Tag Archives: Lord of the Rings

In my less-than-famous opinion

Posted on by under General Writing-Related Posts, One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0, Posts of a Rant-like Nature

Before this continues, I want to point out that this isn’t today’s installment towards One Hundred Days of Blogging 2.0, which should sound a touch insane as that means I’m deliberately making it a point to force myself to write two posts today. Few people have accused me of having particularly good ideas, however, so this makes sense. Moving along.

Actually, I lied. I think I will use this for today’s post and follow with the other, thematically appropriate idea anyway. Not sorry.

Something I can state as purely fact, with neither pride nor disappointment, is that I haven’t really read much of A Song of Ice and Fire. I usually hit a point in Game of Thrones where, despite loving fantasy novels and having read other titanic titles such as the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy (plus The Hobbit, before it became a trilogy), I become so supremely bored that reading another page borders on self-inflicted torture. There are plenty of people I know who absolutely love George R.R. Martin’s behemoth heptalogy, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The point I’m meandering toward here is that the most common complaint I hear from these A Song of Ice and Fire fans is that Martin is writing too slowly. That he’ll probably die before he finishes the series, given his advanced age and larger-than-average stature. Fans of Robert Jordan’s works who also enjoy A Song of Ice and Fire are probably already bracing for the worst. Oh, and then there’s the small matter of the Game of Thrones series on HBO having a strong chance of completing the series before the books can.

These criticisms aren’t exactly isolated, and apparently they aren’t welcomed by George R.R. Martin, especially those regarding his death.

Pictured: George R.R. Martin's response to suggestions he'll die before his books are finished. Or one very angry Santa Claus.

Pictured: George R.R. Martin’s response to suggestions he’ll die before his books are finished. Or one very angry Santa Claus.

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Over-thinking villains: the LOTR edition

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging

By my entirely official, possibly inaccurate count (which just happened moments ago, shortly after my Surface 2 had to restart half a dozen times for updates it’s been denied for too long), this is the 89th post in my Hundred Days of Blogging. Probably. It’s been more of an ordeal than I could have anticipated, but it’s pushed me to keep posting. Even on nights when all I want to do is sleep forever. Nights like these past couple nights, especially after experiencing the human equivalent of the world’s shittiest rental property. Ahem. It’s been a while since I’ve used my Surface 2 for any extended bits of writing (opting instead to use my laptop or desktop, both of which are out of commission presently while I’m still unpacking), so this is proving to be its own magical misadventure. More so as I try to log in to my Screen Robot account with no recollection of my password. I know, I know; for shame, forgetful writer. For shame.

Some exciting news, first, before we continue into tonight’s post. I had a short story accepted for publication in The Literary Hatchet, a publication created by PearTree Press. I’m quite excited, as it’s a story I really enjoyed writing. More on that as I can post it, of course. Joshua Harkin and the Wicked Nightmare King is a little bit closer to being a real thing that exists in book form. I’ve worked with the terrific folks at Cary Press on tweaking the cover here and there, and I’m very happy with how it looks. A couple more weeks and I should be hearing more from them, which is very exciting as well.

This is a post I had the idea for about a week or two ago, but it never saw the light of day (nor the dark of night, I suppose) because I was in the middle of moving. Here are a few disclaimery bits: I am not, by any means, an authority on Lord of the Rings. I enjoyed the books and the movies, but some details have escaped me over the years (or never really made their way to my grasp). A lot of this is just silly speculation that rattled around in my brain the right ways to end up becoming a post.

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