I Just Watched The Rings of Power!

 Welcome everyone!

I just finished watching the first two episodes of the Rings of Power series on Amazon. If you've ever read my author bio on my Amazon page or my hardback, you know that I am a bit of a Tolkien nerd. Proudly, a Tolkien nerd.

I have to say I enjoyed it a great deal. The scenery is gorgeous and very reminiscent of the Lord of the Rings movies. I loved the real sets and the prosthetics for the elves, dwarves, and orcs. The CGI dwarves and orcs in the Hobbit movies really took me out of the world.

Anyway, I do wish there had been a bit more action sequences in these first couple episodes. One thing I've learned about writing is that you really need to hook the audience early. However, given what I know of the history of this era, there should be plenty of battles and duels to come.

Anyway, if you have Amazon Prime, I highly recommend getting into this show while you wait for my third book. It is a real treat for the eyes!

Peace,

-Troy

Vids I Like #6 - Worldbuilding

Welcome everyone!

One thing I'd really like to accomplish with Book 3 is world-building. If you've read The Huntsman and the She-Wolf and The Huntsman and the Vampire, you've learned a lot about characters such as Tristan, Thaul, Mersha, Mikhelena, and Leo. But what about Vitalba village itself? Or Everpass Hold? Probably not much.

So, what I want to do is take more time to build the history and culture of my setting in the third installment. As a result, I'm doing some researching in that area. Below, I'll share an interesting video I found on the topic. If you are working on your own world, maybe you'll find it useful too:

Peace,

-Troy

The Public Domain and You!

Welcome Everyone!

This year (2019) marked the first year in ages when authors and their works entered the Public Domain. In the 1990's Disney along with a bunch of other media companies convinced Congress to favor them over the common citizenry and extend copyright protections another 20 years.

Now, thanks to even more powerful (but not more likable) tech companies and a strong grass-roots movement, Congress refrained from extending those protections further.

As a result, several dozen authors' and artists' work entered the public domain allowing anyone so inclined to use their work however they pleased without a license. Most of them were people you've probably never heard of, but this coming January will be different.

On January 1st, 2020, Richard Connell and Margaret Mitchell will enter the Public Domain. You probably know them better by their works: The Most Dangerous Game and Gone With the Wind respectively.

Yes, starting in January, General Zaroff and Scarlet O'Hara will be available for authors and artists to add in their stories and expound without fear of lawsuits. Now, these are just for the written works, not the film adaptations - so be careful about that.

Connell and Mitchell are just the tip of the iceberg, though. Here's a list of other authors and the years when their works will be Public Domain:

2020	Richard Connell	Margaret Mitchell
2021	George Orwell	George Bernard Shaw	Olaf Stapleton	Edgar Rice Burroughs	Edgar Lee Masters
2022	Sinclair Lewis	Algernon Blackwood
2023	---------------------
2024	Eugene O'Neal
2025	---------------------
2026	Thomas Mann
2027	---------------------
2028	Laura Ingles Wilder	Dorothy Sayers
2029	---------------------
2030	---------------------
2031	Albert Camus
2032	Earnest Hemmingway
2033	William Faulkner	EE Cummings
2034	Robert Frost	Sylvia Plath	William Carlos Williams	Aldous Huxley	C.S. Lewis
2035	Flannery O'Connor	Ian Flemming
2044	JRR Tolkien

Some of the big ones are George Orwell (Animal Farm, 1984), Laura Ingles Wilder (Little House on the Prairie), Aldous Huxley (Brave New World), C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia), Ian Flemming (James Bond), and J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings). Also, in 2024, Steamboat Willie enters the Public Domain.

Granted, some of those names are more than two decades out, but just imagine a budding writer sitting in a High School English class today. When that student becomes my age, a huge chunk of Tolkien's works will be freely available to all. Keep in Mind, Amazon paid a quarter billion dollars for those rights just last year.

This is a massive win for small-time authors. It's an even bigger deal for independent movie-makers. Each year, some of the greatest works ever written will become available for screenwriters to use in low-budget films.

The next 10-20 years will see a massive influx of new takes on old works. I, for one, cannot wait to see what people do.

Peace,

-Troy