THE NESSANTICO CYCLE: A MAGIC OF TWILIGHT

HOLDER OF LIGHTNING (#1) 

MAGE OF CLOUDS (#2) 

HEIR OF STONE (#3)

DAW Books Collectors No. 1430

DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Book designed by Elizabeth M. Glover

All characters and events in this book are fictitious.

Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

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I read several books for inspiration and reference in writing this book (and I read them for pleasure as well, since I enjoy reading historical texts; it's a character flaw, I know . . .). Since this is a work set entirely in a fictional, imagined world, it doesn't particularly reflect any one period or place in our own history but I have instead borrowed freely from several. For those interested in those historical texts that sparked my own imagination, some of them old and some relatively new, I'd like to list them here, in the order in which I read them:

A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888/1889 by Frederic Morton. 

Little, Brown, 1979

The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall by Christopher Hibbert.

Perennial / Harper Collins, 2003

Athénaïs: The Life of Louis XIV's Mistress, the Real Queen of France by Lisa Hilton. 

Back Bay Books / Little, Brown & Company, 2002

King by Her Royal Highness, Princess Michael of Kent. Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2004

Seven Ages of Paris by Alistair Horne. 

Vintage Books (Random House), 2004

The Seashell on the Mountaintop by Alan Cutler. 

Plume (Penguin), 2003

Love & Death In Renaissance Italy by Thomas V. Cohen. 

University of Chicago Press, 2004

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. 

Houghton Mifflin, 2006

A trip to France also served as inspiration for much of this book. In particular, the Loire Valley region, with its chateaux and lovely countryside, sparked several ideas, as did our days in Paris. I would like to recommend that anyone going to France see the Loire Valley and spend time exploring not only the chateaux, but the small villages in the surrounding countryside such as Azay le Rideau or Villaines les-Rochers. Nessantico is not specifically France, but many details are drawn from our experiences there. Hopefully they have enriched the book.

Many thanks, as always, to my agent Merrilee Heifetz of Writers House, who has been my partner-in-writing for many years now—without her, none of this would have been possible.

I also want to express my gratitude to Sheila Gilbert, editor extraordinaire, who has nurtured my books and never allowed me to make them any less than the best I can manage. For each of my books that Sheila has edited, her input has produced an "Aha!" moment (or two or three) that has made the novel richer. This book is no different. Thanks, Sheila!

My appreciation to Justin Scott, who proofed the final manuscript and gave me several pages of corrections. Thanks!