Alan is a native Texan with a knack for story. He is co-author of the family comedy movie Angels Love Donuts (with Leon McWhorter) filmed in Dallas and released on DVD. Two recent books include Willy, The Texas Longhorn, a children's picture book from Pelican and On Sunday the Wind Came (bilingual) from Babl Books.

He is also the author of Texas Ingenuity: Lone Star Inventors, Inventions, and Innovators (Arcadia, 2016), Images of America: Oak Cliff (a pictorial history of the Oak Cliff section of Dallas), Currents in American History (a brief history of the United States based on significant incidents that shaped our history, with Terry Bilhartz), and A Daily Dose of the American Dream, Stories of Success, Triumph and Inspiration (366 American success stories.)