Novice Dragoneer

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Novels are Frankenstein creations, dug up out of the author’s experiences and stitched together with others passing vital thread. There’s Rebecca Brewer at Penguin Random House and my agent John Silbersack, who did the work of getting it out to shelves and warehouses and digital libraries so you readers can buy it. I’d like to thank Miriam-Rose and the staff of the Joffrey Academy of Dance in Chicago, who welcomed a fifty-year-old man who wanted to learn ballet with enthusiasm and encouragement. Rachel Brice, whom I was lucky enough to get to know at various dance workshops my wife attended, first gave me the idea for dragons being calmed and hypnotized by sweaty women. I’m also indebted to barre instructor Candace, who knows what my femur is doing even with her back to me and continually tries to turn the solid matter of my body into liquid or gaseous forms. I’d also like to thank my son’s speech therapist, Jenna, who gave me some valuable insight into Ileth’s speech and ideas on how to depict it. Speaking of medical people, I give thanks to Peter Grant MD, without whom I might not even be sitting here typing out acknowledgments. I’d also like to thank the fans of the Age of Fire series who wrote asking for more stories of my dragons, and Marylou the Mother of Dragons, who was this novel’s first reader with no personal stake in me or the book and provided much-needed encouragement that I still had some game left. My brother Stefan offered his professorial (Go Mountaineers!) erudition in everything from low-frequency audio communication in elephants to the best design for the Dragon Horn. Then there are my three awesome kids, each of whom provided a piece of Ileth, and my wife, Stephanie, who puts up with my frequent trips deep in my mental submarine. Any and all errors of fact, style, or taste are on me.