Twenty-three days. In twenty-three days I release my next book. Originally I called it Deria. It was the second book in the Treefrog Trilogy. But it’s been renamed First Tree, second book of The Burdens of Beasts. Both are, true? I guess that’s how I want to say that. Both are true. I have a tendency, and the thing I’m most comfortable with, is naming books after the city or location they take place. This was true with Scorch, it took place in the city of Scorch. This was true with Beacon, it took place in the city of Beacon. Legends of Eastgate. Legends of Perilisc. Song. Hemlock. Crown. They’re all named after, there’s even a short story I wrote in the anthology Blackest Knights that’s called “The Land of Rott and Cur,” also named after the land it comes from. But this is First Tree.
I’ve been talking about the Forest of the First Tree for years. We’ve been to the Forest of the First Tree. We’ve had characters that came from the Forest of the First Tree. Legends and magical items and so much conversation has been had about the First Tree and the forest that surrounds it. In earlier oral stories I had told, I described it. But I was excited to be there and see what the First Tree really looked like and the experience I would have when I wrote it.
I remember the night I wrote the description of the Tree and the scene that takes place there. It had been a really hard night. I was losing a lot of myself. I was disappointing myself. I was in a sea of confusion and self-doubt, and all I had to hold onto at the time was my wife and the book I was writing. Writing this book was the beginning of a very long ride that was extremely fast. That was part of it, too. I could tell I was coming to a hill and I was going to be out of control by the time I got to the end of it. I remember I had cried before going downstairs to write. Then I wrote the First Tree. I described her. My character experienced her. And as I wrote about the first tree that ever grew or was ever planted, the first piece of vegetation given to the world by the gods, I wept. I brought old stories and laid them at the feet of the First Tree. Old characters that had been there for me in the past were found at the feet of the First Tree. I cried. And I experienced what I hope all of you experience when I wrote, and when you read about, the First Tree. In the writing of that scene, I found myself again and I found my purpose. I found my family and my friends. I found all of it. The ones I had saved in the past. All of it. All in the boughs and the sway of the First Tree.
This book brought me back to life. And I could talk about other factors of this book, but really, what you need to know is that when you read this book, and you’re climbing that Tree, you might rediscover yourself, find a purpose that was yours all along. Find peace. You might remember stories at the feet of the First Tree. Fate might play out. The First Tree is the breath of divinity. And if you don’t find those things, I just wanted you to know that when I was writing it, I had.
