SANTA FE — A fully grown Arctic wolf saunters around guests near the concession stand of author George R.R. Martin's movie theater. As the wolf revels in the attention from strangers at the Jean Cocteau Cinema, Martin himself makes small talk in a corner, his peculiarly jolly laugh easily distinguished above the noise of the room.

It's a scene you'd imagine would take place in an artsy, futuristic Winterfell, set long after the events of Game of Thrones' upcoming fifth season. But it's real life, happening in 2014.

Martin and his team are hosting a small group of town members and charity organizers at the theater to present the local recipients of his recent Prizeo charity crowdfunding drive with their $172,485.53 checks. The beneficiaries of that campaign — in which Martin famously auctioned off three in-book deaths for donors who pledged $20,000 — are The Food Depot of New Mexico and the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary. This, it is explained to me, is why Flurry, the aforementioned large Arctic wolf, is in the house.

Thank you George & Parris Martin and Prizeo! pic.twitter.com/f3e7DwVu4i — Team Wild Spirit (@wswolfsanctuary) November 4, 2014

Sitting down with me near the popcorn machine, Martin wears his trademark hat and suspenders — items he says are a large part of the reason he can't go anywhere without being noticed. He explains the inspiration behind the "Martyr" donation level of the Prizeo campaign and how he plans to kill off the three donors in upcoming installments of his A Song of Ice and Fire series.

"In science fiction it's called Tuckerizations, where you use the name of a friend or an acquaintance for a character and, usually, kill them horribly," Martin tells me. "The writer Wilson Tucker, also known as Bob Tucker, used to do it way back in the 40s and 50s."

Though he believes he could have raised more money for the charities by including more in-book deaths, Martin decided to draw the line at three so it wouldn't get intrusive to book readers. He's currently in contact with each of the winners, figuring out how to discreetly work them into the plot.

George R.R. Martin and his wife, Parris McBride, address the audience at the Jean Cocteau Cinema on November 3, 2014.

"We're going back and forth, I've started emailing them," Martin tells me. "I'm still in the middle of the book, so it'll be some time before I write the scenes in which they die."

The winners include Facebook's Dave Goldblatt, Dr. Dave Cotton of Michigan and a woman who has chosen to remain anonymous. Prizeo co-founder Leo Seigal reveals that the woman plans to name her in-book character after her company as a surprise to her coworkers.

"One of the winners wrote me and said, 'You can kill me however you want, just don't do anything to my penis,' " said Martin, laughing. "So no castrating him first and stuffing his penis in his mouth or anything like that, I suppose."

The author, of course, isn't a stranger to gruesome and horrific deaths. The phrase "everybody dies" is a common and somewhat accurate way many describe his series and its HBO counterpart.

"It's a war story, people die in war," says Martin, when I ask him about the standard simplification. "I don't think I necessarily kill any more than any other fantasy writer. Where I really differ from most fantasy writers is, I kill people you don't expect to die, you know?"

The Starks come to mind, along with about five kings, a handful of lords and a few unscrupulous knights.

"In a lot of the more traditional fantasies, you look at the end and hundreds of thousands of people have died but they're like, extras," he says. "They're bit players, they're nameless characters who rush in and then later they say, 'Oh yes, 10,000 men died in this battle.' But none of the six guys that you care about died. That's where I try to shake things up a little. If you're going to put your characters in peril, there should be fear."

While Martin is fine with the massive amounts of suffering endured by his fictional creations, he is fiercely driven to fight neglect and famine in reality. He and his wife Parris McBride chose local charities like the Food Depot and Wild Spirit because they knew it would cause a tangible difference in the lives New Mexico's less fortunate, be that humans or wolves.

"We've been supporting the Food Depot for years," says Martin. "Twenty years ago, we'd donate canned goods and whatever we could. As I've gotten more successful, we're able to write larger checks. It's important, you know? It's a basic need."

According to a spokesperson from the Food Depot, the money from Martin's Prizeo campaign will provide 700,000 meals to New Mexico's population.

"If we can't feed our children at school, they can't learn," says McBride. "It's been a big problem here in New Mexico and the Food Depot provides food to people all over northern New Mexico. When your neighbor is hungry, you're supposed to feed them."

Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary was brought to Martin's attention years ago by a group of his super fans called the "Brotherhood Without Banners." The group would pool together their funds to send Martin and McBride Christmas presents.

"We had to tell them, you know, 'This is really nice, but we have a lot of stuff. If you want to give money to charity, that'd be a good gift,'" Martin says. "It was actually the bros who found Wild Spirit and, as a Christmas present, they made Parris a wolf mother of a wolf named Sasquatch."

George R.R. Martin speaks with Leyton Cougar, director of the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary in Candy Kitchen, New Mexico.

Wild Spirit rescues wolves and wolfdogs from around the country, giving them a lifetime sanctuary and using that sanctuary as a teaching tool for visitors. Currently, they house 53 wolves including a group of ten called the Westeros Pack, named after characters in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. Many fans might appreciate that Arya was the name chosen for the alpha female.

"This campaign, in more ways than one, has really helped save the day," says Leyton Cougar, Executive Director of Wild Spirit. "Because we were rock bottom broke. There was zero money in the bank."

"The hope is that they'll be able to use this money that we've raised through this Prizeo thing to build a larger and better habitat for the Westeros pack," says Martin. "The more room the wolves have, the better they are."

It's no surprise that Martin has been fascinated with wolves since childhood. The Stark's direwolves are central to the plot of both the books and the show.

"Well, they're mythic. I think even as a kid I responded to the werewolf legends and the wolves in the wood and, you know, Little Red Riding Hood and all of that," says Martin, who claims his choice for the Stark's direwolf banner came from a gut feeling rather than an attempt at symbolism.

"Sometimes the ideas just come to you and it's what you feel rather than, 'Oh, I need an animal,'" says Martin. "Should I make it a badger or a hedgehog."

Martin giggles, probably imagining the absurdity of thousands of his characters taking up arms in support of the hedgehogs of Winterfell.

"Wolves have been part of European folklore, of which America's descended, going back thousands of years. In Rome, Romulus and Remus — there's always been this relationship between wolves and men."

That relationship is seen time and again in Martin's series, and it's one that will Martin says will continue as the last two books are eventually released. Arya's wolf, Nymeria, in particular, will play an important role.

"You know, I don't like to give things away." says Martin, a grin spreading across his face. "But you don't hang a giant wolf pack on the wall unless you intend to use it."

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