First and foremost, I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to Keith Clayton and Erich Schoeneweiss at Del Rey for planting this demented seed and making it grow, with a particular shout-out to Erich’s brother-in-law Andrew Goletz, who wrote the first outline for the project—the one that convinced everybody that it wasn’t just a crazy fever-dream. Dave Stevenson is the greatest art director in the world, the man responsible for the awesome-beyond-awesome jacket that grabbed the Internet by the throat. Ali Kokmen, Christine Cabello, David Moench, and Joseph Scalora are all mad and wonderful marketing and publicity geniuses, and they’ve been over-the-top enthusiastic and supportive of this project from the beginning. And of course, Shelly Shapiro, you are the absolute bomb.
At Lucasfilm, I want to express my deep and heartfelt gratitude to Sue Rostoni and Leland Chee for giving this lowly boogeyman a free pass to roam about the Star Wars galaxy.
Thanks as always to my agent, Phyllis Westberg, for helping it all come together.
To Michael Ludy, my best friend from middle school. Mike and I paid $2.50 to see Return of the Jedi the day that it opened and things have never been the same since.
On the topic of money, I want to thank everyone who has ever opened up his or her wallet and put down their hard-earned cash to buy my work. Simply speaking, without you, none of this would be possible. So thanks.
Finally, to Christina, who not only puts up with my mercurial author nonsense on a daily basis but put in the winning bid for a vintage 1979 Kenner Alien figure on eBay … pretty much making her the coolest wife ever.