by Karlik, Mary
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Who knew baking cakes could be so life or death?
To the Reader
I hope you enjoyed Layla and Ian’s adventure. Most of the story is set in Edinburgh. Many of the places, such as The Royal Mile, are real. Some of the places in this story are completely manufactured by the need to stay true to the story. The fairy language is Scot’s Gaelic. Sabhal Mòr Osteag, on the Isle of Skye, is the center for the Gaelic language. If you are interested in learning more about this beautiful language, please follow the link below.
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http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/en/colaiste/
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Thank you for reading!
Acknowledgments
There are so many people who had a hand in creating this world and this story. I owe them all my heartfelt thanks. Thank you Dr. Peeler for leading our MFA class in brainstorming genre mashups. From the second “fairy trafficking” popped into my head, I knew I had to write it. To my many many friends who over the years encouraged me to keep working on developing the idea - thank you for plotting with me and listening to me agonize over bits and pieces from every angle. Thank you to my Gaelic instructor, Coinneach (Kenneth) MacManus for correcting the Gaelic in this story before it went to print. Thank you to Sir John Ward—my Gaelic language buddy—for your continued patience and good humor as I attempt to learn this amazing language. Thank you to Amanda and John McDevitt for beta reading and asking those tough questions—even if it did lead to a last minute fix. Thank you Shelly Bates for being an awesome editor.
Most of all, thank you Aileen Latcham. Your belief in this story and my writing has been unwavering. I am so proud to be a part of Ink Monster.
About Mary Karlik
Mary Karlik has always been a dreamer. When she was a teen, she read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and then sat in every wardrobe in her Nanna's home, trying to open the door to Narnia. She didn't find it, but she did discover her voice as an author: one filled with her young adult self, and grounded in her roots as a Texan and her Scottish heritage, nourished by obscure Scottish folklore.