Conrad signs a copy of Dirt Bikes, Drones, and Other Ways to Fly at an April, 2014 event celebrating the book's publication.

Recent and upcoming events:

Featured author at "Words, Writers & West Seattle" at 5 p.m., Friday, November 4, 2016, at Barnes & Noble, Westwood Village, West Seattle

Panel of authors representing the Erin Murphy Literary Agency, at University Book Store, Bellevue, June 9, 2016

Small Business Saturday, YA Panel discussion, University Bookstore (Seattle, WA) November 28, 2015

Vegas Valley Book Festival (Las Vegas, NV) October 15-17, 2015

Lied Middle School visit (Las Vegas, NV) October 16, 2015

Reading the West Awards presented by the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association. (Denver, CO) October 10, 2015

Book release party, Dirt Bikes, Drones, and Other Ways to Fly (Seattle, WA) April, 2014

Words, Writers and West Seattle (SW Historical Society and Barnes & Noble) March, 2014

Lit Crawl Seattle, Hugo House October 24, 2013

Adios, Nirvana Germany tour October, 2013

Teachers conference features Conrad's video on writing (Las Vegas, NV) October, 2012

YA Writers Tour (Olympia, WA and Portland OR) July, 2011

Klindt Bookstore celebrates local YA authors (The Dalles, OR) June, 2011

Wordstock, Portland, OR, October 9-10, 2010

Book release party, Adios, Nirvana (Seattle, WA) October, 2010

MEETING YOUNG WRITERS IN LAS VEGAS, October 16, 2015

The young writers at Lied Middle School in Las Vegas, NV, were eager for advice and insights about writing fiction. "Three things," I said. "Write what you know, sound like yourself, and never give up." Big thanks to Lied Middle School librarian Margaret Burist and her team for making me feel so welcome.

READING THE WEST AWARDS presented by the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association. (Denver, CO) October 10, 2015

Above left: A happy day in Denver on October 10, 2015: receiving a "Reading the West" book award. Thank you, Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association (MPIBA) for choosing my young-adult novel. Fellow recipients were Peter Heller (adult fiction category for "The Painter") and Bryce Andrews (nonfiction category for his Montana memoir "Badluck Way.")

Above right: I gave a short speech. Those guys told bear stories.

Below left: Bryce, center, was born and raised in Seattle. Peter's book was the 2015 "Seattle's Reads" pick. So it felt like Seattle made a clean sweep of the awards.

Below right: Signing books... thanks again to the luminous team of Kate O'Sullivan and Erin Murphy, my editor and agent respectively, and to the great people at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for sending me on this adventure.

ADIOS, NIRVANA GERMANY TOUR - October, 2013

In early 2013, ADIOS, NIRVANA was nominated for Germany's top prize for young-adult literature--the Jugendliteraturpreis.

That October, I found myself on a whirlwind tour through Germany--seven speaking gigs in nine days. I dashed between cities on the ICE (Inter-City Express), the high-speed train linking Germany's major cities. I skimmed across green landscapes from Hamburg to Munich, Munich to Cologne, Cologne to Dortmund, Dortmund back to Cologne, Cologne back to Frankfurt. Plus, a sortie to the Bavarian Alps, where I spent the day touring Ludwig II's (or was that Walt Disney's?) castle, with a nice hike in the hills.

Along the way, I met lots of German students and fellow book lovers.

At every stop, my German publisher Carlsen Verlag treated me like a prince. I didn't win the big prize--that honor went to John Green for his YA novel THE FAULT IN OUR STARS.

The big group shot shows Di Bucherfresser (the Bookeaters), the Munich-based group that first championed ADIOS, NIRVANA. The man beside me is Karsten Singelmann, whose translation of ADIOS, NIRVANA made the nomination possible.

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DIRT BIKES, DRONES, AND OTHER WAYS TO FLY is a 2014 Junior Library Guild selection.

DIRT BIKES, DRONES, AND OTHER WAYS TO FLY landed on Air & Space/Smithsonian’s 2014 list of Best Aviation and Space-Themed Books for Young Readers. The list is an annual roundup of children’s and YA titles that focus on flying.