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Acknowledgments
My gratitude and thanks to:
Denise Parsley Leigh, my incredible spouse, who read the proposal (both versions) and critiqued it, and on whom (as usual) I also inflicted the first draft of the novel for her thoughts.
Sheila Gilbert, my editor and also a good friend for two decades now, for liking my eventual proposal and shepherding the book through its various changes and revisions with her usual patience and insightful comments. Thanks, Sheila—as always, this would be a lesser book without your input!
My ENG 358 (Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy) class at Northern Kentucky University of the Spring 2018 semester, who—as a practical exercise in the process of worldbuilding as well as marketing—read two very different forms of the proposal (one draft a fantasy/alternate history tale, the other the science fictional one which became what I actually proposed to Sheila). At my request, the students gave me their unfiltered comments and critiques on both. Thanks! All of you made this a better book—and hey, the proposal sold! So thanks to all of you: Elizabeth Bennett, Blues Bullen, Kayleigh Cropper, Jeremy Daugherty, Samantha Davis, Nat Donnermeyer, Buddy Gilchrist, Emma Haller, Kyle Howard, Leonard Ivey, Hannah Keller, Stephanie Knoll, Bailey Lagemann, Mackenzie Manley, Renee McCann, Shelby Schmidt, Claire Snyder, Alvena Stanfield, Kelsey Stratton, Danielle Turner, and Daniel Wilson.
My gratitude to my astronomical reference: Dr. Nathan De Lee of Northern Kentucky University’s Astronomy Lab, who helped me with some of the initial worldbuilding of Canis Lupus. Any mistakes in the science are mine, not his—in fact, he suggested that Wolf 1061C might not be the best choice for a habitable planet, but I persisted anyway. It’ll be interesting to see what NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) might have to say about the Wolf 1061 system over the next several years, and whether Wolf 1061c turns out to be anything like my fictional Canis Lupus—Dr. De Lee is part of the group working to choose the stars on which the TESS satellite will obtain data.
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Books read as research for this novel:
An Old Woman’s Reflections: The Life of a Blasket Island Storyteller by Peig Sayers. Oxford University Press, 1962 (2000 reissue).
Peig: The Autobiography of Peig Sayers of the Great Blasket Island by Peig Sayers, Syracuse University Press, May 1991.
The Islandman (An tOileánach) by Tomás O’Crohan (Tomás Ó Criomhthain), Oxford University Press, 1929 and 1951. Reissued in 2000.
Twenty Years A-Growing (Fiche Blian ag Fás) by Maurice O’Sullivan (Muiris Ó Súilleabháin), original publication, 1933. J.S. Sanders Books, 1998.
The Last Blasket King: Padraig O Cathain, An Ri by Gerald Hayes with Eliza Kane. The Collins Press, 2015.
Healing Plants of the Celtic Druids by Angela Paine, Moon Books, 2018.
Collected Poems: William Butler Yeats, Introduction by Dr. Robert Mighall. Macmillan Collector’s Library; New Edition (July 19, 2016).
And, of course, quite a bit of Internet browsing for research and information, especially in the astronomical and biological arenas.
About the Author
Stephen Leigh is an award-winning author with nineteen science fiction novels and over forty short stories published. He has been a frequent contributor to the Hugo-nominated shared world series Wild Cards, edited by George R. R. Martin. He teaches creative writing at Northern Kentucky University. Stephen Leigh has written Immortal Muse, The Crow of Connemara, the Sunpath duology, and the fantasy trilogy Assassin's Dawn.
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Amid the Crowd of Stars Page 35
