Daggers in Darkness

Acknowledgements

To Kier Salmon, longtime close friend and valued advisor. Whose help with things in Spanish and about Mexico—she lived there into adulthood—has been very, very helpful with this whole series. As well as her general advice to which I have always listened carefully. My mother grew up speaking Spanish too (in Lima, Peru), but alas she and my aunt used it as a secret code the children couldn’t understand, and Kier has been invaluable to fill in those lacunae, as well as being a fine editor (and promising writer) in her own right.

To Markus Baur, for help with the German language and as a first reader.

To Dave Drake, for help with the Latin bits and a deep knowledge of firearms acquired in several different ways. Also collaborating with him taught me how to outline.

To Alyx Dellamonica, for advice, native-guide work, and just generally being cool. Her wife Kelly Robson is cool too and an extremely talented writer now winning implausible numbers of awards. An asteroid would have to strike Toronto to seriously dent the awesomeness of this pair. Fortunately, writing is one of those fields where you have colleagues, not competitors.

To Laura Frankos Turtledove, for the loan of her great-granddad Ronald, shipyard carpenter and member of the Caledonian Club in San Francisco.

To my first readers; Steve Brady, Pete Sartucci, Ara Sedaka, Jade Cheung, Moe Lane, and Markus Baur. Scott Palter, a longtime and valued friend, unfortunately died before he could participate in this one—he’ll be missed.

To Patricia Finney (aka P.F. Chisholm), for friendship and her own wonderful books, starting with A Shadow of Gulls (which she wrote when she was in her teens, at which point I was still doing Edgar Rice Burroughs pastiche fanfic) and going on from there. One of the best historical novelists of our generation!

And to Joe’s Diner (http://joesdining.com/)and Ecco Gelato & Expresso (http://www.eccogelato.com/) here in Santa Fe, for putting up with my interminable presence and my habit of making faces and muttering dialogue as I write. May they survive the apocalypse and flourish once more.

Dedication

To Jan, for everything, always.