Last month, Game of Thrones writer George R. R. Martin launched a Kickstarter-like campaign on Prizeo. As a perk, if you donated $20,000, you would appear in the next novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Not only that, your character would get to be brutally murdered. For being such an expensive perk, they were snapped up relatively quickly by a man and a woman.
That wasn’t where it ended, though. A 13-year-old in the United Kingdom scrounged up his entire life savings and wrote to Martin to help persuade him. According to the letter (pictured below), Jack B. tells Martin that his favorite animals are wolves and that he loves watching the parts of Game of Thrones that his parents will allow him to watch. Talk about adorable!
Martin had to politely decline since the spots had been filled and “There’s a limit to how many people even I can kill.” To be honest, I think Martin just didn’t want to kill off such a cute and lovable character that Jack would have made! Instead, he donated $10,000 to the UK Wolf Conservation Trust in Jack’s name and wrote a letter to Jack explaining why.
Dear Jack,
Thank you so much for your heartfelt, touching note.
I’ve heard that you donated all your £153 pocket money savings to my Prizeo fundraiser on behalf of the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary. I cannot tell you how much that moved me. It pleases me no end to know that my novels, and the TV series based on them, have inspired readers as young as yourself to rally to the support of these majestic and too often stigmatized animals.
Alas, I cannot promise you a grisly death in THE WIND OF WINTER. Those spots have already been filled by some very generous donors, and there’s a limit to how many people even I can kill.
However, inspired by your example, my friends at Prizeo and I would love to follow your lead with a $10,000 in your name to the UK Wolf Conservation Trust. That’s a wonderful organization that I’ve heard much about, and they are lucky to count people like you as supporters.
I wish you the best of luck in your future career as a wolf conservationist, and hope that you inspire many others to follow your lead.
Yours,
GRRM
Here’s to all the wolves saved in the book, show, and in real life!
(via A.V. Club)
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