Here’s what I have to say about Midnight Magic on my website: “I know where the setting for this book entered my imagination—Naples, Italy, which I once visited. But the book came about because I wanted to write a scary book that wasn’t really scary, a ghost story, that may or may not have ghosts, and a tale of magic, that might, or might not have magic. But what really makes the book fun is the relationship between Mangus the magician, who does not believe in magic, and his servant boy, Fabrizio, who does believes in magic a great deal. The prequel to this book, which tells how the two came together, is called Murder at Midnight.”

I find ghost stories interesting, and a challenge to write, making what I don’t believe believable. Along the way I’ve learned that a lot of young readers like to be scared. I often ask them why and. although I don’t get exact answers, I get the impression that young people enjoy the intense emotions such stories generate, emotions, moreover, wrapped in the safe blanket of a book. Ghost stories are a reminder that not knowing everything means that there is much in the world and beyond that has yet to be discovered. For young people who have not taught themselves (or who have been taught) to be completely rational, ghosts hover on the fuzzy edge of reality, a place of endless possibilities.