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About the Author
Ollister B. Pembrick is the author and sketcher of several creaturepedias, including but not limited to Creaturepedia: Upper Dang and Its Environs, Including but Not Limited to the Green Hollows, the Blackwood, and the Killridge Mountains, as well as the critically acclaimed Creaturepedia: Lower Dang and Its Environs, Including but Not Limited to the Woes of Shreve and the Troll Kingdom. He also published A Pinch of Yearning, a recipe book and memoir that won the Occasional Greengrocers’ Award for Best Work of Nonfiction Chiefly Concerning Yearning and Cookery. He makes his home in a digtoad pit somewhere north of Fingap Falls and would love to be married but doesn’t want to come across as desperate.
A Message from Andrew Peterson, the Bard and Translator
When I started the Wingfeather Saga, my children were a few years younger than Janner, Kalmar, and Leeli are in the story. I had no idea what creative little humans were growing up in my house. Skye is deeply gifted with music—her ear is astonishingly good. Asher has one of the quickest, most wonderfully odd senses of humor I’ve ever come across. Aedan is an amazing artist, and it pleases me more than I can express that his drawings comprise 100 percent of what you see in this book.
When I was in the thick of writing The Warden and the Wolf King, Asher sent me, inexplicably, three or four emails with the intriguing subject “Poop List.” The emails each contained forty or fifty ridiculously creative words. In between fits of laughter, I compiled all the Poop Lists into one file, which I happily mined for city names, creature names, and even a few character names (“Erwail,” “Firfy,” “Fithyhoop,” “Keekle,” and “Johanicle” come to mind).
Someone asked me recently if my children were involved in the making of this story. It’s no exaggeration to say that without them, the books (including Creaturepedia) wouldn’t exist. I drew the first few creatures (which were included in On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness and North! Or Be Eaten), and I planned to get busy drawing all the creatures herein. But early in the process, amidst all their schoolwork, the kids started showing me sketches that popped right out of their brains. Thank you, Aedan, for your hard work. I love that we get to do this sort of thing together. Thank you, Asher and Skye, for bringing your own wonderful gifts to bear on this project. A. S. “Pete” Peterson was once again indispensable as editor, compiler, typesetter, and publisher extraordinaire, working hard in the Rabbit Room Press office. This book, as you can see, was a family affair. What made us Peterson boys so odd is a question you’ll have to ask my parents someday.
Stephen Crotts, who is a good friend, incredible artist, and player of a nineteenth-century miniature banjo (I’m not kidding), came up with the cover. If you’re looking for a good young copyeditor, I recommend Ella McKenzie, who edited this document to shreds and charged twice what I offered (which I thought was hilarious). Finally, I owe the many readers of the Wingfeather Saga a huge debt of gratitude for your enthusiasm and encouragement—without which I’m sure this weird little volume wouldn’t exist.
Beware the toothy cows.
Pembrick's Creaturepedia Page 5
