The 2nd Light Book Writing Soundtrack

So whenever I write fanfics, especially long ones or those in a series, I always have some music I write to - not necessarily the fic's official soundtrack, so to speak, but rather just mood music.

For the 2nd Light book series, it's no different. Not only does music help me get into the mood for writing, but sometimes also inspires passages and the flow of certain scenes. Here's a sampling of what I used to help set the mood or at least get me into the mindset of writing.

• John Williams - "The Patriot Main Theme" (Reprise version)

  • Inspirational as hell - probably one of the few things that I like about the "Patriot" and won't nitpick the hell out of it each time I watch that movie

• Lorne Balfe w/Hans Zimmer - "Sons of Liberty" Main Theme

  • The TV miniseries is so, so very bad and very inaccurate...the music, pretty catchy since it's Lorne Balfe who is a Hans Zimmer disciple

• The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra - "Band of Brothers" Main Theme

  • Any version of the Band of Brothers theme will do, but I like this one in particular

• Joy Williams and Matt Berninger - "Hush" (Credits Intro Theme to "TURN: Washington's Spies")

• Sarah Blasko - "Spanish Ladies" (Played in an episode of "TURN: Washington's Spies")

  • I prefer the sea shanty version, but this one is pretty light and airy

• Rob Lane - "John Adams Opening Titles"

  • Ep. 2 of the HBO miniseries is my favorite - TJ is adorable when he writes the draft of the Declaration of Independence and gets critiqued by Franklin and Adams

• Lorne Balfe - "Assassin's Creed III" soundtrack

  • AC3 has one of the better soundtracks (nothing beats AC2 or ACR), but this one is as inspirational as John Williams' "The Patriot" soundtrack when it comes to writing and concentrating on scenes

There are plenty of other music I used while writing in this book series, but these were the main ones whenever I was plotting out scenes or planning things. Even editing to them too.

Movie Thoughts: Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" Director's Cut

The Crusades period (specifically the 3rd Crusade) is a favorite historical period to mess around in - nominally because of Robin Hood mythos and legends, but also because King Richard the Lionhearted is probably one of my favorite English kings to study (and to ridicule).

When "Kingdom of Heaven" came out in theatres, I watched it because I did have an interest as to how Salah-al-din had captured Jerusalem and also because it was 2 years before the "Assassin's Creed" video game series was released by Ubisoft. It was a hot mess in theatres. I did not get like half of the plot and thought how could Scott make a movie so bad when "Gladiator" was so good. Historical accuracy aside for both movies.

Then he released the Director's Cut and disowned the theatrical cut and I watched it. I still am ambivalent about Balian of Ibelin (I was in my Orlando Bloom phase, but was meh about his acting in this one coming off of the Pirates movies and Troy). Liam Neeson's Godfrey of Ibelin (good thing they changed his name) made me laugh and also think that I watch too many movies where he as the mentor dies in like the first 30 minutes of any movie.

I absolutely adored King Baldwin IV and how Edward Norton portrayed him. Nuanced, dignified and absolutely heart-breakingly devastating leper king who hopes his kingdom is not going to shit after, but can already see it falling to pieces in front of him as his body fails him.

Cue deep dive into the 2nd Crusades, the intermediary era leading up to the 3rd Crusades annnnnd a lot of research. Then came the 1st AC game and I was kind of lost to the winds of research and video gaming.

I would occasionally pick this movie up over the next few years (Director's Cut always) and just recently completed another watch after a few years of not viewing it. I think I've gained an appreciation for the epic scale of the movie, the pretty nifty siege of Jerusalem (I kind of wanna do the ballista into the siege towers move in Total War games) and general appreciation of the even-handedness Ridley Scott put into this movie.

Like no religion is correct. Both suck and have their points, but mostly what war does is hurt everyone. Kind of need this to be shouted from rooftops for all conflict across the world.

Anyways - was a good watch. Will come back to this in probably another few years.