The Night of Fire: A Short Story
Before he was Recon…
Before he was an officer…
Magnus was a grunt in the Caledonian Wars, and his unit was pinned down by ’kudas.
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Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Matt Flint for bringing my characters to life. Thank you for taking the leap with me. Also thanks to the brilliant Sarah Carleton for her editing; Kim Husband for proofreading; Lynn McNamee and everyone at RAE. To my larger-than-life friend, benefactor, and advocate, Douglas Gresham. Generations of Grooblies will know of your care. To James and Sarah Cammilleri for their encouragement to dream big and their faithful support of our family and this endeavor. Thanks to David Seaman for his years of friendship and generosity toward this project; Kirk Gilchrist for challenging me to soar even higher; and to Mike “Ezo” Kim for telling me to pursue this before I turned forty. I did it, buddy.
Special thanks to Jason Anspach and Nick Cole for showing me the way forward during a dark season. You have inspired me to reimagine my life and embrace the hard work of preparation. And thanks to JN Chaney, Chris Fox, JR Handley, Jay Allan, Rhett C. Bruno, Steve Beaulieu, Kevin G. Summers, Chris Kennedy, Scott Moon, and Josh Hayes for making room for me as I entered the field of battle.
My primary military consultants, Pat Mooney, Walt Robillard, and Dominique Sumner: your valor inspires me. My primary sci-fi consultant, Mauricio Longo: your astounding breadth of knowledge is exceeded only by your kindness. And Matthew Titus: thanks for going to such great lengths to care for these characters.
This book was written with the insightful feedback of the Recon Alpha Team readers (RATs). Each of them helped shape the characters and the plot and kept me from wrecking the story on more than one treacherous shoal. I am grateful to all of them. Very special thanks to the fine work of Matthew Sampson, Kevin Zoll, Myrna Pace, Kathy and Roger Saladin-Smith, Jon Bliss, Nathan Jaffrey, Caleb Baker, Joseph Wessner, Chris Mooney, Shane Marolf, Brian Moore, Josh Jensen, and Nathan Reimer. You’ll never know how grateful I am for your encouragement and inspiration.
The RATs include: Shane Marolf, Josh Jensen, Sam Smith, Nathan Reimer, Kevin Zoll, Jonathan Morasse, Tom Graban, David Woodkirk, Christina Chen, Jeremy Cutler, Caleb Baker, Brian Moore, J-M Sandquist, Matthew Sampson, Lana Romanov, Dirk Taylor, Christopher Shaw, Richard Adams, Pieter Lugt, Sean Buckles, Dave Buckles, Elizabeth Bettger, Joseph Wessner, Matt DuMont, Jim Clark, Holli Manzo, Benjamin Daley, Tyler Davis, Meagan Schober, Matthew Dippel, Sarah Abshire, David Seaman, Nathan Jaffrey, Joshua Czyz, Myrna Pace, Rafael Kovacs, Dale Jones, Marc Appel, Aaron Seaman, Elyssa Krivicich, Christopher Perry, Volker Bochen, Shawn Shepard, Derek Jackson, Edward Andocs, Robert Gettler, John Cartin, Stu Perry, Ruben Jauregui, Tom McCullough, Aaron Koreny, Deborah Miller, Justin Ford, Jonathan Bliss, Joseph Gerbino, Vernetta Shipley, Alissa Hiramine, Paul Almond, Kevin Paul Murphy, Maggie Sullivan-Miller, William Kenney, Adam Proulx, Oliver Longchamps, Mike “Ezo” Kim, Nanette Rivera, Scott Storer, Jack Reeves, Jeff Pitcher, Tim Phipps, Daniel Kimm, Eric Pastorek, Matthew Titus, William Ingram, Geoff Brisco, Byl Kravetz, Joe Smith, Mauricio Longo, David Gilbane, Gerhard Kraider, Adam Hazen, Michael Bergmann, Alexzandyr Biernat, Ken Moser, Greg Cueto, John Clark, Jason McMarrow, Rodney Bonner, Jake Marzano, Ben Espen, James Connolly, Chris Mooney, Walt Robillard, Andrew Wang, Randall Beem, Pat Mooney, Billy Jepma, Tabitha Rodgers, Brian Lieberman, Damon Suiter, Anthony “Haney” Hayner, Jaymin Sullivan, Steve Forrester, Josh Ostrander, Allison Christiansen, and Danny Gatlin.
The Eve of War Page 31
