Author's Comments

I knew Silver Borne was going to be Samuel's book before I finished Bone Crossed. Samuel has been just kind of existing for too long, and it's time to do something about it. Authors love unstable situations, it's like seeing a giant boulder balanced atop a steep hill. One little nudge and things get interesting fast.

Of course, Mercy has her own problems. The fae book . . . well I'd like to claim I plan everything. I was finishing Hunting Ground when Daniel dos Santos wrote to me, asking for more details about Silver Borne because he didn't want to give it a generic cover. Mercy still had the book of fae knowledge she'd borrowed back in Iron Kissed, and needed to return it to the proprieter of that little bookstore. It had been one of those little details that I'd forgotten to include in Iron Kissed. I noticed the omission before Iron Kissed made it into print -- but one of the benefits of a series is that I decided just to make it a little scene in Bone Crossed instead of trying to work it into an already finished book.

A trip to a bookstore just never felt right in Bone Crossed -- I mentioned it to let readers know I hadn't forgotten about it, in case they were getting antsy. It was one of those details I wrote a note for myself about, so I wouldn't forget. After all, Mercy is supposed to be a likeable heroine, and we all know how book lovers feel about people who don't return borrrowed books! So, the book was this little niggling thread that just needed to be tied up with a sentence or two. No big deal.

Brewster's Library, the bookstore where Mercy borrowed the book, is one of the few things in Mercy's world that's actually based on a real place (with permission by it's owner, of course). However, while I was writing Bone Crossed, the store closed. That was all right (not that the bookstore had closed, I don't like to see bookstores closing!) but for the Mercy series it didn't really matter. I usually make up important locations — mostly so that, for instance, churches don't have people ask them if they are haunted or have vampires in the basement. Then I thought, what if Mercy tries to return the book — and finds no one at the bookstore? So I told Daniel about the book, and he was happy. Mercy wasn't as happy with me but happy people don't make for good stories.