Joan Didion once said that while no one really wants to hear your dream, good or bad, a writer is someone who "is always tricking the reader into listening to the dream."

I thought a lot about Ms. Didion's charge while I was writing my middle grade novel, The Spider Ring. The book's heroine, Maria, is a girl who gets tricked into listening to someone else's story, until she's so caught up in it that she has no choice but to see the story through to the end.

I hope you'll feel the same way reading my book. But I'm afraid it doesn't come out until January 27, 2015. So for now, perhaps I can trick you into finding out more...