The Hobbit films: news

I've been keeping track (haphazardly) of the new Hobbit films coming out. The first one will be released, so far as I know, at the end of next year. The first one will be called The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and the second one, which will be released in 2013, will be called The Hobbit: There And Back Again.

One of the best internet hubs for LOTR and tH news in my opinion is theonering.net. It takes me back! I remember fondly when I used to visit lordoftherings.net every other day when those films were just coming out. What a fine time! They had so much wonderful information about the films and the film scores. In fact, I will be posting news about the scores here when I get more information.

As you may know if you've read my profile, I am a huge fan of Tolkien's work. He is one of my favorite authors and Peter Jackson and his crew have done a stellar job of bringing the LOTR films to visual life and I have absolute confidence in his ability to bring The Hobbit to screen while remaining true to the spirit of the story. I've found a wonderful documentary through theonering.net with Stephen Fry and Peter Jackson talking about Tolkien's work. In fact, the entire segment is excellent as Fry discusses some of his favorite great writers they were. The other part of the segment finds him discussing James Joyce and Shakespeare - and regardless of what some have to say I have no doubts that Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to him.

A year is a long time to wait. I remember when I first heard that The Fellowship of the Ring was being filmed. I could not believe it. All of my film dreams came true when those films came out. At least I still have my LOTR audio book, narrated by Rob Inglis. I find myself listening to it whenever I need literary inspiration from Tolkien. Or just whenever I want to sit on my couch on a rainy day and drink hot tea and listen to a good story. By the way here is a written interview of Rob Inglis talking about his work narrating The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. A delightful read!

The Winter Wolves first draft is finished!

Well, after I have unveiled my new book cover for my next book I have more good news! I have just finished my first draft of The Winter Wolves! I'm also currently working on a sample chapter for the next book in the series - The Lady Moons. After that, once again the REAL work begins - revising, proofreading and editing.

Finishing that first draft is always good times. I love it. And now I deserve a martini. . .

Some ebooks simply cost too much!

One thing I've been thinking about for a long time in relation to ebooks is price.

Price, I think, matters a great deal when buying an ebook. The large publishers have really gotten out of control when it comes to prices. As a reader I've always felt a little irritated when having to buy mass market paperbacks for nearly $9.00 (yes they are nearly that much now) but when I first bought my Kindle this past summer and started buying George R.R. Martin's Songs of Ice and Fire series I received a shock to my system. They were all $9.99!

Ebooks for $9.99 seem to be the norm from the bigger publishers. I didn't much like that at all, as I see it as quite expensive for a book that isn't a purely physical product requiring wood, ink, printing presses and many people to create said product. But being that Martin is such a great storyteller in my eyes, and he's well known, I paid it and enjoyed the books.

Then his latest book in the series came out.

It was $14.99. I'm thinking: Hot Damn! For real? I'm sorry but that's a rip off! Of course I bought it although I nearly had a stroke while doing it, because I'm not going to ignore the next book in such a great series, but I made a decision after that purchase right then and there: no more ebooks will I purchase beyond $9.99! Even at $9.99, the writer will have to prove to me that he/she is a master storyteller.

Personally, (and this is just my opinion, nothing scientific) I think that an ebook novel shouldn't be more than $6.99 and that's at the upper end of the price range. I think $0.99 is reasonable for short stories and novelettes and novellas, especially if you are an unknown author and $1.99 - $2.99 is reasonable for a novel. Omnibus novel editions can cost $9.99 - $14.99. After all, you are getting a group of novels together. I think well known authors can get away with higher price points on a single work.

But really, charging readers more than $8.99 for an ebook is outright greed! That's just how I feel about it.