Shadowshift (16 page)

EPILOGUE

They wake every morning and have breakfast together.

During the day, he goes to work, she writes, and their daughter goes to school.

In the evenings, they share dinner, then snuggle up with good books and bad TV.

At night, they make love while their daughter texts friends and plays with her dog.

When they go to sleep, they know they’ll do it all over again the next day.

And none of them would have it any other way.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Between completing
When We Fall
and starting
Shadowshift
, more than a year passed, and let me tell you, it was one hell of a year. I got divorced, moved halfway across the country, married the love of my life, and became a proud stepfather to the two most wonderful girls in the world, Siân and Emma. To say that some twisted version of these wondrous events didn’t bleed into this novel would be a lie, but believe me when I inform you that
Shadowshift
is pure fiction.

First, a grateful thank-you to Shannon Giglio, who was by my side working on her own book the entire time I wrote this one. She took several breaks and let me read new passages to her, and she was always honest with her feedback.

I love you, sweetheart.

To the aforementioned Siân and Emma: you girls have taught me almost everything I know about unconditional love. Thank you! It is my distinct honor to be part of your lives and watch you grow. I always thought authors were full of shit when they gave their adolescent characters intelligent dialogue, but that was because I’d never spent enough time with the right kids. The two of you opened my eyes to the truth, and Hannah’s character benefited immeasurably from my experiences with you.

The last year has also seen many professional changes for me. I started working a day job and stepped down as the Executive Editor of Evil Jester Press. In my time with EJP, it has been my distinct honor to work with great authors like Joe McKinney, Mark Allan Gunnells, Benjamin Kane Ethridge, Jon Michael Kelly, Trent Zelazny, Christopher Conlon, Craig Saunders, David Bernstein, James Newman, and a particular privilege to work with Rick Hautala and Gary Brandner, two wonderful scribes I idolized as a kid, each of whom were taken from this world too soon. Thank you, all. To EJP’s owner, Charles Day, thank you for trusting me with the opportunity to build and edit a line.

Big thanks to the crew at DarkFuse—Shane Staley, Greg F. Gifune, and Dave Thomas—for believing in my work and giving me such a terrific platform.

To my parents, Dr. James N. Giglio and Frances Giglio, thank you for your constant support and love.

And thank you to everyone who buys my books. Your support means the world to me, and it’s my hope you stick around for the long haul, because I’m gonna keep writing these things.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

An active member of the International Thriller Writers and the Horror Writers Association, Peter Giglio is the author of six novels, four novellas, and his works of short fiction can be found in a number of notable volumes, including two comprehensive genre anthologies edited by
New York Times
bestselling author John Skipp. Peter is the author of two previous DarkFuse titles (
Lesser Creatures
and
When We Fall
), and he resides on the Georgia coast with his wife and frequent collaborator, Shannon Giglio.