Laura Silverman: Hello everyone. My name is Laura Silverman. I am the editor and a contributor of Up All Night. Up All Night is a young adult anthology of thirteen stories that take place between sunset and sunrise. I came up with the idea for Up All Night because the middle of the night was the most magical time for me as a teenager. It felt like this magic space when all of the adults and parents went to sleep and really anything could happen. It really was a time of change and discovery and exploration. And I thought there was just so much to explore there that it would be wonderful to invite all of these authors to write stories about different experiences that can happen in the middle of the night.

I love the short story format for that reason. I love being able to get bite-sized pieces of different experiences. I also really love short stories because you don't have to sit down and really read the whole book at once. You can pick it up whenever you're in the mood and read a little story before bed.

This anthology was such an incredible joy and pleasure to work on. I got to work with some of the most amazing writers in the young adult industry. They each brought such a unique perspective and voice to the anthology. We have a wide range of racial, sexual, religious diversity throughout the anthology. And not just that diversity, but we have a diversity of genres. So in this book, you're going to get everything from thrillers to superhero stories, to sweet prom romcoms, to friendship stories, and everything in between. And I just love that you never know which story you're about to get next.

My story was inspired by ... some of you may remember the app Pokémon GO. It was this really fun game where you could go hunt for Pokemon in the real world, kind of a virtual reality experience. And my story was actually inspired by that. I created a new sort of game called Creature Capture, where you go and hunt for mythical creatures in the real world. My main character Abby is absolutely obsessed with this game, but kind of beneath the fun of the app, the story is an exploration of growing pains, of her getting older and the fear of moving on from high school to college, the fear of losing her best friends, the fear of finding herself as the world changes around her. So it was really fun to play with both a really fun and exciting app, and then explore these more serious themes within it.

Okay, this is the story Creature Capture from the anthology Up All Night:

"What now?" Curtis asks as we make it out of the woods and to the lake. Crickets chirp around us. The air is warm and sticky, summer humidity pressing in, even with the sun long since tucked away. Expensive houses surround the lake. Their security lights cut swaths of brightness through the dark backyards and shine across the water. The lake is a public area, yet it feels like we could be arrested for trespassing.

"Um, hold on," I say.

I check the Creature Capture app, eyes scanning the screen. My heart jumps at the mere thought of a Loch Ness appearing. But no luck yet. A lone werewolf prowls the perimeter of the woods. A single water sprite buzzes above the lake's opaque surface. "No Loch Ness," I say. "Not sure if I should activate a lure. I only have two, and there are five lakes to hit tonight."

A lure draws out creatures otherwise hidden. The app will use its random algorithm to populate certain lakes with Loch Ness monsters tonight. A Loch Ness could appear without the help of a lure, activated simply by our GPS presence in their zone, but some will only show themselves with that extra magical boost.