I began this novel in Japan, listening obsessively to Beatles music, and though I don't imagine that a country and a band really need to be acknowledged, I'll do it anyway. Also, my friends and fellow writers who have read and critiqued my work over the years: Amanda Hollander, Bianca Redhead, Bill Steinmetz, Fleur Beckwith, Rachel Lenz, Robert Sietsema, Dan Bush, Tamar Bihari, Aimee Kratz, and others.
My agent, Ken Atchity, bowled me over with his enthusiasm for this book from the first. And I couldn't have asked for a more insightful publisher and editor than Doug Seibold.
The earth-shattering importance of my first novel dwindles in a global context: Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, global warming, and rampant social inequality here in the states. Individual actions make a difference. I'd suggest FAIR (www.fair.org) as a place for concerned readers to start.
About the Author
Alaya Dawn Johnson was born in 1982 in Washington, DC and graduated from Columbia University, where she studied East Asian languages and cultures. She has published short fiction in several magazines, and two of her stories were republished in the anthologies Year's Best SF 11 and Year's Best Fantasy 6. She lives in New York. Racing the Dark, the first book in the trilogy The Spirit Binders, is her first novel.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Racing the Dark Page 38