Exclusively on Audible, an original from D. J. MacHale, New York Times best-selling author of the Pendragon series, for ages 8 and up. Eleven-year-old Sam Calico is an excellent storyteller, inventing wild escapades, but has never had the courage to have a real adventure of his own. That is until one day when a mysterious invitation arrives along with a mechanical dog, inviting him to the Equinox Curiosity Shop - which happens to be in an abandoned building. Despite his fears, Sam follows the instructions and boards a train to the magical Equinox Valley, where he discovers that the Nexus, which holds the world in equilibrium, is under attack. With the help of some magical toys, Sam has only 24 hours to stop the evil Khord and her twin monkeys, Castor and Pollux, from destroying Equinox Valley and his home outside along with it. D. J. MacHale is the creator of Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark? and The Outerbounds, coming soon from Amazon Studios.
Author
D.J. MacHale is a writer, director, executive producer and creator of several popular television series and movies. He was raised in Greenwich, CT and graduated from Greenwich High School. While in school, he had several jobs including collecting eggs at a poultry farm, engraving sports trophies and washing dishes in a steakhouse...in between playing football and running track. D.J. then attended New York University where he received a BFA in film production. His filmmaking career began in New York where he worked as a freelance writer/director, making corporate videos and television commercials. He also taught photography and film production. D.J. broke into the entertainment business by writing several ABC Afterschool Specials. After moving to Los Angeles, he made the fulltime switch from informational films, to entertainment. As co-creator of the popular Nickelodeon series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?, he produced all 91 episodes over 8 years. He wrote and directed many of the episodes including the CableAce nominated The Tale of Cutter's Treasure starring Charles S. Dutton. He was nominated for a Gemini award for directing The Tale of the Dangerous Soup starring Neve Campbell. D.J. also wrote and directed the movie Tower of Terror for ABC's Wonderful World of Disney which starred Kirsten Dunst and Steve Guttenberg. The Showtime series Chris Cross was co-created, written and produced by D.J. It received the CableAce award for Best Youth Series. D.J. co-created and produced the Discovery Kids series Flight 29 Down for which he writes all the episodes and directs several. His work on Flight 29 Down has earned him both Writers Guild of America and Directors Guild of America award nominations. Other notable writing credits include the classic ABC Afterschool Special titled Seasonal Differences; the pilot for the long-running PBS/CBS series Ghostwriter; and the HBO series Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective for which he received a CableAce nomination for writing. In print, D.J. has co-written the book The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors, based on his own teleplay and penned the poetic adaptation of the classic Norwegian folk tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon. The book series: Pendragon - Journal of an Adventure through Time and Space marks D.J.'s first turn as a novelist. He plans for this series of Young Adult adventures to span a total of 10 books. D.J. lives in Southern California with his wife Evangeline and daughter Keaton. They are avid backpackers, scuba divers and skiers. Rounding out the household are a Golden Retriever, Maggie; and a Kitten, Kaboodle.
