Phoenix Still in ash

I am a thief by necessity. I would first like to apologize to and then thank all of the people I’ve met over the years in my life, whose bits and pieces I’ve stolen, disguised, and put in the books. There are too many of you to list, and I don’t even know if I remember everyone’s names. But I remember them just the same. People you meet for a day really can inspire you in ways you might not recognize until, decades later, a tiny piece of them gets plunked into a novel.