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

Magyk by Angie Sage

Magyk by Angie Sage

From the moment I started this book, I knew I was going to get little else done. I love this fairytale fantasy story about a boy named Septimus Heap. Author Angie Sage in three books has created a world to rival that of Harry Potter. This book has all the wizarding fun without the darkness of the Hogwarts’ series.

In book 1, Silas Heap, ordinary wizard hurries along a path carefully carrying medicine for his new baby, who is dying. Silas hopes he is not too late, but stops when he hears the whimper of an infant hidden under a bush. A baby girl—He gathers her in his arms and takes her to his cottage. As he passes the midwife, he sees the bundle she is carrying and believes his son has died.

His son, the seventh son of a seventh son, has been kidnapped and taken to the Tower of Magic to be raised as an apprentice to the evil wizard Dom Daniel. Meanwhile, the Heaps take the baby girl with violet eyes into their hearts and home and raise her as a princess among six other boys. They name her Jenna. When the Queen is assassinated, Jenna discovers she is a lost princess and ruler. She must flee to the Marram Marshes.

Evil follows however, but Jenna will have the courage to become Queen and to also uncover the secrets that surround Septimus Heap.

The characters in these book use knowledge and cleverness to solve their problems. The author has created a magical world where characters seek to avoid darkness and violence. This book is humorous, poignant and a well told story that will delight all who pick it. This book is a good read for teens and adults. Long at 500 pages, there is enough action and pace to carry even the most reluctant reader into the world of Septimus Heap and his friends.

Posted by Leann Moody from the Provo City School District.