User blog comment:LordTBT/News:Brian Jacques Tributes/@comment-1634019-20110210060802

I have long been a fan of Brian Jacques and the Redwall series.

Sure, there are thousands of people like that, but Redwall has impacted me on such a deep level that I doubt I will ever live an unaffected life.

I suppose it began with the television show. It may have been the books, I cannot recall. But I remember it was a daily ritual for me to watch it. 4:30, I believe the time was. 4:30, no matter the situation. Run to the television and flip it on. I was about five years old then. I was homeschooled at that age, and had few friends. To make up for for that deficiency, I had imaginary friends. My first characters were the original Redwall cast. Matthias, Cornflower, Basil Stag Hare, and the like. I would have little adventures with them around the house, and some of them have made it into my writing as a teenager today.

When I was eight years old, a classmate named Ian Lindsay was a fellow fan. That was the main reason we were best friends in third grade. We would always talk Redwall, and when we had reading marathons, Redwall was my series of choice. We would get through a book each in those seven hours. As I recall, that was shortly after Triss was released. It expanded my vocabulary, and brought to my knowledge many little facts. I can now recognize a heron anywhere and I am able to tell you what a firkin is.

As an eleven-year-old, I decided to spend the summer reading all eighteen Redwall novels in preparation for Eulalia! And it was quite the task. I finished with a few weeks left, and so I read the Castaways trilogy. This became a thing I have done for the last four years, with plans to do it again this upcoming summer.

Perhaps the most humorous of all of my experiences was my fascination with the Dibbuns. To distinguish myself from the rest of the Taylors in my area, I took on the name Fuffle, who appears in Martin the Warrior. I have named my younger siblings Skittles (Lord Brocktree), Posy (Mossflower), Trey (Taggerung), Bungo (Martin the Warrior), and Turfee (Triss). We still hold Dibbuns Against Bedtime meetings every so often, regardless of being 61 seasons old.

The greatest impact for me was on my desire to write. Ever since I was little, I have demonstrated a strong imagination, as indicated by my imaginary friends. Brian Jacques and his stories inspired me to write my own works, and I have finished one novel, a realistic fiction piece, with plans to have my first fantasy novel complete at the end of this month. The master storyteller's writing style has played a large part in my own writing, and his spectacular characters have inspired me to create my own, with the same level of complexity.

While Brian Jacques may have passed away, his impact on the world will resonate for untold seasons, as long as I and my fellows are willing to keep the spirit alive. I will encourage my siblings, children, grandchildren, and so on to enjoy this world Brian shared with us. I insist that all other fans do the same.

Goodbye, Brian Jacques.