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In retrospect it seems like an inevitable step: Colin Meloy, frontman for The Decemberists, has taken the literary route. Meloy and his wife, Carson Ellis, who is responsible for the illustration of the band’s album covers, have signed a deal with Harper Collins for Wildwood, a three-volume series of illustrated adventure tales for kids. As a songwriter known for his vivid, literary style, Meloy has already  introduced the world to such characters as “Eli the Barrow Boy” and “The Chimbley Sweep” and written a song to novelist Myla Goldberg, as well as crafting a full-scale concept piece with The Decemberists’ last album, The Hazards of Love. So it seems only natural that he should take things one step further by dropping the guitar and picking up a pen (Sure, we realize most of the world writes on computers, but an antiquarian type like Meloy probably uses a freakin’ quill for his books.)
The Decemberists’ songs are often full of magical, mythological, and supernatural happenings, and Wildwood seems set to follow suit. It’s already been described by co-publisher Donna Bray as “nothing less than an American Narnia,” and Meloy provides further context by stating that he “grew up on a steady diet of Lloyd Alexander, Roald Dahl, and Tolkien; this is our humble paean to that grand tradition of epic adventure stories.”

Source: LimeWire Music Blog