Interview with Bestselling Author Stuart Gibbs
If you have been following along on my @mommylovesbooks Instagram account, you know we are devoted Stuart Gibbs’ book fans in our house. We had the pleasure of hearing him speak a few year ago at an author event at our local elementary school. He was funny, interesting and engaging. My son left that talk and asked if we could buy his books right away and so we did.
Since then, these books have taken my son on adventures around the world and introduced him to creative and hilarious stories that have consumed him for days. Reading is magic in that way. In our house, we feel that books are the best gifts and authors and illustrators are amazing storytellers. I’d even venture to say my kids think authors have celebrity status.
Stuart Gibbs is the author of five best selling series. My son has read them all and gives them 5 stars reviews. They include The Spy School series (eight books so far), The FunJungle series (seven books so far), the Moon Base Alpha series (three books total,) The Charlie Thorne Series (two books so far) and The Three Musketeer Series (three books so far.)
Stuart was born in Philadelphia, PA (same with me) and grew up in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. Stuart has been writing stories since kindergarten. In addition to writing novels, he writes for film and TV. He is an environmentalist, loves to travel and explore all the hiking trails around the city of Angels.
You should definitely check out Stuart’s web site at www.stuartgibbs.com. It is hilarious, informative and creative. Be sure to go to the section “Get Involved” and read about zany ways you can spread the word about Stuart’s books. You will NOT want to miss this section. I was laughing out loud. Also, there are many questions and answers on his web site to explore and read. It reads like an interview. Below you will find a few of the questions we asked him.
Thank you again to Stuart Gibbs for being our author of the week and for taking the time out of his very busy writing schedule to answer some questions for @mommylovesbooks. (MLB = Mommy Loves Books (me) and SG = Stuart Gibbs)
MLB: My son and I attended a book fair talk you gave about 5 years ago - you put a letter on the screen that you had written when you were a kid about wanting to be an author. Do you still have that and can you share what that said again?
SG: I think that maybe, you are recalling a form I was given when I was in second grade? That's generally what I show in my presentations. The point I usually make with this photo is how horrifyingly limited the job options for the girls are on the form.
MLB: Yes, horrifying. I agree. Just FYI… In second grade, Stuart was given a form that asked what the students wanted to be when they grew up. There was a “Boys section” and a “Girls section” on the form. Stuart wrote in his future job as “author.” If you want to see the form, I have included it below.
MLB: I read that you studied biology at University of Pennsylvania? Did you take any creative writing courses there?
SG: Believe it or not, I took no creative writing courses at Penn. I had already found an agent and he advised me to not take creative writing classes, because he said I already knew how to write. He suggested that I study other things that interested me instead. So I studied psychology and communications (which was the closest that Penn had to a film degree) and field biology.
MLB: I saw that there will be a Spy School graphic novel. Will it be a series? Who is the illustrator?
SG: Yes, there will be a graphic novel of Spy School -- and plans are afoot (but not quite underway) for there to be a series of those, mirroring the chapter books. The artist is Anjan Sarkar.
MLB: One of the things you have mentioned you like doing for fun is traveling. What have you been doing to nourish your travel interest during quarantine?
SG: Oh boy. It has been really hard to nourish my travel interests during quarantine. I seem to be spending a lot of time making plans in the hopes that I'll be able to go somewhere, then postponing them to a distant date. I have done some travel around California with my family, but I am really hoping to get vaccinated and start traveling again as fast as possible.
MLB: Last question, could you name your three favorite things about Los Angeles.
SG: Favorite things about LA:
1) You can escape to the wilderness with surprising ease. You can go hiking or mountain biking or canyoneering in the mountains right in the middle of the city. I have run into mountain lions, bobcats, dolphins and whales minutes from civilization.
2) The Magic Castle. Home to the magician's union. One of the coolest, craziest buildings ever.
3) Dodger Stadium. The biggest baseball stadium in the US still can feel surprisingly intimate. It's still not that expensive to get a decent seat. And the Dodger Dogs are great.
Being a fellow Los Angeles resident, I have to agree with all these things, including the Dodger Dogs. And although I have never been to the Magic Castle, I have heard all of the stories from my husband’s family about how cool it is there. My husband had his 12th birthday dinner at Magic Castle and it still stands as his top five birthday memories. I do hope we are able to attend live events sooner than later. Until then, we will keep reading, dreaming, and staying cozy inside with our family and furry friends. Thank you again to Stuart Gibbs.
