Vall Muller and her Corgis
I’ve wanted to write since I could first hold a pencil. I
realized from a young age that magic does exist—in books. Through books, an
author can create any possibility imaginable. I even thought it was amazing
that authors can communicate with people generations in the future. I was
inspired by watching my two favorite TV shows—Rainbow Brite and He-Man (very
different, I know)—by the writers’ ability to create a unique and clever world
much different from our own. I knew that one day, I wanted to create such
worlds.
The first “book” I ever wrote was a little stapled-together
set of notebook paper called “The Mystery of Who Killed John Polly.” I wrote it
in first grade (and illustrated it, too). It was a detective story about a
murder. When the detectives couldn’t figure it out, a group of neighbors banded
together to solve the crime and snag the perpetrator. I brought it in for
show-and-tell in second and third grade, and the rest of the class was the
thrilled. Also in first grade, my teacher asked us to write a poem about
Halloween. She liked mine so much that she had me read it to the fifth graders.
In fact, throughout all my school, my teachers frequently commented about how
they expected to see my name in books and magazines one day.
Since then, I’ve been reading and writing as much as I can,
and I’m loving every minute of it!
Prompt
When I was younger, an elderly Italian couple moved next
door. The woman’s Italian accent was so heavy that I could barely understand
her. As a result, I thought she was a witch, and I hid from her whenever she
came out. (I feel horrible about it now—she was the nicest woman in the
world!). Still, I used that experience as inspiration for my newest book, The Sorceress of Stoney Brook, in which
Adam Hollinger believes his new neighbors are witches.
Write about a unique, memorable, or scary exchange you had
with a neighbor. Use that as the starting point for a story.
About the Author:
Val Muller lives in Virginia with two corgis and a husband.
By day she teaches English, but by night and early-morning, she is a voracious
reader and writer, reviewing one book every week on her blog and participating in a
weekly flash fiction writers group (their serial story appears on her blog
every Thursday). Her work has appeared in many magazines and anthologies and
ranges from children’s literature to horror. You can see a full list of work on her website. Her horror novel for
adults, Faulkner’s Apprentice, will be released in early 2013 with Crowded
Quarantine Publications.
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