He took a sip of his Coke. That’s Michael for you. Always on brand. “Fight the Dark One before the Dark One brings the fight to Earth?”
<Mike: The real story is Ramy provided me an Amazon Kindle with his stories on it for my review and a document about adoption or something. No, really. I should keep that Kindle in case we ever have an LMBPN museum. It is a black and white Kindle, not even an Oasis. He’s kinda cheap that way.>
“It’s like you read my mind,” I lied. It was more like he was feeding me the story. But who was I to complain?
“A world where the DnD, RPG and video game players are the heroes?”
“Are you psychic?” <Mike: Yes…yes I am.>
“I dig it. But what do we call this place?”
And that was when the magic happened. We both … and I kid you not … said, “Middle Earth.” Or more specifically: Middle3arth.
<Mike: Actually, I can’t remember what happened, but I’d be willing to put a few dollars down that Ramy was first out of the mouth with MiddleEarth (note no hyphen).>
We even got a cover commissioned to honor our most awesome title.
Over the next few months, we plotted, planned and wrote until we came up with Suzuki and Beth’s story--a three book series to introduce the world and, if successful, kick off the universe.
I couldn’t be happier … I mean, I not only get to collaborate with one of the most successful indie authors ever, but we were actually building a universe.
Talk about Ultimate Cosmic Power (and an itty-bitty laptop). What? Not an Aladdin fan…
<Mike: It’s “in an itty-bitty laptop” and I think you forgot the blue guy setup.>
“Why not?” we proclaimed.
“Because it’s copyrighted, dingbats.” Yes, he really did call us dingbats. People do talk like that. Well, lawyers based out of Alaska do, at least.
<Mike: Technically, “Middle-Earth” is copyrighted or trademarked or something. The actual term Middle Earth existed before Tolkien. However…>
“But … but … we like Middle3arth.”
“And Tolkien’s lawyers like money.”
“But … but … Middle3arth is a great title.”
“And Tolkien’s lawyers are great at getting your money.”
“But … but … we already have the cover.”
“Fuckity, fuck, fucknessity.” Another direct quote. I don’t know what Alaskan lawyers are into, but this was getting weird.
“So no way we can call it Middle3arth?”
“No way.”
“No way at all?”
“Fuck. Then what do we call it?”
“I don’t know,” quoth the lawyer turned author, “it’s your fucking story.”
So Michael and I scrambled until we finally found Middang3ard (the ‘3’ is an ‘E’). An old word spelling for Middengard (with a better location for the ‘E,’ too. Looks cooler). And there you have it … the birth of Middang3ard.
Fucking Lawyers.
Other books by Ramy Vance
Mortality Bites Series
Keep Evolving Series
Books By Michael Anderle
For a complete list of books by Michael Anderle, please visit:
www.lmbpn.com/ma-books/
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