the characters who seem to be the heroes. The suspense always ratchets up a notch when you know that any character can die at any time.
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