Over the past twenty-four years, Nina Kiriki Hoffman has sold novels, juvenile and media tie-in books, short story collections, and more than two hundred short stories. Her works have been finalists for the Nebula, World Fantasy, Mythopoeic, Sturgeon, and Endeavour awards. Her first novel, The Thread That Binds the Bones, won a Stoker Award. Nina's YA novel Spirits that Walk in Shadow and her science fiction novel Catalyst were published in 2006. Her fantasy novel Fall of Light will be published by Ace Books in May.

When Maya Andersen and her family moved to Spores Ferry, Oregon, they didn't know there'd be magic right next door. Their new neighbors in the Janus House Apartments all have unusual powers, and the basement is a Grand Central Station to other worlds. Maya and her alien companion, Rimi, are learning how to live together and how to keep their secret-which becomes a lot harder as they help the Janus Housers track down the Krithi, the race who snatched Rimi from her home planet in an attempt to rule the universe.