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My book has been twenty years in the making and there are many people close to me with whom I’ve shared my dream of writing this book. First, I’d like to thank those of you who contributed to the physical creation of my book. I am immensely grateful for the skill, guile, craft and advice of Charles N. and Peter C. It has been an absolute pleasure working with such wonderful collaborative people, where I learned many new skills and took so much narrative advice. Thank you to my editor, Velma Christie, for being so prompt with my manuscript over her Christmas holiday time, and so patient with my query. You’ve all been a pleasure to work with and I’ve learned so much from you.
For those ebook readers that are lucky enough to also read this book in physical format you are in for visual treat. You really must look at the illustrative contributions of Maham Aziz and Carma Naudé. I have special thanks to my main contributor Maham Aziz for the front cover illustration and the many chapter illustration openings.
I’d like to thank and acknowledge the important contributions of my beta reader community. Your feedback has been invaluable. I learned so much about my story because of your contribution and it gave me confidence that the vision that I set out for the book was the right one. I was especially pleased with the additional advice many have offered outside of the formal feedback. Many thanks to Danny Kaye, Glory Olowosoyo, Karly Marlow, Ionut George Mereuta, Nina M. Miller and Ana Corral Vuille.
I’d like to thank a long-time friend Jay Astill, who in the very early days helped me to develop my thought on the subject matter. Jay, with his incredible imagination and talent for character building undoubtably helped to bring The Nephilem story to life over twenty years ago, it is to him I owe the eclectic cast of characters such as Nathaniel, Solomon Vaughn and Seth – I thank him for giving them to me. Though he might raise an eyebrow regarding how I changed them, I really did try to write a story that he would be proud of.
To my family, my two children, my daughter, Lauryn who is studying English Literature, I hope you find inspiration in my work and work ethic. I hope this book is a lesson in never talking yourself out of chasing your big dream. To my son Ashley, in the early inception of this book when The Nephilem was little more than short fairy tale and folktale style stories in my head. When my son was still a little boy, I’d read him short bedtime stories based on The Nephilem. Sometimes I had written them, but most of the time I made them up on the bedside spot. My bedtime storytelling is something I am sure he has no adult recollection of. There is something to be said in having the non-judging ears of an innocent child taking in the woeful ramblings of a storytelling parent. His bedtimes gave me the imagination to develop the world of The Nephilem aloud night after night – and he could not possibly know how thankful I am to him for this.
Of course, for the past ten years it has been my wife, Debbie, that has had to put up with my woeful ramblings of out loud storytelling. Debbie has been a fantastic life partner for me on this journey; she has been a great sounding board for the many female voices in this book and because of her wonderfully creative artful eye, she has been quick to give me feedback on my illustrative concepts. For her to take in the most minute details involved in this book whilst managing her own creative projects is impressive stuff indeed. Her support has been unwavering, honest and a yardstick.
For this project my literary heroes and roles models are those of old classics, though I did draw from a couple contemporary works as well. I also pull inspiration from musical heroes, art and cinema as well. I learned so many lessons about connecting to the audience from them. I like to thank the works of classic fairy tales, E.T.A Hoffman, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Neil Gaiman, Quentin Tarantino, Grant Nieporte, Julio Medem, and Guillermo Del Toro. The music, the sounds, the emotions from the catalogues of Bob Marley, Surface, Astrud Gilberto, Corrine Bailey Rae especially “I’d do it all again” and Janet Jackson’s ‘The body that loves you’ haunted me throughout the books process.
Lastly, I’d like to thank God. I know it is customary for everyone from award show winners to top level athletes to people who battled against the odds to achieve a lifelong ambition to all give praise and thank God. But this time, my thanks is literal. Without God’s existence, our belief system in him as a deity or a ritual, this book would simply not exist at all because ultimately this book is about God. And so, to God, I give thanks.
