In addition to writing plays, magazine articles, and a few episodes of A&E's City Confidential, Alan has taught catapult-building to middle-schoolers, written more than 6,000 radio commercials, sold other people's books, lectured at a Czech university, and traveled the galaxy as a space ranger. (One of those is not true.)

Alan is the author of one of the ALA's 2007 Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults, Samurai Shortstop (Dial 2006), and Something Rotten (Dial 2007), a contemporary young adult murder mystery based on "Hamlet." He is currently at work on a sequel, Something Wicked (Dial 2008), and a middle-grade novel about family, baseball, and American history, called The Brooklyn Nine (Dial 2009).

Alan now lives with his wife Wendi and his daughter Jo in the high country of Western North Carolina, where he enjoys reading, eating pizza, and, perhaps not too surprisingly, watching baseball.

You can visit Alan's increasingly pointless blog by clicking here.

Or read a Q&A with Alan here.