Author Interview: Mike Mullins, The Ashfall Trilogy


Welcome to Kid Lit Frenzy Mike! Thank you for being willing to answer a few questions. 

My pleasure.

I have to admit that I tend to have an anxiety/panic attack when I think about or read apocalyptic type books, especially the natural disaster types.  So, I can't imagine writing about them.

Well, I guess I owe you an apology. Sorry about that.

So for my first questions - After writing three books centered around a disaster, do you find yourself checking your basement food stock or replenishing a survival bag in your trunk? Or maybe I should ask what have you done to prepare for a disaster? 

Nope. I’m well prepared for a short term disaster—three weeks or less. But if something like what I describe in my books happens, I have a simple plan: I’ll die.

If you’re a woman between 14 and 35, prepping for the end of the world as we know it makes a lot of sense. But men are far less likely to survive apocalyptic situations than women (we have more muscle mass and less body fat on average than women, so we need more fuel and have less). And people over 35 generally don’t survive in famine situations, which makes me doubly doomed. There’s an interesting study of the Donner party that makes shows who survived and why here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1022425/. 

In your first book, ASHFALL, you had to create the parameters in which you would work with for subsequent books. Was there anything that you wish you hadn't written because it made something more difficult in later books? 

No, I outlined the whole trilogy before I finished ASHFALL. So I’ve been working from the same outline for five years. I did allow myself to diverge from the outline quite a bit, so what I wrote isn’t exactly what I envisioned five years ago. But it’s pretty close.

When you think back to your own teen self, do you think you would have managed as well as Alex and Darla did/have? 

No, I would have died. I had all of Alex’s impulsivity and none of his taekwondo skills. I started taking taekwondo about five years ago specifically so that I could do a better job of writing ASHFALL.

On a lighter note (or hopefully it will be lighter), if you could spend the day with any character from another author's book, who would it be and what would you spend the day doing?

I’d love to take a day of survival and combat training from Katsa, the heroine of Graceling by Kristin Cashore.

What books have you read as a teen or an adult that you consider mentor text for your later development as a writer? 

I got some feedback about ASHFALL from a literary agent who thought I wasn’t deep enough into Alex’s head—that the story wasn’t involving enough at an emotional level. So I reread The Hunger Games three or four times—it does a fabulous job getting the reader emotionally invested in Katniss. The only problem? My copy of The Hunger Games is a signed first printing. I couldn’t bear to make notes in it. Instead, I put a zillion color-coded post-it notes in the book with my observations on how Collins added emotional content to her work.


What writing routines do you have? And where do you like to write?

I’m a nomadic writer—I work anywhere my laptop happens to be. I like to intersperse my writing with walks—I’ll write a few pages, walk for a while, then plop down somewhere and write some more.

Do you have any new projects that you are working on that you can share with us? 

Sure. I’m about 30,000 words into the first draft of SURFACE TENSION, a young adult thriller. It’s about a teen who sees a group of terrorists crashing an airplane from the ground. He’s the only one who knows how they did it, and they want him dead. I haven’t sold it yet, so I don’t know when or even if it will be published. Wish me luck!

What is in your current TBR (to-be-read) pile?

I couldn’t possibly list all the books in my pile. But here’s a pic:



Thank you again Mike for stopping by Kid Lit Frenzy. 

Thanks for having me!

About Mike Mullins: Mike Mullin’s first job was scraping the gum off the undersides of desks at his high school. From there, things went steadily downhill. He almost got fired by the owner of a bookstore due to his poor taste in earrings. He worked at a place that showed slides of poopy diapers during lunch (it did cut down on the cafeteria budget). The hazing process at the next company included eating live termites raised by the resident entomologist, so that didn’t last long either. For a while Mike juggled bottles at a wine shop, sometimes to disastrous effect. Oh, and then there was the job where swarms of wasps occasionally tried to chase him off ladders. So he’s really glad this writing thing seems to be working out.

Mike holds a black belt in Songahm Taekwondo. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife and her three cats. SUNRISE is his third novel. ASHFALL, the first novel of the trilogy, was named one of the top five young adult novels of 2011 by National Public Radio, a Best Teen Book of 2011 by Kirkus Reviews, and a New Voices selection by the American Booksellers Association.

You can find Mike: website | blog | twitter | facebook | google+ | pinterest | tumblr | booklikes

About SUNRISE: The Yellowstone supervolcano nearly wiped out the human race. Now, almost a year after the eruption, the survivors seem determined to finish the job. Communities wage war on each other, gangs of cannibals roam the countryside, and what little government survived the eruption has collapsed completely. The ham radio has gone silent. Sickness, cold, and starvation are the survivors’ constant companions.

When it becomes apparent that their home is no longer safe and adults are not facing the stark realities, Alex and Darla must create a community that can survive the ongoing disaster, an almost impossible task requiring even more guts and more smarts than ever—and unthinkable sacrifice. If they fail . . . they, their loved ones, and the few remaining survivors will perish.

This epic finale has the heart of ASHFALL, the action of ASHEN WINTER, and a depth all its own, examining questions of responsibility and bravery, civilization and society, illuminated by the story of an unshakable love that transcends a post-apocalyptic world and even life itself.

To read an except of SUNRISE:
The first two chapters are available on Mike's website at: http://mikemullinauthor.com/books/sunrise/. You may reprint the first two chapters in whole or in part on your website so long as you do not charge anyone anything to access them. Warning: the sample does contain ASHFALL and ASHEN WINTER spoilers.

Slice of Life - The One Where I Get on my Soapbox

Slice of Life is hosted by Two Writing Teachers on Tuesdays.  For the month of March, I am participating in the March Challenge by posting a slice daily.
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Seldom have I felt completely comfortable in my skin or who I am. There are always insecurities that eat away at my self-confidence or my mood.  However, there are moments or situations that I find myself in and everything clicks. I question a lot of my abilities but one thing I never question is my ability to teach. I am a really good teacher.  True there may be some who are better or who can teach certain subjects better than I can, but I know I am a good teacher.  What makes me a good teacher may in part be natural abilities, but my desire to be a reflective teacher and to always improve is what really counts. And even when I might question other abilities, what I never question is that I am a teacher.

Recently on twitter there was a question posed by Sarah Mulhern Gross (@thereadingzone):
Is it unrealistic or unfair to expect teaching to be your passion? Can/should it be "just a job" or fallback? 
I was almost going to say I apologize in advance if I offend anyone, but this is my blog and my slice of life and I am not apologizing for my thoughts on this.

Teaching should never be seen as just a job. It better darn well be your passion or calling or the thing that you love more than anything. Teaching is hard. Teaching is often unappreciated. Everyone thinks they know how to do it better than you and freely offers their opinions of how it should be done even when they have never stepped in front of a roomful of children in their life.  There are very few careers where you are expected to have a high level of education and training and still not receive the respect that you deserve. And yet, it is the best career, if you are truly a teacher.

In high school, I read several books by teachers working with children with special needs.  This was after the time that P.L. 94-142 had just been passed.  These teachers were pioneers in the field of Special Education.  They portrayed stories that were not for the faint of heart. Despite how difficult it was, I was inspired by their stories. Maybe because I expected it to be challenging and at times hard that what I encountered instead seemed more exhilarating than tough?!

In my senior year of high school, I managed to locate the Special Day Class on my campus.  It was located in some hallway that I did not even know existed.  I asked the teacher in that class if I could give up my study hall to volunteer in her classroom as a peer tutor. She was thrilled.  Other than whatever pass she gave me to miss my study hall, I was given no extra credit, no community service hours, no special recognition. Sure, volunteering got me a letter of recommendation that I could use in my college application, but other than that I did it because I wanted to learn what it meant to be a teacher.

In my first year in college, I signed up for volunteer hours with one of the local elementary schools.  By the way, I went to college in New Hampshire. I had no car. I walked a mile to the school and a mile back to my dorm three days a week so that I could volunteer in two different classrooms. Unless there was a conflict with a class or an exam, I did not miss my days at the school.  Even though I had to walk there in all kinds of weather and we had a really snowy winter that year, I went every time I was scheduled to be there. By the time, I reached my junior and senior years, I had volunteer hours in a variety of classrooms working with children with all types of disabilities and also in all kinds of settings.  

Fast forward a few years past college, I was trying to figure out where my career was going. I knew I was a teacher but where should I be. I heard a speaker in Amherst, Massachusetts talk about the needs of urban school districts. I literally do not remember who it was or whether it was at Amherst College or UMass.  What I remember was his challenge. He clearly stated that children in urban schools needed the best possible teachers.  At that moment, I made a commitment to urban education and to students who might not have access to the educational opportunities that students in more affluent communities would have.  Education and teaching had never been just a job to me but it was always more than a career. It was truly a calling.  One that took me 3000 miles from my family and to a community that was completely different than anything I had ever experienced. As a fully credentialed special education teacher, I was asked multiple times by people why I chose to work in an urban school district when I could work in another district with less challenges and for more pay. After awhile, I stopped trying to explain that I was exactly where I should be.  It made no sense to most people. I just knew that every student who walked through my door would receive the same quality of education as I could provide any child in one of those more affluent districts.

When I become frustrated with all of the crazy initiatives and idiotic decisions of those who think they know what they are doing I always ask myself what else would I do if I was not in education?! I literally become sick at the thought of not being in education and not working on the behalf of children. There is not a single other career that I can envision that would have the same meaning for me.  It isn't that I do not think myself capable of doing other jobs. I just cannot see myself receiving the same level of joy and fulfillment from those other jobs.

There may be teachers, administrators or parents who over the years did not always like me or the decisions I made, but one of the greatest insult anyone could make was that I was not an advocate for a child or concerned about children.    

So Sarah, my answer to your question is that anyone who chooses to step through the doors of a classroom and presume to be a teacher better darn well be passionate and willing to go the distance. The lives of every child who crosses the threshold of those doors depends on the teacher being someone who is passionate and capable. Just as I would not want an incompetent surgeon who was just showing up for a paycheck to perform surgery on me, I do not want an incompetent teacher who just wanted a paycheck showing up to teach children.  If someone just wants a paycheck, then they should find another job, teaching isn't for them.

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday - Women's History Month Part II



Thank you everyone for signing up for the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge 2014.  It is going to be an amazing year of sharing nonfiction books with one another.

Last week I mentioned that I was having difficulty finding 2014 nonfiction picture books that celebrated women.  This messed up my plans for my March posts. Oh well! Last week, I featured 5 of my favorite picture book biographies of women.  This week I am sharing nonfiction books that still have quite a few illustrations or photographs but are geared for a slightly older audience, and still celebrate women and their contributions and honor the intent of Women's History Month.

For Part II, I  feature 5 of my favorite longer length biographies of women:


Cleopatra Rules! The Amazing Life of the Original Teen Queen by Vicky Alvear Shecter (Boyd Mills Press, 2010) - If you have not read this book, find it and read immediately. Written in a way that will pull in even the most reluctant nonfiction reader, the book is filled with great facts and just the right amount of humor.


Zora!: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Dennis Brindell Fradin; Judith Bloom Fradin (Clarion Books 2012) - I was so sad that I discovered this after I did my Literacy Café on the Harlem Renaissance. A very accessible biography on Zora Neale Hurston for ages 10 and up.


Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone (Candlewick Press, 2009) - I am a huge fan of Tanya Lee Stone and this was the book that began my journey to learn about what was new in children's nonfiction and eventually led me to begin my nonfiction picture book challenge.


Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) by Sue Macy (National Geographic Children's Books, 2011) - Sue Macy is another author that I enjoy reading. However, I would have picked this one up just based on the title alone. I learned so much in reading this one. I had never thought about how a bicycle would provide women with a certain amount of mobility which would then lead to freedom.


Wideness and Wonder: The Life and Art of Georgia O'Keefe by Susan Goldman Rubin (Chronicle Books, 2011) - Whether you are a fan of the artist, Georgia O'Keefe, or just interested in women's biographies, this is an interesting read about the early influences over O'Keefe's art and development into the artist she would become.

And my bonus pick...I sat on the fence with this one...however, it was such an amazing book that I needed to include it.


Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer (National Geographic Children's Books, 2011) - When I read this book, I remember thinking that I knew about the Salem Witch Trials.  However, there was a lot that I did not know and I could not put this down. 

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews...