I’m not going to lie—I struggle with writing acknowledgments almost as much as doing a damn synopsis, and for a similar reason: too much to say, too little space to say it. But in this case, it’s too many people to recognize, not just my garden variety verbosity.
As always, I need to thank my wife right out of the gate. Writing might be challenging or frustrating at times, but it’s not a hard job, not really; teaching junior-high kids, defusing bombs, removing a railroad spike from someone’s skull on the operating table—those are hard. But so is living with a writer (or at least this writer), and Kris manages that better than I deserve, encouraging, understanding, and calling me out on my shenanigans.
My agent, Michael Harriot, has always been a tremendous sounding board and beta reader, gently nudging me away from dumb ideas and offering fantastic feedback on stuff in process at every stage. He does all the nuts and bolts agenty stuff, too, but I value his input and critiques as much as anything.
Jeremy Lassen, my editor, once again helped shape this book into the final form, offering great substantive suggestions for improving the manuscript, eliminating inconsistencies, and refining things. He has been my editor for all three books, and his keen insights certainly made them all stronger.
The Night Shade/Skyhorse team did a marvelous job as ever on Chains of the Heretic. Jason Katzman and Lauren Burnstein deserve a special shout out for coordinating the whole production and publicity shebang, and ensuring everything progressed according to plan. As with every book, there are tons of people who worked behind the scenes on composition, proofreading, interior design, marketing, and printing that I don’t know by name, but who deserve kudos for doing such a fine job.
The cover artist, Ryan Pancoast, totally captured the tone I was hoping for—menace, mystery, hulking monstrosity—and created an amazing and evocative cover. He also endured my blitz of ideas and arms and armor references, and incorporated everything on my wish list.
And William McAusland was a glutton for punishment again, signing on to create the new map for Chains, once again proving himself not only talented, but patient and flexible as well. I really lucked out on the art front with the covers and the maps for the entire series, and I know not every writer is so fortunate.
Writing Bloodsounder’s Arc has been a crazy and wonderful journey, and I hope you enjoyed it half as much as I did. So finally, thanks to you, dear reader.
Chains of the Heretic Page 61