THANK YOU:
To my wife Nadja Kuhner, for everything. To David West, who first dared me to write a novel. To Elizabeth Bear, who four years later told me it was done. To everyone who read my early drafts, including Karen Bjorneby, Linda Cleary, Hannah Emery, Matthew L. Lavin, Susanna E. Skelley, and the terrifically talented Emily Salzfass, who died in January 2013, way too young and with way too much not written yet. To the crew at Harmony Ink Press, especially Anne Regan and her team, Rose Archer, Nessa Warin, and Nathie Block.
Books that helped me research the US war with Afghanistan included A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan by Nelofer Pazira, The Places In Between by Rory Stewart, The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban by Sarah Chayes, and Letters from the Front Lines: Iraq and Afghanistan by Rear Admiral Stuart Franklin Platt. Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors Without Borders by Dan Bortolotti gave me an understanding of that organization. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia by Carol Rose and the website SurLaLunefairytales.com helped me with the world of the Fair Folk.
The plot for this book was inspired by the Scottish ballad “The Bonnie Banks o’ Fordie.” Songs are called “traditional” when the songwriter's name is forgotten, but I am grateful to the person who wrote it. Josy sings the first lines in Chapter 11.