Seventh Bride (25 page)

(Readers may, as an exercise, attempt to pinpoint the exact moment where I stopped believing it was for kids. Hint: It’s probably much later than you think!)

To my proofreaders, who will see this before anyone else—
thank you.
 

To my faithful blog readers who are awesome and who were enthusiastic about this when I wrote the first few lines eight years ago and who continued to be enthusiastic when, in fits and starts, I came back and poked it again and again.

To the staff of the now-defunct Pittsboro General Store restaurant where I would go in every day and order coffee and a chicken salad sandwich. The first half was written there.

And to the staff of Cafe Diem, formerly Davenport, the coffee shop where I would go in every day and order coffee and more coffee and then slightly more coffee. The rest was written there.
 

And finally, my thanks and all my love to my husband Kevin. My panic that I was writing an absolute wretch of a story hit early on this one. He had to read up until the bit where Rhea enters the clock, assure me that it was fine and I would not be shunned in the streets, and then had to wait for months while I hammered out the rest.
 

He takes his role as the first reader very seriously, but this one was particularly unkind.
 

Thank you all. You are all the best sort of people and I am flattered that you let me hang around with you.
 

As T. Kingfisher

Nine Goblins (Goblinhome Book 1)

Toad Words & Other Stories

As Ursula Vernon

From Sofawolf Press:

Black Dogs Duology

House of Diamond

Mountain of Iron

Digger
Series

Digger Omnibus Edition

It Made Sense At The Time

For kids:

Dragonbreath
Series
 

Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible (forthcoming)

Castle Hangnail (forthcoming)

Nurk: The Strange Surprising Adventures of a Somewhat Brave Shrew

Comics Squad:
Recess!

T. Kingfisher is a pen-name for the Hugo-Award winning author and illustrator Ursula Vernon.
 

Ms. Kingfisher lives in North Carolina with her husband, garden, and disobedient pets. She is fond of wombats and sushi, but not in the same way.
 

You can find links to all these books, new releases, artwork, rambling blog posts, links to podcasts and more information about the author at
 

www.tkingfisher.com