Ex-Communication: A Novel (46 page)

Three books in, and people are still interested in a handful of superheroes I made up in fifth grade. This is a source of constant amazement to me. My thanks to you for reading this far, and hopefully past this.

Of course, I couldn’t’ve made it this far on my own, and for this book I owe a collection of thanks to a number of people …

David found the Ex-Heroes series a new home at Broadway Books, and in doing so he made sure you’re all going to be seeing a fourth book somewhere not far down the road, and possibly one more after that as well.

Matthew talked with me a lot about religion, faith, and the Bible. I’m not a very religious person myself, but I also didn’t want to be writing thin parodies of religious people. Any mistakes or offenses on this front are entirely mine.

Sam and Sara helped me make sure Maddy didn’t sound too much like a guy in his forties writing about a girl in her teens. Also, once again, thanks to John (aka Professor Tansey of the Otterbein University Department of Chemistry), who traded a lot of e-mails about nanotechnology with me and made sure I wasn’t writing about little robots that looked like mechanical insects or spaceships. Corpse Girl owes a debt to all three of them.

Laura, Thom, and Carrie all talked to me a bit about tattoos. Meredith told me lots about removing them.

Claudia and Mindy helped expand my vocabulary where Spanish profanity was concerned.

John, Larry, and CD all read early versions of this book and helped make sure no one else had to see most of those early mistakes and stumbles.

Julian at Broadway Books forced me to stay on my toes and made sure that—even though we were dipping into magic—things still followed logical rules and reasons.

Last but by no means least, many thanks, as always, to my lovely lady, Colleen, who listens calmly while I insist this latest project isn’t going to work, reminds me that’s what I say every time, and then tells me to get back to work. With love.

—P.C.
Los Angeles, April 11, 2013

Peter Clines
grew up in the Stephen King fallout zone of Maine and started writing science fiction and fantasy stories at the age of eight, fueled by a steady diet of comic books and Saturday morning cartoons.

He made his first writing sale at age seventeen, and the first screenplay he wrote got him an open door to pitch story ideas at
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
and
Voyager
. After working in the film and television industries for almost fifteen years, he moved on to write articles and reviews for
Cinema Blend
and
Creative Screenwriting Magazine
, where he interviewed dozens of Hollywood’s biggest screenwriters and stars, including Kevin Smith, Shane Black, George Romero, Susannah Grant, Frank Darabont, Seth Rogen, Sylvester Stallone, Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci, and Will Forte.

He is the author of the Ex-Heroes series—
Ex-Heroes
,
Ex-Patriots
, and
Ex-Communication
—the acclaimed
14
, the mashup novel
The Eerie Adventures of the Lycanthrope Robinson Crusoe
,
The Junkie Quatrain
, numerous short stories, and countless film articles. He currently lives and writes somewhere in Southern California.

If anyone knows exactly where, he would appreciate a few hints.