Music fans know Colin Meloy as the bespectacled singer and leader of The Decemberists, the unique intellectual indie rockers from Portland, Ore.
His wife, Carson Ellis, is recognized by Decemberists fans as the band’s illustrator, having designed the covers of their albums including “Her Majesty the Decemberists” and “The Hazards of Love.”
Her work also brings to life the pages of Lemony Snicket’s “The Composer is Dead,” a challenging assignment comprised of a musical recording and a book with a CD insert.
The couple, parents to 5-year-old Hank, unveiled their latest collaborative effort this week in the form of “Wildwood,” the first in a middle-grade series released by HarperCollins Publishers.
The 550-page book centers on Prue McKeel, a smart, self-aware 12-year-old whose ordinary life is suddenly unnerved when her baby brother is kidnapped by a murder of crows and brought to the feared splotch on the edge of Portland known as the “Impassable Wilderness.”
The adventure story follows Prue as she investigates this secret world while on a mission to retrieve her brother.
Meloy and Ellis have a three-book deal with HarperCollins and Meloy said the second should be released next fall.
But, now it’s time to be concerned with the present.
The couple will celebrate the release of their debut novel by giving the keynote address at the AJC Decatur Book Festival. Their appearance will take place at 8 p.m. Friday at Agnes Scott College’s Presser Hall.
Last week, the friendly duo chatted on speakerphone from their home in Portland about the creation of “Wildwood.”
Q: How do you feel about giving a keynote address?
Colin: I’m going on my feeling that I can stand in front of people and talk for however long. Hopefully, we’ll be able to talk about the book and reach more universal themes about why we did it and the important of this kind of storytelling.
Carson: I’ve given a lecture at Portland State University about the making of the book and have a power point presentation, so I’ve already had the experience of talking about it at length!
Q: Why did you decide to go middle grade rather than young children?
Colin: There’s a funny hierarchy when you move beyond [age] 12 and it’s a ‘young adult’ book, there are certain publishing expectations as far as content and illustrations don’t necessarily fly. We wanted to do something heavily illustrated that felt like a classic folk tale or storybook. And the content, ... I was more interested in doing something emotive.
Q: Tell me about Prue. Is she based on someone?
Colin: In some ways, we’re mapping the characteristics of a kid we knew, a friend’s niece, who felt like an individualistic kid, and independent thinker, an intrepid adventurer. That was a rough sketch. A lot of Prue’s characteristics stem from Carson’s childhood, too.
Carson: We definitely have some things in common, like drawing and the naturalist bent that I had as a kid, and probably her independence. I was kind of a loner as a kid, so I can relate to that. But she seems a lot cooler than I was at 12.
Colin: Also, the kid we based her on was sort of an adult before her time. ...I wanted to reflect that in a way that didn’t involve her wearing miniskirts.
Q: What children’s books inspired you?
Carson: I had [“The Chronicles of] Narnia” in mind because I love Pauline Baynes as an illustrator and the drawings were so integral to the story. Colin loves Tolkien, he’s less of a ‘Narnia’ fan than I. He was looking at ‘Wind in the Willows’ a lot.
Q: What kind of disagreements popped up during the collaboration process?
Carson: There were lots of creative disagreements. We might be more prone to that since we’re married and we don’t spare each other’s feelings as much [laughs]. There was a lot of bickering, but there was way more excitement.
Q: Colin, was it easier for you since you’re used to collaborating within a band?
Colin: Well, I’m also used to getting my own way. The Decemberists, we’ve always described as a benevolent dictatorship. In this instance, it was a true collaboration. There were certain things I had to give up or compromise on.
Q: Much of the book is set in “The Impassable Wilderness” and there is a murder of crows involved…it all seems very dark and ominous. What were you going for with that?
Colin: The stuff we liked growing up and the kind of story we wanted it to be, there is a darkness there. We were also kind of connecting with some of the real heavy-hitters of the children’s books world that we grew up with in the '70s, like Maurice Sendak and Roald Dahl. For those people it was sort of risky and adventurous, but they were tapping into kids’ imaginations in a way that kids-friendly stories don’t necessary do. We wanted to make something challenging.
Q: Carson, who or what were your visual inspirations?
Carson: Absolutely Pauline Bynes. I want one kid to read ‘Wildwood’ and feel about those illustrations as I did about hers. Ben Shahn, he isn’t a kid’s books illustrator, but he did a lot of fine art and political art in the '30s and '40s. Alice and Martin Provensen, they’re picture book authors and sort of heroes of mine. And of course, Tomi Ungerer and Maurice Sendak.
Q: How will this new career affect the future of the band?
Colin: Right now we’re on our last two Decemberists shows for a long while. Then we’ll start focusing on the books for a little bit and give them their due attention. ... The band, I think they knew it was coming. As the principal songwriter and imagination behind the whole thing, unfortunately, they’re in a position where they have to just go with it.
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