And here’s David Farland, writing about our other Selection this month, Sons of the Oak:

A young mother once asked Ernest Hemingway how she could help her son become a great writer.  Hemingway answered dryly, “Give him an unhappy childhood.”  He was right. 

Tough times force a writer to exercise his imagination while deepening the writer’s innate need to raise his voice with clarity and beauty.

Over the past four years I’ve had my own challenges.  Allergies left me sick and almost house-bound.  A business failure brought our family near bankruptcy, and the stress threw me into such depression that I was unable to write.

It’s all good now: the allergies have faded, the bank-book is balanced, and depression is gone.  I’m writing faster than before, and I feel that my tales are taking exciting new directions.  I hope Hemingway was right.