Acknowledgements

When I was a young man, my father, a physician, took a mission trip to India. He shared a story or two upon his return, and it was his descriptions of the place—the oppressive heat, the food, the crumbling infrastructure and immense number of people—that gave birth to the places I eventually came to call Jaira and Bhai Mandwa. I also wanted to write a story about assassins, a theme I hadn’t tackled before in my fiction, and to try my hand at a steampunk/alternate history story, taking a cue from Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes films, which have always been favorites of mine.

Thus, a book was born that I called The Genja’s Bones for years, only recently retitling it to The Way of Mortals. It wasn’t until years later, after working with numerous members of the publishing industry—both agents and editors alike—that I was informed my skin color was the wrong shade to write a story based on Indian mythology or culture. They absolutely loved my story, but I’d committed the cardinal sin of writing while melanin-deprived. I was even encouraged to resubmit other books in the future…so long as my characters matched the skin color I was presumed to have.

You want to know why you’re holding this book in your hands right now? Because of small-minded idiocy and smaller-minded idiots like that.

Many of the terms contained in this book are genuine Hindu words; others are made up. I’ve researched the pronunciation to be as accurate as possible, but that’s the beauty of fiction: I can pronounce the words any way I want to. The names for the cities and regions of Chaia might resemble some places in real life, but since this is fiction, it hardly matters which is which. I presume that you, dear reader, are able to differentiate the two.

Many thanks to my wife for her continued support and for what I’ve called “brain-borrowing” whenever needed. Thank you to Beth and Michael, and also to Kathan and Nathaniel for their willingness to read and their feedback. A special thanks to Sarah for the last-minute assistance with the book’s formatting issues. And thank you to all the volunteer ARC readers, as well. You all are part of the reason I keep doing this, and why I hope to continue doing it for the stories that are yet to come.

This book is something special, and I’m not saying that just because I wrote it. It’s my hope that you enjoyed it, but whether you did or you didn’t, if you’d be willing to take two minutes of your time and write out a review where you bought it, that would help me out immensely. Either way, I hope you enjoyed Prem’s journey, and that you’ll be willing to read my other books, as well.

Onto the next one. Be seeing you.

— B.