Star's End
Page 47
Esme took a deep breath. She didn’t quite allow herself to feel happy. But the sunlight seemed to cut right through her, revealing all her truths. No more secrets. No more shadows.
Everything was new again.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
On the first day of January in 2013, I wrote the first five hundred words of Star’s End—then called Four Sisters—as part of a New Year’s resolution to up my daily word count. Now, four years later, the manuscript has gone through countless revisions and been made all the better for it. Two people in particular guided me through the grueling editorial process, and they deserve my utmost gratitude. This book would not be the book it is without them. So to my agent, Stacia Decker, and my editor, Navah Wolfe: thank you, thank you, thank you!
Special thanks also goes out to the members of my (still nameless) critique group for reading through the earliest draft of this book: David Young, Chrissa Sandlin, Kevin O’Neill, and Chun Lee. Thanks, guys.
And as always, thank you to the friends and family who have supported me in my writing career: Elizabeth White-Olsen, Layla Al-Bedawi, Holly Walrath, and the rest of the Writespace crew; Amanda Cole; Alexandre Maki; Bobby Mathews; Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam; Ross Andrews; and, of course, my parents. Thank you all!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© Brittany Lincoln
CASSANDRA ROSE CLARKE is the author of Our Lady of the Ice and Magic of Blood and Sea. She grew up in south Texas and currently lives in a suburb of Houston, where she writes and teaches composition at a local college. She graduated in 2006 from the University of St. Thomas with a BA in English, and two years later she completed her master’s degree in creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2010 she attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle, where she was a recipient of the Susan C. Petrey Clarion Scholarship Fund. Cassandra’s first adult novel, The Mad Scientist’s Daughter, was a finalist for the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award, and her YA novel The Assassin’s Curse was nominated for YALSA’s 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults. Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons and Daily Science Fiction. Visit her at cassandraroseclarke.com.
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Also by Cassandra Rose Clarke
Our Lady of the Ice
The Mad Scientist’s Daughter
Magic of Blood and Sea
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. * Text copyright © 2017 by Cassandra Rose Clarke * Jacket illustration copyright © 2017 by Darren Hopes * All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Saga Press Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 * www.SimonandSchuster.com * SAGA PRESS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. * For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com. * The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. * Interior design by Greg Stadnyk * The text for this book was set in Sabon. * Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data * Names: Clarke, Cassandra Rose, 1983– author. * Title: Star’s end / Cassandra Rose Clarke. * Description: First edition. | New York : Saga Press, [2017] * Identifiers: LCCN 2016041030 | ISBN 9781481444293 (hardback) | ISBN 9781481444316 (eBook) * Subjects: LCSH: Science fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Science Fiction / General. | FICTION / Science Fiction / Adventure. | FICTION / Science Fiction / Space Opera. * Classification: LCC PS3603.L372 S73 2017 | DDC 813/.6—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016041030