Featured Author: Rachel Dunstan Muller
 
Bibliography at Orca
Ten Thumb Sam: When the Triple Top Circus is threatened by repeated acts of sabotage, Sam is the number one suspect. To clear his name, Sam enlists the help of his cousin, Harriet, and discovers that, while he may never be a sword-swallower or a lion-tamer, he just might be able to save the circus.
When the Curtain Rises: When Chloe's great-aunts tell her the legend of her great-grandfather, Dante Magnus, an ambitious magician who vanished without a trace almost a century earlier, she begins to search for clues to his disappearance. Her investigations eventually lead her to a mysterious rosewood box, which has been hidden for almost a hundred years...
Interview
What would you be doing if you weren't writing kids' books? I've always been fascinated by magicians. Magicians feature prominently in both of my first two novels, When the Curtain Rises and Ten Thumb Sam. But I wasn't meant for the stage. Like Sam, the protagonist of my second book, I'm just too clumsy. So I write instead. Writing is a kind of magic. I get to create entire worlds—interesting settings, unusual characters—out of thin air. If I do my job properly, I can bring what I'm writing about to life. Then other people can enter my stories as well.
What's the most exciting thing that's happened to you recently as a writer? I recently learned that the language rights for my first novel had been sold to a publisher that distributes books to Sweden and Norway. Imagine—kids on another continent halfway around the world are going to be reading my story. That was pretty exciting!
What are you working on now? I'm working on a juvenile novel set in Ireland. I've always been fascinated by Irish folklore, and I had the chance to live in Northern Ireland for a year about six years ago. The protagonist of the story is a twin. I have a thing about twins—kind of like I have a thing about magicians. My oldest daughters are twins, and there are twin sisters in my first two books. But this is the first time I've used twins as my main characters.
What do you like best about writing? What do you like least? I love those moments when my characters first start to come to life on the page (or in my case, on the computer screen). I know I'm headed in the right direction when my characters start saying and doing things that surprise me, just like real people. Starting a new scene or a new story should be one of my favorite things, but I find beginnings intimidating. The first five minutes after I turn on my laptop are always the hardest. Once I've got some momentum, I'm happy.
What's the most interesting reader response you've ever had? One of my readers wrote that When The Curtain Rises was "a wonderful, mysterious book," but added that she didn't really want to read about the main character "eating breakfast and checking her mail" at the beginning of the novel. I appreciated her honesty. She reminded me how important it is to get a story moving and to hook the reader right from the very first paragraph. I don't think I'll ever start another story without thinking of her words.
Biography
Rachel Dunstan Muller was born in Oakland, California, and immigrated with her parents to Canada when she was two. She spent the first half of her childhood in Ontario, and the second half in Nanaimo, B.C. Rachel attended the University of Victoria. Rachel has lived in sixteen homes, in nine communities, in three countries, on two continents. She currently lives in the small coastal town of Ladysmith, B.C. She's had four cats, one dog, ten rabbits, six pigeons, two budgies, a gerbil, a hamster, a fire-bellied toad, and too many goldfish to count. Rachel has four terrific daughters, and one fabulous husband.
While caring for her preschoolers at home, Rachel authored two series of local newspaper columns. The first, "Penny-Wise," offered light-hearted advice for the financially challenged. The second column, under the banner of a local non-profit organization, explored environmental issues. She went on to write training materials for operators in the forest industry.
Rachel began writing fiction seriously in 2001, while accompanying her husband on a teaching exchange to Northern Ireland. During her year abroad, she completed her first draft of Ten Thumb Sam (due for release in the fall of 2007), and began an early version of When the Curtain Rises. Rachel is currently working on a third young adult novel, which is set in part in the Irish "glens" where she often went for inspiration and exercise.
When she's not writing, Rachel likes to explore the forest and mountain trails near her home. She recently built a wooden kayak in her basement, and then took it paddling around the Broken Islands, off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Rachel enjoys sharing her love of writing and storytelling, and welcomes invitations to do school presentations.
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