Out author Curtis Sparrer sent us an excerpt from his children’s book “Game Face: Becoming a PR Detective,” which is about the relationship between a little girl and her gay uncle as she learns the fundamentals of public relations. “Game Face” is available through Sparrer’s website.

Sloan finally hit level 47 in Dungeon Quest Online when her game glitched. One second, she was about to slay an epic dragon. The next… she was facing a baby lizard in a dragon onesie.

Weird, but at least it gave her an excuse to finally go to bed.

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That’s when she heard Uncle Curtis’s voice from Mom’s home office. Nothing good ever happened in Mom’s office at 10:47 PM. Usually, the only sounds this late were Mom’s meditation podcasts, or her little brother’s surprisingly loud snoring.

“No, no. Tell them we need to get ahead of this—” Uncle Curtis’s voice carried down the hall, followed by rapid-fire typing and notification pings.

Sloan lay in bed, staring at the thin strip of light under her door. Uncle Curtis only used that tone of voice when something big was happening. She’d heard it during family game night after she destroyed him in Rocket League. Then again, when he’d somehow managed to post his entire camera roll instead of the product launch photos.

The hallway squeaked under Sloan’s feet as she slipped out of bed. She hugged the wall, using every stealth move she’d learned from a hundred gaming missions. The door to Mom’s office was cracked just enough to see Uncle Curtis surrounded by the bright monitor lights. His tie was a mess, and his sleeves rolled up. He looked like he was conducting an orchestra of screens.

“Have you seen social media? It’s already trending in three countries!” He ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up like he’d been electrified. “Get Denyse on the line. And someone wake up Tom!”

Sloan was about to retreat when she heard it: “What do you mean the dragons are all babies now?”

Her eyes widened. This wasn’t just any late-night crisis—this was about her game.

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and the floor creaked a little too loud.

Suddenly, Uncle Curtis caught her reflection in one of his monitors. Instead of shooing her away, he grinned.

“Well, well,” he said, turning in his chair. “So much for stealth mode. But hey, good thing you’re here.”

Sloan stepped into the office light. “Is this about Dungeon Quest Online? Because my whole raid team turned into toddlers an hour ago.”

Uncle Curtis’s eyebrows shot up. “You know what? I think you might be exactly who I need right now.”

Curtis Sparrer began his professional career working the graveyard shift in TV News before working on some of the craziest movie lots in Hollywood. While his writing appeared in Entrepreneur, Fast Company, and Forbes, his most impactful literary moment occurred in Toledo, Ohio. As “Mr. Modern,” he advised Toledo City Paper readers to ditch wedding “gift tables” in favor of online registries, sparking a citywide uproar.

When he switched to public relations, he delivered stellar results for clients such as PayPal, Tetris, and the alien hunters of the SETI Institute. Business Insider twice listed Curtis in its 50 Best Public Relations People In The Tech Industry. Fortune, Newsweek, PRWeek, and PRovoke have all recognized Curtis’s PR agency, Bospar, for excellence in PR. As his agency approached its tenth year of business, his niece inspired him to write a children’s book about PR.

He lives in San Francisco with his husband, interior designer Brice Stanek.

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