My most heartfelt thanks to my extremely patient husband, Steven, for providing basic life necessities and keeping us all sustained during my obsession with my imaginary friends. To my girls, Michelle and Nicole, for being a source of inspiration for everything that I do. To my parents, who, from the beginning, taught me to believe in myself. To my omnipotent uberagent, Suzie Townsend, for taking that initial leap of faith, which, at the time, must have felt more like cliff diving. To my seriously cool editor, Melissa Frain, for taking something I loved and helping me make it into something other people might love too. To Eric Elfman and my Big Sur group for making me believe I don't suck at this and giving me the confidence to put what was in my head on paper. To my fellow ladies of lit, Andrea Cremer and Stephanie Howard, for keeping me on track.
And, because my Muse is a wannabe rock star, a special thanks to Chad Kroeger and Nickelback for "Savin' Me," the incredible song that inspired the character Luc, and to Isaac Slade and The Fray for writing the intense and deeply thought-provoking "You Found Me," the inspiration for Frannie. Acknowledgments
This is my third time out and I'm even more mindful that it does, indeed, take a village to produce a novel. There is a long list of folks I'd like to thank for helping put Antiphon together and into the world.
Like Canticle before it, this one was marked by loss with the passing of my father (just thirteen months after Mom) when I was roughly halfway through the drafting of the book. But this particular book was also marked by gain in that my daughters, Elizabeth and Rachel, were born just as I reached the finish line.
First and foremost, I'm grateful to Jen for the partnership and encouragement-and for the gift of two little Incentive Factories to keep me grinding out the words. Thank you, darling. And thank you, Lizzy and Rachel, for giving me added drive. It was fun editing this book while holding you in my other arm.
Also big thanks to the rest of the J-Team: John, Jay, Jerry, Jean Ann-you are great friends who keep me honest and hard at work.
I'd be remiss if I didn't thank the West Clan for all their support both in general, and also specifically when the girls were born. Those two weeks of help got the last of this book written.
There is an even longer list of other friends who've come alongside and helped me push these last several months. Just to name some: Aimee, Amy, Aliette, Alessa, Rodger, Mary, Lee, Other Lee, Robert, Scott, and Pierce. There's a much longer list that I could recite; apologies if I've left anyone out.
I'm also grateful for my agent, the thirty-second daughter of Vlad Li Tam finally debuting here on these pages. Like the Other Jen, I made you taller, Jenn, and made you bad-ass with a knife. It's a small token of my gratitude for all you've done.
This truly couldn't happen without the fine folks at Tor. Their faith in these books is a great encouragement to me. Big thanks to Irene, Melissa, Patty, Alexa, Kyle, and all the other hands who've helped along the way.
I especially want to thank Beth Meacham. Beth, you are a wonderful editor and a lovely human. We work well together. Your support most recently through the death of my father and the birth of my daughters is a great gift in my life, and this book would not be here if it weren't for your constant, caring approach to your writers.
And last but not least, thank you, Dear Reader. For those of you who've written via email or looked me up on Facebook, thank you. Your kind words about the series so far really do help me stay at the keyboard to lay down the next bits. I'm pleased that you've joined me here in Antiphon and I look forward to seeing you in Requiem really soon.
Until then, magick the scouts.
War is coming.