I like being in other places, but I don’t like traveling to other places. Do you know what I mean? Being crammed into a flying piece of metal with seats that practically force you to sit in a stranger’s lap is a special form of cruelty that only greedy airline CEOs could dream up from their private jets.

Trains. Oh, how I love them, but they do not have enough nationwide coverage. (If someone from Amtrak is reading this, please bring back your Writer Residency program.)

Road trips? I’d rather not. I do not recognize myself once I hit the Mass pike. Plus there are phantom hitchhikers to worry about.

But until I master astral projection, I’ll be flying and driving everywhere.

It’s only late April, but I’ve already traveled to Texas, Missouri, across Pennsylvania, and kind of everywhere in between.

The state of Texas loves It Came from the Trees, so of course I went to visit with young readers.

I met with 3,000 (!!!) students in Humble, TX as part of their Battle of the Books program. The students were super hyped to talk about cryptids, especially skinwalkers, and other spooky subjects. Some kids are into pretty creepy stuff—the kind of stuff that keeps me awake at night, like rituals, Ouija boards, and Bloody Mary.

I was able to see how librarians are keeping literacy alive by encouraging reading. In this case, the librarian created the perfect camping scene to get students excited to read It Came from the Trees.

I received fan art. Look! (I made a funny face to stop myself from crying in front of the kids.)

Just as precious as the fan art were the book signings with the students. Every interaction was priceless, and my heart melted each time a kid placed a battered and well-loved copy of It Came from the Trees on the table. When I was a kid, I had books that looked similar—books that I pored over and read repeatedly from cover to cover and annotated and wrote my name and address in so that someone could return the book if it was lost. It was incredible to see that some young readers still have that same love of books.

Now, let me paint a picture for you. You walk into a building and there’s a Scholastic Book Fair right in front of you. Off to the side, an indie bookstore called The Book Readers Venue is selling books. You walk deeper into the building and find the gymnasium. The bleachers are packed with cheering fans. You might think there’s a [insert indoor sport] game happening, but no—the people are cheering for books! Kids are wearing literary-themed costumes. They’re huddled around homemade team signs with bookish puns as they try to come up with the correct answers to book trivia questions.

No, you have not died and gone to heaven. You are at the Humble school district’s Battle of the Books competition, and it’s one of the best things you will ever see.

While the atmosphere buzzed with bookish energy, this event was bittersweet, as it signaled the end of my time in Texas, and also because the students were devastated when they answered a question wrong and were eliminated from the competition. On the one hand, it’s heartbreaking to lose a competition that you’ve spent months preparing for; however, on the other hand…these students had spent months eagerly reading dozens of books. (Some students were designated experts for It Came from the Trees.)

I’m not doing the moment justice. You had to be there. And maybe you can. How do we get this on CSPAN? It could air right after the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Some other highlights from Texas:

I got to see Down Came the Spiders at a Scholastic Book Fair, and I got to see the Scholastic edition of It Came from the Trees.

I visited two indie bookstores. Murder By the Book. It’s the best atmospheric bookstore for lovers of mystery and dark fiction. Bonus: The booksellers are so kind.

The Book Readers Venue is lovely and hosted me for an author event! Reach out to them for signed books and all your bookish needs.

And I ate delicious tacos! These tacos were so good that I ate them twice in three days. I also ate too many Krispy Kremes. No photos because I inhaled them.

From Texas, I traveled to Missouri for the University of Central Missouri’s Children’s Literature festival.

I didn’t know what to expect, but the festival organizers were very hospitable, and they fed the authors and illustrators a lot of really good food. (Honestly, authors don’t want much. We want people to read our books, and we want food.)

While in Missouri:

I met incredibly kind authors and illustrators. We visited the children’s book and toy store of your dreams, and we ate really good Greek food at a vintage toy and videogame museum, where we spotted mini cows.

And I saw an original Corduroy drawing by Don Freeman.

If you live in Missouri or Kansas—don’t miss out on this festival next year!

Even though I had a blast in Missouri, the word “tornado” kept popping up in conversations. Therefore, I didn’t sleep well the night before we left, because I was nervous about the lightning, wind, and sideways rain.

This is was my drive to the airport the next morning. You might think this is footage from the 1996 classic Twister, but you are wrong. This was my drive from Warrensburg to Kansas City…

Oh, and as I was boarding a plane to head home to Pennsylvania, my editor shared exciting news—It Came from the Trees had made the USA Today Bestsellers list! After nearly two years!!

Because I sometimes operate at 110%, I returned home from Missouri late in the evening, and the very next morning I presented virtually to librarians in Maryland as part of their Black-Eyed Susan Award programming. Later that afternoon, I joined fellow middle-grade authors for the Horror Writers Association’s Summer Scares panel, hosted by Booklist. You can watch the recording here!

See? I really have been everywhere.

Where am I headed next? I’m going to New York City for the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, hosted by the Mystery Writers of America. You can’t follow me there, but you can watch the live stream here. You can also join me at the following events, where I’ll have cemetery maps, bookmarks, stickers, and worms. 🪱

Saturday, May 2, 2026 • 10 am • FREE
Bucks County Book Fest - ATTEND

Saturday, May 30, 2026 • 10 am • FREE
Pittsburgh Book Fest - ATTEND

June 4-7, 2026
StokerCon - ATTEND
I will not be attending every day of the con. More details to come.

Saturday, September 26, 2026 • 11 am • FREE
Spooktastic Book Fair - ATTEND

It Came from the Trees has made its way to Washington state, home of America’s favorite cryptid.

Trees is a 2027 Sasquatch Award nominee and a 2027 Evergreen Teen Book Award nominee!

If you’re a librarian or reader in Washington, please know that I would love to visit the Pacific NW.

Mystery James is also getting some attention in Rhode Island. As a former New Englander, I’m so pleased. And again, RI librarians, see gif above.

If you’re looking for signed copies of Mystery James Digs Her Own Grave, check with Thrillerdelphia, Copper Dog Books, Spark Books, The Otto Bookstore, and Riverstone Books.

If you want to preorder the second and final book in the duology, Mystery James Returns from the Grave, please do so at your local indie and hold on to your receipt.

That’s all for now.

I’m supposed to leave you with something actually scary, huh? I don’t have anything scary for you, but I do have something cool.

The bigfoot emoji is now live on apple and android phones! It’s the best emoji. Use it often so that Unicode will want to make more cryptid and creepy emojis. This image appears blurry in my email test sends. I wonder if that’s accidental or just Unicode committing to the bigfoot sighting bit, because have you ever seen a clear photo of bigfoot? 🤨