Age of Swords (The Legends of the First Empire #2)

Both Tricia and Joshua read and provided excellent feedback for Age of Swords, but they were not the only ones who contributed to the final product. I want to also thank the best beta reader team an author could hope to have. These people work without compensation, under a tight deadline, and always provide great insight. While not all the beta readers wanted to be acknowledged publicly, my appreciation goes out to every one of them. My deepest thanks to Robert S. Aldrich, Michael Jay Brunt, Kyle Campbell, Jeffrey Carr, Greg Clinton, Paul Dunlap, Louise Faering, Daniel E. Foley, Cathy Fox, Christopher Haught, Sarah and Nathaniel Kidd, Amy Lesniak-Briggs, Joseph C. Martin III, Richard Martin, T. Anders Mikkelsen, Elizabeth Ocskay, Beth Rosser, and Melanie Sanderson.

No one but myself will ever know the full extent of the contributions made by my wife, Robin. Her passion, her dedication, and the incredibly long hours she has put into this (and all my books) have had more of an impact than the combined efforts of all the people I’ve written about above. Given the massive contributions of those people, that’s saying a great deal. I’m certain that her hours on each book far exceed my own. Again, you can learn more about what she does in The Making of Age of Swords. For those who don’t pick up their free copy, here are just some of Robin’s responsibilities: alpha reader, structural editor, line editor, beta test administrator, project manager, business manager, marketing guru, and liaison to my agents, editors, publicists, and various sales and marketing people. The copyediting, which she managed, on this book was especially challenging due to some scheduling issues. In a perfect world, we would have Linda and Laura do their work serially. In other words, Linda would make her changes first, then Laura would add her revisions to Linda’s. To meet the schedule, they had to do their work in parallel, which meant Robin had to collate their changes and deal with my additions from the final read. This was a monumental and time-consuming task and significantly improved the quality of the book.

Before I go, I would once again thank you, my readers, for your enthusiastic support of my work. In a time rampant with piracy and a mindset of “all art should be free,” it’s encouraging to see people willing to pay for books. Your money provides salaries for the people I mentioned above, and gives me the luxury of living a life I love. I’ve always said that I write the books I want to read, which is very true. But I also feel a responsibility to you (just as I do to my publishers). I’ll always strive to provide you with the best book I can produce, and forever be grateful for your support.