on the page. Special thanks to our friends and family, and the other writers who offer understanding when we need it.
Cie would like to specifical y thank her brother, Tim, whose inexhaustible knowledge of basebal helped more than we can say. Even though we
didn’t get to put much of what he told us on the page, it was necessary to know for setting the scene. Special thanks go out to the folks at McAnal y’s
Pub on Jim Butcher’s forum, and particularly Lord Nedd for the use of the fez. For the record, there are a couple of instances of homage to Jim
Butcher in this book. In this case, imitation real y is meant as the sincerest form of flattery, as we find his books to be bril iant.
Last, but not least, thanks to you, the readers, for coming along for the ride. We hope you enjoy reading these books as much as we enjoy writing
them.
A NOTE TO READERS
First, in my (Cie’s) opinion, for the most part happy families do not make for interesting reading. I don’t know why. They do, however, make for
happy writers. Every time a writer creates a character with a particularly troubled background (or a kinky sexual bent), it seems that somebody
out in the “real world” assumes that the writer is working from personal experience. So al ow me to state for the record that Celia Graves’s
background and troubles are al her own. They do not reflect any personal experience on the part of either of the authors. Thank God!
Part of the fun of writing is research. In order to make the fantasy portions more believable, you have to be very careful to get the “real” portions
right. Stil , inevitably, some glitches slip in. The setting of this book is Southern California. We created a fictional city of Santa Maria de Luna and