Brandon Mull visits Mountain View

For many years people have been fascinated by storytellers and their stories. One of those great storytellers came to our school recently. Brandon Mull visited Mountain View on the 29th of November. Mull typically writes adventure novels and children’s books. You might know the books written like the ¨Fablehaven¨ series and the ¨Dragonwatch¨ series. During the visit, he talked about himself and his family, the types of books he writes, and tips on starting to write books. Mull also spoke about his new book ¨The Candy Shop War Carnival Quest” coming out sometime in March.

Mull started the visit by telling the crowd about himself and what he was like in his younger years. He told everyone about how he loved adventure stories growing up and how the writers of those books inspired him to make his own. Mull explained his childhood dream of having books with cool covers with dragons, witches, and fairytale creatures on them. He did not realize that his childhood dream would come true. Mull said that he loved the movies of the adventure stories he read but truly loved how reading the stories made people of all ages use their imagination to create their version of the stories.

Mull continued that presentation by telling everyone how important it was for people to have a strong imagination. He said not only people who want to be a writer, but everyday people have to be able to imagine. Mull explained that reading a book is one of the best ways to exercise people’s ability to imagine things because when you read a book, you have to come up with the look of the place and characters. He said that his imagination is what writes the novels. Mull encouraged people to reach out to others for their thoughts and criticism when writing something.

During the presentation, Mull explained how much his friends and family aided him during writing. He has people look over his novels and welcomes their input and ideas. Others’ input is a part of his writing process because Mull loves how people point out things that were not noticed or thought of before. He gave great advice to people who would like to get into writing. He gave advice like you have to start writing things to get better at it, read, let your imagination do its job, and learn from your previous mistakes. The advice is not new but is often looked over by many.

Mull finished the presentation by informing everyone about his new book coming out sometime in March. The book is a part of his ¨Candy Shop War¨series. He has a good feeling about it and hopes everyone will enjoy it. The book is a late add-on to the series, so Mull is a little concerned about whether the readers who loved the first one would still want to read it, but he knows that the true fans of the series will, and he cannot wait to see their reaction. Brandon Mull plans on many more years of writing and books to come.