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 The FSFS Newsletter is written by FSFS members covering everything Fantasy and Sci-Fi |
The "Fantasy and Science Fiction Society" welcomes you to  Welcome to the first FSFS Newsletter of the year, brought to you by the members of the "Fantasy and Science Fiction Society" . Each month the Newsletter features articles from members at all stages of their writing career, be they just starting to write stories, or published authors. Contents 1. Month Summary 2. My Dear Me 3. The Secret of New Year Goals 4. Being a Vendor & Guest at a Con - Day 2A 5. The Interview - Part 2 6. Behind the Scenes - Crediting Reviews 7. Book Review - The Lord of the Rings 8. Advertisements 9. Newsletter Challenges  I hope you all enjoyed welcoming in 2015. January is the month where everyone makes resolutions. February is normally the month they are all broken! But sometimes, if you take your resolutions seriously, you can make a positive change to your lifestyle and habits by picking the right kind of goal. Resolutions are goals, and if you think back to setting goals in school you might recall the SMART system. Goals need 5 properties to be effective: Specific - What exactly do you want to achieve? Don't say 'I want to write.' What do you want to write? Why do you want to write? How are you going to do it? Measurable - Goals should be quantifiable in some sense. Rather than 'I want to write more', say 'I want to write 500 words a day' or 'I want to complete 10 short stories.' Attainable - Your goals should be aspirational, but not impossible. Don't say 'I want to write a novel, be published by Penguin Random House, be a bestseller and sell the film rights.' Perhaps 'I want to finish my novel' or 'I want to submit my manuscript to X agent.' Relevant - Make sure your goals are actually something you want to do. If you don't want to write novels and are happy doing poems and short stories, don't say 'I'm going to write a novel.' You won't stick to it and will be disappointed. Timed - Set yourself a deadline or time scale. 'I want to write X words a day' or 'I want to finish X in Y months'. Happy New Year!  You know some days I run around in a happy daze thinking all is great. Then get slapped in the face with a huge wake up call that all is not write right in Denmark. I have been thinking of trying the Dear Me contest probably only to be laughed at again. Which is fine I enjoy making people laugh at me or my writing. Now back to my wake up call. This all ties together just is going to take a few more steps is all. One of my good friends on WDC remarked it took my book reviewer 39 chapters to tell me I had a weak plot. It was a complement to her but quite a slam to me. The only reason it was a slam was because now that I know I had a weak plot. (I wasn't upset over a weak plot by the way.) I was upset because I had no clue how to fix it. I wasn't up set with anyone but myself. How could I let this happen to a 108,000 word novel. I needed a way to fix it without deleting it and starting all over again. My friend referred me to an article in the Art of Criticism on how to run this in a scene and chapter by chapter using tell, show, and dialog. I sat down and figured out a plan to expose this weak plot chapter by chapter. I developed my new years resolution plan as I call it. (Now you see the dear me part in this rambling.) Step one: Since I have all the ideas and four plot going in this 108,000 word novel. It would be stupid to try and recreate it. The solution is to first go through it, fix up all grammar, spelling, punctuation, run-on, and starting every sentence with an I. You get the picture. The other part of this first run through is to bust up several long chapters. Instead of 39 chapters it now has 42 chapters. Step two: I really need to know what is going on in each chapter. My reviewer is telling me, I have way to many characters, and I need cliff hangers at every chapter ending. The chapters don't have reader attraction, and are slow paced. My solution is start with the first chapter now that I have repaired all the grammar and punctuation. I need to diagram it all out. I want to show plot pieces for my four plots. I need character lists of who is in each chapter. I need a scene list. I need to look for areas to do show. I need now to see why my plot components don't work, and make notes on editing points. Step three: Using the chapter review for each chapter and my diagram I want to start making notes on changes needed to strengthen the plots, add show, generate more reader attraction. I need to figure out cliff hangers to pull the reader into the next chapter. Step four: Edit each chapter as needed by my notes. Do a read through correct errors and read it out loud looking for flow issues or left out words. Step five: Take a break from it for at least a month then reread it for common mistakes. Try and get another Pencil review of it, and re-edit it again. By this time I just might have something worth reading and selling. My goal to myself is have at least one rejection slip before December. I may have to set a whole new set of goals once I start trying to sell it. I am flexible there I will do whatever it takes to get this book done so it is a professional work and not a newbie pipe dream. "Invalid Entry" by {suser_id:}  Blog City Prompt: What is your formula of sticking to New Year's resolutions or any other promises to yourself, after making them? My secret of new years resolutions is: 1. Never make long lists of things you want to change for the new year to work on.. (It overloads you and sets you up to fail. You can make the list to work from, but follow the rest of the steps below.) 2. Only work on one thing you really want to change. 3. Just work on that one item until you finish it to your satisfaction, not someone else's satisfaction. 4. If you finish early, pick another one from your long list and start working on it. 5. If you follow this set of rules you will always be successful. Even if it takes you two or more years to complete the change you need. My goal last year was to get published, and finish my first book by December. Now I have been published in a few newsletters. I am not ready to start trying to sell my work yet. I had to learn grammar first. I took the Grammar Garden twice to get my grammar better so I could loose the run-on king title. Next I have this massive editing job of rewriting my book from Mia's reviews on the whole book. I am still working on this project. I now have two chapters that I feel like stand a better chance of getting published. Next I have to take the comma sense class. I am hoping to finish my edit and have something worth attracting a publisher to print. "Invalid Entry" by {suser_id:}  One of the things I’m enjoying about Chessiecon is seeing my copyeditor, Karen MacLeod, who I email back and forth all the time, but I generally get to see once a year. I met her at my first Darkercon in 2010 just in time to deal with my first book’s being published about six months later. Last night, we chatted after dinner (she went to dinner with friends to celebrate her birthday) about my current and upcoming projects. I’m going to be keeping her busy over the next year. When I went down for breakfast, Karen, who is also a guest at the con, I told her about a thunderbolt of an idea that came to me this morning for Book Six of the series. (She’s mid-way through editing Book Five, Well Armed Brides.) As ever, she was honest and straight-forward, “That’ll work.” Copyeditors can be such touchstones at times… So, back to the real world, today I’m going to be in the Dealer’s Room for hours and on two panels, one on alternate history and another on writers and religion. The writers and religion is one I’m a bit nervous about writing up. Tamora Pierce, who is the Guest of Honor at the con, is on the panel and I’ve promised to get her autograph for a friend. Time to buy a book in the Dealer’s room and get to my first panel of the day. That first panel was: “Alternative History,” featuring Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Rosemary Edghill, Michelle D. Sonnier, and Sarah Pinsker Well, as periodically happens, this was a session with no one assigned to moderate. Sarah Pinsker, concerned about that jotted down some questions before the panel and found herself in the role. This year Sarah was nominated for a Nebula award this and won the Theodore Sturgeon Award. My fellow authors were more than happy to have Sarah moderate and pose a number of questions, including asking us about what alternate history we write and how we do our research. Personally, I love history and archaeology and work it into a number of my sci fi and fantasy stories, including two time travel short stories that appear in anthologies. I have also done genealogy research which offers a number of great online resources. Using my historical genealogical research, I even wrote a sci fi short story, Nowhere to Go But Mars, which is the Ellis Island immigrant experience in reverse, taking Americas huddled masses to a new world. Danielle Ackley-McPhail writes stories using myths (she's the co-author of Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn with Day Al Mohamed), which she’s carefully researched. Her area of expertise is Irish myth, which she weaves into many of her stories. With my comments on genealogy, Danielle suggested writers use Ancestry.com to learn about their character’s family lives. I mentioned that Archives.com, which has a relationship with NewspapersArchive.com, offers advertisements as well as articles that can prove helpful in understanding a time period. Rosemary Edghill, author of Bell, Book, and Murder seeks out images of the times she wants to write about, refers to them often while write, while using her research to develop her settings and characters. She also likes to research newspaper archives at Universities. Author Michelle D. Sonnier writes dark urban fantasy and is the author of the Undertaker's Bride. She seeks to be accurate with her history, wanting to get not just the picture of the society just right, but the superstitions and folklore down. That way she's has everyday life at her fingertips for writing her stories. Sarah Pinsker researches the time periods to understand how people thought about things. She’s particularly interested in writing stories about those “ignored” by the majority culture. The one caution is not to share all the research with readers. The characters and stories are what’s important, not the author’s showing how much knowledge we amassed. Salting the stories with details is what adds to the sense of the history. Otherwise, we'll slow down our stories. Check out my next blog about the panel "Where Are Our Gods." "Being a Vendor & Guest at a Con-Day 2A " by Highmage - D.H. Aire   The following is an interview I did for Matt Bird MSci (Hons) AMRSC  to put in the second Science Fiction and Fantasy newsletter (December, 2014). Matt opened the questioning floor to all members of the Writing.com community. These are the questions I received and my answers. Most are to do with my job as an acquisitions editor for BookFish Books LLC., and the rest are about my personal writing.[Note from the Editor] There were so many questions asked and Kat answered them all so brilliantly that there simply isn't room to put them all in one Newsletter. For that reason you got the first 8 Q&As last month, and the next 8 this month! 9. What is your most valuable piece of advice for beginning authors? Hmm…I’m not sure if you mean with regards to working with an editor, or for writing, so I’ll say something brief about both. (I had a client on my blog last week who poignantly broke down the process of working with an editor. Here is the link if you’d like to see the process from the other side of the table: http://www.movetothewrite.com/errata-tips/from-the-horses-mouth). First, when working with an editor, TRUST HER. If she is accredited, not only will she know the ins and outs of the language, but she will also know what is selling, and what needs to be done with your manuscript to make it the best it can be, and sell well too. She is not out to get you; her reputation is on the line. Remember, while an author’s credentials are built upon the success of the books they’ve written, an editor’s is based on the books she has, well, edited. Your editor wants you to succeed. Trust me. As for writers, I say persevere. If your novel is rejected and there is the option to ask why, do so. There are tons of reasons why a manuscript will be rejected—many of them not at all related to the book itself, or your skill as a writer. The house I work for always gives personalized feedback when it rejects a manuscript, though very few others do this unless prodded. If you receive a form rejection, maintain your professionalism, and remain polite. No good will come from a nasty note to an editor, sent out of spite—certainly not an offer to retract the rejection. Editors are fairly close knit. A lot of us know each other, and the tradition of "mentorship" is quite strong (making the network far-reaching). Don’t screw your reputation by getting mad at a rejection and acting like a three-year-old in full tantrum mode. We know it’s tough to be rejected, and trust me, we do not do it with glee. It’s all business, baby. 10. What is the most important thing that catches your attention and makes you want to grab a manuscript for your company? This is different for everyone, but for me, a really killer or unique writer’s “voice” is the number one consideration. Of course, a great story is a close second, though I have recommended manuscripts with stories that were not within my personal areas of interest (just because the story does not lie within my set of personal tastes does not mean that I will automatically reject it. Quite the contrary; if a manuscript is very well written, unique, and in a genre that is selling well, I will definitely consider it). Something that I’ve never heard of or thought of before is sure to catch my interest, as are characters that are immediately relatable. 11. What is the one thing that will make you immediately reject a piece after reading the first one or two paragraphs? Oh, terrible grammar (I recently read a submission that had three grammatical errors in the first sentence! I couldn’t go on), immediate backstory, descriptions of the characters or scenery rather than anything actually happening, and a lack of convincing “voice” are all things that will make me stop reading. The level of seriousness that these sins carry varies depending on the manuscript’s target audience and genre, but basically, I need to be hooked almost right away, ESPECIALLY in the middle grade genre, which is my main area of acquisition. 12. There was mention of strengths and weaknesses in submissions. What are they? What trends are there? A recurring problem is that authors tend to start their stories in the wrong place. In addition to what I said above, consider the opening paragraph of your manuscript. I often tell my authors to start a story in the middle of the main action paragraph, and get out before the action's completely over. For example, starting a story with, “And that’s when I saw the body” is a much stronger (and much less verbose) opening than, “I turned the corner on Broadway Street, and waved at Mr. Brown. I saw an oddly shaped lump in the alleyway and decided to investigate. And that’s when I saw the body.” Consider the import of the description in your opening paragraph. Does your reader care that the character waved at Mr. Brown? Does he care about the street's name? No. Not likely. The reader cares about the dead guy. UNLESS you are a cozy mystery writer, and Mr. Brown is the one who just committed the crime, and that street name is of vital importance to the plot. That is a different matter altogether, and readers of this genre have come to expect such things as the norm. Really great manuscripts hook right in the first sentence, and are merciless—they don’t let up on that tension, and demand the reader continue on. 13. Have you noticed a pattern of what you enjoy most in the things you read? *Cough* Children's horror *Cough* Okay, everyone has their preferences in literature. However, I am just one person. I would not reject a romance manuscript if it were really excellently written, unique, and immediately interesting. The problem is, the romance genre is often too slow moving for me. Still, I will not reject based on genre (assuming it is one that we accept---we do not take adult romance, so I'm good there), but there are some genres that are difficult for me to like. The good thing about BookFish Books, is that all the editors’ preferences are different, and that leads to real a variety of titles on our list. We don’t specialize in one genre or theme, and everyone likes something different. Sure, like any reader, there are things I personally like to see in a manuscript, but I try not to let my tastes effect my acquisitions vote. 14. What do you hate most about some of the things you read? I can’t stand the recurrent tendency of authors to describe their characters’ eyes. Over and bloody over. Gah! Drives me mental. Leading questions also irk me endlessly. As I just said above, I have my preferences, but I do my best not to allow them to make my decisions. However, if an author has described what a character "sees" in another character’s eyes six times on one page, well that tells me that the author is not super imaginative, and that the manuscript is not likely a good fit anyway. 15. How do you feel reading different kinds of works? I try to be as open-minded as possible with all the submissions we receive. As I said above, there are some genres my house does not accept, so I am not typically faced with things I don’t like (unless I take them on freelance). I admit that as soon as I read the words “vampire” or “werewolf” in a query, my brain generally shuts off. Fortunately, neither of those two trends are particularly popular right now, so we rarely get any of those stories anyway. There are very few things that I will not read, so I rarely come up against any trouble with that. If it's interesting, I'll read it! 16. Why did you choose the editing field, and when did you first realize your love for writing? I halfway answered this question right at the very beginning of this interview, so I will just focus on the editing portion. Basically, I chose to become an editor because it has always really bothered me to find errors in otherwise good books. Also, I love the way the field is always changing and adapting in conjunction with the language. I love to learn, and there is always something new to be learned in the field of editing. My grandmother was a librarian, and books have always been an important part of my life. I am interested in all of the arts, as many of you may already know. Editing is one way I can use my creative side to make a living. ** Image ID #1972250 Unavailable ** Each month I write an article taking you behind the scenes of the FSFS. This month I'd like to share with you the process I use when crediting affiliated reviews. When I credit reviews I have a four-tier system. The bottom tier doesn't get awarded any GPs, the second tier 250GPs, third 500GPs and the top tier gets 1000GPs. I will go through the criteria for the top 3 tiers (the bottom tier is for reviews that don't meet all of the criteria for the second tier. Good review For me, a good review must fulfil two key criteria. The review must say what the reader liked about the piece with a reason why, and give a suggestion for improvement with explanation. If a review doesn't do those two things then I don't award any GPs. These comments should be specific to the piece. I will not award GPs to reviews that are simple copy/pastes of the same review over and over. When you review someone's work it is important to show that you have read it and taken the time to think of constructive comments. Very Good Review Very good reviews have all the points of a good review but will go into more detail and make more points. The positive points made will be enhanced with examples and detailed reasons as to why it is good. The constructive criticisms given are detailed and well thought out. These reviews will be proof-read and hence have very few errors. Remember to preview your reviews. If you are pointing out that the author used the wrong there/their/they're, then you'd better make sure you get it right throughout your review! Same goes with WritingML. It only looks pretty if you do it correctly. If you miss a curly bracket out then the formatting of your review can really screw up, so triple check! Epic Review These reviews are the best of the best. Where there may only be a small difference between Good and Very Good reviews, an epic review will stand out from the crowd. There will be plenty of detail in all points made (but not too much). The review will encourage a dialogue with the author. These reviews will often look fantastic (though I don't think WritingML is required for reviews) and will have no errors (at least that I can notice on a quick read through). Almost all Epic Reviews are long. Length is NOT a criteria I use, but in general better reviews are longer reviews (but not always the other way around). Crediting reviews is subjective. There is no other way to do it properly. I could credit all reviews equally regardless of quality, but I don't want to do that. Nor do I want to credit reviews on length or prettiness. At the end of the day, if you take the time to read a piece and write constructive criticism I will probably credit you. If you are simply reviewing to get your review count up then you probably won't be credited by me. I would like to encourage you all to credit reviews. Simply use the drop down box next the review on public review pages. A review credit is motivational and impacts their position on most credited reviewers. It is a way of saying thank you to those who send quality reviews. [Note: Due to exams I haven't been crediting reviews recently. Today I credited all quality reviews affiliated to the FSFS in the last 14 days. I will try to keep on top of it whilst I have no exams.] "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor  Book Name: The Lord of the Rings Author: J.R.R. Tolkien First Published: 1954-1955 International Fantasy Award – 1957 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award 2009 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer, poet, and university professor. He was born in South Africa of English parents, but moved back to England with his mother and brother when he was three years old. Soon after, his father died of rheumatic fever, leaving the family without income. His mother moved in with her parents and later moved around to live with various relatives. Young Ronald spend his formative years exploring Sarehole Mill and Moseley Bog and the Clent, Lickey and Malvern Hills, which would become inspiration for scenes in his future books, including his Aunt Jane’s farm of Bag End, the name of which he would one day use for the home of his protagonist, Bilbo Baggins. His mother Mabel taught her two children the basics of education and added in a healthy portion of the study of botany and of Latin. Mabel Tolkien converted to Catholicism in 1900 and was quickly cut off by her Baptist family. Four years later, she would die of diabetes at the age of 34. Ronald Tolkien was a boy of twelve and given into the guardianship of his mother’s close friend, Fr. Francis Xavier Morgan of the Birmingham Oratory, who was charged to bring Ronald and his brother Hilary up as good Catholics. When Tolkien was 16, he met Edith Mary Bratt, a woman three years his senior, who lived in the boarding house where Ronald and his brother Hilary lived. They started out as friends, meeting at teashops and getting into mischief together. Both of them orphans, they found much in common, and soon were very much in love. Father Morgan was not pleased by the young romance. He felt that Edith was a distraction to Ronald’s studies and did not care for the fact that Edith was Protestant. Father Morgan made Ronald swear that he would not meet with, talk to or even so much as send Edith a letter until he was 21 years of age. If he did not obey, Morgan threatened to cut off Tolkien’s university career. Tolkien obeyed his guardian and threw himself into his studies at the university, but he could not erase Edith from his heart. On Tolkien’s 21st birthday, he wrote to Edith, declared his love for her, and asked her to marry him. Edith wrote back that she had agreed to marry someone else because after all this time, she thought that he had forgotten her. After a meeting at a railway station where the pair renewed their feelings for each other, Edith cried off her engagement and announced that she would marry Ronald Tolkien. The United Kingdom joined World War I a year after Tolkien had proposed to Edith. He did not immediately volunteer for service as the other young men of his age, instead he entered a program that allowed him to delay enlisting until he completed his degree and could enter the war as an officer. In 1915 he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers. After training as a signal officer, he was transferred to the 11th Battalion with the British Expeditionary Force, arriving in France in June of 1916. Tolkien served in several battles as a signal officer.. During the Battle of Somme, he lost several of his childhood friends in a single day. However, in the end, it was not the Germans that took Tolkien out of the war, but lice. Tolkien came down with trench fever which is carried by the vermin and was invalided back to England in 1916. Tolkien married Edith in 1916, three years after he had proposed to her. Tolkien spent the remainder of World War I recovering in hospitals or doing garrison duty. It was during this time that he began to work on what he called The Book of Lost Tales, which was an early version of what would become The Silmarillion. One day, while he and his wife went walking in the woods, Edith began to dance for him in a clearing among the flowering hemlock trees. This moment was the inspiration for the meeting of the characters of Beren and Luthien of The Silmarillion. Tolkien remarked upon the incident years later stating: “I never called Edith Luthien – but she was the source of the story that in time became the chief part of The Silmarillion. It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire (where I was for a brief time in command of an outpost of the Humber Garrison in 1917, and she was able to live with me for a while). In those days her hair was raven, her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them, and she could sing – and dance.” After the war, Tolkien’s first civilian job was with the Oxford English Dictionary where he worked on the history of words of Germanic origin beginning with the letter W. By 1920, he had taken a post as Reader in Leeds and was the youngest professor at the university. In 1925 he returned to Oxford with a fellowship at Pembroke College. It was at Pembroke where Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings. In 1945, Tolkien took a post at Merton College and he became a professor of English Language and Literature. He fit in well at Oxford and in the ivy tower world of teaching and research. Tolkien’s family life was normal enough where he and his family made their home in North Oxford. Edith bore the last of their four children in 1929. Tolkien would write the four children annual illustrated letters as if from Father Christmas in addition to his usual bedtime stories. A selection of these were published in 1976 as The Father Christmas Letters. In adulthood, his son John would enter the priesthood, sons Michael and Christopher would serve in the Royal Air Force and his daughter Priscilla would become a social worker. It was during this time in Oxford when Tolkien became one of the founding members of a group of friends with similar interests in writing. They were known as The Inklings. Other members were Mr. Coghill, Mr. Dyson, Own Barfield, Charles Williams and his closest friend, C.S. Lewis. Tolkien was responsible for returning C.S. Lewis to Christianity, although he was disappointed that he could not convince the man to convert to Catholicism. The Inklings met for conversation, drink, and to read and critique their works-in-progress, much as a modern writing group meets in present day. It was during this time period that Tolkien completed The Lord of the Rings. The book would publish in 1954 under his author name of J.R.R. Tolkien. In 1959, Ronald Tolkien retired from Oxford. During his time in retirement the sales of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit steadily increased and gained him much public attention and literary fame. The fan attention grew intense and to escape it, Tolkien and his wife moved to Bournemouth, a seaside resort. There his status as a best-selling author gave he and Edith entry into polite society. Edith loved Bournemouth, but Ronald missed his old Inklings friends at Oxford. An old family friend wrote: “Those friends who knew Ronald and Edith Tolkien over the years never doubted that there was deep affection between them. It was visible in the small things, the almost absurd degree in which each worried about the other’s health, and the care in which they chose and wrapped each other’s birthday presents'; and in the large matters, the way in which Ronald willingly abandoned such a large part of his life in retirement to give Edith the last years in Bournemouth that he felt she deserved, and the degree in which she showed pride in his fame as an author. A principal source of happiness to them was their shared love of their family. This bound them together until the end of their lives, and it was perhaps the strongest force in the marriage. They delighted to discuss and mull over every detail of the lives of their children, and later their grandchildren.” Edith was the first to pass in 1971. She was 82 years of age. She would miss seeing Queen Elizabeth II appoint her husband a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and receive the insignia of the Order at Buckingham Palace later in 1972. That same year, Oxford University gave him an honorary Doctorate of Letters. Twenty one months after her death, Tolkien died at the age of 81. Tolkien had the name Luthien engraved under Edith’s name on their shared tombstone. He had the name Beren carved under his own name when he joined her. Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. The Lord of the Rings begins in the land of the Hobbits, known as The Shire. A land of verdant innocence, peopled by people that do not look beyond their borders. A young hobbit by the name of Frodo Baggins inherits the One Ring from his uncle, Bilbo Baggins when the elder hobbit disappears at his birthday party. Gandalf the Grey, a powerful human wizard, advises Frodo to remove the ring from the Shire. The young hobbit takes off with only his gardener, Samwise (Sam) Gamgee, but they are joined later by two of Frodo’s hobbit cousins Meridoc (Merry) Brandybuck and Peregrin (Pippin) Took. The group travels on to the town of Bree where they meet a man named Strider. He becomes their guide and protector, and later is revealed to be Aragorn, Isildur’s heir. The evil Nazgul attack the hobbits several times, in the end wounding Frodo with a Morgul blade. Aragorn leads the group to the Elven refuge of Rivendell where Frodo might be healed by Elrond, the leader of the Rivendell elves. As Frodo recovers, the hobbits learn the history of the ring, of Sauron and about how Sauron had corrupted Gandalf’s friend and fellow wizard, Saruman. The elven council declares that the ring that Frodo carries must be destroyed, but that can only be done where it was forged, in the fires of Mount Doom in the land of Mordor. Frodo offers to bear the ring to the mountain and to destroy it. A fellowship of the ring is then formed to protect him. It consists of Merry, Pippin, Sam, Gandalf the Wizard, Aragorn, Gimli the Dwarf, Legolas the Elf, and the human Boromir, who is the son of the ruling steward of Gondor. The Fellowship face many challenges on their way to Mordor. They fail to cross the Misty Mountains via the pass and are forced to take a more dangerous path through the dwarven Mines of Moria. There they face the Watcher in the water and later a monster known as a Balrog. Gandalf manages to defeat the Balrog, but in the struggle with the beast, both fall into a deep chasm. Gandalf is presumed dead. The rest of the Fellowship leave Moria and take refuge in the Elven forest of Lothlorien. Frodo is counselled by Galadriel, one of the elder elves of Lothlorien, and the Fellowship are gifted with boats to take them down the River Anduin to the hills of Amon Hen. It is there that Boromir falls for the siren song of the One Ring and tries to steal it from Frodo. The attempt convinces Frodo that he should continue on his quest along. Only Sam guesses what is on Frodo’s mind and forces Frodo to take him along. The Fellowship of the Ring is now broken. After Frodo leaves, a group of Orcs sent by Saruman and Sauron to capture Frodo, kill Boromir and kidnap Merry and Pippin. As the orcs travel though Rohan, a kingdom of horsemen, they are ambushed and killed by the Rohirrim. Merry and Pippin flee into Fangorn Forest where they befriend Treebeard, the oldest of the tree-like and powerful Ents. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas track the hobbits to Fangorn, and it is there they discover the resurrected wizard of their fellowship, now known as Gandalf the White. The Ents, stirred from their normally peaceful and slow ways by the two hobbits, are convinced to attack Isengard, Saruman’s stronghold and to trap the wizard. Gandalf and Rohirrim reinforcements arrive in time to scatter Saruman’s army. Gandalf faces Saruman and strips him of his wizard’s rank and powers. Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam capture Gollum, who was following them all the way from Moria. Gollum agrees to guide the hobbits through Mordor to Mount Doom, hoping to catch Frodo off guard and steal back the One Ring. The One Ring had once belonged to him before Frodo’s uncle, Bilbo Baggins, had taken it decades ago. Instead of leading the hobbits to Mount Doom as promised, Gollum leads the pair to the great spider Shelob in the tunnels in Mordor. Frodo falls to Shelob’s sting, but Sam manages to free himself from the giant spider. Frodo lies so still from the spider’s poison, that Sam believes his friend is dead. He takes the One Ring and takes on Frodo’s quest as his own. He continues on toward Mount Doom. However, when he is near a group of orcs, he overhears that Frodo was merely unconscious and the ever faithful servant and friend follows the orcs in the hope that he can rescue his friend. Sauron and his army attack the Kingdom of Gondor. As the city is under siege, the Regent is fooled by Sauron and commits suicide, almost taking his last son Faramir (Boromir’s brother) with him. Aragorn feels that he has little options left. He and the rest of the fellowship go to raise and army of oath-breaker ghosts that had been bound by and ancient curse. In exchange for doing battle with Sauron, they will be freed of their curse and able to go to their rest. With the help of the ghost army, the forces of Gondor and Rohan do real damage to Sauron’s orc army. They push back the enemy forces and defeat them. With the end of the war of the ring, Aragorn is crowned Elessar, King of Arnor and Gondor. He marries his love interest, Arwen the daughter of Elrond, leader of the elves of Rivendell. Saruman escapes from Isengard and seeks to re-establish himself in a new land. He chooses to invade the hobbit homeland, The Shire. During this time, Sam rescues Frodo, and they set out across Mordor. Reaching the lip of the fires of the volcano, Frodo is overwhelmed by the power of the One Ring and claims it for himself. It is at this moment that Gollum returns, and fights to reclaim the ring. Gollum bites off Frodo’s finger, ring and all. As their twisted guide celebrates his victory, he stumbles and falls into the lava, taking the One Ring with him. The destruction of the One Ring has removed Sauron’s power for good. The Nazgul die and Sauron’s army becomes easy prey for Aragorn’s forces at the Black Gate of Mordor. Frodo and Sam are reunited with Merry and Pippin in Gondor. They long to return home to The Shire. To their horror, they find their home has been transformed by Saruman. Together, the four lead the hobbit people in rebellion against the former wizard, removing his threat from their homeland. Merry and Pippin are declared heroes for saving The Shire. Samwise spots a comely young hobbit lass and decides to get married. He uses his gifts from Galadriel the elf to help heal The Shire. Frodo never seems to recover from his wounds and from the burden of having to carry the One Ring for as long as he had. A few years later, he sails on to the western isles of the elves, in the hope to find peace for his soul at long last. The Lord of the Rings was originally intended to be a two-volume set, the other volume to be The Silmarillion, but the author’s idea was dismissed by his publisher. Instead, he was asked for “more hobbit stories” due to the success of his first novel, The Hobbit. After 12 years of writing, Tolkien delivered The Lord of the Rings, a six part volume, which the publisher broke up into three parts. The first book is The Fellowship of the Ring, followed by The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. It can also be found as a single book. The Lord of the Rings is in the top five highest selling books of all time and has been translated into many languages. The story has been turned into the now famous trilogy of feature films created by Peter Jackson. Eventually, The Silmarillion would be published after the author’s death along with other assorted writings, the guiding force behind this action being one of Tolk ien’s sons. At last, the volumes that Tolkien had originally envisioned are available to the world. Like many people, I embarked on the journey of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings when I was fairly young and still in middle school. I remember being caught up in the adventure of the tale, but didn’t care for the poetry. I also did not understand many of the nuances that are part of this novel as I now do as an adult. It is subtle, but once you understand the depth of what the author has created, you simply feel amazed. There are shifts in the tone and style of the book that are deliberate echoes of the different mythic and language forms that the author used as a basis for the many cultures of Middle Earth and even for the pattern of naming his characters and locations. This is part of what makes the book special, the characters live in their own mythos, as intricate and complex as our own. There is also a shift in the voice of the novel, depending on the point of view. The chapters that focus on the hobbits have more dialogue and detail. The chapters showcasing the Ro hirrim have a poetic rhythm echoing Middle English works. The elven chapters have a mystical quality that is hard to get a clear picture of, distant and beautiful as the elves that the author writes about. These shifts in style and tone are not the work of a novice writer, but are intentional characterizations of races and groups through language. Tolkien perhaps was not the greatest writer of dialogue, but he substitutes this lack for style and action. Lord of the Rings is the founding corner stone of the high fantasy genre as we know it today. His ideas have been copied many times, but there is only one great original. Lord of the Rings will always have a place on my bookshelf and hopefully on yours as well. The novel has become the second best-selling novel ever written, with only A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens selling more. The Hobbit comes in as the fourth best-selling novel of all time. It is said that there are two different types of people in the world. One type has read The Lord of the Rings, the other is waiting to do so. Which are you? The Hobbit The Fellowship of the Ring The Two Towers The Return of the King The Silmarillion
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If you are not already a member and are interested in fantasy and science fiction writing, please read through the group homepage and apply using the application form. The only pre-requisite is that you have a fantasy or science fiction item in your portfolio. If you want to advertise in the FSFS Newsletter please contact me, Matt Bird MSci (Hons) AMRSC  .Newsletter Challenges  Each month I set two Newsletter Challenges for you to complete before the next Newsletter. If you complete a challenge you will be entered into a draw for the chance to win an FSFS Merit Badge. There are two challenges to complete. The first challenge can be completed by anybody. The second challenge can only be completed by FSFS members. FSFS members can complete both to get multiple entries into the draw. Invalid Merit Badge #201075 Last month loads a fair few of you voted for the Christmas round of Three Prompts and one of linked to a review in the comments section. I am pleased to announce the winner of the FSFS Merit Badge is.... Hanna This month's challenges are: Challenge 1 (open to all of WdC): As it is a New Year let's all set ourselves some writing resolutions for the year. In the comments section tell us what your 2015 Writing Resolution(s) is/are. Challenge 2 (FSFS members-only): Let's give the FSFS forums some love. Everyone who posts (including replies) in any of the FSFS forums will be entered into the draw. If you post in multiple forums you get multiple entries (once per forum). You will be disqualified if you just post for no other reason. Make them good posts! Thank you to all the members who submitted articles to the Newsletter. If you submitted an article that wasn't included, don't be offended. I can only fit so much in the Newsletter. Please submit it again when I send the call out for articles. Please comment on this Newsletter if you enjoyed it, or if you have any suggestions for future editions. |
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