my appreciation goes to my husband kevin , my alpha and omega reader , who feeds me , loves me , encourages me and in this case introduced me to the irish legends of colm cille , thereby shaping much of this story my sister june , who gives me her witty page by page impressions to aid my rewrites my son casey who continues to help me see my writing in a larger context my daughter emerald who knows just what to say to help me stay positive about this endeavor old friend john ryan , a math professor who supplies links and catches plot holes lenore kaplan , a young engineer with a special feel for ariels life , and whose insights helped throughout with the plot , the facts and the wording tyler wight , new family friend who has provided me with a fresh set of eyes on my stories dhivya balaji of india who played a large role in c3 and has now proved how well her abilities to edit transcend cultures shree janani of india , who first found me when she won a copy of x0 and has been providing editorial expertise and encouragement ever since deepika anandakrishnan , friend of dhivya and shree , who volunteered to beta read for the first time and provided me with spot on suggestions and corrections that no one else thought of steve wilcock , an online word game buddy i have never met but who has encouraged my writing from the start , served as a role model for my british telepath donald , and who has now proved himself to be a highly capable beta reader as well terie beasley , who used her expertise as a retired english teacher to add extra polish to my words margit fernqvist of denmark , a stranger who offered to share her expertise on scandinavia and ended up teaching me about skyr , enticing me to write about the northern lights , and sharing her vacation photos of iceland with me , and thus is a stranger no more michelle willms , second time beta reader , who once again provided me with the insights of a sociologist faith o'dwyer , first time beta reader who particularly helped me with the beginning of this book mickey otterlei of norway , who has been encouraging me with this collection ever since she read my first book x0 and who added her scandinavian perspective as well henry bourassa who lent me his expertise on the stock market and investing jennifer fitzgerald , a professional designer who continues to produce beautiful , imaginative book covers and joel handley , a professional editor whose abilities have grown from that of capable line editor to include wonderful plot suggestions and much appreciated fact checking .