Listen, friends. I’m not gonna lie. It’s hot out there. Which is why I like to stay right here, at my desk, writing books. Inside. But every now and then I have a new book come out, and they make me leave my house to go on tour. How mean is that!?
I kid. I’m very lucky to have a publisher eager to send me on tour, and even luckier to have readers who want to come out to see me. And I love visiting bookstores all over the country—especially in the fall, when it isn’t so dang hot!
This October, I’ll be visiting eleven bookstores across the United States for the double launch of War Games and Refugee: The Graphic Novel. Will I be at a bookstore near you? Check out my tour dates and locations below!
Please note: most of these events are ticketed, which means you need to sign up with the host bookstore in advance to reserve your place. For times and ticketing information, check out the Events page on my website:
Click on the event you’re interested in to read more information, and to find the link to the host bookstore’s event page, where you can reserve your ticket.
I hope to see you in person this fall! But if you don’t live close to one of the bookstores I’ll be visiting, don’t panic…
Free virtual school visits are back!
My free, live, virtual school events are back this fall! Once a month in September, October, November, and December, I’ll be hopping online to talk for an hour about my books, my background, and my writing process. I give a presentation for the first half hour, and then spend the next thirty minutes answering questions from attendees. Whether you’re watching from home, a classroom, or an auditorium, there’s no fee to attend, and no limit on how many people can watch.
And as a special treat, my October virtual school visit will be a virtual launch party for War Games and Refugee: The Graphic Novel, where you’ll hear the same presentation I’ll be giving during my in-person tour!
Here’s the schedule for this fall. Click the links below to register:
Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 11am ET, 10am CT, 9am MT, 8am PT
Tuesday, October 28, 2024 at 1pm ET, 12pm CT, 11am MT, 10am PT
(Virtual launch party for War Games and Refugee: The Graphic Novel)
Thursday, November 20, 2024 at 11am ET, 10am CT, 9am MT, 8am PT
Tuesday, December 16, 2024 at 1pm ET, 12pm CT, 11am MT, 10am PT
Can’t join me live, or want to replay an event for readers who missed it? Each virtual event is recorded, and will be available for at least a month afterward to anyone with the link. (I usually just take the old one down as soon as a new recording is available.) You can even sign up and view a presentation after the fact! Regardless of how or when you watch, I hope you’ll tune in.
I’m not doing in-person school visits anymore, and rarely do paid virtual visits, but if you’ve got a larger event you’d like to invite me to, check out my Speaker Profile at Authors Unbound. Thanks!
What I’m Reading
For kids: The Teacher of Nomad Land by Daniel Nayeri
Daniel Nayeri is one of my favorite kids book writers working today. His 2020 autobiographical novel Everything Sad is Untrue, which bounces back and forth between his childhood in Oklahoma and his family’s former life in Iran, absolutely wrecked me, and prompted me to write him a long, gushing fan letter. (It also won the Printz Award and was a Walter Dean Myers Award honoree, but I’m sure it’s my fan letter he treasures most.)
In The Teacher of Nomad Land, Nayeri tells the story of a brother and sister navigating a complicated and dangerous Iran during World War II. Technically neutral, Iran was invaded by England and Russia to keep its valuable oil fields from Germany. Babak and his little sister Sana, who lost both their parents in the invasion, set out to escape Iran with the nomadic tribe whose children their father used to teach. A city boy, Babak doesn’t have much in the way of survival skills—except his father’s knack for learning and teaching many languages. Can he save himself and his sister, and help the people of Iran, England, and Russia find a common language before they kill each other? Find out in this terrific book about an often-overlooked piece of World War II history.
For adults: The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
From Nayeri to Nayler!
In real life, octopuses freak me out. They have way too many arms, and they are way too squooshy. They’re also highly intelligent, as many non-fiction books and documentaries have explained lately, with a central brain in their head and eight smaller brains in their arms. (Seriously!) They’re essentially aliens on earth. Just about the only thing holding them back from developing more sophisticated societies is their incredibly short life spans—the various octopus species live from half a year to four years at most.
Ray Nayler’s science fiction novel The Mountain in the Sea explores a near-future in which human-caused climate change forces an evolutionary leap forward in the lifespan of one species of octopus, who use all that extra time to develop their own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen travels to the remote island where the octopuses live to study them, accompanied by a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first (and possibly last) android. They’re not the only interested parties though, and soon other forces descend on the little bay. But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. Or what they might do about it.
What follows is a compulsively readable novel that explores the nature of consciousness, and humankind’s complicated legacy and future on Earth. If you like a healthy dose of philosophy and real-world science in your thrillers, and you’re not too weirded out by octopuses, wrap your tentacles around The Mountain in the Sea.
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Thanks! Stay cool out there.
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