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About the Book
It all started with Howard.
Howard is a friend of Storm's, a guy who is 90 years young and one of our biggest fans. He loves everything we write, and he especially loved the serial Spiritwalkers. Storm talks with Howard quite a bit, and over the course of several conversations, it became clear that Howard a) loses interest when magic is mentioned in a book and b) really, really likes Westerns.
So Storm came to me and said, "Why don't we do a Western for Howard?"
Now, keep in mind here that I had never read a Western novel or watched an entire Western other than The Seven Samurai and Serenity. (Which probably don't count.) I had some catching up to do. Several novels and six films later, I felt like I had absorbed the conventions of the genre. Storm and I wanted to do a twist on the usual Western, and decided that we needed a pair of protagonists who could tell parts of the story of the Old West that haven't been told very often. And because we've never shied away from controversy, we chose a mixed-race woman as a protagonist, and a Sioux man to be her counterpart.
We settled on a concept in early December, start writing it in late December, and I started doing my writing pass in early January. The first draft was complete a couple of weeks later. We spent the next couple of months proofing and editing, and I did the cover and interior design. I ended up learning Adobe Illustrator in the process.
It's the end of February as I write this, and we're getting ready for a March 9th launch of the book…which is Howard's birthday, which is when Storm will be giving him a book written just for him.
I hope he likes it.
--Kris Millering, February 22nd, 2009