The First Capybara in Space with Stuart Gibbs

First Draft Episode #217: Stuart Gibbs

Stuart Gibbs, New York Times bestselling author of the Spy School
series, the FunJungle series, the Moon Base Alpha series, and The
Last Musketeer series. His newest series kicked off in 2019 with
Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation. The newest FunJungle book,
Tyrannosaurus Wrecks, is out March 24, and Spy School Revolution
will come out in fall 2020.


Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode




The life path of MIchael Crichton, who studied to become a
doctor, was an influence on Stuart in college. After two days
into pre-med, though, he decided to focus on biology.




The capybara is the world’s largest rodent




Jennifer Joel is now Co-Head of the Publishing Department at
ICM




Jean Claude Van Damme is a Belgian artist and martial artist
who made many action films, like Bloodsport (definitely
listen to the How Did This Get Made episode - one of the best
HDTGM ever), Street Fighter (omg this How Did This Get Made
episode - What is a Street Figher?! iconic), Timecop (listen
to the How Did This Get Made episode), and The Quest (listen
to that How Did This Get Made episode)




Stuart co-wrote the movie See Spot Run with Craig Titley (who
wrote the film adaptation of Percy Jackson and The Olympians:
The Lightning Thief, the film adaptation of The Lightning
Thief by Rick Riordan)




Lucy Ruth Cummins, writer and illustrator, and executive art
director of picture books, middle grade books, and young
adult novels for Simon & Schuster Books for Young
Readers, and Paula Wiseman books, is responsible for many of
Stuart’s incredible covers, including the FunJungle covers




Stuart explains that Quentin Tarantino, writer and director
of films like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Once Upon a
Time In Hollywood, is given the freedom to wander and explore
in his movies, but most screenwriters aren’t.




Daniel Ehrenhaft, author of The Last Dog on Earth, 10 Things
to Do Before I Die, and more, Vice President and Editorial
Director at Soho Teen, and guitarist in Tiger Beat, recruited
Stuart to write The Last Musketeer series.




Moonraker was the first James Bond movie that Stuart ever
saw. It changed his world! The story Stuart wrote as a kid
about Jimmy Bond, James Bond’s son, was called The Kid with
the Golden Water Pistol, a riff on The Man With the Golden
Gun




The Mission Impossible films have taken over for James Bond,
in a way




Stuart wrote Space Case and the Moon Base Alpha series with
the help of his good friend, astronaut Garrett Reisman




Stuart had the instinct that he couldn’t write a book set on
Mars, because it would need to have such a scientific basis.
His instinct was right because shortly after, Andy Weir
published The Martian (listen to Andy Weir’s episode of First
Draft here)


 




I want to hear from you!


Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her
guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998.


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Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author
of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture
Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator
of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too;  Michael
Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender;
John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and
frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their
careers and creative works.


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