Torben Kuhlmann

 

"When an inventive mouse misses the biggest cheese festival the world has ever seen, he’s determined to turn back the clock. But what is time, and can it be influenced? With the help of a mouse clockmaker, a lot of inventiveness, and the notes of a certain famous German physicist, he succeeds in traveling back in time. But when he misses his goal by eighty years, the only one who can help is an employee of the patent office, who turned our concept of space and time upside down." 

Torben Kuhlmann has done it again, combined the cutest mouse in the world with history in a way that you can't help but learn something.  He's amazingly talented and ingenious with his art and stories; I am in awe of him.

                                    Here is North/South's brilliant trailer....                                     

 One of the rave reviews for Einstein:

His unique ability to combine fun, facts, science and biography makes Einstein a real triumph.
BookPage, Starred Review

Below find out how a small boy from a tiny town in Germany built treehouses, dissected intricate machines, "Twisted the Night Away," and grew up to be an immensely talented author and artist.

Torben, tell me about where you live and why you love it so much.

Hamburg is one of Germany's largest cities. The city exudes a very maritime charm. There are rivers, canals and countless bridges everywhere.

In addition, Hamburg is home to one of the largest ports in Europe with huge container ships. In short: There is always something interesting to see in Hamburg.

Where were you living when you were 7 years old? Are they fond memories?

When I was 7 years old, I lived on the countryside, in a small town called Sulingen.

And I have indeed very fond memories of that time. After school I spent most of my days riding my bicycle and having adventures, building treehouses, inventing strange contraptions out of junk from a nearby junkyard, and building dams in small creeks. I was frustrating the farmers left and right of said creeks. It sounds almost like a cliché from a 1980s movie.

                                                               7 Year old "Tobby"

Is there a book that changed the way you look at life?

A book that changed how I look at life? That’s a difficult question. I would say that the sum of all books I read and all the books I grew up with defined my look at life and shaped me as the person I am today. It’s hard to point to one book in particular.

Do you have a favorite children’s book and what about it makes it so?

I treasured my collection of non-fiction books. I had always been fascinated by science, engineering, inventions, and history. And I remember a particular interest in the illustrations of these books. I would go so far as to say that my very first illustrations were rough copies of artworks I found in these books. They left a mark on me.

What are the funniest or most embarrassing stories your family tells about you?

The funniest and most embarrassing story told about me is one about my inventive and tinkering habits. When I was an elementary school student, I discovered an interesting piece of junk in the cellar: A huge mechanical contraption with a seductive electromotor inside. 

So I unscrewed the device and cut the wires. Finally, I got my motor. It was a component that could be built into other inventions or pseudo-flying machines. Then I learned that the device was a brand new file shredder for my parents’ office, worth several thousand Deutsche Mark (at least over a thousand dollars). And of course the damage was irreversible. My parents never again purchased a file shredder…

Is there a song, person or group that you listen to when you are feeling a bit down?

This might be a rather unusual answer, but there is not just one single song I listen to when I need something uplifting. The one song that comes closest might be Sam Cooke’s “Twistin’ the Night Away”.

 

But rather it’s a whole subgenre of music that can do that for me. It’s the music of older 1970s or 1980s science fiction or fantasy movies – from "E.T.” to “Krull.” In addition, these soundtracks have the ability to fuel my imagination.

How are you different now than you were in your 20’s?

I tend to believe that I did not change that much during the past twenty years. To be critical of myself for a moment, maybe there is a slight decline in my ability to daydream and certainly there is a bit more cynicism in my humor. There have been a few pretty rough years since I was 20 that made it a bit harder to remain as unreservedly optimistic as my younger self. But, on the other hand, I experienced some wonderful things during that time as well: the publication of my first picture book and becoming a freelance illustrator and author.

Is there a question no one has ever asked you that you wish they would? Something, perhaps, that people would be surprised to know about you?

Here is a previously unknown fact: Through some strange connections, a piece of music, performed by me, was played at a concert at Madison Square Garden once.

What exactly and in what context remains a secret.

Torben, now a few questions about your wonderful book. The first, most obvious question, is where did you come up with the idea to have a mouse help Albert Einstein with his theory of time’s relativity?

As with all my mouse adventures there is a need for a prominent historical figure providing a name for the project. Having Albert Einstein in this role was one of the very first decisions I made. I wanted to highlight his work and his revolutionary theories about the universe. But there was one thing about Einstein’s methods that single-handedly kickstarted the whole project: Einstein is known for his thought experiments. These “Gedankenexperimente” (Thought experiments) often start with one question: What if...? I borrowed his approach. What if Einstein had gotten his inspiration for his thought experiments from a rather unexpected source? And since the relativity of time plays such an important role in Einstein's theories, it seemed to be a natural fit to have this source be a time-traveling mouse. But why would a mouse even attempt a time jump in the first place? Obviously because this particular mouse missed the most important event in any mouse’s life: A cheese festival in Bern, Switzerland! That is a journey only possible by fully understanding and augmenting Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, a theory written in Bern, Switzerland. You can almost see the puzzle pieces falling into place here.

I love how you bring the idea of time travel into the story using the cheese fair and being called “Einstein” by the rude other mouse.  Did it take awhile to think of that? Were there other ideas that were thrown away?

That was an idea I am a little bit proud of. While writing the first draft of the story, I was searching for ways to name-drop the name “Einstein” pretty early. Our protagonist, being unfamiliar with Albert Einstein at that moment, is a bit confused and doesn’t understand the sarcastic undertone when being called "Einstein." But as a reader, you should have a first glimpse of what is about to happen. And when reaching the climax of the story, you might think back to this early moment and realize the irony: Without that “stupid” mouse’s actions there might have been no Nobel-Prize winning physicist Albert Einstein. To answer the second part of your question: There are indeed numerous ideas I had to abandon. First, I was toying with even more time-loops in the story, linking the first dialogue with the last words uttered. There was even an idea to hint at an earlier meeting between the rude mouse and our time-traveler on the day of the cheese festival, prompting a different situation where a sarcastic “Einstein” is used. But unfortunately, that idea disrupted the pacing of the epilogue. Other examples are some different attempts by our mouse to travel back in time misinterpreting the concept of time-zones. But that, too, would have had a negative effect on the pacing. Even as is, the book is unusually long with its 128 pages.

Your use of different perspectives in each painting is brilliant. Congratulations!

Thank you! This is something I really enjoy while planning a book. It is almost like working on a storyboard for a motion picture. Sometimes I will describe myself as a kind of cinematographer with a pen and a brush.

There is so much that can be told visually by using lighting, framing, blocking and composition. These are all words from a cinematographer’s vocabulary as well.

Varying perspectives can be used as a great narrative tool. For example, a low camera angle allows me to present a scene from a mouse’s view and therefore put you as a spectator right in that mouse’s world.

Your mouse is so realistic; did you use a live model?

Unfortunately, no. But I did visit some pet shops while prepping my first adventure “Lindbergh” ten years ago.

For that project I needed some references for my illustrations, so I spent quite some time there, clandestinely making sketches and studies. These prove to be useful to this day.

Have you ever seen things differently after being whacked on the head like the mouse?

Fortunately, there haven’t been that many moments like that in my life. But figuratively there were been moments when a new information or a realization hit me over the head just as hard.

Finally, is there a bit of interesting trivia you can tell us about the book that no one has asked?

There is a chance for a fun hunt for so called Easter eggs. I hid several pop-culture references within the book. So even for my adult readers there should be a reward for looking closely at every detail. 

And the ever popular time travel question, in a short essay…………………………

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME to any period from before recorded history to yesterday,

be safe from harm, be rich, poor or in-between, if appropriate to your choice,

actually experience what it was like to live in that time, anywhere at all,

meet anyone, if you desire, speak with them, listen to them, be with them.

When would you go?

Where would you go?

Who would you want to meet?

And most importantly, why do you think you chose this time?

To answer a question about time travel seems almost perfect, given that my latest book “Einstein” deals with the imponderables of a mouse traveling back an time. But first, the time machine itself will be of interest. Since I love to be inventive and tinker with different designs, I am very interested to see what my time machine might look like. Maybe it will be not that dissimilar from my mouse’s invention, which itself is inspired by H.G.Wells’ description? My first instinct would be not to visit the past, but to look ahead. I would like to see what lies beyond my life-time. What will the world look like in a hundred, in a thousand or even a million years? Hopefully, I will see a mind-blowing utopia. Let’s keep fingers crossed. 

After that, hopefully with a high spirit, I will turn my focus to the past. Most certainly, I would like to witness and experience some important historical events. The moon-landing comes to mind, as well as the first flight of the Wright brothers. Seeing the pyramids or Stonehenge being built would be treat as well.

And finally and very carefully I would do a scientific and philosophical experiment. Can you change the past? Or will every change result in the known outcome. Maybe time travel shenanigans are responsible for the known outcome in the first place? Is there free will when time travel is possible? So many headache-inducing questions. Maybe I should visit Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton first to discuss these questions before the experiment. But then, my visit might change history… Or result in the known history unfolding… For more of these time-travel antics you should have a look at my latest book.

 

Readers, click here to watch Torben hard at work showing how he produces his magic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqrmUdJG2e4

Other wonderful mouse adventure books by Torben:

   

Thank you, Torben, for your time and talent. Continued success to you!