Ex-Communication

Three books in, and people are still interested in a handful of superheroes I made up in fifth grade. This is a source of constant amazement to me. My thanks to you for reading this far, and hopefully past this.

Of course, I couldn’t’ve made it this far on my own, and for this book I owe a collection of thanks to a number of people …

David found the Ex-Heroes series a new home at Broadway Books, and in doing so he made sure you’re all going to be seeing a fourth book somewhere not far down the road, and possibly one more after that as well.

Matthew talked with me a lot about religion, faith, and the Bible. I’m not a very religious person myself, but I also didn’t want to be writing thin parodies of religious people. Any mistakes or offenses on this front are entirely mine.

Sam and Sara helped me make sure Maddy didn’t sound too much like a guy in his forties writing about a girl in her teens. Also, once again, thanks to John (aka Professor Tansey of the Otterbein University Department of Chemistry), who traded a lot of e-mails about nanotechnology with me and made sure I wasn’t writing about little robots that looked like mechanical insects or spaceships. Corpse Girl owes a debt to all three of them.

Laura, Thom, and Carrie all talked to me a bit about tattoos. Meredith told me lots about removing them.

Claudia and Mindy helped expand my vocabulary where Spanish profanity was concerned.

John, Larry, and CD all read early versions of this book and helped make sure no one else had to see most of those early mistakes and stumbles.

Julian at Broadway Books forced me to stay on my toes and made sure that—even though we were dipping into magic—things still followed logical rules and reasons.

Last but by no means least, many thanks, as always, to my lovely lady, Colleen, who listens calmly while I insist this latest project isn’t going to work, reminds me that’s what I say every time, and then tells me to get back to work. With love.

—P.C. Los Angeles, April 11, 2013