by Lou Anders
Thanks to my agent, Barry Goldblatt of Barry Goldblatt Literary. Thanks to my editor at Crown Books for Young Readers, Phoebe Yeh, and to Random House Children’s Books publisher Barbara Marcus. Thanks to Cassie McGinty, associate publicist; Alison Kolani, director of copyediting; Isabel Warren-Lynch, executive art director; and Ken Crossland, senior designer. Thanks to Julianna N. Wilson, my audiobook producer at Penguin Random House Audio’s Listening Library, my audiobook director Christina Rooney, and my fabulous narrator, Fabio Tassone. Thanks to Dominique Cimina, director of publicity and corporate communication, and to Kim Lauber, director of marketing, Sonia Nash Gupta, Nicholas Elliot, and everyone who worked on the promotional trading cards and the incredible ThronesandBones.com site.
For many nights play-testing multiple versions of the rules of Queen’s Champion, I am enormously indebted to my patient and wonderful wife.
Lou Anders drew on his adventures traveling to Greece in his twenties to write Skyborn, combining these experiences with his love of adventure fiction and games (both tabletop and role playing). While he has yet to ride a hippalektryon, creating his own board games for Frostborn, Nightborn, and now Skyborn is one of his favorite indulgences. Anders has won a Hugo Award for editing and a Chesley Award for art direction, and was named a Thurber House Writer-in-Residence. He has published over 500 articles and stories on science fiction and fantasy television and literature, and regularly attends writing conventions around the country. He resides with his family in Birmingham, Alabama. You can visit Anders online at louanders.com and ThronesandBones.com, on Facebook, on Tumblr, and on Twitter at @Louanders.