Code Red at Franklin Community Middle School

This morning I was about fifteen minutes into my first presentation at the library in Franklin Community Middle School when the principal came on the intercom: "Code Red. Code Red."

Unfortunately, he wasn't talking about Mountain Dew. I looked to the librarian, Trish Grady, for guidance. I figured it was a lockdown drill. I've been in those before--you crouch in a dark, locked room for five minutes until the principal calls all clear. Then I saw a policewoman sprinting past the windows outside. That's not normally part of the drill.

I'd just finished challenging the students to break a training board with a taekwondo move called hammerfist, so one of them piped up, "Hey, we're fine, we've got the taekwondo dude with us!" I decided it wasn't the best time to explain exactly how useless my mad taekwondo skillz would be against stray bullets.

Trish told me to keep going, and I entertained my rather nervous audience while the rest of the adults locked all the doors, turned off the lights, and pulled all the blinds. Then we got word that we should move to a computer lab deeper in the building and wait for the all clear. So I wound up sitting with a roomful of middle school students in a dark room for nearly two hours. And it was wonderful!

We talked about my books, about their favorite books, about the books they were writing, about how authors get inspiration, about how I build my characters and my plots, and about a hundred other topics. I had a great time.

Finally we got a "Code Yellow," which the marketers at Mountain Dew wisely do not use on soda cans. That meant we could move around inside the building but not leave. Not even for the planned lunchtime cook-out. So, the intrepid library and kitchen staff moved the cookout into the library (with pre-cooked hamburgers, which were actually pretty good). Then my final presentation had to be cut short, but that was no problem--I have a short version ready for just this sort of thing.

It turned out that the "Code Red" was caused by an armed robbery and shoot-out at a nearby drugstore. You can read more about it here if you wish.

I was amazed anew at the yeoman's work our schools do in educating and protecting our students despite a society that sometimes seems stacked against them. Trish knew exactly where the flip-chart was with every conceivable disaster procedure. (Seriously, they have dozens of scenarios planned--including what to do if there's a nearby radiation leak.) Everyone was calm, cool, and professional even though the event played havoc with what was already a bit of an abnormal day.

Thank you to all the librarians, teachers, and administrators who prepare so diligently for all kinds of crazy events that we all hope will never happen. And a special thank you to Trish Grady, whose flexibility and resourcefulness made my day at FCMS a lot of fun despite the "Code Red." Maybe next time I visit we'll have a Code Read and bring flashlights to read in the dark.

(If you're interested in hosting me at your school, library, bookstore, or taekwondo dojang, there's more information about my author visits here.)

I Feel Like a Rockstar!

Check out what was sitting on my bed when I checked in at the Fairfield Inn in Burlington, Iowa this evening:

Someone from the library hosting me made a special trip to my hotel to leave a welcome gift! But that wasn't even the best part. Here's a close-up of the tag:

Iowa, in my books, is part of the Red Zone that the government basically abandons. And there were more ASHFALL-related goodies in the bag!

This is a cloth packet of what look to be kale seeds in envelopes made from the pages (photocopied, it looks like) of a Dan Brown novel. Exactly what I described in ASHEN WINTER! Here's a pic of the packets:

Then I pulled out the Guaranteed Human-Free Jerky. (Not packaged by the Peckerwoods.)

And Sterzings Potato Chips, a Burlington delicacy (they are really good!)

The obligatory mug:

But inside there was a box of matches. (If the Fairfield burns down, it wasn't me.)

And a plastic bottle of water, handy if I need to refill it from the toilet tank:

And cookies!

And here's the last thing I found--the best gift of all:

They gave me a library card! I kid you not! Why am I giggling like a little girl in all the other pictures, and in this one my eyes are closed and I'm not smiling? Because I'm struggling not to cry--that's how much that gift means to me. I've had a library card for the Indianapolis Public Library for 38 years now. My library card means nothing less than freedom to me. The freedom to enter thousands of imaginary worlds, to live other lives, to know how the world around me works. To be given one? I don't even know to adequately express the magnanimity of that gesture. I may never use it, but nonetheless, I'll forever feel I'm one of the proud patrons of the Burlington Public Library.

How am I ever going to live up to this welcome? I'll do my very best at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow night (5/7) at the Burlington, Iowa Public Library. Don't miss it if you're in the area!

Query Hell

Two of my friends and critique partners, Shannon Alexander and Jason Beineke, are going through query hell right now. For those of you not familiar with the publishing process, that's where you boil down your whole book into three or four paragraphs designed to make a literary agent slather and chomp at the bit to represent your work. It's quite possibly more difficult than writing the whole book. In fact, this is how querying made me feel:

Photo by reubens

I struggled and struggled with the query for my debut novel, ASHFALL. After almost two weeks of work, it still sucked. Here's how I finally wrote an ASHFALL query that generated requests, and what I suggest you try if you're mired in query hell:

1) Go to the library (this is a good start to nearly any list of things to do, by the way).
2) Sit down in whatever section includes your kind of book (young adult fiction, for example).
3) Pull a random book off the shelf and read the flap copy.
4) Write a query in the style of that flap copy.
5) Repeat until your brain starts to leak out your ears (I wrote about 40 of them).
6) Write a new query that mashes up all the best words, phrases, and ideas from your imitation flap copy.

That's it. Hope it helps. One word of caution: I'm not the best person to take query advice from. EVERY agent who saw ASHFALL turned it down at some stage: query, partial, or full. I wound up getting an editor to read it through a personal connection, and I'm still not represented by a literary agent. So I hope your mileage varies from mine for the better.

Any other great advice for queriers? Let me know in the comments, please.

Travel Plans!

I have trips upcoming trips planned to Oregon, Kansas, and Arkansas. In each case, someone is paying my airfare: Tanglewood Press to Oregon, the 20th Annual Literature Festival to Kansas, and the Arkansas Curriculum Conference to Arkansas. Why am I over-sharing here? Well, if you're with a school, library, bookstore, or taekwondo dojang, in any of those areas, you can book an author visit without paying ANYTHING for airfare if you're willing to choose a date that I'm in your area anyway. Please help me spread the word--pass a link to this post on to any librarians you know.

Part of one of my author talks

Here's what a couple of librarians have had to say about my author talks:

"Mr. Mullin is as dynamic and energetic as his volcanic subject. He thrilled Pierce students with a breathtaking summary of what his novel’s reluctant hero had to face in order to be reunited with his family during the worst natural disaster in American history. To keep the pace of his visit at high intensity, Mr. Mullin donned his taekwondo clothing and proceeded to chop several heavy construction bricks in half." --Ted Zagar, Media Specialist at Pierce Middle School.

"Thanks again so much for the fantastic writing workshops you offered to the students at Frankfort High School.  I have your broken cement blocks on display in the library and the students love them, they can't get enough of your book, and are so excited about the next one. Lunch with the author was a huge success and the students have thanked me over and over for including them in that experience.  You have a dynamic personality that really connected so positively with our students." --Jane Holden, Media Specialist at Frankfort High School.

For more information, testimonials, and details click here.

Anyway, here are the days and locations I'd like to fill:

OREGON:

I'll be in the Dalles/Portland area from 6/1 through 6/6. I have plenty of extra time to schedule more events during my stay in Portland. I also have family near Seattle and the Twin Falls, Idaho area. If you'd like to schedule a presentation before or after this period in Seattle, Boise, or Twin Falls, please email me ASAP.

KANSAS:

I'm a featured author at the 20th Annual Literature Festival in Lawrence on 10/15. I'd like to extend my stay with extra events before or after the festival in that area or Kansas City, MO. Heck, I'd even drive to Omaha for Jason Beineke.

TENNESSEE/ARKANSAS:

I'm currently scheduled to fly into Memphis for an event on 10/29 and out of Little Rock on 10/31. I'd love to extend that trip with more events in either city or points between.

Interested? Email me ASAP at mike.mullin.writer at gmail dot com. Thanks!

Book Reviews and "Haters"

I read this post from author Jennifer Rush this morning and felt compelled to respond. So much so that I'm rewarding myself for finishing my first 500 words this morning by writing this blog post. Yes, I'm rewarding myself for writing with more writing. This may well be pathological.

Anyway, Rush discusses the four types of "haters" who write negative book reviews (and accompanies her post with some very funny illustrations). I've got to say that this does not fit my experience of the book reviewing community. Reviewers--even those who didn't care for my books--have been almost universally friendly, generous, and gracious. They're anything but haters. Book reviewers do what they do for love of the literature. Most of them get paid exactly nothing. Reviewers don't owe authors anything; we owe them a huge thank you for promoting our books--whether they reviewed those books positively or negatively.

I'll be honest: As a reader, I don't trust reviewers who don't write negative reviews. If you won't tell me when you dislike something, how can I judge if your taste fits mine? And I'm far more likely to buy a book based on a negative review than a positive one. If the stuff a reviewer disliked sounds cool to me, I'm firing up Indiebound to order. Criticizing something in public is risky, and so I tend to assume, rightly or wrongly, that a critical reviewer is being honest. (This is one of the many reasons that I'm a terrible book reviewer. I've been steadily deleting almost all the negative book reviews and ratings from my Goodreads account. I'm not willing to take the risks associated with being honest about my reaction to others' work in public.)

And here's another one of the facts Rush neglects in her piece. The "haters" are helping her. Negative reviews sell books. For a complete discussion of the research backing that statement, read my blog post Why Bad Reviews Rock.

Let me be clear, there are real haters out there. There are reviewers who choose to comment on the author's weight instead of her work. Or her clothing. Or who write personally threatening things. I have author friends who've been victims of this kind of "review". And I used female pronouns for a reason; women seem far more likely to face this kind of internet hatred than men. I recognize that I've been fortunate not to have to face this sort of "review," and I have one message for anyone writing them: Seek psychiatric help.

But to the rest of the book reviewers out there, the 99.9% who do a real service to the world of literature, and even to those of you who disliked ASHFALL or ASHEN WINTER: Thank you!

A Thank You to Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania

School librarians all over the country volunteer their time to create state award lists. They work like this--students who read the books on the list vote to select each state's winner. As such, they're probably purest measure of teen appeal. I'm extraordinarily grateful that four states (so far) have chosen to honor my debut novel, ASHFALL by including it on their award list. Whether I win or not, being included on the lists is a big deal because librarians all over the state order extra books, and, more importantly, more students read the books on the lists. So a huge thank you to:

 

 The Eliot Rosewater Award 2013/2014

2013/2014 The Gateway Readers Award

2014 High School Sequoyah Book Awards

Pennsylvania Readers' Choice Awards Young Adult

My heartfelt thanks again to all the school librarians in those four states and everywhere who work so hard to connect students with books. I deeply appreciate your efforts on behalf of students, books, and authors.

Renewal

(Originally posted at The League of Extraordinary Writers)

A few weeks ago, in the midst of this exhausting book tour for ASHEN WINTER, I saw this tree:

It's an old, hollowed out sycamore tree growing beside a stream in Fortville, Indiana. From the top of that seemingly dead trunk sprouts a vibrant young sycamore about six inches in diameter. I took a picture because the image plucked a chord within me.

Sometimes students ask why I became a writer. And I tell them it was the only job left after I got fired from every other profession I tried. I answer that way because it's funny, and I like to be extremely candid in my interactions with students--they can smell fakers from all the way down the hall.

But the truth is that I fired myself; I quit most of the jobs I held before I was a writer. I did a bit of everything: janitor, marketing executive, wine salesman, and remodeling company owner among others. In each job, I felt like that old sycamore tree, getting progressively more hollow as small daily iniquities rotted me and office politics gnawed my core.

Now, I feel more like that new tree, growing fast and proud from a base of failure. In another sense, though, all those abandoned careers were anything but a failure. Everything I tried informs my writing today. The new tree could not exist without the roots the old one put down.