Into The Ruins (78 page)

This book is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

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2014 by Robert Blink

All rights reserved.  Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

Proof Release:                                          January 2014

First Release:
                                          February 2014

Dedication

This book is for my wife, Evelina Blink.

Other books by the Author:

Timelines

The Second Compound

Wizard's Blood [Part One]

Wizard's Blood [Part Two]

Reversal

Split Creek

EndRun

Corrector

Ancient Magic

Dirty Money

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

When it became clear that
Ancient Magic
was going to expand into more than a single volume, my long time good friend Robert Fahey entered the picture with frequent phone calls and emails as we tossed around possibilities for where the plot might go.  RF suggested literally dozens of clever ideas, a great many of which made their way into this volume, or are lurking in the background waiting for the concluding volume.  As the chapters were written, he read the developing story, suggesting additional possibilities, as well as noting any slip-ups in execution. 

As usual, Bill Maggiora was
also extremely active during the early writing phase, pulling the chapters as fast as they were written, providing his usual check of conflicts and correctness.  Among other inputs, his concerns led to arming our friends Kaler and Daria with something that gave them some range in addition to their superlative close combat weapons skills.  Bill has provided extensive input to every book I have written, and is the only contributor who has done so.

Connie Goshgarian performed her usual sanity checks as part of her review, skillfully pointing out inconsistencies and just plain goofs, often questioning why characters didn't take the more obvious and direct action.  I have tired to correct such oversights and mental lapses.

Other readers and checkers of both plot and mechanics included Doug Burr, Jean Wilson, Evelina Blink, Monika Gutridge, Jim Spiva, Dianna Hunter, and newcomer to the group, John Hickory.  All of these people fought valiantly to keep my typos and other mistakes to a minimum.  I outfoxed them by sometimes adding text after the final checking had been completed, thereby slipping in the random error here and there.

Thanks to all for you
r time and effort.