Yippee ki-yay!

Spring 2025 Free Virtual School Visit dates are here!

Before I get into the fun stuff, I just want to acknowledge that there’s a lot going on in the US and the world right now—natural disasters, political change, international wars. I hope you’re helping the young people in your life make sense of everything by discussing these things and reading books about these events with them, and that you’re taking time for self-care too. Remember, none of us can do everything, but if we all do something, we can make a difference.

In that spirit, (if you’ll forgive the quick flip from very serious to very silly), I want to highlight the truly heroic work of one John McClane in the 80s action thriller Die Hard. Funhouse Lounge here in Portland celebrates this Christmas classic every holiday season with Die Hard: The Musical Parody, and folks, it is even better than the original. (And coming from me, that’s saying a lot.)

The actors who play McClane and Hans Gruber (husband and wife in real life) chew up every scene they’re in, alone or together, as only Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman could. The small cast highlights every one of the secondary characters too, from songs about the glass ceiling from John’s wife Holly, to dreams of a post-crime dance career from German brothers Karl and Tony, to Sergeant Al Powell’s love affair with Twinkies. Along the way, a digital counter keeps track of the 46 references to other Bruce Willis movies, songs, and TV shows. The first act ends with other 80s action heroes giving John advice on how to craft a memorable catchphrase, and the second act ends with Hans taking his epic (and prolonged) fall from the top of Nakatomi tower.

Definitely one of the highlights of 2024 for me and the family. On to 2025!

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The return of free virtual visits!

My free, live, virtual school events are back this spring! Once a month in January, February, March, April, and May, I’ll be hopping online for an hour to talk 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 live 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. Here’s the schedule for this spring. Click the links to register!

Tuesday, January 21 at 1pm ET, 12pm CT, 11am MT, 10am PT

Thursday, February 13 at 11am ET, 10am CT, 9am MT, 8am PT

Tuesday, March 18 at 1pm ET, 12pm CT, 11am MT, 10am PT

Thursday, April 17 at 11am ET, 10am CT, 9am MT, 8am PT

Tuesday, May 20 at 1pm ET, 12pm CT, 11am MT, 10am PT

Can’t join me live? Want to replay an event for readers who missed it? Each virtual event is recorded, and is 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!

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What I’m Reading

On the kidlit front, I just read an Advance Reader Copy of Ruchira Gupta’s The Freedom Seeker. It’s the story of twelve-year-old Simi Singh, whose inter-faith family is driven from India by nativists. Her father applies for asylum in the United States first, but by the time the rest of his family has applied, US policies have become stricter, and his petition to have Simi and her mother join him is denied. Desperate to be reunited, Simi and her mother make the dangerous—and now all too common—”dry foot” path into the United States by trying to cross the Arizona desert. If you’re looking for a brief, compelling companion book to read with Refugee that highlights the current effects of American policies on refugee asylum and immigration—or to talk about what is sure to soon be an even more difficult path to freedom for these folks in the next four years—preorder The Freedom Seeker, which debuts in August.

And for adults, (and sticking with this month’s theme of following up tough stuff with unicorn chasers,) I heartily recommend my friend Beth Revis’s Full Speed to a Crash Landing. The first novella in the Chaotic Orbits series, Full Speed is a delightful, romantic, interstellar romp. Ada Lamarr may have gotten to a spaceship wreck first, but looter’s rights won’t get her far when she’s got a hole in the side of her ship and her spacesuit is almost out of air. Fortunately for her, help arrives in the form of a government salvage crew—led by devastatingly handsome government agent Rian White. Sparks fly as the two work together to finish the job, but Ada has a lot more up her space suit sleeve than she’s letting on…

And again on the adult front, and continuing my holiday sci-fi kick, I loved All Systems Red by Martha Wells. Another novella (I’m totally into the quick reads lately) that kicks off a longer series, this one is about a corporate stooge cyborg that has become self aware and hacked its own governor module. It still does its job—as much as it takes to get by, at least—and refers to itself as “Murderbot” thanks to some of the uses it’s been put to. It doesn’t much like humans, but it’s happy to co-exist with them as long as it still has time to sit around and watch TV. Murderbot is a perfect mix between Marvin the Paranoid Android and the Terminator, which sort of sums up my current mood right now.

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Alan, is Die Hard really a Christmas movie?

Yes.

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Welcome to the party, pal!