Onyx, Black: Causes nightmares, mental torment, and break relationships.
Opal: Container and radiator of negative energy.
Ruby: Clarifier or purifier of intent.
Sphene: Stone of Depression.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are some folks to whom I owe a great debt. Without them, this would be a very different book.
Petros Triantafyllou (booknest.eu) has been my First Reader for several novels now. His advice and support throughout this and other projects has been unflagging and unfailing. He is a dude of the highest calibre, a champion of fantasy fiction. And holy shit is he a huge pain in the ass. So demanding! I am honoured to call him a friend.
Tom Smith (Grimdark Magazine) and David Walters (https://fanfiaddict.com/) did the next round of reading. Their ongoing belief in this story has been crucial in keeping me motivated when I wanted to give up and walk away.
Teresa Frohock, author of the amazing Los Nefilim books (Harper Voyager), gave this a brutal critiquing. Her feedback was on point and left my beautiful story a bloody tatter. But she was right. That sex scene really was a mistake. Suggesting I rewrite this with just two POV characters was genius. Smoke and Stone is a much stronger story for her efforts.
Thomas Clews and Jeff Bryant did the final read. Their feedback was critical in polishing the story and convincing me that I should go ahead and publish it.
Sarah Chorn edited this little tale of narcotic-fuelled madness. She picked apart motivations, found plot holes, fixed as much of the grammar as I let her (I’m more interested in how the book reads than I am in having every comma proper grammar demands), and caught a very subtle POV error I missed when rewriting the entire &@%! book (thanks Teresa) from four to two POV characters.
Anna Smith Spark, author of the insanely awesome Empires of Dust trilogy, has been a good friend. If you haven’t read her books, you are missing out on some of the best dark fantasy ever written. Death! Death! Death!
I wasn’t going to hire an artist. I couldn’t afford one. I was too fucking broke. Hell, I could do a “good enough” cover in GIMP for free! And then I saw Felix Ortiz’s Artstation page (https://www.artstation.com/felixortiz) and thought, FUCK! I had to work with him. This dude is so mad-skilled it’s insane.
And finally, you, the reader. Without you, there wouldn’t be a fuck of a lot of point in all this insane effort. I mean, I’d probably still do it because I love telling stories, but you folks keep me going. Your emails, messages, reviews, on-line rants, and death threats make all this worthwhile.
Fuck yeah.
Up the Irons!
Mike Fletcher
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael R. Fletcher was born in one of those rural town with more dogs than people. He grew up milking goats, thinking sticks were amazing toys, and pretending that used nine-volt batteries were spaceships. He thought the rabbits in the barn were pets until one day Blackie appeared on the dinner table.
Things got a tad dark after that.
After dropping out of university in his second year of a Philosophy degree, he decided it was time to grow up and get a real job. He promptly moved to Toronto to become a rock star, which strangely involved less drugs and alcohol than his attempt at Philosophy.
After working for twenty years in the music industry as an Audio-Engineer, he decided it was time for a change and set his sights on becoming a famous author.
Once again, things got a tad dark.
Sometimes he thinks he should have become a ninja like his mum wanted.
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