Even the oldest of trees continues its wonderful labor. Hummingbird lives in one of them. He’s there for the white blossoms, and the secrecy. The blossoms could be snow, with a dash of pink. At first the fruit is small and green and hard. Everything has dreams, hope, ambition.
If I could I would always live in such shining obedience where nothing but the wind trims the boughs. I am sorry for every mistake I have made in my life. I’m sorry I wasn’t wiser sooner. I’m sorry I ever spoke of myself as lonely.
Oh, love, lay your hands upon me again. Some of the fruit ripens and is picked and is delicious. Some of it falls and the ants are delighted. Some of it hides under the snow and the famished deer are saved.
J.R.R.Tolkien’s classic children’s novel turns 75 years old today. The book begins with the line “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”, a sentence which, according to Tolkien, came to him spontaneously while marking papers. The first edition dust jacket was designed by the author himself, who also provided the black and white illustrations. Since 1937, The Hobbit has been translated into over forty languages and sold tens of millions of copies. The initial print of 1,500 copies ran out in three months, and response was unanimously favorable. Tolkien’s close friend and fellow fantasy author C.S. Lewis wrote in The Times Literary Supplement: “Prediction is dangerous: but The Hobbit may well prove a classic.“
Perhaps The Hobbit’s greatest legacy was not the book itself but the sequel that was published seventeen years later – the far more complex first volume of TheLord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring. Urged on by his publishers, who wished to make the most out of the smashing success that was The Hobbit, Tolkien worked on his sequel slowly and deliberately through the years of World War II and after. Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings brought the popularity of fantasy literature to new heights and established Tolkien as the “father” of modern high fantasy.
The first film of Peter Jackson’s new trilogy, based off The Hobbit, is set for release in December.
The Detective’s Guide is nearly here! Out on Feb 23 from Affirm Press, and starting to get its first reviews now. It’s an adventure mystery set on the RMS Aquitania in the 1920s, and I absolutely loved it.
Congrats to Nicki on a brilliant story, and thanks infinite to Meg at Affirm for all the help while we worked through the cover.
It’s publication day!
I wrote a blog about the cover process. And here is my internal illustration of the RMS Aquitania, to help readers mentally navigate their way around. It was pretty fun to do a technical illustration like this, while still trying to make it look appealing.
