Red Phoenix

AUTHOR’S NOTE

They say collaboration is the hardest form of writing. Trying to get two people to agree on everything for the year it takes to produce a manuscript should be next to impossible. Happily, it is not only possible, but fun.

Patrick Larkin and I wrote this book together, working side by side over the phone and by computer — all despite being physically separated by 2,500 miles. He not only produced his share of the story but offered counsel and advice in my portions as well.

Together, Pat and I pulled this book forward from the faint glimmerings of a rough idea and a possible plot, and I cannot conceive of tackling this work without him. It is his book as much as mine, and he deserves at least as much credit.

Korean cosmology assigns a separate season and divinity to each of the four cardinal points of the compass:

The East is associated with Spring and the Azure Dragon,

The North with Winter and the Divine Warriors,

The West with Autumn and the White Tiger,

And the South with Summer and the Red Phoenix.