“Devious and fun –and highly recommended!” — Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Rot & Ruin

Greg van Eekhout was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, in neighborhoods with hippies, criminals, working people, and movie studios. His parents were Dutch-Indonesian.

Like many writers (and many people who aren’t writers, for that matter), Greg has done a number of things to put food on the table and keep a roof over his head. He has worked as an ice cream scooper (or dipper, as people who sell ice cream are sometimes called), a political fundraiser (or telemarketer), a comic book store clerk, a bookseller, a bookstore assistant manager, an educational multimedia developer, and a college teacher (of English and of multimedia development). Among other things. His next book, Fenris & Mott, comes out August, 2022.

Greg has lived his entire life in the Western half of the United States. He prefers beaches to deserts. He currently lives in San Diego.

My name last name is pronounced like this: Van, as in the kind of thing you drive, eek, as in, “Eek, killer robots are stomping the rutabagas!” and hout, like “out” with an h in front of it. The emphasis is on the Eek. Say it with me: van EEKhout.

Greg's Featured Titles

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Let’s Talk Books!”

One of my favorite things about being an author is getting to talk to readers about books and writing, and I’d be delighted to visit your school, library, book festival, or conference.

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How an Idea Becomes a Book

What starts with an odd idea in a writer’s head can become the book on the shelf of your library or bookstore or bedroom. In this overview of the creative & publishing process, I’ll use one of my books (you get to choose which!) to explain how the smallest seed of an idea can become a complete book.

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Blasting Through Writer’s Block

All writers get stuck at some point, but successful writers learn how to get unstuck and finish their stories. In this talk, we’ll discuss what writer’s block is (and what it isn’t), ways to get past it, and how to cross the finish line.

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Seeing the World Through Your Character’s Eyes

Setting and description are more than just lists of adjectives. The details your character perceives tell us as much about them as their surroundings. We’ll look descriptive passages from our own writing to reveal what our characters sense, think, and feel.

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Friends, Enemies, and Everyone Between

Developing and Using Secondary Characters. Most good stories require a memorable protagonist, but our favorite stories also depend on great sidekicks and villains and minor characters. In this session we’ll use examples from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Harry Potter, and the Star Wars saga to examine how these characters function and how they bring our worlds and stories to life.

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Middle Grade: Beyond the Basics

Before you try your hand at middle-grade novels, learn some essentials to writing a good one. There’s more to it than age-appropriate vocabulary and avoiding certain topics. But what? Come and find out as we discuss approaches and to writing middle-grade characters stories, as well as some of the peculiarities of the category.

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Greg’s News and Blog

Upcoming Events

Honors, Awards & Recognition

Kids Indie Next List, 2019 and 2021
Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction (finalist)
New York Public Library Best Books for Kids
Sunshine State Young Readers Award (finalist (Florida)
Nutmeg Book Award (finalist) (CT)
Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine Best Kids Books

Media Kit

By clicking the link below you will be directed to a Google Docs Folder
where you can download author photos and cover images.

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