B. B. Alston is an author of children’s books. He is best known for Amari and the Night Brothers.
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Facts About B. B. Alston
- B. B. Alston began writing in middle school. He used to write horror stories and read them to his friends.
- His family didn’t have much money when he was growing up.
- B. B. Alston’s debut novel was Amari and the Night Brothers.
- He enjoys eating sweets and candy and exploring country roads.
- Amari and the Night Brothers has been adapted for the screen with Don Cheadle as producer.
- He stopped writing stories in high school and this break continued into his twenties.
- Reading the Harry Potter books reminded him of why he’d loved stories as a child, and he started writing again soon after.
- He is a big fan of the Men in Black movies.
- Some of the authors B. B. Alston admires include Jessica Townsend, Nic Stone, and Angie Thomas.
- As a child, he enjoyed Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, Mrs Frisby the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis.
- He was inspired to start writing a novel by the success of the Twilight books.
- He studied Pre-Med at college and was about to start the process of applying to Medical School when he secured a book agent via Twitter.
- B. B. Alston lives in Lexington in South Carolina, US.
- His writing process involves writing a zero draft – a simple outline of the book which only includes the book’s main plot points and story beats. He keeps adding details with each subsequent draft.
I’m always asking myself “What-if” questions when I write, and my stories kind of spring up from the answers to those questions.
B. B. Alston
- B. B. Alston’s favourite part of the writing process is creating the world. His least favourite part is cutting words he has written during his editing and revisions.
- He would love to have the ability to teleport.
- He listens to a wide variety of music, and he enjoys Maroon 5, Rapsody, Drake and BTS.
- He is a fast reader, but he also enjoys listening to audiobooks in his car.
- Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings books, and Katniss from The Hunger Games trilogy are his favorite book characters.
- He is a big admirer of J. R. R Tolkien, Maya Angelou, and Rick Riordan.
- Amari from the Amari and the Night Brothers is based on B. B. Alston and the children he grew up with. He wanted to write a fantasy book for children with a black main character as he couldn’t find any when he was growing up.
- The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs summer camp in the Amari and the Night Brothers book is inspired by Hogwarts (from the Harry Potter books) and Camp Half-Blood (from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books).
It scared me to write a black kid in a fantasy book because I had never seen it before. But it also thrilled me because I was writing about myself and the kids I grew up with.
B. B. Alston
