Friday October 13, 2017: The Day Thranduil Changed The World

My Facebook mail box keeps filling up with people I don’t know talking about Tolkien. What’s going on here? Fan girls, the perpetual tagging with Lee Pace (the real guy)--what’s happening? You do realize I am prone to hyperventilating in crowds, @fortunatelyclevercandy. This isn’t what I think it is, is it? I can’t be “that way” right now. I need to buy clothes to wear that came from this decade.

You know, I normally wouldn’t care. Why should I care? I mean, at this point in my life, I might a well just throw in the towel, marry one of a myriad of idiots I seem to attract like moths to a flame, have a kid or two and forget any of this ever happened. I mean, I wrote my first book while my Dad was still here. That was the plan all along. Sadly, those lackadaisical fantasies are gone forever. I started to like this book. I have 924 pages done right now just for Thranduil’s book alone (two versions of Book II, of course). It will be as long (if not longer) as The Lord of the Rings 50th Anniversary Edition--a nice doorstop.

It is only a matter of time before Lee Pace shows up, @fortunatelyclevercandy. You know how awkward it will be to talk to the person who inspired an entire Tolkien-esque trilogy about the elves of the Woodland Realm based entirely on the sound of his voice and a look in his eye? That is not an exaggeration--that is the truth. Tolkien inspired me to find the elf in his world I knew Lee was.

--God, I just know that I this is going to turn into the public relations nightmare from hell--

Look, if The Kingdom of the Woodland Realm Trilogy gets anymore attention, then I’m going to have to change my name to Holly Golightly and move to Tuscany. I just got a message yesterday from a self-proclaimed “Tolkien-phile” telling me he’s going to pass this book along to other “Tolkien-philes” he knows like a joint at Woodstock and there will be zero chance that the Tolkien Estate is not going to find out about this book if that happens--

--unless, of course you count the person that mistook my story for a new Tolkien novel and sent an email directly to The Tolkien Estate asking about it--

--God, I just know that I this is going to turn into the public relations nightmare from hell--

Based on what this lovely person told me, they asked the REAL Tolkien Estate, they left them with a message something to the effect of “When/where is the book about Thranduil coming out”, thinking of course, my book was a bonafide Tolkien novel. Something like that.

Whoever wanted a “film” about Thranduil, @bellevox, @thranduilings  @thranduilthings, @elven-nicknacks, @thranduilsqueen, @themiddleearthworldoftolkien, @freakingvantastic, @storytimeteller1, @emitis17, @leepace71, @kerstin1864, @kelcipher, @babschwi, you just got closer to that reality--closer than anyone has ever come before.

It is no longer in the world of wondering of what if it could be done. It has moved into the realm of it could be done. It still has a long way to go--it’s just now it probably is a shorter distance.

Anything can happen, @fortunatelyclevercandy and it probably will. I was hoping I had time to think about submitting to the Tolkien Estate and it would be at the end of the book. Well, I guess Thranduil’s story is headed into the stratosphere now--not only that, there a two different endings to choose.

I can’t say it’s impossible anymore and neither can anyone else who said it couldn’t be done. I didn’t start out wanting this to happen--I just wanted to finish something while my father was still with me on this earth. I wanted to make him proud of me. I’m glad he was here when I finished my first book dedicated to him. I never expected any of this--The Kingdom of the Woodland Realm Trilogy began as just another story about Thranduil in a sea of Thranduils. For whoever has been reading, thank you. You made this all possible.

You asked me once, “what would you call this book”, @fortunatelyclevercandy. Fan-fiction? Part of Tolkien’s world? I call it a miracle. No matter where it ends up, it changed my life and has changed the way people look at Thranduil. He’s come into his own--he has truly become Thranduil Everlasting. His story has been told and it will never be forgotten.

“Tell them I am more than the Elvenking. I have a name as they well know. They may not want to hear it nor say it, but you will tell them that I am Thranduil, Elvenking of Mirkwood.”--Book II/Chapter I: I am Thranduil by J. Marie Miller

😴 Off to Bed.

Big day tomorrow. Set my alarm and everything. Two hours to ask me about The Kingdom of the Woodland Realm Trilogy I am able to answer from 12-2 CST on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/tkwrtrilogyjmmiller/ Most will ask about Thranduil as his book is the first completed volume--extended versions not withstanding. 📕Book I: The Epic of Eryn Galen (started) 📗Book II: The Saga of Thranduil (completed) 📘Book III: The Last Tale of Legolas Lasgalen (started) #AskTKWRT #tkwrtrilogy #thesagaofthranduil As you were.

Due to powers beyond my control, Thranduil and The Kingdom of the Woodland Realm Trilogy aren’t going anywhere. It would be virtually impossible right now. After the last very popular book release, I have no idea who has a copy of Book II: The Saga of Thranduil. I can’t even say for sure if Pace does or doesn’t have one anymore. He’s out into the world now--Thranduil is an unstoppable force. With him, anything can happen and it usually does.

By the way: For @fortunatelyclevercandy. I forgot to tell you.

While discussing Book II: The Saga of Thranduil today, my reader mentioned how I handled the loss of Êlúriel (in the original story) and liked how Thranduil had “visions of her” as well as Legolas and liked how I ended Book II--because it left her wondering what happens with Legolas (he returns and he has his diary thing coming up). She thought the story was something someone who lost someone should read due to how Thranduil is able to move on and find the strength to do so. She likes how I dealt with the tragic loneliness of Thranduil. She wants to read everything TKWR Trilogy--including the Alternate End--which now somehow has turned a miniature franchise that somehow continues to grow. I pointed out the fact that when I was editing, I noticed how far I had come by how much Thranduil had changed from a child to a man and from a prince to a king. Every thing he has lived through made him the king people know today. I am not finished yet. But to pass the ultimate test--the retelling of the Battle of the Five Armies--was the greatest moment of the day. It did what I wanted it to do: rise from the page to see it through the eyes of Thranduil.

I know how it all begins and how it will end. In truth, however, Thranduil’s story as I have written it has become myth and legend and according to my reader (a die-hard Tolkien fan) leaves people wanting more. The question has become not “if” I will do something with this but “when”.

Book II: The Saga of Thranduil has become the “jewel” of the trilogy. It is even hard for my reader not to see Lee as Thranduil.

I guess “because it was real”. And it was.