In addition, I need to thank some of my professors at Whitworth University. There were many, and all of great influence, but these, I think, contributed the most, in various ways, to the thinking that would become this book. Dr. Anthony Clark, my academic mentor whose guiding hand on my education in history is the deepest root of Wen Alder’s story. Dr. Corliss Slack, for making it clear to me that I was, indeed, a pretty good writer–at least when I put the effort in (I’m sorry, again, for that one essay, if you still remember it). Dr. Dale Soden, always full of friendship and encouragement and always willing to grab beer and pizza and talk about life, or music, or whatever was on our minds. Dr. Keith Wyma and Dr. Mike Ingram for a great deal but particularly the conversations in the Ethics Bowl team van. And Dr. Forrest Baird, for reading one of my short stories and then telling me just before a lecture (on Heraclitus, I think?) that I might actually have a future in this whole fiction writing thing.
Of course after the novel was written the train of influences did not end. The beta readers for this book—Jon Ficke, Erin Cairns, Dan Bocook, and Don Allmon—offered different perspectives and insightful feedback that helped mold it from its earliest pupal stage. Ben Cartwright also deserves a mention for putting me in contact with Don and for presiding over Spokane’s Despot Fantastika book club, where I’ve been pushed to read some truly strange and wonderful novels which have broadened my understanding of my chosen genres and made me a stronger writer (if you haven’t read DATURA by Leena Krohn, track it down).
There were other writing groups and givers of feedback along the way, all of whom have helped make me the writer I am, among them the authors of the Taipei Writers Group, as well as my post-Worldcon Spokane Writing Group, the Summer Fantasy Workshop crew, and, of course, my Writers of the Future instructors and the community of fellow travelers born out of that long, exhilarating, surreal week. I also want to offer special thanks to Scott H. Andrews of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, the first editor to pluck me out of a slush pile, send me an edit letter, and pay me at least $0.06 a word for my trouble when the story was finally ready.
I would be remiss, of course, not to thank Joshua Bilmes, my agent, for taking a second look at the first fifty pages of this book, sitting down with me at the 2018 San Jose Worldcon, and walking me through everything wrong with what I was doing (and even a few of the things I was doing right!), before telling me to send the book back to him once I’d fixed it. If not for his willingness to work with me for over a year on draft after draft, this novel would not have reached your hands. Deserving of mention also are Stevie Finnegan, who found the perfect home for this book, and Brendan Durkin, my editor, whose incisive letter helped polish The Hand of the Sun King into the best version of itself.
Finally, I want to thank my wife Hannah, a brilliant artist in her own right who patiently (and sometimes enthusiastically!) listens while I ramble about wild world-building notions; while I pare every movie we watch down to the narrative bones in search of useful lessons; while I pace the apartment muttering to myself about a sticky plot twist or a character arc that just won’t bend right, and who loves me not in spite of these things but, at least in part, because of them. I love you, too.
About the Author
J.T. Greathouse has been writing fantasy and science fiction since he was eleven years old. He holds a BA in history and philosophy with a minor in Asian studies as well as a Master's in Teaching from Whitworth University, and spent four months of intensive study in Chinese language and culture at Minzu University of China in Beijing. His short fiction has appeared, often as Jeremy A. TeGrotenhuis, in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Writers of the Future 34, Deep Magic, Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, and elsewhere. In addition to writing, he has worked as an ESL teacher in Taipei, as a bookseller at Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane, and as a high school teacher. He currently lives in Spokane, Washington with his wife Hannah and several overflowing bookshelves.
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