Oh heavens, I’ve written another book! I don’t know what’s the matter with me, but I hold you, the reader, partially to blame. If it weren’t for your enthusiastic support of my stories, I’d never work up the energy to write a single word. You guys sustain me, and I’m not talking financially.
As always, I need to start with a huge thank you to Kate, my girlfriend, my support network, my sounding board, and as always, my Intended Reader. Every word you read here had to make it past her first. (So, um, I guess if you don’t like it, that makes it partially her fault, right?)
Next, I have to thank my editor Barb Caffrey and my cover artist Carol Phillips. Barb takes my mediocre prose and makes it punchy. Carol takes my abstract ideas and turns them into beautiful covers!
Next up are again the holy trinity of authors Chris Boucher (Doctor Who, Blake’s 7), R. A. Salvatore (the bestselling Drizzt Do'Urden series), and Steve Hamilton (the Alex McKnight series and The Lock Artist). I continue to learn from you every day through your examples. What meager talent I’ve managed to develop is largely a tribute to the lessons you’ve taught me.
Then of course there are my wonderful beta-readers, including (but not limited to): Trin Denise, Connie Jasperson, Becky Kyle, Sabrina Malone, Art Pugach, K. R. Schulteis, Dana Sieders, Ryk Spoor, and Valerie Ward. Thank you so much for all your suggestions, and for putting up with so many typos!
I have to thank Ryk Spoor a second time for those great gaming sessions back in the early ninteties. Not only did they give rise to the character of D’Arbignal, but they were just a hell of a lot of fun!
I continue to feel honored and humbled by the support the late Daniel Copeland gave me, and it is to him I've dedicated this book. Dan was one of the kindest, bravest, and most up-beat people I've ever met. I'm sorry you had to leave this world so soon, Dan, but I am eternally grateful for having had the opportunity to know you. This world needs more people like you.
And of course, I thank Kate first and last because my world begins and ends with her. Thanks for sticking with me, Kate. I know it’s not easy putting up with an aspiring writer! (Don’t tell Kate, but I would have dumped me years ago…)
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A Lesson for the Cyclops
العاطفيةDare to Hope? Maria leads a lonely existence of silent misery. Horribly disfigured, she earns a meager living as a sideshow freak. Her very existence is one of mockery, contempt, and ridicule. She has no hope, no dreams. No future. But when a dashin...
