Aerie (26 page)
Authors: Maria Dahvana Headley
As ever,
Aerie
and her sister,
Magonia,
were inspired by historical glory and lore about the world above us, and in this case, by lots of new and wonderful science about climate and creatures. The story about the bats being unsuccessfully deployed as bombs is true, and there are plenty of other elements in the book that are like that oneâpeculiar, unlikely, grabbed from our world. Gratitude to all the explorers who've written in-depth pieces on the wonders, and on the horrors. Exploration is necessary. There are so many things about the way earth works that can and should be changed into something better.
My gratitude to my true-believer, nothing-startles-her-at-this-point agent, Stephanie Cabot, as well as to Ellen Goodson and Will Roberts and everyone else at the Gernert Company.
At HarperCollins, my editor, Kristen Pettit, who lets me be as weird as I want to be, and who always insists on deep love and strange glories. How lucky I am to have worked with her on two books now! Elizabeth Lynch, assistant editor, who keeps my ship sailing, and the entire divine Harper crew: Kate Morgan Jackson, Suzanne Murphy, Jen Klonsky, Alexei Esikoff,
Veronica Ambrose, Alison Klapthor, Lillian Sun, Elizabeth Ward, and Gina Rizzo, and to Craig Shields for the once-again-stunning cover art. Also, thank you to the Epic Reads team of fantastic readers, book pushers, and brains!
On the wine-pouring, complaint-hearing, oyster-buying, soul-feeding fronts, gigantic thanks are due to Marina Merli at Arte Studio Ginestrelle in Assisi, where I did the final draft of
Aerie
, John Joseph Adams, Sarah Alden, Libba Bray, Martha Brockenbrough, Belinda Casas, Haddayr Copley-Woods, Ellen Datlow, Rupa Dasgupta, Nathan Dunbar, Kelley Eskridge & Nicola Griffith, Larisa Fuchs, Neil Gaiman, Barry Goldblatt, Liz Gorinsky, Theodora Goss, Liz Hand, Mark Headley & Meghan Koch, Adriane Headley, Molly Headley, Nancy Hightower, Roger & Deborah Hodge, Kat Howard, Lance Horne, Genevieve Leloup, Ben Loory, Chuck Martinez, Sarah McCarry, Francesca Myman, Patrick Farrell, Billy Schultz, Sxip Shirey, Tracey Solomon, Caitlin Strokosch, Michael Damian Thomas, and Lynne Thomas & Christie Yant. Once again, my family of friends: Zay Amsbury, Jess Benko & Kate Czajkowski, who were next to me with every page. Thank-yous to Sarah Schenkkan and Joshua Schenkkan, as always, as ever, because hello, what ridiculous joy to have them in my life. And last, again, China Miéville. I thank him for the shrills of late-night mandrakes, for the Flock, and for the co-spine-plotting. There's a particular joy in sharing an imaginary world with another inventor, and I wouldn't have written these books without him.
Thank you, finally, to every single bookseller, librarian, reader, parent, kid, and wanderer who read
Magonia
and wanted more. You kept me writing and kept me inventing. I am inspired because of the things you said to me, everything from
bonding with Aza to hating Dai, everything from crying over death in your own lives to living bigger in your futures.
I would be very much less without you in my life.
Thank you for flying with me.
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Photo by Bob Carey
MARIA DAHVANA HEADLEY
is a
New York Times
bestselling novelist, memoirist, and editor, most recently of
Magonia, Queen of Kings
, and the anthology
Unnatural Creatures
(coeditor with Neil Gaiman). Her short fiction has been nominated for the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards. She lives in Brooklyn in an apartment with a seven-foot stuffed crocodile and constellations on the ceiling. You can find her at
www.mariadahvanaheadley.com
.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
hc.com
.
AERIE
. Copyright © 2016 by Maria Dahvana Headley. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016942319
ISBN 978-0-06-232055-1
EPub Edition © September 2016 ISBN 9780062320575
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FIRST EDITION
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