We're All Friends Here: An Interview With Fire & Lunch

Currently leading the table, the Fossofreys of Fire & Lunch leave quizzers and quiz-masters in awe of their knowledge and hungry at the sight of their delectable baked goods. After having a nice little chat, they've agreed to do an interview.



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1. Where and how did you guys meet?

The four of us met at a Winter is Coming moot at the Brass Monkey when HBO did the food trucks before the first season of the show. We kept in touch, then met up again at the A Dance With Dragons book signing at Barnes and Noble. Afterwards, we crashed a Brotherhood Without Banners meet up at Professor Thoms, where we ended the night sharing honeyed peaches with George. We did not think that he would show up, so it was definitely a special night. What really bonded us though, was our five-hour therapy session after all of us had finished Dance. A love of all things Frey (especially the pie) was born and the rest is history! Also…there were many, many, many toasts to Jon Snow along the way.

2. What got each of you into the books?

Jenny: I had gotten really lazy with reading somewhere in high school and finally started getting back into reading with delving into Lord of the Rings. After that, I was looking for the next fantasy series I should read, and every list I saw suggested the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Then I saw A Game of Thrones in a bookstore, picked it up, read about Bran falling from a tower, and I was hooked. Of course, I foolishly thought at the time it was great that George's website said Dance would be out that fall…hahahaha…sob.

Rachel: I was given a copy of AGOT a few months before Feast came out. My love for the series has grown with each re-read and it is absolutely anchored in the friendships I've made because of these books. It might be blasphemy, but I wouldn't like them nearly as much if I didn't have people to obsess with. We've all got a similar sense of snarky humor; nothing is sacred to us.

Megan: When the Harry Potter and LOTR craze was going on, there were A LOT of articles that suggested other books for fans of HP and LOTR to read.  ASOIAF was almost always on these lists, so I picked up the first two books at a bookstore that was going out of business in the fall of 2003.  I finally got around to reading AGOT during a family vacation in summer 2004 and immediately read the rest of the books.  I loved it all! And then I waited...and waited...

Jessica: A New York Times review for A Feast for Crows. I never read the NYT book reviews, but ended up reading the one on Feast for some reason. I think it was that they mentioned fantasy and Tolkien in it. I like to think it was fate.  

3. You guys are currently leading the tourney, what is the secret to your success?

Jenny: I am very competitive and have an obsessive need to know as much as possible. Also, I have no life and learning this stuff is fun for me. Plus, I spend entirely too much time on Sporcle. I do have to thank my teammates for filling in my gaps in knowledge, especially Jess and Megan with their North/Night's Watch knowledge and Rachel with her Iron Islands knowledge. 

Rachel: We've done a lot of trivia so we kind of have a system down where we each take a region or a person (we try to base it on our personal interests) and we reread those POV chapters a lot. We also have Jenny who has an uncanny ability to memorize lists of extremely trivial details. We won't admit it, but we're competitive.

Megan: Nothing.  I did limited studying for a prior trivia, but I admittedly haven't done anything for this trivia. Since the others usually know the answers without my help, I am generally there for moral support and to pop up out of nowhere with answers to random questions. This is my modus operandi in all trivia, ask Jenny.

Jessica: I have amazing teammates; I am pretty average and useless when it comes to most of the trivia. The most random of facts I'll remember, which are my main contributions to the team. 

4. What interests each of you the most of the world/fandom?

Jenny: No surprise, in the fandom part of it, I enjoy all of the trolly stuff. When you love something as much as I love these books, it's nice to be able to just have fun with it instead of being so serious all of the time. I also love all of the fan art. In terms of the world itself, I love Jaime's storyline and all of the history/back story. If/when the books ever get finished, I look forward to seeing how all of the stuff in the past affects the futures of the characters. 

Rachel: I love all the badass ladies. You rarely get such a range of female characters in fantasy like Brienne, Asha, Margaery, Sansa, Cersei, and Melisandre. That is probably the biggest draw for me, but it's also hard for me to root for any one family or individual. Plus, if I don't have a favorite then I won't be sad when they die. The real significance of this series is how interconnected everything is. I love turncloaks, doublespeakers, or anyone who can't be trusted; Varys is probably my favorite. But I also like characters that have their own codes of conduct. If those two things mix, I get excited. But I also love the Greyjoys, Littlefinger, Daario, Cersei, and Arya.  As far as fandom goes, I'm pretty into costuming. I've dragged a few of my teammates in with me, our costumes are always trolly.

Megan: In the world, the stuff in the North interests me the most, and Jon has always been my fave (I disagree with Rachel on him being a redshirt). I also love how the books use multi-POV and tie together the various story threads.  I also love the use of history (not our real-world history, but the history of Westeros).  In the fandom, I just love that I have people to obsess with!  I was the first in my group of friends to read the books and it stayed that way for YEARS.  I love that I've found others in the fandom that are similar to me - love the books but will also not hesitate to make fun of certain things and be snarky. 

Jessica: The characters. I don't think I would be half as invested in this series if the characters were one note. World building is fun, but it's the characters that keep me coming back for more. I think Martin is also very good at writing female characters, which is important for me. I'm a particular fan of the whole northern storyline. I love Jon and Bran, so anything dealing with the history and mythology of the north tends to intrigue me. 

     Regarding fandom, I love how everyone in the fandom takes something different away from the books. It is always interesting to see how others react to something you love or hate. Also, a lot of the meta-analysis that comes out of this fandom is pretty cool, especially between books, which can be a long time. As a woman, it is so much fun seeing so many ladies who love and share your interests, it is a very safe fandom in that regard.

5. If you could stump one the Sellswords, which one would it be and what would be the question?

Jenny: I'll challenge anyone to name all of the Stark Kings in order.

Rachel: I'm happy to debate the best Away Team line up from Westeros, but let's all agree that Jon Snow is a redshirt.

Megan: I am not foolish enough to even try!  All of you have been knee-deep in the books to do these trivia questions, and I haven't read the series since ADWD came out.  I'll pass!  Though I do like Jenny's suggestion about the Stark kings...I actually knew that information at one point.

Jessica: I'm not touching this one.


  I did pass on Jenny's challenge to the guys after looking up the answers (for science).  Steve D. named some, but they weren't in order. Even with the upset of the most recent trivia night, 'tis only a scratch as Fire & Lunch still lead our table with 198 points.  This means that they can still carry  the tourney with three more nights to  go.  

Here's the link to Sporcle. 

No pressure.