Remembering My Long-Time Friend Brian Jacques on His 80th Birthday

As I write this, today June 15, 2019, my friend, Brian Jacques, creator of Redwall, would have been 80. Of all the writers I’ve corresponded with over the years, from Raymond Feist to CJ Cherryh to Mercedes Lackey in the hey days of CompuServe, Brian was the wittiest and most fun. It was the highest of honors to host Brian when his fall 2005 book tour of the Western USA brought him to my adopted home town of Olympia, Washington. At the time, I wrote about Brian’s visit on a tribute page to him and his books, which I posted to share with my readers @ http://themagiclands.com/brianjacques.htm. The page is still there, hasn’t changed in 15 years.

One of the best things about Brian’s visit was that my son, Will, who was 13 at the time, got to meet Brian and get all of his Redwall books signed. Will was, and remains, a Redwall fan, having read all of Brian’s books multiple times. My two youngest were also at the signing and they enjoyed getting their pictures taken with my friend Brian. 

As I had promised Brian, I also gave him copies of the children's editions of my books, The Kingdoms & the Elves of the Reaches, which are set in my fantasy world of Ruin Mist. Brian and I enjoyed swapping stories of our created worlds, having bonded over our similar experiences with Catholic school teachers beating us with rulers.  

Brian was a hoot to listen to at author events and book signings. He loved his characters and got into the role of his characters actively in the telling. Brian loved a good feast as well, as any attentive Redwall fan knows.

Brian also challenged me to give back to readers and the writing community, to share my personal skills and experiences with others. Brian always spoke fondly of his days working with blind children and how he got his start. Early conversations with Brian were key in inspiring me to dedicate many hours and years to give away one million books to schools, libraries, community centers and others, though especially to teachers in classrooms who needed books for their students who otherwise would have no books at all as well as to schools for the blind, like the one in rural Scotland where students had access for many years to my entire catalog of books, including many educational and learning titles in the Bugville Critters, at no cost.

To say Brian Jacques loved the written word is an understatement. Brian lived for the written word and I think the only thing he loved more was bringing his stories and ideas to life with spoken word. Brian and I had running conversations about digital audio and in particular Audible, where my books had been runaway bestsellers--#1 Fiction, #1 Fantasy, #1 YA/Childrens for many weeks in spring and summer 2005. Brian was more familiar with traditional audio on tape and hesitant about the digital world--ebooks, kindle, audible, and such. I don't know if my words on the subject swayed his thoughts on the subject, but I'd like to think so, as his books did start to become available for both kindle and audible.

In the fall of 2005, none of us could have known that Brian would be taken from the world just a few years later. I was, in fact, looking forward to his promised next West coast USA tour and another visit with my long-time friend. For me, Brian Jacques will forever remain one of the true few who could paint pictures with words.

We all miss you, Brian, though it is perhaps fitting that the final Redwall book is about rogues. As a rogue scoundrel who worked many odd jobs in his life, this was perhaps Brian’s last wink and nod to the world.

Goodnight, Brian. Goodnight, Redwall.

Thanks for reading, I’m William Robert Stanek, Microsoft’s #1 author for nearly 20 years, and author of over 250 topselling books.

First Round to Patrick Rothfuss, Who Knew Being a Children's Book Writer Was So Fraught with Peril

It's no secret Patrick Rothfuss and I are both from Wisconsin or that we knew each other as "kids" or that I live in Washington state where Rothfuss did his graduate studies. What's not so well known are the lengths Rothfuss and persons associated with him have gone to to try to push my fantasy novels down while propping Rothfuss's up. 

Fifteen years into this, I can hardly believe it's still going on. That every day Rothfuss Adjacent persons "work" the search engines to ensure the anti-Stanek sites and pages they created appear high in the search results on Google, Yahoo, beyond then subsequently prop up their pro-Rothfuss sites and pages. That every day these persons do similar work to push down my status while pushing up Rothfuss. As a computer expert with over 20 years as one of the world's leading technologists, it's easy enough to see this handiwork and identify the sources.

It's almost as if it's these persons' full time job--because it pretty much is and has been since at least 2007. Since Rothfuss got friends to take down the Robert Stanek wiki page and post a full ready-to-go Rothfuss wiki page on 8 May 2007. I guess when you have friends who are Wiki editors and fantasy bloggers you, your brother, your "wife", can do whatever you want to whomever you want without fear of repurcussion.

I guess if your book was a book written for adults that had special appeal to young adults (the Alex awards criteria) you'd be glad if your book wasn't one that could have possibly competed against Rothfuss in 2008. If your  book had, you might have been the one on the receiving end instead of me (or alongside me). Things with Rothfuss kind of go llike that. My first fantasy work was published in 2002--the year Rothfuss won his writers of the future award, the L Ron Hubard contest, meanwhile Rothfuss spent the next four years trying to get published while my Keeper Martin (adult) and Kingdoms and the Elves (YA versions of the same) books climbed the bestseller charts. Amazon SciFi/Fantasy Top 50, 26 weeks, Audible #1 Fiction, 12 weeks. Audible #1 Kids & YA, 20 weeks. Audible Kids & YA Top 10, 180 weeks.

That had to kind of really suck for Patrick Rothfuss (and those close to him who were eager for his success). But unlike normal people who would have focused on something positive, these folks focused on lashing out at those who were doing and achieving what Rothfuss couldn't at the time. Then instead of moving on when Rothfuss finally got his work published, they continued to lash out. Like when Rothfuss/Adjacents told friends/fans/followers in an official entry in the Rothfuss blog and then in an official entry on the Rothfuss facebook page that I was a self-published fraud and asked them to trash my books and flood my book review pages with negative reviews.

Odd considering I had been a successful, bestselling author since 1995. Odd because I had over 100 books to my credit at the time. Odder still because not only had those many, many books been read by millions but they were also published/distributed by some of the most highly regarded publishers of the day: Macmillan, Pearson, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Time Warner and others.

In the age of Trump, Rothfuss's kind of fake news might not have taken on a life of its own. But a decade ago when this kind of news came from an otherwise trusted source like Patrick Rothfuss, people listened and didn't question or bother to check the facts.

With GRRM and JK Rowling becoming  billionaires, it doesn't take a genius to figure out why so much time and effort has been spent to harm fun, family-friendly books like "Keeper Martin's Tale" and "Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches". All I can do is urge you to read the  books for yourself and decide whether they are for you. Read the books if for no other reason that certain parties have spent thousands of hours trying to get you not to.

Thanks for reading, I’m William Robert Stanek, Microsoft’s #1 author for nearly 20 years, and author of over 250 topselling books.