True story. I went to high school with Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children. We were both in horrible (I mean charming) garage rock bands in Venice, Florida — and at one point, I played drums on a studio recording for his band of awkward, gifted friends called Dinner With Hern Burford. Below is the only photographic evidence I have of my brush with fame and fortune:
On the right is Ransom with his guitar, and I’m the blurry drummer in the background with an “I Hate Florida” T-shirt. (My grandfather Carl Millard had just passed away a day or so before that, so I really didn’t want to be there that day. I hid behind a floppy hat and sunglasses.)
So, the question is: did Ransom name Millard Nullings after me? Well, my middle name is Millard (thus the Sir Millard Mulch musical pseudonym), and I had been going by that name full-time for three or four years. I heard an unconfirmed rumor that there was another Millard on the scene during those days, but I doubt it.
You can buy the #1 best-selling Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children on Amazon and decide for yourself.