Join me in Honolulu!

(Or any of the other nine cities I'm visiting on tour for Heroes)

My new middle grade novel Heroes, about the attack on Pearl Harbor, goes on sale Tuesday, February 6th. To celebrate, I’m going on a two-week, ten-city tour—including my first-ever visit to Honolulu. Come join me in Hawaii! …or any of the other nine cities on the tour, if one of those is more convenient. 🙂

Heroes Tour Stops

All times are local

Sunday, February 4, 2024
Barnes & Noble Ala Moana
Honolulu, Hawaii
2:00pm HST

Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Heroes goes on sale everywhere!

Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Third Place Books at Lake Forest Park
Lake Forest Park, Washington
6:00pm PT

Friday, February 9, 2024
Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing
Beaverton, Oregon
7:00pm PT

Saturday, February 10, 2024
Standley Lake Library
with Second Star to the Right Books
Arvada, Colorado
3:00pm MT

Monday, February 12, 2024
Mirowitz Performing Arts Center
at the J’s Staenberg Family Complex
with The Novel Neighbor and the St. Louis Co. Library
St. Louis, Missouri
6:30pm CT

Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Neuqua Valley High School
with Anderson’s Bookshop
Naperville, Illinois
7:00pm CT

Friday, February 16, 2024
Wiley Magnet Middle School Auditorium
with Bookmarks
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
6:30pm ET

Saturday, February 17, 2024
Chapel Hill Public Library
with Flyleaf Books
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
4:00pm ET

Sunday, February 18, 2024
Meredith College Jones Chapel
with Quail Ridge Books
Raleigh, North Carolina
2:00pm ET

Monday, February 19, 2024
Sunrise Theater
with The Country Bookshop
Southern Pines, North Carolina
6:00pm ET

All tour events are open to the public, but many have limited seating and require pre-registration. Be sure to click the red link to the bookstore event you’re interested in for more information!

---

Pre-order Signed Copies of Heroes

Can’t join me on tour? You can always pre-order a signed copy of Heroes from my local indie, Malaprop’s Bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina, and have it delivered. I can even personalize your books for you! Just let them know who you’d like me to make your books out to when you order online or over the phone.

You can also pre-order Heroes from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, or your favorite indie bookstore!

---

One Live, Pre-Heroes Event!?

What’s this? I have another live event that isn’t part of the Heroes tour in February? It’s true! I’ll be heading right down the road to visit with fans in Hendersonville, North Carolina in the Main Library’s Kaplan Auditorium from 5:30-6:30pm on Tuesday, January 16, 2024. I’ll give a short presentation about my books, open things up for readers to ask questions, and then end the night with a book-signing! The event is hosted by my friends at Highland Books, who will be on hand to sell copies of my older books, and to take pre-orders for signed copies of Heroes. The event is free, but registration is required. Click the red link above for more information.

---

Upcoming Virtual Events

I’ve got two live, free, virtual events on the calendar for January and February. The first, on January 18th, is my usual “virtual school visit,” where I talk a little about my books and my background, and then open things up for attendees to ask questions. The second, on February 22nd, is a special book launch event, where I’ll focus on the history and story behind my new book, Heroes! (Did you know I had a new book coming out? I can’t remember if I told you.)

Please join me for both events! If you can’t be with me live, each virtual event will be available for at least a month afterward by using the same link you get when you register. Click the red links above to sign up!

---

Fly Me to the Moon

And I’m very excited to announce the start of a pet project I’ve been daydreaming about for a little while now: The Moon Journal. Every couple of weeks, I’ll be posting short, personal essays about the Moon. Here’s what I wrote on the blog’s about page:

The Moon. It’s with us every night, and every day. It’s been our constant companion since the beginning of the human race—since the very beginning of life on Earth. It is perhaps the reason why there is life on Earth.

From prehistory to the present, the Moon has been a source of wonder, obsession, and inspiration for people all over the world. Join me as I explore various topics from science, music, mythology, film, history, sports, literature, television, and art, all with the Moon as a starting point.

My first post, about the rabbit that many people see in the moon, went up on the first of the month. Soon I’ll be posting my second essay, about Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. Future topics include the picture book Goodnight Moon, Moon Pies, and the TV show Moonlighting.

Like this newsletter, my Moon Journal is hosted on Substack, which means you can get new posts delivered directly into your inbox each time it updates, or read it like a blog online. You can even leave comments, just like an old fashioned blog. (How quaint!) I hope you’ll give my first post a read. If you like it and subscribe, I’ll be over the moon! (Sorry.)

---

What I’m Reading for Kids

A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat, a thoughtful, funny, nostalgic graphic novel memoir about a 13-year-old boy coming into his own on a youth trip to Europe the summer of 1989. Winner of the 2023 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

What I’m Reading for Adults

Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov, a book of brutally honest and heartbreaking vignettes about Shalamov’s seventeen years in a Soviet gulag in Siberia.

---

That’s it for this month! If you liked it, please share this newsletter online, or with anyone you think would be interested:

If you aren’t already a subscriber and you’d like to be, you can sign up here:

Thanks! You’re awesome.