I'm going to start doing a monthly little "Author Spotlight" with fun facts about writers I like. Here's the first installment, with some little-known tidbits about one of my favorite authors, J.R.R. Tolkien.

* Though he taught at Oxford for 35 years, he was far from your typical professor: He often appeared at parties as a polar bear or axe-wielding Anglo-Saxon warrior and would chase his neighbors.

* He also often gave shopkeepers his false teeth as payment.

* He was a codebreaker during World War I. He also created a secret language to communicate with his wife (later becoming the basis for many of his invented languages).

* After the War, he worked at the Oxford Dictionary in charge of words starting with the letter W.

* Born in South Africa, he was once bitten by a baboon spider which many believe is echoed in his future work (think Shelob the spider, from Lord of the Rings).

* By age four, he could read and write fluently (and ultimately fluent in 19 languages).

* The Hobbit began unceremoniously one day on a blank piece of exam paper when he wrote the line: "In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit." The rest literally became history.

* Many of Bilbo's adventures came from his own experiences through Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen in the Swiss Alps.

* Gandalf's famous phrase "You shall not pass!" came from a commonly used World War I propaganda slogan.

And that's it for now. More "Author Spotlights" coming soon!

And for more free books, I've made a list of some of my favorite instaFreebie giveaways at: http://www.alwaysbewriting.com/list-o...

Finally, if you feel so inclined, you can buy my full novel at: http://www.alwaysbewriting.com/devili.... It's just 99 cents for a limited time, or free with Kindle Unlimited. It's called Devil in the Countryside, and is based on a real life werewolf investigation that took place in the 16th century.

Thanks so much, and happy reading!
-Cory Barclay