Dedications & Acknowledgments

For Celes.

I'd like to thank a number of people. Tomas Honz, for creating the wonderful painting of Stone's Mouth found on the back cover. Cory for making the amazing illustration on the front cover. Trista Godfrey for keeping me motivated and meticulously pointing out my plot holes. Haley Harris for emotional and artistic inspiration. Trygve Thevik, James Jensen, Ren Boggio and my readers at halo.celephi.com for meticulously poring over my revisions for typos and other errors I missed. The staff of webfictionguide.com for all their hard work in maintaining the best webfiction listing site on the net. Next, I'd like to give great thanks to Roland and MJ, for putting up with me writing at work. Next, I would like to give thanks to all those who offered me emotional and creative support. In no particular order, Shai L, Dhani T, Tim T, Galen W, Adam B, Kascey P, Dave H, Erika H, Nigel B, Eddy G, Duck P, Const. Austin R, Marie W, Freida and Lauren at Salamander Books, Mom and all the people who helped serve as inspiration for characters. Lastly, I'd like to give a special thanks to the town and people of Ladysmith, British Columbia, which served as the full inspiration for the town of Dunsmith. Many of the locations within Dunsmith are regular fixtures of Ladysmith, from the Amphitheater to “Crown Square.” Names of businesses and locations within the town were changed for obvious reasons.

I also want to thank you,

the reader,

for purchasing this book.