Interview with Brandon Mull of Fablehaven Fame!!!

Brandon Mull has worked as a comedian, a filing clerk, a patio installer, a movie promoter, a copywriter and briefly as a chicken stacker. For a couple of years, he lived in the Aracama Desert of Northern Chile, where he learned Spanish and juggling. He currently lives on the side of a mountain above a prison with his wife and two children.

He has two books: Fablehaven and Rise of the Evening Star, published by Shadow Mountain. Local author Brandon Mull recently visited Dixon Middle School in Provo as part of a book tour around the state and country. He talked with students about the power of imagination and reading. He also took time to answer some of their questions:

Question: How did you become a writer?

Brandon Mull: Fablehaven is the first book that was published but I have been working on it for a while. I was dreaming of it in high school and writing sincerely since college, which has been quite a few years already.

Question: Did you like writing as a kid?

Bandon Mull: I was one of those kids who kind of lived in his head. I was off in a fantasy world and then I read Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia and books like that as I was growing up. I saw that other people are off in their imaginations, too.

Question: You said you have worked in comedy. What did you do?

Brandon Mull: I became interested in comedy in college because there was a comedy troupe called Divine Comedy. I was having some success writing and performing comedy so branched off and did some stand up. I try to put some humor in my books.

Question: How many books will there be?

Brandon Mull: For sure there will be a least three books. There might be too much story there so it might have to stretch to an extra book.

Question: Where do your characters come from?

Brandon Mull: It has to come from human interaction and you give each character attributes of people that you know. So there’s a boy in the book named Seth, who’s one of the main characters and he has a lot of the same tendencies that my little brother and I had. When we lived in Connecticut we could explore the woods around our home. He’s sort of a daredevil. I also had an encounter in Chile with someone who professed to be a witch. This experience had a little bit of an influence on an encounter that happens in the book, but in a more fantasy way instead of in a real way.

Question: Your main character is a girl. How did you come up with her?

Brandon Mull: Kendra is the main character. She’s a girl who‘s a little more cautious than her brother and more responsible. A lot of the action in the book comes from their interplay, her being responsible and Seth always getting into trouble.

Question: What if I want to become a writer?

Brandon Mull: I would read a lot and write. Just keep writing and use your imagination.


Posted by Leann Moody
www.dms.provo.edu/students/index.html