Today, on First, Last Everything,  we have Jacob Sannox. And not only is he an author, he's obviously someone who doesn't like to follow the rules.

Jacob Sannox is a writer living in Bedfordshire, England. He is the author of Dark Oak: Book One of the Dark Oak Chronicles, an epic fantasy series, and The Ravenmaster’s Revenge: The Return of King Arthur, set in 2019 and many different time periods throughout England’s history.

Knight Errant, the follow-up to Dark Oak, is nearing completion, and Agravain’s Escape, the next in the Return of King Arthur series, is well underway.

Dark Oak was a semi-finalist in SPFBO 2018, and The Ravenmaster’s Revenge is currently a semi-finalist in the ongoing SPFBO 2019.

As will become apparent, he is incapable of following instructions. He once set fire to spaghetti while trying to boil it.

I’ve honestly tried to think if there was anything before The Hobbit, but I’ve come up with nothing. The Hobbit was my first. Mum read it to me when I was little, putting on the voices and imbuing the story with fairytale magic that has never left me. It tells the story of any one of us, expertly normal, setting out into a world of wonder, a world of possibility, a world of dark powers and enduring heroes. It represented climbing out from under my duvet, sneaking out of my safe suburban family home and setting out for adventure. I have never lost that sense of spine-tingling anticipation at the prospect of finding that which lies...just beyond.

I remember the voices she adopted for the characters. I remember how I blended my idea of Bag End with that of Mole’s home in the Wind in the Willows, so much so that when I watched Peter Jackson’s iterations, I realised just how bare my own take had been on Bag End. I remember the pencil sketch on the book cover and my fascination with Tolkien’s initials. I remember my erroneous ideas of what the author looked like, thinking he was still alive. I remember listening to the audio version on cassette tape in the car on the way to Scotland for our annual family holiday while Dad complained that something had gone wrong with the recording, thinking that the voices overlapped by mistake, when really it was just the chaos of Bilbo and the dwarves at Bag End.

I can feel the wonder building in me even as I cast my mind back. The glee. The fear.

I can still barely see, trees forming a tunnel above me as I pass through Mirkwood, the sound of elves feasting and singing just audible to my right. I must not look, must not step off the path.

Tolkien’s legendarium is my everything. Yes, I know I already chose The Hobbit, and yes, My Everything is supposed to go last, but, well...what are you going to do about it? ~rolls up sleeves and leans on the bar, muscles bulging and handlebar moustache twitching.

I came late to the wider Tolkien legendarium. I read the first few pages of The Lord of the Rings, saw something about a Bilbo rip-off called Frodo and immediately dismissed the book as ‘just a sequel’.

Shame on me. I watched Fellowship of the Ring and realised I had wasted my entire life. I skipped school and read The Lord of the Rings under a blanket, lying on my bedroom floor pretending I was in The Neverending Story, minus the heartbreaking equine interludes.

We had a complicated relationship, the LOTR and I. I loved the Fellowship, but utterly misinterpreted the Rohirrim in The Two Towers. It was only when I saw The Two Towers movie, I realised I had been reading way too fast so I could go to school the next day and in so doing, I had missed several important details and many nuances. I read it again, slower. I tend to listen to LOTR once a year, initially carting around a 46 CD set in my car and then, mercifully, technology moved on.

I read The Silmarillion commuting to my university in London, sometimes reduced to sitting on the floor of the train with my book on my knees. I fell in love. Yes, I couldn’t pronounce any of the names, but I was entranced by the wider mythology, learning of how the characters and places from The Hobbit and the LOTR linked back to people and events from thousands of years before. The audio version helped me with both name pronunciation and driving my audiobook-loathing girlfriend insane while in the car. You can’t listen to country music all of the time, my love...

My last is not going to be a book, it’s going to be an epiphany. Are you ready?

Tolkien is not the only person who wrote books set in made-up worlds. Shocked? I know, right?

It turns out there is a whole fantasy genre!

Honestly, I have been a monogamous reader and watcher for too long.

“No, I cannot watch Star Wars because I am a Trekkie, and Star Trek is the only space related show I can watch. No, I haven’t read that - I only read Tolkien! Why? Because Middle Earth is the other world that I believe in.”

Although I have always written fantasy and indulged in fantasy roleplaying, both Dungeons & Dragons (recently) and LARP (for about twenty years), I have always chosen to read other genres (horror, Napoleonic fiction etc) and rely on Tolkien and my imagination when it came to fantasy.

It is only since I published my first book, Dark Oak, and I became aware of the fantastic community of authors online that I decided to give some of the other books in my genre a try.

I am so glad that I did. There is so much out there, indie and traditionally published, though I am sure you are all well aware of that. A particular discovery, is that although I like my worlds dark or at least, I appreciate the darker aspects, I like humour and satire in fantasy.

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames holds a special place in my heart. I cried when I finished it. Honestly. I am that ridiculous. I was in a hotel room in Newquay, Cornwall, inconsolable.

Robin Hobb, where have you been all my life? If I start reading her work, I can’t stop.

Ken Liu’s The Grace of Kings was so immersive I couldn’t start a new book for several days after reaching the end.

Brandon Sanderson, Mark Lawrence, KT Davies, Ed McDonald...the list goes on.

I’m currently reading A Ritual of Bone by Lee C Conley, Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb and listening to last year’s SPFBO winner, Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike, which has been amusing and addictive! Shrewd and well observed, Mr Pike. Also, is technically my last.

I’ve been sitting in Bag End for thirty-five years, smoking my pipe and sneaking just another cake from the plate, but now I have stepped out of the door and realised there is so much more fantasy to embrace, as well as other worlds to love. I can’t wait to hit the road.

It goes ever on and on, you know.

What a great entry, Jacob. Wonderful selections, even if they are in the wrong order!

Remember, if you want to take part I’ll post your entry. Just drop me a line on Twitter or via email to dave@dpwoolliscroft.com and I’ll send you some simple instructions.