Philipsburg native pens children’s book

PHILIPSBURG — A man with roots in the Philipsburg community has published his second children’s book, ‘The Sleepiest Thing in the World.’

G. Quentin Mull’s newest story, which follows on the heels of his first children’s book, ‘Where Does God Live?’ is now available at Amazon.com and through Tate Publishing’s website.

Mull said that, like most creative endeavours, ‘The Sleepiest Thing in the World’ was a work of spontaneity.

‘It was the summer of 2014 and my brother and his wife were preparing to have a child,’ he said. ‘One day, I was a few hours into a rucksack hike and as I paused on a hillside to rehydrate, I just thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have a bedtime story that put kids in a soothing meditative state?’ So, I literally started thinking of the sleepiest things I could think of — snoozing dogs, twinkling stars, chirping crickets.’

Mull said he wrote the book in a single afternoon; however, he noted the editing and illustration process took several months. The book was officially released Feb. 2.

Mull’s first published work was a novel, ‘The Aura.’ He also wrote a self-help book, ‘Be Invincible: Five Steps to Elite Mental Toughness.’ He said he plans to write three more children’s books in 2016, including ‘A Truck is Never Big Enough,’ ‘The Alphabet of Outrageously Adorable Animals’ and ‘Sometimes Soldiers are Sad,’ which introduces children to PTSD.

Mull was born at the former Centre Community Hospital in State College and lived in Philipsburg until graduating high school. His family has owned the 1813 Victorian farm house known as Halehurst in Philipsburg since his ancestor, R.C. Hale, purchased the property in the 1860s.

‘My roots in Centre County are pretty deep ones,’ he said. ‘The countless hours I spent in the Pennsylvania forests growing up gave me a strong sense of natural beauty, which is a recurring theme in my books. I would say no matter where I am, Centre County is my home and there is a piece of it that I carry with me everywhere.’

After high school, Mull studied at Valley Forge Military College, Cornell and Pepperdine. Business has taken him to Los Angeles, Denver and Dallas, and currently, he resides in Nashville, Tenn., where he runs a business manufacturing and marketing exercise products for Crossfit. 
‘But, my passion has always been for writing,’ he said. ‘Whether lyrics, poems or screenplays, the written word has always been my favorite past time and cherished release.’