An Accident of Stars (45 page)

T
hanks
first and foremost to Kate Elliott and Trudi Canavan, both of whom went above and beyond in helping this book see daylight, and to my other beta readers; also Katharine Kerr, Ryan Scott Kennedy, Margie Lau, Corinne Duyvis, Laura Lam and Ship Everman, who took the time to read my drafts, whether in excerpts or their entirety, and provide valuable feedback. Thanks also to Professor Heidi Mirza, who was kind enough to help me with my research into Gwen's background, and to my godmother, Pam Zemanek, for her knowledge of DOCS protocol. Any remaining errors and/or fail are entirely my own fault.

Especial thanks to my agent, Jennie Goloboy, who had faith in Saffron from the very first, and to my parents, grandmother and parents-in-law, who have always been unstinting in their encouragement of my writing, no matter how weird it makes me. Further thanks to my fellow nerds in the ECKC, who took that weirdness, ran with it, and hauled me into a glorious world of life-affirming trash. You know who you are, and I wouldn't be here without you.

And last but by no means least: thanks to my wonderful husband, Toby, and to our son, Silas, who entered the world in the course of my writing this book, and who is now tall enough to stand at the edge of my desk and try to steal the computer mouse, because clearly such a shiny thing with a clicky bit should be his. I love you both.

F
oz Meadows is a genderqueer author
, blogger, essayist, reviewer and poet. In 2014, she was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer for her blog,
Shattersnipe
. She is also a contributing writer for the
Huffington Post
and
Black Gate
, and a contributing reviewer for
Strange Horizons
and
Tor.com
.

A
NGRY ROBOT

An imprint of Watkins Media Ltd

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ace Market House
,

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Nottingham,

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UK

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ngryrobotbooks.com

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Out of these worlds

A
n Angry Robot
paperback original 2016

C
opyright © Foz Meadows 2016

F
or Meadows asserts
the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A
catalogue record
for this book is available from the British Library.

U
K ISBN 978
0 85766 584 3

US ISBN 978 0 85766 585 0

EBook ISBN 978 0 85766 586 7

M
aps by Stephanie McAlea
.

Set by Epub Services.

A
ll rights reserved
. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

T
his book is sold
subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

T
his novel is entirely
a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.