AcknowledgementsI'd like to thank the people who helped me pull this story together.
To Liza Kroeger, who helped me critique the original screenplay version of this story in its most awkward, nascent form. And Ned, who was like, 'what are you, an epic fantasy writer?" Uhmm…yeah? My first non-1000 page book!
To my wonderfully patient husband and children, who don't freak out when I sit at my computer with my headphones blaring epic movie trailer music, shouting 'Yah! Git' them! Gah! Stab! Pew-pew-pew!' while I type out battle scenes at 3:00 a.m. in the morning…
To Robert 'the Hyanimal' Williams, who patiently answers silly questions. I dedicate the epilogue to you.
And to all my friends, who cheered me on and answered really scary-sounding questions about knives and guns and all kinds of things that have probably earned me a spot on the NSA watch list.
To Dale Amidei, who helped me debug some author stuff and tutored me on the proper capitalization of Allah and God.
And most of all, thanks to Sensei Donna Marie Klucevsek at USA Urban GoJu karate who helped me work out the mechanics of several fight scenes. I'm still sporting bruises!
Thank you!