I have received many fan letters telling me how important Xanth is in giving readers a refuge when their mundane lives are fouled up. Guess what: that works for me, too. When I’m in Xanth, I am not worrying so much about a troubled home life. The novel moved well. One chapter, two chapters, three. I loved the princesses’ splash party on Cloud Nine. AwGhost passed, and SapTimber, the way ahead opening before me as I traveled it.

  When I was about halfway through it, when Vinia was getting to know Ghorgeous Ghost, my wife took a turn for the worse. In fact just after midnight OctOgre 3 she died. She was eighty-two. Now it was my own grief that I needed to cope with. So I took a month off to read the six books on handling grief that our daughter bought me, I attended the local hospice bereavement meetings, and I wrote a novelette-length history of our marriage titled “My Rose with Thorns.” Piers and Cam, from her maiden initials Carol Ann Marble, together for a bit over sixty-three years. It wasn’t a perfect marriage, but then what real marriage is, outside of fantasy? It was good enough, and if I could have waved a magic wand and saved her, I would have. But this is drear Mundania; no such magic here. She had supported me in my wild dream to become a published writer, and she even went to work to earn our living so that I could stay home and write full time. That was when, after eight years of trying, I finally did make my first sale. For all of $20. But it was proof that I could do it, thanks to Cam. Chances are that you would not be reading this book now if it had not been for her. You may, if you wish, remember her by the Xanth title she suggested, Fire Sail. So she is in Xanth in her fashion. After that month off, I returned here to Xanth, and it continued sustaining me, and I completed the novel in DisMember 2019, the month before I had meant to start it. Probably after the turn of the year I’ll start writing the next.

  How is life otherwise? Not bad. Cam had managed our accounts, and we did not waste the money earned during my bestselling days of yore, so we lived on the little tree farm that we own, with no debts and a secure situation. Our daughter, Cheryl, is here to take care of the myriad details death in the family generates, and that really helps me cope. I can’t say I am happy, but I am looking toward the future and trust that things will improve as I learn to handle life without Cam.

  Now a note on the credits. I try to use puns and ideas from new suggestors before using more from prior suggestors, and try to credit all that I use. But in this time of personal grief I find myself making errors and omissions. I am coping as well as I can. I hope I haven’t missed any but can’t be sure. So if your suggestion is used here, and you aren’t credited, please let me know and I will give you the credit in whatever the next novel is, inadequate as that may be.

  Credits:

  Rescuing the crystallized princesses—Alex Ewida

  Baby changing table; chick magnet; girl tattoo on dragon; Knight of the Living Dead; reflection mental as well as physical—Richard Van Fossan

  Email; Were Big Foot; because I said so—Crystal Farmer

  Magic marker—Douglas Brown

  Spring of Forbidden Love—Clayton Overstreet

  Paradox; webcam—Misty Zaebst

  Looking daggers; stink eye—Mary Rashford

  Sin-seer—Richard Davenport

  Weird mare—Cleta Darnell

  Badge-hers, Badge-hims—Ann Marie Mohrmann

  Fire Cloud; the Can-Can Can—Bill Seeley

  Reverse glass—Nicole Valicia Thompson-Andrews

  Mnemonic plague—Jeremie Maehr

  Cleaning a dirty construction pencil—Jason D. Shepherd

  Bedbug—David D’Champ

  Pasteurize; Lettuce as “Let us”—Dale Davis

  Talent of omission—Stephanie Florin

  O’Clock setting local time—John Knoderer

  Promise Ring—Emilio Ross

  Thank Q; energy crystals for gnomes to mine—Timothy Bruening

  Lie briery with briers—Scott Latini

  Tony—Tony Massey

  And credit to my proofreaders, Scott M. Ryan, John Knoderer, and Doug Harter. If you want to know more of me, you can check my website at www.HiPiers.com, where I do a monthly blog-type column, have news of my new projects, express my ongoing opinionations, and maintain an ongoing survey of electronic publishers for the benefit of aspiring writers.

  Until next time …

  About the Author

  Piers Anthony is one of the world’s most popular fantasy writers, and a New York Times–bestselling author twenty-one times over. His Xanth novels have been read and loved by millions of readers around the world, and he daily receives hundreds of letters from his devoted fans. In addition to the Xanth series, Anthony is the author of many other bestselling works. He lives in Inverness, Florida.

  All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this book or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2022 by Piers Anthony

  978-1-5040-6679-2

  Published in 2022 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

  180 Maiden Lane

  New York, NY 10038

  www.openroadmedia.com

  THE XANTH NOVELS

  FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA

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