The Master
Page 29
And the three feys sat and contemplated the magic yet to come.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Dear Reader,
It’s a bit unusual to urge readers away from a book, but I am doing it. I’m making an earnest plea right up front. If you haven’t read the other four books in the Wildside series, please go back and do so before you read this one. The experience will be much more fulfilling, believe me. At the very least, read Still Life. I don’t want you lost in the strange lands of goblins without an understanding of the terrain you wander through. In order, the stories are Traveler, Outsiders, The Courier, and Still Life.
That said, though this book travels deep in the goblin lands, it is also about something familiar to most of you: Christmas. The Yule season was always an important and beloved holiday in our family. It was my grandfather’s firm belief—expressed often over an acre of warm Christmas cookies and homemade apricot wine—that if you are too old to enjoy the holidays, then you are probably too old to enjoy any of the things that make life worthwhile. And the rest of us enthusiastically agree. I throw kisses at his shade and think of him every year when I bake sugar cookies, dye Easter eggs, or carve jack-o-lanterns.
Given this background, it took some imagination stretching to envision someone who didn’t like the holiday, and others who had never had the pleasure of celebrating Yule when they were young enough to truly feel the magic. But with my own grandfather’s Christmas spirit to direct me, leading the misguided Nick and the innocent Finvarras to festive salvation was a pleasure.
Qasim was a harder case, but I like to think of him being redeemed too. Salvation has to be possible for all of us— and he wasn’t so much evil as a creation gone wrong. And like Qasim, I also grieve for Wren and hate what the goblins did to her. However, like her namesakes in Wales and Ireland that are sacrificed so cruelly on St. Stephen’s Day, she too played a part in Fate’s plan.
On a lighter note, the packrat/imp story is true. Just ask Carolyn Johnson, who got to pay for a tow and to replace her car’s wiring after a visit to Arizona when the rodents made a mess of her engine.
Also, Nick’s lethal eggnog is not a fantasy and actually came from a horror writer friend, H. R. Knight. If you are feeling intrepid, below is Harry’s recipe for one of life’s real ambrosias.
Harry’s Nog (aka, Nick’s salmonella special)
Ingredients:
12 eggs
1 pound sugar
1 pint Chivas Regal
1 pint Stag’s Breath (scotch and heather-honey liqueur)
3 pints milk
1 pint cream
Directions:
Separate yolks and whites. Beat yolks to a froth. Add sugar, beating lightly, then liquor. Let stand an hour or more. (Overnight is best.) Add milk, cream. Beat whites with 1⁄4 teaspoon salt for each 4 whites. Fold whites into egg mixture. (Cut and dip only—the smallest amount of beating at this point can ruin the nog.) Drink sparingly and while wearing a Santa hat.
As always, I love to hear from you. Below are email and snail mail addresses, so don’t be shy.
Happy holidays the whole year through,
Melanie Jackson
www.melaniejackson.com
melaniejaxn@hotmail.com
P.O. Box 574
Sonora, CA 95370-0574
RESOURCE LIST:
The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook (holidays) by Piver & Borgenicht
Just Say Noel by David Comfort
Inventing Christmas by Jock Elliott
Anatomy and Physiology (Cliff’s Quick Review)
The Honest Courtesan by Margaret Rosenthal
Webster’s Compact Dictionary of Quotations