FRANK BEDDOR
Author, World Creator, Film Producer, Creative Executive
Frank Beddor had scaled the heights of professional skiing (as a two-time freestyle world champion) and filmmaking (as producer of the 1998 hit "There's Something About Mary") before deciding to become an author (of the New York Times best seller "The Looking Glass Wars," the first volume of a like-titled trilogy). This transformation was born of "an odd, empty feeling" and a serendipitous whisper of inspiration.
While in London for the U.K. premiere of "There's Something About Mary," Beddor visited the British Museum. "It was a fateful trip," he attests, explaining: "I came upon this exhibit of ancient cards - playing cards, Tarot cards, illuminated cards, cards Napoleon had hired artists to create illustrating his victories. There was also an incomplete deck that intrigued me. The images reminded me of 'Alice in Wonderland,' but they were more mysterious and twisted, much more gothic. After that, I couldn't stop thinking about those cards. Through a series of events, I met an antiquities dealer who owned the remaining cards from that deck. And the story he told me - as he revealed one card at a time, each with this incredible imagery - is the basis for the 'Looking Glass Wars' trilogy."
"The Looking Glass Wars" became a sensation in the U.K. when it debuted there in 2004. At long last, it revealed how Lewis Carroll, author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," had willfully misrepresented the story of seven-year-old Alyss Heart, betraying the exiled princess of Wonderland by turning her painful history into a fairytale, when, in fact, it is a dark and dangerous depiction of familial treachery, thwarted love, and the despotic domination of imagination. Visit FrankBeddor.com
GREG MORTENSON
Greg Mortenson is the co-founder of nonprofit Central Asia Institute www.ikat.org, Pennies For
Peace www.penniesforpeace.org, and co-author of New York Times bestseller ëThree Cups of
Teaí www.threecupsoftea.com which has been a bestseller for over nine months since its release
and was Time Magazine Asia Book of The Year.
Mortenson was born in Minnesota in 1947. He grew up on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro,
Tanzania (1958 to 1973). His father, was a founder of Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center
(KCMC) www.kcmc.ac.tz a 480 bed teaching hospital, and his mother founded the International
School Moshi www.ismoshi.org
He served in the U.S. Army in Germany during the Cold War (1977-1979), where he received
the Army Commendation Medal, and later graduated from the Univ. of South Dakota (1983),
and pursued graduate studies in neurophysiology.
On July 24th, 1992, Mortensonís younger sister, Christa, died from a massive seizure after a
lifelong struggle with epilepsy on the eve of a trip to visit Dysersville, Iowa, where the baseball
movie, ëField of Dreamsí, was filmed.
In 1993, to honor his sister's memory, Mortenson climbed Pakistanís K2, the world's second
highest mountain in the Karakoram range.
After K2, while recovering in a local village called Korphe, Mortenson met a group of children
sitting in the dirt writing with sticks in the sand, and made a promise to help them build a school.
From that rash promise, grew a remarkable humanitarian campaign, in which Mortenson has
dedicated his life to promote education and literacy, especially for girls, in remote, volatile
regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
As of 2007, Mortenson has established over 61 schools in rural and often volatile regions of
Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 25,000 children, including 14,000
girls, where few education opportunities existed before.
His work has not been without difficulty. In 1996, he survived an eight day armed kidnapping in
the Northwest Frontier Province NWFP tribal areas of Pakistan, escaped a 2003 firefight with
feuding Afghan warlords by hiding for eight hours under putrid animal hides in a truck going to
a leather-tanning factory. He has overcome two fatwehs from enraged Islamic mullahs, endured
CIA investigations, and also received hate mail and death threats from fellow Americans after
9/11, for helping Muslim children with education.
Mortenson is a living hero to rural communities of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he has
gained the trust of Islamic leaders, military commanders, government officials and tribal chiefs
from his tireless effort to champion education, especially for girls.
He is one of few foreigners who has worked extensively for fifteen years (spending over 65
months) in the region now considered the front lines of the war on terror.
His cross-cultural expertise has brought him to speak on Capital Hill, D.C. think tanks, the
Pentagon, Dept. of Defense, libraries, outdoor groups, universities, schools, churches, mosques,
synagogues, business and civic groups, women's organizations and more. From March 2006
through 2007, he has visited over 110 cities to talk about his message of peace through
education.
NBC newscaster, Tom Brokaw, calls Mortenson, "one ordinary person, with the right
combination of character and determination, who is really changing the world."
Congresswoman Mary Bono (Rep ñ Cali.) says, "I've learned more from Greg Mortenson about
the causes of terrorism than I did during all our briefings on Capitol Hill. He is a true hero,
whose creativity, courage, and compassion exemplify the true ideals of the American spirit."
Tom Brokaw calls Mortenson "one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and
determination, who is really changing the world."
Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today, and the D.C.-based Freedom Forum, says "Mortenson
doesnít just climb mountains. He moves them, and through his courage, he gives hope and has
changed the lives of thousands of children in a region of turmoil considered the front lines of the
war on terror."
Mortenson advocates girls' education as the top priority to promote economic development,
peace and prosperity, and says, "you can drop bombs, hand out condoms, build roads, or put in
electricity, but until the girls are educated a society wonít change."
While not overseas half the year, Mortenson, 49, lives in Bozeman, Montana with his wife, Dr.
Tara Bishop, a clinical psychologist, and two children.
BRANDON MULL
Last time Brandon brought us the fabulous Fablehaven books, and now THE CANDY SHOP WAR takes place in Clayton itself and Mt. Diablo Elementary School! Brandon will be making presentations for the children at Mt. Diablo Elementary School, Diablo View and Pine Hollow on 9/13, followed by a signing at the store at 4:00. Books will NOT be available for sale at the schools.
Brandon Mull grew up in Clayton, California where he went to Mt. Diablo Elementary and Pine Hallow Middle School. The town where his new novel, The Candy Shop War, takes place is a fictionalized version of Clayton. The main characters attend Mt. Diablo Elementary, visit the town museum, and even read the local newspaper. The candy shop is based off an old ice cream parlor which is now Edís Mudville Grill. The layout of downtown and the surrounding areas are very similar to Clayton.
Mull has worked as a comedian, a filing clerk, a patio installer, a movie promoter, a copywriter, and briefly as a chicken stacker. His favorite job is writing fiction. For a couple of years he lived in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile where he learned Spanish and juggling. He currently lives on the side of a mountain above a prison with his wife and two children.Ý
He travels the country visiting schools, promoting literacy, and sharing his message that ìImagination Can Take You Places.î After the success of Fablehaven, Brandon is thrilled to be writing novels full-time.
A fortune cookie once proclaimed he would become a New York Times bestselling author. Fablehaven:Rise of the Evening Star, released in May 2007, debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list. The message from the fortune cookie now hangs on his fridge.
The Candy Shop War is Brandonís third novel.
LAURA ANN GILMAN
Laura Anne Gilman is an editor and writer who has spent years reading and thinking about the tales of Camelot. She has authored a number of novels for young readers, including two Buffy the Vampire Slayer books. Gilman has been an editor for several years, and is currently the Executive Editor of ROC Books, an imprint of Penguin.
M. ALLEN CUNNINGHAM
M. Allen Cunninghamís debut novel, The Green Age of Asher Witherow, was praised by Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler as a ìstartling accomplishment,î and was a finalist for the 2005 Book Sense Book of the Year Award alongside Marilynn Robinsonís Gilead and Philip Rothís The Plot Against America. The Salt Lake Tribune named The Green Age one of six ìBest Books of the Westî in 2004.
Cunninghamís new novel, Lost Son (May 2007), is an imaginative retelling of the life of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke and takes place all over Western Europe.
Cunninghamís numerous short stories have appeared in such literary magazines as The Kenyon Review, Glimmer Train, Alaska Quarterly Review, Epoch, and most recently the all-audio lit-mag Verb. Three of his stories were featured in live performances by The New Short Fiction Series of Beverly Hills. Cunningham is the recipient of a 2007 Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission. He lives in Portland, OR.
Hy-per-chon-dri-a.
The frenetic combustion in one's brain that creates external and internal disease and makes one very unpleasant company to family, peers, the medical community and even oneself.
Irreverent, witty, and at times downright hilarious, Esquire columnist and former stand-up comedian Brian Frazer chronicles his quest for bodily health and inner peace in
HYPER-CHONDRIAC: One Man's Quest to Hurry Up and Calm Down (Atria Books; $23.00).
To look at Brian Frazer you'd see a vibrant, healthy man. A man who eats well, exercises regularly, drinks in moderation, never smokes, and doesn't do drugs. (Well, except for the occasional Zoloft tablet.) But Frazer claims, "It's essential that I take care of myself. Because underneath the wholesome habits and exemplary bodily statistics, I'm an unmitigated, non-synergetic mess."
But his body isn't to blame, he declares. He's been attempting to regulate his high-maintenance brain since his first baby aspirin. Some kids had guidance counselors. He had hypnotists. Others cried when they got braces. He had anxiety attacks whenever he saw baked beans. Friends collected baseball cards. He collected doctor's cards. For him, life just didn't feel right unless something was wrong.
After being diagnosed with hyperchondria (Frazer's own word for his condition) as an adult, he realized he had to do something about his life. He needed a wake-up call and it didn't have to be from God, or a family intervention, or even a fellow road-rager teaching him a lesson by shooting him with an assault weapon. He wanted to be peaceful and relaxed. He wanted to get to the bottom of his issues. In other words, he had to hurry up and calm down.
Thus, Brian began a wild quest in search of an answer, and HYPER-CHONDRIAC recounts every bit of it. From his obsession with weight lifting, and immersion into Kaballah, from his foray into yoga, and his disastrous encounter with Reiki, Frazer takes a no-holds-barred look into why and how he became who he is, and what he's willing to do to accomplish his goal to calm down.
In this age of Zoloft and Prozac, anti-aging cremes and antioxidants, everybody is looking for a quick fix for something. Brian Frazer is a guy who's tried them all and can attest that they all workófor about five minutes.
Brian Frazer has written for Esquire, Vanity Fair, Premiere, ESPN, Los Angeles and other magazines. A former stand-up comedian, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Nancy, and dog, Kenyon.
THE HYPE FOR HYPER-CHONDRIAC!
"Frazer's first book is the perfect medicine for anyone suffering from a case of treacly-memoir syndrome. Hilarious and biting, Hyper-Chondriac recounts the author's lifelong battle with various ailments and maladies, ranging from minor instances of frostbite to rage-filled meltdowns. Frazer's reflections are distinct and laugh-out-loud funny. During a teen rendezvous, Frazer contemplates how his date, suffering from scoliosis, removes her brace: "It probably had to involve her entire family, as if they were an Indy pit crew." It's that kind of spiked, wickedly funny observation that makes this sickness-filled book so easy to swallow. A-" -- Entertainment Weekly
"Read this hilarious memoir about one man's obsession with achieving perfect health, then call us in the morning." -- on Entertainment Weekly MUST LIST
"... a riotous romp through a head case's attempts to find inner peace for his own bodily health." -- New York Post
WATCH THE BOOK'S TRAILER:
ELISA KLEVEN
FROM HER WEBSITE: I write and illustrate picture books because I've never outgrown a deep childhood urge to enter a magical world. As a child growing up in Los Angeles, I used to wish that my huge, congested city were more like the places in the books that I loved - places where forests grew and seasons changed, where animals talked and anything was possible. I envied those characters who slid down rabbit holes, or visited with Charlotte and Wilbur, or flew with Peter Pan, or floated with Mary Poppins, or journeyed to Oz.
Since I couldn't actually visit these wonderful worlds (except, of course, by reading), I made little imaginary worlds of my own, using the materials at hand. My favorite project was an enormous dollhouse in my closet. The house was filled both with "store-bought" toys, and with dolls and creatures which I made myself, from paper, cloth and clay. I'd lose myself for hours making up stories about these characters. I loved to make them treasures from scraps of this and that: a paper doily would become a lace tablecloth; half a walnut-shell would be a baby's cozy cradle; a postage stamp would make a lovely portrait on the wall. Around the dollhouse I painted a mural, a fanciful landscape of forests, fields, mountains, blue skies - the world that I wished I could live in.
I lived in Los Angeles until I was 17, then left to study at U.C. Berkeley where I received a BA in English and later a teaching credential. After reading to young children as a teacher for several years, I had a strong desire to make my own books. My first picture book was published in 1988, and eighteen have followed. (Sometimes I illustrate other authors' stories, sometimes my own.) Like all authors and illustrators, I love to make up characters, and build stories and environments around them. To make my pictures I combine many media: watercolor, gouache, ink, colored pencils, pastels, markers, crayons -- anything that works! I also use lots of collage. As I did in childhood, I snip and glue old scraps into new shapes: a piece of wool becomes a lion's mane or a child's hair. A doily, snipped to bits, becomes a snowstorm.
Like my collages, my stories are also about the power of imagination to transform old into new, familiar into fantastical. In the book The Lion And The Little Red Bird, a lion turns his tail into a paintbrush, and the walls of his cave into a sunlit, painted world. In The Paper Princess, a drawing on paper becomes full of possibilities: by turns, it is a paper doll, a crumbled wad of litter, a birthday card, and a beloved doll again. The child in Hooray, A Pinata! imagines that a dog pi³ata is a favorite pet. Ernst the crocodile in The Puddle Pail sees ordinary rain puddles as sparkling, collectible treasures . The girl in A Monster In The House imagines her baby brother to be a giant, messy, screaming, toe-sucking, hair-pulling monster. And in my newest book, Sun Bread, a baker brightens a bleak winter by shaping bread dough into a warm, glowing, life-giving sun.
Although I love creating imaginary worlds, I also enjoy drawing real places. Three of the books I've illustrated take place in big U.S. cities. Abuela, by Arthur Dorros, is set in New York. City By The Bay, by Tricia Brown, is "a magical journey around San Fransisco." And City Of Angels, by Julie Jaskol and Brian Lewis, explores my home city of L.A. The life,energy, textures and wealth of detail in cities inspire my collages.
Cunninghamís numerous short stories have appeared in such literary magazines as The Kenyon Review, Glimmer Train, Alaska Quarterly Review, Epoch, and most recently the all-audio lit-mag Verb. Three of his stories were featured in live performances by The New Short Fiction Series of Beverly Hills. Cunningham is the recipient of a 2007 Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission. He lives in Portland, OR.
