TEASER TUESDAY #15

Teaser Tuesday is an intriguing meme started by Miz B over at Books and a Beat.

All you have to do is:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The name of George R.R. Martin is more frequently tied to his Song of Ice and Fire saga, a tale often filled with violence, cruelty and ruthless political intrigue, but a different GRR Martin can be found in his shorter works: a writer capable of subtle lyricism and poetical descriptions.

One of the best examples is THE GLASS FLOWER, a story included in the first volume of his DreamSongs, a collection of his tales ranging his entire writing career.  This story is a favorite of mine, full of mystery and strangeness.

Once, when I was just a girl in the first flush of my true youth, a young boy gave me a glass flower as a token of his love.  […]  My flower has a long and delicate stem, curved and graceful, all of fine thin glass, and from that frail support the bloom explodes, as large as my fist, impossibly exact. Every detail is there, caught, frozen in crystal for eternity: petals large and small crowding each other, bursting from the center of the blossom in a slow transparent riot, surrounded by a crown of six wide drooping leaves, each with its tracery of vein intact, each unique.

If you want to experience the full beauty of this story, I also recommend the audio version read by Australian actress Claudia Black: HERE is the first segment of the audio file, just to give you a sample of great writing and amazing acting.  Enjoy!