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Hi, #1 Fans!

Thanks for posting. I’ll try to answer your questions, even though you seem to know my work better than I do!

1.) I guess I just outgrew Gavin Gunhold. Sorry.   2.) My favorite book(s) as a kid — a series called THE GREAT BRAIN by an author named John D. Fitzgerald. Mostly because they were really funny.    3.) Asking me to pick a favorite among my books is like asking me which of my 3 kids I like best! I can’t choose. I do like some better than others, (books, not kids!) but I love them all. I’m usually the most “into” the most recent release. So my current “favorite” is soon going to be my 100th book, THE FORT.   4.) I have 2 favorite characters: Rootbeer Racinette from LOSING JOE’S PLACE, and Malik Bruder of the MASTERMINDS series, Rootbeer because he’s so crazy and Malik because he’s so human.   5.) Mike Otis, Raymond Jardine, and Emile Querada all suited the story I was writing. No big mystery or inspirational lightning bolt. The characters helped tell the story, that’s all.     6.) Current favorite of my own? Probably OPERATION DO-OVER, soon to be THE FORT. Of someone else’s it’s still Douglas Adams’ THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY.   7.) Names are easy — everybody gets at least one. It’s the one thing I can’t explain — why Rudy is right, but Steven would have been wrong; why Bruno suits my first main character; I only know the name has to ring a bell with me, but I can’t say what rings that bell because I honestly don’t know. But I’ll recognize the “right” name when I hear it.   8.) Rudy Miller would probably have become a lawyer and, ultimately, a judge. It suits a person who is so firm in his belief in human rights, mainly his own.   9.) And whatever Artie might have said to the Road Hogs will forever remain a secret. I don’t know myself. I was just trying to show that one of his many talents was the art of persuasion.   10.) That’s the Abiotic Synthesis of Organic Compounds. I haven’t a clue. When I was a 7th grader, I was in a science fair competition. The winner had that project. I never saw it, never knew what it meant, and I still don’t. But doesn’t it sound impressive??? I use it a lot, mostly when I want to sound pretentious.

There. I hope that helps you understand a little bit about the author you have honored with such loyal support! Thank you so much, all!                                                                  —–Gordon Korman—–