So, first of all, hiya! I haven't blogged in quite some time -- didja notice? :D
I'm still writing. I'm still not publishing. :/ That's okay with me for now. Hope it's okay with you, too. Considering the state of the publishing industry and the AI debacle, I'm actually perfectly happy just to enjoy the art of writing until we get some sort of hopeful reset.
So meanwhile, back at the ranch (literally), I am working on a WIP that has a connection to the Battle of Troy (yes, it's of the time travel ilk, but definitely like nothing you've ever seen from me before).
As luck would have it, there just happens to be a potential blockbuster movie out based on the Odyssey and Iliad written by Homer long, long ago. I haven't been this excited about a Hollywood movie in ages, considering the garbage they've been kicking out for the past several years now (The Sound of Freedom and Top Gun Maverick being major exceptions), but I'm excited to see this one.
I enjoyed the original Troy (with Brad Pitt), but as I'm doing my research I'm finding some of that film quite inaccurate, or at least misleading. For instance, the Achaeans didn't camp on a huge beach right near the walls of Troy, they actually camped on a peninsula about 20 stads or stadions (2.2 miles) to the west of Troy with a wide plain, river deltas, and marshland between them and their siege target. There were also other small settlements in the area and another large settlement/town to the north. And all of this is assuming the maps I'm consulting are accurate themselves, which I believe to be true.
The amazing thing about Troy is it was long believed only to be a legend--until German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann found the remnants of a burned, sacked city (identified as "Hissarlik") exactly where it was supposed to have existed in Turkey and dating back to the same timeframe it was said to have thrived. Voila! No longer myth and legend, but history.
At any rate, the Odyssey is more than just about the Battle of Troy, but I'm eager to enjoy an honest-to-goodness epic done in the classic -- and much missed -- Hollywood style of olde. And it even looks like Matt Damon picked up the starring role of Odysseus. I'm in! And maybe I'll pick up a mental note or two for my WIP while I'm at it.
Here's the trailer:
