Hunted

Acknowledgments

In case you might be interested, I’ve included a couple of goodies on my website (www.kevinhearne.com) that couldn’t appear in the book. The first is a Google map of the run across Europe. The second is a much longer retelling of The Wooing of Étaín by Atticus. Links to both can be found on the appropriately titled Goodies page.

Special thanks to Colin Wagenmann in Germany for his insights regarding German geography and for expressing existential quantification in Deutsch. I’m also grateful to Michelle Drew and William Cathcart in the UK for info regarding Windsor Park and Frogmore House, and to Heather Blatt at Florida International University for her invaluable help with Middle English. Dr. D. Forrest Taylor coached me a bit on toxins and their effects. Any inaccuracies are of course my fault and not theirs.

To belay speculation, the similarity betwixt my surname and Herne the Hunter’s is entirely coincidental—unless it isn’t. I know my ancestor arrived in “the Colonies” in the sixteenth century from London and could conceivably be related to an historical Herne (if he existed), but I lay no claim to that and frankly think it far-fetched. I simply found Herne a fascinating and irresistible figure because he illustrates the principle that stories (and perhaps gods) can take on a life of their own.

I cannot say enough good things about my alpha reader, Alan O’Bryan, my agent, Evan Goldfried, and my editors at Del Rey, Tricia Narwani and Mike Braff. Words simply fail, so we tend to drink a lot and sing the praises of a literate populace. Seriously. We’re not bad singers. And we have sung songs about you. Someday we will form our own heavy metal band called Thë Grätüïtöüs Ümläüts and sing of death and linguistics. Our first single will be “(Die)acriticäl Märks.”

Many thanks to you for reading and for spreading word of the series to your friends. It’s the only reason I get to write more.

Last but certainly not least, I’m grateful to my family for their love and support.