Monthly Archives: September 2016

Final Day of Tolkien Week

Day 7 of Tolkien Week – it has been quiet a celebration. Hope you enjoyed getting close to the Old Professor. I did, but now it’s time for a shower. 

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This post remains one of my personal favorites and most popular. The Gods of Fantasy is a tribute to a very special writers group. I facilitate one such group at a local cafe. We have met over 500 times and I love the support of my fellow writers. Who knows? Maybe one day someone will write about the legendary authors of the Berkeley Writers Group. Maybe one day. But for now, enjoy this post. 

Happy Tolkien Week!

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Alon Shalev is the author of the 2013 Eric Hoffer YA Book Award winner, At The Walls of Galbrieth, and four other novels all released by Tourmaline Books and currently all ebooks are at 99 cents each to celebrate his latest, the sixth in the series, which will be released on October 15, 2016.

More about the author at alonshalev.com.

Tolkien the Rapper

Day 6 of Tolkien Week – and I’m worried about Tolkien Fatigue – and I am not referring to five pages describing a forest (weird forest that it was).

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So this is a short one, because I really want to share my grand finale tomorrow. This is quite simply a hilarious and amazing rap. Who would have thought that either Gollum or Smeagol would have had it in him! 

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Alon Shalev is the author of the 2013 Eric Hoffer YA Book Award winner, At The Walls of Galbrieth, and four other novels all released by Tourmaline Books and currently all ebooks are at 99 cents each to celebrate his latest, the sixth in the series, which will be released on October 15, 2016.

More about the author at alonshalev.com.

Learning from the Great Author

Day 5 of Tolkien Week – and we are still going strong!  Even though the old professor is no longer teaching at Oxford, his work is there for those of us who want to learn the craft to glean some insights.

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This blog post was an attempt to share with fellow writers what I feel I have learned from Tolkien – Crumbs of the Great Master. Check it out and feel free to add to the list. Let’s make this a communal round. Cheers!

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Alon Shalev is the author of the 2013 Eric Hoffer YA Book Award winner, At The Walls of Galbrieth, and four other novels all released by Tourmaline Books and currently all ebooks are at 99 cents each to celebrate his latest, the sixth in the series, which will be released on October 15, 2016.

More about the author at alonshalev.com.

Tolkien The Poet

Day 4 of Tolkien Week – and we are still going strong!  The day before yesterday, I wrote about philology and no, it is not contagious.

happy-tolkien-week

Did you know that Tolkien wrote poetry? So what, you say, anyone can. But, I counter, can they make up a language and then write a poem in said language?

No! You declare and promptly click here to hear the poem read by the Master himself!

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Alon Shalev is the author of the 2013 Eric Hoffer YA Book Award winner, At The Walls of Galbrieth, and four other novels all released by Tourmaline Books and currently all ebooks are at 99 cents each to celebrate his latest, the sixth in the series, which will be released on October 15, 2016.

More about the author at alonshalev.com.

Questions I Would Have Asked.

Day 3 of Tolkien Week – yesterday, I shared a post about writing an entire language. I’m glad you are still with me – I have a ‘thing’ about meeting the authors I admire. I stalk them (well, follow) and treasure autographed copies of their books. 

happy-tolkien-week

 

I often imagined interviewing the Professor. Here is what I would have asked him (assuming I had not stood there stuttering, dribbling, and making a complete idiot of myself!). 

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Alon Shalev is the author of the 2013 Eric Hoffer YA Book Award winner, At The Walls of Galbrieth, and four other novels all released by Tourmaline Books and currently all ebooks are at 99 cents each to celebrate his latest, the sixth in the series, which will be released on October 15, 2016.

More about the author at alonshalev.com.

Tolkien Invented The Elvish Language

Day 2 of Tolkien Week (Here is yesterday’s humble offering). One of the mind-boggling accomplishments of this Oxford professor was that he invented an entire language.

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Sure, you might say, he was a philologist, but how many other philologists wrote a language that lived up to every criteria that philologists consider critical to a complete language (In the interest of transparency, I have no idea)!

Here is a great tribute to this aspect of Tolkien’s expertise: one of his disciples singing Happy Birthday to him … in elvish!

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Alon Shalev is the author of the 2013 Eric Hoffer YA Book Award winner, At The Walls of Galbrieth and four other novels all released by Tourmaline Books and currently all ebooks are at 99 cents each to celebrate his latest, the sixth in the series, which will be released on October 15, 2016.

More about the author at alonshalev.com.

Happy Hobbit Day

Today’s the day!  According to the scholars and the blissfully lost, both Bilbo Baggins and his nephew, Frodo, celebrate their birthdays on this very day. So, we do too!

Turns out, why waste such joy on one day a year? So the powers that be have declared a 7-day holiday: Tolkien Week. For the next seven days, I plan to share one of the ridiculously numerous posts I have written about the Great Master over the years.

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I would apologize to anyone who thinks this is an overload. While you are right, I cannot truly offer contrition since I don’t feel any. Feel free to skip or indulge!

The Professor, with his pipe and tweed, has often been considered a stuffy academic, but there is certainly a soft and humorous side.  Here is a cute story.

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Thank you to everyone who is buying up copies of the first five Wycaan Master books, all currently 99 cents to celebrate the final book which is less than a month away!

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Alon Shalev is the author of the 2013 Eric Hoffer YA Book Award winner, At The Walls of Galbrieth and four other novels all released by Tourmaline Books and currently all ebooks are at 99 cents each to celebrate his latest, the sixth in the series, which will be released on October 15, 2016.

 Find out more about the author at his newly relaunched website: alonshalev.com.