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We're very excited to have Mike Mullin, author of Ashfall, on the blog today. I recently read Ashfall (see review here) and asked Mike if he would answer some questions for us. Lucky for us, he said yes.
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 hoping this writing thing works out.Mike holds a black belt in Songahm Taekwondo. He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with his wife and her three cats. ASHFALL is his first novel.
Hi, Mike! Thank you so much for stopping by the blog today. I read Ashfall recently and I have to say that I loved it. It was hard to read at times because I was really afraid for Alex and Darla and what was going to happen to them. I was so immersed in their world that I felt like I was on the road with them and it was pretty scary.
Thanks for inviting me, Thuy. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed ASHFALL!
Your online bio says that you once had a job where they showed slides of poopy diapers. What kind of job was this and how long did you work there?
I was an Assistant Brand Manager for Pampers Diapers at Procter & Gamble for a few years. At the time I worked there, the heads of Marketing and Product Development hated each other. So whenever Product Development had to give a presentation to Marketing, they’d schedule it at lunchtime and bring color slides of the most disgusting diarrhea-loaded diapers they could find.
Did you set out to write a YA novel or why did you choose to make your protagonist a teenager?
I set out to write a YA novel. I grew up reading Peck, Cormier, and Blume and never quit. Since I’ve been reading (and geeking out over!) YA novels for more than 30 years, it was natural to choose to write in that category.
There seems to be a lot of dystopian and apocalyptic fiction coming out lately. I think Ashfall is unique in that the story begins before the disaster happens. Why did you decide to start the story before the volcano erupted vs after?
I wanted to start Ashfall out with a bang (bad pun fully intended).
How much research did you have to do before you started writing Ashfall? Did you
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