A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire
For Amanda and Merav, who helped me find the map when it was missing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
Writing a book is a solitary exercise; actually finishing a book is not. Large portions of this book were written while traveling abroad, and my thanks go to Rika Koerte, Mike and Anne Whitacker, Talis Kimberley, and Simon Fairborne, for providing me with space while I was working in their kitchens and spare rooms (and who failed to complain about the crazy American who came to England to work on her novel). Forensic help, medical advice, and some serious logic discussion were provided by Melissa Glasser, Meredith Schwartz, and Amanda Weinstein, while my entire crack team of machete-wielding proofreaders provided merciless feedback and a lot of textual baby-sitting. This wouldn’t be the book it is without them, or without Chris Mangum, who listened patiently as I complained about plot during multi-hour telephone calls.
My agent, Diana Fox, was tolerant of my endless need to whine about punctuation, and provided many excellent suggestions that helped to make the staff of ALH Computing come alive, at least for me, and my fabulous editor, Sheila Gilbert, once again cut straight to the heart of what needed to be done. Finally, thanks are due to Kate Secor, Michelle Dockrey, Rebecca New-man, and Brooke Lunderville, who put up with sharing my time with fictional people while still hitting this book with as many sticks as they could swing. (In Kate’s case, thanks also for letting me use the TiVo. It did a lot to preserve my sanity.)
My personal soundtrack while writing A Local Habitation consisted mostly of August and Everything After, by the Counting Crows, Engine, by We’re About 9, and Tanglewood Tree, by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. Any errors in this book are entirely my own. The errors that aren’t here are the ones that all these people helped me fix.
Thank you for reading.
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE:
Bannick: ban-nick. Plural is Bannicks.
Banshee: ban-shee. Plural is Banshees.
Barrow Wight: bar-row white. Plural is Barrow Wights. Cait Sidhe: kay-th shee. Plural is Cait Sidhe.
Candela: can-dee-la. Plural is Candela.
Coblynau: cob-lee-now. Plural is Coblynau.
Cornish Pixie: Cornish pix-ee. Plural is Cornish Pixies.
Daoine Sidhe: doon-ya shee. Plural is Daoine Sidhe, diminutive is Daoine.
Djinn: jin. Plural is Djinn.
Ellyllon: el-lee-lawn. Plural is Ellyllons.
Gean-Cannah: gee-ann can-na. Plural is Gean-Cannah.
Glastig: glass-tig. Plural is Glastigs.
Gwragen: guh-war-a-gen. Plural is Gwragen.
Hippocampus: hip-po-cam-pus. Plural is Hippocampi.
Kelpie: kel-pee. Plural is Kelpies.
Kitsune: kit-soo-nay. Plural is Kitsune.
Lamia: lay-me-a. Plural is Lamia.
The Luidaeg: the lou-sha-k. No plural exists.
Manticore: man-tee-core. Plural is Manticores.
Nixie: nix-ee. Plural is Nixen.
Peri: pear-ee. Plural is Peri.
Piskie: piss-key. Plural is Piskies.
Pixie: pix-ee. Plural is Pixies.
Puca: puh-ca. Plural is Pucas.
Roane: ro-an. Plural is Roane.
Selkie: sell-key. Plural is Selkies.
Silene: sigh-lean. Plural is Silene.
Tuatha de Dannan: tootha day danan, Plural is Tuatha de Dannan, short form is Tuatha.
Tylwyth Teg: till-with teeg. Plural is Tylwyth Teg, short form is Tylwyth.
Undine: un-deen. Plural is Undine.
Will o’ Wisps: will-oh wisps. Plural is Will o’ Wisps.
ONE
June 13th, 2010
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
—William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
A Local Habitation
Seanan McGuire's books
- Blue Dahlia
- A Man for Amanda
- Best Laid Plans
- Black Rose
- Carnal Innocence
- Dance Upon the Air
- Face the Fire
- Lawless
- Sacred Sins
- Vampire Games(Vampire Destiny Book 6)
- Moon Island(Vampire Destiny Book 7)
- Illusion(The Vampire Destiny Book 2)
- Fated(The Vampire Destiny Book 1)
- Upon A Midnight Clear
- The way Home
- Sarah's child(Spencer-Nyle Co. series #1)
- Overload
- Heartbreaker(Rescues (Kell Sabin) series #3)
- Midnight rainbow(Rescues (Kell Sabin) series #1)
- A game of chance(MacKenzie Family Saga series #5)
- MacKenzie's magic(MacKenzie Family Saga series #4)
- MacKenzie's mission(MacKenzie Family Saga #2)
- Death Angel
- Loving Evangeline(Patterson-Cannon Family series #1)
- A Billionaire's Redemption
- A Beautiful Forever
- A Bad Boy is Good to Find
- A Calculated Seduction
- A Changing Land
- A Christmas Night to Remember
- A Clandestine Corporate Affair
- A Convenient Proposal
- A Cowboy in Manhattan
- A Cowgirl's Secret
- A Daddy for Jacoby
- A Daring Liaison
- A Dash of Scandal
- A Different Kind of Forever
- A Facade to Shatter
- A Family of Their Own
- A Father's Name
- A Forever Christmas
- A Dishonorable Knight
- A Gentleman Never Tells
- A Greek Escape
- A Headstrong Woman
- A Hunger for the Forbidden
- A Knight in Central Park
- A Knight of Passion
- A Lady Under Siege
- A Legacy of Secrets
- A Life More Complete
- A Lily Among Thorns
- A Masquerade in the Moonlight
- At Last (The Idle Point, Maine Stories)
- A Little Bit Sinful
- An Inheritance of Shame
- A Shadow of Guilt
- After Hours (InterMix)
- A Whisper of Disgrace
- All the Right Moves
- A Summer to Remember
- A Wedding In Springtime
- Affairs of State
- A Midsummer Night's Demon
- A Passion for Pleasure
- A Touch of Notoriety
- A Profiler's Case for Seduction
- A Very Exclusive Engagement
- After the Fall
- And the Miss Ran Away With the Rake
- And Then She Fell
- Anything but Vanilla
- Anything for Her
- Anything You Can Do
- Assumed Identity
- Atonement
- Awakening Book One of the Trust Series
- A Moment on the Lips
- A Most Dangerous Profession
- A Mother's Homecoming
- A Rancher's Pride
- A Royal Wedding
- A Secret Birthright
- A Stranger at Castonbury
- A Study In Seduction
- A Taste of Desire
- A Town Called Valentine
- A Vampire for Christmas
- All They Need
- An Act of Persuasion
- An Unsinkable Love
- Angel's Rest
- Aschenpummel (German Edition)
- Baby for the Billionaire
- Back Where She Belongs
- Bad Mouth
- Barefoot in the Sun (Barefoot Bay)
- Be Good A New Adult Romance (RE12)
- Beauty and the Blacksmith