THE CROSSROADS INN

Combining the whimsy of a magical, sentient motel with the serious nature of Charlie's nearly crippling anxiety, and a funny and poignant cast of injured creatures, THE CROSSROADS INN is both mystery and adventure, the tale of an unlikely found family and the magic that lives within each of us.

Charlie Grimsby is just twelve years old, but she's been living in a world of grown-up problems for as long as she can remember. Charlie's dad left her mom before she was born, and her mom works at the local diner, barely making ends meet. They've been living in their current apartment for 15 whole months the longest Charlie ever remembers staying in one place! Until, on the morning of her 12th birthday, they're evicted yet again, and Charlie's sure she's about the have the worst birthday ever.

When Charlie and her mom go in search of a new place to live, they come across The Crossroads Inn a halfway house for injured and disabled magical creatures who've become stranded between worlds. There, Charlie discovers that she can see things that other people can't see and even worse she has a rare and magical gift that enables her to define and create something from nothing through art. Charlie learns that her father was an artist too. He's the person she's been drawing and he didn't abandon his family, after all he was kidnapped. Surrounded by refugee creatures from other worlds, Charlie discovers that she's stronger than she ever thought possible and together with them, she's determined to find a way to get her father back once, and for all.

Stacey Filak was born in a rural town in Michigan (population 400) where she grew up with an obsessive imagination and a hunger for stories of all kinds. She was the first of her family to attend college, where she studied to be an English teacher (mostly so she could spend time reading.) She has run an in-home daycare, worked in book-keeping, and as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan with her husband, four children, and a menagerie of pets with nerdy names. THE QUEEN UNDERNEATH is her debut novel Young Adult Fantasy novel, coming from Page Street in May 2018.