Jonesing for Tolkien.

 Wow. The combination of watching "The Dig" and reading a history of the Vikings, "The Children of Ash and Elm," has really got me jonesing to write a Tolkien pastiche again.

Because, let's face it. Almost all heroic or epic fantasy is either a Tolkien pastiche, or some obvious backlash against writing a Tolkien pastiche, which usually results in something awkward, either too much of the same thing, or something that doesn't really work. 

The only way around that is to write something within the framework--dare I say formula--that Tolkein established, but to write it so well it still comes across as fresh. I'm thinking Lois McMasters Bujold's "World of the Five Gods" trilogy, or Patrick Rothfuss's, "The Kingkiller Chronicle."

By the way, Lois McMasters Bujold is the most under rated SF and Fantasy author ever--not by those in the 'know' -- after all, she's been nominated or won more awards than just about any other writer--but by the general public. I try hard to get people to read her, but most turn me down for some reason. Instead they read drudge like "The Wheel of Time" or...well, any number of "Tolkien pastiches." (I wrote a few myself early on: "Star Axe" in particular. My defense is--I started writing it before Tolkien pastiches flooded the bookshelves.)

I understand that most people are actually looking for Tolkien pastiches. They want to fill that hole in the heart that Tolkien carves. 

My problem was, I filled that hole and it started to drown the entire genre for me. Just more of the same thing. I'm talking dozens of trilogy series that people have recommended as "different" but which almost never are. 

I've read mostly SF and mysteries, non-fiction and mainstream novels in the last forty years. To my own surprise, when I came back to writing, I didn't write heroic fantasy. I wrote horror, and rpg lit and thrillers and urban fantasy and stuff I can't really categorize.

The closest I've come is my four novellas in the "Tales of the Thirteen Principalities." Those are written, but need to be coordinated in their plots, so require some rewriting.

I'm going to try to fill my Tolkien jonesing by fleshing out the novellas. I think those will probably be the next stories I put out there. 

Apparently, the Tolkien hole still needs to be filled.