Increasingly paranoid as I get older, I played this book closer to the cuff than any in the past. I let only a handful of people peek at the work in progress, and am eternally grateful for their thoughts and input. Thanks most of all to my agent, Joshua, as well as Myke, Lauren, and Dani, my editors, Tricia and Emma, my assistants, Meg and Rebecca, copyeditor Laura, and the international publishers and translators who have worked so tirelessly to bring my stories to other parts of the world. Special thanks to all my readers, especially those who have taken the time to get in touch. Your letters, comments, tweets, posts, online reviews, fan contest entries, and the like have been a needed bedrock of support and circle of succor as I ascend Demon Cycle Mountain. Thanks for climbing with me.