by Ramy Vance
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?”
“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?”
“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.
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…
Anyway, I digress. Launch day is fast approaching, we’re starting the pre-launch buzz and then it happened. We got hit by an author friend and former lawyer who said, and I quote, “What the fuck are you doing? You can’t call your book Middle3arth.”
“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.
“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?”
“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/
All LMBPN Audiobooks are Available at Audible.com and iTunes
To see all LMBPN audiobooks, including those written by Michael Anderle please visit:
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