Dear Reader:
You probably don’t care, and have better things to do than read this letter (like ride a bike, end world hunger, or watch grass grow), but while you’re here, reading this might give you something to do….
I was born on July 29, in Logan, Utah, and have lived in the mountains on the outskirts of a little town called Preston, Idaho for my entire life. After I was born, I lived for about eleven years without doing anything significantly important (no, I am not a child prodigy at anything, I am not a genius, I will not graduate high school early… trust me.) But then, after eleven boring years of doing nothing but karate and playing the violin, I entered the sixth grade. In the sixth grade, I had a remarkable teacher named Mrs. Latimer for an English teacher. She was so cool and always talked so positively about writing that she made me want to write… a lot. (I’m just gonna skip all the fluff and cut to the chase,) we were given the assignment to write a 2 page story about anything. I chose to write a science fiction story about a kid who lived in a hidden city. But, instead of being 2 pages, it was more like 60.
When Mrs. Latimer saw this, she started talking about publishing it on the internet, so I took it one step further and tried to make it a book. I sent away my information to a publisher, and was boiling with excitement when I got a phone call a week later and… was rejected.
Well, I kept writing, changed a few things in the story, then the location of the story, and the names of the characters in the story got changed, and then the entire genre of the book was changed (I realized that I didn’t know enough about science to write a science fiction book, but that if a wrote a fantasy book, I could be scientifically incorrect if I wanted and not care because everything is made up), and by the time that I met Patrick Snow (my Production Coordinator/Publishing Coach) three years later, my 60 page science fiction story was now 260-ish pages and titled The Fiddle of Fire.
So, there you have it. I hope this was more interesting than watching grass grow, or at least that it wasn’t so boring you wanted to tear your eyes out. If it was, trust me when I say that none of the books in The Fiddle of Fire series is this boring, (and if you think one is, be a gem and keep it to yourself!)
Respectfully,
Koltn Burbank
koltn@thefiddleoffire.com
P.S: Yes, I did spell my name right, and yes, it is pronounced “Colton.” (No, no matter what anybody says, Burbank, California is not named after me or anybody I know.)