I’ve made no secret that I’m a big Tolkien fan. After devouring the stories published during his lifetime, I took a short detour into his notes and unfinished tales published by his son. I’ve even listened through the entire ‘Silmarillion Seminar’ a series of discussions hosted by Corey Olson, aka The Tolkien Professor. ( Tolkien Professor Site ) Imagine a podcast of the council of Elrond as a book club. Yeah, I probably do have too much free time on my hands. 
Like most fans, I didn’t enjoy those later works nearly as much as the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. In fairness to Tolkien, he never intended them to reach readers as they did.
Ah the problems of being unable to produce any more material yet being so popular that even your scribbles become best sellers. I suspect this will not be a problem for my heirs. That said, Tolkien’s notes taught me to appreciate the value of using mythology as a foundation in storytelling and plot creation. Many books have been written about how many (or few for you half empty types) plots or plot devices actually exist. Is it seven, nine, twenty or something else? (Here’s a link to a blog about it Plot Devices)
The debate got me thinking about how repetitive the plot lines really are in all forms of storytelling. My favorite genres (fantasy & Sci-fi) are filled with quests, adventures, and a smattering of rescues, riddles, and rivalries. What about television, song (insert your favorite dig at country music here), movies, and mythology. Michael Witzel (a real philologist from Harvard) has actually proposed that all myths have a common ancestor mythos, like the mitochondrial Eve of Africa. (A recent article featuring Witzel (and others) on this topic Myth Origins). Pretty heady stuff for me really, although I guess in a way I’m continuing within that tradition.
My dilemma
One of the things that appeals to me about Tolkien is how he created his own mythology using Nordic legends as a foundation. When I sat down to write my first series (Misaligned), my goal was
to try something similar with Arthurian legend. I don’t want to compete with Tennyson, White, Bradley, or any of the hundreds of others who’ve taken up the challenge. Instead, I asked how I could change it to reflect me? My solution was to go back to the original Welsh roots of the myth. I chose explain the magical elements through a loose interpretation of String Theory. Finally I moved the story into present day upstate NY, and made Arthur a girl.
Is that a riddle-adventure, a rebirth-quest, or for those of you who may have read it an unintentional comedy? Am I any different than those who modified the tale into their Christian, Romance, or Gothic revival styles? Does it really matter?
Thanks for reading.
Armen
For more information about the Misaligned Series, please visit my website – Misaligned Info