A Note From the AuthorWriting a book was sort of one of those things that I thought about and never actually intended on doing. I spoke to a seventh grader in my English class about the idea for the book one day while I was teaching a creative writing unit, and she insisted that I at least write it as a short story. I took that as a challenge more than anything, and I sat down that afternoon and outlined the plot in some random spiral notebook. Exactly four weeks later I had completed the draft. It became a complete obsession for me, I couldn't stop. At this point I have a hard time remembering what life was like before I started writing, and I am so thankful for that initial conversation with one of my (now favorite) students. I will publish one more book in the Gem City collection fro
