Books read in 2014

It's time for my annual review of all the books I read in the previous year! I've been recording the books I've read (not counting my own as I write them, which I read over and over and over again) since 2004, and I love going back to look at what I read in the past year! So here's my tenth anniversary list of what I've read in the last calendar year:

January (7 books read)

The Black Mountain - Rex Stout
Sandman Mystery Theatre: The Tarantula - Matt Wagner and Guy Davis
In the Forest of Harm - Sallie Bissell
Century: 2009 - Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
Death in the Clouds - Agatha Christie
Katelyn's Killer - John Gordon
Zatanna: Shades of the Past - Paul Dini

February (8 books read)

The Keeper of the Isis Light - Monica Hughes
Sandman Mystery Theatre: The Vamp - Matt Wagner, Steven Seagle, and Guy Davis
The Other Woman - Hank Phillippi Ryan
Sandman Mystery Theatre: The Scorpion - Matt Wagner, Steven Seagle, and Guy Davis
Speaking From Among the Bones - Alan Bradley
Tuck Everlasting - Natalie Babbitt (reread)
Sandman Mystery Theatre: Dr. Death and The Night of the Butcher - Matt Wagner, Steven Seagle, and Guy Davis
The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax - Dorothy Gilman

March (6 books read)

Lord Kelvin's Machine - James P. Blaylock
Sandman Mystery Theatre: The Hourman and The Python - Matt Wagner, Steven Seagle, and Guy Davis
The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax - Dorothy Gilman
The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax - Dorothy Gilman
Manage Your Day-to-Day - Edited by Jocelyn K. Glei
A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin

April (3 books read)

Sandman Mystery Theatre: The Mist and The Phantom of the Fair
A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax - Dorothy Gilman
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
(I guess April was a busy month!)

May (2 books read)

Grasshopper Jungle - Andrew Smith
Sandman Mystery Theatre: The Blackhawk and The Return of the Scarlet Ghost - Matt Wagner, Steven Seagle, and Guy Davis
(May must have been busy too!)

June (4 books read)

Hark! A Vagrant. - Kate Beaton
Dogsong - Gary Paulsen
Andre the Giant - Box Brown
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library - Chris Grabenstein

July (6 books read)

Murder in Mesopotamia - Agatha Christie
Lobster Johnson: Satan Smells a Rat - Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
The Surgeon's Mate - Patrick O'Brian
The Marshal of the Borgo - Joe D'Agnese
Mrs. Pollifax on Safari - Dorothy Gilman
Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station - Dorothy Gilman

August (6 books read)

Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase - Jonathan Stroud
Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha - Dorothy Gilman
Japantown - Barry Lancet
The Coroner's Lunch - Colin Cotterill
Hellboy in Hell: The Descent - Mike Mignola
Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line - Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham

September (5 books read)

Promised Land - Robert Parker
The Judas Goat - Robert Parker
The Girl with All the Gifts - M. R. Carey
Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish - Dorothy Gilman
Fringe: The Zodiac Paradox - Christina Faust

October (9 books read)

The Buck Passes Flynn - Gregory McDonald
The Fourteenth Goldfish - Jennifer L. Holm
B.P.R.D.: Vampire - Mike Mignola et al.
The Killing Floor - Lee Child
Tongues of Serpents - Naomi Novik
El Deafo - CeCe Bell
Cards on the Table - Agatha Christie
Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief - Dorothy Gilman
Mrs. Pollifax Pursued - Dorothy Gilman

November (6 books read)

Bitter Seeds - Ian Tregillis
Gottland - Mariusz Szcygiel
Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer - Dorothy Gilman
Plot it Yourself - Rex Stout
Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist - Dorothy Gilman
Choose Your Own Autobiography - Neil Patrick Harris

December (6 books read)

Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled - Dorothy Gilman
The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic - Allan Wolf
Hulk Visionaries 6 - Peter David et al.
Ms. Marvel: No Normal - G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona
Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
As You Wish - Cary Elwes

68 books read! And a hefty percentage of them were Mrs. Pollifax adventures by Dorothy Gilman. In fact, I read though the entire run of Mrs. Pollifax novels in one year! Or rather, I listened to them--each of those was listened to, rather than red. Mrs. Pollifax was my go-to audiobook of choice for car trips this year. I did a lot of driving this year!

I'm already five books into the new year. Here's looking forward to next year's list!

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Of Shakespeare, Rayguns, and Independent Bookstores

In 2007, I learned an important lesson about independent bookstores.

My second novel, Something Rotten, a contemporary young adult mystery based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, came out that year from Penguin. I expected that it, like my first novel, would be carried everywhere—by independents and chains and online. But a few months away from the publication date, my editor e-mailed to tell me the bad news: Barnes & Noble wouldn't be carrying my new book. The one person who chose what books all six hundred-plus Barnes & Noble stores would carry had decided that mine wouldn't be one of them. “We don't do well with Shakespeare adaptations,” Barnes & Noble's book buyer said. And that was it.

My second book was saved by independent bookstores like Malaprop's. With separate book buyers at each bookstore across the country, they each made the decision about whether or not to carry my book. And most did. Independent booksellers made Something Rotten a success, and for that and everything they've done for the five books that followed, I'm eternally grateful. As thanks, and to help make sure that every book and author and reader get a chance to connect, my family and I have committed to buying our books only from independent booksellers like Malaprop's, our local indie.

So when the time came to promote my eighth book, the first in a middle-grade steampunk fantasy trilogy called The League of Seven, I wanted to find a way to not only sell books, but sell books through Malaprop's. I'd seen online retailers offer digital short stories that download free with the purchase of ebooks, and thought, why can't Malaprop's and I do the same thing with my good-old-fashioned print book and a specially-printed short story? So that's just what we're doing.

The League of Seven is the story of seven super-powered kids who use rayguns and airships and steam-powered machine men to battle giant monsters called the Mangleborn. (If your kids like Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books, or the Justice League and the Avengers, this is right up their alley.) The trilogy is set in an alternate 1870s America where all contact with Europe was lost in 1770, forcing New England's European population to join the Iroquois League, becoming the seventh “tribe” in what becomes the United Nations of America. One of the architects of that union, Benjamin Franklin, is the star of the prequel short story I've written, called “Join, or Die.” In “Join, or Die,” Franklin battles sea serpents with the help of a young monster expert and a group of Mohawk warriors during a (greatly) re-imagined Boston Tea Party. It's lots of fun.

Malaprop's is printing up “Join, or Die” as a limited-edition chapbook that will be given away for free to anyone who pre-orders The League of Seven from Malaprop's between now and August 19th, the book's publication date. I'm really excited about this chapbook—it's being specially-printed and numbered, the binding is being hand-sewn, and it will be available exclusively through Malaprop's. And the story's pretty great too, if I do say so myself. :-)

I'll also be signing and personalizing all the pre-orders and chapbooks, which can be picked up at the store or shipped to you at home. You can pre-order your copy of The League of Seven in person at Malaprop's, online here, or by calling Malaprop's at 1-800-441-9829. I hope you'll pre-order a copy of The League of Seven and the limited-edition chapbook “Join, or Die” for a young reader in your life, and continue shopping at your local independent bookstore to ensure that every good book has a chance to find its readers!

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Me, podcasted

In which I am interviewed on the Reading and Writing Podcast.

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Flashes of War

My friend Katey Schultz has a book of flash fiction stories about the recent and on-going wars in the Middle East coming out soon, and I took time recently to ask her a few questions about it:

1) Why flash fiction? How does the form fit the material?

Flash fiction stories are typically 1-3 pages long. They are very short snapshots or moments captured on the page, often showing characters in response to a situation that out-sizes them. (Here’s a recording of one example, titled “Poo Mission.”) At first, I began writing about war using the flash fiction form because I knew very little about how we were actually, physically fighting the wars and how civilians in the Middle East were interpreting our actions. So the size of the story represented my limited knowledge, because I couldn’t imagine much more than a scene or two at a time with much accuracy.

The more I learned, the more I was able to refine my word choice in these stories, and really build momentum and energy on the page. At that point, I still stuck with the flash fiction form because intense, dramatic, or traumatic situations are often remembered only in snapshots—so that seemed right and realistic to me. It was only a year and a half or so into my work writing about war that I had amassed enough information and confidence to begin writing full-length short stories on this topic.

2) How did you research the experience of the soldiers before, during, and after the war in the Middle East to be able to write so well about it?

It all started by making lists of words. I was very interested in the language of warfare and the Global War on Terror in particular. Giving a writer a new word is like giving a painter a new shade of green. I really wanted to play around with things and see what I could do. It felt empowering…but I also knew I needed to be careful with these words, because they came with certain contexts that I had to become familiar with. The stakes felt very high, and that made me even more diligent in my research and also my precise imagining. If I wrote something and it didn’t “feel” true…if I couldn’t put my heart behind it…I deleted it. There was a lot of back and forth of my cursor across the screen, at least initially. Eventually, I found my way in.

To extend my research beyond using the right words, I read twenty or so nonfiction books about 21^st Century warfare and our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This was in early 2010, so there weren’t nearly as many contemporary fiction authors publishing about Iraq and Afghanistan as there are today; and that was fine. I wanted to start with the facts. I watched countless DVDs (mostly documentaries) and clips of head-cam footage on YouTube from soldiers in ambushes or civilians in daily life. I really only interviewed 2 soldiers in my research—one, to discuss the day-to-day operations of life on a Forward Operating Base, and another, to talk about the process for enlisting in the Army. Information from the former helped me write “The Ghost of Sanchez,” and information from the latter helped me write “Deuce Out.”

Finally, I looked at many, many photographs using Google Images searches. I printed these and hung them on my walls, or downloaded the images and used them as a screen saver. In other words, I surrounded myself with the words, images, and sounds of war as much as I possibly could without going there…then I began to write.

3) You not only tell stories about Americans, but about people of Afghanistan/Iraq. How did you learn about their experiences enough to be able to write about them?

It took a healthy balance of research and imagination. I didn’t speak to any Afghan or Iraqi civilians while researching the book, though I would have liked to. I did, however, spend three weeks on a self-made writing retreat with former foreign war correspondent Karen Button. Her advice and knowledge were crucial as I began my first forays into writing from a completely different cultural perspective. I think that watching the DVDs and documentaries was also helpful to me here—they enabled me to study gesture, tone of voice, clothing, physical setting, and gendered interactions that I could then bring to life in my stories. Typically, I saturated my mind with information until the only thing left to do was start putting things together and inventing characters that could move around and react within the imagined spaces I was creating in my head.

There are still so many perspectives and viewpoints that I was not able to write. For instance, one of the stories that I chose not to publish in the collection was written from the perspective of a suicide bomber. Try as I might, I just never felt I could bring that piece up to par. It was too far for my mind to go and I didn’t believe my own words as I wrote them. So I cut the story out.

4) You often write about children. Is there a children's book writer inside you trying to get out? ;-)

This has honestly never occurred to me. Wow. I do this? I suppose it takes a strong YA author such as yourself to notice! Thank you! In another life, I was a teacher for five years, so I’m sure that has trickled into my writing some (as well as my work as a waitress). I will say that I find the appearance of children in short stories to be a great source of relief, and when you’re writing about war, it’s only natural to want relief from that. For example, when I wrote “Into Pure Bronze” about two, young Afghan boys playing soccer in downtown Kabul, I was trying to write my way out of the wars. I had been researching and writing about war for two years at that point, maybe longer. I needed to believe my stories would have an end…and that the wars would, also. So I specifically wrote about “the next generation” of Afghan children and tried to imagine what their impressions of their own country and of America would be, given all that has taken place in their lifetimes thus far.

5) You say in your epilogue that you chose to write about war--and this war specifically--because you wanted to understand it better. To get to know what it was like from the inside out. What did writing Flashes of War teach you? What answers did you find?

For me, every story begins with an unanswered question. Why else would I want to write it? Because of this, I did learn a lot while writing Flashes of War. Personally, I changed my views on the military’s recruitment practices, on why an individual may or may not choose to enlist, on our nation’s obligation to our troops while they serve and once they come home, as well as on the use of force in general. There was a time when I didn’t understand why anyone would sign up to serve in the U.S. Military. There was also a time when I believed that problems could be solved without military action. But the more I looked at these wars, the more I understood and became open to the diversity of reasons for serving. I also became supportive of the U.S.’s initial—very early—acts of war in Afghanistan. (Doug Stanton’s incredible book, Horse Soldiers, played no small part in informing and persuading me of this.)

In the end, however, writing Flashes of War was never about who was for or against anything. I felt genuinely interested in examining what those of us alive today could do to help relieve the suffering and bring awareness to the myriad impacts of war. Winning or losing, Republican or Democrat, Sunni or Shiite, Taliban or U.S. soldier—our tax dollars are still funding everything from Taco Bell deliveries on base, to drone strikes, to the rebuilding of schools for Afghan girls, to destroying weapons caches, to providing prosthetic limbs to any one of more than 50,000 U.S. soldiers who are now amputees. As Americans and as citizens of the world, I think that’s worth looking at and responding to. Flashes of War is my response.

Thanks, Katey!

Flashes of War officially pubs on May 27th, but pre-orders begin today. Click here to learn more about pre-ordering the book.

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Nancy Drew in The Tomb of the Cybermen

 

I made this.  From an idea by my friend Wes Stitt. Kind of a hack job on GIMP, the Linux freeware Photoshop, but I'm pretty proud of it. The number in the corner is the year the original Doctor Who serial The Tomb of the Cybermen debuted.

That's a mash-up I'd love to read!

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Now on sale: my Star Trek novel!

Let's check the old Alan Gratz bucket list. Visit Machu Picchu: Not yet. Master the Force: Still working on that. Write a Star Trek novel: Done!

It really has been a longtime dream of mine to write a Star Trek novel. Don't tell anyone, but about 17 years ago, back before we were married, Wendi pretended to be my literary agent so we could submit a Star Trek novel I had written to Pocket Books. We made up a letterhead for her "agency" and everything. Pocket Books didn't go for it and soon after I focused on writing books for young readers, but that submission officially represented my first real attempt to sell a novel.

Cut to a year and a half ago, when I learned that Simon Spotlight was publishing a series of young adult Star Trek novels set in the universe of the recent movie reboot. Trek? YA? That long-lost dream of writing a Star Trek novel wasn't looking so hopeless after all! I got on the phone with my agent, Barry, he got on the phone with the editor of the series at Simon Spotlight, and a month later I had a gig as Star Trek's newest author.

Today I have come full circle. I'm happy to announce the publication of Starfleet Academy: The Assassination Game!

The rules are simple: Draw a target. Track him down and “kill” him with a spork. Take your victim’s target for your own. Oh, and make sure the player with your name doesn’t get to you first. No safe zones. No time-outs. The game ends when only one player remains.

James T. Kirk is playing for fun. Leonard “Bones” McCoy is playing to get closer to a girl. But when a series of terrorist attacks rock the usually placid Starfleet Academy campus, it becomes clear that somebody is playing the game for real. Is it one of the visiting Varkolak, on Earth to attend an intergalactic medical conference? Or could it be a member of a super-secret society at the Academy dedicated to taking care of threats to the Federation, no matter what rules they have to break to do it?

Find out in Starfleet Academy: The Assassination Game, on sale now at your favorite bookstore!

Live long and prosper,

Alan

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Now in paperback: Fantasy Baseball!

Fantasy Baseball is now out in paperback with a new cover, just in time for opening day of the new Major League Baseball season! The new cover is spooky and fun at the same time, just like the story inside. I recommend buying them in batches of nine--one each for every player on your baseball team. That's a totally unbiased recommendation, of course...

Fantasy Baseball is available online or at your favorite local bookstore, and signed copies are in stock at my favorite local bookstore, Malaprop's Bookstore and Cafe! Follow the link to find out how you can get a signed (and personalized!) Fantasy Baseball sent your way.

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Naked Came the Leaf Peeper

To help celebrate the 30th anniversary of my favorite indie bookstore, Malaprop's Bookstore and Cafe in Asheville, NC, I was invited to be a part of a collaborative mystery novel called Naked Came the Leaf Peeper. Published by Malaprop's itself, Naked features twelve regional authors each writing a chapter of a madcap mystery, in the tradition of legendary collaborative novels like Naked Came the Stranger and Naked Came the Manatee.

Billed as "a zany Southern Appalachian take on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," Naked is already a best-seller at Malaprop's, and has gotten raves from authors who clearly ought to know better, like Ron Rash (Serena), Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat Pray Love), and Charles Frazier (Cold Mountain).

Now Malaprop's is throwing a Naked Author Jam to celebrate the book. Join me and eleven other Naked* authors at the University of North Carolina-Asheville Humanities Lecture Hall on Friday, March 30, at 7:00 p.m. as we read from, discuss, and laugh about our work. The event is free and open to the public.

Joining me on stage will be Tony Earley, Brian Lee Knopp, Linda Marie Barrett, John P. McAfee, Susan Reinhardt, Vicki Lane, Tommy Hays, Wayne Caldwell, Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Gene Cheek, and Charles Price, reading for Fred Chappell. Come on out and get Naked!**

For more information, call Malaprop's bookstore at (828)254-6734.

* "Naked" in a literary sense, not a literal one, of course.
** Again, clothing is not optional.

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Three Als

Allan Wolf, me, and Al the Alligator, mascot of Archer Lodge Middle School in Wendell, NC. North Carolina School Library Media Association Annual Conference, 2011.

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Asheville to Nashville with three fab authors!

This August, I'm pleased as punch to be part of the Asheville to Nashville tour with Myra McEntire, Victoria Schwab, and Beth Revis! They'll be stopping in eight cities in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and I'll be joining them Sunday, August 7th from 3-5 p.m. for their event in Knoxville, Tennessee at Union Ave Books.

Here's the scoop from the o-fficial announcement!

---

Myra, Victoria, and Beth are thrilled about bringing a tour to their local areas--from Asheville, NC, to Nashville, TN. We'd love it if you came out to see us, and we want to make sure that everyone in the area knows about it!

But we know that not everyone gets to have a tour stop in their backyard. So, we're going to bring the tour to YOU. With signed books, straight from the tour, mailed straight to YOU.

We're going to be adding to the prize pack as we go, but so far we're happy to say that these will be included, all of which will be SIGNED by the author!

SIGNED hardback copy

SIGNED hardback copy

SIGNED hardback copy

SIGNED hardback copy

SIGNED ARC copy

Signed copy PLUS a signed poster!

SIGNED hardback copy

That's right! SEVEN SIGNED BOOKS + a signed poster + more swag + some fun things that we're going to pick up on the way. THIS PRIZE PACK IS HUGE!!!

To enter: help us spread the word & fill out the form below!


There are lots of way to help us spread the word! You can do something as simple as tell a friend, but we want as many people as possible to come to our tour and find out about it. 


So, tell a friend about it!


Or...tweet!

Or...Facebook!

Or...blog! You could either make a post about it or share our widget!

Additional contest information:

• Open to the US & Canada only--sorry, but the authors have to pay shipping themselves.
• Entrants must be 13 years old or older
• To be entered, you must fill out the form below
• Contest closes on August 12, 2011

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Interview: Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire

Check out my interview over at Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire, in which we discuss Horatio Wilkes, comedy, fear, and social media, among other things.

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Something Rotten in German!

How cool is this!? My first novel in translation--Something Rotten in German. Eine Lüge ist nicht genug, which Wendi says can either mean "A Lie Is Not Enough" or "One Lie Is Not Enough." (Wendi has a Masters degree in German.)

I'm so excited about this! I hope it becomes a bestseller in Germany so I can go there and do a tour and see some German soccer games. I actually follow the Bundesliga and know something about German soccer, believe it or not...

For you German-speakers out there, here's the summary:

Das Leben endet tödlich, auch für reiche Industrielle.
Das Leben geht weiter, auch für die Witwe des Firmenchefs der Papierfabrik.
Das Leben ist ein abgekartetes Spiel, findet Hamilton, den die Hochzeit seiner Mutter mit dem Bruder seines Vaters anwidert.
Das Leben auf dem Planeten ist in Gefahr, findet die Umweltaktivistin Olivia, wenn niemand etwas dagegen unternimmt, dass die Abwässer der Papierfabrik weiterhin den Copenhagen River verseuchen.

Das Leben will gelebt werden, rät Horatio seinem Freund Hamilton.

Es ist was faul in dieser US-amerikanischen Kleinstadt, deren Einwohner von der Papierfabrik Elsinore Papers abhängig sind. Die vermeintliche Alternative »Arbeitsplatzabbau oder Ökologie« stimmt nicht mehr. Auf Dauer wird das Unternehmen nur überleben können, wenn es umweltverträglich produziert. Und auf Dauer wird das Leben nur dann wieder lebenswert, wenn sich eine böse große Frage beantworten lässt: Ist der alte Firmenchef Rex Prince ermordet worden, und wenn ja, wer steckt dahinter?

I'd love to know what changes, if any, they had to make to the story to make it work for a German audience!

You can see the book page for Eine Lüge ist nicht genug at the German publisher's website here. Thanks, Boje, and thanks to my translators, Gerold Anrich and Martina Instinsky-Anrich!

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Book Trailer for Emily Jenkins' Invisible Inkling

Check out the cute book trailer for my friend Emily Jenkins' new book, Invisible Inkling, which goes on sale April 26th.

And reminds me that I should make a book trailer or two as well...

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Google Alerts Round-up

Time for some last-gasp winter Google Alerts from the interweb!

Southwest Middle School won the Gaston County, NC Battle of the Books competition. They had to answer questions about 27 different books--including The Brooklyn Nine! Congrats, guys!

And The Brooklyn Nine has made another state list! B9 was selected for the 2012 Oklahoma Sequoyah Master List! Thanks, Oklahoma. You're OK with me! (Yes, that's a postal abbreviation joke.)

I recently did a Skype visit with students at Upper Dauphin Area High School in Elizabethville, PA, and the local paper wrote up a great article about it. You can read it here.

And I'm starting to get alerts on Fantasy Baseball!

Mr. H at the SMS Guys Read blog loves the Fantasy Baseball poster I sent him...

Zoe posted a great summary/review of Fantasy Baseball at NextHub.com...

...and Ms. Certo at Hope Middle School recommends Fantasy Baseball as an independent reading selection for classrooms.

Thanks, everyone!

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Fantasy Baseball Launch Tour - Sunday, March 20

Last stop on my whirlwind week of school visits and bookstore signings. Today I'll be dropping by one of our favorite bookstores on the drive home to sign stock and schmooze with the awesome booksellers there. Drop by and say hello if you're in the area!


Joseph-Beth Booksellers
Lexington, KY @ Noon


*Note: This isn't a formal reading/signing, just me signing books the store has in stock. I'd still love to see you if you'd like to stop by! I'll be there for about an hour to an hour and a half.

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Join me today at the LitWorks: Teen READ Workshop

Join me today at the Ridgewood High School LitWorks: Teen READ Workshop! I'll be talking about my process as an author, then signing copies of my books. And I'm just one of the great lineup of authors you'll meet there! Check out who else is coming:

Art Baltazar (we love his comics!!), Brent Crawford, Candace Fleming, John C. Ford, Kristin Walker, Janette Rallison, and Todd Strasser.

The event is open to the public. Teens get in free, adults pay $5. The event starts at 10 a.m. at the Eisenhower Public Library, then shifts over to Ridgewood High School at noon for the breakout sessions with the authors. The autograph party is from 3:30 - 4:00 p.m.


Click here for more information. Hope to see you there!

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Fantasy Baseball Launch Tour - Friday, March 18

Today I'm at just one school, all day long:


Ridgewood High School
Norridge, IL



Tomorrow I'll be a part of Ridgewood High School's LitWorks: Teen Read Conference. The event is open to the public, and features a slew of great YA authors! Click here for more info. Hope to see you there!

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A book is born: Fantasy Baseball!

Now batting: Fantasy Baseball! My new novel goes on sale TODAY!

You've never played fantasy baseball like this before. 

A flying monkey in the outfield. A toad at short. Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz on the mound. Alex Metcalf thinks he’s dreaming, but the Oz Cyclones exist here in Ever After, where storybook characters live on as long as kids in the real world believe in them.

But Alex isn't a storybook. To get home, he and the Cyclones will have to win the Ever After Baseball Tournament and earn wishes from the Wizard of Oz. Trouble is, the Big Bad Wolf wants a wish too.

To win the tournament, Alex and the Cyclones will have to defeat the wolf, play the best baseball of their lives, and find the courage to believe in themselves. But what good is believing in yourself if the real world stops believing in you?

To help me celebrate, I'll be visiting with the students at Ridgewood High School in Norridge, Illinois in the Chicagoland area. I'll also be giving a talk and doing a reading at the Ridgewood High School LitWorks book festival on Saturday, which is open to the public. Come out and say hey! Click here for more info. 

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Fantasy Baseball Launch Tour - Wednesday, March 16

Two school visits and a book signing on tap today in Chicagoland:

Heritage Grove Middle School
Plainfield, IL @ 9:00 p.m.

The Lane School
Hinsdale, IL @ 1:40 p.m.

57th Street Books
Chicago, IL @ 4:00 p.m.

*This isn't a formal reading/signing, just me dropping by to sign stock and say hello. Come by and say hello yourself if you're in the area!

And special thanks to Anderson’s Bookshop for helping arrange the school visits!

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Fantasy Baseball Launch Tour - Tuesday, March 15

 

Two school visits on tap today in Chicagoland:


Roosevelt Middle School
River Forest, IL @ 8:30 a.m.

Percy Julian Middle School
Oak Park, IL @ 2:00 p.m.


Special thanks to The Magic Tree Bookstore for helping arrange these visits!

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