George R.R. Martin jokes about writing a Game of Thrones story with turtles

Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin has been building his fantasy world since the ’90s. And it’s ever-growing. And the fandom grows along with it, welcoming new audiences through the shows – Game of Thrones, and its prequel, House of The Dragon. The world of Westeros isn’t the only fictional place he has created, there are lots more. Martin’s Night of The Cooters recently won the ‘Best Science Fiction Short’ at the LA Shorts International Film Festival. And by the looks of it, the author is looking forward to including turtles one day in the world of Game of Thrones.

In an interview with Kevin Smith, Martin talked about his fond memories from his childhood. He recalled, “We lived in a project, since we didn’t have much money. We lived in a federal housing project on First Street in Bayonne. And you were not allowed to have dogs or cats in the projects. But of course, I was a kid and I wanted a pet, so I got turtles. Dime store turtles that you bought at Woolworths or Kresge and they came in these little plastic bowls that were half water and half gravel with a fake palm tree in the middle.”

“You could fit two of those bowls side by side in the courtyard of this toy castle that I had. Then I decided since they lived in a castle they were all kings and knights and other medieval things that I saw in Robinhood and King Arthur. The thing about those Dime store turtles is they died pretty easily.  It only cost 15 cents or something and they’d give you the turtle food to feed them, I don’t know if it was the healthiest you know. But you would sprinkle it in and they’d eat it and like a month later they’d be dead.”

He continued, “Sometimes one of them escaped, turned up 6 months later all shriveled up under a refrigerator. I was very upset that my turtles kept dying. And I wondered why they kept dying I was giving them everything, food and water. So I decided they were killing each other to compete for the turtle throne. So the first Game of Thrones was all about turtles. Killing each other and stabbing each other and I started writing stories about that. So Turtle Castle is a precursor that I may return to one of these days.”

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