Beyonders Signing

Okay, quick blog update. Yesterday I got my copy of Brandon Mull's new book, Beyonders: A World Without Heroes. This is the first of a new series, where a boy named Jason finds himself in another world, and becomes the target of the evil wizard Maldor. Jason has to uncover an ancient secret if he wants to get home and save this hero-less world. I haven't read much of it yet, but I have enjoyed what I have so far.
I was also excited to learn that Brandon Mull would be at the public library signing his new book. I told a friend of mine, who brought some friends of his own, and we all went over to the library. We got there just as Brandon Mull's presentation began. He told us about his inspirations for writing, a little bit about his successful Fablehaven series, and a little about Beyonders. I liked it when he showed some of his international covers. He didn't know what was on the cover of the German translation, but to me it looked like a stone troll.
He also talked about how some experiences he had as a kid led to his writing. Brandon Mull used to be a part of a group that would go exploring around town (like into old, forbidden places). When a candy shop opened, Brandon used to daydream about the candy being magic. That's how the idea for his book, The Candy Shop War, came to be. Another experience he had as a kid was when he decided to stop believing in his imaginary friend. That choice led to the thought "what would happen if your imaginary friend became your imaginary enemy?" That led him to write his first picture book, Pingo.
There was a brief Q&A session. I asked him if there was anything he really wanted to put into his books, like a character or scene, but had to take it out in the end. He said that made him think of some things from Beyonders that we didn't know about yet. I asked him if there was anything from Fablehaven that fell under this situation, and he said that he wanted to include leprechauns and unicorns early in the series, but was unable to.
The time soon came for book signing, but there was a little event where two lucky winners would get a copy of A World Without Heroes. What was cool about this was that one of the members of our group was a winner! That was really cool. While we waited to get our books signed, I bought a Beyonders t-shirt. That's the first t-shirt I got about a book.
Eventually we were able to get our books signed by Brandon Mull. He recognized me from last October, when he was at the library for the Teen Book fest. I told him about some things that I did to spread word about his book, and he liked it. I even got a picture with him.
I hope I'll get to meet Brandon Mull again someday.