All the typos that aren’t there are the result of the Inconsecutive Peter Ahlstrom hunting them down for their meat to sell on the open market. As always, many thanks to him for his tireless efforts and for cheering me on.
Likewise, the rest of the team here at Dragonsteel have been an excellent “ground crew” for my piloting shenanigans. Kara Stewart handles shipping out all those T-shirts and books you guys order from my website store. Adam Horne is my executive assistant and publicist. And, of course, my wife, Emily, is the one who keeps us all pointed in the right direction. In addition, Emily Grange and Kathleen Dorsey Sanderson need a hearty thanks for their general help on all kinds of sundry things. （Which includes listening to my five-year-old explain in detail how he likes his sandwiches. Mayo on the outside, if you’re wondering.）
Karen Ahlstrom （who got the special dedication for this book） is my continuity editor. You all have no idea the mess some of these books are before she gets ahold of them and forces me to acknowledge people can’t be in two places at once. Other help was provided at Penguin Random House/Delacorte Press by Monica Jean, Mary McCue, Lisa Nadel, Adrienne Waintraub, and Rebecca Gudelis. The copyeditor was Barbara Perris, and the proofreader was Shona McCarthy.
My writing group and flightmates for the book were the usual suspects: Karen Ahlstrom, Peter Ahlstrom, Alan Layton, Kaylynn ZoBell, Emily Sanderson, Darci Stone, Eric James Stone, Ben Olsen, Ethan Skarstedt, and Earl Cahill.
Beta readers included Nikki Ramsay （callsign: Phosphophyllite）， Marnie Peterson, Eric Lake （callsign: Chaos） Darci Cole （callsign: Blue）， Ravi Persaud （callsign: Jabber）， Deana Covel Whitney （callsign: Braid）， Jayden King （callsign: Tripod）， Alice Arneson （callsign: Wetlander）， Bradyn Ray, Sumejja Muratagic-Tadic （callsign: Sigma）， Janel Forcier （callsign: Turnip）， Paige Phillips （callsign: Artisan）， Joe Deardeuff （callsign: Traveler）， and Brian T. Hill （callsign: El Guapo）。
And, calling out two of those in specific, Jayden King and Bradyn Ray lent me their fighter pilot expertise, explaining （sometimes at length） the stupid things I was getting wrong about flight. Eric Lake was also a big help with calculating speeds, distances, and the coordinate system. （Make friends with physicists and mathematicians, writers. It pays off.）
We did a special teen beta read for this book, and those members were: Liliana Klein （callsign: Sentinel）， Nathan Scorup, Hannah Herman, Joshua Singer, Eve Scorup （callsign: Silverstone）， Valencia Kumley （callsign: AlphaPhoenix）， Daniel Summerstay, Chrestian Scorup, Rebecca Arneson （callsign: Scarlet）， Cole Newberry, Brett Herman （callsign: Hermanator）， Aidan Denzel （callsign: Cross）， Evan Garcia, Kathryn Stephens, and William Stay.
Our gamma proofreaders included many of the betas plus Trae Cooper, Mark Lindberg （callsign: Megalodon）， Brandon Cole （callsign: Colevander）， Ian McNatt （callsign: Weiry）， Kellyn Neumann （callsign: Jumper）， Gary Singer, Becca Reppert, Kalyani Poluri （callsign: Henna）， Paige Vest, Jory Phillips （callsign: Bouncer）， Ted Herman （callsign: Cavalry）， Bob Kluttz （callsign: Tasil）， Bao Pham （callsign: Wyld）， Lyndsey Luther （callsign: Soar）， David Behrens, Lingting “Botanica” Xu （callsign: Hasan）， Tim Challener （callsign: Antaeus）， William “Aberdasher” Juan, Rahul Pantula （callsign: Giraffe）， Megan Kanne （callsign: Sparrow）， and Ross Newberry.
Many thanks to all of them. Though there are, as always, some new names on that list, many of these people have been supporting my writing for years—or even decades at this point. So if you need a good wingmate, I can point you toward a few.