Veneratio et gratia to all who helped me along the way. There are literally too many to list.
I would be remiss, though, if I didn’t thank my beta readers—especially Heather Harris-Bergevin and her inimitable daughter Evva Bergevin, both fierce women; and Andrew Stratford, who read and encouraged me, from the depths of Quarantine and the Defense of his Master’s thesis. I would also like to acknowledge a few topic specialists, who helped me breathe more of the real world into my writing than ever I could alone: Ardis E. Parshall, patron saint of Mormon Studies scholars; Jani Radebaugh, professor and evangelist of Geology, at Brigham Young University; and James Brinton, audiologist and a quiet man of profound depth.
I would also like to thank all the authors who inspired me…
First and foremost, JK Rowling—whose characters, species, and magical framework were a starting point for this story. Also Mette Harrison, whose reimagining of vampires in her Vampires in the Temple series of books inspired my vampires. And, of course, the literal dozens of fanfic authors (almost all of which are hosted at Archive of Our Own/AO3) who go by many different handles and share their work so freely:
- Livingfictions, whose Sterek fanfic series You Are, on AO3, inspired my use of condensed magic and runes
- Saras_Girl, whose Drarry fanfic Foundations, on AO3, lends us the gift-giving rituals of Western witches and wizards
- Harryromper, whose Drarry fanfic I Could be Wrong, I Could be Ready, on AO3 inspired my approach to affinial (Harryromper uses the term “affinal”) magic
- Similarly, Bixgirl1’s Drarry fanfic The Claiming of Grimmauld Place, on AO3, further informed how I treated affinial magic (and magic mirrors and garden gnomes)
- and lastly—though not finally—BlueBeholder’s Credence fanfic A Better Mirror, on AO3, gave me the timeline for Grindelwald’s attack on Salt Lake City, not to mention chirruping jackalopes.
I’ll do a better job of sussing out all of my inspirations when I finish the book.