Please join me in welcoming Alan Gratz! We met at a workshop a few years ago when Alan’s first book, Samurai Shortstop had just been released. Samurai Shortstop (Dial, 2006), was named one of YALSA’s Top Ten Best Books of the Year and received starred reviews from Booklist and The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. In addition to Samurai Shortstop, Alan is the author of the forthcoming YA mysteries Something Rotten (Dial, 2007), Something Wicked (Dial, 2008), and Something Foolish (Dial, 2009), and the middle-grade novel The Brooklyn Nine (Dial, 2009). A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, he now lives in the high country of Western North Carolina with his wife Wendi and their daughter Jo.

And now, onto the famous five questions. Click here for Alan’s full interview. And make sure you stop by his website too.