Acknowledgements

To my wife Michele, and my sons Travis and Evan: you thought you were finally done spending hours editing — but no.

To my faithful fans and readers — thank you for sticking with this adventure we’re all on. I look forward to your feedback week after week; it encourages me.

To my mom, who, though she doesn’t even care for fantasy, and likes to read the closing words of her novels to see how they end, still dutifully read the first book weekly. We’ll see if she still wants to do that.